Review Roundup: Five Low-Cost 19-Inch LCD Displays

If you're wondering whether to choose between a CRT monitor or an LCD panel, don't bother: LCDs have won the argument flat out. Not surprisingly -- LCDs offer a smaller desktop footprint, much lighter weight (the typical 19-inch LCD has a native resolution of 1280 x 1024; an equivalent CRT would probably weigh over 60 pounds) and savings in both heat and power.

More recently, the price of LCDs has dropped to the extent that you no longer have to have a corporate budget to afford one. While LCD displays used to run over a thousand dollars for even a simple 15-inch unit, you can now find a solid 17-inch display for under $300.

For this roundup, we assembled five 19-inch LCDs that hover around the $250 price point, from both popular and lesser-known manufacturers: the AG Neovo AGM A-19, the BenQ FP93G X, the Rosewill R913J, the Samsung SyncMaster 940BF, and the ViewSonic VX922.

However, CRTs have been so much a part of the computer landscape for so long that many of us may not be aware of the different factors involved in buying and using an LCD monitor. There are a number of differences between the two types of monitors that it would be wise to keep in mind when you shop for your next desktop display.

Forget About Flicker
We've become used to looking for a monitor with the highest refresh rate possible. However, the average LCD prefers a refresh rate of 60 Hertz -- something that would have a CRT flickering like a candle. Why? Because LCDs don't actually have a refresh rate.

CRTs use scan lines to display an image. Every pixel is a section of the phosphor coating that's on the inside of the screen, and is "painted" by electrons from the cathode ray tube, left to right, top to bottom, over and over again. LCDs don't use scan lines. In fact, they don't actually have a refresh rate. They have a response/recharge time.

That's because the pixels in an LCD are actually physical objects -- transistors sandwiched between plates -- and not the result of electron guns scanning the screen. An LCD simply needs to have its pixels recharged periodically so they'll stay lit -- there is no movement across and down the screen.

The response rates of today's LCDs, measured in milliseconds, range between 8ms and 12ms. (Some of the more expensive LCDs go as low as 2ms.) That equates roughly to 125Hz and 83.3Hz , respectively -- more than enough to compensate for the flickering 60Hz fluorescent lights we've hung in our homes and offices.

But while LCDs don't suffer from flicker, they can have a problem with smear. That occurs when the behind-the-screen recharging can't keep pace with the onscreen action. However, that's rare in models at or below 8ms.

The Right Height
Also be aware that none of these five LCDs is vertically adjustable. They all tilt about 5 degrees up and 20 degrees down, but their heights are fixed -- short of stuffing last week's bestseller under the base. That may be an issue for you, depending on your desk and chair height.

Getting The Best View
LCDs aren't perfect -- in fact, they can be twitchy beasts. For example, a 19-inch display with a native resolution of 1280x1024 actually offers a slightly distorted view. Why? Because that resolution's aspect ratio (1280/1024) is the equivalent of a 5:4 ratio -- while computer monitors and televisions (at least, until HDTV takes over) prefer a 4:3 ratio. As a result, you may not be able to work comfortably in a 1280 x 1024 resolution. (If that's the case, you may want to try a different resolution -- this type of distortion is nearly nonexistent in resolutions of 1024 x 768 and lower.)

Ever try to adjust the brightness on an LCD screen? Difficult, right? That's because you're not just trying to adjust the brightness of the pixels, as you would be with a CRT, but the brightness of the backlight as well. Turn it down and, depending on what type of backlight your LCD uses, you could end up with one side of the screen darker than the other. (Or maybe you'll discover that "black" is actually purple with deep blue mixed in.) Turn it up and you may start to notice that you're losing your grays.

The solution? Persistence. You'll just have to raise and lower the brightness, and adjust the contrast in between, until you hit just the right spot that fits your visual comfort zone. It's tedious, but once set, it rarely needs to be changed again.

Pixel Perfect
One of the problems with LCDs has always been the phenomenon known as "dead pixels" -- pixels on the display that simply don't work. There are actually a variety of problems: hot pixels, which are permanently lit; stuck pixels, which remain one color; and dead pixels, which are always dark. There's an international standard that applies to how many of these uncooperative pixels are allowed per screen before you can send it back, but it's open to a lot of interpretation.

