[LiveBrianD]

OK, so I'm definitely finding that 23" is a bit smaller than I'd like, font size and all. I don't like the color on this Acer, even after messing with the settings quite a bit, and I think color shifting and viewing angles are worse than on other cheap TN panels I've seen. I'm planning to sell the acer and get a 25" one for around $250. What's better in your opinion, color-wise, the ASUS VE258Q or HP 2511X? Note: the hp is glossy, though I'm not certain that'll be an issue for me. Also, I don't care at all about integrated speakers (usually junk anyways) and I'd prefer an integrated power brick, but that's not a big issue. The color presets seem to be good on the HP monitors I've seen (I saw the 2511X in a store, though I didn't mess with it much, and it looked pretty good. The LA1905WGs they have at my school are good enough too, except for the dot pinch - that's better on my 19" 1280x1024 samsung, which has a lower dpi.). I haven't seen the asus, so it's hard to say which is better. The ASUS is a bit more expensive, though I can get an amazon warehouse deal one for the same price as the HP one new.

Also, I know I could get a lower-end 23" IPS Dell for that price, but I don't want a Dell due to past experiences, and I want something bigger. Most TN monitors seem good enough, this Acer being a notable exception. Also, I can't find professional reviews on either. I think that people like me and professional reviewers are more sensitive to little things like color than a lot of reviewers on amazon and newegg are - my acer has good ratings on those sites, but isn't very good according to other sites (I wasn't planning to get the Acer before, so I didn't look for other reviews). I also notice that the ASUS VE276Q (CCFL, 27") is only about $20 more than the VE258Q (LED, 25"), and has good ratings on amazon and newegg, but professional reviewers don't like it much.

Your thoughts?

[LiveBrianD]

Hey, anyone here? Generally, how's the quality of ASUS monitors? I know you guys think Samsung is good, but they don't have a monitor of this size, I'm not sure if 24" is big enough to be comfortable, 27" is a bit too big and expensive, and I don't like the design of their newer ones. (though I have to admit, my older Samsung is pretty good for a cheap TN monitor) Who knows, one guy thinks the VE258Q is better than a lot of other monitors, including CCFL and LED-backlit Samsungs...

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 04 March 2012 - 02:50 PM

[waldojim]

I have never used an Asus or HP monitor, so have no answers for you. I have used Acer, Samsung, Viewsonic and HP Professional series monitors. I can say that the first three I use in a home environment, and none are dead. Not that it is worth a whole lot. As you already understand there are vast differences between color quality, and accuracy. The pro-grade stuff is at work, and again, they work. With 100+ of these things (over a year old now) none of them have died either. All of these monitors are CCFL lit. Do they look decent enough? Sure do. The Acer isn't very impressive, but the Viewsonic, and Samsung both have decent color to them. Nearly as nice as the Lenovo display? Not hardly. On its own, the Samsung looks great. Sitting next to my 32" Toshiba Regza TV, it looks phenomenal. Next to the Lenovo, it looks like a childs play-thing.

Absolutely NONE of my displays are glossed over (well - excpeting the HP laptop that I got for free. but I don't count it ). I can't stand it. Every light source imaginable will reflect in it. Overhead lights, windows, LEDs from equipment, I mean everything.

My thought here would be - wait for a special on a top grade monitor.

[LiveBrianD]

I happened to get a chance to play with a 2511x today (in an office store, unfortunately Officemax locked down the machines so you can only use the demo there, no way to get to the desktop). I messed with the color settings a bit and it looks pretty good OOTB in my opinion. The color looks good, the contrast is good, the viewing angles are good enough (my Acer is definitely among the worst of TN displays in terms of those). The only thing is that I'm worried that glare might be an issue, since it is glossy. The thing is, my PC is next to the window, but the sun doesn't shine toward that side of the house most of the time (only in the morning, but I'm at school then anyway, and on the weekend hardly use it in mornings). I've used my parents' laptops, both with glossy screens (a macbook pro 13" and asus ul50ag) and didn't find glare to be a big deal. (I haven't used them in my room though.) On the other hand, I found the glossy screens on some of the imacs at school to have HUGE amounts of glare. Maybe I should see if I can put picture frame glass on top of my monitor or something to get an idea of glare in my room. In the store, there was some at first, though once I tilted it downward a little it was fine. I haven't heard any complaints about that from other people with glossy monitors.

Oddly enough, I've noticed that if I look up close at the cheap professional hp monitors at my school, I can make out individual pixels quite easily (1440x900, 19", LA1905wg), but not so on my samsung (1280x1024, 19", Syncmaster 914V) or the hp 2511x (1920x1080, 25") that I saw.

I still don't get why Acer made the default settings so freaking bad on this though. Warm (default) means things are a bit purple and yellow, and things are oversaturated. Cool gives them a purple tint, not blue. Additionally, the OSD is a bit of a PITA to use on this. (HP is the only manufacturer that I've seen out there that gets this right - their OSDs are simply plain and functional, not trying to look super cool while being hard to use.)

