About Computer Monitors
Dear  [Lynn],
I can go over this with you on the phone sometime. But in short:
Dot pitch refers to the size of the dots (pixels) on the monitor screen. The size of the dots (diameter) is usually measured in millimeters (mm). And the smaller the dot pitch, the higher the resolution and the finer the detail that the monitor can produce in an image. So, a monitor with .39mm dot pitch is not as good as one as a .28mm. And this is not as good as a .25mm. Some of the best monitors, for CAD work, have .21mm dot pitch. And of course, the lower the dot pitch number, the higher the cost of the monitor.
“Flat screen” refers to the contour of the front of the picture tube on a monitor. Most monitors are manufactured with a small amount of curvature to their screens. This is easier to produce and requires that less glass be incorporated. However, its drawback is that it reflects more of the background light into the viewer’s eyes. With a curved monitor screen, room light at just about any angle, unless it is behind the monitor, will be visible in the screen as a reflection. The flat screen monitors cut this reflection drastically. And unless the light source is directly behind you, you will not see it – very much like a mirror. Most would agree that a flat-screen monitor is the better choice. And, these tend to be more expensive than the curved ones.
Not sure about AG. It may stand for Accelerated Graphics. Some computers have AGPs (Accelerated Graphics Ports), which are supposed to be faster, displaying more “snappy” graphics, than the PCI graphics cards. But this is typically not an attribute of the monitor, but of the PC itself. [See  here  for more information.]
On resolution: Resolution is usually expressed as two numbers – like 640 X 480, 800 X 600, 1024 X 768, Etc. These indicate how many dots wide by how many dots high the monitor is capable of displaying. The higher these numbers, the smaller the dots, and the greater the monitor’s resolution. Typical monitors should at least be able to display 1024 X 768, and the better ones can render resolutions of 1600 X 1152. The greater these numbers, the more expensive the monitor. And, before you buy, you need to know what resolution the graphics card can produce in your PC. There’s no sense in buying a monitor that can do 1600 X 1152, when the graphics card in your PC can only do 800 X 600.
We can discuss the other monitor dimensions sometime.
Tom