*Source: PCStats (
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2194)*
___________
If you're shopping for a LCD monitor you've probably noticed all the confusing numbers and specs printed on the sides of each monitor's box. If today is the first day you've considered switching to an LCD display, ignore everything and just pay attention to the three following specifications; contrast ratio, brightness, and viewing angles. Pixel times are tossed around a lot, and quick times are indeed better for gamers, but realistically anything around 16ms is fine for games, 25ms for office work.
Now, of those three main specs to watch out for, viewing angles are the best judge of actual LCD panel quality. If an LCD display has narrow viewing angles of 145/145 degrees horizontal/vertical, it's a bottom of the barrel kind of display. Conversely, an LCD with wide viewing angles of +170/+170 degrees is high quality. Realistically, 178/178 degrees is the highest this measurement will reach.
More...