LCD technology changed all that, as today's flat screens don't work with high voltages that would also generate harmful electromagnetic fields (radiation). The new LCD's use LED's for light source, much less harmful than what CRT's were shooting at the user's eyes. In fact some LCD monitors are advertised as “no radiation”, as LCD panels emit only an insignificant amount of radiation and even that is stopped by a high quality glass filter on these monitors.

18.5 Inch Lcd Pc Monitors (Source: bbcomp.hu)

At the time of writing the cheapest 18.5” LCD monitor for PCs costs $90 at newegg.com, which is a bit expensive if we consider that 21.5” FullHD monitors were once available for $100 (now they cost $120).

These 18.5” monitors are the equivalent of 15.6” laptop displays, because both types have the same 1366 x 768 resolution and are most commonly used for everyday home and office work. When it comes to gaming and high definition media they are still practical for lower resolution 1366 x 768 or 720p, but for higher resolutions you'll need a better monitor or laptop.

Choosing the right monitor brand and model is not too hard when you're buying low-end. Most 18.5 inch LCD monitors have a 5ms response time, while only some expensive models features <4ms response times. The input type doesn't really matter when your maximum resolution is 1366 x 768, so if your computer still supports analog VGA, then a cheap 18.5 inch monitor with only an analog input is the right way to go. Digital inputs in general are noticeably better in much higher resolution, at least in 1920 x 1080. In such high resolutions you usually have a much better image quality, thus the need for flawless transmission from the graphics card to the monitor.

18.5 Inch Lcd Pc Monitors (Source: vvdeals.com)

In principle these three display input types are compatible, meaning that you can buy a passive adapter to convert between the standards. Some incompatibility issues may appear when the transmitter (computer, DVD-player, receiver …etc.) doesn't have adequate software to support a specific standard. This usually leads to lower resolutions or the connection may interrupt completely between the incompatible devices. A useful thing to remember is that most DVI out ports and Displayport out ports can also be switched to analog VGA mode with the appropriate adapter. This solution is used in some laptops, where a full size analog VGA port would be too big toimplement.

Like in every industry, there's a group of professionals (or semi-professionals) that address the less pretentious customers. The design of posters for lesser brands or for average public events is usually handled by these cheaper professional.

Best Budget Lcd Monitors For Graphics Design (Source: roncowie.com)

They no longer works with pencils and erasers, but they don't need top of the line equipment either. Design work done in monochrome or with few fixed colors can usually be done on any computer and LCD monitor with a high enough resolution. In black and white for example you don't need to differentiate between shades of colors, just between black and white, complete opposites. There's only one very serious rule for such work: NO DEAD PIXELS ON THE MONITOR! In the high-end sector you never have to point out such a rule, but when a small firm is looking to buy the best cheap computer hardware, the boss may order used LCD monitors with A, B or C specifications, which may have dead pixels or clusters of dead pixels. The only acceptable used LCD category is A+ (or regional equivalent), which means that the monitor has been verified by professionals for any optical defect.

Best Budget Lcd Monitors For Graphics Design (Source: gizmodo.com)

The bare minimum for a graphics design is a 24” budget LCD monitor – not necessarily Dell, but without optical defects on the display surface. These monitors (ex: Acer V243HAJbd Black 24″ 2ms, 300 cd/m2, ACM 80000:1)

may cost just around 180 USD (new) and feature 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200 resolution. To increase productivity, graphics design companies should buy bigger, 27” LCD monitors with RGB back lighting, which offer much higher resolutions (ex: 2564 x 1440) and a color quality that cannot be matched by any LCD with white back lighting. For color graphics design you definitely need RGB back lighting.

Another important issue – when it comes to any work done on computers – is worker eyestrain, a problem that doesn't go away if you don't try to fix it in time. Companies that have employees working on computers for more than 6 hours each day should purchase high refresh rate monitors as soon as possible. I would set the minimum at 100-120Hz, but many LCD manufacturers offer monitors with 200-800Hz refresh rate, which offer great comfort for the eyes.

It's a bit surprising to see that traditional CRT monitors were almost completely replaced by LCDs in these last few years. In the beginning of the LCD era there was a huge quality difference between technologies (CRT vs. LCD), but now we have reached a point where CRT color quality is matched and exceeded by LCD technology and power consumption is up to 15 times smaller. An average 15″ CRT needed between 100 and 150 Watts of power to work, while a 15-19″ LED-backlit LCD today needs just around 10Watts.

