A TFT monitor is a LCD display that uses thin-film transistor technology. Flat panel displays are quickly becoming the dominant display of choice and are replacing cathode ray tubes. These days, nearly all of the LCD monitors that are designed and developed use TFT technology to provide the picture. They were developed because, in the past, there was a reliance on the passive matrix LCD display. These were unable to keep up with images that moved quickly. For example, moving the mouse on a computer from two points would disappear and then reappear at its destination.

Benefits of TFT Monitors

The reason a TFT monitor is so powerful and can provide such a high quality image that can change quickly is because there are separate transistors for each pixel on the display. Since a typical 17-inch TFT monitor has upward of 1.3 million pixels, that means that there would be 1.3 million transistors. However, because the transistors are so small, they don’t need very much charge to run. What this guarantees is that the image can be re-drawn very quickly. Therefore, if a mouse is moved across the screen, the pixels would light up as it moved instead of just disappearing.

Problem With a TFT Monitor

When dealing with the manufacturing of TFT monitors, the result can sometimes be “dead pixels.” What this means is that the transistor for its coordinating pixel has failed. This means that there will be a little dot of either red, white or blue when looking at a solid black background. This can be frustrating when watching something on the screen because there will be all of these small, tiny dots. For the most part, a manufacturer won’t ship a monitor if it has more than 11 pixels. While many won’t ever have any dead pixels, it is important to do research to determine if your monitor will have them.

In the end, a TFT monitor is able to deliver very crisp text and amazing color. Most important, though, is the fact that it has a great response time for things such as gaming. Therefore, if there is an interest in gaming or video editing, a monitor with TFT technology, especially with a response rate of 16ms or less, is exactly what you need to get.