lcd monitors 15 free sample

Why you can trust Tom"s HardwareOur expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.What’s your monitor’s purpose?If it’s gaming, you’ll generally want something with a high refresh rate (ideally 100Hz or more), low response time and AMD FreeSyncor Nvidia G-Sync for fighting screen tears at low framerates. For general use, look for high contrast, and for creative work prioritize color accuracy.What resolution do you want? More pixels means a sharper image. No one should be buying anything under 1080p/FHD (1920 x 1080) these days. But if your budget can handle it, 4K is as sharp as it gets at a reasonable price. Many gamers find 1440p/QHD (2560 x 1440) a good compromise between price and high-refresh-rate performance.Contrast and color.We consider contrast the most important factor in image quality, with 1,000:1 being solid. Color errors are particularly important avoid for content creators, and anything with a Delta E (dE) greater than 3 may show visible errors.Panel tech:When it comes to image quality, TN< IPS< VA. VA monitors typically still have better contrast than even the best IPS panels, although IPS panels are also known to be very colorful.What size do you want?These days, 24-inches is on the small side and 27 inches is mainstream, while 32-inches is a good large size for those on a budget. Anything bigger than 43 inches probably won’t fit on a regular desktop. For portable monitors, stay in the 17-inch range or under. Anything bigger isn"t really all that portable.sRGB or DCI-P3? In most cases, you’ll either be getting a monitor made for the sRGBcolor space or the more colorful DCI-P3 one. Technically, Windows, the web and non-HDR games and video all use sRGB, but if you want an extra colorful screen, an accurate DCI-P3 monitor is more appropriate.

Before we get into our primary list of picks, here is an amazing deal on one of our favorite tested monitors below. Sure, it"s more of a TV than a monitor, but it"s hard to pass up a big OLED screen for $600 (after an admittedly annoying $200 mail-in rebate).

eSports players and hopefuls rely on the fastest peripherals available to attenuate the delay between deciding on in-game action and when that action happens on screen. 360 Hz is the fastest refresh rate PC monitors have today, and the MSI Oculux NXG253R is the fastest of them all. Yes, the NXG253R is the fastest display we’ve ever tested, making it the best computer monitor for eSports you can buy.

The NXG253R outperformed other 360 Hz monitors by 1-3ms (depending on the rival screen) in our absolute input lag test. It also matched all its 360 Hz rivals in our response time test with a 3ms score. The monitor also fights screen tears down to a 1 Hz refresh rate with G-Sync and includes the Nvidia Reflex latency analyzer to help fine-tune your eSports performance further.

Curves are generally more effective on ultrawide screens, but the UR59C’s 1500R curvature was effective and beneficial for this 32-incher, such as when multitasking with multiple windows. And if you don’t mind calibrating, you can get rid of the UR59C pesky color errors, which, unfortunately, were visible out of the box. Our calibration settings reduced the error from 4.3dE to 0.9dE.

Making HDR pop over SDR is all about contrast, and for the ultimate contrast, there’s nothing better than OLED. The Aorus FO48U’s massive OLED panel not only delivers immeasurably high contrast, but we recorded 107.7% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and near-flawless grayscale tracking. As a result, you get a rich image that’s also accurate out of the box. However, it’s not as bright as a premium LCD (399 nits with HDR, according to our testing).

Aorus’ OLED monitor is fit for high-speed HDR gaming on both PCs and consoles, thanks to DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) and HDMI 2.1, respectively. The monitor held its own against 120Hz and 144Hz rivals in our speed tests, only falling 4ms behind its OLED gaming rival, the Alienware AW5520QF. Unfortunately, you don’t get Dolby Vision or support for the 50p and 24p TV formats, but the monitor has two 15W speakers and one 20w speaker for outstanding audio quality.

Asus has gone all out with the ProArt PA32UCG, combining 1152 dimming zones in its full-array Mini-LED backlight. A quantum dot film covers a considerable color gamut, almost 78% of Rec.2020. And it is the brightest monitor we’ve ever tested at over 1700 nits peak. To that, it adds precise out-of-box accuracy for every color mode in use today. Though it includes many calibration options and a bundled colorimeter, it’s ready for work or play, with no tweaking necessary.

