External Display

[Stetwin]

I’m after a mid-range monitor for photography, ideally I would rather just buy something high-end but with most of my money going towards a Macbook Pro I don’t have lots to spare. Tonight I was in Tesco and I noticed a nice HP monitor and would just like to know what you guys think of it, and also what I should be looking for in a monitor,

/Ste

 

[Killyp]

Look for the highest resolution possible for the size. For example a 15" MacBook Pro display will go to 1440 x 900 dots, while other 15" displays in laptops only tend to go to 1280 x 740 dots. More dots = more space to work with on-screen.

Also, look at bit-depth. Is it 24 bit or 32 bit?

You can't really judge the performance of a display or TV by the contrast ratio or response time, so when people say 'urg it's only got 12 msec response time', that doesn't really mean an awful lot.

 

[Kissaragi]

Dont touch those HP monitors with a barge-pole, the colour is terrible. I bought the 20" version and soon took it back for a refund. That 19" HP actually only has the same resolution as the 15" macbook pro display.

dell, samsung and apple all make nice mid range monitors.

 

[Stetwin]

Dont touch those HP monitors with a barge-pole, the colour is terrible. I bought the 20" version and soon took it back for a refund.

dell, samsung and apple all make nice mid range monitors.

I have £150 to budget towards an external display, so what would you suggest in my price bracket? I would prefer widescreen but its not necessary, also I don’t want to go too big because I already have a 26” TV in the room and want the difference between PC and TV obvious lol

 

[NickD]

Look for at least an 800:1 display with the highest pixel number you can find. Also, looking around reviews for the best color accurate display may help as well.

The Dell HC monitors are apparently great.

 

[B1RDFLU]

i have the Samsung SyncMaster 226 BW 22" widescreen and it is beautiful it has a 3000:1 contrast and 1650X1050 resolution all for $382 dollars after tax at circuitcity.com. Great monitor but for something good in your price range i would goto newegg.com just because i dont know of any uk electronic sites. just a suggestion.

 

[john2006wright]

i have the Samsung SyncMaster 226 BW 22" widescreen and it is beautiful it has a 3000:1 contrast and 1650X1050 resolution all for $382 dollars after tax at circuitcity.com. Great monitor but for something good in your price range i would goto newegg.com just because i dont know of any uk electronic sites. just a suggestion.

Unfortunately in rip-off britain that monitor is about £250-300. The 20" may be nearer to £150. Dell do a 19" for £160 which is really nice apparently?

Did that HP have a DVI port, if its only VGA then avoid.

 

[Tom B.]

Make sure whatever monitor you get is at least 1680x1050.
ebuyer have a lot of bargains, most of their 20-22" 1680x1050 monitors are just over £150, however a couple are under that amount.