Given that iMacs and apple monitors are so good looking...

[Ravich]

But I'm not willing to buy an iMac or pay 1800$ for a 30'' monitor (shave off 3 inches and it comes with a quad core computer for the same price!)....


What should I keep in mind when shopping elsewhere for monitors. I'm not really going to use it for intense gaming or video editing. I just want it to look nice and be easy on my eyes and not burn a hole in my wallet.

IPS vs TN, resolution, brand... what should I keep in mind?

 

[Eidorian]

Dell and HP fight it out quite often in the IPS panel market. If you watch the deals you can get a Dell U2711 for around $800 or a 24" HP ZR24w for under $400.

Is there anything specific you're looking for?

 

[jbyun04]

From what I understand:

TN:
- Cheapest panels available. Most, if not all of the $100-130 pricepoint LCD's will use this.
- 6 bit for the most part
- Fast response times: reduces ghosting, optimal for gaming?
- Colour accuracy will not be nearly as good as an IPS.

IPS:
- High end panel used in Apple, Dell and HP's top end models
- Slower response times than TN
- Excellent colour accuracy
- Most expensive

S-MVA / S-PVA are in between TN and IPS.

Aesthetically, to get as CLOSE to the Apple displays as possible (not performance wise), CinemaView makes a clone. Literally, a clone. They use an 8-bit S-MVA panel.

HP also has some similar but not quite ACD looking displays, they range from TN all the way to IPS.

Dell, aesthetically is the furthest from Apple's look but it seems to be very popular among Mac users. They had quite a few blowout deals on monitors throughout this week, ranging from TN to IPS panels. Great warranty, personally, I hate dealing with their customer service.

Samsung is good, I think the majority of them use their S-PVA panels. From the ones I've used, T220 was the top one I had but I didn't really like it that much.

 

[Ravich]

Yes, Dell customer service is a nightmare. I bought an Inspiron a couple of years back. The ones with the headphone jack static. Ridiculous. Wouldnt even acknowledge the issue and fix it. Kept on telling me they would fix it if I sent it in. Told me things like "write down instructions on a piece of paper and put it in the box" which of course doesnt work. Anyway, bleh.



But yeah. I dont think I care about response time as much as I care about color accuracy and it looking pretty, although the price drop for TN is appealing to me.

Basically I am looking for something about the size of a 27'' iMac, which looks just about perfect for me. I'd get one if I wouldnt be stuck with one internal HDD and a single fw800 port.


Ultimately I should be making sure it will be practical, easy on my eyes since I will be using it a lot, and reliable. A sale would also be nice, of course. I'll be using it with my MBP for now (mid 2008) and hopefully with a Mac Pro soon enough.