22" Widescreen Benq monitors: $290
Okay, the final amazing buy I've found in the IT industry recently has again been more Umart.com.au oriented. Im sorry for those that are computer alliance fans or perhaps you just think i love Umart.
Thats not really true, i actually spend half my time on www.staticice.com.au and if you havnt been there for computer parts, go there now. What it is, is a google of IT computer parts retailers which serarches all through australian store retail prices everwhere and lists results for your searches with links and prices and who etc. What i find is generally noone in brisbane beats the prices from umart. Its a sad truth. I only give about $16000 a year income to a store so I dont really qualify for "at buy +10%" style of prices, so my weight in buying power is somewhat reduced.
Whew, what a mouthful, onto these monitors! So far I have bought roughly 5 of these monitors, and they are of top quality. I can give a picture of my desk here and you will see 3 of them sitting in a line, two where i sit, ive leant one to my girlfriend, bought one for dave and another for nick.
Okay onto the review!
Some specification talk.
You can google specs if you like, but ill be honest but inspecific:
Response times:
They have decent 5ms response times. Thats pretty standard, but not great. However at this price i ignore that problem.
Contrast ratio:
This is somewhere around the 800:1. This is a "good" but not fantastic ratio. By good i mean that you will buy similar products with an extra 80-200 dollars with exactly this contrast ratio and you will be looking 200+ dollars for something around the 1000:1 or 2000:1 contrast ratio. What does this mean to normal people? Nothing. However I would not recommend graphics artists like Racheal to use this monitor.
Resolution:
Its just the same as any 22" which is 1680x1050 native res. This means that its wide screen, which we already know, and lots of desktop space. Complaints about this have been made before, and i actually say SHUT THE HELL UP. There is no such thing as a 22" widescreen with higher resolution. This comes down to pixel density. Monitors under their current manufacturing process cant make the pixel density any denser then it already is, and getting more pixels into that thing therefore is impossible. (well technically they can get it slightly denser, but you would end up with a very very odd resolution and no tangible benefit other then possibly at best 1700x1100 but be paying out the nose for the newer process)
Cons: It has light bleed. This is a problem for these kinds of monitors, and ill explain it: light bleed is when you put on a black background and you can see at the top and bottom of the monitor, the black becomes lighter then the center. This is caused by poorly designed light spreaders which sit infront of the LCD screen that illuminate the LCD evenly. In games/desktop with background/movies it is impossible to see but graphics artists i would suggest to stay away. Its enough to distort colours between one shade and another and make it all look very strange.
So my overall impression? Instead of buying a 24" widescreen for $800 dollars, buy two of these puppies and get twice the desktop space nearly. Instead of buying a 30" for $1600, buy 1 24" and 3 22". You can afford a second basic graphics card to extend your desktop viewing space and instead just play games on the larger monitor and benefit from the smaller monitors for desktop space, just have them portrait or something mode to keep it all happy.
Conclusion I bought these originally for $305 dollars, and each one has been slightly cheaper to the current price of $290. I have never seen a dead pixel on any of the 5 that i bought and tested. They are pretty and perfect for a gamer, desktop user, movie watcher, email writer. The only people who dont want them is someone who needs the highest of high quality, like graphics designers who need to worry about the exact shading of their cards.
Thats not really true, i actually spend half my time on www.staticice.com.au and if you havnt been there for computer parts, go there now. What it is, is a google of IT computer parts retailers which serarches all through australian store retail prices everwhere and lists results for your searches with links and prices and who etc. What i find is generally noone in brisbane beats the prices from umart. Its a sad truth. I only give about $16000 a year income to a store so I dont really qualify for "at buy +10%" style of prices, so my weight in buying power is somewhat reduced.
Whew, what a mouthful, onto these monitors! So far I have bought roughly 5 of these monitors, and they are of top quality. I can give a picture of my desk here and you will see 3 of them sitting in a line, two where i sit, ive leant one to my girlfriend, bought one for dave and another for nick.
Okay onto the review!
Some specification talk.
You can google specs if you like, but ill be honest but inspecific:
Response times:
They have decent 5ms response times. Thats pretty standard, but not great. However at this price i ignore that problem.
Contrast ratio:
This is somewhere around the 800:1. This is a "good" but not fantastic ratio. By good i mean that you will buy similar products with an extra 80-200 dollars with exactly this contrast ratio and you will be looking 200+ dollars for something around the 1000:1 or 2000:1 contrast ratio. What does this mean to normal people? Nothing. However I would not recommend graphics artists like Racheal to use this monitor.
Resolution:
Its just the same as any 22" which is 1680x1050 native res. This means that its wide screen, which we already know, and lots of desktop space. Complaints about this have been made before, and i actually say SHUT THE HELL UP. There is no such thing as a 22" widescreen with higher resolution. This comes down to pixel density. Monitors under their current manufacturing process cant make the pixel density any denser then it already is, and getting more pixels into that thing therefore is impossible. (well technically they can get it slightly denser, but you would end up with a very very odd resolution and no tangible benefit other then possibly at best 1700x1100 but be paying out the nose for the newer process)
Cons: It has light bleed. This is a problem for these kinds of monitors, and ill explain it: light bleed is when you put on a black background and you can see at the top and bottom of the monitor, the black becomes lighter then the center. This is caused by poorly designed light spreaders which sit infront of the LCD screen that illuminate the LCD evenly. In games/desktop with background/movies it is impossible to see but graphics artists i would suggest to stay away. Its enough to distort colours between one shade and another and make it all look very strange.
So my overall impression? Instead of buying a 24" widescreen for $800 dollars, buy two of these puppies and get twice the desktop space nearly. Instead of buying a 30" for $1600, buy 1 24" and 3 22". You can afford a second basic graphics card to extend your desktop viewing space and instead just play games on the larger monitor and benefit from the smaller monitors for desktop space, just have them portrait or something mode to keep it all happy.
Conclusion I bought these originally for $305 dollars, and each one has been slightly cheaper to the current price of $290. I have never seen a dead pixel on any of the 5 that i bought and tested. They are pretty and perfect for a gamer, desktop user, movie watcher, email writer. The only people who dont want them is someone who needs the highest of high quality, like graphics designers who need to worry about the exact shading of their cards.