Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new monitor for my PC. I don't really want to spend more than £250, but my maximum budget is £350. I've been looking at the following two and would like some advice.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=604046

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=608174

I would like it to be at least 22". I will use it for gaming, photo editing and watching movies mostly. Is the lower brightness going to make a big difference in the first i linked to, or does the refresh rate make up for it? Another thing, I've been reading about the TN panel technology and wasn't sure whether these screens used it. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

If your gaming 5ms is a bit choppy. However, your eye adjusts quickly and you get the 2" larger screen.
The only real issue I've personally run into with the flat screens is not seeing dark blue on a black back ground.

That's mainly due to the cheap but inexpensive TN panel technology. All inexpensive LCD monitors use TN panels. The only 22" LCD monitor that does not use an "inferior" TN panel is the Lenovo L220x which uses a S-PVA panel and is about $450.

Firstly, thanks for the replies.
I've had a look at that screen jaguarskx and it looks very good. However, I haven't been able to find it for sale at the price you said in the UK. The cheapest I have seen it for is £300, roughly $600. Also, some reviews have not rated the screen very highly. Would you agree? Also, does the fact that it uses a S-PVA panel make a big difference? I'm assuming that it is worth the extra money.

Thanks.

Yeah, well the US dollar has taken a pounding in international currency. For a short period of time the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. You need to compare the price by using local currency. How many £ more is it than say the Samsung 226BW?

The monitor is very new and no reviews have surfaced yet.

S-PVA panels are based on 8-bit color technology. That means it can actually produce 16.7 million colors.

TN panels are based on 6-bit color technology. That means it can actually produce 262k colors and through the "dithering" process, it can estimate the remaining 16+ million colors.

--------------

TN Pros:
-Inexpensive
-Fast response times

TN Cons:
-Poor color accuracy
-Poor viewing angles
-Poor black levels
-Poor contrast ratios

S-PVA / M-PVA Pros:
-Very good color accuracy
-Good viewing angles
-Good black levels
-Good contrast ratios

S-PVA / M-PVA Cons:
-Little more expensive
-Slightly slower response times (about 3ms - 5ms slower depending on the model)

The prices are as follows:

Samsung 226BW £205.50
Samsung 245B £305.37
Lenovo L220X £305.25

Both of the Samsungs here still use a TN panel and so the Lenovo still comes out on top for me. However, I think i will have to wait for reviews because i don't want to be spending that £100 extra if I'm not sure how it will perform.

Thanks a lot for the help.

The Lenovo L220X is far superior to the Samsungs because of the TN/S-PVA differences already pointed out.

Hound

Beware of the 226BW quality. It's a great deal and looks fantastic but I've now returned 2 of these. One developed a vertical yellow line of dead/bad pixels after 2 weeks of use and the one I exchanged it for had terrible blue hue to it which I could not adjust so I've now gotten my 3rd in 5weeks and it seems ok but I've got my fingers crossed. Samsung has changed their stickers and service menu now so buyers can't easily distinguish which A,C,S manufacturer your getting. If you buy this monitor make sure your place of purchase offers in store returns for a lengthy period of time as that will save you alot in RMA return costs and samsung themselves will only return you a factory refurbished one. Samsungs name is pretty much dirt to me now and if this 3rd monitor dies on me I'll just return it and get an Acer. Thank god I didn't buy this over the net.