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Which monitor to buy

A

acraig426

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 20, 2009
15
0
I'm planning on buying a MacBook for college and would like a nice, big display to keep on my desk in my dorm room. The LED cinema display is ideal, but way too expensive. Does anyone know of any good displays that work well with the new Mac Books? I want one that's around 24" and $200-$300, ideally.

I found a dell one that looks like it would be great (http://tinyurl.com/bdn9s8), but I'd be using it mostly as a mirror of my laptop (not an extension), and I've heard that one can run into problems on that front if the display ratio, resolution, etc. are not appropriate. Also, I don't want it to be a huge hassle to plug/unplug my laptop from the display; the LED cinema display looks like it's very easy to do but I know that with non-Apple ones I'll have to buy a cable converter.
 
The new LED Cinema is pretty expensive, and if you don't have that kind of coin, I'd heavily recommend against it. As for buying an adapter all you will need is a Mini-DisplayPort to VGA/DVI/HDMI whatever connection your monitor supports. That will be at most $40 bucks.

There's really not a whole lot for $200-300 bucks when it comes to 24" monitors. However, as far as I know you cannot go wrong with a Dell or HP 24" display.

There picture quality is top notch and there among the leaders in the market.

I'd buy everything in steps. Buy the Macbook first. Then save up and go for the monitor/keyboard/mouse combo at once ;)
 
so I don't have anything to worry about concerning the image quality if I buy a third party monitor?
 
Nah, don't worry about it, as long as the monitor is DVI and not VGA.

I have a 22" Samsung 2232BW that I bought at Best Buy, with a 3 year warranty for $249, but it was on sale. I have absolutely loved it so far and it is a very appealing looking monitor.
 
Do you know someone with a Costco card and the coupon book that went out? I think it has a 24" screen for $220, viewsonic.
 
I'm in a similar position as you are. I found this Acer which I think isnt so bad. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009145

It's the x223wbd for $169.99. Will this work fine with macbooks quality wise? Also, any opinions on the monitor? I am a little worried about newegg as the return policy on LCD's doesnt seem to be that great. I think to declare a monitor defective and eligible for return it must have a minimum of 8 dead pixels.

Thanks!
 
The best value display at the moment, IMO, is the Dell 2209WA. 22 inch, Very cheap IPS panel (best panel type there is). It's an "e-IPS", seems to be some new, cheaper to manufacture type. Vastly superior in colour reproduction and viewing angles to your standard "TN" panel.

Dell might also come out with a 2309WA or a 2409WA (23 or 24 inch) e-IPS screen which would also be just as cheap as a good TN screen but far better. My advice is wait and see...
 
cube said:
Another stupid 16:9 monitor.
Click to expand...

And what's stupid about 16:9? And that monitor in particular?

With 2048x1152, you can have two 1024 pixel-wide web pages open side by side. With 1920x1200 you cannot.

To the OP, I also suggest the Dell SP2309W. The resolution it offers is excellent, and it also has useful features that many monitors in the same price range do not, for example HDMI connectivity and a built in USB hub.
 
I have been thinking of purchasing the Samsung 2343BWX from Costco which is running a special on this monitor at the moment. The regular price of this monitor is $329.99, with an instant $70.00 rebate, you get it for $259.99. I have heard and read that the MB's don't have any problem in supporting the 2048 x 1152 resolution of this monitor.

I however have one question. How can one determine what kind of panel technology this monitor belongs to? I want to know if this is a non-TN, TN, IPS or e-IPS monitor. Anyway one can tell just by looking at the specs? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009157
Best monitor I've ever bought (and I have really sensitive eyes). HDMI, 1080p, 20"+ and under $200.:) The speakers that come with it (built in) are overly weak. Like, make your ears bleed, weak. They just stop producing sound when the sound level gets to high. Very odd, but certainly not a deal breaker for me; they can be turned off.

