For only £215 inc VAT, you can get a Yuraku YV24WBH1 24" 1920x1200 monitor.
Aside from being one of the cheapest 24" panels on the market, it's a guaranteed P-MVA panel (so you're not paying the panel lottery like some of the other 'own brand' monitors such as OcUK's.) I'm sure you know why it's much better to have an MVA or IPS panel than the TN variety that's now prevalent at this price point in the 24" market, but you'll be able to find a far more detailed explanation than I can give over at the ever-useful
www.tftcentral.co.uk website.
What it essentially comes down to is vastly inferior 'real' viewing angles (because even though the viewing angles on modern TN Film panels are quoted as being similar to VA/IPS panels, the colour inversions that occur at even slightly obverse angles can be disturbing, and on panels from about 20" in size can even be noticeable at the corners when looking at the screen dead-on) and also the 6-bit colour of TN panels leaves you with dithering to achieve the full 16m colour pallet, which is a lesser concern and may or may not be noticeable depending on what you use the monitor for.
Anyway, basically, it's very unusual (perhaps impossible) to get a monitor that's not a TN-film panel at this price-point - usually you're looking at £300+, which is what makes this such a bargain.
To add to the brilliance, it's got full HDCP support, something I've been exploiting with my PS3 hooked up to the monitor for the most part of the week I've had it (in fact, you're all very lucky I hooked it up to my PC long enough to write this message
)
Now, the downsides, and there have to be for something so ridiculously good: firstly, it doesn't support 1:1 pixel mapping. That means if you want to plug a device which only supports 1080p, like the PS3 up to it, it gets cropped very slightly at the sides, which is vastly preferable to the only-vertical stretch most 16:10 panels do given a 16:9 input source, but it's something to be aware of. It certainly doesn't detract in any noticable way from gaming or film watching with the PS3, but it does make the smaller text in the web browser look a little bit blurry. Secondly, the casing is a bit cheap and flimsy. The stand is completely plastic and not at all reinforced, although the monitor does have a standard VESA mount on the back if you want to provide your own desk-clamp mount or wall-mount, for example. Thirdly (and you're going to laugh at me for this) the power LED is frustratingly bright. So bright, in fact, that I had to put electrical tape over it.
Still, none of the above is a good reason to turn down this fantastic opportunity to have a decent monitor for a lot less than it's worth
Reports are that prices have been up and down in a couple of places lately. I got mine from
Tekheads, but it's probably worth checking Google Product Search (why couldn't they just have stuck with Froogle?!) to see if they're still the cheapest. Be careful that HDCP/DVI is listed in the product description wherever you buy it from though, as if the box mine came in is anything to go by, they're optional features.
Good luck, and I hope this little post has been helpful.
If it's of interest to anybody, mine came with an
AU Optronics M240UW01-V3 panel, which is, as advertised a 300cd/m2 brightness panel with an 800:1 contrast ratio and a 6ms G2G response time - not bad figures, but not suprising when you consider that this very same panel is used in many monitors costing 2/3 more. Some have been reporting getting the V0 version, I'm not sure what the difference is spec-wise, but they're both P-MVA - you can tell which you've got in quite a lot of LCD monitors by pressing menu and plus together.
A little tip - 24" P-MVA HDCP monitor for just over £200
