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Post your Dell 2405FPW Review here!
- Thread starter ImLazZzy
- Start date
I guess it is my turn to chime in. Here is a mini review. For a bit here I have just been reading. I got my 2405 pretty quick, arrived at my door about 22 hours after I ordered it. I had thought it came from out of town but later I found out that my monitor shipped from Austin, Texas. I live in Austin, Texas so the quick delivery now makes sense. When it arrived I was swamped and actually could not even set it up for a bit more than a day after I got it. Every time I walked by the box I wanted to play with my new toy. But finally I did get it up and have been checking it out.
To start with this is the first LCD monitor I have owned. Might surprise you but is true. I have played with them at friends houses and in offices but never bought one. Main reason was the response times and specs. I do everything on my comp, office stuff, internet, movies, and games. Love games. So I waited. I could have bought the 20 inch monitors at 16 ms response when they came out but did not. I have had a Dell 19 inch CRT for 6 or 7 years that has been working great so I did not spend the money. I waited until the specs got real right. I realized a while back that I wanted to go wide screen but the specs werent there yet and the prices were high.
I shopped them hard last year and almost bought an HP L2335 right after Christmas. But then I found that Samsung Industrial page with a new panel listed and said Hmmm. A few days after that the 2405 Dell rumor mill started working. So I waited. The S-IPS panel was a bit over a year old technology and getting something absolutely new sounded good to me.
So the Dell 2405 FPW specs are good, the thing looked promising, and now I own one.
I have to tell you that going from a 19 inch CRT which is not a real 19 inch viewable to this 24 inch wide screen is and Oh My God upgrade. No comparison. The industrial pictures of this thing didnt really spell it out to me. I opened the box and looked at the panel and said, damn this thing is huge. Wow, all I have to do is make popcorn, stick in a DVD, and I can sell tickets!
My System Spec's in case it is helpful.
Homebuilt P4 3.0 Intel 800 fsb
MSI Neo FIS2R Mobo
1 gig Kingston Hyper-X 3200
Audigy 2 sound
BFG 6800 GT OC video card.
Dual 34 gig Raptors in Raid 0
Plextor CD burner
Pioneer slot loading DVD
Dell 2405 FPW on DVI-D
First Impressions
When I first set this thing up and had it all connected and turned it on my first impression was a question. Why do the images seem washed out? Then I kicked back and started doing things on it and after a short while a realized that the thing was uncomfortably bright. I mean very bright. I was even squinting a bit at times. On the washed out impression it was somewhat because the desktop that I had up was very stretched and was made for a much smaller res. When I tiled it across the screen it did not look washed out, was vivid. When I stretched it to fill it was more washed out. So I switched to some others and went out hunting some new 1920 x 1200 wallpaper. The other part of washed out was because it was so bright and not tweaked. I played with the brightness and even read posts on the board. I had started tweaking at about 30 brightness and ended up at 25 and it looked very good to me. Right now I am at 20 because I am playing with Digital Vibrance. I have that set up slightly lower than the first notch on the NVIDIA advanced properties. And that seems to make things bright so I lowered the brightness to compensate a bit.
I have tried some color tweaks as well. Right now I am at an RGB of 58-54-58 that someone posted and it looks nice. I was at another one that was 39-40-51 and that wasnt bad either. Not sure where I will end with the settings. Maybe right where I am.
But nothing is washed out anymore and the brightness is some good set much lower. This thing is bright and vivid. Pretty stunning for the most part. I did the black screen to check for backlight bleed. None! Looks just like the other pics you have seen on this board. A deep Indigo color, no bleeding. I checked for dead or odd pixels with the tools around. I have been through all of the colors several times. Not a dead one or stuck one to be seen. Will keep an eye on it but it seems I got a perfect piece of LCD glass. Blacks are black too.
DVD
I popped in Gladiator and opened up Power DVD. In full screen I got the most terrible video you can imagine. All fuzzy and not very viewable. I played with the config in Power DVD and the only thing I could come up with to make it clear was to tell it to drop the screen res down to 1680 x 1050. And then at full screen the video was pristine. No idea why it was not clear at 1920 x 1200 but if anyone has any idea I would appreciate the info. Dont like resizing the desktop too often as it plays havoc with the shortcut positions. However with the settings above the video was just dynamite, nothing weird at all. I will try some other flicks but I bet it is mostly the same.As a note: I don't think the above is a monitor problem but a Power DVD tweaking problem.
Games
If a monitor and computer will play hot games it can do about everything else with ease. I had to know. I first went for Unreal Tournament 2004 in Capture the Flag. Res of 1920 x 1200. I expected this to look good as there is no dynamic lighting for the video card and monitor to render and display. And it WAS good. Absolutely unbelievable! Just beautiful. No lag, no drag, full speed frag. And I could see so much more on the screen. It was quite apparent to me. Heaven! I did not play on line, just with bots offline. I imagine it will be the same online.
Next up was Half Life 2. Same res, 1920 x 1200. I went into Ravensholm to play around. And I was playing a mod which adds lots more enemies to the game, lots of action. Same thing, no lag, no drag, very playable. I was really surprised, I had expected something a bit less; a stutter or drag here and there especially with lots of action. Thought I might have to scale it down. But I played it like I always have. No trouble. The thing works like a charm. I was really really pleased.
