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On 16 September 2012 my Sλmsung SyncMaster 2233SW monitor died, for the second time. The first time it was replaced under warranty, but now it's way out of warranty. I could get it repaired, or replace it with another 1920×1080 “high definition” monitor, but the writing is on the wall that higher definition is finally on its way. There are a number of surprisingly cheap 2560×1440 27" monitors available from Korea on eBay. This page contains two parts: the results of my investigations on 17 September 2012, and my opinion of the monitor I eventually bought.

Comparison

There's a lot of information available on the web, of course. It seems that all monitors use the same IPS panel from Lucky Goldstar, and most of them have only DVI inputs. This report investigates the the Achieva QH270, one of the cheapest, and finds it surprisingly good.

After a lot of investigation, I've established:

Here's what I found on eBay. Prices are in Australian $.

Model       Seller       Feedback       Price       Dead       Brightness       Response       Contrast       Viewing       Speaker       Weight       OSD       HDMI       Power       Power
                        pixels             time             angle             (lbs)             no       (running)       (standby)
Achieva QH270-IPSI       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $297       5       350cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       no       19.44       ?       no       72 W       0.6 W
NEO LED 270WQ       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $299       5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       17.63       yes       no       55 W       0.6 W
Achieva QH270-Lite       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $308.90       5       350cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       no       19.44       yes       no       55 W       0.6 W
Achieva QH270-Lite       ta_planet       99.6%       $309.90       3       350cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       no       19.44       yes       no       72 W       0.6 W
Potalion 2710QW       ta_planet       99.6%       $315.80       5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       no       18.56       yes       no       75 W       0.7 W
iMON 270 QHD       moaglobal       99.6%       $334.00       1/5       380cd/m²       6.5 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       ?       yes       no       ?       ?
Achieva QH270-IPSBS       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $339.98       5       350cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       18.56       ?       no       72 W       1.0 W
iMON 270 QHD       thebest_itemshop       98.9%       $340.00       1/5       380cd/m²       6.5 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       ?       yes       no       ?       ?
NEO LED 270WQ       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $340.35       5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       17.63       yes       yes       55 W       0.6 W
Fineforce F2700QL-IPS       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $343.70       5
TOPSYNC LUXURY 2700Q       thebest_itemshop       98.9%       $345.95       1/5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       ?       yes       no       75 W       ?
FSM 270-hj       thebest_itemshop       98.9%       $345.95       1/5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       ?       no       no       55 W       ?
TOPSYNC LUXURY 2700QWB       moaglobal       99.6%       $349.00       1/5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       ?       yes       no       75       ?
Qnix QX2700       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $349.99       1       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       17.63       no       no       63 W       0.6 W
Yamakasi Catleap Q270       bigclothcraft       99.5%       $359.90       5       380cd/m²       6 ms       1000:1       178°       yes       15.43       ?       no       63 W       0.6 W

In passing, it's interesting to notice that, while this resolution (3,686,400 pixels) is higher than anything I've had before, it still has fewer lines than the 2048×1536 CRT monitors I was using 10 years ago. Their 3,145,728 pixel resolution was only lower because of the width, not the height.

My new monitor

On 19 September 2012 I decided on a NEO 270WQ monitor for AUD 299. It arrived in Australia two days later, but I couldn't pick it up until 24 September 2012, and I didn't try to configure it until 26 September 2012. I was a little apprehensive, but in fact it Just Worked. And now my desktop looks like this:


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What's not clear from that image is how much better the image is than the old TFT monitors. It needed no correction, which is good, because it doesn't support any; it would have had to done by the display driver. All in all, I'm very happy.


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