Monitor Sizes: Murky Matters

Danny Allen

To one-up the competition, manufacturers are releasing off-size monitors (22.1 inches instead of plain old 22 inches, for example). Some makers and retailers are also rounding up the viewable image sizes (calling a 25.5-inch monitor a model in the "26-inch class"). Most have been careful not to misreport their screens' true sizes--but you should read specs carefully.

This is different from the way CRT monitor sizes used to be misrepresented. Some vendors would advertise a display as being 15 inches, for instance, but that was the uncovered tube's diagonal size; the actual image size--the part of the screen not under the bezel--would typically be an inch or so smaller. This practice stopped after the settlement of a U.S. class action lawsuit in the late 1990s. The moral is simple: Be sure you know exactly what you're buying.