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06-25-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: 24 inches, inexpensive, low latency, relatively neutral factory settings, no dead pixels
Weaknesses:6-bit panel, unsatisfactory viewing angles, inferior color reproduction, no USB ports, non-adjustable
Overall Evaluation: How do you define cheap? First the publisher I work for and secondly this monitor. Since reviewing the SP2008WFP, my company purchased me a 24 inch iMac which sports fairly capable display aside from the absurd glossiness. So at $320 (Price for a refurb) you already know you're not getting a good monitor so it becomes a question of how bad the monitor is. -Now for the positive: The Monitor sports a matte finish which means no reflections. Somehow, I scored a corner office with not one, but two windows, which means I get to experience daylight. This makes me happy. However, the sun, being the G2V spectral class celestial entity that it is, is rather capable of generating quite a bit of reflection on a glossy display. Unlike my previous dell display, it doesn't reflect anything. Even the iMac has the curse of the gloss. Glossy finishes are marketing in the Nth degree. They make a product sparkle on the shelf but have very little return other than instilling a child like sensation of "Oooh shiney!" in the viewer. It impedes the actual viewing of the picture, yet consumers like it thus they exist. Also notable there's no input delay to be seen and no pixel latency that i could detect. This partly has to do with the single positive of a 6-bit panel, less data to process hence quicker response times.-Now for the bad (pretty much everything else): First off, this monitor claims a 1000:1 contract ratio which is absurd as contrast ratios are meaningless. To avoid repeating myself, read my review of the SP2008WFP but there's not an LCD display on the market that can reproduce 1000:1 contrast ratio in realworld.Also equally import is this display is a 6 bit panel, each color chanel is represented by 6-bits as opposed to 8. 2^6=64, 64 x 64 x 64 for each color channel = 262144 colors. To quote myself, "There's a lot to be said about those missing 16515072 missing colors. " With 1/64 of the color to replicate, the display can reproduce the image much quicker hence a display that's well suited for twitch gaming. My older 2405FPW at home is infinitely a better display but not really well suited for gaming as there is a very slight delay.-Sitting side by side to my iMac 24 display really highlights the inadequacies of this monitor. The biggest single flaw is the viewing angle, if you move your head around you will see the color shift. With a display this large, its very noticeable and probably more accentuated than if it were say, a 20 inch. The iMac? Nope. It makes the LCD feel like it was made years ago. The image looks rough even when corrected, almost agitated that was paired with the likes of the Apple display.-So in the end it does what it says it'll do but without any charm or life. If at possible, get the Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP, it may be twice as expensive but it is twice the display. Only reason I got this display is it met the price range of my cheap company, who writes my cheap paychecks...
05-09-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Cheap,adjustable height stand
Weaknesses:No usb ports, viewing angle is bad, response time so so
Overall Evaluation: This is entry level 24" LCD and that is why it is cheap. DO not expect a lot from it and definitely not for gamers. You can watch video but not very fast and sometimes blurry.For the price you can not go wrong though.
04-29-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Very bright display and none bad pixels, lightweight, automaticdetect input, don't need to manually switch.
Weaknesses:It can not be adjusted in height, no USB port. And initial colorsetting is not accurate.
Overall Evaluation: Highly recommend for low budge display users. light, good design, saving a lot of desktop space. And low heat, fast display response time. pixels work very stable, no bad ones.Would love to get another one.
04-26-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Reasonably priced. Has 2 inputs (VGA & DVI)
Weaknesses:Low viewing angle.
Overall Evaluation: As the economical model of Dell's 24" LCD, this screen uses cheaper panel. As a result, the color of what is displayed on the screen changes as you move your head sideways 1-2 feet. This is not a problem for text-based tasks such as word processing, but I would not recommend this for photographic work. Also, when connected via VGA cable at 1600x1200 resolution, there seems to be a lot of noise especially around the edges of the screen, which I cannot eliminate after 30 minutes of adjusting. The supplied VGA cable is relatively small in diameter, and this may be causing the noise. I have not tested DVI input.
04-23-08
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: Colors are good, even thought it's only 6-bit. Great response time.
Weaknesses:Poor viewing angles. Issues with image lock.
Overall Evaluation: I'm comparing this to my five year old 20" widescreen 2005FPW which works like a champ and the best monitor I've ever had.The colors are vibrant even though it's a 6-bit screen. However, the viewing angles are quite poor. Especially the vertical. Just standing throws off the color scheme quite a bit compared to when sitting in front of it. Response time is great. However, the monitor has a tendancy to lose image lock for half a second and refresh at even simple windows events like an install. My 2005 never did that.
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