So I've decided to replace my old monitor, finally. (19" CRT Gateway VX900 from 1998--feel free to laugh but it's been a damn good unit.)

Since I don't pay much attention to hardware anymore I figured I'd ask advice. Trying to stay under $150 so right now I'm looking at two models.

1) Viewsonic VX2270SMH-LED 22" IPS. http://tinyurl.com/l93qela
Pros: IPS, looks good (glass to the edge design), very slim, good reviews.
Cons: 7ms response time, only 22".

2) ASUS VS-247H-P 23.6" LED. http://tinyurl.com/n59b39c
Pros: 24" (almost), 2ms response time, also very good reviews.
Cons: Doesn't have the visual appeal of the viewsonic.

I'm not much of a gamer anymore, so this will be mainly used for general web/productivity, photo editing, and watching movies. For those applications, is having an IPS panel worth the slower response time, or would I be better off going with the larger and faster ASUS? Price comes out to the same after the $20 rebate.

Viewsonic is glossy and ASUS is matte, but I think that's a preference thing and I can deal with either.

Thanks for any advice.

8/18/2013 3:53:21 AM

i like the asus just cuz it's bigger

8/18/2013 12:49:42 PM

For your uses, definitely the viewsonic

8/18/2013 1:09:03 PM

I have 2 of that ASUS monitor, I don't have any complaints but its meh

8/18/2013 3:22:57 PM

the anus

8/19/2013 12:00:31 AM

FYI, both of those panels are IPS and LED backlit.

I've bought about 3-4 of the Asus monitors in the past year (various ~24" models) for system builds that I keep on doing for friends and they are pretty nice for the price points. They aren't fancy or anything, but for your needs, its more than acceptable. And no, a 7ms GtG response time isn't exactly that slow; we barely see the difference below 17ms so anything under that is gravy.

If you don't mind the older version. Newegg has the original 247H 23.6" LED IPS monitor for $130 AR/AC. I really don't know the small differences between the 247H and 247H-P since I really don't care too much about all the detail stuff for such a cheap monitor. Price point analysis can only be taken so far for an item that starts to become a "disposable" monitor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236112

Use $10 off w/ promo code EMCXMWR99, ends 8/21


I'd probably shop around a bit and see if you can still find back-to-school sales for monitors. But if not, $130 for a 24" monitor is a decent price if you can't wait for a slick deal.

8/19/2013 12:10:30 AM

Per the Asus website the 247H-P is not IPS. That being evident I'm now leaning toward the Viewsonic in one size larger, the VX2370SMH-LED. It puts me at $159 but I think the extra 20 is worth it to go from a 21.5 viewable to a 23 viewable. I can sit on it for a bit and see what sales might be, but unfortunately most of the back-to-school deals are proabably already in effect.

There is a Dell IPS 23" that's also 159, but I've heard it's not just glossy but high gloss. That's probably al bit much. I do have a good history with Dell panels in the workplace, but most of them have been from the Ultrasharp series which is way over my budget.

8/19/2013 5:36:51 PM

no benq fanboys?

8/19/2013 6:27:12 PM

They really don't make it easy to figure that out on the amazon page. It sorta implies it on the top of the page with the "Product Alert" warning about it being IPS.

I mean if you don't need professional color reproduction for photo, video or print work, the Asus is going to be more than you need. Panels these days are insanely good for basic and general tasks. If you are trying to keep it under a low budget, grab the older Asus 24" for $130 and call it a day. The vast majority of people can't see the difference between IPS and TN panels anyhow; as long as it looks good, doesn't ghost and somewhat color balanced. The really only pinnacle selling feature of the viewsonic is going to be the small bezel's for multi-monitor setups.

8/19/2013 6:35:01 PM

^You can tell its not an IPS panel just by the 2ms response time.

And that's complete bullshit. I'm 60% color blind and I can instantly tell a significant difference between a TN and IPS panel. The viewing angles are worse on TN, the contrast is worse, the color accuracy is light years worse and color range is horrific.

Dell makes awesome IPS and eIPS panels, but if its glossy versus matte (which apparently the viewsonic is), I would go with the matte display every time.