Well after that I thought I would go for a game that has tons of dynamic lighting and shadows to see what happened. I loaded up Thief Deadly Shadows and when for a Thieving run. Fist off, this game has no setting for 1920 x 1200 and if there is a tweak I have not looked it up over at Widescreen gaming. So I played 2 ways, 1 to 1 and Fill. 1600 x 1200 right in the center of the screen was fine for me. OMG, the thing still did not drag at all. So I let it stretch and fill the screen. Flawless! I went roaming through The Cradle without a twitch. I know this game is a bit slower play than the usual action type game but it does have tons of lighting to keep up with. I know one of the DEVs who worked at Ion Storm here in Austin developing it and he told me that they had to do serious planning on the maps because if there was too much lighting for the comp and video card to keep track of, the frame rates just cratered. But with my rig it was very playable on this monitor. I could see no difference from my old one.
I also loaded up the old game Thief Metal Age just to see what would happen with an old one. 1600 x 1200 center screen. This game for some reason looked a bit faded, not crisp, and the sky detail was not there. So I scaled down the res to 1024 x 768 in 1 to 1 and it was no better. I tried all the available resolutions back up to 1600 x 1200. So far no help. I have not messed with this one for very long but if anyone has any ideas please post away. Maybe it is just because it is old but I doubt it. It probably needs an options tweak or something.
I for sure will be trying other games to see. Will put in the Doom3 patch and tweak and will also try Riddick as both those games have lots of dark areas to dig into. And a bunch more. Have to see how this thing does with lots of games. That includes Far Cry,
I should note that I saw no Ghosting in anything above, no trails of any kind. But I did see a certain amount of Motion Blur. Heck, I saw motion blur with my CRT. I did not find it objectionable.
I know I only have a few hours of gaming on this new Monitor. So I will keep at it and see if anything odd comes up in the near term.
Basic Applications
Really nothing to say here. They look fine and I can set them almost side to side on the monitor because it is so wide. Another benefit of widescreen for me. If I am typing and need to reference something I dont have to keep going to the task bar to bring it up. It is right there in view side by side on the screen while I am typing.
Question, does the Auto Adjust on this monitor only work when in VGA? I did not see anything on that is the information but may have missed it.
Will keep tweaking the colors and such until I find the most prefect combo. My thanks to you guys on here for posting that info in the other threads. Is helpful. And will keep watching this new toy to make sure nothing is odd that I am missing.
From my fgeneral irst impressions though, it looks like Dell and Samsung have knocked a Homerun. Hope that opinion lasts for a long time.
Oh, and no screen door here. Put my nose right to the screen too, no lines.
Hope my mini review is helpful to someone!
To start with this is the first LCD monitor I have owned. Might surprise you but is true. I have played with them at friends houses and in offices but never bought one. Main reason was the response times and specs. I do everything on my comp, office stuff, internet, movies, and games. Love games. So I waited. I could have bought the 20 inch monitors at 16 ms response when they came out but did not. I have had a Dell 19 inch CRT for 6 or 7 years that has been working great so I did not spend the money. I waited until the specs got real right. I realized a while back that I wanted to go wide screen but the specs werent there yet and the prices were high.
I shopped them hard last year and almost bought an HP L2335 right after Christmas. But then I found that Samsung Industrial page with a new panel listed and said Hmmm. A few days after that the 2405 Dell rumor mill started working. So I waited. The S-IPS panel was a bit over a year old technology and getting something absolutely new sounded good to me.
So the Dell 2405 FPW specs are good, the thing looked promising, and now I own one.
I have to tell you that going from a 19 inch CRT which is not a real 19 inch viewable to this 24 inch wide screen is and Oh My God upgrade. No comparison. The industrial pictures of this thing didnt really spell it out to me. I opened the box and looked at the panel and said, damn this thing is huge. Wow, all I have to do is make popcorn, stick in a DVD, and I can sell tickets!
My System Spec's in case it is helpful.
Homebuilt P4 3.0 Intel 800 fsb
MSI Neo FIS2R Mobo
1 gig Kingston Hyper-X 3200
Audigy 2 sound
BFG 6800 GT OC video card.
Dual 34 gig Raptors in Raid 0
Plextor CD burner
Pioneer slot loading DVD
Dell 2405 FPW on DVI-D
First Impressions
When I first set this thing up and had it all connected and turned it on my first impression was a question. Why do the images seem washed out? Then I kicked back and started doing things on it and after a short while a realized that the thing was uncomfortably bright. I mean very bright. I was even squinting a bit at times. On the washed out impression it was somewhat because the desktop that I had up was very stretched and was made for a much smaller res. When I tiled it across the screen it did not look washed out, was vivid. When I stretched it to fill it was more washed out. So I switched to some others and went out hunting some new 1920 x 1200 wallpaper. The other part of washed out was because it was so bright and not tweaked. I played with the brightness and even read posts on the board. I had started tweaking at about 30 brightness and ended up at 25 and it looked very good to me. Right now I am at 20 because I am playing with Digital Vibrance. I have that set up slightly lower than the first notch on the NVIDIA advanced properties. And that seems to make things bright so I lowered the brightness to compensate a bit.
I have tried some color tweaks as well. Right now I am at an RGB of 58-54-58 that someone posted and it looks nice. I was at another one that was 39-40-51 and that wasnt bad either. Not sure where I will end with the settings. Maybe right where I am.
But nothing is washed out anymore and the brightness is some good set much lower. This thing is bright and vivid. Pretty stunning for the most part. I did the black screen to check for backlight bleed. None! Looks just like the other pics you have seen on this board. A deep Indigo color, no bleeding. I checked for dead or odd pixels with the tools around. I have been through all of the colors several times. Not a dead one or stuck one to be seen. Will keep an eye on it but it seems I got a perfect piece of LCD glass. Blacks are black too.
