HP ZR24w

After researching this and a few others I made the choice to go with this one. Price vs performance is king for me, and the ZR24w just takes the cake over any of the other high-end 24" monitors out there right now. I received a perfect condition new unit with absolutely no dead pixels or any other issues, so I am very happy.

I will have to make a statement to clear up a few erroneous comments regarding eBay. I have been a seller/buyer on eBay for about 10 years and I have to say that it has come a long way. Most major companies all have there own eBay sales presence now so you are not just dealing with Joe Blow and his possible garbage item with no recourse if it is DOA or worse. Today eBay has a Buyer Protection system that covers every item you buy, and even if the person/company you buy it from balks at a return eBay will generally force the issue. At worst you will have to pay return shipping, but not all the time as several issues I have had in the last few months have had eBay send me a prepaid return label.

For this item I used MacMall's eBay store, and I received a new item for $399 shipped. I know, as mentioned above, that you can get a refurb from HP for a bit less, but it is hard to find this monitor for under $400 new from a major retailer. All in all I was very happy with the service and the turn around time.

Now I just need to find a nice colorimeter that doesn't cost as much as this monitor....
 
Has HP decided not to make money these days or what? This thing on sale almost nowhere. Newegg has it at the laughable price of $500, and big surprise, there are only 5 reviews there, the newest being 4 months old.
 
Question about this scaling problem: does this shit matter for PC content, i.e., can I set the video card drivers to display things 1:1, change my res to 1080p, and see it properly as far as my PC output goes?

I want to run this in Eyefinity with two 22" 1080p monitors, in which case I need this thing in 1080p as well.

e: Never mind, 23" 16:9 is almost the same width as 24" 16:10.
 
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You can set your video card to do the scaling for 1080p, (i.e. apply the black borders in this particular instance) and get around the issue of the monitor scaling.
 
my monitor arrived from B&h photo just as planned on thursday. Got the monitor setup and inspected/adjusted. A few observations..

I had one bright blue dead pixel, 1 small contaminate, about the size of a pixel. And mild backlight bleeding in the top-mid-right position.

My screen has a bit of a blue tint to me, judging from my naked eye. It's correctable via color controls however, and i've noticed others have mentioned it, so it's probably normal.

Firmware was .24G

Im using 100 contrast 10 brightness, and manually adjusted RGB values in the low 100's. I adjusted it by eye to what looked good to me, and also to match my secondary monitor, a dell 2005FPW that's now in portrait mode.

The backlight bleed is pretty minimal and does not bother me, the stuck blue pixel is off to the far left of the screen and also is easily ignored. The slight contaminate is only noticeable on white, and when looking for it...

You know, when I was younger, I think these things would have bothered me more. But im starting to mellow with age heh.. im actually pretty pleased with the screen overall and these minor defects don't really detract from the overall experience, would I like a perfect screen? yeah it'd be nice, but im reluctant to send it back and go though the hassle of that process and maybe get a screen with severe backlight issues, or multiple dead pixels.

The IPS glow is still there of course, I think all the screens probably have it to an equal degree, it can be annoying with solid black backgrounds, but i've been using an ips screen for the past 5 years and already knew what it was, it's purple instead of white on my dell 2005fpw. I also sit about 3.5 feet away from my screens, they are on a large desk, and I use a high back computer chair, so that's about as close as I can physically sit.

In comparison to the 5 year old 2005fpw.. The HP is considerably blacker as far as min lum levels go(MLL). Contrast also seems slightly improved, overall clarity seems better, colors are harder for me to judge, to be honest the 2005fpw has great colors, and im not sure the hp is any better, but certainly no worse. The FPW seems to be easier to get the colors right, less fiddling, but i've always preferred a redder/warmer color temp, and the HP sways in the other direction out of the box. So i made my HP a little warmer, and my Dell a little cooler, to try and get a decent match. Was tempted to buy a cheap colorimeter kit but I think it'd be a waste, im a casual user/gamer. A bit of a perfectionist, but it's silly to spend the money on kit like that unless you really just need the color accuracy.