I would never recommend a Dell, sorry. I am currently in the process of contacting the Attorney General for a refund on a defective unit. If that doesn't work, then I am attending a future stockholder's meeting, while publishing my issues with Dell to the current stockholders. I feel that they should be aware about how the company they invested in is treating their customers. That said, I specifically told them that if I could convince just one person not to buy a Dell, that it would pay for the refund that they aren't giving me. I plan to stick by that. ;)
 
I'll tell you what. I just bought an "AOC" (yeah, WTF is that?) 22" LCD monitor from Staples on sale for $149 and it's really impressed me considering how cheap it is.

I wanted something to replace my 19" CRT on my PowerMac server that runs my whole house audio system. The Dell CRT I bought with it for $30 at a computer show has been acting up for awhile now. Basically, in the dead of winter (low humidity related issue?), the 19" CRT wouldn't turn on most of the time. I'd have to let it warm up for 5 minutes or so and then turn it off and then on again and then it'd work fine. It was very strange, but it got old as the months went by. Since this computer is mostly used for surfing/shopping and running the iTunes based whole house audio/video system (connected to two AppleTV units and one Airport Express), I didn't need something high-end and I didn't want to go too big as the ATI 9800 Pro wasn't exactly designed with 1920x1080 in mind and I wanted reasonable performance so I couldn't get a native resolution that's too high.

Anyway, the 22" LCD monitor tops out at 1680x1050. It comes with both VGA and DVI inputs. Unlike the recent $380 LG 24" monitor I bought for my MBP's docking station, this monitor comes with BOTH a DVI and an SVGA cable. The 9800 Pro is a dual-head card and has one of each. I connected it to the DVI output and the monitor came up looking sharp, but kind of washed out. I played with the gamma settings and on the Gamma2 setting (it has 1-3), it looked much better. I then ran the display calibration software in the preference panel and it now looks fabulous (speed is rated at 5ms). There are no dead pixels and text is very sharp. Going through the menus, etc., I discovered it has a 4:3 mode that appears for 4:3 resolutions. It defaults to "wide" instead of 4:3. I changed it and resolutions like 1024x768 now display boxed in the proper aspect ratio while wide resolutions fill the screen. Speaking of lower resolutions, they look pretty darn good, much closer to my $580+ LG 24" pivot capable monitor I have connected as a 2nd monitor to my PC than the $380 LG 24" monitor connected to my MBP, which looks pretty lousy at anything other than its native resolution. I figured at the time you get what you pay for, but apparently not in this case as this 22" monitor easily looks as good or better (relative to size/resolution) than the name-brand LG. Maybe something is off somewhere I can't measure, but in any case, it's definitely exceeded my rather meager expectations so far. I half expected to be returning it the next day. For $149 at only 2" less and considering the great picture it's putting out, it's a bargain, IMO.
 
Tom B. said:
And what's stupid about 16:9?
Click to expand...

That they have less vertical pixels than their 16:10 competition, with vertical space being essential in a computer monitor.

You can perfectly watch an HD movie in a 1920x1200 monitor. It just has black bars at bottom and top.

And a 16:9 monitor which is wider than 1920 (BTW, shorter than 1200) has to rescale the movie, so that's another bad point.

The only wider than 1920 monitors worth it are the 30".
 
i've had this dell 2405fpw for at least 2-3 years ... and the mfg date shows Aug 2005 so it's not too long after that. I had my pc(s) using it but when I got the macbook, I hooked it up and have been VERY pleased. see attached - took with the iphone cam so not that great but I run the mb in clamshell (99% of the time) and it's been really nice.

photo(2).jpg

acraig426 said:
...I found a dell one that looks like it would be great (http://tinyurl.com/bdn9s8)...
Click to expand...
 
Ive been using a Vizio 26" i got at Sam's club for $370 with my uni MBP and i must say i think it was worth it, a bit out of the prices you said but IMO the 26" is amazing and the picture quality is great. I also think if you are looking for an aesthetically pleasing monitor this is a good one, it looks very similar to the 24 ACD if you like that look.

Heres a link the vizio site but the price is different from what i paid, i suggest you look around for it if you like it.

Vizio 26"
 
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