GDM-FW900: Really that good?

[DaneGuy]

I know there's a thread devoted to the FW900 but I'm hoping my question can be answered quickly without having to browse all those pages.

Is this monitor better than all LCDs?


I've been looking at the NEC 2070NX. Will the Sony FW900 be noticeably better? (I posted this in the FW900 thread also).

 

[Ryle]

FW900 is a great monitor, but since its not in production anymore you cant get one brand new (that is probably a good thing, since this things MSRP when in production was like $2300), you also take some chance in buying used ones. I bought one off Ebay for 375 shipped 6mo ago, it came with some issues in the corners and a nice scratch on screen, thankfully the seller had a 30day return policy and i got a replacement which is perfect.

The monitor is the best around IMO, and one of a kind.. 24" 16:10 CRT monitor. you get the huge size and widescreen without the negative effects of response times, native resolutions, and backlight bleeding/black levels of LCDs. only negative thing about the monitor is the possibility of geometry issues and color if you happen to get a sub par one. but even the color can be fixed most the time with tweaks (windas).

and to answer your question about the NEC 2070NX, that is a 20" LCD.. id rather have a 24" CRT.

 

[umbolo]

Yes, that monitor is absolutely great, but the problem with it (and other Trinitron monitors) is that Sony ceased Trinitron tubes production in 2001 / 2002. so all those displays are more than 5 years old (if you get lucky you can get one which wasn't used for that long, but that's lottery). Problem with CRT displays is that their quality deteriorates after app. 3 years (of course, you can get 6 years old CRT with superb picture quality and without any serious issues, but that's lottery again). I have 7 years old Sony Trinitron which exhibits various problems (issues started after ~4 years).

Regarding NEC 2070NX - it's very nice LCD display, one of the best 20" non widescreen models. It uses S-IPS panel and has very nice all around quality (although I'm not sure about its response times, someone else would have to fill you on that).

I'm really not sure what to recommend you - if you get lucky and find FW900 in very good shape I guess then it's better choice - you get cheaper display with suberb picture quality, giant screen size (for CRT), rich blacks, wide range of resolutions, great color display etc. (only problem might be its life expectancy).