While early notebooks had frequent problems with problem pixels, the situation has improved. For example, I found no dead pixels on the five LCDs reviewed here. However, it's certainly not unknown. Be aware that you could end up with one or more dead pixels and not know it. They usually show up only when set against a solid field of color (such as at boot-up). Also, in field of 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024), even five or six that aren't working can be difficult to spot unless they're clustered together.

Your best defense is to find out what the pixel return policy is both from the monitor manufacturer and the reseller so you'll know what your recourse is should you end up with more than one or two dead pixels.

How I Tested
To test the five LCDs, I built a PC with an Intel Pentium D 955 Extreme Edition processor, a Radeon X800 GTO graphics card, and a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 TVl tuner card. I used them with a variety of media, including DVDs, TV, recorded videos, and action games like Doom and Quake, in both analog and digital modes as necessary. I also ran the monitors through their more mundane paces with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Ulead's PhotoImpact 10, and, of course, extreme Internet browsing.

In the end, though, all of the parameters that make a display worth its price are typically subjective. For example, video gamers typically look for monitors that can handle a monstrously huge number of frames per second. The problem is that the human brain (at least the average one) can only process about 51 frames per second at maximum. Sending a 90fps or a 100fps stream into a display and noting whether or not it smears as a result is an exercise in gratuitousness.

Another example is color. While you could use a calibrated color bar generator to determine which monitors can display colors most accurately right out of the box or after a bit of fiddling, it's far more important that a display has adequate and sufficient adjustability to show the colors you want to see.

In the end, which LCD you decide to buy will depend on its features, its ergonomics, and the size of your pocketbook. The following five displays offer examples of what is out there.

AG Neovo AGM A-19
AG Neovo's AGM A-19 is actually a second brand for AG Neovo (much like Optiquest is to Viewsonic) with the "AGM" part of its name used as an acronym for "A Good Monitor." It's also the sole LCD monitor in this group that is analog-only.

"Then why bother?" I hear you ask. Well, there are times when analog is the only option you actually need -- for example, if your graphics card doesn't have a DVI output or if you're using a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switch. Few, if any, of these are digitally friendly, and while your monitor of choice might have a DVI input, you'd be paying for something you might never use.

That, of course, is the theory. However, the A-19 is not much cheaper than, say, Rosewill's R913J, which includes both analog and digital inputs.

Like the Rosewill display, the A-19 has a pair of speakers integrated into the bezel. Unlike the Rosewill, these speakers produce a lowly 1 watt of audio. In spite of that, however, the A-19 managed to produce reasonable audio in a relatively quiet room. Of course, most desktop installations will probably already have a speaker system, making these speakers redundant.

As shipped, the the brightness and contrast on the A-19 was so high that I had to immediately back them down. That was no easy feat. Having the legends for the OSD (On-Screen Display) controls printed in charcoal gray on the left side of the black bezel wasn't the real problem -- a flashlight solved that. Having the controls themselves positioned on the back, rather than the front, of the monitor was the challenging part. (I managed.)

Even then, the colors, especially reds and oranges, were somewhat washed out in videos -- not to a great degree, but just enough to annoy. (I encountered a similar situation with the BenQ FP93GX.) No amount of adjustment, even the auto-adjust, completely cured the problem, but I did manage to get things to a more acceptable level. In the process, I learned that the A-19 does not appear to like grays, which tended to be speckled. White and black separately, however, were fine, and gaming was excellent -- the colors were vibrant and there was no smearing or page tearing.

In short, an analog monitor such as the AG Neovo AGM A-19 would fill its niche -- except that there are competing models that cost the same or less and also offer digital output.

BenQ FP93G X
BenQ's FP93G X worked well straight from the box, but not quite well enough to satisfy -- there was just a dab too much green in everything at its default settings. Unfortunately, it was not easy to find out how to fix it.

The review model was the black version of the monitor -- an unassuming panel with a half-inch bezel all around and six black buttons at the lower-right corner. The problem was that the legends for these buttons were also black, making a flashlight almost a required accessory for fiddling with the On-Screen Display. (If you don't want to cope with this issue, I'd recommend the silver version of the monitor -- pictured here -- which also has a black legend.)

