24" Monitors that are not glossy black ???

[nheather]

Want to buy a new monitor for gaming and general desktop use.

Happy with TN and that fits my budget.

Done lots of reading and seems that Samsung seem to be one of the best brands in my price range.

Price range £150 to £200, but would prefer the lower.

LCD or LED - not bothered but guess I like the lower power of LED.

But what I'd really like is a non fussy, satin black bezel rather than these high gloss, chrome and perspex affairs.

But on the other hand I don't want to pay and extra £50 just to get a satin bezel because it is in the business range.

What would you recommend?

Also at the end of the day, a gloss panel is better and cheaper then I will go with it.

Also having trouble ranking the Samsungs in order of picture quality and performance. For example

XL2470
B2430
P2450
BX2450

How would they be ranked in order and is there much difference?

Also am I right in thinking that of these the B2430 is the only current model - not that it matters, would just like to know. If I look on the Samsung website there are the following, and I have listed what I think are the target audience

FX2490 - specialist, style
B2430 - entertainment, home user
B2440 - business

Any other brands - I have a Viewsonic VX922 at the moment - I assume that is a TN panel so if I am happy with that I would be happy with the new TN panels.

Many thanks,

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[PCM2]

I will not post any sort of proper reply until you read this . Don't go thinking the rank below has anything to do with the backlight. The BX2450 and XL2370 were launched as 'premium' TN panels, over £250 initially. They have only recently become sub-£200 affairs. The overall build and image quality is therefore slightly better than models that were always around £150-£170

It's quite simplistic to try to rank those Samsungs in order of image quality but I'll give it my best shot. More thorough justifications of these can be found by searching the forums for the specific model number:

XL2370 (very good mix of range and vibrancy for a TN panel. Good contrast.)
BX2450 (good range and good natural colour reproduction but slightly lower vibrancy. Pretty good contrast.)
B2430 (decent level of vibrancy but range not quite as good. Reasonable contrast)
P2450H (similar to B2430 with slightly worse colour balance out of the box, tendency towards strong greens).

 

[nheather]

Excellent - that is how I would have ranked them based on what I had read, but wanted to make sure.

Sorry didn't make it clear - I am fully aware that LED is just the backlight rather than the panel technology and both are LCD.

To be honest I would summarise them as follows.

My favourite looker is the BX2450 but I'm not sure I prepared to spend an extra £50 (or nearly).

I'm torn between the B2430 and the P2450. At first I didn't like the curved looks and the perspex belly of the B2430 but it is growing on me. I think the P2450 has the edge on looks for me but, the B2430 has the slightly better image and cheaper. P2450 has a VESA mount which may come in handy but no real plans for it.

So still torn between those three.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[PCM2]

Ah yes quite the dilemma. I think the price of the P2450H is about the same as the B2430H at the moment? It will really have to come down to looks I suppose. The image quality is so close on those two you shouldn't feel hard done by either way. To be honest if I was to buy one of these monitors today I'd find the job of choosing a little tricky - and this is after having used all of the monitors listed in this thread . I may even have ended up sacrificing the extra inch and going for the XL2370. I was actually quite close to buying a P2450H at one point (when it first made its resurgence) because I wanted a nice looking monitor for downstairs with some decent image quality. Curiosity got the better of me and I ended up going for the EW2420 as a bit of an experiment really.

 

[LEUVEN]

I'd been using a 24" Dell 2408 for 2 or 3 years now and I wanted a second monitor to use mainly for gaming (in loft).

After a search around I ended up deciding on the P2450 as it had a fast response time and 3 inputs (aswell as 1080p, looking good etc)
When I first fired up the PC on it I was quite shocked as it was so much sharper and had much more vibrant colours than the 2408 and at less than half the price I paid for the 2408 I was quite happy.

I've seen people on here often say that you can get a lot of monitor for £150-£200 these days and can now see why for myself.

Not a deep technical review but hope it helps your purchase as I'm sure you'll be happy with either of the Samsungs if their picture is like the P2450.

 

[nheather]

Absolutely, I'm convinced that the P2450 is a great monitor. The dilemma is that the B2430 is slightly better and cheaper - but do I prefer the look of the P2450? - only I can anser that one.

The XL2370 if a difficult one for me. Whilst I accept that it may have the best (slightly) picture of the group I think the BX2450 looks better, is bigger and cheaper. So it is hard to imagine that I would go for the XL2370 over the BX2450.

But the BX2450 is nearly £50 more than B2430 so how much are the looks worth to me?

Cheers,

Nigel