A lot of us are finding ourselves working in tight spaces these days. If you’re looking to add another screen to your space, the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 is the best portable monitor. Its most standout feature is a critical one: a reliable, strong kickstand that’s easy to use, thanks to two flip-out feet. While many portable monitors are stuck with flimsy sleeves that double as stands, you can intuitively prop up the ThinkVision M14 at a -5 to 90-degree tilt or even in portrait mode. Unfortunately, its travel case isn’t as tough.

Unused electronics are the bane of the modern life. Perfectly functional gadgets sit quietly in a corner of the store room, doing nothing. If you"re wondering what to do with old computer monitors, here are a few easy ideas to repurpose unused screens.

Perhaps the best thing to do with an old flat-screen monitor is a DIY DAKboard. The DAKboard is a LCD wall display that shows the current time, weather forecast, calendar events, stock quotes, fitness data, and news headlines. It"s all displayed on a soothing photo. You could buy an official DAKboard, but the makers themselves have shown how to build your own wall display with a Raspberry Pi. when you can build one for far less money and a little geeky fun, the choice is obvious.

Basically, you will be cutting out the polarizing film of the old LCD monitor. This film will then be put on a simple pair of glasses. Now your screen appears white, but the glasses can "see" the content. It"s one of the best ways to keep prying eyes out of your PC.

If you have a broken old LCD monitor, it can be re-purposed into a usable mirror; but if you have a working old LCD monitor, adding a Raspberry Pi can turn it into a smart magic mirror!

If you"re on a tight budget for a first-time DIY project, consider the $100 smart mirror. It"s not the best version of turning an LCD monitor into a smart mirror, but you"ll get the basic features and not spend a bomb.

All desktop operating systems support the ability to use dual monitors. It"s pretty easy to setup dual monitors on Windows, and you can then customize how you use the two spaces. To connect two monitors, you will likely need a graphics card with multiple HDMI ports, or use an HDMI and a VGA port on desktops.

Like any gadget, monitors have a limited shelf life. If you"re looking to upgrade, you now have a few ideas of what to do with your old monitor. And that age should influence which project you chose. For example, given the effort involved in building a smart mirror, don"t go with a screen that"s already shown signs of trouble. The Raspberry Pi-based projects are usually the easiest to keep changing.

How big is big enough? When it comes to computer monitors, you want something that can fit comfortably on your desk while giving you plenty of screen real estate. While in the past sub-20-inch monitors were commonplace, today, unless you’re really constrained for space, there’s no real need to buy anything under 22 inches. For most, 24 inches is going to be a baseline, as you can pick up a number of screens at that size for around $100, and they look fantastic at 1080p.

For those who want more than that, though, there are plenty of sizes to choose from. Monitors that stretch 27 inches diagonally are increasingly popular, and there are plenty of options beyond 30 inches that are affordable. If you want to go extreme, we’ve even tried some great computer monitors that get close to 50 inches, like Samsung’s CHG90.

While you’ll need to sit well back from those, there’s no denying that they look amazing. They give you the same screen as multiple smaller monitors without a bezel dividing them down the middle. They tend to be rather expensive, though, and if you go really wide, you’ll struggle to find media that can display at close to its native resolution, leaving the picture to either look stretched or surrounded by black.

Anywhere between 24 and 30 inches is going to be perfectly fine for most users. They let you make the most of modern resolutions and color clarity, and they also fit a couple of different web pages open at the same time without needing to use two monitors, which is handy for many professionals. They don’t tend to be too expensive at that size, either, unless you opt for the top-end models.

Today, all the best screens are still LCD monitors that use LED technology for a slim product that saves energy while providing ideal backlighting. We’ve been waiting years for OLED technology to make the transition to PC monitors, it isfinally beginning thanks to brands like LG, but the technology is still relatively rare.

