JSR
11-06-2012, 05:22 PM
I'm looking at replacing my Philips 19" monitor. It's a bit long in the tooth now and, despite calibrating it fairly frequently, I'm not convinced it's showing either enough colours or accurate colours.
My budget is pretty minuscule. I'm considering the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LNDPPS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=80stv-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005LNDPPS), but that's pretty much all my budget will do (I'm tempted by the smaller ones to save suffering from the pains of open-wallet surgery!). I've narrowed it down to this because (i) it's just within budget, (ii) it's IPS, (iii) it's 1920x1200.
The thing is, in 2012, do I absolutely *need* to go to an IPS panel?
Browsing forums, the general consensus is that IPS is better for viewing angles and colour than the cheaper TN panels. Other people suggest that low-priced IPS panels aren't as good as expensive IPS panels, while others still say that TN panels are, these days, pretty good. Similar sized TN panels go for £70 less than their equivalent IPS panels, which is quite a chunk of cash (alternatively same priced TN panels get you a few extra inches over the same priced IPS panel).
Bearing in mind that I could never stretch to an expensive £500-£800 IPS panel, Would a £200 TN panel be as good as a £200 IPS panel?
The only IPS panel I've used before has been on my iPad and I don't know if that qualifies as a "cheap" one or an "expensive" one. I've no idea how accurate the colours are because you can't calibrate that. It seems to be pretty close to the colours from my ancient Sharp 15" calibrated monitor, but less so to my 19" Philips.
So, my question to anyone who has an IPS monitor and, preferably, to anyone that has both modern IPS and TN panels, should I only look at IPS monitors, or is a modern TN good enough?
One qualifier - my computers of choice are netbooks, so the monitor will be used with a VGA cable as there's no digital monitor output on the netbooks.
My budget is pretty minuscule. I'm considering the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LNDPPS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=80stv-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005LNDPPS), but that's pretty much all my budget will do (I'm tempted by the smaller ones to save suffering from the pains of open-wallet surgery!). I've narrowed it down to this because (i) it's just within budget, (ii) it's IPS, (iii) it's 1920x1200.
The thing is, in 2012, do I absolutely *need* to go to an IPS panel?
Browsing forums, the general consensus is that IPS is better for viewing angles and colour than the cheaper TN panels. Other people suggest that low-priced IPS panels aren't as good as expensive IPS panels, while others still say that TN panels are, these days, pretty good. Similar sized TN panels go for £70 less than their equivalent IPS panels, which is quite a chunk of cash (alternatively same priced TN panels get you a few extra inches over the same priced IPS panel).
Bearing in mind that I could never stretch to an expensive £500-£800 IPS panel, Would a £200 TN panel be as good as a £200 IPS panel?
The only IPS panel I've used before has been on my iPad and I don't know if that qualifies as a "cheap" one or an "expensive" one. I've no idea how accurate the colours are because you can't calibrate that. It seems to be pretty close to the colours from my ancient Sharp 15" calibrated monitor, but less so to my 19" Philips.
So, my question to anyone who has an IPS monitor and, preferably, to anyone that has both modern IPS and TN panels, should I only look at IPS monitors, or is a modern TN good enough?
One qualifier - my computers of choice are netbooks, so the monitor will be used with a VGA cable as there's no digital monitor output on the netbooks.