20 inch+ LCD recommendation needed

[yanon]

I am going to need a 20 inch+ LCD monitor for viewing powerpoint/document (side by side), editing photos, and watching movies.

I am leaning toward the Dell 2007WFP or 2007FP. Between the two, which better suits my needs? I know NEC has some very good panels but they are expensive. So, are NEC panels really that much better than Dell's? If there is aother good LCD monitor (no TN panels) within my budget limit--below $400--please tell me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[yanon]

bump

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I have a few 2007FPs and I'm happy with them now that I have a newer version of them (A02).

I guess regular vs widescreen is a personal preference thing. I have two of them next to each other so 4:3 made a lot more sense to me.

For doing two things side by side two monitors helps out a ton. I was able to get in on a very nice deal and got three monitors for right around what you're thinking about spending.

For photo / document work, having two monitors is so much nicer. For movies though, a single widescreen is probably your best bet.

Well I didn't really give you any useful information

 

[Baked]

Buy a pair of Dell 2007FPWs. WS monitors in portrait mode is orgasmic.

 

[imported_waldo]

I have a 2007FPW, and if you are going to buy 2 monitors, I would asctually go with the regular ones. The widescreens are really a benefit when you don't have a 2nd one, as you can get 2 windows side by side. But the extra real estate of the normals ones would pay off I think if you were getting 2!

 

[boran]

Another vote for dell screens, my 2001FP is the best thing I ever got for my PC

 

[D22]

Acer 2016W 20.1 widescreen baby!

I got mine on sale for $195...

It is only VGA, but the picture is outstanding. DVI What? But right now it is not on sale anywhere, but if you do see it for that kind of deal again, it is excellent quality.

 

[mshan]

For web browsing and general purpose computing, I like non-widescreen LCDs.

For watching movies and HDTV, obviously a similar diagonal widescreen display will produce a bigger picture, but if you watch 4:3 content, I find the large black bars on the sides much more distracting than horizontal black bars on the top and bottom on a non-widescreen LCD.

Use the following web-based utility to get a feel for what you prefer (computer LCD dimensions are either 5:4 non-widescreen or 16:10 widescreen):

http://www.tvcalculator.com

 

[xtknight]

The 2007WFP is the easy choice for <$400.

 

[yanon]

thanks for all of the replies.
YOyoYOhowsDAjello,
where can you get those special dell deals---like 15-20% off LCD?

 

[StevenNevets]

Monitor: BenQ FP202W Black 20.1" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1 0.258mm Pixel Pitch
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014105
($259.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate)


cheap and just as good

 

[SparkyJJO]

The only LCD I can honestly recommend is the viewsonic vx2025wm because it is the only LCD I have used. My one friend has a dell 19" LCD and it has poorer color and ghosts alot worse than the vx2025wm, however I believe it may be a little older than the ones dell sells now.

The reason why I got the viewsonic is because the 20.1" dell equivalent while being cheaper had serious issues with backlight bleeding, poor viewing angles and some were even tinted red or had bands in them. I think they did fix that though. Also I guess it was because I wanted something different and I tend to hate bandwagons for bandwagon's sake. Unless there is a clear-cut advantage (like AMD CPUs had over the P4) then I tend to go for something else that is just as good (or sometimes better).

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: yanon
thanks for all of the replies.
YOyoYOhowsDAjello,
where can you get those special dell deals---like 15-20% off LCD?

The deals I got in on were for a decent desktop + the monitor for ~$600 and then I sold the computers and got most of what I paid back.

I got the heads up on it through the hot deal forum here, although I check a couple other sites daily too. Ebay often has some coupons for sale that help bring down some of these deals even more.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Oh yeah, thought I might mention that my old roommate has a Viewsonic 2030b next to his Dell 2007FP (he got in on the same deal I did) and he was disappointed with the first revision of the dell panel he got, but he got it replaced with the A02 revision and he's very happy with its performance now. He seems equally happy with the Viewsonic and the Dell for the work that he does (almost exclusively text-based work, I don't think he's really tried a gaming comparison and don't remember him mentioning video performance comparisons).

 

[yanon]

Thanks for the reply.


Wow, you look just like your avatar!!! Haha

 

[dawza]

Just to toss my opinion in- I pretty much agree with the above posts; if you plan to use the monitor more for movies, and do not see yourself going dual monitor, a single 2007WFP will serve you well. This would also apply if the work you do generally requires more horizontal real-estate than vertical, again assuming you do not wish to go dual.

If you do more work than movie-watching, and/or predict that you might run dual monitors in the future, the 2007FP would be the better choice.

I have a 2007FP running alongside my 2405, and my GF has a 2007WFP. I work mainly with spreadsheets and PDFs, so for me, the 2007FP was just much more comfortable than the widescreen version; the vertical real-estate of the 2007FP also matches that of the 2405, which is a plus when running in dual config.

