There really isn't a whole lot different in flat panels from the big names and the 2nd tier manufacturers any more, especially around 24in and smaller.
My advice is to go to
www.newegg.com, and sort Widescreen LCDs by Highest Rating. Among those at the top of the list, find 3-5 at the price you want to pay with the features you want. Then read the user reviews of each one to see what common complaints are, if any. If any model doesn't have a decent number of reviews, avoid it, its probably a new model and that makes it risky. Finally, if you still aren't sure, search for reviews of the models you identified at Newegg on the web at large. I'll tell you this... the pros are will highly recommend the big names like Dell, but in reality I don't think they are much better and a lot more expensive.
I've come to this conclusion by buying monitors for work... they pretty much all look great and I never see dead pixels any more. What I described above is my technique, except I lean more towards cheap end of the scale because the users at work are using office apps, not playing games. Even the cheap LCDs are excellent, I just avoid the bad apples by reading Newegg reviews.