DVD
I popped in Gladiator and opened up Power DVD. In full screen I got the most terrible video you can imagine. All fuzzy and not very viewable. I played with the config in Power DVD and the only thing I could come up with to make it clear was to tell it to drop the screen res down to 1680 x 1050. And then at full screen the video was pristine. No idea why it was not clear at 1920 x 1200 but if anyone has any idea I would appreciate the info. Dont like resizing the desktop too often as it plays havoc with the shortcut positions. However with the settings above the video was just dynamite, nothing weird at all. I will try some other flicks but I bet it is mostly the same.As a note: I don't think the above is a monitor problem but a Power DVD tweaking problem.
Games
If a monitor and computer will play hot games it can do about everything else with ease. I had to know. I first went for Unreal Tournament 2004 in Capture the Flag. Res of 1920 x 1200. I expected this to look good as there is no dynamic lighting for the video card and monitor to render and display. And it WAS good. Absolutely unbelievable! Just beautiful. No lag, no drag, full speed frag. And I could see so much more on the screen. It was quite apparent to me. Heaven! I did not play on line, just with bots offline. I imagine it will be the same online.
Next up was Half Life 2. Same res, 1920 x 1200. I went into Ravensholm to play around. And I was playing a mod which adds lots more enemies to the game, lots of action. Same thing, no lag, no drag, very playable. I was really surprised, I had expected something a bit less; a stutter or drag here and there especially with lots of action. Thought I might have to scale it down. But I played it like I always have. No trouble. The thing works like a charm. I was really really pleased.
Well after that I thought I would go for a game that has tons of dynamic lighting and shadows to see what happened. I loaded up Thief Deadly Shadows and when for a Thieving run. Fist off, this game has no setting for 1920 x 1200 and if there is a tweak I have not looked it up over at Widescreen gaming. So I played 2 ways, 1 to 1 and Fill. 1600 x 1200 right in the center of the screen was fine for me. OMG, the thing still did not drag at all. So I let it stretch and fill the screen. Flawless! I went roaming through The Cradle without a twitch. I know this game is a bit slower play than the usual action type game but it does have tons of lighting to keep up with. I know one of the DEVs who worked at Ion Storm here in Austin developing it and he told me that they had to do serious planning on the maps because if there was too much lighting for the comp and video card to keep track of, the frame rates just cratered. But with my rig it was very playable on this monitor. I could see no difference from my old one.
I also loaded up the old game Thief Metal Age just to see what would happen with an old one. 1600 x 1200 center screen. This game for some reason looked a bit faded, not crisp, and the sky detail was not there. So I scaled down the res to 1024 x 768 in 1 to 1 and it was no better. I tried all the available resolutions back up to 1600 x 1200. So far no help. I have not messed with this one for very long but if anyone has any ideas please post away. Maybe it is just because it is old but I doubt it. It probably needs an options tweak or something.
I for sure will be trying other games to see. Will put in the Doom3 patch and tweak and will also try Riddick as both those games have lots of dark areas to dig into. And a bunch more. Have to see how this thing does with lots of games. That includes Far Cry,
I should note that I saw no Ghosting in anything above, no trails of any kind. But I did see a certain amount of Motion Blur. Heck, I saw motion blur with my CRT. I did not find it objectionable.
I know I only have a few hours of gaming on this new Monitor. So I will keep at it and see if anything odd comes up in the near term.
Basic Applications
Really nothing to say here. They look fine and I can set them almost side to side on the monitor because it is so wide. Another benefit of widescreen for me. If I am typing and need to reference something I dont have to keep going to the task bar to bring it up. It is right there in view side by side on the screen while I am typing.
Question, does the Auto Adjust on this monitor only work when in VGA? I did not see anything on that is the information but may have missed it.
Will keep tweaking the colors and such until I find the most prefect combo. My thanks to you guys on here for posting that info in the other threads. Is helpful. And will keep watching this new toy to make sure nothing is odd that I am missing.
From my fgeneral irst impressions though, it looks like Dell and Samsung have knocked a Homerun. Hope that opinion lasts for a long time.
Oh, and no screen door here. Put my nose right to the screen too, no lines.
Hope my mini review is helpful to someone!
Pyrolistical
Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2003
- Messages
- 737
stop tempting me damnit!!
Brilliant first impressions! Can we have some more? 
In powerdvd, you might want to check you've got hardware acceleration enabled, and also you might want to ensure that the picture setting is set to "Original". I think PDVD comes with it set to "Vivid" as default, and considering how bright the monitor is already, it'll probably be too bright.
Could you go into more detail on the colour front. I'm really concerned about the washed out look of this screen. 20-25% of brightness does seem extremely low. Also, quite a few of us don't have Nvidia cards, so digital vibrance isn't really an option. Another user mentioned that reds didn't amplify very well on this screen. Is that your experience of it? I'm glad you tested Thief 3 as that's a game that relies heavily on blacks. I'm guessing you were able to set up the screen so that blacks were black, and not a washed out grey?
Cheers for your mini review!
In powerdvd, you might want to check you've got hardware acceleration enabled, and also you might want to ensure that the picture setting is set to "Original". I think PDVD comes with it set to "Vivid" as default, and considering how bright the monitor is already, it'll probably be too bright.
Could you go into more detail on the colour front. I'm really concerned about the washed out look of this screen. 20-25% of brightness does seem extremely low. Also, quite a few of us don't have Nvidia cards, so digital vibrance isn't really an option. Another user mentioned that reds didn't amplify very well on this screen. Is that your experience of it? I'm glad you tested Thief 3 as that's a game that relies heavily on blacks. I'm guessing you were able to set up the screen so that blacks were black, and not a washed out grey?
Cheers for your mini review!
