Opinions wanted on widescreen monitors

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, my old workhorse of a monitor is finally dying, and text is getting hard to read. Oh no! The dope won’t be legible anymore, what is one to do? I’m looking to buy a new monitor in the next few months, and my widescreen laptop has got me looking for the same, only bigger, in a desktop.

I’ve been browsing the dell site, looking at their widescreens (specifically 20 inch widescreen and the 24-inch widescreen . Any opinions on these monitors? I’ve seen the 24 inch in action, and I must say it is very pretty.

Basically, I’m looking for widescreen, bare minimum 1680 x 1050 res (I’m a res whore; currently i’m running at 1600 x 1200) capable of displaying text well (as I know they generally do anyway) and not leaving that blurry trail behind graphics when I game (the Dells are listed at 16ms response).

So, I ask the teeming millions, what else out there is good?

2

If your PC has dual outputs, instead of one big monitor, consider two cheap lower resolution monitors instead.

3

Or, a cheaper lower resolution monitor AND the 20" / 24" display :wink:

I really love my 20" Dell widescreen monitor, so it has my recommendation. I’ve paired it with the cheaper 17" flatscreen that originally came with my machine.

4

I really want more monitor space and hope to go multiple monitors. Often I want more space because I need to work between two application windows, so two monitors would be great for that. Or, even, three. If you want great resolution on the main thing you’re doing and need something else open with more modest resolution requirements, multiple would do that. I dream of two or three big monitors. Well, no, I don’t, but it would be cushy…

5

I have the Dell 2005FPW and I absolutely love it. Crisp, clean, fast display, no ghosting or bleeding, good viewing angle, thin bezel, good cord management, one of the best scalers on the market (especially important if you’re using it with VGA instead of DV-I) and a metric buttload of features like the 4 USB 2.0 ports, VGA/DV-I/S-Video/AV inputs, picture-by-picture and so on. I actually bought mine almost exactly a year ago and have no complaints at all.

6

I have the 24" (2407WFP) Dell you mention.

It’s beyond awesomeness.

I went from a 21" CRT (an old graphics design monitor… Weighs somewhere in the area of 80+ pounds) that I was running at 1600x1200. When I was looking, I realized I didn’t want to move to a smaller resolution, so I took the plunge, and this is the most happy I’ve been with any of my computer-related purchases ever.

Many would say that a dual screen setup is a better choice, and for many, it is. Personally, I can’t stand two screens. I’m always losing my cursor, and I have to look at the other screen if there’s something I want. The widescreen lets me do that all on one screen. (it’s not a problem to have 2 webpages side by side.)

Even after I got the 24 inch, I was running dual screens alongside the 21" CRT, and I found that I simply didn’t use the second screen (Though it did give me well over 32 inches of workspace measured horizontally) The 21" has now become my monitor at work, and it’s on its’ last legs.

I also love it for watching movies. 1920x1200 is better than 1080p resolution, so watching something like the shuttle launches is great. It even beats out the 37" LG LCD my parents own (which only does 720p and cost more) It’s great because it can double as an HDTV… And with all the inputs, you don’t need to screw around with cables or anything.

Oh, and it’s got a card reader and USB2 hub built in (when I made my computer, I didn’t realize until after that I needed more USB ports and how nice a card reader would be to have)

I’ve liked it so much that when I bought my laptop I made sure I was looking only for widescreens. (I ended up with a Gateway CX2724 tablet, which is awesomeness as well)

You also have some other options. If you’re looking for something a little less pc, Apple makes a 23" Cinema display for about $1000USD. It does 1920x1200, and it’s nice looking to boot.

They also have a 30" Cinema display that does and astounding 2560x1600… Of course it’s $3300USD. It’s probably the nicest monitor I’ve seen in person. I’m not a Mac fanboy by any means, but damn, I want one. And if $3300 is too expensive for you, their refurbished site is selling them nearly half price (and yes, they’ll both work on a PC… 'Course for the 30" to run at full screen you better have a decent video card)

7

Oh yeah, forgot one really cool point; the screen rotates.

From the standard widescreen it rotates 90 degrees, so if you’re working on a portrait picture or reading something really, really long (like say, a legal sized PDF file), it’s good for that.

Oh, and looking over my last post, the shuttle only goes up to 720 in “p”, there’s not too much 1080p media out there (mainly movie trailers, but more shows up every day)

8

I was in the exact same boat as St Ides - my 21" CRT died, and I needed a new monitor. A guy at work had one of the 24" widescreen Dells that he was selling. “Here, try it out for a few days,” he said. “I’ll give you a deal if you like it.” So I did.

24 hours later, I not only bought the monitor, but ordered another one for Mr. Athena. These things rock!

