PriceSCAN Blog

Now it's often difficult to determine the market price for a specific feature of a tech product. Since different products generally differ from each other by more than one factor, simple subtraction fails to value any one characteristic. But here's an interesting exception. Thomas Salvey here at PriceSCAN.com points out that ViewSonic's 19 inch VA1912wb Widescreen Black LCD monitor has features very similar to the 19 inch Acer AL1916W featured in our previous blog entry ("Spending More Time In Front Of Your Computer Now Cheaper, Easier On Eyes") including 300cd/m2 brightness and a 500:1 contrast ratio. The key difference is that the ViewSonic has both HD15 and DVI connections, while the Acer only allows HD15. ViewSonic's model is going for as little as just under $200, about a $15 premium to the Acer and about 33% less than its price at the end of last year.

Time Period: 12/12/2005 through 7/3/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Now no comparison is prefect, and indeed, the ViewSonic also sports a slightly higher native resolution of 1440 x 900 versus 1400 x 900, so some of those extra dollars may buy a few extra pixels. But I doubt either the slightly higher resolution or the difference in manufacturers accounts for much of the price spread. If you're willing to spring for an extra fifteen bucks, you'll get a name-brand monitor with a bit more resolution and more connection flexibility.