New 22" LCD ~£150

sansnom

sansnom

sansnom

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Well my HP W2207H seems to have developed a serious issue, huge black /gray semi circle at the bottom of it and red, blue, green lines going from this circle all the way across the screen (vertically).



I'm gonna speak to HP's out of warranty service centre tomorrow to get an estimate for the repair cost but in the event that it's over £100+ I'm thinking I might as well just buy a new LCD. Ridiculous given that this one is not even 2 years old and in perfect condition otherwise.

Anyway, I'm thinking I'll go with 22" again just because I don't wanna upgrade anything else at this point (gfx etc) so I need a relatively cheap, high quality 22" to replace.

I've been out of this for so long I don't have a clue what's hot and what's not right now.

Can anyone recommend the best 22" gaming lcd out there atm for price/value?
 
Culinia said:
What games do you play?
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typical games, FPS, strategy, etc but I like them on super high detail usually and at 1680x1050 the 8800 GT can just about handle most of them (save for crysis). If I go any higher I'm going to have to sacrifice on quality.

I noticed a Dell Ultrasharp 22" for £253 on ocuk. It's 1680x1050 but surprisingly more expensive than all the other 22" 1920x1080. Any particular reason?

Put it this way, why are all the new 22" lcds @ 1920x1080? Am i missinga more subtle point?
 
Culinia said:
Okay cool, I understand :)

Yes, it's because it's an IPS panel.

P.S. Also not sure why they are all x1080? Mabye so they can put a "FULL HD" sticker on the screen and people will buy or go "oooo" or something ???
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not sure what an IPS panel is so i'll have to do some reading up on it i suppose and then decide if it's worth the extra $$$
 
Well I just got off the phone with HP and they are absolutely appalling. They don't service their TFT's at all. If they are in warranty, they just replace them with new ones. They can't suggest where to go or what to do to repair one of their TFT's even if it's not older than a year and a half.

Anyway looks like I need to buy a new one so I've narrowed it down to these 2:

Dell Professional P2210H
Viewsonic VX2260


Anyone had experience with the Dell Professional? seems to be a good trade between the UltraSharp and the Viewsonic. (Not as expensive as ultra sharp, but better quality than the viewsonic).

how is it for gaming? colours? etc?
 
Well I just ordered a 23" Dell P2310H for a tenner more than the 21.5" version.

They're surprisingly difficult to find reviews on but I guess at this price range one tft is as good as another.
 
I've just decided to return my Dell P2310

I like it but there is one giant flaw and I don't know if it's just mine or maybe I just have very sensitive ears but it seems to have a really horrible high pitched buzzing PSU.

So i'm back in the market for a 22-24" gaming LCD for about £150-£200 and it must be silent! I never thought I'd have to ask for that on an LCD before now!

Anything coming out soon I should get one of? I don't personally like the viewsonic 2260, the bezel just looks so cheap and tacky
 
PCM2 said:
Sansnom... Get the BenQ G2222HDL or G2420HDBL. It is the best budget LED-backlit monitor around at the moment. The buzzing you heard is something usually associated with the backlight - LED backlights draw less power and are far less prone to this buzzing noise. Colours are not perfect, but this is not something you will necessarily notice unless you benchmark them specifically - it is unlikely that you will get perfect colours from any TN panel, let alone one for £120-£150. Brightness and contrast is very good and because it has an LED backlight you don't get noticeable bleeding through on blacks (so dark areas of scenes really will look dark).
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Thanks for that, I've been reading through the posts on this monitor in the forums and it looks like people are saying good things about it.

How does it compare with the Dell ST2410 would you know? I noticed a thread about this one too and just wondered why you go for one rather than the other since they seem to be the same price (£150)

---------
Edit - I just realised the Dell ST2410 is now £200+ ? How did this happen?
 
