Displays Which budget LCD monitor? upto £150

One of my friends is looking out for a new monitor, so I've said I might sell my existing LCD to him - it's an Hitachi CML174SX 17"... I suggested I could sell it for £60 to him, as it'd be good for his low-end system (he just does Office stuff on it, and he's currently running a crappy 19" crt that's really out of focus). I then I can spend a few quid going to a 19" widescreen.

I spend all my time playing games - so whatever I go to has to do a better job than my current Hitachi. And I'm skint. So that £150 is the highest price I'm willing to go to, and would prefer less if possible!

I play DOD:Source, TF2, and looking forward to Crysis and COD4, and so good graduation of dark colours (shadows) is really my only image quality consideration.
My pc spec is: A64 3700 / Ati x1950 pro / 2gb, so the 1440x900 res is a good fit for my system.

What would you suggest?

I like the look of this one:

Samsung SM-920NW 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black
link

The only problem is no-one seems to have reviewed it!
But the price is good (£123)

 

There are plenty of even larger LCD's available at around £150... i.e:

20" LG L204WT - £125.66 / £147.65
20" Iiyama ProLite PLE2001WSV-B1 - £114.50 / £134.54 (no DVI!)

Personally however... I'd happily up my budget to £170 - which would then get me a 20" Samsung 206BW...


Read this review of it (dated June 2007) to see why I think it's worth the extra £20

 

The 206 is the screen I'd most like BUT... that means finding £110 to upgrade, plus any of the larger screens means a jump in res from 1440x900 to 1600x1050, which is an extra 468,000 pixels my graphics card has to push. So I might get more screen real-estate, but I'll have to suffer lower framerates too.
I want to stick with 19", it's still a nice jump from my current screen.

 

I've been using one of these for just under a year now and cannot fault it for desktop/browsing, gaming and watching tv/films. I was impressed with it when i bought it (it was £130 then) and still am today.

 

I've been using one on my 2nd PC for a similar length of time, can't really fault it at all.

 

I've been recommended the Samsung 931BW on another forum (ocuk), it's the baby brother to the 206, same looks, but 19". It *is* a bit pricey though ... £142

The Hanns monitor obviously has price on it's side - I'm glad to hear it's a decent screen, and a realistic option. £30 is important when you're skint... but I may be tempted by the Samsung because it *is* such a nice screen.

 

I'm running the Samsung 206BW for my main gaming screen and love it. I have a low cost Hanns-G 19" for my second desk pc and there is a visible difference besides the screen resolution. The Hanns-G suits me as a second monitor fine. The only thing I don't like is lack of a screen tilt function on the stand. But that is because of the low price I'm sure.

 

i got my acer 22 inch wide screen from pc word for 170 .. i know its a tad over what you wanted to spend , but i love it .. much better than my old 19 crt

 

and being 'PC world' you paid over the top for it meaning are friend here could pick the same screen up for a great deal online! i reckon ~£140-50

 

I went into Staples and PC World to see what they had to offer.

Staples had an HP (1907?) for £140, and a Belinea for £120.
I'd seen the HP screen in Comet, and it's very nice looking. But the glossy screen surface reflects a *lot*. Too distracting for me - sitting next to a window trying to spot enemies lurking in shadows would be toooooo difficult. It does make the image look very nice though... excepting the reflections.

Next to it, the Belinea looked a bit 'meh'. But the screen was the standard TFT type - very matte, no reflections. The screen image looked ok (not exciting, but acceptable), the only thing letting it down was the crappy looking plastic of the case, and the rather ugly buttons. Not something I'm really worried about, but I did notice that.

Meanwhile PC World... hmmm ... lots of monitors but GAWD, THE PRICES! A Sammy 932 (the 'Pebble' version of the 931?) was £250!!! The cheapest was an Acer, or something similar, at £140, and almost all the monitors were running a video feed which made every screen look awful! Really blurry low-res promo video. Ughh.

The only good news from seeing their collection was:

1) I liked the image quality of the Samsung
2) I'm happy to go with 19" rather than 20" or 21". Sure the extra size is noticeable for each step, but 19" still looks a good improvement over what I have.

I'm now waiting to hear if a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend can get me a good deal on a monitor... I might be able to get the Sammy for a very reasonable price.. so <fingers crossed>

In the meantime please keep your suggestions and comments coming - they're much appreciated - thankyou!


edit: blimey! the staples website has the Belinea for £100 inc vat and next day delivery! That's stonking value!

 

was that 931 price inc. vat?, i see £170 on their site, i got one a few months ago (£150 at komplett) and would recommend it, much better than my 2 year old samsung 19" (non widescreen) i was using

 

This 19" Hannspree "New York Multimedia" LCD is just £89.95 / £105.69

Not bad specs either for the price: DVI + VGA, 1440 x 900, 5ms, 700:1, 300 cd/m2

I personally think the inclusion of the speakers spoil the looks (they make the lower part of the bezel far too thick for my liking), but I suppose I could live with it if I was on a limited budget.

Gotta laugh at their description of it though:

 

i still havent seen any about for less than what i payed ... i dont usually use pc world as i know there a con . try pc world again and ask for the part number its a acer al2202w

 

dam that is a rare screen, only PC world sell it. no where online has it, so i guess the cheapest it is to be had for is £170 so far....

 

The Sammy 931BW is £149 at Comet (!) and Komplett


£170 is outside my budget... I'd *much* prefer a screen for £100-£120. The Sammy remains tempting (I'll be stuck with this screen for 2-3 years I guess), but £150 remains the most I can spend.

 

getting a good screen for your money is the best bet, even if it means cutting screen size. there comes a point where '....is only another £20' becomes too much when its been hard to get the money together.

i have found that my 17in TFT (not WS) is actually better than a wide screen 19in, as a 19in WS is shorter so you dont benefit from one at all unless gaming in WS is a must and watching DVD's in WS aswell.


soon to get another screen, and iv been looking for along time!

 

I've also found the Samsung 940BW. It's the plain silver surround, and a *slightly* slower panel than in the 931, but otherwise seems to be an excellent screen - it's received good reviews. And it's available from £125 + delivery ... I'm still waiting for the 'friend-of-a...' to come through with a figure for me...

So I've definitely got some good options now

(all prices inc delivery & vat)

£100 Belinea 1925S1W Staples.co.uk
£120 Asus VW193S Scan.co.uk
£123 Hanns-G HW191D MicroWarehouse.co.uk
£135 Samsung SM940BW LaptopsDirect.co.uk
£149 Samsung SM931BW Komplett.co.uk

got to say the Belinea is just so cheap that it's very tempting, if the friend doesn't get a good quote

 

Why not look at Viewsonic?
Viewsonic-£145.10, from Scan (Remember you get free delivery with scan, just post more in the forums)
I like the look of Asus too.
Asus-£119.84, from Scan

You could also look into some dells, but when i had a quick look, they were 20" and up, but im sure they have 19" screens somewere.

Hope this helps.
Sam

 

thanks, I've added the Asus to the list (I'll go and look for some reviews now)... the Viewsonic is too close to the Sammy in price, and doesn't look as good, so I'm not so keen on that.

The Hanns 'New York' has had some nice reviews, but I'm not sure I could cope with the looks - they're very ... different

 

I had another newsletter in my inbox this morning, with a 22" HannsG HG216DP for just £129.95 / £152.69.

Specs are pretty decent too: 1680 x 1050, 1000:1, 300 cd/m², 5ms, HDMI/VGA, Kensington lock slot