Hi All,

I am looking at getting a 20" - 24" external widescreen monitor. I was wondering if anyone can recommend brands/models etc that will provide me with the best picture quality. I am pretty happy with the display quality on my macbook so anything that recreates that as a minimum would be great. The last thing I want is a big screen showing a big crappy image.

Price range is looking like around $300 or so.

Thanks one and all for your thoughts.

Well macbooks do pretty crap colour. So I think you'd be pretty impressed with most monitors, the current range of dells are fantastic :-)

Fair call - I should point out that I am coming from a PC background using crap VGA monitors!

Dell have a entry level 22 for $399, I have a few of these in my office they are basic as far as inputs go, but pictures is good

also on the dell site is a viewsonic 22 for $299 - I cant say anything about these I have no experiences with them

22" Monitors

Does anyone know whether any of the Dell monitors are 8 bit panel? Or are they all 6 bit?

I just bought a Benq G2400W for $500 to use with my MacBook Pro, Xbox 360 & PS3. 24", 1920x1200, 5ms response and includes a DVI cable (most don't)!

It's a 6-bit panel, but for my untrained, unprofessional eyes, it works fine. For $500, I can't complain! It works great with my consoles too, as it supports 1:1 pixel mapping, meaning it won't stretch a low-res image out to fit, but instead show it at the native resolution of the source.

I've had a Chimei 20" for almost 2 years and I've been really happy with it. Picture quality is very good and the price is pretty much unrivaled.

it your going to buy a dell buy the better 20 or the better 24

the budget 20, 22 and 24 use crap panels

I ended up scoring a 22" LG - with 8000:1 contrasting and a 3 year no dead pixel warranty I am pretty happy with the purchase. The picture quality, to my eye, is superb.