Widescreen Gaming Forum

I was chatting with Dr.J here, whom was seeking advice on what monitor to replace his old 22" TN with. We got on the subject of panel types as I was explaining to him the differences and benefits of the higher grade ones. He started becoming interested in the IPS type, but insisted they're too expensive in his area, a typical scenario.

Then he tells me a local LG dealer in his area was saying there's going to be something new in IPS tech from them that is very exciting. Well, I did a bit of Googling, and found a blog that speaks of a panel technology being developed called e-IPS, a detuned IPS that supposedly has no performance loss from that of IPS, and at what are touted to be TN prices.

http://www.displayblog.com/2009/01/28/lg-display-lpl-23-e-ips-1080p-lcd-monitor-panel/

The specs shown on the 23" display in the article indicate a mere 72% gamut and 250 cd/m2 brightness, but often LCD displays have more gamut and brightness than needed for their intended use. It IS being made for Apple too, and they usually have pretty good displays. A 22" is being made for Dell as well, whom also have some pretty good displays. I also like that the 23" is 16: 9.

If these turn out to be no less performance than IPS, I'd love to see a 26" in 16:9. Now granted, this IS just a mere blog and nothing official has been confirmed as far as I can tell yet, at least not to the public as far as I know. There is a lot of chat going on at HardForum about this blog though, some are very optimistic about it.

I could see if it's possible to somehow make an LCD panel in-plane switch it's crystals without building in two transistors per pixel that the pricing could drop considerably. A sort of display version of Intel's HyperThreading virtual cores. This is pure speculation on my part, but I see no other way to make IPS panels affordably unless they somehow physically build them differently. That, to my knowledge, has been the main reason they cost more.

Just found this, it's the first customer review of the new Dell 22" 2209WA e-IPS monitor I've seen. It seems to confirm what cNet Austrailia said about it being the best 22" LCD they've seen, and very well priced.

There's no 1:1 scaling on it, but from what I've read some are saying the scaler they were using on some of their other displays was what was causing the serious input lag problem. Maybe that's why they omitted it on this one. As you can see in the review this one doesn't seem to have lag issues.

I sure hope e-IPS hits the US by the end of the year when I plan to build my next rig, esp if they're available in larger sizes and 16:9 aspect ratio.

http://www.overclock.net/monitors-displays/467862-my-review-dell-2209wa-ips-panel.html

http://www.cnet.com.au/desktops/monitors/0,239029422,339294389,00.htm

One that's not complete yet, but a bit more tech oriented:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=30952937

Looks very promising! :D

Looks very promising! :D

Yeah I'm optimistic about this, as are many over at HardForum. I haven't checked back there since finding these reviews, but I'm sure there's more buzz over there about it now that people are buying them and talking about them.

Thats great news. My NEC20WMGX2 might have a worthy replacement!

Thats great news. My NEC20WMGX2 might have a worthy replacement!

Yeah I think it's safe to say they'll be giving even high end brands a run for their money with this. I wouldn't doubt if NEC will eventually put out an e-IPS display.

Here's another review, from France, that shows some more tech info, including input lag. Apparently that 2ms display it was compared to in the other review was not so quick after all.

Still though, 20ms (roughly 1.2 frames) is not exactly horrible, just not the best.

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.hardware.fr%2Fhfr%2FHardwarePeripheriques%2FEcrans%2Ftopique-unique-2209wa-sujet_46122_1.htm%23t538084&sl=fr&tl=en