Conclusion and Awards
Three years ago, I purchased my first 24" LCD, the Dell 2405FPW. It was on sale, so I got it at an absolute steal: only $1000! (Regular price was $1350 at the time.) Three years later, you can now find even better LCDs for roughly half that price. That's one of the great benefits of LCD technology over CRTs: prices may have started out higher, but they are dropping rapidly into much more affordable ranges. 21/22" CRTs seemed to bottom out at around $500 for years before they finally started to disappear altogether. There are still users that prefer the CRT experience, but after my upgrade three years ago I have never looked back.
Our roundup today examined five recent LCD introductions from different companies. Combine that with the 24" LCDs we've reviewed previously and we now have a good basis for ranking the current LCDs. If you're looking for a one-size-fits-all solution, unfortunately we cannot come up with a single recommendation. The 24" LCD market has split into two segments. On the one hand, we have S-PVA panels that provide great colors and viewing angles but struggle with input lag, and on the other hand we have TN panels that may not offer the most accurate colors but they have no discernible input lag (at least when compared to other LCDs). We are not bothered by input lag, but competitive gamers depend on every potential advantage they can get, so 20 or 40 ms can and will make a difference. We will therefore select what we feel is the best LCD for each of these markets.
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This is not to say that other LCD options are not worth considering. All of the 24" LCDs we've reviewed so far are at worst decent quality, and several can easily compete with our Editors' Choice recipients. The LaCie 324 for example is a professional monitor at a professional price; it's not something we would recommend for casual users, but imaging professionals and users in the desktop publishing industry might be swayed by its feature set. Depending on pricing, some of the other LCDs might become more or less interesting.
Unfortunately, we're still missing our "one ring to rule them all". [Ed: …and in the dorkness bind them?] What we'd really like to see is a single LCD that can combine the best aspects of the Dell 2408WFP with low input lag, and it might be interesting to see a glossy S-PVA panel as an option from one of the manufacturers. A lot of us still prefer matte finishes, but at least one of the editors has been swayed to the dark side by the Gateway FHD2400. If there is an inherent trait of S-PVA panels that causes input lag, another alternative we would be very interested in seeing is a 24" S-IPS panel. Considering our 30" HP LP3065 uses an S-IPS panel and matches the TN panels in input lag, that could be the perfect solution. We're sure there are plenty of users out there that would even pay extra money for such an LCD.
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Bolas - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
Anand,Any chance of a 30" monitor roundup for those of us wanting to buy an extreme HD monitor to go along with the new high end gaming computer we're buying around Christmas time?
I'm not sure which is best between the stuff currently on the market (or things coming out in the near future, say by Christmas). I've heard of:
Dell 3007WFP
Dell 3008WFP
HP LP3065
Gateway XHD3000
Samsung Synchmaster 305T
Apple Cinema 30"
Am I missing any 30" monitors currently available? Which is the best, regardless of price? Which is the best in terms of bang-for-the-buck? Which is "future-proof", with good connectivity? I plan to use it to play Starcraft II and Warcraft III and maybe some Everqeust.
I just turned 40, so as part of my mid-life crisis, I'm buying a high end gaming computer, probably a CyberPower Black Mamba or a Digital Storm of some kind, depending on how the stock market does.
Basically an overclocked Core i7 with three-way or quad SLI. My computer budget is $4000 to $6000, not including monitor price, and I can get a nicely configured Cyberpower for about $5400 last I checked. But what to use to display all that computer goodness? I figure to spend $1000 to $2000 on a 30" monitor, but which one?!?
Thanks!
-Bolas
szore - Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - link
I bought this for about $269 free tax and shipping and I love it for gaming.jpp - Monday, September 15, 2008 - link
Hi,First of all a big thank you for these reviews - they are top notch.
I'm currently trying to decise between the Samsung and the Dell. I'm not into gaming, so latency doesn't bother me. Nor for that matter do the plethora of inputs both provide - I'll just be using with the one DVI input at native resolution.
Living in PAL country, I would be delighted if either of these monitors do 50Hz FR. I doubt it very much, but thought it worth asking. I know that my large Samsung 405T wasn't specified at 50Hz, but it is able to do it natively nevertheless which makes for judder free PAL DVD and FTA TV program watching on the screen.
So, apart from this probably undefined/untested aspect, which would be the better choice, given as I say that I am not interested in gaming?
I bring this comparison up here as this review does not list the Samsung in its comparison table. The Dell was the editor's choice, but the Samsung was reviewed after this 24in line up, so I was wondering if it could be included somewhere in the ranking?
Thansk again for the tremendous effort that goes into the testing and reporting.
