When buying a new monitor there are so many different displays it may become confusing which one to buy. There are LCD, LED, and Plasma displays and to make matters even more confusing there are three different monitor panel types to choose from. Below I’ll be explaining the differences in the different displays and panels.
First we have the most popular display, LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display. This display is typically a flat panel display that uses a fluorescent back light with the video displaying on the liquid crystals. LCDs are used in a wide range of monitors such as computer monitors, televisions, instrument panels, clocks, phones, and much more. LCDs are also the cheapest of the three display types as well as being more energy efficient. One of the draw backs, however, is that LCDs cannot create a “true” black color. Since the back light is always on it’s not possible for the liquid crystals to become solid black.
Next we have the LED display or Lght-Emitting Diode. LEDs are made up of three different LEDs: red, green and blue. They are tightly packed together and flash very quickly to create any color the display requires. However, when it comes to monitors LED monitors are really just LCD panels with LEDs acting as the back light. Unlike the fluorescent lamps in LCD displays, LEDs require more precise current and heat management but are extremely cheap and can be even smaller and slimmer than LCDs. Blacks on LED monitors do improve as the section of the LEDs can be turned off to produce a more true black.
Plasma may not be the top tier in displays but it is way more affordable then OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode), but is also a higher quality display compared to the others. Plasma uses small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases to display color, so it can offer a quicker refresh rate that can be useful in gaming as well as producing perfect blacks. It is more commonly used in large TVs with displays over 30 inches. Now, the disadvantages of a plasma display is that compared to high end LCDs or LEDs the colors can become washed out in bright rooms. Unless you’re sitting in a darkened room with no big windows it may be a better idea to use LCD or LED. Let’s also not forget that plasma displays must have a glass screen which makes them heavy and has a glared screen.
Moving on we now come to what type of LCD panel you may want to consider buying. This doesn’t affect plasma displays, only the LCD and LED type. A panel on the monitor is basically the “glass”, and the types of panels are Twisted Nematic (TN), Vertical Alignment (VA), and In Plane Switching (IPS).
Starting things off we have TN panels. TN panels are the cheapest panels and are found in lower quality monitors. When shopping, if you can’t see what type of panel is on the monitor the chances are it’s a TN. To make things worse, colors and viewing angles on a TN panel are not the best. Viewing angles from top to bottom are narrow and colors become washed out. The benefit of using a TN panel is its fast refresh rate (120Hz – 144Hz) that may become useful in a gaming monitor.
Next we have VA panels. Starting off on a positive note they are a much higher grade than TN panels, especially when it comes to the color display as well as the viewing angles. VA panels may not be able to compete against the highest quality of monitors, but do create a cheaper option suitable to most users. The downside of a VA panel is that viewing angles also become washed when moved side-to-side, even though they are much better than TN panels.
IPS panels are the highest quality line of LCD panels and are found in most high end monitors. They work great for all different users as their viewing angles and color are outstanding and you will also see IPS panels in most tablets as the better viewing angles help the small displays. Gamers, however, may not like the IPS panel as the refresh rate isn’t as high, but it may be worth the sacrifice for others to use this high-quality panel.
Hopefully this article will help you choose the best monitor for you, and remember that costs do vary quite a bit between monitors as higher quality comes at a price. It should also be noted that companies such as Asus, Samsung, Dell and Acer are what I recommend here at TSF. Stay tuned for more All You Need to Know articles soon!
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1 Comment
Buying a monitor used to be as easy as walking into a computer store and picking the display unit that looked the best. Now, there’s so many options I often feel paralized by choice. Chief, your article helped clear the confusion.
When buying a monitor there’s always the trade-off between cost and performance. Do you work with Excel workbooks alot? Maybe you need a ultawide screen monitor. Do you play graphics intensive games on your computer? Maybe you need a larger monitor with a finer resolution. Do you read long articles? Perhaps you need one that let’s you rotate the screen 90 degrees. Do you want to interact with the screen like a tablet? Perhaps you need a touch monitor.
Options abound and prices range from less than $200 on the budget end all the way to $2500 on the high-end with In-Plane Switching.
I have been using a Samsung SyncMaster SA650 for over a year and I love it. The only problem is that it’s a little expensive, it was around $400 dollars, but I purchased it because it had:
(1) the best reviews
(2) the ability to swivel the screen 90 degrees
(3) super bright display, since my computer faces a huge window sunlight is always beeming through which can make it hard to see; however, the display is so bright that this isn’t a problem, also
(4) the screen is a matte finish so I don’t have to worry about glossy reflections everywhere.