At the moment one of the cheapest computer monitors around is a 17″ Hanns-G widescreen LCD. It costs just $79 at newegg.com and features 1440 x 900 resolution with 5ms average response time and analog VGA only input.

cheap computer monitors (source: pacificgeek.com)

Power consumption of this model is not too impressive, as it requires an average of 19.6Watts in ON mode and less than 1Watt in Standby and OFF modes. Its main advantage is the big number of pixels on a relatively small surface. In fact this size and resolution remind us of 17″ laptops screens that still used 16:10 aspect ratio resolutions.

From the same manufacturer you can also get a 18.5″ LCD monitor for $89. It looks just like the first one, but has a slightly bigger image surface area and features the 1366 x 768 resolution. This means less pixels per inch than on the previous model. The Hanns-G HZ194APB computer monitor also uses traditional backlighting and has a single analog VGA input. It requires around 28Watts of power when turned on, but keep in mind that this figure includes the two integrated active speakers, which can make about 2 x 1.5Watts worth of noise. This cheap computer monitor is recommended for users that need something small and simple for watching 16:9 aspect ratio movies, doing everyday home/office work and playing games in low resolution.

cheap computer monitors (source: cumperi.md)

A much better solution comes from Acer. The Acer S201HLbd LCD monitor uses LED backlighting, which means that images are sharper with up to 12 million to 1 contrast ratio and very low power consumption, just around 13.56Watts. This is actually very impressive for a 20″ LCD screen with 1600 x 900 resolution and both analog VGA and DVI inputs. The Acer S201HLbd computer monitor costs $109 at newegg.com, and it's a very good solution for most types of applications and games, but still not enough for high-end gaming (maybe if you combine three such screens with AMD's Eyefinity technology).

One more category of cheap computer monitors is worth mentioning. This is of course the FullHD monitor category, which feature the 1920 x 1080 resolution, needed for playing HD media in maximum quality and high-end gaming.

cheap computer monitors (source: di1-3.shoppingshadow.com)

The cheapest one at newegg.com is another Hanns-G that costs $119. The Hanns-G HF225DPB 21.5″ computer monitor is based on traditional backlighting, which of course has a huge impact on power consumption. When turned on, this 21.5″ FullHD monitor needs 49Watts of power, which includes the requirement of the two built-in active speakers (2 x 1.5Watt) and the hardware components for the two inputs, analog VGA and DVI. This isn't a very efficient monitor, as more expensive models based on LED backlighting consume around just 20Watts and 21.5 – 23″ computer monitors with optimized traditional backligting need around 30Watts (like my 23″ FullHD Philips monitor).

For now FullHD monitors seem to be the best for everything, as long as video cards don't really support much higher resolutions. The maximum resolution for one monitor at this moment is 2560 x 1440, but most video cards can't go above 2048 x 1536.

It's a bit surprising to see that traditional CRT monitors were almost completely replaced by LCDs in these last few years. In the beginning of the LCD era there was a huge quality difference between technologies (CRT vs. LCD), but now we have reached a point where CRT color quality is matched and exceeded by LCD technology and power consumption is up to 15 times smaller. An average 15″ CRT needed between 100 and 150 Watts of power to work, while a 15-19″ LED-backlit LCD today needs just around 10Watts.

At the moment one of the cheapest computer monitors around is a 17″ Hanns-G widescreen LCD. It costs just $79 at newegg.com and features 1440 x 900 resolution with 5ms average response time and analog VGA only input.

cheap computer monitors (source: pacificgeek.com)

Power consumption of this model is not too impressive, as it requires an average of 19.6Watts in ON mode and less than 1Watt in Standby and OFF modes. Its main advantage is the big number of pixels on a relatively small surface. In fact this size and resolution remind us of 17″ laptops screens that still used 16:10 aspect ratio resolutions.

