Arrrgh, my eyes!
I haven’t been continuing with my general relativity stuff (not that my general audience would make a big fuss about it), and nothing much outside cyberspace lately. Instead, I’ve been frantically trying to find a suitable replacement for my venerable CRT monitor that could be justifiably called a relic in the computer world. See, it has served my family for 7 long years, and I think it’s time to say "You’ve served long enough".
It’s not that I’m retiring it because it’s old. It’s just that the display has been displaying sporadic transient fluctuations in the x-axis. And only God knows how much that has hurt my eyes over the past 2 weeks. Oddly enough, my dad didn’t even notice it at all! Well, maybe that’s a sign that I’m now spending more time on the PC than him, and that is a scary thought. I’d better cut down on PC time soon. Anyhow, the fluctuations are getting to be too much, because I can’t stand having my text doing stretches occasionally. That really gave me the woozies.
And so, after a few days searching I thought I’ve found a good successor. Dell is offering a 17" 1707FP monitor at RM799 and the 19" 1907FP monitor at roughly RM900. Panel is Samsung made, and it comes with a 3 year warranty. The online reviews all gave them great scores. So, for a TFT LCD monitor with better than average features, great design and a low price, what am I waiting for?
With credit card in hand, ready to make a purchase I decided to stop by and make a few last minute checks at some review websites. Apart from the 10 out of 10 user reviews I’m getting, I decided to dig in deeper. Ok, so the submenus in the monitor are hard to reach, somebody wished that the power on button has a blue glow instead of green, the panel might not be Samsung made, you might have to live with a dead pixel or two, bla bla bla. Wait, let’s rewind. The panel might not be Samsung made? Turns out that Dell is actually manufacturing the monitors using 2 panels, one made by an unheard of company which is significantly lower performing than Samsung’s panels. That explains the disparaging comments by some users. And oh, it seems that Dell would not give a replacement monitor if you only have less than 6 dead pixels. And that, scuttles the potential deal I was about to award to Dell, at least temporarily. But there goes the few hundred ringgit potentially saved in rebates.
As I still have to face at least a few hundred hours more of facing the monitor, I couldn’t settle for something less than monitors with just fair ratings. That’s because I have a set of eyes that are not 20/20 (20/80 is far more realistic figure). Furthermore, I’m fortunate enough to come from a middle income family, so I could afford to pay for something better. Quality is not something I’m very willing to compromise on, especially when it comes to ergonomics for my tortured eyes. But that still doesn’t mean that I can go for something that has all pros but only one cons which is high price. Well, at least the investment can reduce the bad stuff I have to contend with. I thought Dell was a pretty good choice, but like they always say ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’.
Looks like I have to buy the monitor the old fashioned way, by going to a brick-and-mortar store. At least I also can get to hunt for a replacement for my O2 hands free. My dog chewed it to pieces a few weeks ago, burning a huge hole in my pocket. I need a cheaper price than GBP19.99 for that one.
