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I got a second 19 inch LCD about a week ago.

On the left is Tribes 2 and on the right is thinkorswim.

The room is dark because I was too lazy to clean up my desk for the picture. Instead of cleaning up my desk, I just turned the lights off.

I don’t understand why people like widescreen monitors so much. Sure, it’s great for movies, but that’s about all it’s good for. I can think of many applications where a 5:4 aspect ratio 19 inch LCD is better than a 16:9 aspect ratio 19 inch LCD.

1. CAD. It would seriously suck to do any computer aided design on a widescreen. In that scenario your productivity is limited by the smallest dimension.

2. Web browsing. Many websites fix their width to no more than 1000 pixels. If your screen is 1920 pixels wide, the webpage won’t take up more than half the width of the screen. Even if the webpage took up the entire width of the screen, you have to move your eyeballs across the entire long side of the screen to read the text. You are better served if the text were squished to a narrow width so that your eyes can scan multiple lines at a time.

3. Long PDF files. I don’t know about you, but a lot of times I have to browse through long PDF files. There are not as easy to scroll through on a widescreen monitor.

I decided that I wanted a larger monitor, and for the reasons described above, I decided to get a second 5:4 aspect ratio 19 inch LCD. I got it for $139 on eBay. I think it was refurbished.

Now time to review the two monitors…

The one on the left is a Samsung 943BX that I got last week on eBay for $139.
The one on the right is a ViewSonic VP191b that I got 4 years ago for $440.

Both of these monitors were available 4 years ago. At the time, the Samsung monitor could be found for about $330-$360. I now understand why I paid more for my ViewSonic.

The Samsung is brighter.
The Samsung has better brightness uniformity.
The Samsung also has darker blacks.
The Samsung doesn’t have its color pixels overshoot during a transition.

However…

The Samsung’s viewing angle ain’t that hot. If you move your head a little, it just doesn’t look right.
The Samsung’s colors are messed up. I think the green is way too bright.
The Samsung’s menu buttons are a pain to use because they aren’t buttons at all. It’s just a touch sensitive strip and you don’t know exactly where to press.

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