Which 24" monitor to go for?

alex24

alex24

alex24

Soldato
Joined
1 Jan 2008
Posts
11,191
Please help! I've decided I want a bigger monitor. I currently have a Samsung SM226BW, which has been pretty good to be honest. Very low input lag, decent enough response time, good IQ and so on. I hope things have moved on however!

Which 24" panel to go for? I'll be selling the 226 to help fund this.

Primary usage - games and reading PDFs/word processing.

LED worth it? I like power savings and a thinner model would be great. Would love a 90 deg tilt stand but they're usually not in budget.

Low input lag and decent response are obviously preferred due to the usage. All brands are considered, I had a very average experience with Samsung RMA and the whole panel lottery, so they're on the bottom of my list, but if it's the best panel I won't exclude it.

Budget is probably up to around £170. I don't have enough cash to put on top to fund much more after the sale of my 22".

Thanks for any advice, let me know what you're using too, especially if you're a gamer!
 
OK, here are some options, let's try weigh up the pros and cons at some point too:

BenQ

G2420HDBL - £164

V2410T - £165-£180

Samsung

P2450H - £200

B2430L - £160

BX2450 - £260

XL2370 - £260

Dell

Anything of note for Dell? Liked the 2209WA when it was well-priced but it's not a 24".

Any opinions welcome, there's a few wildcards in there too just in case they're worth the extra!
 
PCM2, thanks very much for your time and expertise, I'll review what you've said and add some comments soon. That's really going to help me decide, thank you.
 
Okay, I've got to be serious about my budget so let's narrow it down a bit more.

BenQ V2410T - I like the stand. I like that it's LED and well-priced.

Samsung B2430L - I like the price. Not so keen on the looks but not too important. Not very adjustable stand. I can't find the B2420H anywhere, is that a typo? Also, is the screen really bigger or is it just HDMI? I don't need HDMI, DVI is fine as I don't need sound. Only one device connected, sometimes another via VGA.

Samsung BX2450 - Love the looks and profile, very nice. Bit pricey for an average panel though. The XL2370 is really great, but it's out of my sensible price range, as are the IPS monitors tbh. I'd need a better response time anyway.

Dell ST2420L - Looks like it might fit the bill, no info on performance yet, but can't see it for £150 anywhere. That's a steal if so.

I'm coming from a Samsung SM226BW, have you used one? I know it was good at the time 3 years ago.

Which of the sub £200 panels would you choose for gaming?
 
I've heard bad things about some of the current Iiyama 24" panels. They used to be a great brand back when I had my CRTs!

Thanks for the tip though.
 
LG looks like it's not VESA mountable, so that goes against it, but it seems nice enough.

I think the final choice is between the B2430H and V2410T.

B2430H - Likely to have better image quality. Cheaper than the BenQ. Stand not very adjustable, but is VESA mountable.

V2410T - LED so uses less power. Slightly bigger panel? Image quality likely not as good as the samsung. Less connectivity. More expensive. Highly adjustable stand.

I suppose it comes down to whether LED is worth it over CCFL and whether I care that much about having an adjustable stand. It would be nice, but since the Sammy has a VESA mount it's not the end of the world, I could always eventually get a desk or wall mount. I plan to keep the panel 3 years.

Which is likely to be better for gaming though? My current panel is actually rated at 2ms (faster than those two) but that's using RTA (response time acceleration) which does cause ghosting artifacts. They're reported to not be very noticeable but I can see them easily when playing online FPS games so I have RTA turned off. 5ms is then fine really, I was just hoping things had moved on in 3 years, but it appears they haven't much. I'll reserve judgement until the new one arrives though. There are always unquantifiable distinctions that aren't on the spec sheet that can make a difference.
 
I would also like to know how you got the BX2450 so cheap! Maybe if OcUK get them in they can price match it.

My first 226BW had worse backlight bleed than my RMA replacement one did, which I imagine was rebuilt. I never thought it was that bad. In fact, I think the image is still pretty darn good, if the BX2450 is better that's a good sign.

Thanks for the info on response times PCM2. I just didn't want to leave myself disappointed when playing fast moving games, the input lag and response of the 226BW were extremely good at the time and probably still are pretty decent.

Would the BX2450 be a better bet than the B2430H then do you think? It's an LED panel, a lot nicer looking in my opinion, but I don't really want to sacrifice IQ by spending more!
 
Last edited:
That's reassuring, thank you. I now know I won't be disappointed if I go for that. Vertical viewing angle on the 226 is quite unforgiving, but horizontal is OK.
 
OK, happy to try and answer that!

