Opinions on this hp TFT?

Curio · 7 Sep 2006 at 05:25

My missus has been using an old (like 15 years old!) 2nd hand 17" Sony Trinatron for over a year now and it finally seems to have failed, so I need to get her a replacement sorted ASAP as she's a graphic designer / illustrator and kinda needs to see what's she doing

Unfortunately we haven't got much money right now and we were hoping the Sony would last another 12 months until we could maybe get her a nice pro monitor like a Lacie or Eizo. Still, the best laid plans, etc, etc...

So, I've pretty much narrowed it down to this 19" hp:

HP L1940T

link removed by mod - no competitor links please

But it's very new and there aren't many reviews up yet, although the ones I've found say it's excellent. Also, hp have a very nice rebate offer right now and I can get it for a very good price anyway.

I'll need to order soon (within the next 24 hours) so can anybody see anything wrong with my choice? Any others I should seriously consider. Budget is around the 150-175 quid range. Photoshop/InDesign is priority, gaming comes second. Be stuck on the end of an X700 Pro. Thanks!

Baddass · 7 Sep 2006 at 22:57

It's not ideal for photo work since it is still based on a TN Film panel and so doesn't offer the kind of colour depth that other technologies can. However, given the budget you are limited to TN Film panels anyway so if you can pick this up at a good price it should do the job adequately.

Cyber-Mav · 8 Sep 2006 at 00:03

i thought that was an S-IPS model. :confused:

Curio · 8 Sep 2006 at 00:26

Baddass said:
It's not ideal for photo work since it is still based on a TN Film panel and so doesn't offer the kind of colour depth that other technologies can. However, given the budget you are limited to TN Film panels anyway so if you can pick this up at a good price it should do the job adequately.

Thanks.

How was that a link to a competitor? It was a link to the spec sheet on the hp site :confused:

Baddass · 8 Sep 2006 at 08:07

Cyber-Mav said:
i thought that was an S-IPS model.

sadly not, the viewing angles give it away. Spec sheet from prad.de here for info

Baddass · 8 Sep 2006 at 08:07

Curio said:
Thanks.

How was that a link to a competitor? It was a link to the spec sheet on the hp site

but sadly that is a site of a competitor. It's ok to mention the model name and spec, but unfortunately links to their site aren't allowed

Curio · 10 Sep 2006 at 18:22

OK, well I ordered the hp - so I'll post a review once I've got it up and running early next week.

One thing I noticed, they don't seem to ever list what type of panel tech the monitors use - it just says active matrix or whatever. Isn't this rather an important bit of info to leave out? It's the same on OCUK - I've only seen a couple that actually says what type of panel it is :confused:

UKDTweak · 10 Sep 2006 at 18:24

Ive used these and had no issues with them at all, i now have a HP1955 which is even better again.

Baddass · 12 Sep 2006 at 07:51

Curio said:
OK, well I ordered the hp - so I'll post a review once I've got it up and running early next week.

One thing I noticed, they don't seem to ever list what type of panel tech the monitors use - it just says active matrix or whatever. Isn't this rather an important bit of info to leave out? It's the same on OCUK - I've only seen a couple that actually says what type of panel it is

yep, sadly only a couple of manufacturers ever seem to list the technology used. You can check what technology and in many cases, what panel part, is used in a model here in the panel search though: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

Curio · 16 Sep 2006 at 19:51

So got the monitor set up and working and I have to say it's a thing of beauty

I really can't believe how good it is for the money - things certainly have come a long way since I last looked at TFT's. No dead pixels at all either. I'm seriously considering getting one for myself, even tho I bought a Samsung CRT (which I really like) only 12 months ago!