Monitors in Lahore

Buying monitors second-hand

A monitor has to be seen to be judged, and a photograph of a monitor showing a bright image tells you almost nothing. Dead and stuck pixels, backlight bleed at the corners, and uneven brightness across the panel are all invisible in a normal photo and obvious on a full-screen solid colour. Ask for exactly that: a photo of the screen showing plain white, then plain black, in a dark room.

Check what the panel actually does rather than what the box claimed. Refresh rate above the default often needs to be enabled manually and can be limited by the cable you are using. Burn-in is a real risk on any OLED panel and on older displays that ran static content — a shop till screen or a dashboard — for years.

What to check before you pay

• View full-screen white and full-screen black to find dead pixels and backlight bleed.
• Confirm the advertised refresh rate is actually selectable, with the cable included.
• Check every input port works, not just the one it is plugged into.
• Look for burn-in or image retention, especially on OLED or ex-commercial displays.

Read how to benchmark anything before you buy it →