PCM2 said:
It's difficult for me to say as I haven't used the Dell ST2410 (or the BenQs), but from what I've read... The Dell ST2410 uses 2 CCFL lamps in the backlight, whereas the BenQ uses an array of LEDs. This makes the BenQ slimmer and more energy efficient, but also gives it a vasty superior dynamic contrast ratio. This is because LEDs can be independently controlled to differentially illuminate specific areas of the screen.

The whole thing about dynamic contrast ratio (on LED backlight screens in particular), though, is that it has generally been quite poorly implemented. I mean contrast is fantastic - but this comes at the expensive of headaches and general uncomfortable viewing. These problems are amplified in scenes that rapidly switch from between dark and light.... In short, people usually disable the dynamic contrast modes and stick to the static contrast (so that the screen illuminates all areas of the screen evenly).

With CCFL backlights (like the Dell has), however, there are always areas of the screen that are slightly brighter, close to the lamps. With LED backlighting the illumination is more even and although it is slightly screen dependent, the BenQ monitors mentioned have very good deep blacks (even in 'static contrast mode') because the LED backlight is very precisely and evenly controlled. You don't get noticeable bleeding from the backlight like you would with any CCFL monitor (especially near the edges). LEDs also respond more rapidly and precisely to changes in desired luminance and the overall effect is usually superior contrast and superior brightness, as well as smoother colour gradients.
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Thank you that's very helpful, I've actually decided on the BenQ. The shocking thing is, I can't find a single retailer that has them or any benq products including all the usual high street brands, the ones on tottenham court road, the boutique shops etc. Nobody has benq monitors and these particular ones are all on back order it seems.

Any idea where I might be able to pick one up today as I can't really afford to wait for ocuk to deliver one? (they're picking up the dell in about 30 mins)
 
EnderXi said:
Try the where to buy bit on BenQ site:

http://benq.co.uk/wheretobuy/

they might be able to point you somewhere you can find stock
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I went through that entire list. Not a single place on that list sells BenQ products directly, infact, only 2 of the companies on that list even know of/work with BenQ. The rest have never heard of benq.

loool absolutely unbelievable.

anyway OcUK do a saturday delivery so i just ordered that instead for an extra £18. Should be arriving in the next hour or so
 
PCM2 said:
Let me know when it arrives and post your first impressions and stuff :D. I can't wait to hear about it.
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The packaging was obviously opened before and the box was re-sealed so I was a little hesistant about accepting it. I opened it while the courier was still there (At his suggestion) and checked everything. It seems to be fine, no physical damage or anything.

Anyway onto the monitor itself, picture quality is outstanding. I haven't calibrated it yet or anything but the colours are beautifully rich, compared to the HP2207H and the Dell P2310H Professional.

The black is so black and well the display is just beautiful even without calibration and particularly at this price point.

Here's some pics:







The only thing I don't like so far is the stand
 
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Speaking of the stand I had a little idea to swap the stand over from my HP w2207h over to this new benq since they are both VESA wall mountable i thought it shouldn't be a problem.

So I did a bit of poking around the back of both monitors, took the stand off the HP w2207 and the BenQ but i've hit a little snag.

The stand on the HP w2207 is designed to fit an indented slot on the back of the lcd. The benq has no indentation so the VESA faceplate ends up pertruding about 0.5cm

I've narrowed it down to two things which are causing this problem:
First - The HP Vesa faceplate has 2 plastic pieces about 0.5cm in width designed to penetrate 2 equal slots on the back of the HP LCD.

Second- The vesa plate has a bolt which attaches it to the HP stand mechanism (for pivoting) which is not actually needed it means the faceplate cannot attach to the head of the stand itself any other way. the bolt however is only about 0.3cm in width so shorter than the 2 pieces of plastic on each side pertruding from the faceplate.

Question is, what can I do about this? Can i take it to a metal worker or something and have them produce a new faceplate with the correct height and width and have him attach it to the stand without a bolt? Maybe solder it on or something?

The pics might explain better:









 
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