In terms of your experience with glossy displays, are you just talking about your hp laptop, or other displays as well? What do you think about this for a desktop display? (after all, with a laptop one you might have it tiled back more than a desktop display would be, thus inviting glare)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 04 March 2012 - 08:38 PM

[waldojim]

Understand that the only glossed over display I use is attached to a laptop. The rest I passed on in store when I couldn't get over the glare.

[LiveBrianD]

What do you think 'Cool, Standard, and Warm' usually correspond to in degrees kelvin? (That's all I can find for the asus) 9300K, 6500K, and 5000K? I know it's that way for the HP (which actually says, for instance, 'standard (6500K)' in the OSD).

[LiveBrianD]

OK, so I tried turning the screen brightness on my laptop as low as I could, and then held it so that the screen was facing the window (the window is to the right of my desk). Keep in mind that my laptop screen is semi-glossy (like a mbp matte screen, for instance). Looking straight at it, I didn't notice any glare. When I turned it at a moderate angle toward the window, I got quite a bit of glare (not that I ever use my monitor at that angle anyway). Basically, I doubt glare will be much of an issue here.

[LiveBrianD]

As it is, I think I'll be getting the hp. I went to Frys yesterday, and although they didn't have the asus VE258Q, they had the asus ve247H, and I thought the color presets and color shifting were nasty on that. Plus, their email support seems to not know what the color temps of the presets are. At best, one guy told me he didn't know, at worst, the others simply ignored that question. And all took at least a week to respond. Yep, that's definitely a good thing to do if you want to loose business... (The HP seems to look pretty good, and the color presets are good too btw.)

[4FUN]

I have the HP 2511x and am VERY happy with it. I never liked the matte screens the colors and contrast are not crisp. This HP 2511x has very crisp colors and contrast like the CRT monitors. The matte screens have there place in a office environment. But for home where you want to view video I would definitely go with a Glossy screen.

[LiveBrianD]

Certainly, looking at the HP 2511x and 2311x side by side in a store, the contrast of the 2511x is very noticeable. Have you had issues with glare (and how is the lighting in the room you have the monitor in)? Are solid colors (ex. white backgrounds) completely white, or is there some variation (on my acer, on a solid color it isn't very noticeable, but on this like a tan color it looks like a moderate gradient...)? Look at this:  tan color.png (9.76K)
Number of downloads: 12

I didn't notice too much when I looked, but keep in mind that I was limited to viewing a demo on it that time. (I saw the same monitor several months ago, and it wasn't on a display shelf, it was on a regular PC that wasn't locked down, so I could look at farmilliar things on it, and I thought it looked pretty good.)

As it is, I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on the HP.

[Evildave]

If you have dual link DVI (or DisplayPort), you can try an NEC PA271W .

2560x1440, and it can be rotated 90 degrees, if you want a really tall display, instead of a really wide one.

http://www.google.co...oducts?q=pa271w

[LiveBrianD]

Evildave, on 19 March 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

If you have dual link DVI (or DisplayPort), you can try an NEC PA271W .

2560x1440, and it can be rotated 90 degrees, if you want a really tall display, instead of a really wide one.

http://www.google.co...oducts?q=pa271w

Unfortunately, that's WWWWWAAAAAAYYYYY outside my budget. I have dual-link DVI though.

[4FUN]

I have a window behind me. If I close the blinds there is no glare. If you want to disect it you can find some glare during the day. But you have to look for it and want to see it. My eyes and brain tune it out.

[LiveBrianD]

In the store, there was some glare with it tilted upward, but when I tilted it down a little, the glare went away pretty much (my only concern there is that I keep my monitor set a bit below the max brightness so that my eyes don't get as tired, but that's probably not going to be a big deal). The lighting in my room isn't particularly bright (it's a 10'x10' room and I have 2 13W CFLs in the ceiling fixture). I'll probably put the monitor on a stand or something to get it at eye level anyway, so that's probably not an issue for me. I think I'll be buying that monitor then. Thanks for your advice.

[LiveBrianD]

One last thing I thought of (I hope I'm not hugging you guys too much here) - what do you think about the dell U2412M? It's 1920x1200, IPS, and matte, but the only thing is that the dpi is a bit on the high side for me (compared to the 2511x). Also, I haven't found input lag to be a big deal (that monitor claims 8ms, not that claims mean much) - my old sony had a little (noticeable when moving the cursor on black screens), but it was never noticeable in games or regular usage. Also, dell doesn't have a very good reputation in my book, though a lot of the issues I've seen were with cheap, low-end dell stuff.

[LiveBrianD]

Actually, never mind, I'll probably get the hp. Comparing the acer to my older samsung (which only claims 600:1 contrast, while the acer is 1000:1 static), the samsung is wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better looking, with more contrast and much better colors. This acer truly is a POS.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 12 April 2012 - 05:14 PM