Hester - 10:15 am on Nov 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

OK, here are the bad things about TFTs to bear in mind:

* The viewing angle as mentioned above. I was quite shocked by mine when I bought it - unless I am directly facing it, the colours appear all brown (when viewed from the side). Also, if I move my head up or down, the contrast changes radically. But you just get used to this.

* They are ONE NATIVE RESOLUTION ONLY. So a 17" TFT is 1280 x 1024 - there's no point using it at a smaller resolution for Windows, it'll be a mess of compromised pixels. Whereas a CRT can be set to various resolutions. (Though they too always have one that is the "best" depending on the size.)

* The brightness is different than CRT - I find my TFT way too bright, even with the brightness turned right down to zero. I have to use the video settings in Windows to turn it down even more.

* Games have an annoying habit of overriding my brightness settings - they go to to full brightness, but none seem to restore the desktop afterwards, so it's way too bright again.

* Older games might not run at 1280 x 1024 so they'll be fuzzy.

* The extra screen space means more graphic memory is needed - an older graphics card might not be capable of still showing 16 million colours.

* TFTs don't show every single colour - some of the darkest ones are missed out (not that you can tell)

* I find certain shades of colour flicker. The grey background used on the site DaringFireball.com is an example. Agh!

* Video (and my mouse cursor!) appears brighter than the desktop. Again this can be adjusted. (Odd how on a CRT everything is the same brightness.)

Now for some more good points:

* Just think of all that extra desk space - I mean, my old 19" CRT virtually used the whole desk! TFTs are also much lighter when it comes to moving them.

* No cathode ray tube emitting harmful radiation.

* That native fixed resolution is actually very impressive. Because the LCD pixels can be quite small, the overall effect is of a sharp and detailed screen. Photographs are simply beautiful on a TFT.