19-Inch Monitors: Flat-Out Fabulous

USB or Not: Pros and Cons

Hamlet didn't lose sleep over whether to buy a monitor equipped with the Universal Serial Bus, but you might. Adding $50 or more to a monitor's price--plus the cost of buying compatible peripherals--USB is typically found only on premium monitors.

A third of the units we reviewed include some form of USB connectivity, but most buyers don't consider the option a priority yet, according to Stanford Resources, a monitor research organization. Analysts there estimate that fewer than one-fifth of the monitors purchased in the first half of 1999 will have USB connectivity.

USB came of age only recently with the release of Windows 98, which made USB truly Plug and Play and devices simpler to add. Late versions of Windows 95 supported USB, but compatibility was as predictable as the stock market.

The most practical USB configurations sport an integrated active hub with up to four downstream ports for attaching USB peripherals directly to the monitor. Older devices that lack a USB interface can't connect to your monitor's USB ports--and if you've got old devices, usually the cost of buying compatible peripherals far outweighs the benefits.

The Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u, which snagged a second-place Best Buy, and the Nokia 446XS, which failed to make the Top 10, provide the best-designed USB implementations among the monitors we tested. Both have an adjustment-control utility that's a convenient alternative to front-mounted controls. Nokia's design has three downstream ports on the lower right front. Mitsubishi's has two downstream ports around back; a third swings down from a retractable wedge in front.

If you can't decide if a USB monitor is for you, you can get a stand-alone USB hub and attach devices that way. In the end, whether to buy a USB monitor will depend on how much you're willing to spend for ease of use.