Flat And Happy

Few tasks strike as much fear in my heart as installing new hardware on my computer. So I procrastinate. I get a sudden urge to tidy up my office. I wonder if maybe I'm coming down with the flu and should leave work early. All this because when I plug in a new peripheral, something all too often goes horribly wrong. My computer sputters, chokes and begins firing off error messages. Then it becomes eerily silent, unresponsive to anything but the emergency-restart button. After what feels like days on the phone with tech support, I swear never to mess with my PC again.

Unfortunately, such an approach would get me fired. So, fresh and fearless after a sun-filled vacation, I dug into a stack of flat-panel monitors I had ordered a few weeks earlier when their prices went into free fall. Over the past month, IBM, NEC, Philips, Samsung and Viewsonic have all announced 15-in. flat-panel displays costing from $499 to $599, almost half their typical price a year ago.

Why go flat? The obvious answer is space. A typical flat panel is less than 3 in. deep. That's because the bulky, funnel-shaped tube in standard monitors is replaced with a flat, fluorescent bulb and a thin layer of transistors. Including their stands, flat monitors rarely extend more than 7 in. deep or weigh more than 12 lbs.; monitors with CRTs (cathode-ray tubes) are up to three times as deep and twice as heavy. Flat screens also save energy, reduce eyestrain and look really cool.

The big surprise came when I tested the skinny screens. I just plugged them in, turned them on and watched my PC do the rest. IBM's T540, Philips' 150S and Samsung's SyncMaster 570V each came with its own installation disc. Even so, setup never took longer than five minutes--and no tech-support torture sessions were required.

All the models were easy on the eyes, thanks to their crisp, bright displays. In fact, I found no significant difference in screen quality among the five models I tested. One-button auto-setup features on the Philips, Viewsonic VE150M and Samsung saved me the effort of manually tweaking the brightness, contrast and levels of red, green and blue onscreen.

Since all the displays looked great and came with a three-year warranty, I ended up picking my favorites based on cost and little niceties. The Samsung came in first for its low $499 price, uncluttered controls and tall, sturdy stand. The $599 models from Philips and IBM tied for second. IBM's setup program produced the best picture quality without manual tweaking, while the Philips made it easy to adjust settings. NEC's MultiSync1530V ($549) looked sharp, but its controls were a little less intuitive. And while the $499 Viewsonic was the sveltest of all (just 5 in. deep) and the only model with built-in speakers, its flimsy stand and tinny sound turned me off.

One note of caution: flat monitors are more sensitive to external light conditions than are CRTs. They also have a narrower viewing angle, so the colors won't look as rich when viewed from the side or from above. It's best to keep the display away from sunlight and tilt the top edge slightly away from you. Then sit back and enjoy the view.

For more on these monitors, visit ibm.com , necmitsubishi.com , www.philipsusa.com , samsungmonitor.com and viewsonic.com . You can e-mail Anita at hamilton@time.com