20-22 inch monitor (120 dollar)

I'm looking for a 20, 21, 21.5 or 22 inch monitor. I prefer 21.5.

What's important?
- Price. 120 dollar, not much more. I want to pay around 100 euro.
- 1080p
- HDMI
- Response time 8ms or lower
- No blurry/grainy text.
- No blue hue
- No bleeding

What's not so important?
- TN or IPS. All those high-tech display technologies, I don't really care about them. IPS is nice for the viewing angles, but that's about it. I still prefer LCD TVs over plasma, as I prefer my LCD screen on my smartphone (Nexus S, european version) over those S-AMOLED on those samsung smartphones.

Some screens produce really great image quality, but suck when you are just browsing the web (black text on white background). They are too grainy/blurry, have a blue hue or other issues. Most consumer monitors are LED backlit nowadays, but if it causes issues like bleeding or a blue hue, I would prefer a normal LCD.

In short, I want a monitor that's easy on the eye. I don't care about vivid, lively colors. I'm still very happy with my LG 32LC41 TV. Beats the out of some plasma TVs IMO.

 

At that price point, you are just going to have to get the cheapest 1080p monitor you can find. They are all 21.5 inches. I have done the same thing in the past, and I was always happy with them.

 

Thanks for your response, but I went with the Dell ST2220T. Together with the Inspiron 17R SE (i7 quad, 750GB 7200rpm, 6GB RAM) I got it for less than 1000 euro, which means less than 1000 dollar (well, not really, but for some reason Europe is more expensive than the USA).

The Dell ST2220T was kind of above my price range, but it has literally everything I want. Even without the touch function: IPS, NO LED (I just prefer CCFS, yellow hue over blue hue), 1080p, HDMI, NO coating, speakers (although crap, but who cares). And although the touchscreen isn't super responsive (I don't think you can really type on it like a normal keyboard), it should still be quite awesome when Windows 8 comes.

 

Could you give us an update on how your experience with the screen has been so far?
I think I might buy one myself, but I'm concerned that it might not be much better in terms of eye comfort & stuff than my laptop's screen (LP156WF1), although it sure does have very nice specs.
Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah sure! I will write a review in this forum section.

I got it because I think CCFL is easier on the eyes. LED may have its advantages, but I don't like how it looks at all.

I will let you know how the screens looks, how easy it is on the eyes, what things I noticed and what things I didn't like. I won't write about all the technical aspects, so in the meantime you could read this review if you haven't done that already: Dell ST2220T Review

The only problem I see is that the ST2220T only has two point touch (at least that's what people tell me), and Windows 8 "requires" a minimum of five point touch. This seems really weird to me, because there are almost no screens out there yet that have five point touch, let alone a screen as nice as the ST2220T. I don't really care if all the cool gestures won't work, but at least things like scrolling, zooming, swiping, should work...

 

That's great, looking forward to it.

We're on the same page as far as LED vs CCFL is concerned. Apparently it has something to do with PWM, but I don't know many details. All I know is that from the time I switched from a CCFL screen to a LED one, I can't look at it without getting my eyes tired, even for short periods of time. And I have tried all the workarounds, increasing dpi, reducing brightness/contrast/gamma - it's still the same.

Thanks for the link, although I had already checked it out. Very thorough review. *thumbs up*

 

I've found that the reason most people buy the ST2220T because of its glossy IPS screen. They say: why buy a beautiful IPS screen if you are going to put a grainy AG coating over it? I kind of agree, although you could also say this: why buy a beautiful IPS screen if you are only going to see your own reflection? I guess that's a trade-off.

Besides CCFL being easier on the eye (for me at least. For us), I also don't like the colors of LED screens. There is this blue hue that I've also seen on the AMOLED screens on Samsung smartphones. It may be true that CCFL has a yellow hue as opposed to a blue hue, but I like it better that way.

Anyway, I've noticed that the yellow hue is much easier on the eye than the blue hue. The blue hue looks cold. Also, some people see flickering on LED LCDs.

