Dell 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD

Strid3r- · Post by **Strid3r-** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:11 am

I just recieved my new monitor a couple of weeks ago and did not see an existing thread about it so I figured you guys might like to know how it performs...

Color Accuracy/Photographic Work:
The color out-of-box was very close to accurate. After a quick color calibration the colors and brightness are as good as I've ever used on a CRT and match my printer (Epson Photo Stylus 320) perfectly.

Video:
The best thing about widescreen monitors is that movies when played in 16:9 cover the whole darn screen. Effectively its like watching a movie on a tradition 4:3 32" screen. No ghosting/lagging whatsoever.

Games:
I was a little worried b/c of the size and I found out quickly that there was no need to worry. Some games I play (CS:S, CoD2) support WS while others (BF2) don't

. Dell's on screen adjustments have a mode for the screen to display 1:1 of the screen resolution so when I'm playing the non-WS games the games are not stretched and run at great resolutions. No ghosting as mentioned above.

Workflow:
Great. Running two applications at once is wonderful. I'll never own a 4:3 aspect monitor again.

I highly reccommend this monitor to anyone in the market for one and its price blows competitor's prices out of the water.

SAMSAMHA · Post by **SAMSAMHA** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:36 pm

i would love to get this if I have the money. Care to share it with me:)

congrat on getting such an awesome monitor.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:06 pm

How is the red levels, when i put my roommates 2405 next to my 24" CRT his LCD and you can see a pronouced difference in the amount of red, as well as the base white balance.

JohnnyVic · Post by **JohnnyVic** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:51 pm

Is this a 6-bit or 8-bit panel?

The thing that always bothers me about cheaper LCDs is looking at the icons on the system tray. They always seem very low res and have poor colors. So that gives me a bad impression right off the mark. I think this is due to the 6-bit display but I'm not sure if that is just an LCD thing.

I have a nice 22" NEC running 1600x1200. I will switch to LCD when I can get something a little larger running the same resolution and just as good quality.

Strid3r- · Post by **Strid3r-** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:34 pm

The red only appears if you're looking at the LCD at exteme angles. I don't have any issues when viewing the monitor properly or from usable angles. I don't know the low res issue you are mentioning b/c its not present here. The entire LCD is sharp (due to the high quality phillips panel - the same as the apple cinema display). The white balance is fine and the monitor can be well - calibrated and maintains its sharpness throughout the monitor.

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:13 pm

good stuff man. i got me a 20.1 widescreen and i love it. except that BF2 doesnt support it..

-mogwai · Post by **-mogwai** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:04 pm

i love mine

Bal`thzar · Post by **Bal`thzar** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:34 pm

I got mine about 2 months ago and I love it.

Some of the advanced features it has are

1. Picture in Picture from the different inputs

2. USB ports

It really is a nice screen

XethaN · Post by **XethaN** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:43 am

Damn you people, I cant even afford a new 21" crt let alone an LCD that size

SAMSAMHA · Post by **SAMSAMHA** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:11 am

i would love it if I can own one:).

pointreyes · Post by **pointreyes** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:17 am

Bal`thzar wrote:I got mine about 2 months ago and I love it.

Some of the advanced features it has are

1. Picture in Picture from the different inputs

2. USB ports

It really is a nice screen

At first I hated mine but discovered that the problems I was having with mine was the 8-port iogear KVM with analog connections. Switched to a DVI KVM and this monitor is a joy to use. Three computers hooked up to this monitor. Even the MAC Mini I have hooked up to this monitor looks very nice. Widescreen is very nice for my MCE system as well.

Plus I can easily watch TV to the corner of this monitor with plenty of real estate to spare for other uses.

InspectahACE · Post by **InspectahACE** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 12:29 pm

this monitor rules..all i can think of sayin..colors are sharp, not to mention the picture is damn sharp..and well..it just kicks a$$

[AK]Zip · Post by **[AK]Zip** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:07 am

just a heads up, but you can make pretty much any game run 1680X1050 via either config or command line. I haven't had any problems doing so.

grunt · Post by **grunt** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:23 pm

I have the 2005FPW and I love it, my buddy got it too. Now a 3rd friend is about to have me build him a system and he wants one..