One aspect of PC monitors that you do need to consider, though, is resolution. While 1080p was once the gold standard, today, it’s just the baseline. If you’re happy to spend a little more, there are a few other options worth considering, especially if you want to improve screen space or gaming visuals. Resolution isn’t the be-all and end-all of monitor features, though. In fact, too much resolution on too small of a screen can often be annoying because it shrinks all images down and forces you to enlarge everything to easily read it.

1080p: If you want reasonable clarity, but want to save on cost or focus on other, more important features, 1080p is where it’s at — as long as the monitor you’re buying isn’t extremely large. 1080p is ideal for 21-inch to 24-inch displays. These monitors offer great picture quality, and now that they are competing with 4K, the prices are rock-bottom. If you want to go larger than 24 inches, though, you should consider 2,560 x 1,440 resolution at the least and perhaps 4K.

4K/Ultra HD (UHD): 4K is the resolution that the industry is most keen to drive consumers towards. It looks much more detailed than 1080p with 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, and prices have come down substantially in the past few years. That said, gamers will need a powerful graphics card to run a system at this resolution, and finding affordable monitors with full suites of frame synching support or high-refresh rates is still difficult. There is plenty of 4K media out there to enjoy, though, whether you’re streaming or using UHD Blu-rays.

5K:This resolution made headlines when Apple debuted it on its iMac, but it’s far from a common resolution even years later. Dell’s UP2715K is a great-looking display, but we would recommend many high-end 4K monitors before it, as you won’t be able to see too much difference between them.

8K: There are some 8K monitors available as well, notably Dell’s 8K Ultrasharp. There’s not really any need for a monitor with such a high resolution at this time, but they are available for those with the budget if resolution is absolutely the most important thing.

While the above are the most common resolutions you’ll find on monitors, some fall into more niche categories. The best ultrawide monitors offer unique aspect ratios and resolutions with broad horizontal pixel counts, but less on the vertical dimension.

Aspect ratio: The aspect the screen shows images in (length compared to height). A common standard, and your best bet, is 16:9. It works with plenty of content, and it’s great for movies or games. Some fancy monitors like to stretch things out with ratios like 21:9, but that is more suitable for unusual work situations or hardcore gaming. Another common format, 16:10, provides slightly more vertical space for viewing multiple open documents or images. 3:2 is becoming more commonplace in laptops for better web viewing, but that’s rare on stand-alone displays.

Brightness: High-end monitors these days have brightness around 300 to 350 cd/m2. Extra brightness may be handy if you work in a well-lit room or next to large windows. However, too much brightness is a recipe for eye strain. As long as brightness options reach 250 cd/m2, your monitor is good to go. That said, if you want one with HDR support, the more peak brightness, the better to best take advantage of that technology.

HDR: High dynamic range, or HDR, is a recent addition to the PC monitor space and can have a dramatic impact on visuals. However, most PC monitors lack the brightness needed to take full advantage of it, and even the best ones don’t look as good as they should. Keep in mind there are a variety of HDR versions to consider, like HDR10+, for more advanced content.

IPS: Displays with IPS panels tend to be the most expensive of the bunch, but what you get for your money is much richer colors and clear viewing angles that are near horizontal. The downside of IPS panels is that they don’t tend to have as fast response times as TN displays, so some consider them inferior for gaming. There are, however, gaming IPS displays, like the fantastic Asus PG279Q, which make good ground on their TN counterparts. Some IPS monitors suffer from quality control issues, though, and most IPS displays have a telltale glow when displaying dark images due to backlight bleeding.

There are also curved monitors to consider. They don’t have different resolutions than their flat counterparts, but present a concave curved screen, which can make a difference to the experience and tasks they’re best suited for.

They have a narrow field of view, and aren’t that great for group watching. Fortunately, this is less of an issue on monitors, which tend to have an audience of one.

To run a display at 4K resolution, you’ll need to use HDMI 1.4 at the very least, though HDMI 2.0 would be required if you want to support a refresh rate of 60Hz, which should be a bare minimum unless all you do is watch movies on it (with HDMI 2.1 being the newest version of the standard). If you want to do high refresh rate gaming, especially at higher resolutions, DisplayPort 1.4 monitors can handle up to 8K at 60Hz and 4K at up to 200Hz, so they’re better suited than HDMI in that regard. DisplayPort 2.0 is also on the way.

