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kallun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi,

I have ordered the new MBP 15, 2.4 and plan on adding a new external display for use as dual monitoring.

I am a scientist and work mostly with high res images and in Illustrator etc. No TV watching/gaming.

At present I am considering the following monitors:

1) BenQ FP93G S - Flat - TFT - 19" - 1280 x 1024 - 300 cd/m2 - 800:1 - 5 ms - 0.294 mm - DVI, VGA (HD-15)

or

2) BenQ FP92W - Flat - TFT - 19" - widescreen - 1440 x 900 - 300 cd/m2 - 700:1 - 5 ms - 0.2835 mm - DVI, VGA (HD-15)

They are both priced well and seems good.

Can you please give me resons for choosing WS with 1440 x 900 vs. non-WS 1280 x 1024 or the opposite.

Also what are the important aspects when choosing an external that is "not super pro".

Much appreciated!

/Kalle
 
I'd go with the wide aspect ratio just so I wouldn't have to resize large windows when moving across monitors. 🙂 You lose a few pixels going from 1280x1024 to 1440x900. Oh well.

Backlight quality (read user reviews) and viewing angle are pretty important. From what I remember, the BenQ montiors use TN-type panels with pretty average viewing angles. If that doesn't bother you (and users' reviews on sites like Newegg aren't glaringly bad), I say go for it.
 
Hi,

Thanks a lot for your response! I am not sure I understood fully though 🙂 Is wideaspect ratio the non-WS? as that is the one with the 1280x1024, is this the one you suggest out of the two.

About user reviews.. on Nwegg the previous generation of these screens seems appreciated! Do you have a preference for another maker? if so which one?

Thanks again!

/Kalle
 
Ah, sorry. Personally, I'd go with the widescreen monitor. However, it probably costs a little more and has (very) slightly less pixels than the non-widescreen monitor at 1280x1024. Your call.

I went with a Dell - their 20" model uses the same panel as Apple does in the 20" Cinema Display. I'm not sure how they're priced normally because I bought mine on sale a while ago.
 
Thank You!

The prices are very similar.. so if WS is prefferable I have no problem with choosing that one.

Will look into the DELL´s as well.

I have a hard time dechiphering wther my "microscopic image tweaking" will suffer from the slightly fewer pixels or not but perhaps other scientist can chime in on that!?

/Kalle
 
non-ws. Not only it has more pixels, but more importantly, it has more vertical resolution.

Even 1200 lines feels cramped.
 
Definitely widescreen. 4:3 is going the way of CRTs. I wouldn't even dream of ever purchasing a 4:3 screen these days.
 
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