Ah, well, here we go again...not your question, animationlife, which is an excellent one, but me being ridiculed as a snob for insisting that the monitor is the most critical piece of computer hardware you have. Everything else is secondary.
So. Sticking to 24 inch here, in ascending order:
- Eizo CS240. Best buy on the market, massive bang for the buck. Comes in three editions, the one with ColorNavigator software but no sensor is $826. That's a giveaway for a pro level monitor of extremely high quality.
- NEC PA242/Spectraview. Again in several editions with/without calibration software and sensor. US and EU model ranges differ slightly, so do some research.
- Eizo CX241. These two last, the NEC and the Eizo, are very similar in all regards and very similarly priced. I'd be hard pressed to choose between them. Both push standards as far as they will go, but cost a few hundred $ more than the Eizo CS.
Each of these has a 27 inch sister model.
Eizos top range, the CGs, are identical to CX except adds a bunch of video-related features, a hood, and a built-in calibration sensor.
So what are you paying for, exactly? Here's the deal:
- Fully integrated hardware calibration. Works with the monitor's internal on-board graphics processor. Control over calibration parameters that the third-party solutions aren't even close to.
- Perfect, guaranteed panel uniformity. This is where everybody else skimps and saves money, because it isn't in the spec sheet. You'd be surprised how bad some "pro" monitors really are.
- Shadow/highlight separation that lets you distinguish all the way down to 0 and up to 255. Perfectly even tonal response.
If you want 4K / UHD, be prepared to pay for it, or go way down in standard at the same price. 4K is still incredibly expensive.