I have been very happy with the Dell monitors thus far- don't do any photo work, so I cannot vouch for color accuracy, but for everything else (gaming, movies, text) they have definitely lived up to my expectations. No dead pixels on any of the 4 Dell monitors I have owned/used, and I cannot detect any backlight bleeding. There is a screen-door effect on the 2007FP, which I also noticed on the 2001FP but not the 2405 or 2007WFP. It is not a deal-breaker, but I feel it is worth mentioning. I do not know if the effect has anything to do with the panel used- I have the IPS panel in my 2007FP, and I want to say that the 2001FP also had an IPS panel, while the 2405 is PVA-based. I should check the service menu on our 2007WFP to see if it is PVA or IPS.

 

[yanon]

dawza,

I notice that 2007FP's native resolution is 1600 x 1200 whereas 2007WFP's native resolution is 1680 x 1050. So, if I set windows' display property to use normal size font, which panel will have bigger text size or they are the same? I prefer larger text size because I intend to do lots powerpoint/pdf readings on my new LCD monitor.

 

[coredumperror]

The 2007WFP will have larger text. I have one that I just installed today, and it's BEAUTIFUL! The colors are incredibly vibrant, and my desktop real estate is ginormous. As for price, I got it last week for $388 shipped. Dell Home and Small Office is offering 15% off all monitors, and free shipping right now. Plus, you can buy 20% off coupon codes on ebay for $2. That's a $22 value (original price is $440, 20% is 5% more than Dell's current 15% offer. 5% of $440 = 22), so it's basically like getting $20 for free. I'd highly reccomend a 2007WFP

 

[JEDIYoda]

Im partial to Samsung...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: yanon
Thanks for the reply.


Wow, you look just like your avatar!!! Haha

I have a beard now, so it's not as close as before

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dawza
Just to toss my opinion in- I pretty much agree with the above posts; if you plan to use the monitor more for movies, and do not see yourself going dual monitor, a single 2007WFP will serve you well. This would also apply if the work you do generally requires more horizontal real-estate than vertical, again assuming you do not wish to go dual.

If you do more work than movie-watching, and/or predict that you might run dual monitors in the future, the 2007FP would be the better choice.

I have a 2007FP running alongside my 2405, and my GF has a 2007WFP. I work mainly with spreadsheets and PDFs, so for me, the 2007FP was just much more comfortable than the widescreen version; the vertical real-estate of the 2007FP also matches that of the 2405, which is a plus when running in dual config.

I have been very happy with the Dell monitors thus far- don't do any photo work, so I cannot vouch for color accuracy, but for everything else (gaming, movies, text) they have definitely lived up to my expectations. No dead pixels on any of the 4 Dell monitors I have owned/used, and I cannot detect any backlight bleeding. There is a screen-door effect on the 2007FP, which I also noticed on the 2001FP but not the 2405 or 2007WFP. It is not a deal-breaker, but I feel it is worth mentioning. I do not know if the effect has anything to do with the panel used- I have the IPS panel in my 2007FP, and I want to say that the 2001FP also had an IPS panel, while the 2405 is PVA-based. I should check the service menu on our 2007WFP to see if it is PVA or IPS.

I definately have more SDE on my rev A02 2007FP vs my first revision, but that's the only slight drawback to the new panels. Everything is so much sharper and my banding issues are gone.

I took some comparison pics
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/YOyoYOhowsDAjello/Old2007FP.JPG
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/YOyoYOhowsDAjello/New2007FP.JPG

 

[dawza]

I definately have more SDE on my rev A02 2007FP vs my first revision, but that's the only slight drawback to the new panels. Everything is so much sharper and my banding issues are gone.

Do you by chance know which panel you have in your current revision? I have the 00 version, and definitely have banding when looking at color gradients, although during normal desktop use I don't notice it is there at all. Have no idea how apparent it is during gaming, as I use the 2405 exclusively for that, but from what I understand, the firmware "fix" only took care of the banding in 2D mode?

Do you know why the SDE is/was so visible in the 2007FP and the 2001FP, yet not the 2405FP? Is it the panel type, or something else?


Yanon- the dot pitch of the WFP is 0.258, and that of the FP is 0.255, so type should be slightly larger on the WFP. Whether it will be that noticeable at the distances most people use monitors, is subjective. I cannot tell, and it certainly is nothing close to the difference in size when going from a 0.294" pitch 19" monitor to the 0.255" pitch of a 20.1" 4:3 monitor.

The 2405 has a 0.27" dot pitch, and text is visibly larger than on the 2007FP, but again, not so much that I notice it for more than a fleeting second when flicking my eyes from one monitor to the other. If you are working with lots of PDFs and PP presentations, it should be no issue, given that you can easily crank up the magnification. I find that the 2007FP's extra vertical real estate is a huge advantage when working with PDFs, but then again, if you want to have two PDFs open in parallel, the extra horizontal space of the WFP could be equally valuable.