Also, for comparison, I have 2 19" monitors on my work computer. They always seem really really small when I go from my home office to my work office. Occasionally at home I miss the ability to throw a window off to the second monitor and forget about it for a while, but not often. I’d go with the 24" all over again if I were ever to buy a new computer for work.

9

I went the other way: from a 22" 1600x1200 (or more) CRT to two 19" 1280x1024 LCDs.

10

I really prefer two 17s side-by-side over a widescreen.

I think the best setup it depends stringly on what you’re doing with it.

if i was gaming or drawing something that had to displayin wide format, haivng 2 smaller screens with a break in teh middle would be a total PITA.

OTOH, when working with multiple programs, it’s darn handy to drag one to the left screen & maximize, one to the right & maximize, and have that dual-pane style.

My big complaint with a widescreen is the inability to effectively tile the display space.

11

If I were gaming, I’d prefer the dual screen, because you should be able to set the computer such that oe screen blanks and you get full performance on the other.

12

My SO and I have been eying new monitors. I currently use a 19" 3:4 aspect ratio monitor. We did the math, and a 22" wide screen (16:9) is actually shorter then my current 19". So I’ll probably want a 24" if I got a wide screen. Unless I’m watching a wide-screen format movie, the extra width just isn’t worth losing the height.

13

I don’t understand why you would prefer this to the one large widescreen monitor, also ‘getting full performance’ ?

14

Because a higher resolution means lower performance. If you’ve got the CPU / GPU power to drive the higher resolution, by all means, but not everyone has.

15

I had the same issue when I went from a 20" 4:3 CRT to a 20" 16:10 widescreen. The thing is though that what you lose in height you gain in width, and a wide aspect ratio more naturally fills the human eye’s field of vision, so it really does look bigger and more natural.

16

Are you sure? I’ve actually read the opposite. Let me go search for a cite.

17

Ah, here we go. Wikipedia’s the best I’ve got now, but I’ve read this elsewhere as well:

“One rationale for widescreen is that, since the human eye has a field of view that extends farther to the sides than it does above or below, a widescreen image makes more effective use of the field of view, thereby producing a more immersive viewing experience. Critics of widescreen point out that the human field of vision, based upon the angular ratio of our fields of view (180 degrees horizontal, 135 degrees vertical), is in fact closer to the older ratio of 4 to 3, and not widescreen ratios such as 16:9 or 2.35:1[citation needed]. Consequently, large-format technologies like IMAX favor a 4:3 format[citation needed].”

18

I’m a bit late to this topic, but I’m also hoping to hop onto the jumbo widescreen bandwagon. Well, when I say almost, I mean I’m waiting for the Dell 3007 30" LCD to measure up to its smaller 24" counterpart, the 2407. I really don’t get it … the 2407 model has DVI, component, S-Video, and even good old analog VGA … and yes, even a composite video input. The 3007 haaas … a single DVI. Seriously, WTF?

If Dell put all the inputs on the 2407 onto the 3007, I’d have one by now. They may slowly be inching down toward the $1,000 mark, but I really don’t understand the thinking behind this. Do car makers put all the bells and whistles on their midsize model and strip down the flagship? No, it’s exactly the opposite.

I can only pray that Dell remedies this with a redesigned 30" display this year capable of hooking up external HD devices. Until then, the wait continues for a ~$1,000 30" desktop LCD with component input …

19

Howdy all. I thought I’d bring this thread from the grave again with a question or two. I’m looking into widescreen LCDs and I’m wondering about a couple things. For the record I’m a gamer, and the system is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400@2.8GHz, 2 GB RAM, and a Gefore 7900GS.

The native resolution on pretty much all of the units I’ve looked at is 1680 x 1050. I understand what that means in Winders (looks best there - may be distorted at other resolutions), but what does it mean for gaming? If I play non-widescreen games at 1024x768 or something (just for example), what will they look like?

Next, how big a deal is the backlight bleedthrough issue? I’m reading reviews on a few different models and pretty much every one of them has conflicting comments about the bleedthrough (it’s no big deal and/or it’s omg horrid don’t buy this).

And finally, what specs are dealbreakers? I’m guessing that response time needs to be 5ms or less. Contrast ratio, 700:1 or better? And brightness, is 280 or better OK?

Thanks for any advice. Here are the few I’ve been reading about.

Gateway FPD2275W - 4 port USB hub, composite and component inputs

Samsung 226BW - better specs but no add ons like the GW

ViewSonic VX2245wm - iPod dock, etc

20

Look around—there has been truckloads of 24" displays that have just arrived at your local big box stores—who have nicely depressed the prices of 22" displays.

There was a email in my inbox today from Ecost with a 22" for 199AR.

8ms refresh is just fine, unless you are a extreem user. 700to1 contrast should not be hard to find.

The best part of upgrading from the 20" Sony tube I had was gaining back the two feet of desk the snout took up. The hardest part of the upgrade was picking the old door stop up.