Hi, I currently have a Yakura 24" (1920x1200) VA panel monitor. I recently purchased a macbook pro because I am starting a digital media design course soon and needed a laptop. Since buying it I have realised how poor the quality of my 24" monitor is compared to the macbook. The whites are not even close to being as white and when I try to configure it there is no happy medium, it's either white with terrible black levels and contrast, or dark with poor white levels. Anyway, I want to get a new monitor because I'm going to be working between my macbook and desktop and need to have the colours to match one another as closely as possible. I am after a 24" monitor with good colour accuracy but not insanely expensive if possible. I will game on it now and then, but it's not a priority. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.
seen a few review for this and it seems preety good thinking of getting one my self for christmas http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/24-D...n-LCD-Monitor-1920x1080-500001-250-cd-m-50-ms
Brodel, What I am about to say is just for your knowledge: If you want color accuracy you can't go with TN panel LCD's. As while they are great for laptops due to their reduce power consumption, espetially LED versions, they are terrible for actually drawing. What to look for? Well it's well over you budget, but perhaps you can keep an eye on it: IPS or PVA panels. Essentially, TN panels are only 6-bit colors per channel (the standard and what your video card outputs is 8-bit per channel, and uses a cheap CFL or white LED back light, which neither offer a nice white color. White LED's are not white, they are bluish'white, OR warm white. Today, there is no true white LED's. But what we have is RGB LED's which uses Red, green and blue very tiny LEDs, scatter everywhere on the back of the screen, very close together, providing your with a true white which can be adjusted. Of course RGB LED, is very expensive. 6-bit panel can produce 262,144 colors, and use a temperol dithering technique to produce the missing colors to reach 8-bit colors (16,777,216 colors). This means it takes 2 colors it can produce, and switch between them at a fast rate up to the speed of the mention response time, in the vein hope to trick your eyes. Sadly, your brain processing power, and your eyes (which can see several billion of colors), sees that, hence why you notice that the colors are wrong. This nice little sheet I made shows several models that are popular today, where most of them are IPS panels (good PVA panels are usually more expensive, and out of budget for most people here). http://www.helpweaver.com/monitor/monitor comparison.htm Now the above sheet, is not showing which is the best screen, you have to check reviews for that, some are better in some aspect as others. I am NOT SUGGESTING to get any of them (they out of your budget), but just for you to locate things and have an idea of prices. Of course, over time, the prices will drop with newer models... but we talk of today. A real professional, requires several important features out of a monitor (other then then color accuracy): - Fully adjustable stand for the best of comfort in using the computer at a long term. - Near or perfect backlight spreading (very very expensive monitors), to ensure that the green (let's say) that you see in the center of the screen is exactly the same as if you put it on any edge of the screen. - Full matte. This means, 0 glossy. Glossy screens prevent one form seeing colors and his work correctly and provides distraction (something that you may or will notice with your Mac), not even the frame can be glossy as it reflects everything and distracts. I invite you to read this very interesting article which talks about all LCD technologies: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/content/panel_technologies_content.htm They all have their up's and down's. So it's very important to know what to pick, later on so it fits your needs best. Dell and HP monitors are great for the price. Why? Because they are actually LG, Samsung, or other brands, just with the Dell, HP, etc. logo instead (and enclosure), so you save quiet a bit of money. Of course, you won't see real professional grade monitors from these OEM, as they are far too expensive (1-2 or even 3 k U.S/Canadian for a 22-24inch) For instance, the Dell U2410 uses a LG panel. Upon it's release, the LG version was almost 1000$ Canadian. Dell was selling it at 750$, and shortly always on special since or almost always, at 500$ Canadian. The exact same display for half the cost! You Mac Book Pro uses a TN panel, if you wonder. Now, back to topic, sadly, you are stuck with TN panel, as mentioned, with your budget. So, what does that mean? What I notice is that most TN panel always have a "prefer" colors, like one color it does every well, the rest not so much, but you can find here and there monitors that are better balanced, like your MacBook Pro display, or Bagman very good suggestion for your budget, in my opinion. If you want to see what a mid range IPS/PVA means compare to pretty good TN (at the time of filming) screens? Check this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw0acUxMaKo (watch in high quality, understand that your monitor prevents to see the best of the IPS panel demonstrated). Hopefully, this give you a good base to look for, the day you have a larger budget, or even when you start your career.
Thanks for such a lengthy and informative reply, I really appreciate it. The monitor I currently have is supposedly a PMVA panel, but if I'm completely honest it's worse than my very old 19" Dell. I'm not entirely sure what kind of panel that was but i noticed the difference pretty quickly especially in dark levels when gaming, I just chose to ignore it because of the size and price of the new screen. In theory, I could spend what I like on a monitor, it's just difficult to justify right now. I might be able to stretch to the HP ZR24W which seems to be the cheapest of the 24" in your chart, I'll just need to mull it over for a few days. It's pretty late here and I need to head to bed so will re-read your post in the morning but thanks again for all the info and advice. =)
regarding the Dell U2410, I was just looking at some on ebay and one of the listings quoted this... is that a known issue amongst users?
This was an issue with the early A00 revision. It was a problem that LG panel had. Based on Dell reaction, it looks like this is what LG said to them. Late A00, and revision A01 doesn't have the problem. If you are going with the U2410, A01 is what you need, as it fixes some software bugs that A00 has. A01 was released in December of last year. If you are interested in the U2410, to be honest I don't know if the other monitors has the same option, but this monitor features a "Mac" mode, where the Gamma is corrected to fix Mac special gamma specification, so that the monitor works and looks perfect under it, so that your are not tied to Apple monitors. I don't know if this has changed in the latest Mac OS, where they decided to follow the standard or not. In any case, I am sure it's a nice option to have. I'll doubt, however, that the other Dell monitors don't have this option.
Thanks again. Mac Mode sounds pretty appealing as I'd be connecting my mac to it a lot. More reasons to justify an expensive purchase, damn it. lol.
If you get this screen, be sure to CALL to order, as you can negotiate a nice price, making the monitor a better deal.
