20" LED monitor vs 21.5" LCD monitor

Hi all,

Can't decide between a Dell IN2020M 20" LED monitor and a BenQ G2220HD LCD 21.5" monitor. Price difference of ~$20. The Dell runs a native resolution of 1600:900 while the BenQ runs 1920:1080. Just wondering if the LED makes a huge difference, or if it would be more worthwhile for me to dish out the extra $20 for a larger screen and higher resolution. I'm running on a ATI 4570 mobility card on my laptop, so any casual gaming (i.e Starcraft 2) would be done on my laptop screen and not on the external monitor. The external monitor would used for multitasking such as having side by side windows open, or watching movies which would not go any higher in resolution than 720p. That said, would the extra couple hundred pixels go to waste for my purposes?

Thanks in advance!

 

The monitor having LED backlighting will not make a huge difference. Get the 21.5" monitor with 1080p resolution. And actually the 1080p monitor has 44% more pixels than the 900p monitor. The extra size and space of the larger monitor cannot be underestimated. It is not a waste at all.

 

with all that said, would it be a better investment if i went another $20 for a LED 21.5" monitor, just for clarification? and also, does it matter whether or not the monitor has an hdmi input port or not, since the display res will be at 1920:1080 regardless right?

 

It's more than just LED v. CCFL (traditional backlighting). Look at the other specifications, such as contrast (and brightness - LED doesn't always mean brighter, although it usually does). In terms of multitasking, there is a large difference between 1920x1080 and 1600x900, so definitely go for the former if the price difference is not significant.

HDMI (or DisplayPort, if your laptop has that) is essential for a high-res external monitor such as the ones you're looking at. Past 1680x1050, VGA output doesn't really cut it - HDMI or DP will give you the best performance, so make sure your monitor has that.

 

I don't really understand. What the hell's the point of boasting a 1920:1080 res without a hdmi port then lol. Isn't that kind of pointless then?

 

LEDs supposedly saves you some electricity... that's the only reason I would consider LED over CCFL

 

HDMI is basically a DVI cable with the audio component. Considering we're talking monitors here, a DVI port would do the same job an HDMI port would do. Most laptops nowadays come with HDMI instead of DVI though, but it's not uncommon for monitors to still have DVI ports since lots of desktop GPUs still use both DVI and HDMI.

As for your initial question, I'd second looking at other specs of the monitor. Some monitors are better for some uses while others are better for others.

 

If the monitor has DVI and/or HDMI you're fine. And it will have one or both. Don't worry about displayport. It only comes on very expensive monitors.

 

Unfortunately, my laptop does not have a DVI output port.

edit: Also just found a HDMI to DVI cable; if I used this there shouldn't be in any losee of quality right, since as Forever_Melody pointed out DVI does the same job as HDMI without the audio

 

DVI and HDMI video are the same. They are just different connectors.

 

If your laptop has an HDMI output port, then you will be fine. You are correct that you can simply buy an HDMI-to-DVI cable to do the job. You are correct that you will not lose any quality by doing this.

If you live in the US, I would recommend that you buy your cable from MonoPrice. As many other forum members will tell you, MonoPrice is *THE* place to go to buy cables. They are all very high quality cables at very inexpensive prices. As long as MonoPrice sells the cable you need, there is no reason to buy from anywhere else.

 

My point was answering to the "why have a 1080p monitor without HDMI?". The answer was "because DVI can do the same job where video is concerned".

But yes, as long as you have either output(DVI or HDMI), you can connect to any monitor with either port if you have the proper cables/adapters.

 

this might seem like a bit of a novice question, but what kind of cable would i have to buy? would an adapter like this be sufficient?

Monster High Performance HDMI to DVI Video Adapter MKII - Male HDMI to Female DVI Adapter

Monster High Performance HDMI to DVI Video Adapter MKII - Male HDMI to Female DVI Adapter (VA HDMI-DVI SL MKII) | Canada Computers

 

What output port does your laptop have and what input port(s) does the monitor have?

You only need an adapter if the ports don't match(ex: HDMI to DVI).

 

Install adapters close to the back of the monitor if when possible or simply get a HDMI to DVI cable, it's around the same price. The adapter could block other ports next to the HDMI port, interfere with the DVD tray and it looks bulky, imagine when you connect the DVI cable to the adapter how it's going to look and it might wear out the hdmi port with all its weight. Adapters are weak links in your connection.

 

you raise a very good point haha

my laptop outputs hdmi, monitor will take dvi-d. that said, the hdmi end of the cable should be male, but i'm not familiar with the monitor/dvi-d end. should it also be male?

 

The DVI input on the monitor is female so your cable has to be male.

If you're worried about things falling flush just get an adapter cable instead of a cable and a separate adapter.

Something like this would work for example:

 

yeah i was just wondering whether the ends should be male/female. thanks for all the help!

 

Yeah so when you disconnect your adapter+dvi cable from your laptop and let go of it the whole thing just runs off your desk and hits the floor and puts a nick in your hardwood floor/tile... I'm just kidding. Make sure the cable is gold platted they seems to fit the HDMI port a lot better than the silver looking ones and always choose the best resolution out there for your monitor.

 

Other way around. HDMI is basically a DVI cable with an audio component. DVI doesn't do audio.

 

1080 resolution is going to matter a lot more than CCFL vs. LED backlighting.

 

Sorry that's what I meant (if not the rest of my paragraph wouldn't really work) Thanks, corrected!

 

ended up getting the 21.5" benq monitor, and using the vga cable atm. it seems fine for my purposes, but it's good to know that if i wanted to i can just get a dvi to hdmi cable later. thanks for all the help!

 

It's only $10 for one of those cables, and the picture is seriously better. I didn't think it would be either until I switched from VGA to HDMI on our media center, but the difference is night and day. Well worth $10, especially if the VGA cable is run near any other cables.

Newegg.com - BYTECC 6 ft. HDMI High Speed Male to DVI-D Male Single Link Cable Model HMD-6

 

If there isn't any flickering, jittering, or other noticeable anomaly to begin with, a digital connection isn't going to do anything.

 

Get LED monitor.

 

I own the Benq 22" Hd monitor and you will not be disappointed, it's very nice, great color, contrast and very nice resolution.

 

That's definitely true for desktop monitors. On the other hand, for laptop screens, LED is better because it's brighter than CCFL (for outdoor use) and because it usually consumes less power than CCFL (so that the battery lasts longer).

 

I honestly was never able to tell the difference with the same laptop, the Dell Inspiron 1545, configured with either LED or CCFL backlighting.