John said:
I followed the idea (I seem to recall you mentioning/agreeing) of a
wide monitor instead of multiple monitors. The T260HD (made in China,
darn) has a strange viewing angle limit. If you are close enough to use
the whole screen to its maximum benefit, close enough to see lots of
small text, the upper portion of the screen is noticeably darker. They
say your eye position should be at a level just higher than the top of
the screen, and if that is related to the viewing angle situation, that
is just weird IMO. Why would they make a monitor that requires viewing
from an angle? If you were doing artwork, viewing the screen from
close-up, you would need to angle the monitor downwards at roughly 30°.
Maybe it has something to do with the design of the monitor stand... a
short monitor stand with limited upwards tilting ability... so they
designed the monitor to make up for that (kidding, hopefully).
I hope you have the option to return it. If I spent $400 on a
screen, I'd want to be happy with it.
Your panel type is TN. There are panel types with better viewing angles.
This product offers 178° horizontal and 178° vertical. The threshold
would be something like a 5:1 intensity ratio (that is how much
it can darken at 178°).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16824002458
Here is a 24" product with a wide viewing angle (and a price to match).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16824002349
Wikipedia has an article on LCD panels, but it doesn't give very
good comparative charts. It would be interesting to have a table
of viewing angle, response time and the like, so you can pick something
out for Photoshop, or a different product for gaming.
I checked the specs on my monitor, and my panel must be TN as well. Yet,
I can't complain about darkening on this monitor. A little head shift
isn't that bad. I can slouch in my chair, without worrying about some
part of the screen going dark. (I checked the receipt, and my monitor
is now six years old - the backlight still works
)
I believe in personal shopping for monitors. I spent about two weeks,
picking the best monitor I could find locally. Ordering online and
shipping back garbage, is a risky proposition. And judging by the
uniformly bad selection I can find locally now, I'd say the odds of
hitting a good product by accident, are slim indeed.
I especially like the products I can find, where the reflective front
surface of the product is filled with "ripples". Almost like the
monitor was exposed to heat, on the way to North America.
Paul