From the same manufacturer you can also get a 18.5″ LCD monitor for $89. It looks just like the first one, but has a slightly bigger image surface area and features the 1366 x 768 resolution. This means less pixels per inch than on the previous model. The Hanns-G HZ194APB computer monitor also uses traditional backlighting and has a single analog VGA input. It requires around 28Watts of power when turned on, but keep in mind that this figure includes the two integrated active speakers, which can make about 2 x 1.5Watts worth of noise. This cheap computer monitor is recommended for users that need something small and simple for watching 16:9 aspect ratio movies, doing everyday home/office work and playing games in low resolution.

cheap computer monitors (source: cumperi.md)

A much better solution comes from Acer. The Acer S201HLbd LCD monitor uses LED backlighting, which means that images are sharper with up to 12 million to 1 contrast ratio and very low power consumption, just around 13.56Watts. This is actually very impressive for a 20″ LCD screen with 1600 x 900 resolution and both analog VGA and DVI inputs. The Acer S201HLbd computer monitor costs $109 at newegg.com, and it's a very good solution for most types of applications and games, but still not enough for high-end gaming (maybe if you combine three such screens with AMD's Eyefinity technology).

One more category of cheap computer monitors is worth mentioning. This is of course the FullHD monitor category, which feature the 1920 x 1080 resolution, needed for playing HD media in maximum quality and high-end gaming.

cheap computer monitors (source: di1-3.shoppingshadow.com)

The cheapest one at newegg.com is another Hanns-G that costs $119. The Hanns-G HF225DPB 21.5″ computer monitor is based on traditional backlighting, which of course has a huge impact on power consumption. When turned on, this 21.5″ FullHD monitor needs 49Watts of power, which includes the requirement of the two built-in active speakers (2 x 1.5Watt) and the hardware components for the two inputs, analog VGA and DVI. This isn't a very efficient monitor, as more expensive models based on LED backlighting consume around just 20Watts and 21.5 – 23″ computer monitors with optimized traditional backligting need around 30Watts (like my 23″ FullHD Philips monitor).

For now FullHD monitors seem to be the best for everything, as long as video cards don't really support much higher resolutions. The maximum resolution for one monitor at this moment is 2560 x 1440, but most video cards can't go above 2048 x 1536.

One example for best budget LCD monitors is the second hand or refurbished business class. For around $100 you can get a very high quality, dependable business class 17”-19” Dell monitor with warranty.

Best Budget Lcd Monitors

The Dell 1908FP for example has a lot of cool features for a $100 monitor. It has the standard 5:4 aspect ratio 1280 x 1024 resolution, but two video signal inputs are present, one analog (VGA) and one digital (DVI). An integrated active USB 2.0 hub makes your life easier, because the keyboard and mouse -for example- can be connected to the ports on the back, leaving the two ports on the side available for removable storage or other removable devices you may want to use occasionally. The USB HUB is active, meaning that it receives additional power from the monitor’s power supply, so the four ports offer up to 500mA of power each. Another practical feature of this business class monitor is the DC power plug, which is compatible with a Dell sound bar, so you won’t have to use the huge additional power supply. Another cool feature of this best budget LCD monitor is the advanced monitor stand, which is height adjustable for optimal viewing angle.

This kind of monitors aren’t really made for 16:9 multimedia or gaming, but for office work they’re excellent, assuming that you accept the higher than average power consumption between 32Watts (no devices attached) and 65Watts (with all devices attached).

For multimedia and gaming you may want to choose a new widescreen monitor like the Acer G185HAb for around $90.

Best Budget Lcd Monitors

Its main advantages are the very sharp image, 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio with 1366 x 768 resolution and very low power consumption. This model requires only about 15Watts of power on average, which is much better than what the above mentioned business class monitor requires. The only downside is that statistically these standard LCD monitors are more unreliable than business class monitors, so you may be amongst the unlucky ones that have to return it (under warranty or not) for repairs, while business class monitor users may never have to do that for up to 7-10 years.

Right now the 1600 x 900 resolution took its place, offering a slightly smaller surface in pixels, but the same 20” diagonal. In the future these resolutions will most likely grow sideways, even beyond 2:1 aspect ratio.

