In November 2011 I decided I needed a monitor, I wanted to buy one (due to a rather complicated story concerning my family, I decided to buy myself a monitor, and send the old one to Năvodari).
My previous monitor was a Horizon 2206 SW 22 inchi wide – de ce să cumperi acest monitor LCD? – Fii eficient!. Quite a good monitor, I still have it today. I bought it in the spring of 2009 (close to three years ago). It works like a charm.
Still, today there are larger resolutions (it has 1680×1050, instead of 1920×1080, which is full-HD), and cooler technologies (LED is considered to be cooler than LCD/TFT).
I didn’t do a lot of research. I looked on:
- Monitoare LCD – number 8 on all the monitors listed, none of the 7 above it are more expensive; I think they look at sales from all the times, which may be a bit irrelevant (their most sold monitor is the monitor I bought almost three years ago);
- Monitoare LCD & LED – eMAG.ro
– number four out of all monitors listed, none of the 3 above it are more expensive; - Produse de top Diagonala 20 si peste, Preturi Diagonala 20 si peste – they have strange criteria, I wouldn’t trust them so much; just have a look and see that BenQ is three times in the top 10, and my Horizon is also there – strange, isn’t it?
– number four out of all monitors listed, none of the 3 above it are more expensive;Now, let’s make some cooler filtering, shall we?
Sorting by resolution – 1920×1080:
- Monitoare LCD & LED Rezolutie optima 1920 x 1080 – eMAG.ro – another 21.5″ monitor listed as #1, my BenQ is #2;
- Monitoare LCD Rezolutie 1920 x 1080 pixeli – another 21.5″ monitor listed as #1, my BenQ is #2;
For this, you have to think a bit – I own a 22″ monitor, and I’m not very satisfied with the 1680×1050 pixel resolution. Forcing a 21.5″ monitor to full HD would make the pixel very small, so, in my opinion, even if the price is bigger, the extra screen estate is worth it. 21.5″ & full HD? Bad idea;
Also, one of the two smaller monitors is LCD, not LED.
Now let’s focus only on 24″ monitors:
- Monitoare LCD & LED Diagonala 23.6 – 24.6 inch – eMAG.ro – #1;
- Monitoare LCD Diagonala 24 inch – #1;
Following this, I started reading about the monitor:
- I’ve read at least one comment (I think there were two actually) stating the 24″ BenQ is the next 22″ Horizon; quite a good follow-up, huh? :)
- I’ve read online on International forums / blogs about the monitor – the monitor was compared to top notch monitors it didn’t went that well; the main message was – good for its price, but not top quality overall;
I was pretty satisfied with the result. I’ve read quite a few opinions on the monitor, most were positive, even the negative ones praised the price. So, I started focusing on the price (this is also a good strategy – even if you haven’t found the „ideal” product yet, look for the price, if you find a huge discount for a specific model, it may be worth to buy #2 on the list, in favor of #1). So, I found out about ClickShop, an online store of RomTelecom. OK, perhaps a bit too much in corporate style, not too friendly, not too much room for negotiations, but the price is a killer.
Right now it’s not the best price on the market (596 lei), but when I’ve bought it (629,99 lei) it was. Still, you can get a discount on ClickShop in December 2011.
If you want to buy it from where I’ve bought it:
Impressions? Good monitor, BIG, nice colors, I’m happy with it. It’s better than my old monitor. I needed a DVI cable, I used the one from the old Horizon. A good buy.