Buying a Monitor

It's tax return time and I'm seriously considering getting a monitor to hook up to my laptop. I've had NEC recommended to me, which I'm sure is great monitor, but at 500.00 a little pricey. So I'm looking for a 19 inch monitor for less than that. HP has also been recommended but it has a very reflective screen and I don't know if that is a good idea. Also, please recommend what calibration would be best.

Thanks for your input.

I just bought a 24 inch Viewsonic monitor at Costco. There was a $60 coupon in the last flyer and the final price was $219.99. It's resolution is 1920x1080 which is the same as wide screen HDTV. It may not match the very best monitors but it's price was hard to beat. Good luck on finding a good one.

I'm a bit soured on Viewsonic, I purchased a widescreen monitor and after two weeks of the purchase it developed a problem and it took Viewsonic almost two months to finally replace the unit. Thankfully I still had my old monitor to use during this time. This may be an isolated case but I'll think twice about buying another Viewsonic product.

Rob

I have a reflective screen on my 17" laptop and the thing is gorgeous, I thought it would be annoying, but it's not. I have since purchased a Dell 2405 off of ebay so I could have a big monitor, but the glossy laptop screen is no slouch. My stepson has this 22" HP monitor and it is REALLY nice (and I'm pretty picky), and it too has the reflective surface. This 22" has a 1680x1050 resolution, so keep it in mind when shopping around, it's quite popular. At $249 it's a killer deal. But also, don't forget calibration! No monitor is spot-on out of the box, they all need calibration for photo work. I use the ColorVision Spyder Pro 2, but I think version 3 is out now. I calibrate all my monitors, even my work PC. Once you see in accurate color, you'll want to calibrate everything in the house.