Firstly, the height adjustment is useful. I currently have made a frankenstand for my monitor to sit on, on my desk, so that it is elevated to the right level. It's annoying looking down on them all the time.

Secondly, the 90 swivel into portrait mode may be of use to me. I'll be doing massive amounts of word processing this year, so having things that way round *may* make it easier to produce a full page document.

My current monitor does tilt up/down to accommodate different mounting levels (so you can look head on otherwise viewing angle is bad) and also it has swivel around on it's base. This way you can 'angle' the monitor towards you, with or without a desk plinth/frankenstand, but you still have to look down on it rather than it being at a natural height.

So yes, a fully adjustable stand certainly has its benefits for TN panels, though TN panels are designed to be cheap and affordable, so the stands inevitably follow suit.
 
Well if you're mostly gaming I'd say the Samsung, but if you do photo processing, office work etc the IPS panel would probably be better. The only reason I say that rather than just the IPS is that they can sometimes have worse response times and slight blurring on fast movement, especially the cheaper IPS panels. I haven't used that one though, so I'm in no position to comment specifically, they're just my general thoughts.

I'm going to order the B2430H soon if I see nothing better. Also going to ask OcUK to price match too, they're £10 more expensive than somewhere else that also offers free delivery.

I'm interested in the BX2450 too, but comments on it are few and far between, plus it can't be VESA mounted *I think*.
 
shipinabottle said:
Am I allowed to link a competitor despite OCUK not selling the BX2450?

if not contact me via email in trust?
Click to expand...

Hi mate, unfortunately not, I did send you an email through trust though. What do you think of the monitor besides your initial comments then? Any downsides to that model? If it's less than £200 it's a serious contender for me, I like the design quite a bit in comparison to the B2430H, and if the panels and IQ are similar, that's a deciding factor. I know that seems almost superficial, but it'll be in the middle of my desk, elevated, for about 3 years.
 
I prefer the look of the former, but it's now an older model than the latter and perhaps a little highly priced. Anyway, I'm going backwards here.

There is nowhere that does the BX2450 for less than £200, so I think I have to decide between the B2430L and B2430H, which should be easy! Do I need HDMI or not is the question. I don't have it on my 226BW and forsee no use for it on that panel, so I may as well save the money.

Is the panel in the B2430H and B2430L the same though? I imagine it is.

Now the only other problem - best price for B2430H on the net in a 2 min search is £136.30 with free delivery. OcUK price - £159.99 including free delivery. £23.69 saving to go elsewhere. Hmmm, I think if this is the one to go for I'll give OcUK a chance to match it, I'd much rather buy from them, but the cheaper price is a large reputable retailer too.
 
Went for the P2450H on offer at OcUK in the end.

My first impressions (copied from another thread):

I got my P2450H yesterday. I'm planning to write a more detailed review, not long, but also with pictures when I'm ready. I'll give my first impressions though:

Pros:

Great looking monitor. Very nice.
Good size, ideal with Aero Snap.
Contrast is good, better than my old monitor for sure.
Quite good amount of customisation available on the OSD.
Scaling of non-native resolutions to full panel size is much, much better than my old Samsung 226BW. Shame I won't be using that feature.
Response initially looks great, no trails or artifacts observed yet. Conversely, my old monitor at 2ms used overdrive and produced white trails. This appears to be much more a true 2ms panel rather than an overdriven 5ms. That or the overdrive is miles and miles better. Samsung call this 'overdrive' RTA (Response Time acceleration) I believe.

Cons:

Stand is rubbish. No weight to it and as such the thing wobbles everywhere. Will probably need a desk mount.
Touch buttons take a little getting used to, not a major issue but may annoy some.
Settings out of the box are pretty far off perfect. Brightness wayyy too high like most new monitors really. Seems to have a slight dominance in green, though my old one was the same with blue before some tweaking. I think this one will need more thorough calibration.
Vertical viewing angle is quite poor. This is probably eccentuated because of the size of the panel (at the same distance from my face as the 22"). However, this is expected with any TN panel. I think a more adjustable stand will help alleviate this for me somewhat.

Overall, not the large jump in IQ I was expecting from my last panel. I think rather than a bad thing about the P2450H, this is more of really high praise for the 226BW. It was leaps and leaps ahead the Hanns G I had before that. The P2450H is a good picture with potential to be absolutely cracking once it's set up right. The only big let down is the stand, but it doesn't offer less than most in this price range anyway.

Very pleased with my purchase, the extra real estate will come in handy. Without seeing in the flesh the competition, IQ is hard to place within all new monitors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom