X-bit labs

April 2004 Hardware News Overview (page 8)

Category: Editorial

by Andy Yaschenko

[ 04/21/2004 | 09:34 AM ]

Monitors

The beginning of the spring was a kind of Renaissance, at least there were many new monitor models revealed. We saw nothing extraordinary from the technical point of view, but on the other hand, all new products at last complied with the latest tech norms. That is, the pixel response time was typically 12-16msec, the brightness of 17” models was about 300 candela per sq. m, the contrast ratio of 450/500:1.

Well, among “pure” monitors, without an integrated TV-tuner, there are more big-diagonal models (like 19-20”), which are going to rule the market in this year. NEC offered its MultiSync LCD2060NX, Philips rolled out its Brilliance 190P5 and Iiyama showed the ProLite E511S.

There’s some divergence here. Someone tries to be appealing with a response time of 16msec, but with average brightness and contrast ratio, others stress exactly these two latter parameters, others still emphasize service functions like an automatic adjustment for the ambient lighting.

Overall, there’s some room for agreeing upon common standards. I hope the best qualities from all models will make them up: 16msec response time, 300 candelas per sq. m brightness, 700:1 contrast ratio, and numerous service functions like application-specific presets, creation of onscreen zones with different brightness/contrast settings and so on.

Of course, we can’t avoid those models with integrated TV-tuners – they will only be getting more in number as the components become cheaper. In March, Iiyama unveiled its 17” ProLite E430T-S and Samsung rolled out the 17” SyncMaster 710 MP-R and the 15” SyncMaster 510 MP-R. The new products have standard characteristics, but feature a nice and functional design.

As for future products, Mitsubishi Electric showed a prototype of an LCD monitor for designers and other such people who need good color reproduction, brightness and so on. This 1900x1200 device has a brightness of 600 candelas per sq. m and can display the entire Adobe RGB color space. After this thing comes into production, you won’t have a chance to say that LCD monitors are not for graphics artists.

By the way, about production, in March two major companies, Sony and Samsung, joined in the new S-LCD venture. They agreed upon it back in October, though, so there’s no surprise here. Fabs for producing LCD panels of the seventh generation seem to be too expensive even for such giants. On the other hand, S-LCD has little to do with computers, since the founders say that the new company will produce panels for LCD TV-sets.

Regrettably for computer monitors, the market of LCD TV-sets is of a higher priority for the manufacturers. As a result, deficit is felt from time to time, reflecting on the prices. There’s no guarantee that the manufacturers will be able to meet the ever-increasing demand in this year.