A Guide to Choosing the Right 19" LCD Monitor - 7 Models Reviewed

Buying an LCD

For all the wisdom that we can give you about how to spec out a monitor correctly, all of that is worthless if the monitor doesn't fit your personality. Unlike a video card or CPU, buying a monitor is a very personal experience. People have differences on how they angle the monitor, the level of ambient lighting, and some just have different design tastes than others. If one monitor specs out better than another, but looks hideous on your desk, it probably isn't worth buying.

Aesthetics aside, there are some key pointers to follow when buying an LCD. This may just be personal preference, but we always recommend buying an LCD from a retail shop. Since LCDs are such personal items - most likely the most personal computer-related item that you can buy - looking at it, touching it and just seeing it in person is something that can't be replaced by an online experience.

Keep in mind, when you go to a Best Buy or Fry's, the LCD monitors on display are out of calibration, physically dirty and probably receive a terrible signal from some sort of modulator that has been on for 5 years. There are very few exceptions where a floor model display will look better in the store than in an office or home.

Issues like warranty and pixel defect rate used to plague LCD buyers in the past, but quality control on most well recognized branded monitors today are high enough that we rarely experience these problems anymore. The most recent issues of defective pixels are usually limited to a few models like the recent debacle with Apple's cinematic displays. Almost every retail store has policies on LCD monitors that allow you to open the monitor packaging and view the monitor in the store before you take it home, and most retailers will replace LCDs that have dead or stuck subpixels, if you haven't take it out of the store yet.