What 24-26" monitor to buy

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plaus

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I'm about to buy my new computer and I also need a new screen. It's been a long time since I last bought a new computer so I wasn't up to date with hardware news at all. My new computer is a very decent machine ( Core 2 DUO 3ghz – Asus P5K Premium – HD3870 X2 – 4gb DDR2 -…) so it deserves a decent screen. When I’m going to buy my computer tomorrow I’ll have to plug it into an old 17” CRT. I’m really anxious to replace that screen with something kickass. I've been reading a lot on these boards for the past couple of days. I'm close to making a decision concerning my new monitor but I'm not yet there.
First I just planned to buy a cheapass 24" screen here locally but after reading around a bit I've immediately realized that screen was utter crap (Samsung 245B).
Now I’ve decided that I want a high quality screen.

My screen will mostly be used for all-round purposes: browsing the web, playing poker, watching movies/series, playing games. I don’t own a PS3 yet but I plan to get one soon so I can watch blue-ray and play PS3 games. So I need a screen that offers full hd support and has a good image quality. I don’t want ghosting, bad viewing angles or other issues like that.
I don’t plan to play any online shooters anymore – I’ve done that way too much in the past and nowadays I consider that too time-consuming. I don’t expect input lag to be almost equal to the input lag of CRT screen but I also don’t want 60ms of lag – so input lag should be decent.
Another concern I have is that my desk is only 60cm long in the depth..is this enough distance for viewing a 24”-26” screen? (what viewing distance would be ideal)

One of the issues I have is that I live in Europe…so buying a NEC 2490 or a Planar PX2611W isn’t that easy.

So..let’s move on to the screens I consider buying.

NEC 2490
After reading quite some topics over here all I can conclude is that the NEC 2490 is the screen everyone advises. Everything seems right to me about the screen. Input lag isn’t as low as on the Planar but it’s good enough for me. It’s somewhere around 30ms right?
Only problem I have is that I can’t get it over here. There are also no Ebay vendors offering it. I could have it sent to a friend who lives in the USA and then have it sent over here.
Do the NEC 2490’s often have issues like dead pixels etc. that need a replacement (so need to use warranty?) I’ll need to send it back to my friend first I guess so that’s one of the problems as well.

Price: 1100$ -> 717€ + shipping (don’t know how much this is – maybe 250$ I think) + maybe taxes
So total price without customs could be around 880€

NEC 2690
I guess this one isn’t worth it because these are being plagued more by various issues.

Planar PX2611W
+ pretty cheap
+ low input lag (how much in ms – 15? About 1 frame I guess)
- only 1 input / no hdmi (though I can live with that I think – dvi/hdmi doesn’t really matter right?)
- blacklight bleeding (is this the case o nall of the planars?)
This is the only monitor I didn’t yet read much about..didn’t have time to read trough the whole 44page thread yet.
Plus point is I can get this one on ebay. I’ve just contacted them asking for shipping costs and warranty. Does anyone know whether I’ll be able to have warranty?

As I don’t know much about the Planars yet..what issues do these have? I read there’s a 3 pixel return policy – that’s not good. Are there any other issues I should be aware of (esp compared to the NEC2490). I’ll try to read more in the big thread when I find the time but it would be nice if you could just point out the main flaws and differences with the NEC.
Right now I’m really leaning towards the Planar because I can get it on ebay, because it’s almost the same as the NEC , has low input lag and doesn’t cost that much. I don’t know much about the flaws so that might be a bummer. I also still have to hear about warranty etc.

Then there are some screens I can get here in Europe:
DELL 2408FWP – 639€ (found a vendor who sells them a lot cheaper then dell: http://qsix.eu/shop.php?cat=1 – just looked it up and it seems dell is cheaper right now 618€ because of a promotion, couple of days ago it was 830€)
I don’t want 60ms input lag, and the other issues it has..I’d rather pay a bit more and have a screen that’s much better. So I guess this one is not an option.

EIZO HD2441W – 1269€ trough same vendor
If I pay this much money I really want a decent screen..and after reading about it all I can conclude this one has too much flaws. Bad image quality issues, 2 frames lag, ugly design -> not worth that much money.
That’s all I can think of right now. If you’d have any other options that are good for someone living in Europe please tell me about it. I just read the thread about the LG W2600HP 26" S-IPS but it seems there isn’t that much info about it yet.

