Wanting to hear from 3008WFP owners

[Frraksurred]

One of my XHD3000's died so I need a new 30". I will never buy Gateway again... ever.

After my experience with Gateway I want something that is going to last and be supported. The Dell seems to review well, has the inputs I want, a scaler and a 3 yr. warranty, so I'm giving it the most consideration.

That said, I'd like to hear from those of you who already own it before I drop $1600 on another monitor. I still have an extremely bad taste in my mouth from the last one. Also, if you are aware of any sites that keep updated Dell promo offers, so if this thing goes on sale I would be notified, I'd love a link. Thanks to all in advance.

 

[10e]

I've had mine since September of last year and I am quite happy with it.

I have used all the connectors except for component and all have worked flawlessly.

Mine came with good color uniformity and average brightness uniformity. It's a bit brighter on the right side than the left, but the uniformity otherwise across the screen is good, and the color uniformity is top notch. White is white across the entire screen, and even my calibrator/colorimeter does not see any real detectible color shift across the screen. It has no dead or stuck pixels or subpixels.

If you are coming from an XHD3000 I would say that the 3008WFP has less input lag, and because it is IPS, you won't see any color shift horizontally on grey, such as the backgrounds on this forum.

So far I'm very happy with the screen, and even the sRGB mode is usable, and pixel response is good as far as I can tell, when I've played games on it. Also, all the aspect scaling modes work, so 16:9 from consoles or set-top boxes is not an issue, and is displayed properly and without any screen cut off.

Hope that helps.

 

[Frraksurred]

Just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Much appreciated 10e, thank you.

If I may ask which colorimeter did you calibrate with? One of the Spyders or another?

 

[harshw]

Have both 3007WFP and 3008WFP screens. The 3008 is good, sleeker than 3007 and the stand is a lot better. I got a refurb from Ebay and it was a good deal

The wide gamut causes colors to be oversaturated so properly calibrating the monitor is a must ... I used an i1 Display2, the 3008 is supposed to support DDC but mine is a bit wonky and doesnt do DDC although I've seen other 3008's support it - calibrated fine in custom RGB mode

All in all, would definitely recommend the 3008.

 

[10e]

Just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Much appreciated 10e, thank you.

If I may ask which colorimeter did you calibrate with? One of the Spyders or another?

I used my Eye One Display 2 with BasicColor 4.11 on Win7 x64. It was done in custom RGB mode as well, and achieved a very low 0.20 Delta E94. Anything below 1.0 is perceptually perfect, but as harshw mentioned, it is a wide gamut monitor which means oversaturation especially with greens and reds, and in this mode, only color managed applications show colors exactly the way they are supposed to. Strangely enough in Vista/Win7, the picture Viewer and Windows Media Player seem to be.

The Spyder2/3 combo is not as adept at dealing with wide gamut screens, nor detecting black point as the Eye One D2. It is still probably better than no calibration though, so if you have one, you can still use it.

Alternatively it does have a decent sRGB mode which is better than most other wide gamut screens I've tried/owned including the Dell 2709W and NEC LCD2690WUXI-BK.

Another plus is that it can go very dark with just brightness controls and the contrast ratio does not suffer, meaning that only the backlight is darkening the display, and it's not using electronics to lower the brightness, ie. displaying a grey as white in order to manipulate brightness output. This is also known as "panel blocking".

Whatever else has affected popular LG-based eIPS and newer H-IPS displays, such as the blue to red horizontal color shift, which is mostly noticeable with whites, does not seem to have "infected" this panel either. As I mentioned before, the white point does not perceptually alter from left to right. Though I would think it shouldn't considering the price tag.

 

[Frraksurred]

10e your feedback has been priceless, thank you.

I do not currently own any colorimeter, though I've used the Spyders in the past. I will look into the Eye One as it sounds like the best option.

I am also on Win7 64 and will be primarily gaming, however I do a fair share of photo and video editing for personal use. A little HDTV and blu-ray watching as well (it is my HT). My two remaining XHD3000's will flank the 3008 (in Eyefinity) if I go with it, so I'm going to attempt to calibrate them as close to each other as possible. Not to the extent of neutering the wider gamut screen however. I will calibrate it and then try to bring the others as close to is as can be. The coming Cat 10.3 drivers should help with that given the independent panel adjustments.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks again for your input.