Here's what experts say to consider when choosing a CRT computer monitor:

  • There's little advantage in choosing a CRT monitor over an LCD. Few CRT monitors are still in production, and LCD monitors now rival CRTs in color fidelity and display of moving images.
  • There's a difference between the size of a CRT monitor and its actual viewing size. The viewable size of most 17-inch CRT monitors is between 15.9 and 16.1 inches of viewable space.
  • The bigger the screen, the bigger the footprint. The footprint is the amount of total space a monitor will occupy. For example, a 19-inch CRT computer monitor makes for about a 20-inch cube of hardware on your desktop. LCD monitors are only about 7 inches deep.
  • Measured in millimeters, dot pitch is the space between two phosphors of the same color. Generally, the smaller the dot pitch, the better. A dot pitch of 0.22mm to  0.27 mm is likely to provide a clearer image than a dot pitch of 0.28 mm or higher.
  • Refresh rate, measured in hertz (Hz), represents the number of times per second that the screen is rescanned. A higher refresh rate is better, because lower refresh rates cause screen flicker. A monitor with at least a 75 Hz refresh rate at a given resolution will generally provide flicker-free performance, although 85 Hz or higher is preferred. High resolutions typically mean lower refresh rates, and many users won't employ the highest supported resolutions very frequently because they typically use refresh rates of 65 Hz or so, which can rapidly cause eye fatigue.
  • Resolution is expressed as the number of pixels displayed in a horizontal row, multiplied by the number of pixels displayed vertically. Larger maximum resolutions give you more flexibility. You'll be able to see more information on the screen at once at increasingly higher resolutions, though text sizes will appear smaller and smaller, unless you choose to zoom in to enlarge them for easier reading.

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