darkvapor's Full Review: Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20 inch LCD Monitor
After my trusty and well worn Viewsonic 19" CRT started to show signs of dying, I decided it was time to upgrade and go for an LCD panel display. Immediately, I was disappointed with the specifications of most of the displays on the market. Most 19" LCD's were limited to 1280x1024 resolution, which lead to very large pixel pitch sizes. Most 19" LCDs also suffered from 25ms response times, hardly impressive. And finding one with DVI inputs makes the searching even more difficult.
A friend of mine sent told me about the Dell 2001FP display, and the specifications alone made it worth looking at. 20.1" display, 1600x1200 resolution, 16ms response, .255mm dot pitch, analog + DVI inputs, and after enough searching, I even found one for $700! I couldn't pass up the deal and have been very happy with the purchase since then.
I was a bit put off by the Dell branding on it, but rest assured, the monitor uses the LG.Phillips LCD display, as do several other displays in this class. The monitor is packaged very well, and is incredibly easy to setup. I was a bit skeptical of the base that the monitor comes with, but it has proved to be very sturdy and takes up minimal space on the desk. It has very good articulation with 3 degrees of freedom. The cable holder on the back looks very flimsy, but it hasn't broken yet, so it will probably be okay.
On to the display itself. It is very impressive. It is very sharp, evenly lit, and 0 dead pixels or subpixels. No noticeable ghosting or other signs of latency (in normal use, including the use of screen savers or winamp plugins). There is no true black though, so very dark screens (like full screen DVDS) look like a dark grey at moderate angles off straight-on. However, in typical Windows environments, the screen looks true. This is a 24bit display, so colors look identical to my old CRT.
In a Windows environment, the screen looks great at just about all view angles, although as I stated above, when not sitting directly in front of the screen expect some significant contrast and brightness shifts when viewing very dark screens (that use "black").
At first, I wasn't sure what to think about the high-speed USB ports on the monitor. However, I found them to be very convenient compared to plugging them into the computer. Nice touch! Expect to find 4 USB ports, 2 on the side, 2 on the back.
The on screen menus are easy to navigate, although I find most of the settings to be useless. The auto-configured settings seem to work very well. The contrast ratio is not quoted as high as some other displays on the market, but they could have fooled me. The display is very sharp and has excellent contrast. I even turned down the brightness and contrast slightly off factory settings to make it easier to look at for long periods of time.
Look for good deals from reputable resellers, or wait for a deal or coupon from Dell and buy this monitor.. As just about all of the people who bought this monitor, you will be extremely satisfied with it. Although 700-800$ is still expensive for a display, I doubt you can find a better deal on a 20.1" display right now.
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