Big, bright, and bulky
Written: Feb 27 '06
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Pros: Big screen, useful (although cumbersome) add-on features.
Cons: Price, lousy video/movies quality.
The Bottom Line: I would only recommend this for power users needing lots of screen space. For most others, the $1000 price tag is overkill.
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| slimtae's Full Review: Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24 inch LCD Monitor |
Every time I buy a cell phone or MP3 player, they get smaller and smaller. Every time I buy a TV or computer monitor, they get bigger and bigger. My latest monitor is the 24" Dell Ultrasharp LCD monitor. My 19" was fine, but I got reimbursed from my job for computer equipment, so I got the 24" Dell monitor.
The first thing to talk about is the size. Visually speaking, the monitor overwhelms my desk area. It is the first thing your eye goes to when you enter my office. Paradoxically, although it is a flat screen LCD, the sheer width of the monitor crowds out my desk space. The monitor is widescreen format, and what I find difficult is having any application open in full window view. You have to scan your eyes from side to side (like watching a tennis match) to take in everything. After having this monitor for several months now, I'm thinking that there is an upper limit to a computer monitor size at which usability starts to suffer. What I have wound up doing is to place the monitor about one foot further away from my eyes than my previous 19" monitor so I can take in the entire screen without moving my head back and forth. In effect, this achieves the same situation as a 19" monitor sitting one foot closer. Is it worth the $1000 price tag?
Images and text are clear and sharp using the DVI interface. I have read reviews where the setup of this monitor is a little cumbersome. I'm not sure what this is all about. I just plugged in my cable and it was up and running. The only thing I adjusted was the brightness and contrast to suit the lighting level in my office.
The monitor has composite video, component video, S-video, DVI and VGA inputs. I use the DVI input and the as I stated above, images and text look good. I've also hooked up a cable feed into the monitor through an old VCR. TV images look lousy, but then again, I didn't get this monitor to watch TV. Even DVD playback is not great. The images look a bit soft, and the black levels seem off. This could be improved a bit if I tweak the monitor and maybe if I use a different software DVD player, but I don't really have the desire to do this now. I think the bottom line here is....don't buy this monitor to be your primary movie viewing platform. The PIP feature of the monitor is useless unless you plan to watch TV on the monitor while you do your computing.
The maximum resolution of 1920x1200 is good for opening multiple windows at one time, but text reading can be difficult because of its small size, and because the icons are so small, they are easy to miss. I use the 1680x1050 setting which still gives me a large enough canvas. The monitor has an option which allows you to swivel it 90 degrees, but I found this hard to get used to because your eyes (and head) are constantly scanning up and down to see the entire screen. Note that to get get maximum performance from the monitor, you need a video card that can support 1920x1200 resolution.
There is a 9 in 1 multimedia card reader on the side of the monitor which could come in handy given the ubiquitous memory cards that are now used in cameras, PDA's and music players. Pretty much every major memory card type is supported. The only gripe I have is that it is located on the side of the monitor instead of the front. Every time you insert a card, you have to get up off your seat and crane your neck to fit the card into the slot. This is a stupid design flaw.
There are also USB 2.0 ports on the monitor which again can come in handy, although you can buy USB hubs now for $20. Again, there are hard to access because they are not situated in the front.
In summary, this is a good monitor for those users who need lots of computer work space. If your computing needs require having multiple windows open at once, I guess the bigger the better. For the average user, I think 24" on a desk space area is starting to approach overkill. Even though it's a flat screen, it still takes up a lot of space. Overall, I don't think the $1000 price tag is worth it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1000
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
slimtae
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Reviews written: 95
Trusted by: 11 members
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