Showdown: BenQ FP241WZ vs. Dell 2407-A04

Hey all,

Some how I ended up getting the Dell 2407 Rev. A04 and a BenQ FP241WZ today. I am going to put up a full review for both monitors. You can check it out at:

http://www.bexox.com/showdown.htm

I should be fully done with the review by the end of the weekend. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on the review. I want to try to get as much information on both of these screens so you all can make a better purchase decision. Thanks!

Nice review! How good is the Perfect Motion on each setting when PixPerAn is used? Does Perfect Motion work well with movies?

very much looking forward to seeing the comparison. Thanks.

Thanks for the effort Jim, looking good. I can't wait to see how the 2407 stacks up against the BenQ.

I want one of these monitors.

Mike

wow great review of the FP241wz. The 1:1 issue is somewhat confusing, not sure what the problem is here. I wonder if there is anyway to tell if 1080p/i sources displayed in aspect mode are indeed pixel perfect, or if there is some weird processing going. That is, I wonder if in aspect mode, the fp241wz is stretching the broken 1:1 image. Not sure if I'm making sense here.

Anyway, I too recently got my 241wz, and I am loving it. One thing that really bothered me, the screen is tilted due to a stand defect. I wish I had taken a picture, but I put one of those levelers on the monitor (the thing with a liquid filled tube where you gauge if something is level by looking at the bubble). You could easily see that it was not level. Too me, it was obvious and bothersome. I took the monitor of the stand, dissasembled some of the plastic parts, and literally hammered the metal bracket until it was level. Not the most elegant fixed, but it worked. Certainly, I should not have to do this on an $800 monitor. Other than that, this thing is a beauty.

Can't wait to see the comparo to the 2407 as this was my second choice. I went for the 241wz because i thought it had the better panel and was a bit more future proof. I think I made the right choice as this thing has zero backlight bleed and no dead pixels. I am really in awe.

Ross

I agree, excellent work so far Jim Robbins! Very informative stuff. Those are the two models that I was considering before I bought my WZ. It's very considerate of you to go out of your way to review the two models for everyone. I appreciate your work!

Oh yeah, the WZ is kickazz!

WOW! This is exactly the sort of information I was looking for. You tested the 360, you gave both subjective and measured input lag and smear results. Jim, you are the man!
Looking forward to the completed review as I have a 2407 and I'm interested in replacing it (going to give the old mon to my bro) with the 241WZ.

Could you also comment on dark details / shadow details at the center of the screen when looked at directly on the Benq (my 2407 loses some shadow details which are visible if you look at it from an angle - a PVA panel issue)?

saw the latest update Jim; thanks for the awesome comparison! Now I really have no buyer remorse on my fp241wz.

Ross

Well done Jim,
Tell yr wife, Yr are hero in 24" now
ps:Again,could you also comment on dark details / shadow details at the center of the screen when looked at directly on the Benq (2407 loses some shadow details which are visible if you look at it from an angle - a PVA panel issue)?

Nothing to add that others haven't already said, but again, awesome work, Jim!

Sounds like you got the older version of the Dell. At any rate, I thought the A04 version solved the 1080p problem.

Even though you didn't get too indepth or technical...you still went further than many so-called "review sites" by testing all those different consoles, dvd players and inputs/resolutions. Anyone who still has a Dreamcast AND a Saturn is ok in my book.

Jim, your Composite Input through Game Cube look a lot better then mine. When I put my PS2 to Composite Input, it look bad and blurry. Do you have a PS2 to hook it up through Composite? And how do I get the sound out of the Composite mode?

Originally Posted by rsatx

Sounds like you got the older version of the Dell. At any rate, I thought the A04 version solved the 1080p problem.

I can run the PC at 1920x1080 (1080P) just fine through DVI. However, I wasn't able to get 1080i or 480i to work at all via DVI. And, on Component video, the Dell would not display 1080p, only 1080i and lower. Of course, to clarify, all 1080i tests I did via component video came out looking awful and flickered as if it really was interlaced. There was no deinterlacing or line doubling at all for 1080i. I didn't have a non PC 1080p source, such as a PS3, BluRay Player, or higher end HD-DVD player to test 1080p via HDMI/DVI on either monitor. My cash flow only runs so deep. *sigh*

Excellent work Jim !!!! You did a better LCD review then many 'Review Sites' do....

Originally Posted by Velocities

Jim, your Composite Input through Game Cube look a lot better then mine. When I put my PS2 to Composite Input, it look bad and blurry. Do you have a PS2 to hook it up through Composite? And how do I get the sound out of the Composite mode?

I am not sure which monitor you are hooking up your PS2, too, but composite looked a little better on the Dell. I think they optimized just a few resolutions to work well depending on the input, and that seemed to be one of them. However, if you are hooking it up to the BenQ, it's probably going to have a little worse color fringing. *shrug*

As for the PS2, I don't have one available to try, but if you get a component video cable instead of composite, it should be a night and day difference. A friend of mine at work got one for his PS2 recently when he upgraded to a better TV, and he said it was like buying a new console. *grin* He was very impressed. Of course, a cable can only do so much, but that would certainly improve your picture quality greatly on either of these monitors.

