I'm in the market for a new monitor for home use. It will not be facing any window or bright light source, so anti-glare coatings are a non-issue unless they interfere with image quality. I'm looking for something with good color reproduction and viewing angles, and obviously a minimum resolution of 1920x1080 (though I'd love a little boost up to 2048xSomething or higher). My priorities are in this order:

1. Image quality, viewing angles
   
2. Resolution (>1920x1080 preferred if possible at this price)
   
3. Screen size
   

Anyone have a monitor they love in the sub-$500 price range they can recommend?

I love my Dell 2410.. I would recommend looking at the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M. 24" 1920x1200.

For $500 you can afford most of the monitors on newegg.

Having used both a 24" widescreen, and 2 19" (regular?) screens, my personal preference is for the pair. I've been considering these for a while now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260016

A pair will run you $372 + shipping.

Also, am I not looking in the right place, or do they just not make standard aspect ratio monitors with glossy screens, >1280x1024 resolution, and USB ports?

I love my Dell 2410.. I would recommend looking at the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M. 24" 1920x1200.

Seconded

The Dell 2412 has been on blow-out lately for around $300 and is a dramatically better choice than anything else on the market.

With a 500 budget you should prolly look into the 27 instead of the 24, quite a nice size upgrade and not insanely priced like the 30

With a 500 budget you should prolly look into the 27 instead of the 24, quite a nice size upgrade and not insanely priced like the 30

The 27" Dell IPS is well over $500 still and I wouldn't bother with cheap 27" screens as they are often just 1080p.

Screw that.

For $500 you can afford a pair of 21.5" 1920x1080 LED-backlit monitors, and put one or both of them in vertical.

A better coding environment cannot be had in this price range (until you have coded with 1920 vertical resolution, you have not truly coded).

Screw that.

For $500 you can afford a pair of 21.5" 1920x1080 LED-backlit monitors, and put one or both of them in vertical.

A better coding environment cannot be had in this price range (until you have coded with 1920 vertical resolution, you have not truly coded).

I don't know, i'd rather a bit less (not a lot) vertical space for a lot more real estate, i'm tempted to get a 30.
I used to have 2X 19" at work and i like my single 22 better, it really depends on what you do but as i tend to be working on one thing at a time, and not on web things where i'd want a webpage and the code open at the same time, i really dislike having 2 screens and going back and forth between them instead of having 1 single area to focus on.
Everytime i hear you don't know what you're missing untill you go with 2X screen i'm thinking media related programming but for flat non web business programming you're usually stuck in VS without anything else to switch to.