Looking for a 24 incher for under $250

C

Cornflake

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 28, 2006
Messages
135
Hi all,

Due to my crazy mother smashing my (then $600) Acer AL2423W 24" monitor with a cereal bowl, I am shopping for a new display. I was wondering if you wonderful folks could help me speed up the research since I've been out of the display loop for a while.

I'm hoping to get a few suggestions for a 24" display that is equal or less than $250 (im working part time on a budget) that meets these criteria:

- A display with an MVA / IPS / PVA / etc panel that I can view from below without colors inverting (im sick of my TN displays that have horrible viewing angles)
- Input lag <= 30ms
- I would prefer 1920x1200, but 1920x1080 is OK too

The first two specs there are often hard to find for certain monitors, maybe you guys can be quicker. Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions you can provide!!! :D
 
At first I was shocked that you were told twice that you couldn't be helped, but then I noticed you don't want a tn panel :D

In that price range I really don't think there's much to be done. Even shopping used I think $250 is pushing it for a 24" with a good panel; you might be able to though, and it would really be the only way to go.
 
I just ordered this NEC refurb for $239 + ~$40 shipping: LCD2470WNX-BK-R (24", S-PVA panel according to TFT central, 1920x1200):

It hasn't arrived yet. I found out about it from this post: Kinda warm, NEC Display is selling some refurb for cheap

Here is a very good, thorough review of the monitor. It sounds like an option for you maybe, if you don't mind refurbs.

It's my stopgap monitor until I can afford very good hardware calibration... so I'm not expecting too much from it.
 
powertower said:
I think TigerDirect has a very resonably priced 28"?

Not sure the specs... but you can compare...
Click to expand...

Wow you're right... They are selling the I-Inc iH-282HPB 28" for 289.99! It has all positive reviews (so far) on TigerDirect and I found a AnandTech forum thread saying that the previous model got rave reivews. So like that poster, I ordered it and since TG has a 30-day return policy, I can give it a try.

Thanks for your suggestions guys!
 
Cornflake said:
Wow you're right... They are selling the I-Inc iH-282HPB 28" for 289.99! It has all positive reviews (so far) on TigerDirect and I found a AnandTech forum thread saying that the previous model got rave reivews. So like that poster, I ordered it and since TG has a 30-day return policy, I can give it a try.

Thanks for your suggestions guys!
Click to expand...
Be sure to use 15% Bing cashback which would knock another $43.50 off, bringing the price down to $246.50 shipped. Call Tiger tonight or early tommorow morning to cancel it and reorder using Bing, or ask if they can apply 15% Bing cashback for you.


Otherwise, to get the 15% for Tiger direct, go to Bing.com and search for Tiger Direct, look for the 15% Tiger banner ad and click it (you may have to refresh the page a few times for it to pop up). Then shop for the monitor using the same window.

The I-inc's and Hanns-G have TN panels, but Tiger also has a hassle/cost free return service. If you don't like the monitor, call them up, they'll send a pre-paid return label, then just pack it up and return it.

I have the I-inc and love it, of course it has the drawbacks of TN to a degree, but the even panel backlighting, decent blacks + sharpness clinched it for me personally.

Any chance you'd be interested in a Panasonic 32" 1080P IPS-alpha panel LCD for $425 shipped?
 
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SJetski71 said:
I have the I-inc and love it, of course it has the drawbacks of TN to a degree, but the even panel backlighting, decent blacks + sharpness clinched it for me personally.
Click to expand...

Ok i'm glad to hear that! The only last detail that I'm unsure on is the input lag (I should be fine if it's under 30ms or so). There weren't any reviews that I could find to cover it.
 
Cornflake said:
The only last detail that I'm unsure on is the input lag (I should be fine if it's under 30ms or so). There weren't any reviews that I could find to cover it.
Click to expand...
I would hope so, both the i-inc and hanns-g have been described as "gaming monitors" by end-users many times. If you're sensitive to input lag then you'll find out soon enough i guess.

