Best 21" monitor?

[LXi]

Consider the 1200NF as well, there hasnt been any reviews, but its smaller brother, the 900NF have been getting very positive feedbacks from a lot of users. The 1200NF has slightly higher specs than the G500, and its $750 from PC Nation.

 

[Gosharkss]

Lxi

I cant seem to find the 1200NF in stock anywhere, even PCnation shows no stock, whats up?

 

[LXi]

Onvia.com has some, but with a premium pricetag.

 

[Ajay]

Rats. Mwave uses both UPS and Fedex, but they can't tell you which one they'll use for your particular shipment. Too bad, really good price and Mwave has a good rep. The only thing I ship UPS are books, kind of hard to damage and Amazon packs well anyway.

As far as the 1200NF, there are no reviews on it, plus as I noted above, a monitor technician suggested I stay away from Korean brands, he didn't like the quality of the parts (that's part of why they are cheaper). PCNation doesn't have a very good rep.

-AJ

 

[Finality]

I'd go for a KDS, it has no BNC connectors at the back but for about $600 for a 21" its a steal. Only problems is I hear that they have some issues. KDS does have the best warranty though. 2 day advanced replacement.

 

[Ajay]

Yeah, good price, but KDS monitors are less expensive for a reason. Based on a monitor tech's comments, they use lower quality components (with the exception of the crt). I don't like my brother's KDS much either, he bought it on price and warrantee (which is good). I'm looking to get at least 3 years out of this purchase and prefer to buy top quality (or nearly the top, Eizo is probably the top and are priced accordingly!). I appreciate you comments though.

-AJ

 

[LXi]

I suggest you stop listening to that monitor tech because apparently he has no clue what he's talking about. Korean manufacturers are as good as Japanese manufacturers, especially Samsung and LG, their monitors are top quality stuff. You can ask Gosharkss, he's the chief hardware engineer at Cornerstone.

 

[kazanchik]

ajay, i got a mitsubishi diamond pro 2040u a week ago. i can't tell you how much i love this monitor. i took it out of the box , connected it, and it was just perfect. the picture is awesome, the controls are easy, just exellent.
i bought for 1126 from monitoroutlet.com with free shipping. onvia.com has it now for 1085.
my advise is to spend an extra 100 dollars and get something that you will enjoy. like you, six weeks ago i started looking for 22 INCH MONITOR and after all the research and review reads, i just think that this is the best monitor outthere.
why, i cam across some bad reviews for yamaia 510monitor, allthough anandtech gives it agood review. the edges were not as solid as the rest of the monitor and were blurry.
what ever you do , don't get KDS AV 21" .IT IS THE WORST MONITOR OUTTHERE. THAT'S why it 690 at onvia. i came across so many bad reviews from people who bought this monitor and so many return stories, that i just forgot about the price and said f it.

if you need an appraise on 2040u , you got it here, i am looking t it now and i love it. plus it is the only monitor, or one of few, that has usb ports in it. i got one in front and three at back. i 'll use them soon.
good luck.
ask me anything you miht want to know about 2040u, ill be glad to help

 

[LXi]

How many monitors have you examined to make such conclusion that the Mitsubishi 2040u is the best 21/22" and the KDS is the worst 21"?

 

[Ajay]

Well, yeah, that's just one guy's experience and that was a year ago, so the quality could be better than I would guess. Still, I prefer to play it safe and go with Brands that I know and have used. I appreciate your comments.

On the 2040u - looks like a great monitor, but I can't find it for less than $1200 shipped (Fedex). The 2060u is tough to find (at a place that will ship Fedex, blast, why do so many online retailers use UPS only!). The 2060 hasn't been reviewed yet either, so there's some risk that it may not be up to snuff.

-AJ

 

[Lore]

Finality:

I'd go for a KDS, it has no BNC connectors at the back but for about $600 for a 21" its a steal.

I don't know where you heard or saw that the KDS AV-21TF does _not_ have BNC connectors, because the one I have (and bought for friends) sure does. I'm using the BNC connectors right now.

Ajay:
And in terms of quality display, I also don't know what monitor technician you were speaking with. How much do you want to bet most of monitors these days (or at least some components within them) are made OUTSIDE of Japan? Did you know that Nikon, one of the leading camera manufacturers in the world, now makes their lenses in THAILAND? I would expect that Korea has a better QC system in place than Thailand. (No offense to the Thai, simply using it as a comparison)

I've used two 2040Us, three G500s, and three KDS AV-21TFs. I've used them rather extensively, tested them quite extensively, and have come to the conclusion that at the "bargain-bin" price of $700 the KDS holds its ground very well. Because it uses a Sony tube, I can't see a difference between it and the Sony G500, but I do believe that the engineering behind the tube was carefully thought out. I had so many problems with the Sony screen (the display would shake in the bottom left and upper right on all three units, and the screen would resize itself a few times when warming up - kind of gave the effect that it was bouncing off the edges) but there have been others who have had problems with the KDS AV-21TF. The Mitsubishi screen gave me problems as well - all two monitors had problems on the left hand side; an entire 1 inch strip (top to bottom) was very out of focus. I tried so many things to resolve it, but since I was unable to, those monitors went back to the retailer.

