Choosing a computer display – welcome to the jungle !
As product manager for displays at TCO Development I’m always being asked “What kind of computer monitor should I buy?” With so much choice on the market, it can be daunting making the right choice for your needs and application. As we launched the new TCO Certified program last week, I thought it could be good to outline how it can be useful when selecting a new display for your computer.
Let’s look at the scenario when it is time to buy a new LCD display.
Imagine yourself walking into a shop to choose the best product for your needs. How do you make your choice? Well, based on your budget you have a certain range of products to choose between, and once faced with those choices it can be overwhelming to distinguish between product specifications, labels and technical features. For many users, the decision therefore comes down to the design and appearance of the product.
Some consumers take this one step further and compare the specifications and weigh them against the price tag. They may also evaluate the picture quality visually by comparing different products next to each other with the same picture content.
Before going to the point of sale this group of consumers has checked the internet or magazines for information on the products they are interested in. They may have read comments from other users experience or professional reviews and test results. In this way they know the pros and cons other users have experienced and can weigh that against the price tag.
I would say that the final valuable step is looking for the TCO Certified label on the front or back of the product. This is the ultimate step in ensuring a good purchase. If you only look at the design and appearance of the product at the point of sale you will not be sure how it will perform in your work environment. The display is often tweaked to show very high luminance at the point of sale which may not at all be the setting you want to use at home as it often decreases the image quality. The design may be appealing in a controlled ambient light in the shop but may be disturbing in a home environment.
Even for the users who take the purchase process one step further and compare the specifications given by the manufacturers can not be sure of what they’re getting. Often this is data that the manufacturers have declared themselves and it may not even have been tested or verified. Even if it is tested there is no guarantee that the testing conditions represents the real use of the product and that the data is comparable between different brands of products. A certification system like TCO Certified ensures that all products are tested in the same way.
The user who takes even another step and base their decision on user comments and tests made in magazines and internet sites are better but still not enough. Users tend to not have an objective point of view when they judge performance on products. Users may have had a good or bad experience with previous products of the same brand or maybe have spent a lot of money on the product they are commenting which may affect the way they write their review. Even tests at computer magazines are often made at low cost laboratories where instrumentation and measurement methods are not calibrated and controlled. Results on visual quality parameters can have an enormous variation depending on the quality of the measurement instrumentation and the test engineer. I would say that uncertainties of 50% are not strange for a low cost laboratory when measuring certain visual parameters. This makes the results and comparison between different products less reliable. TCO Certified products are tested at quality controlled laboratories to avoid this uncertainty.
The final step to look for the TCO Certified at the marking label at the back of the product is the only way to be really sure the performance is tested and approved. TCO certified products have been tested for a wide range of performance parameters which are relevant to the way the product is going to be used. The test methods represent the real use of the products and the requirements are often the strictest in the world. All testing has been made at an impartial test laboratory which is further inspected every year by another impartial agency that can shut down the testing business immediately if they notice any lack of quality in the results.
Next blog post I will discuss the performance of displays and the impact it has on the work task or entertainment value you get.