This is the first time i've ever had dual monitors, and it's a pretty cool experience, running from a Radeon 4870 in dual dvi mode. I've got them side by side, the 2005FPW in portrait next to the landscape ZR24W. It's strange to be sitting in front of 44 inches of computer monitor, this is very neat.. takes some getting used too, also takes awhile to learn the tools and utilities for getting this setup just so. I knew how dual monitors worked, but actually experiencing it has a very different feel then what i'd imagined. I recently discovered in the ATI control panel you can actually arrange the monitors so that when transfering windows and boxes from one screen to the next it lines up perfectly, despite one being portrait and one being landscape, and different resolutions! This was a cool find in the ati control panel. I also discovered windows 7 has very poor to non-existent theme/wallpaper options for dual monitors. I found some opensource freeware programs called "Dual monitor tools" that are very powerful and functional, it's pretty cool the dual wallpaper application allows you to line up practically any dual monitor (3200x1200) wallpaper with ease, despite resolution, monitor sizes, etc.

It's very cool browsing the web @ 1050x1680, I love portrait mode for internet browsing, as there tends to be alot of wasted space on widescreen monitors, it's especially great for forum reading. which brings me to my next issue, Firefox vs Chrome.. I used to use firefox and about 6 mos ago switched to chrome, I love chrome for it's simplicity and speed. But hate it for it's poor minimum font size support/implementation, and zooms. It's such a big deal that it really can be a deal breaker. I don't know why it is but chrome will not "Word wrap" forums, it just starts in with the damn horizontal scroll bars. Firefox does this extremely well, and tends to "Word wrap" things in general, when there's not enough horizontal resolution. In practice, this is huge, especially when you've only got 1050 horizontal res. Firefox also tends to strictly enforce your minimum font settings, this does not happen on chrome. Firefox 4.0 beta is extremely fast too, much closer to chrome then I would have imagined. I wish they would goto the title bar tabs like chrome, but I can live with that.

I guess i've gotten a bit off topic here, if anyone else has tips/insights to dual monitors i'd like to hear it.
 
I just ordered from the HP Refurbished store (look under Small Business section); should be arriving tomorrow, so lets see if the promise holds out.

The other main options that seemed to exist, with 'known stores' (not that I've had personal experience with) are Mac Mall and Cost Central.

Here's some info that helped me decide on the refurbished route, along with the $339 price tag (plus I negotiated a small discount):
  • 10 day: Return for any reason, but pay shipping
  • 30 day: Return is something is wrong, HP pays shipping. Either repair or return.
  • 30+ days: under warranty
  • No specification for number for dead pixels
  • Shipping $16

Downside was I had to pay tax direct.


I pulled the trigger on the same deal... hopefully everything is good
 
Actually, I just figured out in chrome 4, B9, all you have to do is disable the "menu" toolbar and it automatically switches tabs to be on top like chrome. Man.. im liking this firefox 4.0 alot, I don't see myself going back to chrome at this rate.

Check out the firefox add-ons. I know there are chrome style add-ons for FF 3.6 so there might be some for 4.0.
 
A few questions...

1) Would you all recommend this HP to those working extensively with digital photography? Can it attain accurate color calibration?
2) Which hardware calibrator would you all recommend using with this panel?
 
Considering picking at least one of these up, if not two. Two questions...

This has been mentioned in this thread on about page 30 or so, but on the HP Canada page (I don't know if the American one has this) there are two versions of the monitor posted:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF25a/382087-382087-64283-3884471-3884471-4101131.html

One is the VM633A4, the other the VM633A8. The only obvious specification difference is that the A4 has a response rate listed as "5 ms (gray to gray), 12 ms (on/off)", while the A8 has it listed as "7 ms". Aside from the different in milliseconds quoted, can anyone shed some light on the difference in the sub-model numbers?