Acer Lcd Monitors Al2002w from benchmarkreviews.com

Although the Acer AL2002W LCD monitors were made in 2007, they had some very decent specs, which are still acceptable today. Average contrast ratio is around 800:1, brightness is limited to 300cd/m2 and response time doesn’t exceed today’s 5ms average. They came in at least two different configurations, as Acer often creates subcategories for the model in order to address different types of users. Some need integrated speakers, while others are more concerned with input flexibility, so usually at least three (sub)models are shipped: one with analog VGA input, another with VGA and integrated speakers and the third with VGA and DVI inputs. Of course more recent LCD monitors with digital input also have a HDMI port, because it is more practical. DisplayPort is also very popular, also because of its size and flexibility (it carries analog video, digital video and digital audio). No one can say which port standard will outlive the other, but HDMI seems to be favorite today, as most LCD-TVs and monitors adopted it, instead of DisplayPort.

Acer LCD Monitors Al2002w from benchmarkreviews.com

The exterior design of the Acer AL2002W LCD is very poor by today’s standards. It uses traditional backlighting and that’s what makes the structure so thick. Fluorescent lights take up precious cubic centimeters of space and require a lot of power, so they also need a much bigger power supply than LED-backlit models do. From this point of view the Acer AL2002W LCD monitor is outdated technology and it’s not recommended for anyone who cares about efficiency or design. It was manufactured to meet TCO99 standards, which means 1Watts max power consumption in OFF mode, less than 2Watts in power saving mode and 50Watts max while active. Viewing angles are also inappropriate for today’s user, only 160 degrees in both horizontal and vertical, while recent monitors are very close to 180 degrees, above 170 degrees at least. As a consequence the Acer AL2002W can be bought cheap in second hand stores and there aren’t any available new. Instead I recommend a much better 20” monitor for only $115 retail price.

Acer LCD Al2002w Monitor from newegg.com

Acer S201Hlbd is based on LED-backlighting, which means that the 1600 x 900 resolution images appear in contrast ratios up to 12 million to 1 (1000:1 typical). It also comes with both VGA analog and DVI inputs, but consumes a lot less power, just 14watts while active and no more than 1Watt in energy saving mode. Response time isn’t much better, 5ms, just like the 4 year old model, but the this exterior design on the other hand is very impressive.

Programmers and any other category of users already changed their old 17″ and 19″ monitors to wide ones, mostly with bigger diagonals in order to keep the same screen height (measured in pixels).

This 19″ AG Neovo monitor has a 1280 x 1024 native resolution, completely replaceable with a 23″ FullHD monitor that costs less than any new 19″ monitor still found in some warehouses. FullHD resolution offers a much bigger desktop area than old 5:4 format 17 and 19″ screens.

While a 21″ FullHD monitor has more pixels in horizontal and also in vertical, only the 23″ FullHD monitor covers the height (physical size) of a 5:4 19″ LCD too.

Features of the AG Neovo F-419 LCD monitor are quite impressive (or at least they were 3 years ago). It has a built-in power supply, even though the 54Watt maximum power consumption requires good ventilation for cooling. Optical properties consist of a 300 cd/m2 brightness level, 800:1 typical contrast ratio and 160/160 degrees horizontal and vertical viewing angles. Today most LCD monitors have about the same brightness level, but typical contrast ratio has increased to 1000-3000 to 1 and viewing angles are also very close to 180 degrees from all directions, so the old 19″ AG Neovo LCD monitor is no longer preferable. The only specification that is still impressive today is the 3ms response time, as most LCD monitors today have 5ms response time and only the really high-end models come down to under 2ms or 1ms.

VESA mounting holes are also disappearing in some LCD types. For example the 23″ Philips TFT I have recently purchased doesn’t have any mounting holes, just a plastic support which is relatively flexible, so the large screen wobbles if the desk under it isn’t stable.

On the plus side, the AG Neovo F-419 supports two kinds of input: analog (VGA D-sub) and digital (DVI). The good old analog VGA port still has a few years of life left, because manufacturers are slowly trying to phase it out. The success of this procedure depends mostly on motherboard manufacturers, who don’t like putting DVI or HDMI outputs on cheaper products. Unfortunately in the near future motherboard prices will go up and this new requirement will increase costs even more. On the other hand DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort digital signal offers much sharper images and there’s no place for interference. A digital link works perfectly or fails completely if a problem occurs, so basically as long as there’s an image on your screen DVI is working properly. Analog VGA on the other hand is capable of giving you all kinds of headaches, as the signal cannot be perfect.

