Articles >
Product Survey: 30'' LCD Monitors
A 30 inch LCD is a 76 cm diagonal and has 2560 x 1600 pixels totaling more than 4 million. This is equivalent to the amount of information displayed on five 15 inch LCDs or two 24 inch screens in a dual monitor configuration.
Vincent Alzieu
Updated: October 22, 2008
Our Tests
We asses monitors on a lot of different criteria: design, handling, measuring colour accuracy, response times for games and movies ...

The ideal screen, of course, would excel in all of these areas. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case, and a compromise is often necessary. If you're touching up photos, then you might want to put an emphasis on accurate colours, but if you're a gamer, then responsiveness is what you'll need.
As big as they are, these screens "only" measure 69 cm in length and 20 cm in width.  For comparison, a 24’’ measures roughly 55 cm and is only 20%  shorter.  The gain in pixels is much more significant with the Samsung 305T, Dell 3007WFP HC and Apple Cinema Display 30’’ displaying almost 80% more points than a 24''.  (For those interested in seeing a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, take a look at this screen shot).   For graphic design, large spreadsheets, 2D and 3D conception, development, or even playing movies it’s amazing.  Graphic artists will appreciate being able to easily see all of their tool palettes, in the office you no longer need to scroll in documents, and gamers (as happy as they can be here) will benefit from an extraordinary panorama. World of Warcraft, Toca Racer Driver 3, Lock On, Far Cry and Civilization, just to name a few, are particularly impressive.  Just save your eyes and step back a little.  For work, the distance is slightly less than a meter and for play we suggest at least 1.5 meters.

We change screens, but this isn’t all

However, rare will be those who will be able to simply replace their current screen with one these 30’’s because their use requires a recent high end graphic card equipped with the latest DVI port, Dual Link.  And then to play comfortably, given that the number of pixels to process is more than double that on already big 24’’s, it’s strongly recommended to use a double graphic card SLI (NVIDIA) or CrossFire (ATI).  Also, in terms of gaming you will need one of the latest motherboards capable of managing these solutions.   Another almost essential requirement is a colorimeter to calibrate the screen.  We use the LaCie Blue Eye Pro.

> Product Survey: 19'' LCD Monitors

> Product Survey: 20'' and 21'' LCD Monitors


> Product Survey: 22'' LCD Monitors

> Product Survey: 23'' to 28'' LCD Monitors

 

Brands

Test date 

Score

Our RSS News Feeds : 

Add to Netvibes