new flat panel - £300 ish

Reality Bites · 11 Jan 2007 at 13:38

There seems to be a bulk of threads at the moment, but all people have different requirements!

I'm after a flat panel for space saving really.

I've seen a 20" wide screen and thought it was a little small and the 24" are above my budget and justification for such a purchase.

Leaves me with either a 20" panel or a 22" widescreen.

Seems to be several around the £300-£320 mark but it's been about 3 years since i bought a monitor.

I only really use my pc for browsing, music and watching the odd film now. I will play the odd game but not much.

what would fit the bill? As many have said, not many high street shops have these things in shops to view them first.

Richeh · 11 Jan 2007 at 13:46

I'll say the VX2025wm. It's perfect for watching movies because of the panel and i'm not a heavy gamer myself but tested it a little and seemed fine. Also found the screen is very nice aesthetically as well, pictures didnt look great but I was surprised.

I've mainly just browsed and watched movies, colours are very good out of the box although I lowered the brightness a bit. Movies seem very good, honestly can't tell any difference between this and my old 19" Eizo CRT (baring in mind this is my first TFT as i've had that eizo for 4 years). Think its around £280 in most places, I had to make the exact same choice last week and went with this because of the fact the panel is so much better for movies than the TN panels around (which all 22" monitors use btw, so your probably better off with 20").

Good luck.

Reality Bites · 11 Jan 2007 at 14:04

I can see me ending up getting a standard 20" panel. 20" widescreen is just too small and i'm not paying £550 for a monitor i'm only using to browse and listen to music/movies on.

I've spent a fortune on my LCD TV for that.

Godsbrother · 11 Jan 2007 at 14:23

Reality Bites said:
I can see me ending up getting a standard 20" panel. 20" widescreen is just too small and i'm not paying £550 for a monitor i'm only using to browse and listen to music/movies on.

I've spent a fortune on my LCD TV for that.

In that case you may want to look at ,

samsung SM204B

Dell 2007FP

Reality Bites · 11 Jan 2007 at 15:30

are the 22" widescreens really that bad?

Richeh · 11 Jan 2007 at 15:54

There not bad, for games they are fairly good due to the TN panels. But for movies they have a fair disadvantage over the 20 inches that use different panels.

For general browsing you probably wouldn't be able to tell a difference, and games would be good on either but as you said you don't really play games and will mainly be browsing and watching movies then a 20" best fits your criteria. 22" won't be 'bad' for movies but you just may notice artifacts that you wouldn't otherwise.

m3lv1n · 12 Jan 2007 at 04:49

I got a Dell 2007 non widescreen so 1600 x 1200 resolution well pleased with it.

£310 from OCUK quid about 2 - 3 months ago dunno how much they are now.

Reality Bites · 12 Jan 2007 at 06:50

m3lv1n said:
I got a Dell 2007 non widescreen so 1600 x 1200 resolution well pleased with it.

£310 from OCUK quid about 2 - 3 months ago dunno how much they are now.

i think that would be the sort of thing i'd have to go for. 20" widescreen is meant to be comparible to a 17" crt?

i've got a 19" crt now.

fobose · 12 Jan 2007 at 09:46

a 17" CRT is tiny, it has about 15-16" viewable area, where the hell did you get the thought a 20" WS is comparable to that from? *getting very frustrated here.

Reality Bites · 12 Jan 2007 at 13:42

fobose said:
a 17" CRT is tiny, it has about 15-16" viewable area, where the hell did you get the thought a 20" WS is comparable to that from? *getting very frustrated here.

reviews i found of the 20" WS....thinking about it, they could have meant a 17" LCD. They meant the in terms of height and resolution i think.