Response time

This is one value that has become very accurate these days and it gives you a good indication how well a display is suited for gaming. Most manufacturers give the time a pixel has to change from Grey to Grey, but if you see an LCD that has a significantly higher response time than the others you are looking at, make sure it isn’t the black to white time (it sounds odd that they would do make their product look bad, but sometimes they do).


(Example Grey to Grey Latency (image courtesy of XBitLabs)

The standard time for the different display techs are:

• IPS: 8-12ms, you will be able to feel that difference
• VA: 6-8 ms, hard to spot a difference
• TN: 5-2ms, if you go for a TN product because you are a gamer, go for 2 ms, period.

NEW: Input lag

This describes the time it takes a movement from the mouse to register on the screen and it is very relevant for gamers and lag sensitive people. There are differences and they are hard to measure. The reviewers from prad.de have a very sophisticated way to measure it, but they don’t publish the exact results; Vincent Alzieu (www.digitalversus.com) offers a large database with the exact values of a test that is a little less accurate.

Brightness

This value has become irrelevant because 200cd/m2 is more than enough, if you got 300cd/m2 like most monitors do nowadays there is even the headroom needed because the backlight gets weaker over time. There are two reasons why you see values of 500cd/m2 brightness (which they really achieve):

• Consumers like to see high numbers because they think higher is better
• A high brightness inflates the contrast ratio, meaning there is another high value

It is funny that when you run such an LCD at full brightness of 500cd/m2 you would need sunglasses or your eyes start to hurt. Even worse, you cannot turn the brightness down enough on some newer displays and some have negative side effects if you do that (reviews usually find that out). So ignore the brightness value.

Contrast

The contrast ratio is only saying the difference between the darkest and the brightest value a monitor can achieve, it doesn’t tell you anything how good the blacks will be (see brightness). Even worse with the “feature” dynamic contrast manufacturers inflated the numbers to insane values while the displays aren’t any better. So again, simply ignore the contrast value.

NEW: Black value at 200cd/m2

It would be really good if the manufacturers could make a standard measurement for the black value at 200cd/m2 (reasonable brightness in my opinion) because that would tell you exactly how good a monitor is. Even though there was an improvement over the years, reviews still find major differences in black values today.

Viewing angles

For TN panels, this value can only be described as a lie (measured under unrealistic conditions). Ignore the values the manufacturers give and have a look at the reviews from www.digitalversus.com. The pictures there do not lie and tell you the true story about viewing angles.

Color range

It seems like some manufacturers just insert a random value here and it only is relevant for people who work with images, which probably go for an IPS panel anyway. It’s best to ignore it and rather choose the panel tech appropriate to the usage.

NEW Color accuracy



Very few displays are very well set up from the factory so you do not need the hassle of adjusting them by hand. Others have a very distinctive blue or red tint which is very annoying to adjust and often you can’t even get it done properly. It is measured as average ΔE in reviews and I am sure that if the manufacturers had to give you the value in the specifications it would rapidly improve.