Top 10 Monitors

Of the seven new monitors we tested this month, four join the chart. Though none of the new models earned a Best Buy, we were especially impressed with the image quality of the beautiful Sony SDM-HS73P. The Samsung SyncMaster 172X's fast 12-millisecond response time makes it an above-average entertainment LCD, but its graphics and text scores--though good--fall short of those of a previously tested Samsung model, the 173P. Monitors from Sharp, Planar, and (despite a 12-ms response time) BenQ missed our chart primarily due to disappointing image quality.