Organic Displays

The first display is a compact, 11in model with a native resolution of 1,024 x 600. It will be pitched at portable televisions, Sony indicated. It uses eight-bit per channel RGB colour and offers a contrast ratio greater than a million-to-one contrast. Its all-white brightness is 200cdm², peaking at more than 600cdm²

The second display is a larger model. With a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, the 27in, 16:9 panel will be capable of displaying a 1080 HD image. The bigger screen has the same contrast and brightness as the small model, but it can display colurs defined using ten bits per channel.

Both screens are based on what Sony calls its 'Super Top Emission' technology. STE uses a pitted organic film - the pits are called micro-cavities - to reflect out of the display light that has bounced back off the display's semi-transparent cathode, the negatively charged material used to send electrons through the OLED's organic film, generating light.

The colours themselves are produced by through STE's colour filters, placed above the cathode.

Eizo CE240W 24" LCD Display

Without a doubt the best performing LCD I have tested for PC gaming is the Eizo CE240W 24" LCD Display. Unabashedly expensive, this display is only for the uber PC Gamer. If you want the best color reproduction and the highest contrast ratio you can get, this is the display to have. If you want low cost performance, this is not the display for you.

The features of the Eizo CE240W 24" LCD Display read like a geek's wish list. The native resolution is 1920x1200 with a contrast ratio virtually unheard of for an LCD monitor of 1000:1. Wow, most high end monitors have a contrast ratio of between 500:1 to 800:1 at best. For comparison the mighty Apple 30" Cinema display only has a contrast ratio of 700:1. The Eizo has a great contrast ratio, no doubt about that but what about brightness? How about a stellar 450 cd/m²! The aforementioned Apple 30" Cinema Display has a brightness of 400 cd/m² as comparison and the brightest monitor I have reviewed recently was the Viewsonic VX2025WM 20" LCD that sported a 300cd/m² brightness. This is a rare occasion for me when the product I am reviewing is better than the measuring stick I typically use. The Eizo ColorEdge CE240W is raising the bar significantly.

Alienware Curved Monitor

The Sighting: We can't have one of these Alienware curved monitors until the second half of this year, but until then, we've been abducted by its four nearly seamless and sharp screens of DLP goodness. Lit by LEDs, this 2880x900 monster is well over three feet wide and is said to have an other-worldly .02ms response time, great for gaming. The Soylent Green: You can see the seams between this monitor's four segments, but the Alienware humanoids tell us that flaw will be gone by the time this craft lands on Earth. The blacks look a bit washed out to our eyes, too. Price is yet to be determined.

The Grand Canyon LCD-Display

The Grand Canyon series are developed by Liebermann Inc, based in Los Angeles.

Available in three different sizes, 76 inches, 81 inches and 92 inches, they come in resolutions ranging from 5,120 pixels by 1,024 pixels to 6,400 pixels by 1,200 pixels. Other interesting features include a set of hardware anti-aliasing double-depth filtering technologies. Anti-aliasing is a trick that involves softening the edges of graphics on a computer screen in order to make their jagged computer-generated edges seem more realistic to the eye. The screens are also coated with a double anti-glare hard coat and what the company describes as an ultrathin UV-668 layer that increases the contrast ratio and reduces glare.

The displays are compatible with just about any computer you can think of, including those running Microsoft Windows, Apple Computer's Macs and workstations from Hewlett-Packard, SGI and Sun Microsystems, among others.