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

The importance of a tablet's screen quality cannot be understated. The vast majority of your interactions with a given tablet takes place on its screen.

This year we've continued to see tablet screen quality jump by leaps and bounds, especially from the perspective of clarity. Expect tablet screens to at least maintain the current level of quality for the next year.… 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

You know the old saying: the early bird gets the cheap desktop LCD.

Until tomorrow, and while supplies last, Dell Home has the Planar PL2210W 22-inch LCD monitor for $99.99 shipped (plus sales tax in some states). That's after applying coupon code PB1$HPNGJBZ$M9 at checkout.

The 22-incher has long been the sweet spot for desktop monitors, both in terms of price and practical size. If you've never experienced the joy that is a second screen, here's your chance to add one on the cheap.

As you might expect, the PL2210W is a fairly no-frills … 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

Big monitors are awesome. They're easier on aging eyes like mine, and they let you keep multiple windows open without forcing you to scroll around a lot within them.

For a limited time, Dell Home has the Planar PX2710MW 27-inch LCD monitor for $209.99 shipped (plus sales tax in some states). That's after applying coupon code F783J2GMPWM$D1 at checkout.

The PX2710MW is a 1080p monitor, meaning it has a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. That's great, though anyone seeking to do any really detailed photo-editing … Read more

I'll be honest. It's difficult to get excited about monitors without IPS screens, super-high resolutions, and multiple HD video inputs. Still, people do buy budget monitors. Lots of them. Why? Because they're cheap, simple, and usually get the job done. That job being delivering images to your optics.

Today Dell announced new entries into its P and E lines of displays. These fall under Dell's budgets lines, so I was surprised by the inclusion of DisplayPort in the P series.

Anyway, these go on sale today, so check them out at Dell.com if you're … Read more

A few years back, Nvidia released its 3D Vision Kit active 3D solution. At the time, it was the only real choice for 3D PC gaming, but its crushingly dark images and abundant crosstalk were, let's say, problematic.

The Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses, along with Lightboost technology, attempts to address those issues. Check out my full review now.

Lightboost makes a big difference in performance, but aside from the Asus VG278H, the monitors compatible with the technology are really difficult to find.

It's too bad too. Even for a 3D disliker, like me, Lightboost makes the best … 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