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GCN Home > 07/16/07 issue

Right to the edge

Big-screen LCDs, for the most part, keep up appearances from end to end

By John Breeden II

Last year, we learned that bigger was not always better for LCD monitors. As sizes increased, quality tended to drop. But with new operating systems and programs such as Microsoft Vista and Office offering functional ways to use multipanel views, the desire for larger screens is greater than ever.

Thankfully, monitor companies are up to the challenge. Moving from mostly analog to digital connections was a good start, and advances in panel design, response times and color reproduction have also helped. One of the largest LCDs in this roundup, a 24-inch display from Eizo, ended up being one of the most accurate. Even entry-level large LCDs priced less than $500 performed well in this year’s review, proving their worth for most common office tasks.

Each monitor in the review was graded primarily on image quality, which was tested using both internal GCN Lab benchmarks and the DisplayMate Technologies Professional benchmark suite. Each monitor was connected to a digital signal running through a SmartView multiport Digital Visual Interface video splitter, so each LCD was receiving exactly the same image through an ATI Radeon x1950 Pro digital video card. Where possible, each monitor was tested at its native resolution. A portable LX-101 light reader from Lutron Technologies was used in one test to measure the uniformity of screen brightness from the center of the screen out to the corners.

To a lesser extent, LCDs also were graded on their features, which included the placement and ease of use of the controls, the design of the monitor stand and any extras, such as an electric eye to sense light levels in the room or an integrated digital camera for videoconferencing.

Finally, value was based on its other scores relative to price.

It is worth mentioning that all the LCDs in the review this year were fairly good in most respects, and every one of them passed one important test: no blown pixels. This is the first year in which there was not one blown-out or stuck pixel to be found among any of the entries, a testament to the rigid quality control standards in the LCD market these days.

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