What specs should I consider when purchasing a flat panel monitor?

What specs should I consider when purchasing a flat panel monitor?
- Liz

This question was answered on June 17, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Once in a while, a new technology appears that has instant mass appeal In the case of the LCD or flat-panel display, most everyone that has ever seen one in use has exclaimed “I want one!” until they see the price tag The good news is that the prices will continue to come down.

In addition to the space that they save on the desk, they are often much easier on the eyes for those that tend to stare at a display all day long.

But, just as with any new electronic device, deciphering the differences in models and brands can get a bit confusing.

When it comes to the technical aspect of making a decision, here are a few things to keep in mind:

- A 15” LCD display gives you the rough equivalent of a 17” CRT (15.7” of viewable space on most traditional tube type monitors).

- LCD displays typically come in two flavors: TFT or Dual Scan Stick to TFT displays.

- Dot Pitch refers to the amount of space between each pixel (of the same color), with smaller numbers being better Look for something with a .30Mm dot pitch or smaller.

- Contrast Ratio refers to the difference between the darkest and the lightest areas of a test screen and generally range from 200:1 to 500:1, with the higher numbers being better Look for a 300:1 rating or higher.

- The Viewing Angle spec refers to two numbers: the horizontal viewing angle and the vertical viewing angle You don't need to worry much about this spec unless you plan to use your LCD for presentations, in which case, you should look for viewing angles of at least 120 degrees horizontal and 100 degrees vertical About the widest you'll find on an LCD is 160 degrees for both horizontal and vertical viewing angles.

The reality of all of these numbers is that the manufacturer decides what to publish based on their own criteria for measuring, so you can’t buy them based solely on the numbers.

The nice thing about shopping for displays is that the ultimate test is what you see Most large retailers will line monitors up in a row with the same image being displayed on them for comparison purposes.

LCD’s also have a ‘native resolution’, which means they won’t look as good in any other resolution For instance, 15” LCDs typically have a native resolution of 1024x768, so if you lower it to 800x600 (a more typical setting on traditional monitors) it won’t look near as good But some may have a problem reading text at this higher resolution, since everything gets smaller at a higher resolution.

Be sure to spend some time looking at the display with text displayed from a word processing document or a web site with lots of text so you can make sure that your eyes don’t have a problem reading from it