LED vs. LCD

Actually, a more aptly named title would be LED LCD vs. CCFL LCD.  As Black Friday rolls by and prices are hitting the floor, consumers face the following question when buying monitors (maybe for a multi-monitor setup!): LED backlight or the standard CCFL? CCFL = Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light.  This is currently the standard and basically has lamps and a reflector inside the monitor. LED = Light Emitting Diode.  The most common type has LEDs are placed around the edge of the monitor and a special panel spreads the light evenly across the screen. If you want to find out how these monitors work, I recommend reading some Wikipedia articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED-backlit_LCD_television http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_cathode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCFL_inverter Anyway, the more important question is: How does this affect you, the consumer? In my order of least to greatest importance:

1. LEDs use less power.  A lot of companies use the fact that these new LEDs use less power to promote their product by saying that you're protecting the environment (and saving on power costs).  They're not wrong, but the magnitude is not that great.  You can save around 25% of the power (~15W).  It's really not that much.  I would say that it's better to remember to turn off your lights when you're not going to be using them.
2. LEDs have a faster response time.  Again, the manufacturers are right, but how much does it actually affect you?  Probably not that much.  Response time is basically what it sounds like: how long it takes the monitor to update the screen based on what you did.  Newer LEDs can usually have a response time of 2ms, a whopping 3ms faster than the normal 5ms monitors.  Most of them are gray-to-gray, meaning not complete changes of pixel color, and I don't think I can tell the difference in those 3ms.  Maybe if you were a totally intense gamer, it would matter.  But not to me.
3. LEDs are brighter than CCFLs.  Most LEDs are rated at 250 nits brightness, but CCFLs are rated at 300 nits.  However, the LEDs usually appear brighter.  The thing is, this extra brightness probably doesn't matter because most people don't even run their monitors at full brightness.
4. LEDs are skinnier than CCFLs.  CCFLs have to house those lamps, which take up some space in the back where LEDs have their diodes usually arranged around the edge.  This doesn't matter to me very much because I'm not a fan of great looks, but who wouldn't like a sleek monitor over a bulky one?  But hey, at least the CCFLs are way thinner than the old CRTs!
5. LEDs do not have a warm-up time.  This one is quite meaningful to me.  I have an LED paired up with an LCD in my dual-monitor setup.  The LED is instantly bright whereas the LCD takes around 30 minutes to reach full brightness.  It's quite annoying during this time to wait for the LCD to heat up its lamps and reach full brightness because it just bothers me that the brightnesses between the two monitors are just so far off.  As a result, I usually leave the monitor on, but it eats some power.  For those who do not use two monitors, it may not matter as much because your eyes would adjust gradually to the increasing brightness.
6. LEDs have a better contrast ratio.  Because LEDs are lit by the diodes, they can locally dim the screen to pretend to have a better contrast ratio.  The dynamic contrast ratio, or the local dimming, is partly a marketing gimmick.  I would say the static contrast ratio is around 1000:1 for pretty much all monitors right now.  I don't know if I would be able to tell the difference between dynamic ratios of 80000:1 in CCFLs to the 10000000:1 in LEDs.  The one thing that this does help, though is the sharpness of the text.  In my LED-CCFL side-by-side, I would say that the LED is much sharper than the CCFL.  Maybe it's because it has a smaller dot-pitch or maybe it's just better manufactured.  Either way, if the LEDs truly have better sharpness, I think it's much more pleasing to the eye to see sharp, well-defined text rather than slightly fuzzier/grayer text.
7. LEDs cost more than CCFLs.  You can't get all this good stuff for free (otherwise this post would be pointless)!  Manufacturing LED panels is more expensive, and it reflects on the consumer's side -- you have to pay more.  Currently, the difference is not too great.  Smaller LED monitors are still price comparable to CCFLs, but as you get larger (~23"), the margin increases.  Whereas normal CCFL 23" monitors cost ~$140-150, an LED might be ~$170-180.  This is around a $30 difference, which is 20% of the monitor's cost.

For those who have a tight budget, maybe it would be better sticking to a CCFL.  For others who have a little extra to spend, maybe it's worth it getting an LED.  It's up to you to decide whether that extra money is worth it for the benefits.  What will you choose?

Right now, there isn't a clear winner between the two, so "to each his/her own."  (I added the "/her" part to conform to the increasing emphasis on gender equality =P)