well, its a flat screen (as flat as a crt can get, IMO), its sharp (0.2mm dot pitch, the lowest that was available when I bought it).
And if you use the packed software, there are couple of cool features like having 4 profiles and the software allows you to have different brightness profiles for different windows (you can make media player a bit brighter than your browser or other apps). I dont use any of these, but its still my choice for a 17 incher.
Best thing is to look whats available right now in the market, compare the specs, go see those if possible and then decide on what you want to buy.