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When you come to a store with LCD monitors, the first thing you see is lots and lots of different nice-looking LCD monitors. Modern LCD-screens are made in various designs — from high-tech to classic. But you will definitely not find it hard to choose a color, as there are not many options — just black or silver, or combination of these colors. Silver and black have become classic for equipment. Besides the look, there are also many technical features, which make a difference in the market of LCD monitors. Monitors differ in prices so much, first of all because of the quality, warranty and support. Classes also play an important role in the pricing strategies of producers. The higher the class of a monitor is, the better colors and sharper image it will display.
One of the most important issues, when buying an LCD monitor is the size, especially now, when it became possible to use an LCD TV as a monitor. So which one to choose, 17", 19", 20" or even 24"? Or get a TV-size monitor from 26" up to 65". In this case you can know for sure, that the bigger monitor you get, the better will be your experience from watching movies and playing games on it. But at this moment, we come to the issue of placement. If you are going to put an LCD-monitor on your desk, you have to make sure it fits and leaves enough open space for other devices, thus you might not be able to get the biggest monitor. The quality of picture is not only affected by the size of your LCD monitor, but also by your video card. So if your video card is weak, then you should not buy a big screen, as the videos will look like a slideshow.
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Each monitor will have a number of qualities, according to which you can compare monitors, and find the right one for you. The first thing to consider is the native monitor resolution, which is the number of pixels in a monitor. It is usually indicated in product description of any monitor. If you use native resolution, the quality of picture will be perfect, and the image will not get blurred.
It is also quite hard to decide, whether to choose a wide-screen or a square monitor. With a widescreen monitor you will be able to enjoy brand new widescreen movies without seeing the annoying black bars on top and bottom of the image. People, who mostly work with multimedia, use widescreen monitors. Square monitor is considered better for use in an office, which is much more convenient for work with majority of Microsoft office programs. As for gamers, they should be aware, that many of the older games will not go well on the new widescreen monitors and will be stretched. Some newer versions of widescreen LCD monitors have a very interesting feature, which completely eliminates all disadvantages of widescreen monitors, compared to the squared screens. Some of the new widescreen monitors have the feature of rotation, which allows rotating monitor by 90 degrees and this way show Microsoft Word documents at their natural size, just like on paper.
When choosing between digital and analog (DVI and VGA), rely on your video card. Whichever format is supported by your video card should be chosen by you, when buying a monitor. The cheaper monitors are usually those with VGA connectors, but it is possible to find combined (for both VGA and DVI formats) versions at a medium price. DVI format is gaining very strong positions in the market right now, thus, it’s smarter to upgrade video card to DVI, in our opinion.
The cheaper options of LCD monitors are also defined by the contrast ratio. Contrast ratio of an LCD monitor is the way the colors are displayed on it. When contrast ratio is high (700:1), you can be sure that black is actually black, no dark grey, like with monitors, having lower contrast ratio (400:1). Some monitors claim to have dynamic contrast ratio, which is a sign of cheating customers. Such kind of contrast works poorly and can only fool your eye. You will see the high contrast ratios in the product description, but it will not be the actual contrast ratio you will get, when watching a movie on this monitor.
A response rate is another highlight, especially for gamers. When the LCD monitors were invented, they didn’t become very popular because of the blurring effect (as the response rate was around 24ms). Modern monitors have 8ms response rate or better, which means that all motions on such monitors appear clear and natural. The best monitors for gaming will have response rate at the level of 2 to 3ms.
Viewing angle can also help you define the quality of a monitor. Viewing angle means the maximum angle, at which a monitor can be viewed, showing proper visual performance. You might have already noticed, that with some cheaper monitors, it is impossible to view them anyway, but sitting right in front of them at the right angle. Otherwise, the image on the screen becomes darker and colors may change.
A common problem for LCD monitors is damaged pixels. In some cases, monitors come with a few pixels, which do not light up or show the same color all the time. It is considered, that premium brands face the problem of damaged pixels less often because of their quality control. But to some extent, this problem is common for all LCD-screens manufacturers (1-2% of LCD monitors have a small number of damaged pixels). Therefore, before purchasing an LCD-screen, check with the producer, what number of dead and damaged pixels is a subject to replacement by warranty.
Additional features also can influence the picture quality and the experience from watching a movie on an LCD-screen. The most popular feature now is backlighting, which gives improved contrast and wider range of colors. Anyhow, choosing the right LCD monitor is a very personal thing. The only advice we can give, is that in some cases it is better to wait a little more time and to save additional $50 and purchase a better version, than to buy a cheaper LCD monitor and save on your health and experience.
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