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I am also looking for a good quality screen. The screens I have right now always showing banding in gradients of the lower values and it looks f'd up.
Also I want a 0 dead pixel policy too cause that is also f'd up.

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photographers and graphic designers have a sharper sense of color compared to average users. We have been trained for years with attention to detail.
 
A Dell IPS or if you are cash strapped a Dell e-IPS (rather close). More than happy with my U2412M. Keep a close eye on Dell's website: at times they misprice items and still honor the deal.
 
NEC has displays starting at $300 MSRP. Excellent quality and ergonomic adjustments too. I use a 24" NEC for pro image editing.

Your budget may be too low for a good quality display for editing images. You would be probably better off saving a little more money before buying. But NEC has some displays around 20" that may suit your needs if you can find one at a discount.

This website has excellent information on how to select a display as well as detailed reviews: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/.
 
I'm running a Dell 2405FPW. I bought this monitor in 2006 and it still looks good and has never had any problems. That makes it the best monitor for me
 
Specifications are almost pointless on monitors as they are often exaggerated or fudged, there is almost no regulation on the kind of marketing spin they can put on it.

My advice would be to go to http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/, and look at a few reviews of monitors around your price range.

My recommendation would be definitely IPS of some kind for colour accuracy. One more thing to note, while the Dell U2311H is nice (I have one), the e-IPS panel isn't as good as my existing full IPS and PVA panels for colour.
 
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