After spending some time with the mostly unintuitive icons, I discovered the color adjustment, which included three factory presets -- Bluish, Reddish, and Normal -- as well as a user-adjustable option. The BenQ manual suggests the Bluish setting for standard PC use, Reddish is a newsprint standard, and Normal, it says, is best used for videos and photos. While I found the Normal setting didn't quite work for me, it took only a few tickles of the user options, as well a slight dip in brightness, to bring the FP93GX to an acceptable color level in both analog and digital modes when viewing video.

Even so, the colors seemed a bit washed out -- especially oranges and reds -- and no amount of fiddling could cure it. Had this been the only LCD monitor I looked at, this situation would have probably gone unnoticed. It wasn't a bad image, just not quite as good as several of the rest. (The analog mode has an "auto adjust" function that is not available when inputting a digital signal, but it wasn't any more effective than using manual adjustments.)

Color problems were much less evident while gaming, no matter which input mode I used. In fact, the default color settings produced a credible image. As well, there was no evidence of smearing, even when I placed the games in demo mode and let them run at the speed of the video card. Considering the monitor's super-fast 2ms response rating, I didn't expect to see any.

I should also mention that the FP93G X seemed to have the narrowest viewing angle of the group. It's rated at 140/135 degrees, left/right, up/down, respectively. If you typically sit head-on, facing the screen, you'll never notice a thing. Shift a little, as you might when using multiple displays or if you place your monitor off to the side, for example, and you could end up seeing something that looks more like a negative than a positive color video image.

BenQ's FP93G X wouldn't be my first choice from among these five monitors. However, if I could find it at the low end of the price range with the $30 rebate that seemed to be floating around, I wouldn't eliminate it from consideration either.

Rosewill R913J
Rosewill's R913J is one of the least expensive (but possibly hardest to find) LCD displays in the group. I found it at Newegg for about $225 with a $70 mail-in rebate. If you can find it with a similar rebate, that's a great price.

If you suspect that the R913J can't be as good as LCD panels that cost two to three times as much, you're almost right. The display has three flaws, but they're far from fatal.

The viewing angle is a bit constrained compared to several of the others reviewed here. In practical terms, that means you probably won't want to sit on the floor, hang from the ceiling, or stand at either side of the room while trying to see what's on the screen. Your reward for trying to do any of those would be an eyeful of gray glare with the occasional image appearing in the middle.

Although the trend of late has been for thin bezels so that panels can be placed together in multi-display environments, Rosewill has gone its own way with the R913J. The top and sides are reasonably narrow at just over an inch, but the bottom segment stretches down 2.5 inches to accommodate the multifunction control switch and the integrated speakers.

Multifunction switches -- which have you push up, down, left, or right in order to choose a setting onscreen -- are always a bit confounding, but since almost all other monitors these days use them, it's something you have to get used to. In this case, it's the speakers that will drive you crazy. At 3 watts, the pair works well in a quiet room if you've cranked up all of the volume options (application, monitor, and Windows). Just don't do anything loud -- like type. They're an homage to the day when LCD displays were used for stationary portable computers and expectations for laptop speakers were low. They're useless, and likely redundant, in most desktop environments.

However, those are my only real criticisms. Although I found several mentions on the Internet of people having DVI display problems, I experienced none. I had no problems with the color either -- for example, the Thing from the Fantastic Four was a suitable shade of orange in both analog and digital modes. The whites of the garbage trucks were true, and the grays and blacks of evening were accurate. Nor did I encounter any smearing during game playing. Black text on a white background, and white text on a black background, easily passed muster, as did image details in general. While there are three color presets as well as user-adjustable color options, none appeared to be any more effective than the factory default.

The bottom line? The Rosewill R913J has all of the performance of higher-priced models -- it just won't win any beauty contests in device design. Considering the price this can be found at, I don't think most people will mind.

Samsung SyncMaster 940BF
Overall, the SyncMaster 940BF is one of the least assuming monitors you're likely to encounter. Basically, it's a screen on a stand with a narrow half-inch bezel. The only adornment is the row of five buttons at the bottom right that control its On Screen Display. However, everything beyond the aesthetics is upscale.

