How to choose an LCD Monitor

Continued from page: 1

Friday, January 04, 2008

Eight 17” and 19” LCDs

We checked out six 17” and two 19” LCD monitors for their display quality, features, and price to help you decide the best one for your office

LCD monitors have become an integral part of our lives. They consume lesser table space, lesser power, and cause lesser strain to the eyes. Plus, their prices have crashed, making them the perfect choice over their CRT counter parts. To find which LCD is best suited for your office, we stressed 8 of them for performance, features, and price. Out of these, 6 have 17”, and 2 have 19” screen size. We've taken these two, because they're suitable for offices and the price difference between a 17” and 19” is also not that much.

To test the monitors we used an Intel Pentium D 2.80 GHz processor on an ECS R410 motherboard with 512MB RAM and NVIDIA 7600GT graphics card with DVI and D-sub out ports to facilitate direct connection with LCD monitors irrespective of the port on the monitor. However, most 17' LCD displays only come with a D-sub input port.

One criteria we tested the monitors on was the basis of resolution supported as LCD monitors provide the best display on their maximum resolution. Next we checked, how stable was the monitor's base stand. We also checked if it allowed height, tilt or swivel adjustments. Lastly we checked the various adjustment keys present on the LCD display for thier size and whether they were easy to press or not.

We tested them using Displaymate Benchmark. This has a “Video obstacle course” that runs a series of test on the monitor for various known problems including banding, color regeneration, flicker, noise, brightness level, focus, dot moiré interference, dead pixels etc. Before we began any tests, we used the "set up display" option within the benchmark to calibrate the LCD monitor for best view. Once the monitor was calibrated, we gave each of the monitors about an hour of warm up time before starting any benchmarks.

A point to note is that the color regeneration test that checks the monitor for any color generation problems. Since it's impossible to have perfect color generation all over the monitor, we found some errors in all the monitors. LCD monitors today can be used for more than running basic productivity applications. They're also used for video editing, or even for entertainment such as watching videos. It's important therefore that a monitor is able to display videos correctly. For this, we ran a few scenes from the movie Godzilla and various high definition clips ranging from 480p to 1080p. In these, we checked how the monitors fared in displaying blacks and its contrast ratio.

LG Flatron L177WSB

This 17” widescreen from LG has got stunning looks. The front part of its bezel and the support stand sport an engraved striped design. It performed well in our DisplayMate benchmark showing errors only in color regeneration tests, which is common in LCD monitors. Watching videos on the monitor was also a joy thanks to its 5000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. It supports a maximum resolution of 1440 x 900, and being a wide screen makes it easy to work on multiple windows simultaneously. Even though it has 8 ms response time, it didn't show any ghosting or streaking during high definition video playback. The monitor can be tilted but there is no provision for height or swivel adjustment. Its menu and control keys are present at the bezel's bottom and are a little hard to press. Another interesting feature is that whenever the scene modes are changed from normal to text or movie, the adjustment is first displayed on the right half of the screen.

Bottomline: This monitor gets our vote for being a performer with a style of its own.

Intex IT–1707WBLK

This 17” widescreen from Intex offers a maximum resolution of just 1280 x 768 pixels, whereas other similar monitors we reviewed supported a higher 1440 x 900 resolution. It's a classy looking monitor, but we wish its V-shaped stand was a little more stable. This can be a little bit of a problem, especially when you're doing things like tilt adjustment. The keys on the monitor are a little hard to press, and we ended up pushing back the monitor a couple of times while pressing them.

In the Displaymate benchmark, we found a little bit of flicker at the bottom of the screen and some banding. The monitor also has a slight yellow tint, which appears quite prominent when placed next to other LCD monitors. The monitor has built-in speakers.

Bottomline: This monitor is suitable for running regular productivity applications only, and at this price, we found other monitors giving better performance.

ViewSonic VA1716w

This widescreen offering from ViewSonic is a part of its value series. In terms of brightness and contrast, this one's no better than the Intex IT–1707WBLK. However, it supports a higher maximum resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. The monitor display is crisp and clear. The monitor's navigation and menu keys at the bottom of the bezeel are easy to press. Its stand is extremely sturdy and provides excellent support to the display.

The LCD blasted through our Displaymate benchmarks, and erred very slightly in the color regeneration test as compared to other monitors. However, its black levels aren't very good, and its brightness and contrast levels are also not as high as others. This was quite evident when watching videos, where the details were lacking and were replaced by only black color, making videos appear darker with unnatural color shades. The monitor can be tilted, but height and swivel adjustments are missing.

Bottomline: Overall, a good monitor for this price, but brightness and contrast levels could be better.

HP L1710

The HP L1710 is a non widescreen monitor with a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. Its support stand is sturdy and unique as instead of having to attach it to the main display like other monitors, the whole stand is permanently attached and can be rotated from its pivot toward the screen making this monitor safe.

The monitor cruised through the Displaymate benchmark coming second to the ViewSonic monitor in terms of degree of errors in color regeneration. In video playback, the monitor showed excellent blacks with great contrast making the colors also look more natural. The problem came when we played some High Def content on it; the non widescreen display stretched the video vertically leading to pixilation at certain points. However, this should be the least of your concerns if you are buying it for office use.

As it's not a widescreen, you don't get the luxury of switching lots of open windows easily. But it more than makes up for that through its performance.

Bottomline: Overall, if you are looking for a non widescreen display for your office, this is a one of the best options available.

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