Good, cheap flatscreen monitors from brick & mortars?

[digitalwanderer]

A friend asked me if any of the local stores, (CircuitCity, BestBuy, etc), have any good flatscreen monitors for a reasonable price for her and her son for Xmas.

I have no clue, I know nothing of flatscreens since I got my wife one and the info I had sort of seems to have disapeared. What's some decent 17"-19" flatscreens deals from brick and mortars? Has anyone got a clue I can borrow?

[Davros]

If you stick to a brand name you wont end up with a bad one
other than that all i can say is find out what they sell and go find some reviews

[RancidLunchmeat]

What is the price range they are looking at?

I'm sure you know that most of the 'off brands' are actually the same exact product as the more expensive name brands.

Also, depending on where their price point is, if they don't already have a membership to Costco, it might be worth it to them to pay for the membership just to make this one purchase as Costco normally has the best deals.

Basic 17-19 inch LCD monitors (without receivers) aren't very expensive to begin with at this point, so what's their budget? $150? $300?

I've got a little baby boy (15") that I bought 4 years ago that cost $350 from Newegg. For that price today, you can walk into a high priced brick and mortar and get name brand 22 inch wide screen monitors from Acer, HP, Gateway, LG, Samsung, Westinghouse. (Mine is an EIZO or.. "off brand" in case it matters)

I just did a quick search and I think you're actually going to have trouble finding anything under 19" from any B&M store. And the prices start at about $150 for an off brand, and $200 for a name brand.

I don't know if any of that answers your questions, Digi, but last time I checked, you were an EB and shouldn't this kind of hand holding.

[digitalwanderer]

It's flatscreens man, I'm an old school CRT man.

Thanks though, that does answer most of my questions. Just find one that looks good and is cheap, I can tell them that. :)

[Skrying]

A price range would be awesome.

RancidLunchmeat... EIZO is far far far from "off brand." They simply don't make much in the way of mainstream products.

BTW, You can buy a 22" LCD for under $250 these days.

[RancidLunchmeat]

A price range would be awesome.

RancidLunchmeat... EIZO is far far far from "off brand." They simply don't make much in the way of mainstream products.



Sky! I love you man, no really, I do.

But I guess our definitions are a bit out of whack.

The only reason I actually made the purchase was because I did the research to see that EIZO is one of the biggest manufacturers of LCD's for hospitals and doctors, etc..

They are actually a big time manufacturer of flat panel displays, but they aren't what I would call a 'name brand' that any John or Jane Doe off the street would recognize.

So.. You're right, they are VERY far off from a 'nobody' in the market, but they are also VERY far off from being a 'name brand' that consumers would identify.

As far as the rest, yeah... as I said, Digi needs to give us a price range so we can see how much they want to spend.

Like I said, he's asking for prices from 17" to 19" and you can't even really find anything under 19" in any B&M store any more.

[digitalwanderer]

$100-200 I'd say. Preferably with a sub $100 if they make them for shits and giggles. :yep2:

[Skrying]

Just go to the store and get the cheapest one. Seriously that range doesn't give you much in the way of choice since it's limited to B&M stores, and you're not going to find anything good in that range for B&M. Online though, a hell of a lot better.

[Davros]

They look ok to me both under $150
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6399/dd1yp8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Skrying]

They're also from Newegg...

[Davros]

just giving him an idea of whats available

[RancidLunchmeat]

He's not going to be able to get those prices at a B&M.

He's also unlikely to be able to hit sub-$100 anywhere.

I guess Digi wants us to set his budget for him, so here goes.. your budget is $200 and you should be able to come in under that.

As Sky said though, with that price range and limited to the B&M there's not really any choices to be made. You just go pick up the cheapest one.

[infinity4]

What does it mean when it's Windows Vista Certified?

[Davros]

they work with vista i assume ;)
I just bought a viewsonic 22inch widescreen from staples for £150
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4986/tvcx3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)