27th August 2002
Question: I am getting ready to buy an LCD monitor and I was curious: what specifications should I be looking for?
Answer: First, I just want to give you early congratulations for stepping into the world of being space-efficient! Now that we've got the formalities out of the way, let's move on to the good stuff. The specifications you should look for in an LCD monitor depend on the monitor's size. If you are looking at a 15-inch LCD display then you want to make sure the screen can display at 1024 x 768. Most of the time you won't be able to find a 15-inch LCD display that can go higher than 1024 x 768, but you definitely don't want its maximum size to be lower than this. With bigger LCD displays should follow bigger maximum screen sizes. If you are stuck between a few LCD displays, then take a look at the dot pitch. (The dot pitch tells you how sharp your screen will be, and the lower the number, then the sharper the images.) While the refresh rate is a wonderful gauge for performance on the standard CRT monitor, what you want to look for on an LCD display is the pixel response time, which is usually between 20 and 50 milliseconds. The lower the pixel response time, the faster the pixels refresh (turn off and on), making the screen update faster, which is important for gamers. A lot of people have asked me why some LCD displays say 400:1. Well, that is the contrast ratio; you want that to be as high as possible. It is rare (but it CAN be found!) that an LCD would have a contrast ratio of 700:1 or higher. All that is left in your LCD display search are the extras. Some LCDs support digital video, auxiliary composite input, and even have built-in TV tuners or speakers. All the features are great, but they ARE just extras, so the choice is up to you. Hopefully this article will shed some light on your bright LCD future.