best monitors

While most 27-inch monitors you'll find at your local Best Buy sport the perfectly capable resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, there's a growing contingent of monitor enthusiasts, like myself, who understand the real reason for the existence of 27-inch displays.

If you've never seen a 27-inch monitor running at 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution, then you've yet to be touched by a particularly affecting higher power.

Also referred to as "extreme definition" or "XD," this branch of higher-tier monitors will melt your face and not look back. However, as much as the impressive resolution benefits all aspects of computing, it is in games that it provides a particular advantage.… Read more

Unless you have a strict, $200 maximum budget when purchasing your next monitor, there's a good chance you'll be at least a bit excited about the following list.

Sure, $300 is no amount of money to sneeze at, but in the grand scheme of devices that allows your computer to visually communicate with you, it could be a lot higher.… Read more

So, how difficult is it to make a low-power-consumption monitor? Well, if this list is any indication, not very. However, among the lowest of low-power-consumption monitors, there's usually one common factor: Twisted Nematic (TN) panels.

Any company can make a low-power-consumption TN-based monitor, though, so a list consisting of only TN monitors would be pretty boring. What would be slightly less boring is a list consisting of In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitors that draw relatively small amounts of power to function. That is a list to get somewhat more excited about. So, I've decided to make that list.

To be clear, the difference you'd pay per year running these things -- using our formula -- is small in the grand scheme of things.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to see just how low IPS monitors can go.… Read more

DisplayPort has yet to supplant DVI as the premiere PC monitor connection standard. In fact, if the monitors I've reviewed over the past two years are any indication, HDMI is still far more ubiquitous than DisplayPort.

With a higher maximum bandwidth, a built-in cable retention feature, and multiple monitor (over one cable) support, I'm still scratching my head as to why DisplayPort isn't more popular than it is, at the consumer level at least.

It's a high-bandwidth input that (unlike HDMI) I've yet to have any technical problems with. Here's hoping more monitors take a cue from the following five.… Read more

I prefer to not play games in 3D. Aside from the stress it puts on my eyes, there's something about the stereo effect where it never becomes completely seamless. It never melts into the background and, for me at least, is constantly drawing my attention away from the actual game.

However, I understand that there are those who appreciate 3D much more than I do, and if I were going to invest in a 3D monitor, the following five are the ones I'd choose from. Just to be clear, these are the best monitors for 3D gaming, not the best overall monitors that happen to have a 3D component.… Read more

Cheap monitors are easy to find. Go to most computer hardware outlets and you'll see plenty of off-brand, "get the job done" monitors (and by "job" I mean delivering images to your optics) awaiting your dollar.

However, just because you're paying $150 or less for a monitor doesn't mean you're necessarily getting a great deal. Paying $150 for a monitor with a paltry feature set, thoughtless design, or lackluster performance could induce an annoying and probably unexpected sense of buyer's remorse. Despite how little you paid.

Luckily, there are plenty of monitors that pay off with excellent performance, practical design, and plentiful features. You'll have to pay more for them, but in the long term you're getting more for your money.

Now, if you simply want a device that translates ones and zeros into images your eyes can decipher, then stick with the cheap monitors; however, if you're looking for an actual monitor deal, keep reading.

Monitors in the list below top out at $500 in price. The reason being that most consumers have a difficult time paying more than $500 for a monitor while still considering it a "value." … Read more

Why would anyone want to watch a movie on a sub-40-inch screen? Well, ideally you wouldn't, but we don't all get what we want in life, now do we?

In a perfect world, all screens would span 50 inches diagonally and sport superhigh resolutions. Also, we'd all have enough space to fit them in every room.

Real life just ain't chock-full of unicorns and seven-year wizard colleges, though, and real-life dorms and apartments can be small. Doesn't mean you'd want to miss out on watching movies the way they were intended. Well, at least from a color, black-level, and contrast ratio perspective. We addressed the whole difference-in-screen-size thing earlier.… Read more

For some, a monitor is a monitor, and the lower the price, the better. As long as it pumps images from their PCs into their eyes at a reasonable quality, they're good. Thing is, there are cheap monitors and then there are cheap monitors.

And by cheap I mean "the last time I saw my power button was when it went flying past my face immediately after pressing it for the first time." Yes, this actually happened to me some years ago. I pressed the power button on an older monitor, only to have it pop off and nearly take out an eye on its way to some now forgotten crevice in CNET Labs.

Luckily, I've not had that experience with any monitor on this list. At least not yet. The list features the best monitors priced under $200.

The only criterion for the list is that each monitor has to be available from a major retailer for $199 or less. From there, the five best monitors I've reviewed were chosen.

Dig in.… Read more

We saw some pretty cool monitor innovations in 2011. A new panel technology debuted, the thinnest panel yet was revealed, as was a monitor that functioned fully, without requiring a physical connection to a PC.

Going into 2011, we'll likely continue to see thinner monitors with more power baked into them, cheaper IPS monitors, more monitors that are completely self-sufficient (no PC required, necessarily), and be on the lookout for DisplayPort to finally take off in a big way.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now now it's time to take a look back at 2011 and the most impressive monitors that came through CNET Labs. … Read more