JonDo[H] said:Brilliant first impressions! Can we have some more?
Could you go into more detail on the colour front. I'm really concerned about the washed out look of this screen. 20-25% of brightness does seem extremely low. Also, quite a few of us don't have Nvidia cards, so digital vibrance isn't really an option. Another user mentioned that reds didn't amplify very well on this screen. Is that your experience of it? I'm glad you tested Thief 3 as that's a game that relies heavily on blacks. I'm guessing you were able to set up the screen so that blacks were black, and not a washed out grey?
Cheers for your mini review!
JonDo, please explain exactly what you mean by red amplifying and I can respond better. Do you mean simply turning it up higher? If you are talking purely about the brightness or vividness of red, I will turn it up to see what it does, But with Digital Vibrance the reds get real red onscreen. Turning it up too high just takes the colors way to far out there. I know that doesn't help the people who don't have it. I have it set very low just playing with it. The red on the toolbar on this forum at the top of the page is close to a bright sort of blood red color. Quite nice and full. I can make it brighter but don't like it as yet. I hope that isn't confusing. The term blood red can mean different things to different people. It is a nice red up there.
I went ahead and cranked up red on the monitor slowly all the way up to 100% It for sure gets brighter. Not screen bright but red bright. The red bar up top turns to what seems like a yellow tinted red but not washed out.
Right now I do not have a washed out look on this screen. May have just been a combination of the brightness, color tweaking, and a wallpaper that was stretched. The particular wallpaper I was using has a hint of a haze to it anyway. This is the one I had up.
http://www.thief3.com/gallery/wallpaper_07_1024x768.jpg
On shadows in Thief DS and others, I will play with them some more to see how they look.
Don't want to make to make comments there until I have more play time. Will check the shadows out though and post something.
Probably will do some more color and brightness tweaking before it is all over.
Sneak,
I'll do my best to describe what I mean. You're probably best looking at the last 3-5 pages of the ongoing and ever-growing 2405fpw thread. There's some photographs users have posted of the 2405 displaying the same image as the 2005 for comparison. What I mean by amplifying reds is not so much to do with them being brighter, just the colour being deeper, fuller, stronger etc. The impression I've had gathered so far about the 2405 is that the screen is so naturally bright that colours can look a little washed out (perhaps lighter than they should). It seems a shame to have to fall back on driver controls - especially when I hear from Riptide how flakey the ATI colour controls are.
Let us know how you get on with colour adjustment. I've been switching between monitors recently in an attempt to find a replacement for my 2001FP. I found it to be a little on the dim side compared to the brightness of today's screens, so I went first for a Hyundai L90D+ (found the colours on this to be drained and unnatural looking) then onto the Dell 2005FPW (coolers and brightness on this are great). However, I can still send the 2005 back and as the 2405 has just come back I'm deliberating on whether to order it instead. It sounds like an incredible screen - massive, uniformly backlit, bright, multiple inputs, super-high res etc: almost perfect in fact. It's just this one colour issue that's really bothering me! Especially as I remember how much the lesser TN+ colour reproduction was like on the Hyundai L90D+
I'll do my best to describe what I mean. You're probably best looking at the last 3-5 pages of the ongoing and ever-growing 2405fpw thread. There's some photographs users have posted of the 2405 displaying the same image as the 2005 for comparison. What I mean by amplifying reds is not so much to do with them being brighter, just the colour being deeper, fuller, stronger etc. The impression I've had gathered so far about the 2405 is that the screen is so naturally bright that colours can look a little washed out (perhaps lighter than they should). It seems a shame to have to fall back on driver controls - especially when I hear from Riptide how flakey the ATI colour controls are.
Let us know how you get on with colour adjustment. I've been switching between monitors recently in an attempt to find a replacement for my 2001FP. I found it to be a little on the dim side compared to the brightness of today's screens, so I went first for a Hyundai L90D+ (found the colours on this to be drained and unnatural looking) then onto the Dell 2005FPW (coolers and brightness on this are great). However, I can still send the 2005 back and as the 2405 has just come back I'm deliberating on whether to order it instead. It sounds like an incredible screen - massive, uniformly backlit, bright, multiple inputs, super-high res etc: almost perfect in fact. It's just this one colour issue that's really bothering me! Especially as I remember how much the lesser TN+ colour reproduction was like on the Hyundai L90D+
Oh by the way, here's a link to the picture I keep pimping in the 2405 thread:-
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/00286_board_1920x1200.jpg
It's nice and colourful, so should help show off your screen. A couple of users have already tried it on their screens and sent in photos of how it looks. Give it a go yourself if you'd like to get an idea of how the colours on your tft compare to other users' 2405/2005FPW screens.
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/00286_board_1920x1200.jpg
It's nice and colourful, so should help show off your screen. A couple of users have already tried it on their screens and sent in photos of how it looks. Give it a go yourself if you'd like to get an idea of how the colours on your tft compare to other users' 2405/2005FPW screens.
Sweetnsexy
n00b
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2005
- Messages
- 59
would there be a clone model of this monitor?
i mean these manufactures do use the same technology and the only difference is bells and whistles. I doubt it that dell owns that technology but I can be wrong...
i mean these manufactures do use the same technology and the only difference is bells and whistles. I doubt it that dell owns that technology but I can be wrong...
Ok, here is my review after spending about 4 days with the screen.
Background info: I currently have a Mitsubishi DP 930sb CRT tube. I am running the 2405FPW in a dual monitor configuration with the CRT. This is the 4th LCD monitor I have purchased in the last 2 months in the quest for the perfect LCD. The first I bought (and returned) was a Samsung 213T, which looked great but had terrible ghosting. Next I bought a Dell 2001FP, which had a terrible cross-hatch pattern that was visible on fast-moving textures or when I moved my eyes quickly. Finally, I got a Sony SDM-P234, which was great, but had uneven backlighting, a few dead pixels, was a little dim, and died after two days.