 

So when can we expect the review? (I'm this close to ordering this monitor, hopefully I will be patient enough to wait for your review before I pull the trigger.)

 

I will get my laptop and monitor tomorrow! So I will post the review tomorrow, or else the day after.

I don't think I can convince you more though. TFTcentral already said everything there is to say. But I can tell you my impressions if you want.

 

Yeah, I'm particularly looking for personal impressions/experience.

 

You could look here: User Reviews for Dell ST2220T at TestFreaks.com

This site collects all user reviews/impressions from sites like Ebay, Amazon, etc.

You can also look here, at the Dell user reviews: Dell st2220t 23" Full HD Widescreen Monitor Details (at the bottom of the page).

I've probably read them all, or at least 90% . Usually people love the screen, but aren't too happy about the touch functionally. I just think they had the wrong expectations. If you don't expect smartphone/iPhone grade touchscreen, you will be happy. Basically, all 1 star reviews were given by people who hated the touchscreen because it wasn't as responsive as they had expected.

Anyway, I will write you something more... "sophisticated" than just "I LOVE IT BEST THING EVUURRR" or "I HATE THIS PIECE OF DELL SUCKS DO NOT BUY THIS"

 

Basically the reason I would like to hear your impressions, is that you were aware of the LED-CCFL difference, and you opted for the 2nd one (like I will probably do too ).
And yes, those comments in these review sites aren't very convincing from my perspective.

Well, I won't be using (probably) mine as a touchscreen, so I don't really care if it's not very good in that aspect. Actually if you don't mind, you can leave that part out of your review.

 

Well Theo, I got my laptop and screen today, and after installing this driver and that driver, I was finally able to set up my screen.

That also needed more drivers, but it was done in less than a minute. Touchscreen works via USB, and besides that you need power supply and a HDMI cable (not delivered, they do deliver a VGA cable though). Kind of a mess with the cables, but that's okay because you don't see them anyway. The screen also has speakers, but I wouldn't use them. They are quite crappy compared to external speakers, or just your monitor speaker. You can disable the monitor as an audio output via the control panel, or you can use DVI instead of HDMI. It also has 3x USB 2.0, which works great as a sort of hub. I use it for my keyboard and mouse. Makes no sense to put a keyboard and mouse into a 3.0 port, so this way I can use my precious 3.0 ports on my laptop for something else. The touchscreen USB does take up one slot though.

Now, onto what's really important; the TOUCH function! Nah, I'm kidding. I will keep it short. The monitor is pretty far away from me, so I have to reach over my desk to even touch it. I doubt I'm going to use it much, if at all. It's actually pretty responsive, sometimes even too responsive; if you hold your finger 1 or 2 mm above the screen it will already work. Only two-point touch though, don't expect to be typing on it with 10 fingers. Even with 2 fingers is too fast for the screen. Corners are a little bit hard to reach because of the raised bezel, but I have small fingers so it wasn't too bad.

So what's my opinion about the screen? I could easily compare it to my Inspiron 17R SE laptop screen (1080p, LED backlight, TN). So it's IPS-CCFL versus TN-LED. I didn't do a lot of testing, but I watched some youtube videos. Black is more black with the TN-LED screen, as I had expected. White is a little bit harder to explain. When watching the Dark Knight Rises trailer ( The Dark Knight Rises Trailer 2 Official 2012 [HD] - Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway - YouTube), you can see the title of the movie on a grey-white background at around 1:56. On the IPS-CCFL screen it looks yellowish, while on the TN-LED screen it looks much cooler, a sort of white/blueish color. I guess the best way to describe the two screens is warm vs cool, yellow vs blue. I liked the grey/white more on the TN-LED panel at that moment, but with some calibrating I should be able to fix the yellow hue.

Photos of landscapes look much more vivid and alive on the IPS-CCFL screen, but I don't think I have to tell you that. IPS is known for that quality.

