Pleased with my FE950+BK

Out with the old
Previous to purchasing a 19" monitor I had been using a Sony 17" Trinitron. At the time I had purchased the 17", comparing trinitron monitors to shadow mask monitors were no comparison. I found Trinitron's to produce a much cleaner, brighter, crisper image on a relatively flat surface. That said, I had an established bias towards an aperture-grille based monitor.

That was several years ago; recently I stopped by a few local computer stores to see what current monitor technology has to offer.

Other 19" monitors
I must say that I was quite impressed with newer monitors. I found current trinitron/diamondtron monitors to be almost completely flat versus the 17" that I was replacing. Unfortunately, the monitor selection was fairly sparse. There was an ProView 19", an NEC FE950+, and an NEC 95f. The ProView uses a shadow mask; I found the colors to be a bit dull and not so bright. Worse of all it was curved like a fish bowl. Even at around $150, this monitor wasn't looking like a very good buy. The 95f is definitely flat, and while providing a better picture quality then the ProView, I still felt the NEC FE950+ was the way to go.

At the time I was considering a monitor, someone suggested that the Dell P991 w/ Trinitron tube was a good buy (that time $279 shipped). Upon taking that advise, I ordered one from Dell. I had not considered size as being a factor. But the Dell was difficult to move around. Carrying it down several flights of stairs required two people, not to mention getting it into a car; I actually had to borrow a van. Opening the box revealed a refurbished monitor, at this point I was very disappointed and ended up returning the Dell P991. The monitor looked a bit dull and had a greenish tint in the lower right. A side note: if you look up the frequency of the P991, the refresh rates are lower compared to similar Trinitron based monitors at comparative displays. The max resolution is also lower.

The NEC FE950+

Picking it up
So I ended up purchasing a Black NEC FE950+ from Gateway. When I picked it up I immediately noticed it came in a much smaller box than the Dell P991; it looked more like a box for a 17" monitor. Getting it down several flights of stairs was much easier this time, and only required one person.

The monitor looks very cool in black, but if there was any price difference I would just go with whatever is cheaper. Instead of the typical small circular green/orange led light, the NEC lights up the word "MultiSync" in green when displaying and orange in sleep mode. This looks cool, but might be a bit of a distraction to some.

Initially powering on the monitor is a bit noisy, but that can also be said about the Dell P991.

Some people complain that Trinitron monitors have two noticeable horizontal lines running through about 1/3 and 2/3 down the monitor. While easily noticeable if you search for them, I find that they don't distract me.

I'm quite pleased with the high refresh rates available on the NEC FE950+. At 1024x768, the display that I usually run at, it supports up to 116Hz. Unfortunately my video card limits me to 85Hz (will need to upgrade that next). Available resolutions:

640 x 480 @ 55 to 160 Hz
800 x 600 @ 55 to 146 Hz
832 x 624 @ 55 to 141 Hz
1024 x 768 @ 55 to 116 Hz
1152 x 870 @ 55 to 103 Hz
1280 x 1024 @ 55 to 89 Hz
1600 x 1200 @ 55 to 76 Hz
1792 X 1344 @ 55 to 68 Hz

I wouldn't hesitate to buy this monitor again for this price.

UPDATE: I like this monitor so much that I ended up buying another one (for about $20 more this time) for another system.