Which 19" Monitor - £200 - £300 - More for Picture/Films, though Some gaming

DaveyD

DaveyD

DaveyD

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Hi,

Now uni has finally finished and I've got a job for the summer, I will now have the finances to finally get myself a new monitor. I have previously had a Mitsubishi 93SB, which was fantastic, but it weighed 245Kg and was doing my back in every time I had to move it. It also blew up 3 times, and the 3rd time was out of warranty, so I've been using my brothers old 15" CRT, which looks like a thin layer of vaseline is over the glass, making it nice and blurred.

Anyway!

What I'm after is basically:
19"
Good sharp picture ideally, for general desktop use along with films etc.
I will be gaming on it, but I tend to not do it as much any more, so it's not that important.

Sorry for creating a new thread Badass, just your lovely thread has far too much info for me to take in all at once ;)

Oh, and Budget, £200 - £300, Ideally closer to £200-£250, but don't mind going that extra £50 if you think it's worth it.

Thanks,

Dave
 
Hi DaveyD, no worries about the new thread, understandable to start a new one there's a lot of info in those stickies! :)

If you want to stick with a 19" model and want to help keep the costs down then there are a couple of very good and well established models which won't break the bank. The Samsung 913N (now 920N in fact) and the Acer AL1916W always get recommended in these type of threads. Well established and very well priced. One thing to note is that they are using TN Film panel technology and so do make some sacrifices in some areas. The main problem with TN Film is the restrictive viewing angles, especially vertically. Black depth can also be a little poor and movie playback a little noisy. If you wanted to spend ~£200 then these would both be excellent choices though, with the Acer perhaps being a nice choice due to it's WS format, making it a little more suited to movie watching.

If you wanted to push the budget more but stick with a 19" model, the Viewsonic VP930 is arguably one of the best TFT's all round in the market right now. Thanks to it's P-MVA panel technology it doesnt suffer from the same draw backs as the TN Film models, and offers wide viewing angles, smoother movie playback, better colour and black depth, and still provides comparbale responsiveness to the TN Film models also rated at 8ms. If you want an all round screen (and it sounds like you probably do, rather than a pure gaming screen) then the VP930 would be a very good choice.


If you're willing to stretch the budget to ~£300 then you might well be best off looking at some of the excellent 20"WS models perhaps. This might be a really good choice and more future proof as well. The models in mind are the Belinea 102035W and Viewsonic VX2025WM which are both using a scaled up version of the P-MVA panel in the Viewsonic VP930 (8ms P-MVA from AU Optronics). The 20"WS have a bit larger screen (obviously) size, a larger resolution and offer the same kind of excellent all round performance that you only get from the high end 19" range. Given the VP930 is only about £10 cheaper, it might be a much better choice to look at these models. WS format also makes them more suited to movie watching. And the Viewsonic probably has the edge between the two thanks to its more accurate colours out of the box compared with the Belinea. Build quality, design (arguably) and support are also better on the Viewsonic.

hth
 
Thanks for the great reply Badasss

I think my only concern with Widescreen monitors is perhaps for gaming.

Am I right in saying if a game supporting only 4:3/5:4 resolutions were to be played in say 1280x1024 or 1024x768, I would get vertical black borders on either side of the image? My concern for that is then I'd be then from a 20.1" widescreen be using something like a 15" 5:4.
 
you would only get borders if the screen itself supported 1:1 pixel mapping / aspect ratio retention. Only some screens have this feature, but then if you did run a game and asked it to keep the ratio, it is still very good. It would be like playing on a 17" TFT within the 20"WS if you see what i mean? Most modern games tend to support WS format now as well, and widescreengamingforum has a lot of "hacks to allow others to support it. take a look here as well, it might help :)
 
Ah okay, thanks,

At a wierd twist, I was going to be disposing of my old monitor today, but I decided to test it again to make sure it definately didn't work... and you guessed it, it still works! It must have healed itself over the 2 months it's been sitting in a box, and has annoyed me I've been using the rubbish 15" blur-o-vision CRT for so long.

But, I still have to get myself a decent TFT, as my new room at my new house at uni is the box room, and my desk will be about as big as this CRT is, so I'm going to need all the space I can get! I'm guessing this monitor likes to die every so often now, so I'll be getting myself a new one between now and September depending upon how nice this monitor will be to me.
 
Get the Viewsonic VX2025 20".

Widescreen is great for genral desktop use, so much space. Better for watching movies on and genrally supported in the new games. The monitors stretch by default on games that don't and this in my opion looks fine
 
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Thing is, I tend to play a lot of older games, and it is a pet hate of mine seeing the wrong aspect ration on a picture, just annoys me.
 
Those prices are getting a little too high, I think I'll probably go for a standard 5:4 TFT when I do.
 
I went for the Samsung 960BF 19" 4ms for just over £250. It's a really nice monitor and i highly recommended it.

Just ask if you would like some pics. :)
 
i just seen this thread, and the thread starter, and thought WTF.. i havent started a thread about 19" monitors.. haha then i realised ive got a space in my name where you havent :rolleyes:
 
DaveyD said:
And how is that sub £200-300?
Click to expand...

well sorry...i was gonna write "the price is little over than the price range u mention"

but i didnt bother and i tho u would understand so i didnt need to write.
 
Just a little bump, as I'm going to be buying something tonight, just not sure what now. I'm thinking of going for the VP930 now, though they're a little hard to find in stock, but is that still a good choice? Or is there anything really much better in the 19" range for ~£280?

Cheers,
Dave
 
When i was looking for a monitor a couple of months back i used This guide on Toms Hardware
Although its a Spring guide I still haven't seen a more in depth monitor comparison.

I personally went for the VX922 and have to say the TH review was really accurate. Brilliant for games but not so good for films.

For a more all round monitor they say go for the VP930
 
DaveyD said:
Just a little bump, as I'm going to be buying something tonight, just not sure what now. I'm thinking of going for the VP930 now, though they're a little hard to find in stock, but is that still a good choice? Or is there anything really much better in the 19" range for ~£280?

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

i dont think you will find a better all round screen, perhaps even in the whole market right now really than the VP930. There may well be a few faster models (like the aformentioned VX922) but the VP930 does offer some very good performance in many areas. If you can source it, it would still be an excellent choice
 
Just an update, got the monitor yesterday (good timing for my Birthday :)) and It is rather good :). Not had chance to fully try it out, but from what I did get round to seeing I was impressed.
 
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