Phil.
jpp - Monday, September 15, 2008 - link
As I can't edit my previous post, just a correction wrt the timing of the 2 reviews.The Samsung review was done before the 24in panel review, yet it's not listed in this review. That seems a bit odd and I was wondering why that is the case?
billingsgate - Monday, May 26, 2008 - link
I can't find reviews anywhere of Eizo LCD monitors. Eizo has a great reputation, but that's all I seem to be able to go on. A salesman gave me a really good pitch for the Eizo FlexScan S2401W. It's a Samsung TN panel (he claims), but somehow being an Eizo it's much better for color quality than any Samsung in the price range. It seems to be a good candidate for balancing accurate color and minimum input lag. But I can't be sure, since I can't test it in the shop for any of those things, plus the shops where I live are all little cubby holes in computer centers, with minimum choice in each shop, so it's impossible to do any side-by-side comparisons between Eizo, Samsung, NEC, etc., since they're never together in the same place.Any thoughts on Eizo's (relatively) budget line of FlexScans?
silvajp - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - link
Today I bought a Samsung 2693HM for $600 - $50 rebate and I am blown away. It looks great - very bright and vibrant. I am wondering if it has the same low input lag as the 2493HM. The resolution is 1920x1200 so at 25.5" it's got bigger pixels which is just fine for my poor tired eyes.billingsgate - Thursday, May 15, 2008 - link
Can someone help me with a recommendation? After reading billions of reviews of monitors I am confused as hell? is there a "best compromise" LCD monitor for both color accuracy and least lag time?I am not a gamer. I am an animation professional, and I heavily use Wacom tablets for drawing, loose and freehand, with Photoshop, Flash, and various professional animation programs. I've always used a CRT monitor and never once have experienced any lag between my stylus movement and lines on screen. I do own a Compaq tablet PC, and when I draw on-screen, the lag is perceptible enough to make the drawing very unnatural and inhibited. I just can't draw freehand that way.
As my beloved, expensive flat screen Samsung CRT monitor is now dying after 7 years of heavy use, I'm in the market for an LCD. In my business I need both excellent color accuracy and zero or minimal lag time for stylus input. Where I live (Hong Kong) there isn't a single shop that would ever allow me to test such a setup, so it's a lottery for me. Plus, their in-store demonstrations for color "accuracy" are geared for Asian tastes, which is heavy HEAVY on oversaturated red (while westerners prefer oversaturated green).
After poring through all the reviews, particularly on this site, I can't even narrow down the choices to 4 or 5 candidates. The Dell 2408 looks amazing except for lag time. The Samsung XL20 (not widescreen, but I don't really care) looks great for color and no lag time, but it has a noisy fan (irritating!) and is a bit smaller than I want.
Can someone seriously help me to narrow the potential choices for something that has good or great color and minimal input lag? I won't ever use it for gaming or for TV or video viewing.
hjkelly - Thursday, May 15, 2008 - link
I'm in a similar spot - into editing photos and watching movies. I was almost set on the Dell 2408, but then I found out it has about four frames of lag, which wouldn't be fun for movies (or drawing with a Wacom tablet, I'm sure). I've finally settled on DoubleSight's DS-263N. If you want a quick summary, it's like an Apple Cinema display, but 26" and with a polarizer to get rid of the white haze at wider angles. It's also very fast, less than one frame's delay, I believe. It's around $700, but the catch is that it's hard to find in stock, so you'll have to be on your toes to get one. But isn't that just a sign of quality, really? =)JarredWalton - Friday, May 16, 2008 - link
Surely you know someone over there that can let you borrow an LCD to test out? Honestly, I don't think you'll experience problems with input lag - we're talking about 50ms or so relative to a CRT, so 1/20 of a second. What you've noticed on a tablet PC probably has a lot more to do with the lack of processing power and other differences. All you really need to do is find someone with an S-PVA 24" LCD and you can see if you notice lag. I can game fine on the 2408WFP - the lag is just barely perceptible at times, but not enough to cause me problems. But I'm not a competitive gamer.As for DoubleSight, their 26" LCD is about to be phased out apparently - I asked them for a review sample and they said it was at EOL. It may become even more difficult to find in stock shortly.
Anyway, I hear good things about a few MVA panels (that I haven't ever seen let alone tested), or if money isn't a serious concern just pick up something like the HP LP3065. For professional use, I have a hard time finding anything I would prefer to a nice S-IPS 30" LCD. And the 2560x1600 gaming resolution is nice as well.
billingsgate - Friday, May 16, 2008 - link
Actually, I don't know anyone with an LCD screen to borrow, other than my son's cheap one which is fine for gaming but not even close to being color accurate, so not exactly a good example. I can tell you that I tried a Wacom Cintiq tablet, which is essentially an LCD screen you can draw on. It was connected to a G5 Mac, so no lack of processing power. The lag on that was a fraction of a fraction of a second. But I kept finding my hand slowing down to let the line catch up to the stylus, which sucked all the spontaneity out of my drawing. In other words, for a "sensitive artist", even a small lag is noticeable. With the Cintiq I attribute it to the signal having to travel round trip on a USB connection. But I am now quite concerned about buying the wrong LCD and being stuck with it. This isn't the USA. Once you buy something and leave the shop, there is no such thing as returning it.So, to repeat my question: can you or someone help to recommend a shortlist of monitors that are both good to great for color accuracy, and minimal for input lag?