Fit/Finish: Fit and finish seems pretty good and basically identical to the 2001FP. The sturdyness of the 213T and the sdm-p234 was better, but this is perfectly adequate.
Dead pixels: I cannot find a single dead pixel or subpixel on the display. I havent made an exhaustive look, but I have used some test pages with different patterns and colors, and havent seen anything. If I can't see it, I don't care about it
Backlight/Contrast: There is no backlight leakage on this screen. I cannot visually see any part of the screen on a black image that is more or less bright than any other. I did a test by taking a very long exposure photo of a black screen, and again couldnt find any backlight leakage at all (though at very long exposures a slightly "mottled" look appeared in the brightness of black, but this is entirely not visible). By far the best backlight evenness of any LCD monitor I have ever seen.
Response time: Of the LCD monitors I have bought (and returned) this has the best response time. This was my biggest worry when ordering this monitor. I tested black-white response time using the dxdiag directdraw test, and then looking at the "length" of the white box on the black screen. Of all the monitors, the box on the 2405fpw was the smallest, which seemed very good. To test gray-to-gray response times, I used the dxdiag direct3d test with the rotating gray cube. The performance was pretty much the same as the 2001FP in this regard, and the lettering on the cube remained readable and nonstreaky throughout the test. In terms of actual gaming performance, I have yet to notice any ghosting at all, and it is MILES better than the performance of the 213T in this regard. However, I should note that I am not an FPS player, so a can't comment on performance in fast action games.
Colors: I do not understand the comments some have made about "washed out" colors. The colors are the most vibrant of any of the LCD displays I have used, and the term "washed out" is the farthest thought from my mind when using the monitor. However, out of the box, the colors are warmer than most others. The 2001FP and the sdm-p234 displays came from the factory with a very cool blue color setup, which makes the taskbar etc look VERY blue. The 2405 default is very warm and "reddish", so the blue windows controls look a little duller out of the box. However, playing with the settings got the colors to a very nice balance, and it looks colorwise nearly identical to my CRT sitting next to it (except far more vibrant). It DOES take tweaking to get the red levels adjusted to a point where the color matches a CRT closely. Specifically, I had good luck by adjusting the contrast of the red color in the ATI control panel. I am planning to use a hardware color calibrator in a few days to actually get the colors accurate rather than just the visual adjustment I have done so far.
Screendoor: I have noticed neither any screendoor effect nor the cross-hatch pattern that I noticed on the 2001FP.
Brightness: Oh my god this thing is bright. I tried turning up the brightness to 100% and I felt like I was staring into the sun. Unlike the previous review, I did not find that colors got washed out at high brightess. However, for comfort levels, I turned the brightness down to 50%. To put it in context, I find that this monitor at 50% brightness is brighter than my 2001FP was at 100% brightness. I might even reduce it down lower, because its still very bright.
Viewing angle: The viewing angle is extremely wide, and it seems that the frame is the limiting factor here. There is not any angle that I can look at the screen that the image is not bright. However, the colors DO get somewhat washed out when the viewing angle is not direct, particularly in the vertical axis it seems. This does mean that when close to the screen, the color at the edges of the screen are slightly different (washed out) than those in the center. The color of the monitor itself is perfectly even as far as I can tell, because if you move your head such that you are looking directly at the side of the screen, the color is right. This is a very minor issue and I don't notice it at all unless I try, but its something to note nonetheless. Also, for my purposes, this is FAR better than the S-IPS characteristic on the 2001FP and the SDM-p234 about the blacks becoming violet at non-direct angles.
Overall: Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful piece of hardware I have ever owned in my life. I find myself just using the computer for the sole purpose of seeing how amazing things look on it. All in all, I am in love with this monitor, and would purchase it again in a heartbeat.
Background info: I currently have a Mitsubishi DP 930sb CRT tube. I am running the 2405FPW in a dual monitor configuration with the CRT. This is the 4th LCD monitor I have purchased in the last 2 months in the quest for the perfect LCD. The first I bought (and returned) was a Samsung 213T, which looked great but had terrible ghosting. Next I bought a Dell 2001FP, which had a terrible cross-hatch pattern that was visible on fast-moving textures or when I moved my eyes quickly. Finally, I got a Sony SDM-P234, which was great, but had uneven backlighting, a few dead pixels, was a little dim, and died after two days.
Fit/Finish: Fit and finish seems pretty good and basically identical to the 2001FP. The sturdyness of the 213T and the sdm-p234 was better, but this is perfectly adequate.
Dead pixels: I cannot find a single dead pixel or subpixel on the display. I havent made an exhaustive look, but I have used some test pages with different patterns and colors, and havent seen anything. If I can't see it, I don't care about it
Backlight/Contrast: There is no backlight leakage on this screen. I cannot visually see any part of the screen on a black image that is more or less bright than any other. I did a test by taking a very long exposure photo of a black screen, and again couldnt find any backlight leakage at all (though at very long exposures a slightly "mottled" look appeared in the brightness of black, but this is entirely not visible). By far the best backlight evenness of any LCD monitor I have ever seen.
