LCDs: what to look for
* Choose a monitor that automatically adjusts to the timing of an
analog (VGA) signal. You want to see stable gray and patterned
images with no pixel jitter.
* Find a monitor with good viewing angles. Colors and brightness
should not change in the corners of the screen, where the viewing
angle is the greatest.
* Pick a monitor that looks uniformly bright when viewing both dark
and light images.
Tips and tricks: assessing LCD image quality
* Check for dead pixels, ones that are always off. It's not
uncommon for monitors to have one or two defective
pixels--especially larger models--but you want as few as possible.
Open Internet Explorer, in the address line type about:blank, and
press Enter. Then press the F11 key to make it full-screen. Look
for small black specks that are not dust or debris on the screen.
(Press F11 again to see the Explorer toolbars.)
* Check for stuck pixels, which are always on. Right-click the
Windows Desktop, pick Properties, then choose the Screen Saver tab.
Choose Blank from the list of screensavers, then hit the Preview
button. Look for any glowing red, green, or blue spots. (Press any
key to return to the Display Properties window.)
CRTs: what to look for
* Find a monitor with good convergence (clean white lines with no
colors on the edges), as this increases image sharpness.
* Choose a monitor with good screen geometry, especially if you
intend to use it for design or drawing tasks.
* Pick a monitor with good image regulation; you want an image that
does not change its dimensions or distort when the content of the
image changes. Poor image regulation can be a problem with
lower-priced models and displays that are operated at the upper
limits of their specifications.
Tips and tricks: assessing CRT image quality
* Check the convergence of the display. Open Windows Paint and
start a new image. Choose Image, then Attributes, and change the
size of the image to the same number of pixels as the current
resolution (to check the resolution, right-click anywhere on the
desktop, select Properties, then choose the Settings tab). Use the
Fill tool to fill the screen with black. Then choose the Rectangle
tool, set the drawing color to white, and draw a box that fills the
screen, starting in the upper-left corner. Scroll to the
bottom-right corner of the image and draw another box that fills
the screen. Now choose View, then View Bitmap to see the image on
the full screen. You should see a black screen with two
intersecting white rectangles. Check the white lines closely; you
should not see any areas where the lines separate into colored
lines. A slight color tinge along the edges of a line is
acceptable, but a pure white line is best.
Check the screen geometry. Look to see that the lines drawn in the
previous step are straight. You can also draw a circle in the
center of the image using the Circle tool (hold Shift down to draw
a perfect circle), then copy and paste the circle in the corners
and along the edges. Look to see that they are round--not squashed
or egg-shaped.
good geometry
bad geometry
continue here
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7610_7-5084364-6.html?tag=bnav
