what do i look for in a flat panel?
 

i have these i see but i dont know what makes it a better picture:

HP


SONY



XEROX

Check them out in person. Make sure it is high quality and not some shit from walmart. :2 cents:

Im a sony guy... they always seem to have great pictures

Viewsonic.

I didn't look at the specs on those too closely, but I wouldn't go with any of them personally.

Make sure it's DIGITAL, not analog.

Make sure it's got a good refresh rate.

Make sure it has a good dot pitch.

Make sure it supports a higher resolution then 1280x1024. The higher the res it supports, the better the picture you'll get iout of it generally.

I have the Samsung 213T flat panels, I absolutely love the picture quality on them. We have a few analog flat panels floating around the office and they make me want to vomit the picture quality is so bad. Not to mention the colors.

Just to add up on this less is better for refresh rate ( for those who don't know)


Also look for ""TFT""-LCD Flat-Panel Monitor

trust me these monitors are more crripst clear and a lot brighter.

You can even see your own reflection "mirror like" with dark backgrounds


also bring it home and first thing do a dead pixel test... lotsa faulty monitors.

what is a good dot pitch?

so i guess THIS ONE is no good?

price is right, but it sucks?

Actually, the Sony doesn't look -too- bad, it's probably one of your better choices in that price/size range. There are higher quality 19" panels, but the price reflects it. Best thing to do is go check it out with some extremely high res high color images and see if you like it. If the blues are purple and the reds are orange, move on.

not even trying to spend $2k on a monitor, i dont even really need one lol

i just want to get a flat panel to clear up my desk area a bit.

i dont want to get a shitty one, or regret buying it later on though

I used to have two 21" Sony Trinitron CRT's on my desk, when I switched to the 21" panels, oh my god, I discovered what it was like to have desk space! It's nice to recover lost space.

Go check the Sony out in person, if you like it, grab it.