Response time: Of the LCD monitors I have bought (and returned) this has the best response time. This was my biggest worry when ordering this monitor. I tested black-white response time using the dxdiag directdraw test, and then looking at the "length" of the white box on the black screen. Of all the monitors, the box on the 2405fpw was the smallest, which seemed very good. To test gray-to-gray response times, I used the dxdiag direct3d test with the rotating gray cube. The performance was pretty much the same as the 2001FP in this regard, and the lettering on the cube remained readable and nonstreaky throughout the test. In terms of actual gaming performance, I have yet to notice any ghosting at all, and it is MILES better than the performance of the 213T in this regard. However, I should note that I am not an FPS player, so a can't comment on performance in fast action games.
Colors: I do not understand the comments some have made about "washed out" colors. The colors are the most vibrant of any of the LCD displays I have used, and the term "washed out" is the farthest thought from my mind when using the monitor. However, out of the box, the colors are warmer than most others. The 2001FP and the sdm-p234 displays came from the factory with a very cool blue color setup, which makes the taskbar etc look VERY blue. The 2405 default is very warm and "reddish", so the blue windows controls look a little duller out of the box. However, playing with the settings got the colors to a very nice balance, and it looks colorwise nearly identical to my CRT sitting next to it (except far more vibrant). It DOES take tweaking to get the red levels adjusted to a point where the color matches a CRT closely. Specifically, I had good luck by adjusting the contrast of the red color in the ATI control panel. I am planning to use a hardware color calibrator in a few days to actually get the colors accurate rather than just the visual adjustment I have done so far.
Screendoor: I have noticed neither any screendoor effect nor the cross-hatch pattern that I noticed on the 2001FP.
Brightness: Oh my god this thing is bright. I tried turning up the brightness to 100% and I felt like I was staring into the sun. Unlike the previous review, I did not find that colors got washed out at high brightess. However, for comfort levels, I turned the brightness down to 50%. To put it in context, I find that this monitor at 50% brightness is brighter than my 2001FP was at 100% brightness. I might even reduce it down lower, because its still very bright.
Viewing angle: The viewing angle is extremely wide, and it seems that the frame is the limiting factor here. There is not any angle that I can look at the screen that the image is not bright. However, the colors DO get somewhat washed out when the viewing angle is not direct, particularly in the vertical axis it seems. This does mean that when close to the screen, the color at the edges of the screen are slightly different (washed out) than those in the center. The color of the monitor itself is perfectly even as far as I can tell, because if you move your head such that you are looking directly at the side of the screen, the color is right. This is a very minor issue and I don't notice it at all unless I try, but its something to note nonetheless. Also, for my purposes, this is FAR better than the S-IPS characteristic on the 2001FP and the SDM-p234 about the blacks becoming violet at non-direct angles.
Overall: Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful piece of hardware I have ever owned in my life. I find myself just using the computer for the sole purpose of seeing how amazing things look on it. All in all, I am in love with this monitor, and would purchase it again in a heartbeat.
paulspiteri
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For what it's worth, i backup wombat's review 100%
I've got a feeling the people who say it's "washed out" are using analog!! You clearly are not.
I've got a feeling the people who say it's "washed out" are using analog!! You clearly are not.
Riptide_NVN
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I'm using the DVI input and what I'm saying is that the color of the taskbar in particular is a lighter, more sky blue with the 2405FPW. The 2005FPW produces a deeper color blue in the taskbar. This is one example of what we are saying when we mention that the 2405FPW looks "washed out" compared to the 2005FPW.
Software adjustments SUCK. We need to find a solution that works w/the RGB/brightness settings on the display itself. I'm waiting to see what the guy with the LACIE returns with.
Software adjustments SUCK. We need to find a solution that works w/the RGB/brightness settings on the display itself. I'm waiting to see what the guy with the LACIE returns with.
Riptide_NVN said:
My point is that on mine, with adjustment the blue is just as blue as it was on the 2001FP. I know this (even without having the 2001FP to hand), because I adjusted the 2001FP to match my calibrated CRT, and now the 2405FPW is calibrated to match the CRT. I _could_ also make the blue on the 2405FPW far more "blue" that it is now, but that would not be accurate.
I would also disagree that software adjustments suck. Indeed on most Samsung and Apple models, "hardware" calibration other than for brightness is not even available (at least when using the DVI port). Rather you use software calibration, or ideally, a proper calibrated ICC profile.
Riptide_NVN
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Software calibration sucks when you have an ATI driver that forgets your settings after exiting a game (intermittently) or worse yet doesn't apply the actual setting you choose in the driver for the 3D Profile. I can set a gamma of .8 in the 3D Profile but it doesn't apply it when I go into a game. It simply doesn't work.
Setting it in the monitor controls would go a long way towards avoiding those problems.
Setting it in the monitor controls would go a long way towards avoiding those problems.
Riptide_NVN
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Nope, no Adobe software loaded. Though it has been recommended to me that the Adobe gamma TSR was something I might consider loading to help calibrate the gamma.
i am the guy with the lacie but youll have to wait about a week before i get mine in unfortunatly. In the meantime aren't there any other designers in here that got it in already?Riptide_NVN said:
Btw, I also ordered a calibration spider today which is also supposed to calibrate lcd monitors. But they had to order it so that will take about 2 weeks to become available.
Riptide_NVN said:
As of yet I have not noticed any of these problems. The desktop settings seem to revert back just fine after gaming (are you saving the settings with a name? Maybe thats the difference). That said though I have only used the ATI "color" settings for a day or so, and I don't plan on using the ATI settings for long. I plan on doing/redoing a proper color calibration on both monitors using a hardware calibrator very soon.
Riptide_NVN
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There are a couple problems, I'll be very clear.
If I make a change for Desktop and go into a game, then quit, sometimes the desktop reverts back to default settings. If I go into the driver, click the Color tab, the settings I put in come back instantly. I am not saving the settings with a name.