How often can you claim, "The color just jumped out at me," and actually be taken seriously? Say this to someone who has seen one of Samsung's SyncMaster LCD monitors and it would come as no surprise. The SyncMaster 940BF continues that tradition. To be honest, part of the reason it did so when I first powered it up was because the brightness level was set to 100 percent as a default. However, even after I brought the level and contrast down a bit, the color rendition was still quite impressive.

The iconology used by Samsung for its onscreen controls is as cryptic as all the others, but the company has remedied this by including a CD with a utility called MagicTune that gives you mouse and menu control of the settings. The CD also contains a utility called Natural Color that allows you to synchronize your display and print colors.

I don't recommend the 940BF for analog use. It's not that it does poorly. Although the color rendition is bit muted and the grain a bit obvious, it does rather well across the board with DVDs, games, graphics, and text when connected to an analog output. The 940BF simply has no obvious advantage as an analog display over, for example, the lower-cost Rosewill R913J, which has a lower price. It's on the digital side that the 940BF really shines.

The 940BF's 2ms recharge/response time is among the fastest in the industry, rivaling Viewsonic's VX922. At that rate, smearing is not an issue. In fact, my only complaint with this display is that its viewing angles cause onscreen images to degrade rapidly with only small changes of position. For example, if you sit a foot below and to the right of the monitor and then move just six inches to the left, what was a perfectly fine image will become nearly unrecognizable.

For everything it offers, the SyncMaster 940BF is a bargain if you find it at the low end of its price range -- and more so if you happen to stumble upon the $55 rebate that was being offered at the time this was being written. (Rebate offers are often like buses. If you miss one, just stand there. Odds are good that another will show up not very long after.)

ViewSonic VX922
ViewSonic touts its 19-ich VX922 as the "world's fastest LCD" and it might well be -- or at least, it's one of them. The claim is based on the display's 2ms response time (which has a rough equivalence to a 500Hz refresh rate for a CRT). Just in case the response rate isn't quick enough, ViewSonic has also endowed the VX922 with what it calls its Dynamic Structure and Amplified Impulse technologies, which the company claims makes ghosts and smears a thing of the past.

Dynamic Structure focuses on the organics of the display -- the raw materials used and the way they're put together -- to insure that the panel will deliver the fastest possible response times. Amplified Impulse technology, on the other hand, works by giving pixels a brief "white burst" that jumpstarts them on their way between gray-to-gray transitions. According to ViewSonic, this technique provides a response time that's eight times faster than you'd typically encounter.

Theory is wonderful. Does it work? The answer for the VX922 is a resounding yes. Putting the monitor through its paces with three films (The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, The Fantastic Four, and King Kong) and two games (Doom and Quake) revealed no evidence of smearing whatsoever. Better still, the color rendition was outrageously good and the detail level excellent.

Most surprising was that the display capability degraded only modestly when switched from digital to analog inputs. I had to look long and hard at the screen to see the small difference in grain and somewhat fewer variations in color shading. Black appeared to be black and white appeared to be white, with gray making a resounding appearance when required. During those dull moments of testing just text, the characters were crisp in either white on black or black on white modes. The monitor is strictly for landscape-oriented viewing.

Good as it sounds, the VX922's limited number of control buttons used for its onscreen display can be maddening. There are five buttons: Power, 1, Down, Up, and 2. You activate the OSD menu by hitting the "1" key (Why the "1" key? Beats me.), select a category, select and accept an option within a set of choices, or select an alternate set of choices (contrast instead of brightness, or vice versa, for example). Would a Menu and/or Select button have been too much of problem? And I resented it even more when, after spending an hour fussing over the color and brightness/contrast values (there are four factory-default color settings plus user-selectable choices), it was the display's default values that produced the best, and most realistic, image appearance.

The ViewSonic VX922 also has one of the highest price tags (with no current sign of a rebate) of any of our five LCD monitors. But with 19-inch "Value Line" displays selling in consumer club outlets for around $290, the VX922 is a bargain at the low end of its price range. And for what you get, it's worth the few extra dollars.

19-Inch LCD Feature Comparison Chart