Quote Originally Posted by xvvvz
One of the quickest ways to help separate good from bad monitors is to look at the viewing angle specification and the timing specification. IPS will be around 178 degrees and SPVA and MPVA will be 176-178. If you are getting fast timing speeds like 2 ms, then those are going to be 6 bit panels. IPS and PVA are usually 8 bit, so they will have better color depth. If you are a pro doing photo editing, you want a good viewing angle. 160 degree panels show too much shift if you move your head. 170 is better but still not ideal.

Stay away from 20 inch widescreen monitors. I have one and regret it. Too many pixels stuffed into too small of an area at native resolution (and you only want to use native resolution on an LCD monitor). Photoshop menu icons are so small. Surfing the web hurts your eys. Go for at least a 22" (uses the same resolution but has a larger screen) or 24". I would go for a 19" over a 20" widescreen.

My $.02,
Doug
Doug,

Thanks for taking the time to post all the above information - this sure is a learning experience for me. I had tried a Dell 22" monitor, but it hurt my eyes for some reason - at the time I thought it was the glare. At any rate, I was away for the weekend so I didn't have time to do any monitor shopping.

I'll keep the information you gave me - sometimes it's difficult to get any specs on the monitors and most sales people don't seem to know too much from my experience. Your information is helpful as I found a website that includes the specs mentioned above.

Liz