04/2013 - VA panel options for £200?

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Devlin1991

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<Skip to the bottom if you simply need to eye up the specs I need>

I am upgrading from a Samsung 2232BW which has been dieing a slow death over the last few years, I can't distinguish the bottom and top 3 shades of the lagom test so I am retiring it.

I have am slightly nearsighted so I like to sit close to my monitor so I don't need to wear my glasses, for that reason I am looking for monitors in the smaller sizes, 23"-24". As long as the monitor is 1920x1080 I'm happy as the PPI should be good enough for me.

IPS panels seem to be a no-go for me as my eys are only about about 20" / 50cm from the screen surface and what I read IPS glow is quite visible at that distance especially on dark scenes.

VA panels seem to tick the right boxes for me, good color accuracy, stellar constrast, deep blacks. I do however game a fair bit so ghosting would be an issue. I've looked at the GW2450HM but it seems to have spotty ghosting issues for some people.

What is the best "gaming" VA panel that is around the £200 mark?, I can go over by about £30 if the monitor is good enough to warrant it.

Specifications:
22" - 24"
1920x1080 or 1920x1200
VA panel (for the blacks)
As little ghosting as possible
 
Keep in mind VAs have a 'viewing cone' so sitting too close to them will cause a bit of an issue too. Basically the center of the screen will have darker blacks and you will notice some gamma shift at he sides of the screen, if you are too close. I think this is more of a problem with AMVAs than older S-PVAs.

For gaming it may not matter, but for reading text, you may be better off with a larger monitor (ex 27" 1080p) as fonts will be bigger without having to adjust DPI.
 
I sit close-ish because if I go back about 8 inches text becomes too out of focus to read. At my current distance I can read perfect on my 22" 1680x1050 monitor. I'd rather have a higher PPI smaller monitor which I can sit close to. If the monitor is a 27" I would have to sit a bit father back to be able to see the edges of the screen comfortably which would then cause it to be blurry.
 
Devlin1991 said:
I sit close-ish because if I go back about 8 inches text becomes too out of focus to read. At my current distance I can read perfect on my 22" 1680x1050 monitor. I'd rather have a higher PPI smaller monitor which I can sit close to. If the monitor is a 27" I would have to sit a bit father back to be able to see the edges of the screen comfortably which would then cause it to be blurry.
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Yeah, but my point was that at 27", the fonts would be large enough that they may not be blurry to you, even at a farther distance. But it does depend on just how bad your eyesight is. If graphics are blurry too, then it sounds like it's time for glasses.

Increasing win dpi settings can get around this somewhat, as well as increasing webpage sizes in the browser.

I just wanted you to be aware that sitting super close to a VA may cause some issues with gamma shift.
 
I appreciate the info, I would say that my current panel is perfect for PPI vs distance. A 23" 1080p would probably be optimal. The gamma shift on VA's seems very minor compared to the top/bottom shift on TN's or IPS glow.

Still, anyone have first hand experience with VA panels. I am almost tempted to get a 120Hz TN instead as the negatives from TN seem to be far less than IPS or VA, I can deal with a bit of top/bottom shift if it means no glow or ghosting.
 
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Devlin1991 said:
I appreciate the info, I would say that my current panel is perfect for PPI vs distance. A 23" 1080p would probably be optimal. The gamma shift on VA's seems very minor compared to the top/bottom shift on TN's or IPS glow.
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Yeah, VA will be better than TNs as far as angles go, which I find terrible. I am just not sure how they are if sitting super close. I know in the 2450 thread, a number of people complained about angle problems or blacks being darker in the center of the panel only ... which leads me to believe they are viewing cone related issues.

As for a good model for you, VAs come in 22", 24" and 27" 1080p sizes (that I know of) -- anyone know if they even make 23" A-MVAs? Samsung, Phillips and BenQ would be the logical places to look.

BenQ has the 2450/2460, and Samsung has their 650 series. Samsung has been updating their models, so not sure what is available from them right now. Ghosting may be an issue on all of them, however, depending on how big a gamer you are. The only other alternative, if you specifically want 23", would be something like the Foris 2331, http://www.eizo.com/global/products/foris/fs2331/ -- but that is C-PVA, I believe, probably expensive and close to impossible to find.

Edit: And if motion is your main concern, look over the LightBoost threads in this forum. A TN w/lightboost will be the best as far as motion goes.
 
I was wanting a panel with better colors and contrast than a TN but with low enough ghosting that I wouldn't see hazing in games like Dark Souls which features a lot of bright objects on near black backgrounds. I'm not a major FPS twitch gamer by any means, image quality is far more important as I watch a lot of movies/tv shows on top of my coding and occasional gaming.
 
FS2331 availability and price depends heavily where you're looking. In my parts its dirt cheap (same price as GW2450HM) and quite available. .. Oh. Its CCFL. Never noticed that. Should be perfect for people who like oldschool VA and CCFL, then.
 
CrabJuice said:
FS2331 availability and price depends heavily where you're looking. In my parts its dirt cheap (same price as GW2450HM) and quite available. .. Oh. Its CCFL. Never noticed that. Should be perfect for people who like oldschool VA and CCFL, then.
Click to expand...

Eizos can be weird like that. In some parts of the world they are reasonably priced and easy to get, yet in the US they are a pain to find and quite often insanely expensive.

If it's the same price as the 2450, it'd make an excellent option, I think. I don't even like 16:9, but probably would pick one up myself to use as a secondary, if it was at 2450 prices in the US ... which is like $170 or so. CCFL + good blacks + no IPS glow + no S-PVA text issues are a nice combination. And since it's C-PVA, I believe it has a really light AG coating too.

Edit: Out of curiosity, I just looked up some prices and availability. In the US, through Amazon (3rd party), it is $380. In the UK, through amazon, it's £260 .... so almost in the OP's pricerange. I was sort of surprised they were available at all, as most places here don't carry it. No height adjustable stand though, and it's rather expensive for what you get.
 
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