Decent quality 21-22" lcd?

mmmatt · December 11, 2009

Hey there,
I just recently bought a sceptre 21.5" monitor and it is absolute garbage.
Even after calibrating with a spyder3 pro everything has an warm/orange caste and just looks aweful. I need to stay under $200. Anyone have any suggestions?

Matt

kdog · December 11, 2009

For editing pictures, ideally you want an IPS technology LCD monitor. The cheapest one is probably this one: Dell 2209WA 22" e-IPS LCD Display Monitor. It lists for $300. But, rumor has it that you can get it cheaper if you don't mind playing some shennanigans with Dell.
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1181717

Here's a little primer on display technologies: http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php

Cheers,
-joel

Njordan · December 11, 2009

kdog wrote:

For editing pictures, ideally you want an IPS technology LCD monitor. The cheapest one is probably this one: Dell 2209WA 22" e-IPS LCD Display Monitor. It lists for $300. But, rumor has it that you can get it cheaper if you don't mind playing some shennanigans with Dell.
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1181717

Here's a little primer on display technologies: http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php

Cheers,
-joel

I second the idea for the 2209WA

I bought one a month or so ago and for the price it is pretty good. It was listed for $300 but I called them and mentioned that I saw an ad for it a few weeks back and wanted that price. The ad was for $209. They couldn't match that so I paid about $220 and got free 2-day shipping when I asked for that with it.

Good luck! It took a few different reps before I got one that was willing to haggle.

Also, be sure its the WA! they will try to downgrade you to bring down the price.

mmmatt · December 11, 2009

Njordan wrote:

I second the idea for the 2209WA

I bought one a month or so ago and for the price it is pretty good. It was listed for $300 but I called them and mentioned that I saw an ad for it a few weeks back and wanted that price. The ad was for $209. They couldn't match that so I paid about $220 and got free 2-day shipping when I asked for that with it.

Good luck! It took a few different reps before I got one that was willing to haggle.

Also, be sure its the WA! they will try to downgrade you to bring down the price.

that all sounds pretty good but I currently have a 17" 1920x1200 monitor that I really like (on my Dell Laptop) and I don't think I want to give up the resolution. I have to think about that one I guess.

Viewsonic just came out with a lower priced, 1920x1080 ips monitor, and I may wait and see if that one ends up going on sale somewhere. Cost is kind of a big issue at this point since I can't return this junk that I bought. I usually love newegg, but they slipped one past me this time with a non-returnable clause on most of their monitors.

Matt

kdog · December 11, 2009

mmmatt wrote:

that all sounds pretty good but I currently have a 17" 1920x1200 monitor that I really like (on my Dell Laptop) and I don't think I want to give up the resolution.

I don't know about laptops, but it's my impression that most 22" monitors are 1680x1050. If you want 1920x1200, you're generally looking at 24" monitors. Correct me if I'm wrong.

mmmatt · December 11, 2009

kdog wrote:

I don't know about laptops, but it's my impression that most 22" monitors are 1680x1050. If you want 1920x1200, you're generally looking at 24" monitors. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Many of the 21.5" monitors are 1920x1080. My laptop is an oddball but the screen is why I bought it. It is very nice but has since crapped out a few pixels.

Matt

kdog · December 11, 2009

mmmatt wrote:

Many of the 21.5" monitors are 1920x1080. My laptop is an oddball but the screen is why I bought it. It is very nice but has since crapped out a few pixels.

Matt

Yeah, ok. I googled around, and I appear to stand corrected. However, can you find a 22" IPS monitor in that resolution? I believe not, at least according to this list. http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php

There are 23" inch ones though. Viewsonic has a new 23" IPS monitor available in that resolution for $300, which sounds like the one you mentioned. However, it got a pretty bad review. http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/viewsonic-vp2365wb/4505-3174_7-33877885.html?tag=mncol;txt

The Dell has gotten excellent reviews for the same price, but like you said, it's lower resolution. For a photographer though I think that accurate color display trumps resolution if it comes down to that.

BTW, you might want to add that crappy monitor you bought as a second screen to your system. That way you can keep email and IM for example on the crappy screen and Photoshop and Dgrin on the good one.

mmmatt · December 11, 2009

kdog wrote:

Yeah, ok. I googled around, and I appear to stand corrected. However, can you find a 22" IPS monitor in that resolution? I believe not, at least according to this list. http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php

There are 23" inch ones though. Viewsonic has a new 23" IPS monitor available in that resolution for $300, which sounds like the one you mentioned. However, it got a pretty bad review. http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/viewsonic-vp2365wb/4505-3174_7-33877885.html?tag=mncol;txt

The Dell has gotten excellent reviews for the same price, but like you said, it's lower resolution. For a photographer though I think that accurate color display trumps resolution if it comes down to that.

BTW, you might want to add that crappy monitor you bought as a second screen to your system. That way you can keep email and IM for example on the crappy screen and Photoshop and Dgrin on the good one.

Ha! Yeah, I thought about that! I spend enough time at my computer without rocking the dual monitors though. I would never leave my chair!!! Also, my video card has an HDMI and a DVI, but the sceptre has DVI and VGA, so I would have to make HDMI a must on the new one, but i think I read somewhere that the best quality was found going DVI > DVI. I guess I could just use an HDMI > DVI adapter for the lesser display though.

As for color vs res, I agree with you in a general sense, but to be honest my color vision isn't all that great to start with so I don't know that I would get the same benefit that most people would by having "perfect" color representation. Like I said, I am very pleased with what my laptop gives me so my standards from the standpoint of perfect color aren't really that hard to meet. I do however really appreciate sharpness, dynamic range, and contrast maybe even more than the next person.

Thanks for all the help on this!

Matt

Newsy · December 12, 2009

The other monitor you can look to is the NEC EA231WMi which, like the Viewsonic, uses a 23" 1920x108 e-IPS TFT panel. It gets a better review than the Viewsonic but still has issues such as easily visible variation in panel brightness.

Personally, I don't think you are giving up much in resolution by going to a 22" (really 21.5") 1680x1050 monitor. The upside for the Dell is that it is 100% of the sRGB color space. Out of the box its' calibration is not too bad but once calibrated it is a real gem.

The biggest issue here is your budget. $200 gets you nothing that is new and suitable for serious color managed image editing.

.

Newsy · December 13, 2009

Newsy wrote:

The other monitor you can look to is the NEC EA231WMi which, like the Viewsonic, uses a 23" 1920x108 e-IPS TFT panel. It gets a better review than the Viewsonic but still has issues such as easily visible variation in panel brightness.

I just checked and the English translation has just been posted for the NEC EA231WMi at Prad.de (the best monitor review site on the web imho).

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2009/review-nec-ea231wmi-bk.html

.

mmmatt · December 14, 2009

Newsy wrote:

I just checked and the English translation has just been posted for the NEC EA231WMi at Prad.de (the best monitor review site on the web imho).

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2009/review-nec-ea231wmi-bk.html

.

Looks interesting!

The big knock on the viewsonic btw was its brightness level which probably doesn't matter so much for photoshop work since proper calibration involves reducing the brightness level so much.

Thanks for all the legwork guys.

Matt

Decent quality 21-22" lcd?

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