January 1999: Buying a Monitor

by Aaron Schacht, President of Aerdyne Microsystems

When it comes time to purchase a new monitor, you tend to think about only one thing — size.  Indeed, that 19" monitor looks tempting for under $500 bucks, but what are you really getting for that price?  Chances are, you're getting a bigger screen than you need with poor display quality.

When you purchase a monitor, look for the important specs like viewable screen size, dot pitch, maximum resolution, and refresh rate.

A 17" monitor is great, but with a viewable area of under 15.7", your paying for more plastic and less screen. The dot pitch, at bare minimum, should be .28, with .25 being about the best you can get. The larger the dot pitch, the grainier the picture.  The maximum resolution a 17" monitor should allow is 1600x1200, although it's unlikely you would ever use that kind of setting.  You want a monitor that can display 1280x1024 at a minimum of 75HZ.  The higher the refresh rating in HZ, the better.

I have a ViewSonic PT775.  It's the best 17" monitor I've ever had.  The image is truly edge-to-edge, and the screen produces crisp images at 1280x1024.  I highly recommend this monitor and others in its class.

Plan to spend about $400 for a good 17" monitor, and about $700 for a good 19" monitor. I would spend more money to get an excellent 17" monitor, than less money on a crappy 19" or 21" model.

Sincerely,
Aaron