Display of Affection They're affordable and easy on the eyes-literally. What's not to love about LCDs?

Once you hook up an LCD flat-panel display to your office PC,you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. If you'vealready got one, you know what we're talking about. If youdon't, now's a good time to find out. Many 15-inch LCDdisplays have broken through the $500 price point and are headedfor $400. They're not just cool gadgets anymore; they'recool business hardware.

Yes, you'll pay more than you would for a standard monitor,but you'll get more desk space and have a better viewingexperience. Flicker-free LCDs are less punishing on the eyes, soyour employees will thank you, and OSHA certainly won't mind.Your electricity bill won't suffer under the load of thesepower misers, either.

Size matters. Well, screen size matters. Fifteen inches maysound small by today's 17-inch-and-up CRT standards, but theviewing space of a 15-inch LCD is roughly equivalent to a 17-inchmonitor. For certain graphics-heavy or legal-sized-sheetapplications, you might need a larger monitor. At $800 and $1,000(all prices street), respectively, the 17-inch ViewSonic VE170 and18-inch NEC-Mitsubishi MultiSync LCD1830 are about twice the priceof a 15-inch LCD. But you'll get improved graphics and moreviewing space.

Next detail: analog or digital? Most of the displays in our"Shopping List" on the following page feature analoginputs. What's funny about that is that both computers and LCDsare digital creatures. But most PCs have analog graphics cards tohandle regular CRT monitors. Quite a bit of conversion has tohappen to get the digital computer to talk to the digital flatpanel through an analog input. Theoretically, this causesdegradation in the signal and image quality.

A digital input signal, like that on the $599 15-inch AppleStudio Display, doesn't have to jump through those hoops. For awhile, though, you may still have to move up in price to get eithera straight digital connection or the increasingly commondualanalog/digital models. Make sure your computer has a digitalgraphics card that will support it all. The dual-input EIZO NanaoFlexScan L371, for example, costs more than $700. Alternately, theanalog-input Acer FP581 has room for an optional USB interface.

Start off with our "Shopping List." We focus on thesweet spot-15-inch displays with standard resolutions of 1,024 x768. Although these flat panels support lower resolutions, usingthem at less than optimum resolutions can make text a little fuzzyand graphics a little chunky.

Nothing beats a test drive of an LCD monitor at its fullresolution, so visit your local retailer. Expect sharp text, clearand bright colors, and graphics that jump off the glass. See whatcontrols are accessible on the front of the monitor and whatrequires you to summon onscreen menus. Some LCDs, like the $369Samsung SyncMaster 570vTFT and the $400 NEC-Mitsubishi MultiSyncLCD1530V, feature one-touch auto adjustment for quick fixes.

Industry watchers know that the flat-panel market is extremelyfickle when it comes to prices. Fluctuations in supply and demanddrive costs up and down, so if the right monitor comes along at aprice that settles well with your budget, grab it.

I'm writing this column on a Samsung SyncMaster 570vTFT testmodel, and I don't look forward to giving it back. Try oneyourself and get hooked.

Shopping List

Shopping List Analog or digital? Pick well-your LCDdepends on it . . .