20 inch widescreen monitors for photos

[noah]

i'm in the market for a 20 inch widescreen monitor and i need a little help please. i want to be able to play games as well as edit my pics but with more emphasis on the photos and i want a nice simple stylish one.

shortlist:
apple 20 inch cinema - waaaay overpriced
NEC £404 here - very nice looking and well reviewed but still expensive
acer £327 here - not a bad looker, appears to be well specced
viewsonic £293 here - good reviews. not so nice looking, ugly stand

thanks

[Noni]

Hi there,

I have a Viewsonic VX2025 and the looks are nice in actual person.

Some pics-





I can fully reccomend it, apart from some little issues-

Backlight bleed, it has it, but It has not annoyed me yet. Not something I worry about.

The screen also has a sparkly effect from the actual screen surface, hard to explain, its hit or miss with some people but I dont really mind.

The 20inch aspect is nice but a 20inch normal (4:3) IS BIGGER,

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?2...221f39ab2eb920

You might want to read this guys posts-

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=13

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...1&postcount=17

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...3&postcount=20

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=27

And the hole thread- http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....6&page=1&pp=20

I got my widescreen for cheap so therefore I would or couldnt have picked the 4:3 aspect anyway. Its also great for multitasking, I can hold 2x browser windows comfortablly.

Have a read here-

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...a9a1981f832afe

Thanks.

[Yohji]

I've got a Dell 2005FPW, and it's fantastic for Photoshopping with the widescreen res.

[dangel]

I went for a Dell 20" 4:3 monitor - i did look at the widescreen but as someone has said it's actually smaller in real terms - a 4:3 20" will do 1600x1200 which is much nicer than the 1680x1050(or so) that a 20" widescreen will do. Widescreen is only really practical at 24" or above IMHO. The dell I bought is a fantastic monitor in terms of flexibility and connectability as well as having really impressive colour reproduction (I have an iiyama 19" CRT next to it and everyone comments on how poor it looks by comparison).

[Yohji]

It's been perfectly practical for me, as I use photoshop a lot, also great for word, as you can have 2 pages next to each other.

[dangel]

It's been perfectly practical for me, as I use photoshop a lot, also great for word, as you can have 2 pages next to each other.

...same here you only gain 80 pixels in the horizontal going widescreen - it's no enought to make much difference

[noah]

4:3 screens seems to be more expensive than 16:10 screen where i've looked?

noni- i am very tempted by that viewsonic, the reviews are great and apart from the stand it looks good.

i'm a little worried about backlight bleed from the dells tbh.

looking back at the benq ones they are only £269, tempting...

[noah]

another choice here http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=322266

they qoute it at 16.7m colours but other say 16.2m colours, hmmmnnn...

[dangel]

i'm a little worried about backlight bleed from the dells tbh.

Had two now both have no bleed.. 3 year warranty in any case.

[davidstone28]

Noni - if you have time, could you do me a favour?

Could you try out a few divx/avi 4:3 files using BSPlayer or VLC player and see what happens when you select "play in full" screen. I'm presuming that it will stretch to fit, with loss of aspect ratio.

Does resizing the video window cure the problem?

Thanks

[jamena]

I think you'll find some backlight bleed on just about any TFT...how bad it is depends largely on how often you sit and look at a black (or flat-coloured dark) screen I think! I've got a vx2025, and I rather like the stand! Looks very slick I can see the backlight bleed when XP boots up and I notice it sometimes on my largely black background, but in games etc I don't notice it at all. It's got good options for colour input including the usual 3 colours, sRGB, and user-settings. Seems pretty good to me!


p.s. I bought it from Scan for around £284 with free delivery courtesy of hexus

[noah]

yeah that viewsonic has a very good panel in it with supposedly excellent colour reproduction so i am tempted. but the the samsung for £270 is very nice and simple, but no reviews seems to exist.

thanks for the pics and input all

[jamena]

what you could always do if you decide (within the 7 or 14 day period, whatever the shop you buy from states) you don't like the one you choose is to send it back again for a full refund. It'll cost you postage (maybe £20?) but at least you have the option.

[Noni]

The Viewsonic VX2025 has a P-MVA panel, it is a good all rounder and is better than a TN film.

It is not as fast (ms) as a TN film but has better colour reproduction.

The Dells use S-IPS panel which has much better viewing angles and is used mainly for proffesional work. It is (I think) the best panel (The expensive NEC uses this).

The difference between a S-IPS and P-MVA panel is debatable.

According to this http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ the Samsung 204B, not the 205B has a TN film panel.

The samsung looks good though, but I would try out the Viewsonic coupled with Scans excellent service.

Hope I was of some help.

[noah]

you've been a great help mate, thankyou

looks like it's the samsung or viewsonic i think.

[whoatethepies]

I'm looking to get a similar monitor but came to the conclusion it's better to wait a month or two until HD-ready monitors become avaliable. There is a Dell with this avaliable, but for the most part they aren't fully compatible. Seeing as it's likely to be a big thing, its probably worth waiting, as how often to you change as monitor...?