Therefore, to conclude that the KDS monitor is the worse thing in the monitor market and the Mitsubishi 2040U is the best is a show of ignorance, UNLESS you actually bought and tried those things out. As you can see, each monitor had its own weaknesses and strengths, but you can't make a judgement against the entire manufacturer or line unless you've actually tried them out.

 

[skace]

This isn't a tron...but... I love my Hitachi superscan 812 (21&quot . Paid 700 for it 1+ year ago and now its down even lower than that! One of the few things I've bought for my computer that I never have to fix, tweak, or worry about it becoming outdated any time soon.

cya,
skace

 

[sharkeeper]

Lore: How good is the regulation on the KDS monitors? The Sony's are superb. If you don't have the Nokia monitor test program you can try this. Open MS Paint and maximise the window. Resize the image to say 2050x1500. Pick the flood fill tool and fill the entire screen black. Pick white and fill it white. While alternating back between white and black take a look at the borders of the screen. Does the position of the drawn window frames change? If the regulation is perfect, they won't budge. If the regulation is average, you can expect a movement of 0.5 to 1.0 mm or so. If it jumps all over and blooms, you have rather bad regulation and the manufacturer didn't spend too much money on the power supply!

Cheers!

 

[kazanchik]

i received mine ups and it was ok.
here is what you can do: onvia ships it ups for 1085. i read some reviews on their site(onvia .com) of kds av21. and alot of people were returning it, (cause it sucked), i think now they removed all the reviews. but what i am suggesting from those reviews is, if you get a defected item from a bad delivery, send it back to them -they'll pay the return shipping for you. many people were appraising onvia just for their perfectservise. you don't lose anything and it's not 1200 dollars.

 

[Ajay]

Mistu 2040u: $1159 shipped via UPS at onvia.com. It's not clear that they even have a Fedex or Airborne option, but it would be more $$s anyway. I just don't use UPS to ship anything. I have no confidence in UPS.

I'll probably be going with a Sony G500 (there's a G520 comming out soon, smaller footprint and lighter weight than the G500, but I don't know when it's due to hit the streets). The 2040u looks like a great monitor, it just doesn't look great enough for me to spend $200 more on it vs the Sony. My current debate with myself is whether to go for the lowest price (about $950 shipped Fedex), or get a 3 year advanced replacement warrantee ($1030 shipped Fedex). MutliWave has a great offer ($905 second day air), but they use both UPS and Fedex and you can't specify which one you want to use - too bad.

-AJ

 

[MADCAP]

I hate UPS! I just got an NEC 21" monitor they destroyed yesterday. But that said, I wouldn't worry so much about the chance of it going UPS 2nd day air. The main problem is with UPS ground. So you have a 50/50 chance it's FedEx 2nd day or UPS 2nd day, both are pretty good options actually.

I will never EVER have something shipped by UPS again! I had no choice in this one, he wouldn't ship another way no matter how much I complained. But that said, I'd take my chances with either air ship method. Both should be fine.

I wonder when "Dateline or 60 Minutes" will do a story on UPS ground? It is the worst! I've had three big ticket things destroyed by them in the last month. It was really embarasing when I had a TV shipped to my dad for christmas as a present, and UPS killed it.

 

[Ajay]

Good point MADCAP.

I checked mutliWave, and unfortunately they don't take returns on Sony Monitors. IE, you buy it, your stuck with it - if you have a problem, work it out with the shipper or sony - I've played this game before and don't want to do it again, it works out but burns alot of time. I'll probably go with monitorsdirect.com unless some other reputable reseller has a really good deal.

Thanks,
-AJ

 

[Ajay]

Well, found a review on the Mitsu 2060u, pretty much the same as teh 2040u, except a bit smaller, lighter and has 2x 15pin D vs 1 15pin D and 1 BNC (on the 2040u) and the 2060 is a tad less expensive.

So I'm down to two choices:

Sony G500 from MonitorsDirect.com, $1030 shipped plus a 3yr AR* warrantee option.
Mitsu 2060u from outpost.com, $1100 shipped (3yr AR warrantee is standard).

I missed my sub $1000 target, but I'll wind up with good monitors with good warrantees.