My second question is related to the pixel policy for returns. Despite the guidelines for a return based on problem pixels, has anyone simply had a single pixel problem other than full pixel defect and managed to get their display replaced? Is the mindset that I'm going to simply end up with a pixel problem free monitor unrealistic?
 
Why are there two different model numbers and why to they differ in price, I don't know, but before I bought mine I asked and was told they were both the exact same monitor and that there is no difference in response time.

Pixel problems are always a lottery but it's not unreasonable at all to expect a pixel problem free monitor. I've bought 4 ZR24w's recently (only 1 for me but that's beside the point) and none of them had any pixel defects. It doesn't mean yours would be perfect for sure of course, just that it's likely it would.
 
Just purchased one of these so I could move up to 1920x1200.

Out of the box colours look great but screen was a bit to bright so I've followed some of the advice here and dropped brightness to 24 and boosted contrast to 100 and left colour @ 6500k sRGB. This gives me pretty good colour and black levels and text is very clear.

A lot to like about this monitor.

However I have noticed what I can only describe as a sheen on the left handside of the screen whenever the monitor is displaying a very dark colour such as black. This sheen is only on the lefthand side. This post describes exactly what I am seeing (I sit about 30inches away).

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=16581371&postcount=294

Is this a common problem with this monitor?
 
that's call ips glow, it's common for all ips based monitors, the older dell's had a purple sheen. these are white. It's not just "this monitor" it's all ips monitors. If you can't live with it, you will need to go back to a TN panel. Without RGB adjustments the colors get blown at above 95 contrast, do not use SRGB and 100 contrast, 24 brightness is still to high set it down to 10 or lower for a day and see if you get used to it.
 
IPS glow shouldn't be on one side only though. If this sheen is visible even when you move your head perpendicular to that area then that would indicate a backlight bleeding issue which from my experience isn't common on these monitors. All 4 ZR24w's that I've seen had very even backlight.
 
I'm actually coming from an NEC 20" TFT WGX2 S-IPS 1680x1050 monitor which certainly doesn't exhibit a sheen/glow like the ZR24w when I sit in front of it. It does have a slight purple sheen but evenly and only at extreme angles.

With my head facing the centre of the ZR24w I see a white sheen on the lefthand side (from the edge to about 25% towards the centre) with dark colours such as black. If I move my head left it reduces as my head gets to the edge. At no time do I see the same level of sheen/glow on the righthand side. I don't like the fact it is only on one side and it sounds like it may be an uneven backlight and not correct then?
 
backlight bleed does not move with your head, I guess you could have a screen uniformity issue. You must also realize 24" vs 20" will show IPS glow more easily.
 
Many thanks TBH now I've noticed it I don't think I can overlook it so I'm going to send it back.

Should I expect IPS glow to be visable at all when viewing straight on?
 
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At 30" viewing distance, yes a little bit. But it should be in the bottom corners only, not only on one side and definitely not the entire left hand side. Can you post a pic?
 
Here are a couple of pics which I think show the problem clearly enough

http://img842.imageshack.us/i/p1000868h.jpg/
http://img64.imageshack.us/i/p1000871y.jpg/

The first pic shows a pronounced glow on the left-hand side top and bottom. The camera makes it very obvious, but to the eye the right-hand side glow is not obvious. In the second pic the glow upper left is quite noticeable but there is also glow bottom left. To the eye the left-hand glow is obvious in any game with a dark screen
 
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I pulled the trigger on the same deal... hopefully everything is good

Cancelling my HP refurb order depending on this one from Amazon.

OnSale is listing it at Amazon for 389 (416 after ship) and since I had to pay tax at HP it was 382.42

Assuming the Amazon listing is new (as advertised) and not refurb... I'll pay the $30 premium for a 2 year warranty extension.
 
actually, that does look like backlight bleed to me. And a quite severe case of it.. i'd say it's defective. But its hard to tell from pictures.
 
