ASUS 23" IPS FHD Flicker Free Ultra-low Blue Light IPS Monitor 5ms (GTG) D-Sub, DVI, HDMI VC239H

Pros: - 23" 1920x1080, IPS, anti-glare screen coating, 60Hz, HDMI
- Inexpensive
- Slim bezels are classy
- Flicker-free design definitely a plus
- Picture quality is very good, viewing angles are excellent, brightness is acceptable

Cons: - On-screen text a bit LCD-ized
- Blue light filter makes picture hue a bit warmer than normal (could also be a plus, depending on your preference)
- Sound from built-in 1.5W speakers lacks presence
- Stand a bit wobbly--set this up somewhere it won't be jostled much

Overall Review: The VC239H is not an enthusiast monitor--no high/variable refresh rate, no USB hub, no DisplayPort connectivity--nor is it priced as such. This monitor is for those on a budget (like me), who want an affordable monitor with good picture quality and reasonable response times for playing games and watching movies. The VC239H fits that bill for me. Picked this up on sale, and am happy with the purchase.

Pros: - (in theory) Nice cheap IPS monitor

Cons: - The monitor suffers from flickering artifacts. For very specific color shades, the monitor will display horizontal flickering lines instead of solid color. Watching movies or playing games is still fine, but anything that needs large areas of solid color (browsing, text editing, programming - any office work, really) drives you insane on this monitor.

Initially I chalked it up to a bad HDMI cable or graphics card, but I've been through three cables and two machines at this point and still have the same issue.

My best guess is this - LCD monitors sometimes have less dynamic range than they need to display certain brightness values, so they use dithering to "fake" smaller brightness steps. This is normal. However, this monitor uses some of the worst dithering patterns I've ever seen - rather than using noise, this monitor displays horizontal lines of alternating brightness. Looking at LCD test images (google "lcd black level test") does seem to confirm this.

Overall Review: I really wanted to like this unit (IPS, at this price!), and it works fine most of the time. However, after a few days the flickering did not get any less distracting, so I'm not sure what to do at this point. My advice - spend a bit more money on a nicer panel.