An aperture grille mask displays brighter images with richer and more saturated colors. Popular aperture grille technologies include SonicTron from ViewSonic, DiamondTron from Mitsubishi and Trinitron from Sony. On the other hand, a shadow mask creates images with more precision when displaying text and fine lines. It's a simple matter of user preference when selecting between shadow mask and aperture grille monitors. For color graphics applications such as electronic desktop publishing, the aperture grille technology is often preferred for its ability to display color more vividly.
Resolution refers to the density of the screen image.
A 640x480 VGA screen has 640 pixels or dots across a line and 480 lines down. The higher the resolution the more information can be displayed on the screen. Presently, the maximum supported resolution is 1800x1440, greatly improved from the color TV resolution of 320x525. Refresh rate refers to the speed at which a screen is repainted or refreshed. A higher horizontal scan rate allows a monitor to run at higher resolutions with acceptable refresh rates.