Spec me a 23"/24" monitor - £200-250

dwjoll · 3 Sep 2012 at 21:47

Hi Folks,

I'm looking at getting a new monitor, primarily for gaming but I also do a lot of web and graphic so colour is important, plus nothing TOO bright that I have to wear sunglasses

My budget is around £200-£250.

Thanks

Edit: Guess you could say I'm looking for an 'All-rounder'. High quality images and colours, plus keeps up with games.

Axeia · 4 Sep 2012 at 00:45

The Dell u2312HM seems to be what you're after. Better than the TN-panels for colour sensitive work but quite nice for games as well.
If you have the time do read the tftcentral.co.uk review of it and if you don't just skimp through it

.

dwjoll · 4 Sep 2012 at 12:08

Thanks for the reply Axeia

Could you give me a very brief explanation about the different panels and what they are best suited to?

Thank you

Axeia · 5 Sep 2012 at 00:22

I generally just split them in 3 groups

TN panel - Excellent pixel response times making them great for gaming, in particular the 120Hz screens (all 120Hz monitors use a TN-panel). Poor viewing angles and colour reproduction, stay away from these for any kind of (semi-)professional photoshopping. Found on all cheap monitors and TV's.

*VA (MVA, PVA) - Excellent Blacks (and contrast), good colour reproduction. Poor pixel response times, ghosting isn't uncommon on these. Viewing angles are decent. Found on a few monitors and lots of TVs.

IPS/PLS, the best colour reproduction and decent pixel response times. Not quite as fast as a TN-panel but fast enough for most gamers. Great viewing angles. Used in most 'professional' monitors and a lot of TVs. Also used in most high end smartphones and tablets, those that don't use an (AM)O-led screen usually come with this technology.

As you always have to compromise IPS seems to hold the best cards, until O-led monitors become common we just can't have deep blacks, super contrast ratio's, excellent viewing angles and near instant pixel response times.

dwjoll · 5 Sep 2012 at 18:49

Axeia said:
I generally just split them in 3 groups

TN panel - Excellent pixel response times making them great for gaming, in particular the 120Hz screens (all 120Hz monitors use a TN-panel). Poor viewing angles and colour reproduction, stay away from these for any kind of (semi-)professional photoshopping. Found on all cheap monitors and TV's.

*VA (MVA, PVA) - Excellent Blacks (and contrast), good colour reproduction. Poor pixel response times, ghosting isn't uncommon on these. Viewing angles are decent. Found on a few monitors and lots of TVs.

IPS/PLS, the best colour reproduction and decent pixel response times. Not quite as fast as a TN-panel but fast enough for most gamers. Great viewing angles. Used in most 'professional' monitors and a lot of TVs. Also used in most high end smartphones and tablets, those that don't use an (AM)O-led screen usually come with this technology.

As you always have to compromise IPS seems to hold the best cards, until O-led monitors become common we just can't have deep blacks, super contrast ratio's, excellent viewing angles and near instant pixel response times.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me Axeia! That's cleared a few things up for me.

Been looking at the IPS but they seem quite expensive.

I've been on a rubbish TN for a while and get by with using Photoshop etc. guess I've just never been exposed to a really good monitor so wouldn't know any different.

Can a good TN perform OK with images or is IPS really the only way to go?

Axeia · 6 Sep 2012 at 16:51

Everyone considering a tn-panel for any kind of colour sensitive work I always point to the Lagom Viewing Angle test. It will show you right away why TN-panels just shouldn't be considered when you're doing any graphic editing

. The title stated a budget of £200-250 so not sure why you would consider IPS expensive, they start at like £130 and with a £200-250 budget both the Dell U2412M and U2312HM are within reach which are usually considered as the IPS-monitors to get in that price range.

dwjoll · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:03

Axeia said:
Everyone considering a tn-panel for any kind of colour sensitive work I always point to the Lagom Viewing Angle test. It will show you right away why TN-panels just shouldn't be considered when you're doing any graphic editing . The title stated a budget of £200-250 so not sure why you would consider IPS expensive, they start at like £130 and with a £200-250 budget both the Dell U2412M and U2312HM are within reach which are usually considered as the IPS-monitors to get in that price range.

I'll be honest I only had a brief look the other night and found ones £300+ but thanks for pointing me in the direction of the Dell's.

Would these be OK for fast moving FPS gaming? I'm worried about ghosting.

Axeia · 8 Sep 2012 at 01:32

The responsiveness of the U2312HM should be perfectly fine for most moderate to high gaming and shows a nice low level of motion blur assuming you leave the OD control turned on.

Quoted from the review linked to above.

I stopped worrying about it once I saw screens with very high response times such as my Hazro HZ27WD doing perfectly fine in fast games with in my eyes no visible ghosting. Manafacturer response times are a load of crock anyway, if you look up in depth reviews like those on tftcentral you'll soon see they're always complete lies and even worse some screens rated at for example 8ms are actually faster than some of those rated at 6ms. With monitors manfacturer specs are really just completely and utterly useless.

Dynamic contrast ratio's? Useless, not usable and the static contrast ratio's they mostly 'forget' to mention. Repsonse times? Completely useless, only when it's peculiarly high it's worth doing some extra looking into. Viewing angles? Rubbish! If you care about viewing angles IPS is the only way to go. Power Usage? Well this is the only spec that in practice is usually better than you'd expect from the given specs. The given specs are for full brightness and no sane person uses their monitor at full brightness.