How heavy 22" vs 20" vs 19"

D.P. · 1 Oct 2006 at 11:54

Hi all.
I'm moving to Switzelrand very soon for a PhD. I was thinking of swapping my big heavy 19" CRT for a nicer lighter LCD to save space (my apartment will be small) and weight for transportation.

Currently I have a bottom range Iiyama 19" CRT. Its fine for what I need but heavy.

Was looking at cheap 19"LCDs such as: Hyundai N91W / Belinea 1925S1W etc.

But started thinking about bigger, better monitors. I noticed the 22" Acer at ~£280, sounds like a bargain. obviously wont be a great monitor but I read that it will be similar quality wise to a budget 20" but obviously bigger. I don't need anything too fancy, I play games but not an epic gamer.

The advanatge of a bigger monitor for me is I'll be doing a lot of programming and work with it and also i most likely wont have a TV in switzerland. I don't watch much TV and don't want to pay for french and suisse crap. But I will want something to play movies on, and I guess if I did want to watch TV I would do it through my PC in any case. Hence a 22" would be just perfect

My question:
How does the size and weight of a 19", 22" and 20" for that matter TFT compare? And what is it like relative to a 19"CRT.
I don't want to get a 22" TFT if it is heavier than my 19" CRT.

shine · 1 Oct 2006 at 12:13

D.P. said:
Hi all.
I'm moving to Switzelrand very soon for a PhD. I was thinking of swapping my big heavy 19" CRT for a nicer lighter LCD to save space (my apartment will be small) and weight for transportation.

Currently I have a bottom range Iiyama 19" CRT. Its fine for what I need but heavy.

Was looking at cheap 19"LCDs such as: Hyundai N91W / Belinea 1925S1W etc.

But started thinking about bigger, better monitors. I noticed the 22" Acer at ~£280, sounds like a bargain. obviously wont be a great monitor but I read that it will be similar quality wise to a budget 20" but obviously bigger. I don't need anything too fancy, I play games but not an epic gamer.

The advanatge of a bigger monitor for me is I'll be doing a lot of programming and work with it and also i most likely wont have a TV in switzerland. I don't watch much TV and don't want to pay for french and suisse crap. But I will want something to play movies on, and I guess if I did want to watch TV I would do it through my PC in any case. Hence a 22" would be just perfect

My question:
How does the size and weight of a 19", 22" and 20" for that matter TFT compare? And what is it like relative to a 19"CRT.
I don't want to get a 22" TFT if it is heavier than my 19" CRT.

I have the NEC LCD20WGX2 and it is light as a feather compared to my old Sony 19" CRT.

D.P. · 1 Oct 2006 at 12:31

cheers.
The Acer website is annoying, can't get any info on the weight on the 22".
I suspect its lighter than my 19"Crt though.

Troop · 1 Oct 2006 at 12:48

Here you go, spec for the Acer 22"

Click

I've got the same monitor, very happy with it.

D.P. · 1 Oct 2006 at 14:37

Thanks for that.
4.8kg.
that puts it at (ever so slightly) lighter than the Hyundai 19"!

Thats incredible. My 19" CRT weighs around 20kg...

Reviews seems to be good. A basic monitor, but it does the job with no major problems. Some aspects are very good, like the colour reproduction is supposed to be excelent.

fish99 · 1 Oct 2006 at 15:39

For programming I wouldn't get a 19" with a 1440*900 res. If you're working with multiple source files open I think you need more space. Even with a vertical res of 1024 I find I can't get enough code on screen, so 900 would be unpleasant. Also all the 19" screens are TN which means limited viewing angles.

You can get a 20" MVA panel with wide viewing angles and a 1680*1050 res for £235-280 (check out the Belinea, Philips, Viewsonic etc). Also if you don't mind TN and narrow viewing angles, there's the LG L204WT which is 20", 1680*1050 res but only £215. Or if you want something bigger there's the Samsung SM225BW for around £300, which is 22", 1680*1050, TN panel and has a DVI unlike the Acer 22".

I think something like the Belinea 102035W or Philips 200W6CS is your best bet. The wide viewing angles mean they can be used for films and you've got plenty of room for code. Plus they're great value now at around £250-260, it's only a few months ago they were both around £330 IIRC.

