20" wide-angle display for the win!
Written: Aug 31 '05 (Updated Aug 31 '05)
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Pros: Quality LCD display, multiple inputs, small footprint, several extras ports, highly adjustable, discounts abound.
Cons: Still a bit pricey, requires compatible graphics card resolution for best performance.
The Bottom Line: Wide-angle, multiple inputs, excellent resolution, many options, and many discount options (for the patient, at least). It's the display to have.
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| thorprime's Full Review: Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20 inch LCD Monitor |
Several friends of mine purchased and recommended this display to me. Everyone I knew loved it, so I took a hard look at the unit and picked one up.
My intent was to upgrade to a large LCD display (and this certainly qualifies) primarily for gaming purposes, with occasional graphics development and general entertainment. But finding a wide-angle display? I hadn't even dreamed I'd find one at a reasonable price. Enter Dell. It seems Dell has a tendency to enter into a market well after others have already blazed a trail for them. In so doing, they offer a solid product at a reasonable price. The 2005FPW seems to fall right into that category.
The unit, while having a huge display area, has quite a small footprint (as all flat-panel displays should). It occupies maybe 1/4 the desk space that my 19" crt did. And it weighs in at a very reasonable 17lbs (compared to the average 60 to 65lbs 19" crt, ugh). I was more than happy to get back my desk with this unit, and not risk a back injury in the process.
I was also very impressed that the unit has multiple inputs, including DVI. Just about every other display I've ever used, or have even seen for that matter, uses only a VGA input, and maybe composite. The fact that I could go with DVI straight from my graphics card to the display was a welcome bonus. Further, the unit still has standard VGA, S-Video, and even a Composite video input. And the display allows for multiple inputs to be used simultaneously. You can either switch between inputs on the display via the front panel, or view picture-in-picture if you prefer. How swanky is that?
And since we're talking about inputs - there are 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back/bottom of the display. Basically, the display is also a USB 2.0 hub. You can plug your USB devices right into the display, without having to run more cables to your PC (something I've found more useful than I had anticipated).
The unit stand is very adjustable, having a snug fit that lets holds the vertical placement regardless of it's position (it doesn't "lock" into position). And it includes the ability to rotate the display 90 degrees. So if you want lots of vertical workspace, just rotate the display and change the desktop settings on your computer. Not something I expect to use much (if ever), but a nice feature for those who need such a thing. The display is so wide though that you need to raise it to it's higest position before rotating to the more vertical arrangement - lest you hit your desk with the corner of the display.
The display is capable of nearly every resolution currently known to man. If you need it, I'll go so far as to say that this thing can do it. It's best optimized for 1680 x 1050 (to take advantage of the wide-angle aspect), but I've ran it as high as 1800 x 1200.
The price is absolutely the biggest hurdle. The unit currently retails for $700, and I wasn't willing to spend that much for it (as cool as it may be). I had been advised by my friends (the same ones who'd already purchased this model) to keep an eye out for coupons from Dell. Dell is notorious for offering coupons for their products. So much so that a number of sites exist today solely to track dell's current coupons offers (a Google search should give you some quick results there). So I kept an eye out for a 30% off coupon for the Dell 2005FPW. That took some patience, but it paid off after nearly 2 months. I was able to use 30% off coupon, to which I added another $90 off coupon that qualified at the time (individual results here will certainly vary, but watch for multiple coupons). In the end, I was able to purchase this unit directly from Dell for $420, with free shipping. I couldn't even find EBay offers like that for this display.
It's worth noting that I have read some accounts complaining about a "backlighting problem" with this unit. Where the backlighting is perhaps too intense and washes-out the colors to some degree. Or where the edges of the display are washed out or discolored. I can honestly say that I have not experienced this problem with my display, at all. Nor have my friends who own one.
You can find specific info on the Dell 2005FPW here:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=320-4111&c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=6198&brandid=56&first=true&page=productlisting.aspx
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 420
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
thorprime
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Reviews written: 7
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