Having recently come into a small sum of money, I had decided that it was about time for me to upgrade from my trusty old 15” monitor to a larger 21” monitor. With the advent of LCD monitors the prices of 21” monitors have been declining to the point where home users can purchase them without feeling like they were mortgaging the house a second time. I bought my monitor from www.buy.com for $998.95 plus tax and shipping. First off lets talk about what this monitor has and why I purchased it.

First
The monitor tube is a Sony FD Trinitron tube that for all intents and purposes is FLAT, which makes this monitor a dream to look at for long periods of time. However to achieve this “flatness” Sony has to use two horizontal wires behind the screen to push the grill flat against the back of the glass. While it is not noticeably perceptible, those who look for it will find them. As most of the work done on this monitor is either programming or gaming I do not mind having those wires and after a while I hardly notice that they are there. On the other hand, I can see how it might be annoying to a person who uses this monitor for graphics work. Also the colors on this tube are brilliant. In terms of richness and vibrancy, colors really stand out on this screen.

Secondly
A maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536 - This monitor will support literally every resolution that a person could want, provided your video card can support it. While the average resolution of a 21” monitor is set to 1600 X 1200 this monitor can go several levels beyond that. I would recommend against using the maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536, while it provided an amazing amount of real estate to work in(especially in MS Visual Studio), it hurt my eyes to focus so hard after an hour or so. I find myself using the 1600 X 1200 resolution most often, but for those times I need a little more screen space I bump up the resolution to 1920 X 1440 which seems to be a happy medium between usability and ease on the eyes.

Lastly
A dot pitch of .24mm vertically AND horizontally - a lot of monitor manufacturers will often state that they have a small dot pitch like .22mm. However if you read the fineprint it is usually the vertical or horizontal pitch. I would have preferred to have the .22 dot pitch, but that would have involved buying Sony’s top of the line monitor, which has exactly the same statistics as this monitor except for the price, which was $1800. The .24 dot pitch is fine until you get to the higher resolutions like 1920 X 1440 on up where the text gets just a touch fuzzy.

Conclusions
I absolutely just love working on this monitor. Text is crisp at 1600 X 1200, colors are rich and the price is affordable. With the price of a cheap 21” monitor running for around $600 dollars one may wonder why I spent nearly double the amount on this particular monitor. Quality and dependability are very important factors to consider. While you may be saving money on the monitor you will pay in other areas. The colors might not be as crisp, the text not as clear, or the tube may not last long, as well as a host of other problems. I can comfortably work in front of this monitor for hours without any major discomfort and without feeling like my eyes are going to get much worse than they are now. I feel that it is a combination of these factors that justify the additional cost involved in purchasing this monitor. I would highly recommend this monitor to anyone.




Recommended: Yes