Monitor buying guidance needed!

Golden Ape · 30 Mar 2010 at 14:16

Well I'm fully of questions and am totally stumped as to which monitor I want to buy. As such I'm very much hoping that some wise person can put me out of my misery.

So here's what I'm after:
1. 23 or 24"
2. Will be used on its own for coding/general work. I use dual screen at work but don't have space at home so really need a screen with enough resolution to display two windows comfortably side by side. 1920 x 1080 as minimum I guess, though I'm very tempted by 1920 x 1200 but suppose actually it's screen width I need not depth. I'm also tempted by the few exotic wider screens I've seen. Does anyone else get buy using a single screen as a dual screen surrogate?
3. Don't really want to stray beyond £200
4. Very low priority is that I sometimes do some photo editing (for fun) I think TN is still fine as long as it's not too nasty.
Ah and 5. Must must must fit to a VESA wall mount.

So I think there are three options:
1) The BenQ G2420HDB Pros: cheap, yummy LED back light. Possible Con: only 1920 x 1080
2) The Samsung SM2343 Pro: Massively wide 2048 x 1152. Con: 23" an no yummy LED, more than a year old
3) Apparently Dell do a monitor based on the same panel as the Samsung (Dell SP2309W) and it's about the same price. Nice looking though.

Hmm what do to, what to do

edit: I should say I'm not tied to these three monitors. If someone could suggest something better I'd be really happy.

Ultim8 · 30 Mar 2010 at 19:02

I can vouch for the benq i have 3 and think for the money they are superb and i know a lot of other members have gone for these with a majority of people having excellent feedback on them considering there price

Nemesis379 · 30 Mar 2010 at 19:12

Acer S243HLBMI

This is £240 (on amazon) little above your price range, but looks decent, 2 hdmi ports, LED, looks sweet, im considering this 1.

Golden Ape · 30 Mar 2010 at 19:42

Interesting. I've had a look at the Acer and although it's got LED lights (which would be nice) it's still 1920 x 1080 though so I think I'd take the BenQ over it. I'm still really tempted by the wideness of the samsung though ...

Troezar · 30 Mar 2010 at 20:36

I'm also considering the Benq one, looks a good all rounder. Not sure how well it copes with gaming though but that doesn't look like a consideration for you.

Ultim8 · 30 Mar 2010 at 20:44

reeceLAV you might want to remove the bit about where you can buy that as its classed as competition.

And i use the benq for gaming and its great

Golden Ape · 30 Mar 2010 at 22:31

Thanks for all the input. I think what I need to do is try working with just a 1920 x 1080 (I've got one at work) and see how I get on. If that's OK I'll go for the Benq, if not I think it's the Samsung.