And $159 is not in any "disposible". I only paid slightly more for my 27" monitor and it still felt like a ridiculous purchase.

Benq monitors might be good for general use, but I have never seen one that was even middle of the road quality for any productivity use.

8/20/2013 10:34:36 PM

If you're serious about photo editing or have clients that need color accurate corrections there's a few professional grade monitors out there. Dell has Premier Color and NEC has the professional grade. Lacie and Eizo make some too, but those are very pricey. Nice, but really really pricey.

I would go with an IPS panel for any color correction stuff. Also I would invest in something like x-rite if you're serious about it.

For color correcting or any type of design it's so much easier to work on a larger size monitor. 24" to 27" seems to be that sweet spot for that type of work.

8/21/2013 1:28:44 AM

^Not using it for anything professional, just an amateur/hobbyist photographer who recently purchased a DSLR and has a significant backlog of unedited photos from my older cameras. So it's "important" but not "spend a bundle because it's an income stream" important.

I've pretty much decided on the Viewsonic 23" at this point. Haven't ordered it yet as it's going to be part of a larger order (including an ultrabook for my parents...they're going to have a nicer system than me ) But will report back once I receive it. Thanks all for your input!

8/21/2013 2:22:23 AM

Well if you got a DSLR, get the viewsonic. I was thinking you had a bunch of holiday camera phone images to go through...

Quote :

"You can tell its not an IPS panel just by the 2ms response time."

Not anymore, they do have insanely fast IPS panels now days. And I never go by those numbers anyhow, marketing people suck ass in terms of reporting wrong numbers to pad their boxes. Asus has been known for reporting the fastest response time, not average, in the past. Best to use independent monitor reviewers, but the problem is that they never do a full review on "disposable" and cheap monitors, considering they change out every 6 months.

Quote :

"And that's complete bullshit. I'm 60% color blind and I can instantly tell a significant difference between a TN and IPS panel. The viewing angles are worse on TN, the contrast is worse, the color accuracy is light years worse and color range is horrific."

You are someone who is on a college forum, obviously well educated and talking in the tech section. You do not represent the average American.

Sure you can see the difference when panels are right next to each other, but the average American can't see the difference between the color range of a 6 bit TN vs an 8+ bit IPS panel when they aren't next to each other. Remember, most people who tend to buy cheap panels aren't going to be your tech savvy users who know what TN or IPS means; they just want something simple to display their email, watch cat videos, play a game or two and video chat with family members. Either that or they know about the TN panel shortfalls and just need it to display stats info for a financial firm; they don't care about color calibration.

Also actually, TN panels tend to have better contrast ratio for the longest time because of the way IPS panels were made, which required thicker material, more back light, and usually not as bright whites; its only recently have IPS panel tech returned to having better contrasts, specially LED variants, only shortfall with LED IPS are the color range limitations, which is why in the professional world, CC IPS are still selling pretty well. Most modern monitors are shipped with pretty good color balancing from the factory, maybe not perfect but it beats shit from 5+ years ago when it was all over the place. Most average DeltaE's would be around 3% or less; and if you were serious about color balancing anyhow, you'd have a hardware calibrator anyhow to get it perfect...


And realistically, if you are just editing photo's for online purposes anyhow to post on flickr or facebook, the sRGB color space is all you really need, which most TN's cover pretty well. The likely chance is that the other person out in the ethos are going to be viewing it on a TN panel anyhow, while wasting their time on facebook and adultfriendfinder...

8/21/2013 3:11:22 AM

NP Rich.

I figured I went overboard. Built in resentment of too many "But that looked good on my monitor". Of course that looked good on your cheap uncalibrated monitor. The same monitor that over saturates every color in the spectrum. I've got no idea that fabric wasn't supposed to be purple, but should have been a royal blue. Yes I can fix it. Can you provide me with the original? No. Oh you saved over the originals because you were too lazy to create a new file name. That's fine. I'll need a swatch of the fabric and now it'll cost you 10x what I originally quoted you. Well I guess you won't do that again.

8/21/2013 6:17:57 AM