LCD Monitor Reviews - Best LCD Monitors

LCD monitors have flat-panel screens that may be colored or black-and-white. LCD is an acronym for 'liquid crystal display', and these displays are found in most devices nowadays, such as calculators, MP3 players, digital watches, TVs and cell phones. Unlike a CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor that takes up a lot of space and is very heavy, an LCD monitor is thin and quite lightweight. LCDs were first used in laptops, but later were sold as separate monitors for desktops.

The size of LCD monitors is between 15 inches and 21 inches. There are two kinds of LCD monitors, active-matrix and passive-matrix. Active-matrix displays, also known as TFT displays, are of better quality than the passive-matrix displays. When reading LCD monitor reviews to choose which one to buy, the most significant factors to look at are the contrast ratios, brightness, viewing angles and response times.

Factors which affect your choice of LCD monitor

Contrast ratio is the ratio of the brightest white color to the darkest black color on the monitor screen. It is always better to have a high contrast ratio than a low contrast ratio. Low-end LCD monitors have a contrast ratio of 350:1, while the high-end LCD monitors have a contrast ratio of 500:1. The standard unit of brightness is nit, or candela per square meter. Most LCD monitors have a brightness of 250-300 nits.

The viewing angle gives an idea about where a viewer should position himself, while watching the LCD monitor. If the viewer goes to the side, or stands up and watches the LCD monitor from top, then the quality of the picture becomes worse. The horizontal viewing angle should be at least 140 degrees, while the vertical viewing angle should be at least 120 degrees.

Response time, also known as latency, is the time needed for a pixel to go from black to white and then back to black again. Response time becomes important, when watching DVD movies or playing video games. If the response time is too slow, then one starts to see blurring or distortions. The unit of response time is milliseconds and a response time of 25 ms should be enough for most purposes, while a response time of 17 ms is necessary for video gaming.

An LCD monitor is brighter and also consumes less power than a CRT monitor. They cause less eye strain and also give out less radiation, thus causing less harm to one's health. However, people who use graphics software, such as Adobe Photoshop, still prefer CRT to LCD monitors. LCD monitors may sometimes give problems with the backlight and may fail within a few years of use.

Liquid crystals were discovered in 1888, and RCA made the first LCD in 1968. The liquid crystal in an LCD, is neither liquid nor solid. It is closer to the former than the latter. The twisted liquid crystals untwist, when an electric current is applied to them. They do not allow light to pass through them, making some parts of the LCD screen darker than other parts. LCDs can be reflective, which means that they can throw back the light from an external light source.

A common-plane-based LCD can be a 7-segment display and can be found in microwave ovens and digital clocks. The 7-segment display can show all the numbers from 0 to 9. If the resolution of a monitor is 1024x768, the monitor has 786432 pixels. Passive-matrix displays have slower response times than active-matrix displays. A slow response time causes a trail to follow the pointer, when the mouse is moved rapidly. Passive-matrix displays also produce fuzzy images.

LCD can produce a grayscale, which is a series of 256 shades from white to black. Each pixel in an LCD has three subpixels which that are red, blue and green. The red subpixel can produce 256 shades of red, and the blue and green subpixels can do the same respectively. This leads to a range of 16.8 million colors.

A monitor with outstanding picture quality is the 22-inch HP w2207h, having a resolution of 1680x1050. The best price on the HP w2207h LCD monitor is $179. A higher-end model is the 24-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2443BWX LCD monitor. It has a resolution of 1920x1200, and a best price of $194.99.