Has anyone done any direct comparison between the Sony g500 and Mitsu 2060 (or 2040)? I'm looking for text clarity, color saturation and overall display quaity comparison up to 1600x1200x85Hz (I'll never go above that so higher resolution comparisons don't matter).

Thanks,
-AJ



*Advanced replacement, very nice thing, they send you a replacement monitor, you set that up and then put the current defective monitor in the box the new one came and and send it back. Everything is prepaid and you keep the replacement monitor.

 

[Ajay]

Actually, I found the Mistu 2060u for $1050 from The Monitor Outlet, shipped second day air. Basically, now there's no difference in price.

-AJ

 

[Ajay]

Hmmm, found a review on the Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200. Looks like it peforms about as well as the 2040u, I can get if for $950 shipped airborne from outpost.com. They will take back defective units for the first 30 days (which they won't do with Sony). Plus the 200 has a 3 year advance replacement warratee for no additional cost. I may go with this, looks like a solid monitor and keeps me under $1k I'll decide soon [ so this thread will go away ].

-AJ

 

[kazanchik]

ridiculous!!!
i got mine 2040u a week ago for 1123 from monitoroutlet. now2060u is 972 from the same place.
mitsu claims its samller size to fit the work space.
here is the real difference
19.7*19.7*19 2040u
19.5*19.4*18.6 2060u
are they serious about this. .4 inches will make any difference?

i dont know, i am pissed, i am returning out of principle!!!!
1123-972=150 savings. for the same exact monitor

ajay, how much do you think is it to ship it back now?

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200, I am getting one for my brother who lives in LA, right near Multiwave. I have researched this for a long time and used many 20"+ monitors myself. This is the best monitor you can buy for around $1000, IMHO. .24AGP corner to corner, can't beat that. And the Diamondtron tubes are so warm!! I own two Iyamas right now. One thing to take into consideration is when they give a spec like .25 AGP, that may only mean in the center. The corner is sometimes .27 Just something to think about.

 

[kazanchik]

tomorow morning i am calling mitsubishi to ask them about the difference between 2040u and 2060u. if they say none in picture, *uck it, i will return mine, i calculated that shipping back is 40 dallars. i'll still win 110 dollars. i went to mitsubishi-display.com and found out something nice. in the next three years if the monitor brakes, they will not just fix it, THEY WILL REPLACE IT. AND if something is wrong in first 30 days, they say you can return it anywhere you bought it from under defective unit policy. nice.
i would say go with 2060u for 972 instead of 200pro for 950. dot pitch is .24 ,on 200pro it's .25 I think, and 2060u is the newest model. i received mine in 3 days, ordered tuesday, got it friday.

 

[Lore]

sharkeeper:

I wasn't talking about power regulation in my original post, but I will address the question.

The power regulation on the KDS is average. I've noticed slight bulging at the edges when switching between black backgrounds and white windows in all of the ones I've played with, and I am very aware of what the quality of the power supply can determine. It's amazing how big of a difference small things can make.

However, the real issue I was referring to with the Sony monitors was in regards to the warm-up period where the display moves around a bit until it finds the "adjusted" spot. Rather annoying and seems to happen quite regularly, too.

Anyway, I still stand behind my point that all monitors have their weaknesses and strengths; it's up to the buyer to figure out what strengths they want and what weaknesses they will tolerate.

BTW - the Ultraspec BNC cable is still working fine...

 

[Ajay]

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the 2040 and the 200 is that the 2040 has a higher horizontal scan rate (higher refresh rates at higher resolutions), but the scan rate of the 200 is sufficient for my purposes. The 200 uses the same case and tube as the 2040, but has slightly downgraded electronics - the result is that the display quality is virtually identical up to 1600x1200x85. I don't plan on going above 1600x1200, so the 200 would be a reasonable choice.

The 2060 uses the same tube and electronics as the 2040 (I thought it was different), but the case is an NEC design - which shaves off some size and weight. The 2060 @ $972 from the monitor outlet is with UPS ground shipping - which I find intolerable. I prefer retailers that ship (at least optionally) via Fedex or Airborne.

As far as KDS and Samsung are concerned, they have good warrantee's and would save me a bit of money, but I'm not comfortable with those brands yet, I see and use plenty of mitsu and sony products at work, so that's what I'm comfortable with.

I've always tended to buy Sony. From the monitors I've seen, Sonys seem to have better contrast and color saturation, Mitsubishis tend to have sharper text and better geometry. I'm going back and forth between the Sony G500 and the Mitsubishi DP 200 at this point. I won't be buying till next week at the earliest, so I have some time to read and decide which one I prefer (unfortantely, neither model is carried locally, so I can't do a visual comparison). The Mistu comes with the three year AR warrantee, I can buy the same for the Sony (but it pushes the Sony over the $1k mark).

Thanks again for all the comments,
-AJ