LCD Monitors - is the time ripe for you to get one?

Have you been drooling over the LCD monitors on the market these days?

I love my great big high quality computer monitor on my desktop. It has great resolution and clarity for all my various computing tasks, whether they be video editing, using Photoshop to work on my digital images, word processing, building web pages in Dreamweaver, or playing a quick game of Solitaire.

However it takes up so much real estate on my desk. I go over to my friends office and he has this nice LCD monitor on the desk and it takes up sooo much less space, looks terrific, and is very stylish to boot.

So guess what I am going to make the move to LCD. Finally the prices have dropped on these monitors to the point where everyone can afford to check them out. No longer do we have to a slave to the big desktop monitor for our computing.

Let’s take a look at a comparison between the two types of monitors, LCD monitors (Liquid Crystal Display) and CRT monitors (Cathode Ray Tubes). How do they measure up against one another?

LCD Monitor

CRT Monitor

Cost

Prices dropping, now runs about $200-400 for a 17inch monitor. Larger screens cost up to $2000

Still the king in this area. You can get more screen for your $ in every make.

Size

Thin and slim, some measure in at 1" thick. In order to get the largest screen sizes you will still pay big $ but the smaller screens do a very nice job.

CRT's weigh in at 30+ pounds and take up tons of real estate on the desktop. They are often as deep and they are wide and tall.

Resolution

he best LCD monitors are very good and for an average user the difference is hardly noticeable in side by side comparison.

This is where the CRT monitors take a clear advantage.

Energy consumption

LCD’s are the king in this area. They consume 25 -50 watts of power.

CRT’s can consume as much as 7-150 watts for a 17-19 inch model

Contrast

High end LCD monitors are now coming close to CRT's in terms of contrast reproduction.

Wins in most cases as CRT's do a great job of dealing with contrast. This is most important in gaming and movie playback applications.

Style

Very sleek and stylish. Many brands come with distinctive control panels. They weigh in at around 6-8 pounds.

No contest here folks. CRT monitors are big, bulky and heavy. Not much in the style area either except for a few exceptions.

Angle of view

LCD's are now approaching 160 degrees of view angle which is more than enough for most consumers.

When LCD's first came on the market this was a big deal as CRT's had a clear advantage over the LCD screen.

Image Brightness

This is an area where the LCD is a clear winner as they are almost twice as bright.

If you are using a monitor in a bright room the CRT will not be as bright as a current LCD monitor

Response time

If you buy a LCD and want to run games then you need to make sure and buy one with response times of less than 16ms.

This is crucial in gaming applications. CRT's have very good response times of less than 12ms.

Screen Flicker

This is a really great thing about an LCD monitor, no screen flicker, thus it is far easier on the eyes over the long haul.

Higher grade monitors can be set to higher screen refreshes so they affect your eyes less but there will still be some screen flicker. If you sit at a monitor all day you might be affected by this particular feature of CRT’s.

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