Personally I think HDMI ports are the best, because they carry digital audio signal too. They are practical too, because they take up very little space. For example in a MacBook Air you can’t have a large DVI or analog VGA port sticking out, while the whole laptop is thinner than the port. Apple has been using DisplayPort in its laptop products, but that’s not really practical until most LCD-TVs and LCD monitors have only HDMI.

In conclusion don’t buy old monitors, go for a FullHD (or even bigger resolution) and HDMI or DisplayPort inputs.

23 inch LCD monitors were made because the gap became too big between 21.5″ and 24″ (or 23.6″). There’s nothing special about this particular size monitors, but for some reason they seem to have the most attractive price of only $150, while 21.5″ monitors cost around $135 and 24″ monitors cost much more, around $190, without any extra features.

At the time of writing the Acer G235HAbd 23″ LCD monitor is the cheapest one available at Newegg.com. However, this doesn’t mean that other retailers don’t have cheaper products or special offers with the same Acer monitor. In most countries prices and profit margins aren’t regulated, so it’s recommended to check more than few retailers before making the purchase.

This 23″ Acer LCD monitor uses traditional TFT technology, with fluorescent backlighting, but optimized to a level which respects Energy Star 5.0 standards. For example, the maximum power consumption doesn’t exceed 31.7Watts, a figure which reminds us of 17″ LCD monitors made 3-4 years ago. If you compare black levels and image sizes, you’ll realize that on the 23″ LCD monitor you have twice as much desktop space as you had on the 17″ one, and the image quality is also far better without sacrificing efficiency or retail price. 23 inch LCD monitors with LED backlighting cost about 30% more, $180 total to be more exact.

One might argue that these monitors are more ecological, because they don’t have fluorescent tubes any more, but in reality the end user doesn’t see much difference. Yes, with LED backlighting manufacturers are able to make much slimmer monitors, while the power consumption and image quality aren’t visibly improved. Screens with fluorescent backlighting have climbed to 250,000:1 contrast ratio, very close to what LED backlighting offers, around 10,000,000:1. An untrained human eye doesn’t see any difference between these two contrast ratios. In fact, these are theoretical figures and they apply only in few extreme situations. The typical contrast ratio is between 1000:1 and 3000:1 for all LCD monitors

LG E2350V-SN 23 inch LCD monitor has an excuse for the only slightly smaller power consumption level of 28Watts. It has three kinds of inputs, analog VGA (D-Sub), digital (DVI) and digital with audio (HDMI). The funny part is that for the $180 price you get only one signal cable, the analog one, even if it’s obvious that you will not be using such a big monitor with an old computer which has only a VGA out and not enough memory to use the maximum (FullHD, 1920 x 1080) resolution.

This particular monitor model, because it’s really thin, lacks an internal power supply. This way it becomes a bit impractical, but on the other hand the power supply is the part which breaks down most frequently in LCD monitors. Having an external power supply allows you to replace it, without sending back the monitor for servicing. I now regret buying a 23″ Philips monitor with an internal power supply, because it just burned out. The three-year warranty covers these kinds of defects, but I have to wait 15 days (10 working days) to get it back. Unfortunately these are the regulations in my country, and the retailer is also at fault, because its logistic isn’t optimized. If a product breaks down, the customer takes it to the local store. From there it’s shipped to the state capital, where a superficial technician analyzes the problem and sends the product to an authorized repair shop. After the repairs are made, they ship it back to the retailer’s headquarters in the capital, where it is checked one last time before sending it back to the local store, in the city where the customer lives. In more civilized countries there are local authorized repair shops in most big cities, so the customer can take the product there directly with the warranty card given by the retailer and get the product repaired quickly for free. After the repair is made, the customer takes it home, end of story. If you have followed my story, you’ll realize that in my case the monitor takes 6 trips in order to get repaired instead of 2, which is the optimal number in this case.

The LG M2380D 23 inch LCD monitor is also worth mentioning, because it has one more practical feature, compared to previous models. It has a built-in TV-Tuner, which adds very little to the total power consumption, only 37Watts is the total (average or maximum?). It’s quite frustrating that retailers, but sometimes even manufacturers, publish the monitor’s specifications in a confusing way, to make product comparisons more difficult (or pure incompetence?). For a customer living a green lifestyle it matters if a device uses 30Watts or 60Watts. This negligence may have catastrophic consequences for example if you have based you calculations on these figures when purchasing a UPS. Overloading the UPS leads to an abrupt system shutdown and you may lose a lot of important unsaved data, all because you had faith in official specifications.

