Update 02/06/2006
We barely finished the last monitor survey in April when new monitors were released. First, there was the Dell 2007WFP, which we weren’t allowed to discuss in any way before its official release on May 3rd. After this monitor, we received the LG (L2000C), which was very different from what we expected, the Fujitsu-Siemens (S20-1W), a Samsung 21” for the price of a 20”, the SM 215TW, and finally Asus’ latest.
We were expecting to find all types of panels; an IPS (Dell), TN (LG – but in the end it wasn’t the case), MVAs (Fujitsu-Siemens and Asus) and PVAs (Samsung). This situation was supposed to be ideal. However, rather than publishing a completely new article, we decided to update our current survey even if this changes our conclusion.
Asus PW201: Strong points are multiple video inputs, design, integrated webcam and a zero dead pixel warranty (!).
Dell 2007WFP: Dell has a very restricted catalogue of monitors, yet they are number one in the world! This success comes from combined sales with computers, but also from monitors with extremely attractive designs and much higher than average ergonomics (for example, this one has video inputs).
Fujitsu-Siemens ScaleoView S20-1W: it is a 8ms MVA - it is beginning to be a classic – with a metal bezel, it’s quite rare.
LG Flatron L2000C: It is a IPS 8ms monitor with pivot mode and vertically adjustable base. It’s a serious competitor to the Nec 20WGX².
Samsung SyncMaster 215TW : a 21” no more expensive than other 20”s. It is a very good choice for those wanting larger formats but afraid of the small size of characters. Also, Samsung made some serious progress in standard colors.
Original introduction
The eternal question is which monitor should we buy today, which one really is the best. This is followed by what size we should choose. Up until 2005, all technical improvements were first introduced on 19 inches and then on the other sizes in the following months. Manufacturers have now changed their strategy and their new favourite is the 20 inch. There is also the one small difference of progressively leaving the 5/4 format for the 16/10. Officially, there are claims that this is best for everything, but it’s actually mainly to optimise panel cutting and reduce production costs. We aren´t going to complain about this, because after all it does have a direct influence on the monitor’s final price.
The LCD news: important facts since 2005
The first bit only concerns Europe. Since December 2005, as we explained in our news, a 14% tax is now applied on all 20" and above equipped with DVI inputs and assembled (assembled = panel and DVI input, not just the packaging) outside of the European Union. Some manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Philips, and BenQ aren´t concerned as they already produced their monitors within the EU. The consequence of this tax will be more bothersome for others like Belinea. Their 20" star, the 10 20 35W is a DVI monitor and produced in Asia. To minimize losses, they imported massive amounts just before the application of this tax, but stocks are coming to an end and its renewal comes at a strong price. This changes the monitor’s place in the market and makes it less interesting. This is also why there is a new version, the 10 20 30W, that doesn´t include DVI output and the tax. It’s included here in our survey and we compared it to the 10 20 35W and latest competitors. We had the opportunity to see if it is still as good, and if the loss of DVI and a useless double conversion of the signal has an influence on reaction time and color quality.
There is also the Nec 20WGX², which we recently tested individually. We were strongly impressed by its reaction time despite the fact that it has an IPS panel. Is it still the fastest in the 20" category?
The others have never been published on BeHardware.com.
Today´s agenda
Acer AL2051W : P-MVA 8 ms panel. Acer combined the panel that was a huge success with the Belinea 10 20 35W with the elegant design of the
gamer series.
Belinea 10 20 30W: supposedly the same as the 10 20 35W, without the DVI input. Is it really?
BenQ FP202W: the first TN 20" monitor released on the market. In principle TN is for gamers.
Nec MultiSync 20WGX² : the IPS panel amazed us in FPS games. Is it still the best for this use?
Nec MultiSync LCD2090UXi: a luxurious 20 inch with an
overdrive you can turn on or off. What difference does it makes in games? And in videos?
Samsung SyncMaster 204B: it is a TN 5ms. The response time is the lowest currently available for a 20 inch monitor. So is it better than the NEC 20WGX²?
ViewSonic VX2025wm: ViewSonic chose to include (with some delays) the panel at the origin of Belinea´s monitor success. And yes, they have even improved it!
ViewSonic VP2030b: Does this name ring a bell? It almost sounds like the VP191b. It isn´t by mistake as this 20" monitor has a 4/3 P-MVA 8 ms panel. This is the first time and it has been awaited by many gamers. Will the monitor keeps its promises? The icing on the cake is that this monitor has a zero dead pixel warranty!
Tests
Color fidelity and calibration, game reaction time, video quality, ergonomics, viewing angles, and the quality of interpolation-every aspect of each monitor is examined.
For color fidelity we use the LaCie Blue Eye Pro colorimeter, based on the Gretag tool and coupled with the new LaCie software suite. More evolved than the previous version, this helps us to compare a monitor’s display quality (color spectrum and DeltaE) in standard settings and after calibration. Results are sometimes surprising as it’s often best to take the time to manually adjust colors (or at least contrast, brightness and color temperature).
For game tests, after developing a response time measuring procedure last year with a
probe and an oscilloscope, we eventually came to the conclusion that the measurements weren’t representative of what we actually saw on the screen. We then developed a new test procedure in the summer of 2005, based on pictures of images on the monitor in work. In this way we can capture afterglow in two environments. The first is between bright colors and the second is for black and white (like in wire frame mode). The software used is
Pixel Persistence Analyzer (or PixPerAn for regular users). Pictures showing these ghosting effects are captured with a Canon 350D at a shutter speed of 1/1000 s. We take 50 pictures in burst mode for each test to precisely measure the progression of afterglow between images. This time results are consistent with what we see in games. Finally, practical tests are the same in games, HD and DVD video, web surf etc.
The test computer is self-assembled and has an AMD Athlon XP3200+ processor and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS card.