Cyber-Mav · 1 Oct 2006 at 21:35

yep, for programming i wouldn;t bother with a wide screen, unless it has a tilt facility to run in portrait mode.

fish99 · 1 Oct 2006 at 21:57

Widescreen is ok for programming as long as the vertical resolution isn't too small. 1680*1050 is actually slightly more vertical height than 17"/19" 5:4 TFTs afterall. Plus the extra width allows you to see several source files at once like this -

http://www.sbdev.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/1680x1050.jpg

(didn't post as an image because it's quite big, 1680*1050, click image and it should go full size, or just right click and save it)

shine · 1 Oct 2006 at 22:01

fish99 said:
Widescreen is ok for programming as long as the vertical resolution isn't too small. 1680*1050 is actually slightly more vertical height than 17"/19" 5:4 TFTs afterall. Plus the extra width allows you to see several source files at once like this -

http://www.sbdev.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/1680x1050.jpg

(didn't post as an image because it's quite big, 1680*1050, click image and it should go full size, or just right click and save it)

I agree its what I do.

D.P. · 2 Oct 2006 at 09:44

Ok, i'm moving towards the Belinea 102035W 20.1"

It should be a fair bit larger screen size than my 19"CRT but a lot lighter and thinner.

One other deciding factor, i'm not a photoshop pro but have a Nikon D70SLR and try and do a little touching up, therefore colour capability is fairly important. I think the MC screen will be better at a full 8bit?

Will order today because I'll be in Brussels for the rest of the week and the screen is on "this week only"

D.P. · 2 Oct 2006 at 16:51

Just about to order the Belinea 102035W 20.1" Widescreen

Want some last minute opinions/votes!

Uses:
Programming
Photo editing
some games
Films/TV

My Budget is certainly under £300 so no point suggest a 24" Dell etc.

fish99 · 2 Oct 2006 at 17:25

Only thing with the Belinea is some reports of backlight bleed. You might want to do a search on these forums for '102035W' and read some of the threads about it. I don't know how bad or prevelant it is.

The Philips 200W6CS and Viewsonic VX2025wm are the main alternatives. The Viewsonic doesn't do 1:1 pixel mapping though, so you can't display 1280*1024 with side borders, it will be stretched (although your video card drivers can get round this). The philips is I suppose a bit on the ugly side.

Btw you can see the philips in a well know chain of PC retailers where they're always 'stamping down on prices', if you want to see how big a 20" screen is in the flesh.

D.P. · 2 Oct 2006 at 18:30

arrrg- spent some time searching. So confusing. I think I'll wait and order later. Prices might go up but i'm best to order the monitor I really want. I just don't have time to research atm, and I wont be back till saturday...

fish99 · 2 Oct 2006 at 22:27

I did a bit of searching too since I'm in the middle of making the same decision, these threads are definitely worth a read-

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17500957&page=1&pp=30
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17521862&page=1&pp=30
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17537206

It does seem quite a few people have the backlight bleed issue with the Belinea.

Thread about the Viewsonic-

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17548398&page=4&pp=30

and about the Philips-

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17528270

Reading about backlight bleeding on both the Belinea and Viewsonic, but especially the Belinea. The Belinea looks cheap to me too, as you would expect from a budget manufacturer. Also neither do 1:1 pixel mapping, so for instance 1280*1024 is strecthed to fill the screen which you don't always want. Might be possible to get round this with video card drivers though (not sure though, some people were saying it's not possible on ATI cards).

The philips seems to get the least negative comments but it's pretty ugly and I've still read comments about backlight bleeding with that one too. It does have proper scaling options though, so you can have 1:1 or stretched.

After reading all of the above threads, I'm probably going with the Philips.

D.P. · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:08

Thanks for all of that. Annoying the Philips isn't in stock. I'm going to have a look around town to see them in the flesh.

DasFruitMachine · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:16

I've been looking at 20" and 22" TFTs lately and concluded that the extra size of the screen models isn't really worth the sacrifice in image quality (mainly colour reproduction). The 22" panels are generally TN Film whereas you can get a good quality 20" monitor with good viewing angles, colour reproduction and response times for roughly the same money. The 22" monitors are good value for general windows and games usage, but for anything else I'd recommend a good quality 20".

fish99 · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:46

D.P. said:
Thanks for all of that. Annoying the Philips isn't in stock. I'm going to have a look around town to see them in the flesh.

Don't forget the Dell 2007WFP too. While it's at £300 it's a very good piece of kit for the money. There's also the Gatway FDP2185W 21" for £300 with the same PVA panel as the Samsung 215TW.