It's been a while since i researched monitors so i have forgotten most of the things to look out for.  But contrast ratio would be a good one (not Dynamic tho - mine is 20,000:1 but that is dynamic (meaning the screen dynamically changes the brightness of the screen from frame to frame whilst watching films (which can be really annoying actually)).  The other was the pixel pitch and (only for gaming) the response times... mine is 2ms and anything below a 5ms screen was getting laggy...

Also TFT vs LCD vs (i think by now tho i havent checked availability) OLED plays a part.  

I just found this forum thread which from a quick skim read (i havent checked the links) might provide a good source of information on how to go about choosing a good monitor:

http://forums.tweakguides.com/showthread.php?t=3197

Price and Size are good motivations but if you get a big monitor with a small native resolution you might as well just save your money for a better quality smaller monitor with the same native resolution...

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