Another thing I realized today is that apple also has hd screens. Is the apple 23” screen a good screen? I read that is has nearly no input lag. Though that’s all I know about it.
It’s in the 800€’s and I can also get it here in Europe with warranty etc.
Another one that just popped into my mind is the old Dell 2407 one..any good? It's no IPS but intput lag is good..though they suffer from ghosting. Does the "HC" version still suffer from the low response time (ghosting)?
I can get the Dell 2407FWP-HC for 589€ from the EU vendor.

The Dell UltraSharp 3008wfp (S-IPS) is on there for 1399€. I know this is probably a great screen but I don't want to spend that much and I don't need 30" at all..that would be way too big.

I guess you’ll all advice me to go for the NEC 2490 or the Planar PX2611W. It would be nice to know more details concerning differences between these two monitors, especially how often Planars have bad pixels or other flaws.
How are the NEC/Planar for your eyes..do your eyes start hurting after a while or is it soft for the eyes?

Wow..never thought I’d be able to type that much about this. I’ve done pretty well typing this much about different monitors because a couple of days I really knew nothing about this :)
I'll update this when I know the exact shipping costs and warranty details from the Ebay vendor.
 
The biggest potential gotcha with the planar is that it's wide gamut which means that unless you're using something like photoshop all your colors are going to be different than what the creator intended. IIRC it's the same panel as the NEC2690.

The apple 23" is an old design it's panel is end of life and significantly poorer than the competition as a result. Also it only has a single input port.
 
I need a screen that offers full hd support and has a good image quality. I don’t want ghosting, bad viewing angles or other issues like that.
Click to expand...
1. Buy a monitor only from trusted sellers with a good return policy. From your country or from EU if you live in EU.
2. What you described is called reference all-round monitors. There are only two of them in the market now - NEC 2490/2690. They will be three when 3090 comes up. Well behind them but closer than others is the Dell 3008 - it does not support Full HD over HDMI (overscan/cropping) but has two more DVIs that probably will support, not tested yet.
The NEC 2690 is a monitor #1 in the market so far. The only thing it has in common with the Planar is that they both have 26" IPS-type panel. Although they are both IPS, they are different and look different.
In short, NECs have unique features unlike any other monitor.
The Planar is a pale shadow of the NEC.
Have a look at this review to get a lot of detailed information to think about.
If you are ready to step down to the Planar, the LG 2600 (IPS version, not TN version) may be a choice.
 
DanNeely said:
The biggest potential gotcha with the planar is that it's wide gamut which means that unless you're using something like photoshop all your colors are going to be different than what the creator intended. IIRC it's the same panel as the NEC2690.
Click to expand...
Can't I just calibrate it so that it just looks normal?
I'll almost never use photoshop so a wide gamut isn't that interesting for me, though I think I wouldn't mind all that much.
Good thing about planar is low input lag, nec panel, price, ebay, .. though I don't yet know much about the various issues these can have.
 
albovin said:
1. Buy a monitor only from trusted sellers with a good return policy. From your country or from EU if you live in EU.
Click to expand...
Also when buying anything outside EU there are customs and VAT so cheap might not be cheap in the end.


plaus said:
Can't I just calibrate it so that it just looks normal?
I'll almost never use photoshop so a wide gamut isn't that interesting for me.
Click to expand...
Most wide gamut monitors have sRGB-mode which tries to emulate sRGB colours but often they seem to work rather poorly in standard consumer monitors (like Dell 2408) and limit availability of other adjustments like brightness/contrast. I would expect professional level monitors to have much better working sRGB modes.
If everything would be colour managed monitor's wider gamut wouldn't matter but M$ decided that sRGB is enough for everyone so here we are now.

Here's some monitor reviews/recommendations.
http://www.proadviser.de/en/monitore/buyers-guide/graphic24.html
 
DanNeely said:
The apple 23" is an old design it's panel is end of life and significantly poorer than the competition as a result. Also it only has a single input port.
Click to expand...

Also no HDCP on all current Apple displays.
 
I have the same situation as you but I'm waiting for first reviews of new LG S-IPS W2600HP-BF. It has the newest S-IPS and may be superb :D
 
E.T said:
I would expect professional level monitors to have much better working sRGB modes.
Click to expand...

This is the point that has been aggravating me for months now as I've been lurking here and in other forums trying to figure out which 1920x1200 monitor to buy. I have read well-reasoned arguments both for and against wide-gamut displays for users like me who aren't doing complicated graphics production work-flows for print publishing.

I can't see the NEC in person. And I suspect that the default sRGB is good enough. And I'm not sure how long it's going to take before my OS/apps support color management -- I prefer Linux for web, music, movies, photos.