The slightly older, DisplayPort 1.2 connector can handle 1440p and 1080p at high refresh rates, too, so if you’re not opting for 4K, that port option should suffice for lower-resolution monitors. USB-C is an option, as it can support up to 4K resolution, but it’s not as capable as DisplayPort connections.

We recommend picking a monitor that is easy to use, especially if you’re building a complex setup with more than one monitor. Think about adding a stand that you can tilt or rotate to achieve the perfect monitor angle. Some monitors even let you adjust tilt and rotation with one hand.

Built-in controls to navigate through the monitor’s menu and select different monitor modes are an interesting feature, but they shouldn’t feel clunky. Pay attention to port placement and cable management features to connect your new monitor in a neat and tidy manner. Some monitors go an extra step and include charging ports along the base or even turn the monitor base into a wireless charging pad for your phone.

The most common computer monitors are compact enough to sit on a table, desk, or stand. However, if you’re in the market for an enormous monitor, the most space-efficient choice is to mount the monitor onto a wall, thereby freeing up precious floor space. In this case, look for monitors thatcome with VESA standard mountingoptions or which are compatible with them. That way, you’ll have a larger selection of mounting arms from a variety of manufacturers to choose from, rather than being limited by specific mounting options.

You may use your monitor to hold video chats with friends or for business conferences. You have two main options for video communication, namely a built-in webcam or an independent camera, with marked differences that provide benefits according to your needs. Many monitors, especially high-quality models, come with an integrated webcam.

You could take your monitor to a professional to have it done, but doing it yourself is relatively quick and hassle-free and will greatly improve image quality. Manufacturers keep pumping out displays with new technologies like 4K UHD resolution, high dynamic range (HDR), and curved monitors, providing a veritable feast for the eyes — but only if they are properly calibrated.

The Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages: Handy for both online and offline use, the Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages not only allow you to adjust various things such as contrast and response time, but also allow you to download the images as a 120KB zip file, so you can check any monitor in-store that you are thinking about purchasing.

The best way to avoid this problem and ensure that you calibrate your monitor correctly is by purchasing a calibrating device. You’ll need to spend a decent amount of money for the best control and precision. Still, there are affordable alternatives to help you achieve consistent color across all of your monitors.

Monitor displays are commonly used peripheral output devices in computers. These peripheral devices are also called ‘display monitors’ or ‘monitors’ or ‘displays’. They display information to a computer user.[1] There are a few important reasons why practicing radiologists should have a working knowledge of monitor displays and these are described below.

Impact of digital imaging: Computers play an important role in contemporary radiology practice. Most radiology modalities today use monitor displays to aid analysis of images. Monitors have become integral components of digital radiography, USG, CT / MRI consoles and workstations, and PACS terminals.

Shift in analysis model: In the traditional model of radiology practice, hardcopy images displayed on viewboxes were the first point of analysis. Today, in most instances, softcopy images displayed on monitors are the first point of analysis. As a result, key steps like viewing, analysis, processing, and postprocessing of softcopy images are executed directly at monitors of consoles, workstations, and office desktops.[2]

Heterogeneity of data: The data displayed on the monitors in a radiology department is heterogeneous. It is often a variable combination of monochrome and gray-scale and/or color images viewed alongside text, audio, and/or video.[3] In such circumstances, radiologists need to possess a working knowledge of important performance parameters like resolution, brightness, contrast ratio, and viewing angles.

Growth of RIS, PACS, and teleradiology: Image transfer across a variety of networks and radiology modalities is common practice these days. Images are increasingly being stored as part of a patient"s electronic medical records, to be analyzed as and when required; images are often transferred over departmental networks and to teleradiology workstations for analysis[3] In such a diverse set of locations, it is common to find different types of monitors used for displaying assorted types of data.