Also, these monitors didn't have any sound inputs or outputs. You can add a speaker bar to the dell, and there is a power plug for it, but no actual sound jacks.

Later...

Originally Posted by i34u

Well done Jim,
Tell yr wife, Yr are hero in 24" now
ps:Again,could you also comment on dark details / shadow details at the center of the screen when looked at directly on the Benq (2407 loses some shadow details which are visible if you look at it from an angle - a PVA panel issue)?

Sorry, I didn't have a chance to get to that last comment about the color until now. I have this pic as my background: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details.php?id=936

I used that, as there is a lot of darker colors in the roofs of the houses, and some interesting lights and darks otherwise.

I just looked at it on the Dell 2407, and I can see what you mean about loosing some shadow detail as you move your head around. When you are directly over a spot, it seems to be darker, and when you move off to the left or right, it gets lighter and you can see more of the image. I think that is typical of the PVA and MVA technologies, right?

This is a great description of the panel types: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles...chnologies.htm

Anyway, I hooked the BenQ back up, and the it seems that the color is much more consistent as you move your head around. However, you can see the color dim just a little as you are directly over a spot. I'd say it is much better on the BenQ than on the Dell.

Depending on how close you sit to either monitor, you can see a change in color for the far left and right sides if you are on a uniform color. I can't notice it on a picture, however. I can only see that the darkness increases when you are over a single spot.

Yeah, that sounds kind of confusing, but really, the BenQ does have better shadow detail, but it is still the same kind of technology as the Dell, only slightly newer. It still isn't perfect. Maybe it's one of the newer A-MVA panels from AUO, I don't know. The guys in this forum are trying to figure out it: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1161471

Higgy might have cracked open his WZ by now, since they weren't getting any straight answers from BenQ. *grin* I am not taking mine apart... I don't need to know that bad. *laugh*

Originally Posted by WickedWeasel

Nice review! How good is the Perfect Motion on each setting when PixPerAn is used? Does Perfect Motion work well with movies?

I added a pic in the review about this. It looks like it helps a little. But you can see the dark patches in the image, and that changed position for each pic I took. I think they much have a raster like scan of black move through the screen from top to bottom. I only tried it with level 1 Perfect Motion. Levels 2 and 3 just seemed to flicker a little more and didn't seem to reduce the blurring any more, at least while gaming.

In any case, I think Perfect Motion in this monitor is a nice idea, and a good way to introduce the feature, but panels will have to run at a higher refresh rate to make it worth while. I felt like I was looking at a CRT running at 50hz or something... Sorry all you PAL tv watchers. *grin* Anyway, I might play with it some more in fast moving games, but It'll be feature I don't use that much. Oh well, I got this monitor for less than the non-Z version, and I am pretty happy with it, even with the extra unused feature.

Originally Posted by Jim Robbins

I added a pic in the review about this. It looks like it helps a little. But you can see the dark patches in the image, and that changed position for each pic I took. I think they much have a raster like scan of black move through the screen from top to bottom. I only tried it with level 1 Perfect Motion. Levels 2 and 3 just seemed to flicker a little more and didn't seem to reduce the blurring any more, at least while gaming.

In any case, I think Perfect Motion in this monitor is a nice idea, and a good way to introduce the feature, but panels will have to run at a higher refresh rate to make it worth while. I felt like I was looking at a CRT running at 50hz or something... Sorry all you PAL tv watchers. *grin* Anyway, I might play with it some more in fast moving games, but It'll be feature I don't use that much. Oh well, I got this monitor for less than the non-Z version, and I am pretty happy with it, even with the extra unused feature.

Great review, I'm looking for a LCD for office use and also heavy FPS gaming, like quake games, and now i might just get the benq.
Have you tried any quake games?

Good work

Originally Posted by rafaeldb

Great review, I'm looking for a LCD for office use and also heavy FPS gaming, like quake games, and now i might just get the benq.
Have you tried any quake games?

Good work

Well, I just opened up Half Life lost coast to take in the scenery and kill a few soldiers. I am sure I was killing poor video card. It's a Radeon X850XT PE - AGP... Yeah, I bought the monitor before I had gaming hardware to drive it. I cranked it up to 4xAA and 8xAniso and ran it at the native 1920x1200. I think I head the poor video card crying a little. *laugh* Anyway, even though my frame rate wasn't super fast, I was trying to take notice of blurring and lag effects. I didn't really notice either one. I played for about 15 mins, then jumped into Quake 4. I cranked up the graphics to make my poor vid card cry some more, and jumped to a save point in the middle of some action. Again, other than my framer ate, I didn't notice any lag issues, and the gfx seemed very clean and smooth. I didn't try Perfect Motion at all. I guess I didn't think about it in the middle of the killin', and I didn't really get a sense that I was getting any ghosting. I know there is a hint of ghosting, but you can really see it while in the heat of battle. Now, I just need a new video card, darn it... *sigh* And probably a new mobo, cpu, and ram, while I am at it. *sighing again*