20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I have a 15in tft monitor which I bought for £600 when they first came out!! I would like to replace it with a 20in widescreen monitor, I've been looking around for a while but don't really know what to go for. I'd be grateful if anyone could give me advice or recommend any models that are worth looking into... I don't really want to spend more than £250. Preferably I would like a black one but this Samsung looks a good price.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

how about 22 inch? its not dvi but I doubt it will suffer

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Wish I could get a 22in but it wouldn't fit on my desk lol. 20in Widescreen is the maximum I would get.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

good price on the samsung there then :)

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Do you think it will get any cheaper soon or should I just get it now?

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Well its £240 on ocuk so its cheap already

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

i actually changed my works 24" one for a 20 incher as it was giving me a headache, there is only so much you can look at before getting a headache caused by too much detail in the periferal vision.

i could have sat further back but that kind of defeted the point, in my opinion the 20" mark is the sweet spot before they get too big

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I'm picky about monitors and bought the asus 20.1 recently cost 340 though- it has everything except a tv tuner..

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I already have a TV Tuner on my pc so I don't need one on in the monitor. I'd prefer to get a monitor without speakers as I already have separate speakers.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Sorry for creating a new post, it won't let me edit my old one. I've just realised that the Samsung monitor isn't 16:9 widescreen. It's 16:10? :confused:

Is this the new standard or should I look for a 16:9 one?

Also, do I need a different graphics card? I have a 128mb GeForce MX4000 at the moment.

Thanks.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

My ancient 21" CRT died just before christmas (cost me £850! lol) :shocking:

But seeing as i'm on a tight budget, i could'nt get the LCD i wanted (24" Dell), so I had to settle for a £150 19" Widescreen BenQ... which isn't actually toooooooo bad!

Nikesh: 16:10 is normal for widescreen LCDs as far as im aware, for instance mine runs at 1440x900, which is 16:10.

As for your gfx card, your current one will be absolutely fine (i'm running on an old GeForce 3 Ti200).

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Thanks guys :)

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Wow that price is awsome.
Is that a proper store in the UK or is it only internet based?

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Pixmania is an internet-based site but pcworld are selling the same monitor for the same price: Link :tu:

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

1in too small, but I have one of these and it is great.
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...446N&InMerch=1
DVI too (though I am using analog). GBP140 from most places.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I agree, I have one, too - I use it for watching DVD & Cable TV, plus as a normal monitor & it does what it says on the tin :tu:

Having said that, I have used a 17" widescreen Samsung 'syncmaster' & it was also very good, despite being a couple of years old & having a slower refresh rate. (Mrs Gaz is still using it) :)

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

16:10 is the standard for wide monitors. Don't ask me why, I don't have the faintest idea. Probably something similar to why 17" and 19" monitors use 5:4 instead of 4:3.

Your graphics card will handle it just fine. As long as you're not wanting to play any games, that is ;)

PC World are indeed advertising the Samsung at the £200 mark, but of course it's impossible to get hold of one. I'm yet to find a store with them in stock, and I've checked six ;) That particular model is definitely meant to be good for the price.

Personally I'd stay away from 19" wides, they offer less desktop space than with a 17" or 19" 5:4 display, which seems a little pointless to me. Good if it's mainly going to be used for watching movies I guess, though that size screen still seems small for that purpose to me.

If you're not in any particular rush, you may want to wait a couple of months, as 22" looks to be becoming something of a 'standard', so 20.1" displays should be rather a bargain fairly soon.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Hmm well the loss in height isn't really that noticable at all, whereas the gain in width is actually pretty handy! Especially for running a browser/document on one side of the screen, while doing other stuff in the other half!

As for gaming, even if you play older games (that don't natively support widescreen) there's usually hacks/tweaks to get them working (i'm currently playing Quake II + III & GTA III with widecreen hacks.. works perfectly!) :D

Excellent site for widescreen gaming info

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Admittedly it's not a big height loss, but it is there. Thing is, I don't find 1440 wide enough to run two applications side-by-side, and I do like to do so. Plus, two 19" wides would be somewhat unusable, whereas 5:4 displays work brilliantly side-by-side (and, to be honest, this is my preferred viewing setup over a single wide monitor. I guess that's a personal preference.