I haven't had issues with the fact that it's a glossy screen, while my laptop screen has a coating. If you turn off the monitor, it works just as well as a mirror . Just make sure there is no lamp or sunlight shining directly on the monitor.

So, does it strain my eyes? Not nearly as much as the TN-LED panel. It's very easy to see if you put them next to each other. The TN-LED panel seems to be "flickering", I don't know... very subtle, but also very irritating. The IPS-CCFL panel actually looks sharper because it doesn't flicker, even though it's much bigger with the same resolution. Maybe this also has something to do with the fact that the TN-LED panel has an AG coating.

CCFL is supposed to be less bright than LED. This is true, and over time it will only get worse (CCFL degrades quicker than LED), but I can tell you that 100% brightness is too bright for me. In the evening I can easily put it down to 0%, but most of the time I keep it at around 20-30%.

Like I said, I haven't really calibrated the screen yet, but it has some presets. I can tell you what I think of them:
Standard: one of the best options. Has that yellowish hue though.
Multimedia: like someone has put a blue filter over my screen. Not too bad, but I wouldn't use it
Game: if "multimedia" makes it blue, then "game" makes it green. Not as bad as multimedia though
Warm: just stay away from it. Looks like someone took a big crap and smeared it evenly across my screen. Reminds me of sepia filters
Cool: another preset to stay away from. Looks like I'm viewing my screen from underwater. Way too blue. Definitely not the way to get rid of the yellowish hue
custom (RGB): now this is interesting. Makes everything seem more bland/less vivid. You can see this the best when looking at a landscape picture with a sun. It will appear as if the sun shines less with custom (RGB). Slightly less yellow hue, but it isn't gone yet. I don't think you can really get rid of the yellow hue, because if you do the screen will probably look too cool/blue ;p. Anyhow, the custom option is one of the best, together with standard. All colors, R, G and B, are at 100 as a default with custom (RGB). If you turn Green one or two notches down, I think it improves the yellow hue. But like I said, haven't really experimented with it yet.

You know about viewing angles when it comes to IPS vs TN. Not much to say.

If you want to know anything, just ask!

EDIT:

I used the calibrated custom RGB settings from TFT central:

Brightness: 36
Contrast: 75
Preset Mode: Custom (RGB)
RGB settings: 97, 91, 96

Compared to the standard preset: you can still see the yellow hue (when comparing the Dark Knight Rises trailer like I said), but it's much much better. The standard preset looks way too green if I look at it now. When comparing the standard Windows 7 red rocks wallpaper (it looks something like this: http://www.photographyinfos.net/wp-content/Pictures/20120225/20120225112033175.jpg), the rocks seem to emit light with the standard preset. You could say it looks less vivid with the calibrated settings, but I would say it looks much better.

 

Wow, I really appreciate it that you took the time to write the review for me, although I'm sure there'll be other people who will find it useful too.

The yellow hue doesn't really bother me at all, I got so used to it after years of using a CCFL laptop screen, that this is mainly the cause for my LED intolerence.
So I think I'll be fine in terms of this aspect. Other than that, can you specifically comment on how easy it is to work with black text on white background (MS Word, Notepad, Wikipedia)? That's the main thing that concerns me, cause otherwise my current LED screen is fine for me and my eyes (like movies, photos, etc.).
Thanks again.

 

Black text on white background on the TN-LED panel makes it seem like the screen is "flickering". It's every so slightly, but very irritating for my eyes. It is the most noticable with black text on white background, and it makes my eyes very tired reading wikipedia for a long time. In this case I definitely like the IPS-CCFL screen better. But I had expected as much. I have to say that the text on the IPS-CCFL is a little bit larger than on the TN-LED, so that's another reason why I'd rather read on the IPS-CCFL panel.

 

I think I've made my mind now, thanks a bunch Androyed!
I will probably write some impressions once I get it.

edit. Oh, I also "repped" you.

 

Thanks! Be sure to use the calibrated settings from TFT central. It's much better now. Tell me what you think of the screen. I'm curious if we agree!