The specs
Now that we've covered the basics of LCDs and what to look for, we can big a little deeper and check out the specs of each of the monitors we're looking at today. Yes, I know it's a big chart, but I'm going to highlight all the exceptional and not-so-exceptional bits for you.

Oh, where to begin? Let's take it from the top and work our way down.

There are no significant differences between the LCDs in terms of screen areas, optimal resolutions, or aspect ratios, but things get dicey when we get into the all-important contrast ratio category. Remember how much trouble LCDs have with contrast? Well, we have a decent range of contrast ratios, from a low of 300:1 on Hercules' Prophetview 720 to a high of 450:1 on Samsung's SyncMaster 152T. Everyone else falls somewhere in between. A higher contrast ratio should produce a truer black and deal better with darker colors. We'll find out in just a minute how well the screens actually perform.

Right under contrast is brightness, an area where LCDs typically excel over their CRT-based competition. In general, there's not a lot of variation in screen brightness between the monitors we're comparing today, but Samsung's 152T and Solarism's LM17II are notable exceptions, especially the LM17II with its astounding 600cd/m² brightness rating. That's almost double the nearest competitor, and enough for Solarism to write "Ultra Brightness" all over the box. Whites on the LM17II should be just short of blinding, and apparently that's a good thing.

There's not a whole lot of meaningful variation in viewing angles between the LCDs we're testing, but pixel response time is another story altogether. Response time values range from 25 up to 40ms, and only Solarism provides the time it takes for pixels to come up (become lit) and come down (become dark). Even with a pixel response time of 25ms, an LCD screen is only capable of refreshing pixels 40 times per second, which is why gamers generally shy away from the displays. An LCD won't be able to kill your actual in-game frame rate, but high pixel response times can produce ghosting and streaking if there's a lot of fast movement going on.

Warranties can be very important for LCD screens because of the potential for dead pixels. In fact, the chart shows some specific dead pixel tolerances for the screens. Though all the screens have three year warranties, coverage depends on how many pixels die on you. Solarism has the warranty edge here, though I was unable to obtain dead pixel acceptance levels for the KDS screen. Philips' pixel policy also stands out because it specifically outlines varying levels of pixel defects depending on how close they are together. For example, though a total of five pixel defects is considered acceptable overall, within a 20mm radius only three defects are acceptable.

Screen weights might be important to some, especially for lugging to LAN parties or hanging in more precarious positions. Samsung grabs the lowest overall screen weight for 15" models, and Hercules diets its way to the lowest weight among the 17" models. Solarism's LM7II tips the scales at 8.2kg, making it the heaviest, but still a relatively light package when compared with CRT monitors.

Moving down the list, all the screens in this comparison claim they display 16.7 million colors, but LCDs are notorious for producing a less than a complete color spectrum, so I wouldn't take the claims at face value. We'll see why in just a minute.

If you're looking to move to an LCD to save power, Hercules' Prophetview 720 is the most conservative power consumer of the bunch. KDS' RAD7C and Solarism's LM17II are the worst, with max power consumptions of over 60W. I can see how Solarism's monitor would have a much higher max power consumption because of the need to feed its "Ultra Brightness" system with juice, but how the RAD7C can use so much is a little puzzling. In testing, none of the screens seemed to generate more or less heat than the others.

Finally, we come to price, the biggest factor for many purchasers. As you can see, there's quite a bit of variance. KDS' RAD7C looks like a potential bargain right off the bat. Solarism's LM17II is easily the most expensive monitor in the bunch, and Samsung's SyncMaster 152T hits a pretty low price point for a monitor with DVI support. Hercules' Prophetviews used to have more limited availability, but they can now be found at Fry's Amazon, Outpost.com, and Hercules' own online store.