What do i look for when buying a widescreen monitor?

Im looking at buying a widescreen monitor, and i want a good deal but i dont wanna sacrafice too much quality for a good price. when looking through them they show at least 3 main descriptive features, Resolution, Contrast Ratio, and # cd/m2 Brightness, how do these 3 affect the picture quality and what numbers are better to look for?

Answers:
I'm going to assume you are going for a 22" or below monitor because if you're buying 24" monitor and up..wow you must have a lot of money because those monitors cost $500 and up.

Anyway, a number of 1000:1 is a very good contrast ratio for under 22" monitors. Actually, 800:1 is good enough. There are some monitors that have 1600:1 ratio, but find out if this is a "fake" ratio or not
for resolution, multiply the two numbers. The bigger number means more pixels. More pixels is ALWAYS good :)
but a 1400x900 monitor on a 20" has more condensed pixels than a 1400x900 monitor on 22". This means your picture will be better but you'll have 2 inches less screen (the inches are measured from corner to corner)
300 cd/m2 is great. I actually took a look at some monitors at Best Buy yesterday (went to buy a laptop backpack for myself), all of the ones showcased had 300 cd/m2 and they looked good. If you buy any higher I guarantee you won't notice any difference.
don't forget delay. 5 milliseconds response time is good but if you can get lower (I've seen 2ms), that's even better

In my opinion, the most important details to look for are:
1.) Price. I've seen 19" LCD monitors go for as low as $130 at Best Buy and other stores. 22" for $180
2.) pixels (resolution). I intend on buying a 22" (1680 x 1050)
3.) cd/m and response time aren't really that important, you won't notice much if you compare these two. Go with the numbers I mentioned earlier (300cd/m2 and 5ms)
4.) brand (although it doesn't really matter that much.most companies re-sell other companies' monitors)
Resolution is the ammount of pixels - the more the better

Contrast Ratio is the difference between the deepest blacks and the brightest whites. It is also the most important aspect of picture quality. Look for at least 800:1.

Brightness is the second most important aspect of picture quality. Look for at least 400 cd/m2.

The answers post by the user, for information only, RunQA.com does not guarantee the right.


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