Not everyone has the time, tools or know-how to measure each and every newly purchased product to see how much electricity they consume. Fortunately, technology is advancing, and soon figures will be so small, that a 50% difference in the power consumption of some components won’t matter. Until then it doesn’t hurt to measure in order to avoid surprises.

This is a factor that screen manufacturers have ignored, and with the introduction of 3D stereoscopic viewing they seem to ignore it once again. Although left and right eyes never see the same image from the same angle, you cannot separate them by technology and feed them images that you choose. Such procedures may temporarily or permanently damage the mechanism that lets us see real objects with high accuracy and very precise depth perception.

Ignoring the advice that we receive from eye doctors, manufacturers continue to launch new monitors based on the same damaging technology.

Acer is guilty of recently introducing a 120Hz LCD monitor with built-in IR transmitter for the 3D shutter glasses that do need any additional software in order to play 3D Blu-ray movies or stereoscopic games.

Acer HS244HQ is a 23.6” FullHD monitor with a very nice 2ms response time, needed for the increased refresh rate. It’s based on LED backlighting with one additional feature called backlight modulation. This is not entirely new, many other LED-backlit monitors use a similar technology to decrease power consumption as well. An intelligent chip is used to determine the optimal backlighting level for each frame. This procedure can save power, because absurd situations are avoided for example when the whole screen is dark, but these dark colors are mixed by having the backlighting shining at the same levels as with bright colors and trying to cover it up with liquid crystals as much as possible.

This new 120Hz LCD monitor may be the next step in 3D development, because it has the IR transmitter built into the monitor‘s frame, so no additional device has to be placed on your desk with additional annoying cables going to the back of your computer.

Contrast ration seems to be going through the roof, 12 million to 1 is quite an accomplishment, thanks to backlight modulation and other new implemented technologies in the manufacturing process.

As a consequence of having the built-in IR transmitter for the shutter glasses and a HDMI input, this smart little monitor can be connected to any 3D Blu-ray player or cable TV media box in order to watch 3D video.

Dropping a desktop LCD monitor from a ~1 height, for example pulling it down from a computer desk, will most likely brake the panel itself or otherwise distort the optics if the chassis gets bent. Brighter and darker spots may appear, thus making the LCD monitor very annoying to work with.

Physically broken monitors are rarely repaired. If the outer casing or the panel is damaged, there isn’t much to do but to change it. On the other hand these components may be too expensive to purchase, in most cases it makes more sense to simply buy a new monitor. Changing LCD panels makes more sense to be done in the case of laptops, where you loose a whole computer if the screen isn’t fixed. An average LCD panel for a standard laptop costs between $100 and $300, so if the laptop is worth at least twice as much, than it makes sense to replace the broken LCD panel.

A decent impact results in a completely unusable screen, but there are other types of accidents that produce less damage. For example if you just scratch the LCD surface or a few pixels burn out, the LCD can be still used, even if it’s a bit disturbing when you look and data displayed on the damaged surface. I had a couple of LCD monitors with defective pixels, one was a 17” Dell. It had a white pixel, but it was absolutely tolerable because it didn’t affect the neighboring pixels. Another Horizon LCD of mine had a manufacturing defect that resulted in 4-5 uncovered pixels next to each other. The bright white spot was very annoying, and because the return policy didn’t cover such a small number of pixels (for an LG – grade A panel) the solution I have used was to cover up the spot with a permanent marker. This way I sacrificed a couple more pixels, but a black spot is always more tolerable than a bright white one.

It’s a shame when a new laptop LCD panel gets cracked, but this is where the industry heading. There are two different evolving concepts about how a future LCD should look like. Some developers want to make flexible screens, much like paper. This is not such a good idea because computers have always been about precision, so having a bumpy screen will significantly reduce productivity in many applications. Other developers want a solid, but very thin LCD monitor for portable devices. This isn’t such a good idea either, because very thin laptops are easily bent, and as a consequence the largest component suffers the most, the LCD panel, while many other smaller internal components survive.

In my opinion the ideal solution would be something in the middle, a flexible screen which always return to its original shape (100% FLAT!!!).