However, I do plan to stick a 20.1" between the two 17" monitors I currently run, assigning one of the 17"s to a secondary machine, using the 20.1" as the primary monitor and the other 17" as a secondary monitor on the primary machine. Which would take me to a total pixel-width of 4240...slightly crazy, perhaps!

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

DELL have 2 sales on atm which runs out on the 10th Jan (tomorrow) (5%) and the other (20%) on 31st Jan.

DELL 2007WFP @ £340
Combined sale price £258 + delivery

DELL 2007WFP

20" and 21" widescreen monitors are 1680 x 1050

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Yah, i mean, i only bought this monitor purely out of necessity and at the moment im on a really right budget :/

If i wasn't.. i would have gone straight for the Dell 24" 1920x1200! w00t! :D

Although with all the new funky monitors being shown at CES, i'm glad i didn't :D

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I'm slightly confused...is 8ms better than 16ms or is it the other way around? :confused:

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

refresh rate is only applicable if you do a lot of gaming : the theory is the faster the refresh rate the less ghosting.

ie 8ms would be better for gaming than a 16ms.

What do u want the monitor for btw ?

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

Thanks for making that clearer. I want a monitor for pretty much everything really, Mostly just general work but I've got a TV card so I'll be watching TV, movies, video editing, and I like playing a few games. (C&C Generals, NFS, GTA...) :) So it's better for me to get a faster refresh rate? Basically I just want a good all-rounder that will last me a couple of years.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

First LCD flat I bought :

Read stacks of reviews and user opinions until finally I shelled out my hard earning dole money to buy one.

Took it home - plugged it in - started cursing - IT WAS SH*T : 500quid ! FFS thats like 10weeks of signing on - Gutted.

I recommend you view the monitor u buy... Whats great for me may not be for u and vice versa.

For my recent purchase I saw : examined carefully and am VERY HAPPY with it,

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

That's kind of wrong, it also applies to watching movies, with a 16ms response time your going to notice alot of ghosting..and it would make watching action movies impossible.

my tft is 6ms response time and i still notice abit of ghosting, that's why i use my 22" CRT at the side of me, perfectly clear picture, flacscreen (trinitron) and great for games with ultra high resos! with great refresh rates, so although the crt is bigger, if your not worried about space id rather spend £50-80 on a 22" CRT than 300+ on a good tft.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

refresh rate is only applicable to crts in any real terms its responce time measured on the lcd/tft and this is measured on the white scale leading to false results anyway

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I never did buy a new monitor... I thought I'd wait and see if the prices drop...

I've rearranged my desk slightly and a 22in widescreen monitor (I think) would just fit on my desk! :)

I've been looking at the Samsung 226BW and the Asus MW221U...

Which one's better? The Samsung has a better contrast ratio but the Asus is cheaper... Is there anything else I should know about the two monitors?

Can anyone tell me the dimensions of the two monitors with the stand because I can't seem to find the correct dimensions. Different websites show the dimensions different... :confused:

I want the monitor for gaming (Counter Strike: Source), basic photo editing (Photoshop) and work...

Thanks.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I'd be more inclined to go for the Sammy.

There's a discussion on the Sammy panel over at overclockers (be prepared for a long read though lol) There does seem some concerns though from certain quarters, as Samsung seem to make 2 versions of it, which you can read about in that thread.

There's also an article here on the subject.

I'm not sure about the Asus, but from a personal point of view, I've found Samsung panels to be very good.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I got the 226BW.
The whole A (AU Optronics) versus S (Samsung) is all bull according to tests done. I have the S panel, straight out the box without calibration the S panel is better according to reviews and user reviews. But the A panel can be matched with calibration meaning straight out the box it's not on par with the S panel.
The Contrast ratio is about 800:1 - the 3000:1 is a bloated figure used by manufacturers.

The screen on its own - 51cm (left to right) x 35cm (top to bottom)
With the stand - the height (top to bottom) is 42.5cm

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

I'm tempted to save up for one of these too.

Does anyone know if it would dissapoint me as I am on a very good 19" Samsung CRT at the moment that is very sharp and bright.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

CRTs still the best but size wise TFTs are the way to go.

Re: 20in Widescreen Monitor
 

If you are happy with your CRT, atm, the only reason I could think of for changing would be if you wanted to watch TV/DVD on your PC, when a wide-screen format might be more suitable. :)