But, is it worth the extra ~$500? I'm not sure I trust my emotions on this one. I can't help but wonder if I'd be better off buying a $400 Westinghouse and using the saved money to buy hard drives.

I'm just venting here...
 
Leanier said:
I have the same situation as you but I'm waiting for first reviews of new LG S-IPS W2600HP-BF. It has the newest S-IPS and may be superb :D
Click to expand...
Yeah..I'm going to wait a bit as well. It sounds promising..let's hope it is a very good screen. It's around 700€ - I'd definitely pay that much for a decent screen.
 
Wow so that means that the new Samsung would be SUPER expensive in US dollars... like 1300 bux? I'm in the market for monitors to go with my new computer and I want dual screens... but I'm only willing to pay up to 2000 for them collectively. Any suggestions? I definitely DO NOT WANT TN panel monitors... I'd really like S-IPS or S-PVA (If I had too)...
I'm looking for a 24incher with S-IPS or S-PVA and has glossy coat... are there ANY out there?
 
If you can't get the NEC 2490 and don't mind the wider gamut, then get the NEC 2690. The only difference between the two is the panel. Everything else is exactly the same.

The Planar PX2611W is not almost the same as the NEC 2690. The only thing they have in common is the panel. The NEC 2690 has much better contrast viewing angles due to the A-TW polarizer, more accurate colors with much better color control, a more adjustable stand, and none of the quirks that the Planar has like banding at 1080p and not being able to set the bars to black. If you're considering the Planar, the DoubleSight DS-263N is almost the same monitor except with two DVI ports instead of one and is $200 cheaper, but I don't think it's available in Europe.

People often put down the 23" Apple Cinema Display due to its age and lack of features, but in terms of quality, it's comparable to the Planar and DoubleSight monitors. The amount of lag is exactly the same. The contrast is about the same, if not better on the Apple. The response time is only slightly worse on the Apple, but still acceptable for most people. The Apple is much closer to sRGB and can go down much lower in brightness, which makes it better for everyday use. The biggest problem is lack of features. It doesn't have HDCP support or a scaler, so you can't use it with a PS3. Other than that, it's not a bad monitor at all.

If you're considering an EIZO monitor, the S2411W is basically the same as the HD2441W except without the HDMI features, which aren't really needed. It supports 1080p and can be used with a PS3 using an HDMI-DVI cable. It only has about 5-10 ms more lag than the NEC monitors, but the response times are actually much better. The contrast is also much better than the Planar, DoubleSight, and Apple monitors. Most of the complaints I had with the HD2441W were due to the S-PVA panel, but if you're going to get a monitor with an S-PVA panel, the EIZO monitors are among the best. The only problem is they cost so much for having S-PVA panels, which is why I feel they aren't worth the price.

My recommendation is to get a monitor that's available in Europe, so if you need to return it or get it replaced, it won't be as much of a hassle. The NEC 2690 would be my top choice. The NEC 2490 might be worth the hassle to get, but the Planar and DoubleSight monitors definitely are not. Since the Planar and DoubleSight monitors aren't available in Europe, and the Apple can't be used with the PS3, my second choice would be the EIZO S2411W. I don't really like S-PVA panels, but if you're going to get one, you might as well get the best.
 
Bleh..I still don't know which screen I want. I don't think I want to pay 1250€ for the NEC2690.
Right now I'm just going to wait for some reviews of that new W2600HP. If that screen is good I'm definitely going to buy that one.
 
I'm dealing with the same issue, being from Europe as well. I'm still hesitating to order the Dell 2408WFP, as it seems you can easily return the screen if it doesn't work like you expected.

But in the mean time, I found a site having the LG W2600HP-BF available for pre-order in the Netherlands. It's price is 588,20€ (normally 692€ according to that site), which is very tempting...

The url (I don't know if it's allowed though) :
Long link
 
Oh..thanks for the link. That's a great price indeed. I don't really dare to pre-order but I will order the LG W2600HP-BF if it's a good screen. Let's hope so!
 
Thanks for referring to the Lacie. I'm just going to wait for the new LG and for some more reviews of that Lacie.
 
Plaus, just a question, but did you take the LG L245WP/L246WP and/or the Benq FP241 into consideration ? If so, I'm curious why they didn't make it into this topic :)
My 17" CRT decided to surrender after 7 years of hard labour, I'm temporarily using my LCD TV as a tv monitor; but that's not the best of ideas since the image quality is nothing compared to my failing brilliance monitor :(
 
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