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What You Need to Know about Monitors

LG Design Philosophy for Monitors

Design plays a critical role in harmonizing technology and human needs. In an effort to predict emerging needs, and to deliver innovative products to the public, LG has developed a comprehensive design philosophy which boils down to four basic elements: Concept, Style, Interface, and Finish.

Emerging Needs

LG believes that design plays a critical role in harmonizing technology and human needs—a belief that requires our designers to predict emerging needs.

This trend was started by the LG Life Soft Research Lab, which was established about 20 years ago. Design plays a crucial role at the Corporate Design Center, even if much of the work within the Center remains largely unseen by the outside world. Researchers, designers, and trend scouts work to predict the future by examining and identifying consumer needs, observing the public's interest in products, and then developing design concepts and solutions based on what they’ve seen.

This means, ultimately, that LG is always one step ahead of the game—always already working on products for the future. In this way, our research is focused not only on new products and technological opportunities, but also on understanding key customer and market trends.

LCD Monitor Design

LG has set new standards for all LCD monitors by focusing on the designs that customers want and the features they demand. LG’s FLATRON and Fantasy Monitors have, between them, won seven iF and reddot Product Design Awards in recognition of their keen ergonomics, unique design, and innovative LED backlight technology.

These monitors also boast LG’s exclusive f-Engine and Digital Fine Contrast (DFC) technologies, which optimize image quality, contrast ratio, and color reproduction. DFC’s technology also lends all LG monitors—including “Windows Vista certified” monitors, produced after September 1 last year—a dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1, the industry’s highest.

The monitors can adapt to the needs of business users, gamers, graphic artists and multimedia enthusiasts. LG plans to expand its premium models, those that measure 19 inches and larger, from last year's percentage of 27 percent to 40 percent this year.

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What does the Energy Star mean?

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LG gives its customers the opportunity to participate in greenhouse gas reduction by providing them with products that meet the U.S. government’s Energy Star standard for energy-saving consumer products.

Energy Star is the U.S. government's international program that encourages the use of energy-saving consumer products. It was formed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1992, as part of energy-saving and greenhouse gas reduction efforts. The majority of LG Electronics' products meet the Energy Star standard. For example, the battery charger for handsets produced for the U.S. market fulfills 100% of the Energy Star requirements.

LG and Energy Efficiency

LG Electronics is one of the largest global companies of its kind. Because of this, we feel we have a social responsibility to actively take on the environmental issues that arise from the carbon output of our industry. We have implemented, and are continuing to perfect, two independent strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of our company:

1. Develop more environmentally friendly technologies in our factories
2. Continuously raise the energy efficiency of our products

		Total Model No.	Energy Star 2.2 Qualified Models		Exceeding Energy Star 2.2 by 30%
			Quantity	%	Quantity	%
Oversease	LCD	136	126	92.65%	117	86.03%
	CRT	8	0	0%	0	0%
Domestic	LCD	32	31	96.88%	27	90.63%
	CRT	1	0	0	0	0%
Total		177	157	88.70%	146	82.49%

For more information visit the government’s Energy Star website.
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What does Response Time mean for your Monitor?

Also referred to as “response rate” or “latency,” an LCD monitor's “response time” is a measure of how fast it can display moving images. What is actually measured is how quickly the monitor’s individual pixels can change colors, as indicated in milliseconds (ms), with the fewer milliseconds indicating a faster pixels change rate.

More formally defined, “response time” is the time it takes for an LCD pixel to change from a completely active black state, to a completely inactive white state, and back again. In real-world use, however, pixels are rarely in an all-white or all-black state, so manufactures will often report the speed at which pixels change from color to color (called “gray-to-gray” speed). The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) will soon introduce specifications to standardize response time reports, in an effort to make manufacturers’ numbers more comparable.

Faster is Better

However “response time” is measured, faster is better when it comes to your viewing experience, and the difference is easily discerned in everyday use. If an LCD's response time is too slow, the display's pixels won't be able to keep up with the information sent from the computer's graphics card, and you'll see ghosting, streaking, and digital “noise” as a result. This is especially true for games, movies, and graphic applications.

While most monitor manufacturers recommend a response time of around 12–15ms as a baseline for average use, response times are falling quickly as LCD technology continues to become more advanced. For example, LG currently offers many LCD monitors with response times of 5ms. Ultra-low response times are important not only to help you get the most out of today’s cutting-edge games, videos, and graphics applications—but also to help you keep pace with the ever-faster games, videos, and applications of tomorrow.