How to select LCD monitor?

CEans,

I wish to seek general tips on selecting LCD monitors for workstation. I'm planning to replace my old HP mx705 with a flat screen.

I did a primary search and found out that following would be the things I'll have to keep in mind while selecting the right model -

1. Screen width: Ideally, I'd love a 22" - 24" screen.
2. Contrast Ratio
3. Connections: DVI-D, VGA are norm. I've seen HDMI in action, but couldn't make out difference between DVI-D & HDMI 😛
4. Budget ;-)

Any suggests, tips are welcome.

Nowadays the "widescreen" LCD monitors are the popular choices.

Benq has some neat screens.. one possible choice is the T2200HD, a 21.5" widescreen, with a CR of 1000:1 and response of 5ms. Regarding CR's, its better to view the monitor yourself to judge, since manufacturers use myriad ways to measure "contrast ratios", just like how megapixels influence camera purchases.

Here's a mini review of it:
BenQ T2200HD mini review - Monitors/Video

Price for now is around $155. What is your budget?

I plan to get a secondary 17" LCD monitor for research stuff. You can get one for as low as $90 these days.

$155 is well within my budget. Actually I'm trying to seek general tips which might be useful to everyone wanting to get a widescreen LCD.

I guess I forgot to add most important point :

The max. supported resolution! What resolution would you all suggest? 😀

Well within budget? nice 😛

Resolution is pretty subjective. Assuming you have a great graphics card, you'll want the highest resolution in games to get the best quality.

For desktop graphics however, what resolution you choose depends on how small you want stuff on the screen to be in relation to the monitor size.