What is the best computer monitor for under £200?

Keith has just switched to a Windows desktop PC and needs a good monitor to go with it

I have just switched to a Windows desktop computer and need to get a good monitor - about 21 inches and under 200. Do you have any advice? Keith

There are two ways to pick a monitor, and it's worth using both approaches. The first is to go into a shop and see which one looks best. It's much easier to compare screens side by side. The second is to compile a table of specifications and pick the monitor that meets your needs.

Reading spec sheets doesn't guarantee that you'll find a monitor that looks good, but this generally isn't a problem nowadays. The quality of flat screens has improved dramatically over the past 10-15 years, and it's quite hard to find a bad one, unless it's a faulty product.

The prices of standard PC monitors and flat screen TVs have also fallen dramatically. Monitors start at less than 100 and you can get a good one for less than 150. Of course, you can pay up to 1,000 for a bigger, faster, high-resolution screen, but you don't need that sort of monitor unless you're a keen gamer or a video editor.

There's one specification to watch out for: some cheap monitors have TN (Twisted Nematic) LCD screens. They are not necessarily bad, but IPS (In Plane Switching) and LED backlit screens are brighter and have richer colours.

In general, a brightness of around 200 candela per square metre, "200 nits", is enough for use in normal indoor lighting, and 120-200 cd/m2 used to be common. However, there's a trend towards brighter screens, with 500cd/m2 being preferred for movies. HDTV sets go even higher.

If a screen is too bright, you can always turn it down. Only if it's too dim do you have a problem.