paulr

Am thinking about getting a flat screen monitor.Seen them for about £250 used,£400 new.What should you look out for?Are they all similiar.Likely to come down in price?
Any advice appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Paul

AllanB

What size are you after. Definitely avoid some of the cheaper brands. We stopped selling one brand as it had failure rates of around 25% and it was cosyting us a fortune. Stick to quality brands such as Sony, LG, Mitsubishi/NEC and you won't go far wrong.

Some of the cheaper screens are not much cop for games as they are too slow !


AllanB

paulr

Would love a 17 inch but seem a bit expensive,the 15 inch ones seem a lot cheaper....although only had a quick look round.

Silent Monkey

Would have to second AllanB, get a decent brand.
Also pay attention to the optimal resolution of the screen, if you use any other resolution then the picture quality will deteriorate. no point getting one with an optimal resolution of 1024x768 (which most 15" ones are) and then running permanently at 800x600.

awd2000

Watch out for the different "duff pixel" policies of the various manufacturers; some have a replacement policy that states that a panel is OK with as many as 6 dark and 9 light failures!

Think how gutted you'd be if you shelled out £400+, found several annoying duff pixels right in the centre of your panel and then found that that was "within spec" when you returned it.

Phillips, Eizo and Sony all set low thresholds so you ought to be OK with them.

awd2000

P.S. Don't just check the display model as these are quite often chosen to make sure they are "zero duff"....ask to see a test pattern on the one that you will walk away with and make your own visual check.

AndiThompson

Micro Direct up here in Manchester have a nice looking LG one for £299, but what are Samsung monitors like, as they start at £250. Anyone got one?

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Have a look at the refurbished Sony units here: http://www.digiuk.com

Cheers,

Nick

Modrapheniac

I have a Dell 17inch Flat Screen for sale at £500.00 brand new in the box. Black and silver. E-Mail me if you're interested.

Cheers,

Darrell

paulr

Thanks guys for that.
Darrell i'll have a think about it,slightly above my price range.

Cheers
Paul.

babber

awd2000,

Your right!!! I bought a top of the range thinkpad with a 17 inch TFT (built in) From brand new there were 3 dark spots. Phoned the distributor and was told that is acceptable. Not by me it isn't!!! As I hadn't paid for it yet, I had a little leverage with them.

Eventually got them to replace the whole laptop, but it wasn't easy New one had faulty speakers, and IBMs solution was to return it, with a week (if I was lucky) turnaround. Don't these people realise that I can't be without my laptop for a week ??? Still broken now

Cheers Phill C

ChrisB

We've put about 20 of the SM151 15" TFTs into an office. Very nice monitors for the money and they have the portrait / landscape swivel feature.

DazV

EIZO do some extremely hi-quality ones. They look fantastic too - check out their website.

BarryK

Got a 15" CTX about three weekjs ago. Cost £280. It is excellent so far.

RichiW

I`m running a 19" Sony e400 Flat Screen Monitor.

Cost approx. £400 last year and worth every penny.

Rich.