MORE...

• NEWS
• PODCASTS
• BLOGS
• SYSTEMS
• MULTIMEDIA
• MISCELLANY
• ARCHIVES
• ABOUT US

DESPITE HAVING MANY advantages over CRTs, LCD monitors have yet to really make a dent in the North American desktop market. High prices and lackluster performance in some areas have dogged the screens, but that's all starting to change. We're not yet at the point where you can buy an LCD that will trounce the best CRT offerings, but LCD technology has improved by leaps and bounds over early incarnations. Now, the benefits of an LCD display can sometimes outweigh its detriments, including even its price tag.

Today we've rounded up a total of seven different LCD screens from the likes of Hercules, KDS, Philips, Samsung, and Solarism. Each display has its own unique feature set, aesthetic, and performance quirks that vary more than you might expect. As we weave our way through all seven screens, we'll also serve up some general observations on common LCD performance characteristics, and the pros and cons of the genre as a whole.

LCDs have come a long way since their appearance in early laptops, where even rendering a moving cursor was a problem. We've run these screens through basic desktop tests, DVD playback, slow- and fast-paced gaming, and even a suite of synthetic monitor test programs. Which LCD comes out on top? Let's have a look.