It's clearly unbalanced left to right, not sure if it backlight bleeding or IPS glow TBH.

Having switched back to the 20WGX2Pro (which is so much better) I now realise I prefer a glossy screen (despite the reflection problems) to a defused one.

I'm going to have a look around for 24" 1920x1200 glossy screen as I do like the larger screen size. Does anybody have any recommendations?
 
You may have a real hard time finding one.. there's only a handful of 16:10 displays and the ZR24W is one of the better ones, if your not satisfied with that, you may be forced to goto a 16:9 screen.
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Anyone know anything about the sync polarity of this display? I'm thinking of buying two of them (one refurb, one new) and pairing them with my existing 24" display for some Eyefinity or Surround action... Only problem is, if I go w/AMD cards I'll probably lose bezel management, and if I go w/NV cards I'm not sure if it'll work at all since all three displays need the same res, refresh rate, and sync polarity (little advertised fact it seems).

Right now I'm torn between the two HP ZR24W's or just getting three NEC EA231WMi's (probably less of a hassle), either way it'd actually cost about the same but I know the HP's a better overall display... Plus it would allow me to stay at 1920x1200 (NEC's 1920x1080), it's 1.25" taller so it'll probably look much nicer in portrait mode (where it'd be 1.25" wider, more space in between bezels, etc...).
 
Can somebody please help me? I've used this monitor on the GeForce4 MX440 card for months w/ no problem. Now, I connected it to the machine w/ the ATI Radeon XPress 200 integrated card. The image got stretched out and there's nothing I've been able to do to fix it. I played w/ every setting on the monitor to no effect. I reloaded the monitor driver. The driver for the card is up to date. Increasing the resolution moves part of the desktop off the screen. I called HP and talked to at least half a dozen reps. On the business side, I was told that they have nobody to provide techsupport for this monitor as it's normally attached to a workstation, not to a PC. At the PC side, I was told that they knew nothing about the monitor, and suggested that I buy a new HP PC. One HP rep told me point blank that at his company users are sent from one department to another and nobody is willing to help.

It seems that the only thing left to try is to buy a dedicated, better card, hook up the monitor to it, and see if it makes any difference. If that doesn't do the trick, I'd have to get rid of the monitor that I really like.

Please help!!
 
Can somebody please help me? I've used this monitor on the GeForce4 MX440 card for months w/ no problem. Now, I connected it to the machine w/ the ATI Radeon XPress 200 integrated card. The image got stretched out and there's nothing I've been able to do to fix it. I played w/ every setting on the monitor to no effect. I reloaded the monitor driver. The driver for the card is up to date. Increasing the resolution moves part of the desktop off the screen. I called HP and talked to at least half a dozen reps. On the business side, I was told that they have nobody to provide techsupport for this monitor as it's normally attached to a workstation, not to a PC. At the PC side, I was told that they knew nothing about the monitor, and suggested that I buy a new HP PC. One HP rep told me point blank that at his company users are sent from one department to another and nobody is willing to help.

It seems that the only thing left to try is to buy a dedicated, better card, hook up the monitor to it, and see if it makes any difference. If that doesn't do the trick, I'd have to get rid of the monitor that I really like.

Please help!!
 
I am contacting my rep at CDW to see if I can get a great deal. I know he can hook these up for me for less than 400 new.

I am going to be order 3 for some Eyefinitizing IPSness if the price is under 400 each. I'm honestly unsure of the refurb deals so you folks that went all [H]core and got them let me know if there are any defects with them at all such as scratches, cracks, screen issues, etc... I would totally love to save the cash.

offtopic:
I also have a ASUS VE278Q that I am going to return to Frys tomorrow. The pixel pitch is horrible for a screen this size. Other than that the screen is beautiful in many ways.
 
