5 Things to Consider When Buying an LCD Monitor

Planning on buying a PC monitor? Check out these 5 simple tips that will aid your decision.

Screen size
A monitor is used differently than a TV (Just saw a thousand duh! bubbles pop). But one has to understand that even if the functionality will be similar, like watching movies and playing games (even more than using MS EXCEL), the viewing distance is much much lesser, thus a 24 inch screen is considered large. Also if you are a multitasker, or a pro using pro software for say editing or designing, then you need extra workspace for many open windows. Thus a larger screen size is always better for that.

Screen resolution
Now, there are many flavors of HD touted by marketing brochures, like full HD and HD ready.  But pure HD resolution is currently 1920 x 1080... a 16 :9 aspect ratio. More on aspect in the next bullet. A film watcher or gamer must surely get this ratio as the native res of his/her monitor, to prevent any edge distortions and detail issues due to scaling.

Screen Aspect ratio
I’m giving this one its own bullet blurb as it's vital for movie and TV show buffs, those who simply hate black lines, and I know quite a few of them myself. A 16:9 aspect ratio is being adopted more and more as new models are rolled out, and this is the norm for watching stuff on. Of course many movies come with narrower aspects, but still 16:10 monitors are unnatural for movies.

Response time
Especially for anyone into gaming, or setting up a new rig for getting into gaming. Fast action on the screen is dependent on how fast the pixels can turn on and off, a spec which is called the response time. It’s stated in ms generally, and currently a rating of about 2-3 ms is considered superb, and will be great for fast moving video and games. If response time is low, then a certain thing called ghosting occurs, basically you will see trails behind any moving thing on the screen e.g. the crosshair. Not nice.

Extra features
Some monitors come with extras like webcams, USB ports (for IR emitters), speakers etc. This is vital for those who need an all purpose suite. But a monitor is a monitor, it’s supposed to display, thus extra stuff should be considered only if it’s a requirement. The sound from monitor speakers sound as bad as my vocals in a public toilet with tin walls, so any one who likes good quality sound can pass.