I recently decided to splurge and got the 23" Apple display. You've got room for two side-by-side web browsers, and you can still see plenty of icons on the left (resolution: 1900x1200). The brightness and clarity is just astonishing, and I've never had any persistence problems (which seems to only be an issue on older LCDs). To use one of these on a PC, you have to buy a $100 adapter, and the monitor doesn't support VGA at all. It's fun watching people's jaws hit the floor when they walk into my office.

In terms of bang-for-the-buck, I think one of the best deals out there right now is the 20" LCD from Dell. I haven't priced one recently, but last I looked, most 20" LCDs (1600x1200 resolution) cost $1600, where Dell would sell it to you for $1500, or bundle it with a new computer for something like $1200 over the no-monitor option. One of my colleagues here got one, and it's a beauty. If you buy it with a computer, make sure you've got DVI output on your video card (or, with the Dell Optiplex GX260's, be sure to pay the extra $20 for a "DVI adapter").