The intuitive answer is no, and yes you'd be right for thinking that. If you see a cheap flat panel monitor for sale, you need to remember that you get what you pay for.

In general the "budget" flat panel displays will lack color balance as well as sharpness compared with the entry-level and higher end flat panel displays. Also one other consideration is whether the machine is refurbished or used. If it's used or refurbished there is probably a higher chance that some of the pixels may be "inactive".

What this translates to is that even if a small fraction of the pixels on your monitor or inactive, there may be parts of your monitors that will stand out more and not be consistent with the rest of the colors on your screen. Sometimes this happens with new monitors too so you need to be careful on this issue.

Though there have been discussions of ways to resolve these broken pixels, such as through special "massage" methods, its clearly preferable to get a monitor that works 100 percent out of the box.

Another thing you might want to consider is the lag time in the video output. For cheaper monitors it may lag a bit more. In general, cathode ray tubes will have the highest available performance in this regard for high end applications.

If possible test out the monitor at the store prior to buying it to see if you notice any glaring shortcomings. Otherwise you may have truly found a good deal.