Help me choose lcd for coding / readability

S

samssf

n00b
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
33
Hi all!

I've been researching for quite awhile trying to determine the best LCD for the money that has the highest amount of true contrast, which I'm assuming will give the best readability.

I currently use a Samsung 225BW, and it's a good monitor but I don't believe it has the contrast ratio of many new models. Of course, advertised contrast ratios are pretty much never accurate and there's not a standard for measurement.

I'd appreciate anyone sharing a resource where can I see reputable LCD specs (I know of xbit labs but thats it)... or anyone who's recently bought a screen for coding and has seen an improvement in readability.

I'm also not sure on 22" vs 24", or on resolutions... I'm afraid getting a 1920 x 1200 would render text too small, but not sure. I've been told by a Dr that my eyes are great, but I find myself currently leaning forward to like 14" away from my screen so that I can read comfortably.

Also I'm hoping to buy a regular 4:3 lcd to go alongside the widescreen.

Any tips / models / other info would be helpful!
 
LCD marketers cheat, fudge, inveigle and mislead the contrast ratio spec terribly. Contrast ratios over 1500:1 or so means dynamic contrast, in which they brighten the screen when it is displaying a dark image. This unfortunately means that as a metric for text readability, contrast ratio is nearly meaningless.

The Pixel Size Calculator will help you understand what different sizes and resolutions do to text size. A few common sizes:
22" 1680x1050 = 0.282mm pixel size
24" 1920x1200 = 0.269mm pixel size
25.5" 1920x1200 = 0.2865mm pixel size
27" 1920x1200 = 0.303mm pixel size
30" 2560x1600 = 0.251mm pixel size

From this we know that a 24" monitor will have smaller text than a 22" monitor, and that a 27" monitor has the largest text of all.

The Dell 2709W is a 27" monitor with an S-PVA panel for around $900. The cheap 27" monitors that go for $300 or $400 are TN panels with viewing angle problems that should be avoided. For 25.5" monitors, good ones are the Planar PX2611W and DoubleSight DS-265W, both of which are over $700. For 24" monitors, it's between the HP LP2475w and the Dell 2408WFP, with the HP being considered slightly better.

For 22" monitors the awesome value winner right now is the Dell 2209WA, which is an e-IPS that sells for $212 if you ask for it on the phone. It's not perfect, in that it may be a bit dark on the right edge, but it's still better than 22" TN panels that cost twice as much.
 
Thanks evilsofa.

Unfortunately, I've been reading all day and discovered that since I use Mac OSX, I pretty much can't get a wide gamut LCD. This is because of OSX handles gamma and color tables, and only works with sRGB... Vista now works ok with wide gamut displays, but not OSX =(. Getting a wide gamut display would cause reds and greens to appear very bright like neon, and cause my eyes to not be able to focus on text well. Some apps like photoshop and firefox 3 correct this, but apps that aren't color aware would be heavily affected.

So for now I'm like a display that is standard gamut, 1920 x 1200, either 22" or 24", good contrast ratio (as measured by a reputable review site), good sRGB color production, 100 VESA mount compatible, with 1:1 pixelmapping, and good response time and low lag.

Anyone know of a screen that fits those requirements?
 
What the heck? That's a weird limitation in OS X, that can't be right, what the heck do all the people that do professional graphics/printing work on OX do?
 
They use color-aware applications such as photoshop.

[edit] And none of the Apple displays are wide-gamut =)

It's just because of Colorsync... Apple needs to get with it and fix the problem... There are rumors of fixing the issue with 1.8 vs 2.2 gamma in 10.6 Snow Leopard, but this won't fix the issue with over-saturation on wide gamut displays due to the color tables, etc.

Here's a thread on Apple's boards... there are others scattered around as well. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8414545
 
Last edited:
The Anandtech LCD Thread lists clearly which monitors are standard or wide gamut.

There are only three or four 22" 1920x1200 monitors, and the only good one is the Lenovo 220X, which can be found for $375-$450, but it is wide gamut, which rules out 22" monitors entirely for you then.

The 24" LCD monitor market is such that almost all of them either have serious flaws or are wide gamut. The only perfect 24" standard gamut monitor is the NEC LCD2490WUXi, but it's pretty expensive at just over $1000. I have no idea about whether it fits the mount or pixelmapping criteria, but I think you'll not find anything closer to your requirement.
 
evilsofa said:
The 24" LCD monitor market is such that almost all of them either have serious flaws or are wide gamut. The only perfect 24" standard gamut monitor is the NEC LCD2490WUXi, but it's pretty expensive at just over $1000. I have no idea about whether it fits the mount or pixelmapping criteria, but I think you'll not find anything closer to your requirement.
Click to expand...

The 2490 has 1:1 pixel mapping and a standard 100mm VESA mount hole pattern.
 
Thanks a ton evilsofa... That pretty much simplifies things then... I'll either have to put up with a wide gamut display (in which case I would choose the hp lp2475w) or cough up the money for the NEC.

It's difficult for me to belief that everyone who buys a wide gamut display is putting up with intense color saturation problems on osx, but I haven't been able to find any information that says otherwise or that lists a solution to that problem.

I guess my 22" Samsung 225bw will do for now...
 
A friend of mine works in a newspaper writting articles and uses a Samsung 2693hm. I had the chance to see it 2 days ago and it was very good on text. The colors seemed a bit washed out but for text I can not imagine a better monitor (good size and comfortable reading).

For better colors and low budget the 24 inch NEC 24wmgx3 seems perfect but I think it's sold only in Europe (for ~400 euros).

Of course if you can go with LCD2490WUXi or it's big brother, then go ahead, I think of them as the best.
 
Bought a G2400WD! Not as good of color reproduction, but I'm hoping it will be better than my Samsung 225bw for text, and of course its a higher res and smaller dot pitch. But overall it should be better than my Samsung anyways, and I got the BenQ for $290 after shipping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top