If I make a change to the Full Screen 3D profile it doesn't have any effect. UT2004 looks just the same w/or without that setting in there.
It's not just my system, I've seen posts elsewhere of people complaining about ATI gamma problems.
I will be curious to see what people can come up with when using a hardware calibrator and the RGB settings of the display because the software solution is flakey at best.
If I make a change for Desktop and go into a game, then quit, sometimes the desktop reverts back to default settings. If I go into the driver, click the Color tab, the settings I put in come back instantly. I am not saving the settings with a name.
If I make a change to the Full Screen 3D profile it doesn't have any effect. UT2004 looks just the same w/or without that setting in there.
It's not just my system, I've seen posts elsewhere of people complaining about ATI gamma problems.
I will be curious to see what people can come up with when using a hardware calibrator and the RGB settings of the display because the software solution is flakey at best.
dadj said:
Well Dadji,
I do hope a Designer pops in but if they don't I will for sure wait for you calibrations specs. Actually I have been toying with mine a tad. Right now am set at 38 - 44 - 37. Is actually fun playing with this stuff but look forward to a real set of numbers.
And to all,
I am backing off my words "Washed Out" right here and now. I went back to factory reset and I think it may just have been that way stretched wallpaper that has haze to begin with along with a bit too much brightness that threw me a curve. I can not right now make this this look washed out. In fact it is bright and vivid on the colors. I am wondering, I have an Nvidia BFG 6800 GT OC video card. It seems that the most people talking about washed out have an ATI. Am I onto something there? Please give an opinion. I may edit my post above to remove the words Washed Out. This monitor is Beauteeeeful. Maybe it needs a bit of tweak on the RGB user setting but other that that it is mostly shock and awe.
Tried more games. Thief Deadly Shadows stretches to fill fine. Does not look odd. The shadows are not black but they are not black to begin with. You could not see in them if they were dark black. I have seen fan missions that were too black and for certain the shadows were awful. T DS meets my approval so far on the shadowing as it should be. Wish it had native or even tweaked widescreen but so far it does not.
Riddick has some really dark places so I loaded it up. It has native 1920 x 1200. Nice! I had the Shader set full up at 2.0 +++ in options. And it was just a bit laggy for my taste. I thought, uh oh, one game that doesn't work well at this res. Well I dropped the shader to just 2.0 which works for my 6800 series Nvidia and the lag went completely way. Very Very nice. And...the shadows and nice and black, very dark. Yes I know they are basically a very dark Indigo color but when you have brightness from other spots in an area, on the screen they look absolutely black. Good stuff still.
I also loaded up Doom 3 with the new patch and Widescreen Tweaks. Wonderful! Shadows are black Black. And there are lots of places that look that way. No lag either.
I am so impressed with the gameplay. I expected to have to notch some games down resolutionwise with this monitor and res a bit. But I have not had too yet. Not Half Life 2, Doom 3, Riddick or Thief 3. Riddick is the only thing I had to change slightly and it does not look any different onscreen. Return to Wolfenstein at 1600 x 1200 works well stretched. The native Widescreen setting in it does not stretch as far as I have been able to do. Was not usable during my play. Will have to try Call of Duty. Far Cry is sweet. I am in gamers Heaven on some of this. On Thief Metal Age. I had to Tweak the Brightness in options a bit and set it lower. Thats why I was getting no sharp detail. It does stretch fine though.
So far I am very happy with this Monitor. And too think it is a PVA LCD which has had response probs in the past. At this point I am sticking with my words that Samsung and Dell have slammed this one way out there. I hope my opinion holds. It is still a new toy and I am watching closely. I have no component inputs as of yet but a set top box is on my mind to see HDTV on this thing. Will see sometime soon how that does,
I hope others post reviews. I really do like to hear about other experiences or opinions.
More when I have something to say.
This monitor is FINE!Thats the right one JonDo,
I had never put the 1.1 patch in Doom 3 beforehand.
Dadji,
If you go to widescreengaming just do a search for Doom 3 over there. There are so many games listed with info that scrolling to find one takes a while. All the info is there though. On Doom 3 you have to input the screen res in a config file. And also the FOV. It works though.
Lots of info over there.
I had never put the 1.1 patch in Doom 3 beforehand.
Dadji,
If you go to widescreengaming just do a search for Doom 3 over there. There are so many games listed with info that scrolling to find one takes a while. All the info is there though. On Doom 3 you have to input the screen res in a config file. And also the FOV. It works though.
Lots of info over there.
Rough 1st draft of our review...
http://www.jaded-gamer.com/content.php?review.55
Still a few bits to add along with pictures.
Let me know if I've made any major blunders
http://www.jaded-gamer.com/content.php?review.55
Still a few bits to add along with pictures.
Let me know if I've made any major blunders
Quick question. When using a lower, non-native (god forbid) 4:3 resolution, is it possible to preserve the aspect ratio AND fill the screen to the top and bottom edges? Leaving bars on the side, similar to gaming at 1600x1200. Gaming at 800x600, for example, would not interpolate or skew if stretched correctly.
This is how my iMac G5 works and it's wonderful, being able to play at lower resolutions without either viewing a tiny little box or stretching a 4:3 res improperly across the entire 16:9 screen. I don't know if this is a software thing or not, but I would be interested in knowing if PCs can do this correctly, as I am thinking of switching back.
This is how my iMac G5 works and it's wonderful, being able to play at lower resolutions without either viewing a tiny little box or stretching a 4:3 res improperly across the entire 16:9 screen. I don't know if this is a software thing or not, but I would be interested in knowing if PCs can do this correctly, as I am thinking of switching back.
