Hi,

Whats the best 20 inch LCD? S-IPS or TN panel? It will be used for gaming and PS3 and text.

Is the NEC 20WMGX2 used worth 300$?

ThnX

That depends on what is important to you.

IPS monitors:

1. Very good color accuracy.
2. Wide viewing angles (only at the more extreme angles you would see significant color fades).
3. Expensive (as you mentioned)

TN Monitors:

1. Fast response times (this is subjective though and there is no industry standard to measure response times, plus they represent the best possible ideal conditions).
2. Lower color accuracy because they cannot produce 16.7 million real colors only 256k. Dithering is used to create the remaing 16.5m colors and can cause image artifacts.
3. Inexpensive
4. Based on reading many different reviews of many different panel techs, monitors based on TN panels seems to have more issues with backlight bleeding and brightness uniformity compared to other panel techs. This could be partially due to few quality controls to keep this type of panel tech more affordable to people.
5. Poor viewing angles.

For $300 (or less) you can buy a new 22" TN panel LCD monitor. You decision should be based on how you rank the following:

A. New vs. Used.
B. Image and color quality.
C. Size of the monitor.
D. Cost

If image and color quality is not at the top of your list then I suppose you should look at a TN panel.

Almost a year ago I was struggling with the same question as I was searching for a replacement for my 17" Hercules TFT.
Ofcourse, like almost everyone else, I went through documentations and forums for gaming screens as I am a serious gamer and almost without hesitating I came to the Samsung panels. I almost would have bought a Samsung 22" widescreen until I read somewhere the difference between TN (most samsungs I reckon are TN panels) and IPS (or S-IPS).
At that time I came across several very positive reviews of the Nec Multisync 20WGX² Pro screen. The biggest issue I had was the price of this screen as a 20" widescreen was way more expensive then the 22" widescreen from Samsung.

I decided to put them together and see with my own eyes which I liked the most. Well, when the samsung was running the demo of Supreme Commander and Medieval: Total war I was impressed (because I had the 17" hercules TFT). All this changed when the NEC was connected. The colors it displayed and the way how they were displayed was just unbelievable at that time for me. I played with the samsungs options but none and I do mean 'NONE' of the adjusted settings could even manage to equalize the same quality the NEC provided in standard 'out of the package' settings. I've bought it without a doubt and uptil today I'm a realy satisfied user of the Nec Multisync 20WGX² Pro and don't let others tell you otherwise. If they don't see the difference then they have serious problems with there eyes because the difference is that huge. At the moment I use the screen almost a year and it could be the TN panels have there quality boosted but thats your job to check

One minor thingy you should now about the Nec. It has a glossy screen so if you're using a lightsource in the neighbourhood of your computer which can directly shine on the screen you will have an annoying reflectation of that source. If however, your using a normal lightsource (no wall mounted or light sources on a stand) that shine from above you won't have any issue regarding this.

It's alot of money compared to the TN's but the money ain't waisted. You will be very very very happy. I hope to have a 24" variant of this screen soon. I won't hesitate because I do wich to have a bigger screen then the 20" widescreen. But that won't happen untill Nec releases an S-IPS screen of 24" or higher thats suitable for gaming.

Greetz,

you can contact me at warcable@pandora.be regarding this if you have other questions.