Peering into Dell's Crystal and two other flat-panel displays

The Dell Crystal is a tough sell. It's basically a 22-inch LCD with a $900 piece of glass affixed to the front of it. It boasts a striking look, to be sure, and its image quality is above board, but no matter how slick the design and how well it performs, the audience for a 22-inch LCD that carries a four-digit price is assuredly small. And Dell's pitch for the Crystal is only made more difficult by two of its own monitors, each of which costs a fraction of the Crystal's price while taking home Editors' Choice awards.

The 22-inch Dell SP2208WFP costs $299, which means you're going to really have to like tempered glass to pull the trigger on the Crystal. For the price of the Dell Crystal, you could buy four SP2208WFP units and still have $3 left over. In addition to its aggressive price, SP2208WFP proved itself to be an awesome performer in CNET Labs, and it serves up a useful collection of video ports, including HDMI. I'd prefer a black bezel to its silver frame, but that's just picking nits.

At $599, the 24-inch Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP costs half that of the Dell Crystal while offering a larger screen with a 1,920x1,200 resolution that's capable of displaying 1080p video without scaling. We found it to be a versatile performer, earning high marks in CNET Labs and excelling in particular with DVD playback. You can find cheaper 24-inch LCDs, including the Gateway FHD2400, but you'll sacrifice performance and features en route to a lower price.