Can somebody please help me? I've used this monitor on the GeForce4 MX440 card for months w/ no problem. Now, I connected it to the machine w/ the ATI Radeon XPress 200 integrated card. The image got stretched out and there's nothing I've been able to do to fix it. I played w/ every setting on the monitor to no effect. I reloaded the monitor driver. The driver for the card is up to date. Increasing the resolution moves part of the desktop off the screen. I called HP and talked to at least half a dozen reps. On the business side, I was told that they have nobody to provide techsupport for this monitor as it's normally attached to a workstation, not to a PC. At the PC side, I was told that they knew nothing about the monitor, and suggested that I buy a new HP PC. One HP rep told me point blank that at his company users are sent from one department to another and nobody is willing to help.

It seems that the only thing left to try is to buy a dedicated, better card, hook up the monitor to it, and see if it makes any difference. If that doesn't do the trick, I'd have to get rid of the monitor that I really like.

Please help!!

Just to add to this. By stretching out, I meant stretching horizontally. My current resolution is set as 1280x1024 and everything is distorted. I can go down to 1152x864 and it's still distorted. If I go up, my icons fly off the edge. Oddly, every time I reboot the machine, under the Display Properties, my monitor changes to Default, and I have to renew the driver to get it back to HP ZR24w. One HP tech said that this is how it should be, another said, absolutely not.
 
No these are so elite that brick and mortar stores would have to pay a special leetness tax to the government. I have sen them NO where but online.
 
If I purchase this through a reseller, can i still warranty directly through HP with the included warranty?
 
In short, what are the strong and weak points of ZR24W (considering buying one)?
 
In short, what are the strong and weak points of ZR24W (considering buying one)?
+ viewing angles
+ panel uniformity
+ decent colors our of the box
+ good responsiveness and low input lag
+ build quality

- black depth
- typical IPS glow
- 1080p scaling issue with non-PC usage
 
So I've been trying to decide on a new monitor, fortunately my school ordered a whole bunch of these monitors very recently to help me aid my decision. I hadn't really looked at the monitor before, and I've been pretty comfortable with the school's 24 inch ACDs, but I've never liked that they don't have a matte finish.

So, I sat down infront of one of these monitors, and looked through a series of different graphics(vector and rasters in photoshop and illustrator), movies, even played a game on it for a while. The color reproduction as absolutely amazing, and the monitor is beautiful, but the thing I couldn't entirely get past was the sort of coarse or heavy finish the matte screen has, it seems to give the screen this strange effect. I'm not really sure what to call it because I don't know too much about monitors. Are all IPS monitors with a matte finish like this? I was considering this monitor the the Dell U2410, but now I absolutely have to find a way to look at the dell as well. Are there any other IPS monitors that are 24 inch I should considering, or are all of the screen finishes the same?
 
Are there any other IPS monitors that are 24 inch I should considering, or are all of the screen finishes the same?

Hey Decko

I had a similar experience but with the Dell U2410. My company ordered some units, and my opinion is similar to yours on the Zr24w. I'd say that the Dell is close to ideal office monitor for those who use in bright ambients like offices. My opinion is that this heavy AG coating is actually good for theses situations with lots of incident light, but when you don't need it it really sucks. I am actually considering buying the zr24 in case I don't find a better option like the upcoming Samsung PLS displays. No AG coating like the new Hazro 27" also isnt for me since in my home theres plenty of windows.

Considering the ZR24W and U2410 being similar monitors, I'd pick the HP's due to nicer design IMO, less input lag and slightly lower price.
 
I've had one of these for the past 6 months and noticed some discoloration on the right side of the panel about a month ago. It almost looks something like a waterstain. It's very noticable on a grey or blue background and when I started looking into it, I saw more of the shaded lines throughout the rest of the panel, although, not nearly as bad as on the right side. I took some pics with my cell so they're not the best quality, but you can definitely see what I'm talking about.

I called HP and they're sending me a replacement.

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