I went to the shop where I usually buy my PC stuff yesterday, to get some cables I needed.
The manager greeted me, we started talking and walked around, and I saw it. The new and very cheap Samsung 245B, first 24 inch monitor with a TN panel. The viewing angles were horrible in store, but I was willing to give it a try in my controlled home environment. After all, all I needed was more pixels, and I would always face it straight on in my home office. And I got a good discount! Right? Wrong!
After a tuning session, I got to my preferred brightness level, which is LOW, good colors and correct gray scale. Then I started browsing, checking photos, and the usual stuff I do on my PCs.
When you watch from 50-60cm away, the image is darker and warmer at the top, brighter and cooler at the bottom. You HAVE to adjust the monitor angle to be exactly perpendicular to your eyes, or this effect gets you dizzy. You can't move up or down, left or right, or the color temperature shifts. TN panels really suck at larger monitors. And, as I checked when viewing a black screen, the bottom bleeds light, making the image even brighter there. The saddest thing is that the image quality is excellent when viewing a part of the monitor.
To conclude, in monitors, as in many other things, you get what you pay for...
My old Eizo monitors haven't found their big brother yet, but then, each 19 inch cost more than the Samsung.
