NEC Display Solutions P221W-BK Black 22" 8ms Pivot, Swivel & Height Adjustable Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1

Pros: Great color, easy on the eyes, plenty of air flow, the stand action is amazingly cool. Somewhat easy menus. Plenty of size, several windows worth.

Cons: The color presets while better than most monitors I have used are missing the most usable preset temperatures for photography. In order to use the custom color you must purchase the NEC software. (you can use a third party spectrometer though)

Other Thoughts: This monitor is well suited for Pro Photo applications, high refresh rate of 8ms limits newer games. If you need to color tune your display, I recommend using "native" color temp setting and spyder or eye one spectrometers for custom color management files.

Pros: - no sparkle/speckle effect from AG coating
- wide gamut
- color settings

Cons: - high pitch noise
- flimsy stand
- bright power LED

Pros: - Colors and overall screen quality in text, movies and games
- Easy controls
- Wide viewing angle
- Absolutely no light bleeding due to PVA technology

Cons: - Price, but you get what you pay for

Other Thoughts: Text and movies need to further comment: stunning.

Being an avid Unreal Tournament player and coming from a CRT 19" Samsung 997MB I was skeptical about lag in gaming. This monitor is rated 8ms; I have never played on anything lower. Compared to my old CRT, game play "feels" different. Initially I thought there was a lag, but after increasing mouse sensitivity in combination with much better color reproduction and detail resulting in more accuracy, my scores have actually improved! Further, Farcry 2 at 1680x1050 looks incredible.

Pros: I bought this monitor for my girlfriend who has been using a six year old 15” CRT. This monitor arrived with no dead pixels, has great color and viewing angle, and good tilt and height adjustment. It does not have any cheesy fake chrome or ultra polished plastic adornment, just a very clean and classic look. Narrow screen borders allow it to take up a minimum of desk space. Adjustments are easy to access on the front of the unit. The ASUS integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 video (on DVI output) recognized it right away and no drivers had to be installed. It was up and running in 5 minutes and looks great.

Cons: The desk my girlfriend's desk also supports an HP printer and the monitor giggles annoyingly from side to side about 1/4 inch when the printer is printing (print head jiggles the desk during printing). There is no locking mechanism for the tilt or height; the screen "floats" and can be easily pulled up or down as desired (which could be considered a feature). If you have a lightweight desk and a lurching printer, this might be a problem for you.

Other Thoughts: New Egg's return policy for dead pixels is less than desirable, especially for gifts. I have an older 17" NEC that cost 4 times what the 22" did and it still has no dead pixels. This unit is a little pricy in comparison to the competition, but I hopeful I am getting the quality for which I paid.

Pros: Built in 10-bit LUT, S-PVA display, Wide Gamut, Even backlight, 1000:1+ contrast ratio.

Cons: Large stand doesn't rotate left/right, some more apparent banding when not in FULL scaling mode.

Other Thoughts: Very satisfied with this monitor. Calibrated with the NEC version custom calibrated X-rite i1 Display2 and get excellent results via Spectraview. It does make you appreciate applications that recognize monitor profiles.

I consistently get 1000:1 or higaher contrast ratio AFTER calibration. If you leave the monitor on its default brightness(320cd/m^2 on mine) then it reaches 1200:1. I have dialed mine down to 200cd/m^2 for a mix of movies/photography usage.

The stand itself is quite beefy. Doesn't really matter because the monitor doesn't extend beyond the base but be aware that this monitor isn't "pretty" like you would see from Samsung or LG. I, however, prefer the more commercial look of this monitor.

Black level is low and very even. I have no backlight bleeding on this monitor unlike previous monitors I have had. Calibrated black level typically stays around 1/1000 of the brightness you calibrate to. Mine is measured at .19cd/m^2 which is pretty low. All in all a great mon

Pros: S-PVA 8 bit panel

Cons: Cost

Other Thoughts: DELL 2209WA (eIPS panel) and the HP LP2275w(S-PVApanel) are its main competition and are a lot cheaper