First, there are two basic types of LCD:
sRGB and wide-gamut.
---------- panel type -----------
Inexpensive LCDs used to use analog VGA ports and have TN technology. Now, inexpensive LCDs use digital ports and have TN technology.
TN is the fastest panel type, in terms of response time. It is the best type of panel for high-speed gaming and high-speed video. Not all TN panels are super-fast, though. However, the typical TN panel will be faster than IPS and PVA panels. 120 Hz panels are starting to move from the television space to the desktop space; they're faster than the typical 60 Hz panel.
TN's downsides are: limited viewing angle (including color/brightness shift across the panel for large/wide screens) and not available in wide-gamut. (One thing that makes them faster is the use of 6 + 2 bit dithering rather than true 8 or 10 bit color.)
Not all TN screens are equal! Some netbook screens, for instance, have very small gamuts, very poor contrast, and so forth. Apple's TN laptop screens, however, tend to have high marks -- for TN. But, even Apple's TN screens are sRGB models; they can't display AdobeRGB or full NTSC color. They use 6-bit dithering.
TN screens tend to use less power than PVA or IPS, but the backlight is probably the biggest issue there.
S-PVA technology offers the best contrast of any panel type and excellent gamut/color-quality. The downsides are slow response times (including input lag), black crush (difficulty seeing detail in dark areas), and as far as I know -- the highest power consumption. Samsung used to develop these panels, but I think the technology has mostly been abandoned in favor of IPS.
IPS comes in more than one flavor, including e-IPS which is less expensive as far as I know. IPS displays generally use 8-bit color and have slower response times than TN. IPS has become the basic standard for high-quality color-oriented LCDs.
------------- backlighting --------------
CCFL (mercury fluorescent) backlighting uses more power than LED and grows dim more quickly. It has to warm up to reach maximum brightness. LED backlighting, as far as I know, comes in these forms: edge-lit White LED (cheapest), true backlit White LED, and true backlit RGB LED. Edge-lit can have issues with backlight bleeding as far as I know (whiter areas near where the backlight lights the panel). RGB LED, is not about the location of the backlight, but the nature of the LEDs themselves.
LED backlights are not necessarily superior, overall, to CCFL. Some recent high-quality monitors use CCFL. Some LED backlights have issues with uniformity (especially edge-lit) and color quality. White LED backlighting does not improve color quality over CCFL. This is why RGB LED backlighting is used in expensive displays. It provides the best color quality, but also uses more power.
------------ gamut --------------
Wide-gamut displays cause problems for any content that is not color-corrected. Instead of "better color", people complain of awful overly saturated unrealistic color. Wide-gamut displays sometimes come to sRGB emulation modes. Some of them do absolutely nothing. Some of them may work.
It is vital to have a wide-gamut monitor if you're using the AdobeRGB color space or any color space larger than sRGB -- if your work entails a wider color space.
The web is centered around sRGB, so is gaming, and so is video. But, even with sRGB, color profiling/accuracy is hard to find on the web.
The ideal monitor for most people is one with 100% sRGB coverage. The ideal monitor for graphics professionals who work with wide color spaces is one with 100% NTSC coverage. The perfect monitor, gamut-wide, would have 100% NTSC coverage plus a perfect sRGB emulator.
Having a wide-gamut monitor to work with sRGB content is useless, and unless it has a great sRGB emulator, you're going to end up annoyed.
Some wide-gamut displays have 10-bit color instead of the regular 8-bit color. You'll need a graphics chip in your machine that can handle 10 bits. The old Matrox Parhelia has 10-bit color and some others do as well.
----------- calibration -------------
If you care about accurate color, you should get a hardware colorimeter and calibrate your display. You really should also have a monitor hood. A graphics person should know what the press (and/or web) standards are for white point, gamma, and so forth, too.
----------- response --------------
Response time is not just matter of your panel, but can be related to the interface used between the panel and the computer and the computer's GPU setup. Input lag, for instance, tends to be higher for multi-GPU setups. In general, gamers should seek fast TN panels that have a wide viewing angle and good uniformity. They should not be concerned about gamut and other aspects of color quality.
----------- screen legibility ----------------
There are a few things to keep in mind when combating eyestrain, too: pixel pitch and screen coating. Glossy screens lead to eyestrain more than matte screens. A larger pixel pitch is easier on the eyes because things on the screen look larger.
Finally, there is a technology called PixelQi that is interesting for outdoor viewing. It is full color normally, but you can switch it to a mostly greyscale mode in strong sunlight. Unlike normal panels, it is totally readable. And unlike the eInk technology, it can be switched back to color and it has good motion response.
--- Loops
