PC monitors: How to buy
What are the things to look for when choosing a monitor?
Picture quality is the most important thing to look for
Picture quality is the main factor to consider when buying a monitor, followed by ease of use. After all, it’s no good having a monitor that can produce a perfect picture if you can't work out how to adjust its settings.
While a quick reaction time helps to provide crisp, moving images, the better a monitor is at displaying colour and contrast the more realistic the picture – which is useful if you're editing images or video, or using your monitor to watch films.
For instance, how the screen depicts black is very important when it comes to producing a good picture, as otherwise anything that’s supposed to be black will look grey.
Choosing a monitor with buttons that are easy to access and a straightforward onscreen menu makes adjusting the settings easier.
Where should I buy my new monitor?
You may find some good deals online as well as some of the older monitor models. However, it's also worth seeing a selection of monitors in situ so pop down to your local computer store first to get a feel for the shapes and sizes of the monitors on offer.
What screen size should I choose?
Don't automatically go for the biggest screen you can afford. Large monitors are great for gamers or people who plan to watch films and videos on their computers. They're also really useful if you want to carry out lots of detailed work such as image editing. If you're largely word processing or surfing the net, you'll probably find that a smaller screen is adequate.