Riptide_NVN
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So what settings did you use, for RGB and brightness, to fix the slightly washed out look this thing has out of the box? The review seems to indicate that you did something... but doesn't list the settings you used. ThxToekiller said:Rough 1st draft of our review...
http://www.jaded-gamer.com/content.php?review.55
Still a few bits to add along with pictures.
Let me know if I've made any major blunders
Allright! I got my pixel perfect 2405 in today and have been working on the color settings to get a result that is as close to my Lacie 22 blue IV CRT monitor as possible.
I have to say that the colors this dell beauty can produce are really astounding. Although I really love the default SRGB color setting at brightness 50% its not usable for doing graphic/print design. So, as a designer I have been tweaking my settings with print/graphic work in mind.
These are the setting I currently have set:
Red: 26
Green: 27
Blue: 30
Brightness: 15
Windows (nvidia) Gamma: 0,78
After this I ran Adobe Gamma again to neutralize the grays.
I have to say Im very amazed about the color range, contrast and sharpness of this monitor when I compare it with my CRT Lacie (graphics )monitor. Photos that (now) look a little woolly and without detail on the lacie totally come to live on the 2405. Only downfall for me is that, as with all lcds, the colors change a little when changing the angle of your head towards the screen. Its mostly the dark areas and shadows that suffer from this, and its not a showstopper for me as I still have my Lacie as a secondary monitor for final color checks. In conclusion I have to say this has been one of the best upgrades I have done in a long time (competing with the Epson Photo R800 printer).
In about 2 weeks I will get my Lacie calibration spider in so then I might change my mind on the color settings that I am happy with now. We will see.
I have to say that the colors this dell beauty can produce are really astounding. Although I really love the default SRGB color setting at brightness 50% its not usable for doing graphic/print design. So, as a designer I have been tweaking my settings with print/graphic work in mind.
These are the setting I currently have set:
Red: 26
Green: 27
Blue: 30
Brightness: 15
Windows (nvidia) Gamma: 0,78
After this I ran Adobe Gamma again to neutralize the grays.
I have to say Im very amazed about the color range, contrast and sharpness of this monitor when I compare it with my CRT Lacie (graphics )monitor. Photos that (now) look a little woolly and without detail on the lacie totally come to live on the 2405. Only downfall for me is that, as with all lcds, the colors change a little when changing the angle of your head towards the screen. Its mostly the dark areas and shadows that suffer from this, and its not a showstopper for me as I still have my Lacie as a secondary monitor for final color checks. In conclusion I have to say this has been one of the best upgrades I have done in a long time (competing with the Epson Photo R800 printer).
In about 2 weeks I will get my Lacie calibration spider in so then I might change my mind on the color settings that I am happy with now. We will see.
Dadj,
Thanks for those. I am trying them now. I played with that Nvidia gamma tweak also. I have an BFG 6800 gt oc. That tweak does seem to add a lot of depth to the colors but seems dark a bit for a desktop. Maybe thats a first impression though. Still will go back and try it again. That brightness setting, WOW thats low. But then, this is a really bright monitor. I have mine set at 25
I left your RGB settings in, left gamma at 1 and raised Digital vibrance halfway between 0 and the first notch on the slider. Looks nice/ The colors are much deeper with the gamma setting but I pulled it up to 1 for a bit.
Will be curious to see what that Spider tells you.
The only thing to pick on here is that the whites, like the white on this reply to thread screen have just a tad of light grey to them. Is faint but I can see it. Still the colors are much fuller and seem more true. Will play around with it some. My thanks for the info. This is good stuff.
Would be curious if you have anything else to add.
I will play a bit and maybe post another response/
Thanks for those. I am trying them now. I played with that Nvidia gamma tweak also. I have an BFG 6800 gt oc. That tweak does seem to add a lot of depth to the colors but seems dark a bit for a desktop. Maybe thats a first impression though. Still will go back and try it again. That brightness setting, WOW thats low. But then, this is a really bright monitor. I have mine set at 25
I left your RGB settings in, left gamma at 1 and raised Digital vibrance halfway between 0 and the first notch on the slider. Looks nice/ The colors are much deeper with the gamma setting but I pulled it up to 1 for a bit.
Will be curious to see what that Spider tells you.
The only thing to pick on here is that the whites, like the white on this reply to thread screen have just a tad of light grey to them. Is faint but I can see it. Still the colors are much fuller and seem more true. Will play around with it some. My thanks for the info. This is good stuff.
Would be curious if you have anything else to add.
I will play a bit and maybe post another response/
I am curious what return/exchange policies Dell has on this monitor. Do they offer a 100% satisfaction policy meaning if you dont like it for any reason within a stated period of time, you can ship it back for full refund with no restocking fee? Please enlighten me...Well, hopefully all you happy users would never have to go down that route.
I was starting to not like this monitor - i did find it very "washed out"... I have it sitting next to an old Dell 1800fp - and however much i tweak the 2405 - the old one still seems to have deeper more vibrant colours...
The settings you suggested do make the screen alot better though!! I'm sure after more playing arround with the monitor/nvidia settings i'll find something i like.
The settings you suggested do make the screen alot better though!! I'm sure after more playing arround with the monitor/nvidia settings i'll find something i like.
Hi MicroUK,MicroUK said:
I'm running my 2405 with a pair of 1800FP's (all through DVI off Nvidia cards) and find the colour just fine.
I can only really advise you to make sure you've got the 2405 colour profile loaded into your graphics driver. Also you might need to keep the brightness fairly low.
See the big 2405 thread for a great calibration web-page, and you can also see my RGB settings there too.
Take care,
Tony.