LCDs vs. CRT: Battle of the Display Acronyms

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors have come down in price considerably since their first release, but they still cost a good deal more than an equivalent-sized Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor, the TV screen-like monitor most of us know so well. As a rough approximation, you'll pay twice as much for a flat LCD screen as your will for a good quality CRT.

Whether the LCD is worth the extra money depends very much on your financial state and other conditions.

The biggest advantage of a flat screen monitor is compactness. They are only a couple of inches in width, so they take up much less valuable desk real estate than a CRT. That makes them an ideal choice for office desks and people who don't have much room.

LCD screens are easier on the eyes because they offer better contrast than CRTs. That's important if you're a Baby Boomer whose eyes aren't what they once were.

And for those of us who have to move monitors occasionally, I'll opt for a flat panel any time over the 60-pound-plus 19-inch CRT.

However, LCD have drawbacks besides price. For one thing, colors tend to appear more washed out on an LCD. The same things that make LCD's easier on the eyes make it hard for them to display vivid colors. They also lack the multiple color adjustments you find on a CRT.

By their nature, LCDs don't handle fast-moving objects as well as a CRT. If you're a gamer, you'll probably be disappointed at the speed and image quality you get from an LCD. A less expensive, higher quality CRT will save you enough money to buy that high-end video card.

Unlike a modern (multisync) CRT, an LCD has a fixed refresh rate. This means that the image tends to get blurry when you try to change the screen resolution.

Of course, CRTs have their own drawbacks. They are big, heavy, consume a lot of power, and produce a lot of heat. They are also more likely to cause eyestrain, both from the characteristics of the screen and from reflections and glare.

As LCD technology advances, we can expect CRTs to go the way of the floppy disk and dot matrix printer, niche items used only for special applications. For now, you have to balance the advantages of an LCD against getting a bigger CRT for the same price.