There's plenty of threads about both monitors by the way, do a forum search for the I-inc or hanns-g and you'll find lots of opinions, especially for the older revision(s). Here's one of them: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1446105

Oh yea, many of them have minimal backlight bleed, so if yours has heavy backlight bleed then i recommend returning/exchanging it. And keep your monitor lower on your desk to keep your eye level closer to the top of the monitor, this way you'll dramatically reduce the vertical color shift.

Let us know what you think after you've tested it.
 
Well, I received my I-Inc iH-282HPB on Tuesday and I am quite impressed. It took me two days to post here because I was so busy staring at the dang thing it's hard to peel my eyes away. I'll give you guys a run down of my impressions:

The monitor itself looks very sleek, almost like a hybrid of an LCD monitor and LCD TV stand / bezel; the pictures to not do it justice. It looks much better in person. It is surprisingly light for it's size (which I consider a good thing).

Upon turning it on it's set to 100 brightness and 70% contrast, with the 'natural' color setting (the other two are 'warm' and 'cool'). The colors and contrast of the monitor were adjusted well enough to use right out of the box without tinkering. I prefer 'cool' because it makes the grays look neutral and it does not make it too blue.

The panel has absolutely amazing brightness and contrast, and compared to other LCDs I've owned, may surpass it's actual specs. Even cranked up until it's almost over-contrasted, the light blues and grays and whites pop out beautifully and are very easily distinguished. The black levels are very good - I'd say about as good as the 24" P-MVA panel I owned before - and there is some backlight bleed on the left and right edges, although on a scale of 1 to 10 i'd say the bleed is maybe a 3. Not bad at all for a TN panel. Viewing angles are excellent from the sides and from above, although suck from below just like any TN panel. I don't notice any 'dithering' (ie dots) with near-black colors so I believe this monitor has a true, 16.7 million color panel (but I am not 100% sure of this).
Finally, I did not notice any input lag, so I'm guessing the rating is probably < 25ms (judging from the fact my last LCD was rated around 20). The gamma is close to 2.2 (the windows standard) although from websites I've done some researching the brightness is a bit too high (that is tones close to black can stick out). Overall color accuracy seems to be good. Also I was pleased to find the VGA input (which I must use for my Xbox as it has no HDMI out) is very high-quality, I noticed no color inaccuracy / or any other noise or flucuations playing my Xbox unless the brightness was raised very, very, high but that is expected with any analog connection... and why would you want to play with blacks being straight-up gray anyhow? ;)

An added bonus is there is fixed-aspect scaling built into the monitor (labeled as 'fit') so you can play a game at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024, etc, without stretching! This is my first LCD, regardless of price of quality, to have this option.

There are a couple downsides however. The monitor has color, contrast, and backlight adjustments (the backlight labelled as 'brightness') but there are no gamma or image brightness controls built in. Gamma is easily adjusted in Windows, however I noticed the brightness adjustment in the nVidia control panel doesn't quite replace a built in adjustment control. However considering this isn't aimed at being a professional monitor, then I feel that can be left to slide. When sitting with the monitor slightly below eye, level the bottom 1/4th of the screen has a blue tint when viewing dark colors -- but my previous 24" with a good TN panel exhibited this also, so I feel this is a characteristic of the panel. The only other downside I can think of is it takes several seconds (maybe up to 5) for it to display an input, but this is minor.

Overally this is the best monitor I've ever owned. Even for it's original price of $399 I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Plus it's huge! I recommend this to any except those who are very critical to color accuracy (ie strict digital photo editing). Thank you once again for recommending this monitor to me! I will probably right up a full review in the near future!
 
Glad you like it. Maybe try installing X-tune and see what you think, it's normally for Hannspree monitors but the latest update is compatible with the I-inc as well. It communicates and adjusts your monitor's controls directly btw.

Unfortunately i'm already on the hunt for something larger, looking for the "right" 32" 1080P LCD TV but i'm going to miss the nice full 1200 pixels, which is a great thing to have for those old 1600x1200 games btw...

I notice blu-ray rips, both 720P and 1080P, look much better on the I-inc than it did on a 2 year old 22" Acer. Heck even dvd rips don't look too bad on it. This panel mfr produced a great TN panel imho.

Looking forward to your full review.
 
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