Original dataset: The American College of Radiology (ACR) has devised guidelines for monitor displays, based on the matrix size of the original digital image dataset. Monitors for small matrix datasets [typically sourced from CT, MRI, USG, nuclear medicine (NM), digital fluorography, and digital subtraction angiography (DSA)] have different performance guidelines as compared to monitors required for large matrix datasets [e.g., sourced from digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR), digitized films, and digital mammography][4]. The large matrix datasets require monitors with higher performance. As a rule of thumb, the resolution of the selected display system, ideally, should match the matrix of the image acquisition data.[4]

Dell offers a Premium Panel Exchange that ensures zero "bright pixel" defects on Dell Consumer, Professional, UltraSharp, and Gaming including Alienware monitors.

Premium Panel Exchange is available for Dell Consumer, Professional, UltraSharp, and Gaming (including Alienware) monitors that are sold with computers or as stand-alone units, with a standard 1-year or 3-year limited hardware warranty. Customers who purchase an extended warranty can also take advantage of this coverage during the limited hardware warranty period.

Flicker-free monitors are specially designed to produce a single continuous light source. A typical monitor adjusts its brightness through flickering, introducing periods of low light between higher brightness. While a user may not be aware of the flicker, it can cause a number of issues, including eye strain. However, many monitors now use flicker-free technology to put less strain on monitor users’ eyes.

Look around your typical office and what do you see? Perched on every desk is a computer. Your reliance on computers in the workplace means that office workers are exposed to computer monitors every day, and many of them use the monitor for the majority of their work tasks.

Unfortunately, continued exposure to computer monitors can be very harmful to your eyes, causing irritation and discomfort in the short term. It may also lead to more severe issues in the long-term.

Monitors that use LED backlighting flicker through pulse-width modulation (PWM), which enables you to adjust the brightness of your screen easily. If you’re in a sunlit room, you’ll need a bright screen to help you see; when you’re working late at night, you may prefer to dim your screen accordingly.

Computer companies are beginning to address the concerns and dangers that digital displays pose to your eye health. When certain features are integrated into digital displays and computer monitors, your eyes can be successfully protected from digital eye strain.

However, implementing design changes that will have a positive impact on eye health has proven to be difficult. Many computer companies have attempted to design flicker-free monitors, but the end product fails to truly protect your eyes. In other words, not all flicker-free monitors are created equal—and some aren’t actually “flicker-free” at all.

For example, some companies have attempted to protect your eyes from on-screen flicker but have only created monitors that mask the issue or create the impression of being flicker-free.

Conventional computer monitors flicker at a fixed frequency with comparatively longer periods of time between the “on” and “off” states of the backlight. Consequently, the on-screen flicker of conventional computer monitors is very noticeable.

It may seem like we’ve arrived at a catch-22. Non-flicker-free monitors have proven to harm your eyes, and traditional flicker-free monitors still, unfortunately, fail to solve this problem. So what’s the solution?

ViewSonic has used its 30 years of visual solution experience—along with a deep understanding of how traditional computer monitors harm your eyes—to develop a line of computer monitors designed to protect your eye health.

Engineered with flicker-free technology, ViewSonic’s line of monitors is created to reduce flicker and prevent eye strain, eye fatigue, and irritation as well as the development of Computer Vision Syndrome.

On-screen flicker isn’t the only problem computer users face. Companies have also tried to create monitors that protect your eyes from harsh blue light waves.

ViewSonic has designed a line of computer monitors with blue light filter technology that has been engineered to address this issue. This state-of-the-art technology helps the computer monitor maintain blue light waves that are closer in intensity to realistic, everyday colors.

Maintain a proper viewing distance at your workstation. You should not be situated too far or too close; according to the American Optometric Association, a healthy viewing distance means that your screen should be positioned 15 to 20 degrees below eye level, as well as 20 to 28 inches away from the eyes.

To ensure that your eyes stay healthy, you need to stay aware of the potential dangers of continued exposure to computer monitors. The key is understanding how certain computer monitors can impact the health of your eyes, either positively or negatively.

When selecting computer monitors for business purposes, ensure that the monitors you choose are flicker-free for optimum eye health and include integrated blue light filter technology.