Your Future--Monitor--Is Getting Clearer
I don’t have a crystal ball, but my desktop PC is now equipped with a liquid-crystal display. And, as I peer into it, I see an LCD panel in your future too.
Compared with regular monitors, LCDs are smaller, use less electricity and are less prone to annoying flicker and distortion. About the only cloudy thing in this picture is when you’ll be able to afford one.
Flat-panel active-matrix LCD screens are three to five times the price of an equivalent-size standard monitor. (A standard 17-inch monitor typically costs between $400 and $600.) But don’t despair. Like so many other aspects of computers, they’ve been getting better and cheaper over time.
Desktop LCD monitors use basically the same technology as that found in laptops. In both cases, the high-end models use what is known as an active-matrix thin-film transistor, or TFT. Each dot or pixel on the monitor is actually made up of three tiny transistors--one for red, one for green and one for blue. Unlike with a standard cathode-ray tube monitor, there is no gun that scans up and down or left and right, thus eliminating the flicker effect that some experts say contributes to eyestrain and fatigue. In addition, LCD screens give off fewer electromagnetic emissions, which can interfere with other equipment or, according to some people, have a negative effect on health, although there is a fair amount of controversy on that issue.
LCD screens have been around for a long time, but until recently they were primarily available only for notebook PCs, because the cost of providing one large enough for a desktop had been prohibitive. They’re still quite pricey. NEC Technologies just reduced the price of its LCD monitors by about 20%; the company recently announced that its least-expensive 14.1-inch model has been “slashed by $399 to a remarkable $1,599 estimated street price.” That may be remarkably less than what it used to cost, but it’s remarkably more than most people are willing to spend.
Sharp’s and Mitsubishi’s 15-inch models sell for about $2,700. The 14-inch models are typically $200 to $300 less. If you’re willing to spend big money for a bigger monitor, check out NEC’s 20.1-inch LCD2000 model that has just been reduced from $8,000 to $6,599.
If money is no object, you can always spend about $9,950 on the Expression 100 from dpiX (https://www.dpix.com or [650] 842-9600), a subsidiary of Xerox. Images displayed on this high-resolution screen almost look like they’ve been printed on glossy paper. It’s overkill for typical office applications but makes sense for demanding users working with intricate maps or computer drawings. The company also manufactures LCD displays for military aircraft and other specialized functions.
And for those of you who have $12,995 to spare, consider adorning a wall with the Leonardo, a 40-inch flat-panel plasma display from Mitsubishi. It’s designed mainly for conference rooms and for advertising or public information functions at airports and other public places. Plasma displays, like active-matrix LCD screens, can be viewed from almost any angle.
One advantage to LCD screens is that they take up a lot less space. A typical 17-inch cathode- ray tube is about 20 inches deep, while a comparable flat-panel LCD is about 3 inches deep.
When comparing a flat panel with a standard CRT, it’s important to consider the viewable image area rather than the size of the monitor itself. All monitors are measured diagonally, but when you measure the exposed glass surface of a 17-inch CRT, it’s usually about 15 1/2 inches because you don’t see the curved portion of the glass behind the plastic case. In many cases, the actual image area is even less because many monitors place a black border around the image. But on a flat-panel display, what you see is what you get, so a 15-inch flat panel is roughly equivalent to a 17-inch CRT.
The manufacturing process for active-matrix thin-film transistor screens is still very expensive largely because about half the screens made don’t meet quality standards set by the manufacturers.
The best deal I know about is the $1,399 Radiance VX145 from Akia (https://www.akia.com or [800] 242-6618). The active-matrix monitor has a 14.5-inch viewable image size and, like the more expensive models, has a resolution of up to 1,024-by-768 pixels. It works with both Macs and PCs and has integrated stereo speakers. All of this comes in a package that weighs less than 8 pounds and is only about 3 inches deep.
I had a chance to test both the Akia and the $2,600 Sharp LLT-150A model and found both to be easy on the eyes and easy on the back (compared with lifting a large computer monitor or TV set). They are also easy to install. You just plug them into the display adapter and use on-screen controls to make a few adjustments.
If they were the same price, I’d give the nod to the Sharp because it has a somewhat wider viewing angle and appears to be a bit brighter. In addition, while both monitors can be adjusted to improve the image, the Sharp has an automatic mode that makes setup easier. However, the Akia is a much better value. Also, LCD screens can be a bit hard to find, but Akia can ship them immediately, according to company President David Register.
Like just about all technologies, there is a penalty for being an early adopter. But Barry Young, vice president of DisplaySearch, an Austin, Texas, research firm that specializes in LCD screens, predicts 15-inch screens at less than $1,200 by the end of the year. Register said Akia expects to offer a 14-inch monitor for less than $1,000 by year’s end.
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Larry Magid can be reached at magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com or keyword LarryMagid on AOL.
