Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW Black 24" LCD Monitor

Best 24

Posted May 19, 2006 - This thing is a beast, awesome for movies though, make sure you have it near a place where you can lay down or sit down comfortably and watch movies on it. Screen is perfect size if you're a big computer person. Games, movies, running multiple windows in applications are so much easier on this monitor. It costs a decent amount of money but it's well worth it. I upgrade my monitor about every 5 years so spending a good amount of money for something I'll be staring at 3-5 hours a day is worth it. Don't skimp when it comes to buying a computer monitor, this is well worth it. Colors are great, games can't look any better, just make sure you have a good video card to run games at high resolutions. It's able to pivot, swivel comes in real handy when you want to adjust it to different users. Dell just came out with a new 30" LCD the 3007WFP with WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. No regrets this monitor still has the perfect size/money ratio. Any bigger then this and you may as well buy a full-up LCD television display to be your monitor.

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This monitor is breathtaking! I have used many oth ...

Posted Nov 19, 2005 - This monitor is breathtaking! I have used many other montiors at both work and home and this one blows the competition away. The ability to swivel to any position and swing into portrait view are especially useful.

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This is an astounding monitor, especially consider ...

Posted May 14, 2005 - This is an astounding monitor, especially considering how it’s pricing absolutely stomps on the competition! Dell 2405FPW: Tested on nVidia 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards, analog and DVI ports, single and dual monitor configurations under Windows XP Pro SP2. Calibrated & profiled with Monaco Optix XR Pro, and ColorVision Spyder2PRO. I bought the 2405FPW to use on my secondary computer, which frequently runs extended video rendering projects. The main purpose was to get more desktop “real estate” for menus and controls in various video editing software packages. Of course, I had to try it on my main computer as well, which is a nVidia dual DVI setup running twin Samsung 213Ts used primarily for photo editing. I temporarily replaced the primary 213T to see how it looked, and I nearly left the 2405 in that position! I eventually decided that since the secondary computer only has one monitor that more desktop real estate on that system was more important. The 2405 has very natural color. Not quite as perfect straight out of the box as Samsung, but very, very good. It’s default brightness is also too high, straight out of the box it may leave you thinking that a picture is properly exposed, when in fact it is under exposed. If you are considering a monitor in this price range, you should also consider a calibration package as well, for greatest viewing enjoyment. With a monitor of this quality, you absolutely MUST use the DVI port on your video card. Unfortunately, video cards prior to nVidia 6000 series typically do not support more than 1600x1200 on the DVI port, so you should strongly consider a new video card if you are purchasing this monitor for an older computer. When used on a DVI port of a graphics card supporting 1920x1200, this monitor is so sharp you just might cut yourself on it! There is absolutely no ringing (ghosting) along the edges of lines, even if they are only 1 pixel wide, and sharpness is perfectly uniform from edge to edge. Installed on the analog port of an nVidia 5000 series card, the monitor exhibited a strange quirk: When cold booting the computer, the 2405FPW display was VERY fuzzy, and no amount of “Auto Adjusting” or manual adjustments would make it better. (this might explain why one reviewer was very disappointed with this monitor). However, getting an exceptional, sharp clear picture was as simple as warm booting the computer (Windows Restart). The 2405FPW ran Auto Adjust both times, but somehow the restart allowed for a sharp picture, while the cold boot did not. A higher end nVidea 5000 series card did NOT exhibit this quirk. Using a monitor of this quality on the analog port of any video card is simply criminal. Text, thin lines, and abrupt color transitions will invariably show some amount of ringing. These are color inaccuracies at the edges or transitions, which often give the impression of reduced sharpness, or on particularly bad video cards, downright fuzzyness! So do yourself a favor… don’t even bother with the analog port on your video card! The Dell 2405FPW is a great monitor, and simply can not be beat for the price. Colors are fairly accurate for photography, and can be brought to near perfection with standard calibration tools. Video is sharp, and free of ghosting, even scaled up to full screen resolution. Kudos to Dell for improving color accuracy and picture quality greatly from previous models such as the 2001FP.

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I was eying the wonderful LCD ever since Dell made ...

Posted Jun 21, 2005 - I was eying the wonderful LCD ever since Dell made the announcement in March 2005. It was initially introduced with coupons that brought the $1200 MSRP down to $899. I missed out on that, but decided the next time the price dips that low, I am taking the plunge. After taxes, my final price came in just under $1k. That is an amazing price if you consider what the competition sells their similar spec product for. Right out of the box, the physical set up instructions are simple and easy to follow with the included flow chart (mounting it on the included stand, attaching the appropriate cables, etc). But once you turn on you computer, things get complicated. First, there is no physical manual - it is electronic-HTML based and on the CD. Second, the autorun feature on the CD did not work (gave me error messages), so I had to futz around on the CD to find the necessary instructions on how to lower the brightness. Third, unlike what the ReadMe.txt says (mentions some 2405FPW.inf file that is NOT on the CD or available for download on Dell's website), there is no specific driver for the monitor, you have to use the ones that come with your graphics card. And here is where another problem crops up. I am not sure whether it is lack of specific drivers for the LCD or the nature of the DVI interface, but most of the adjustments mentioned in the electronic manual cannot be done. And that includes the brightness adjustment, contrast and gamma. They show up when you bring up the OSD, but they are grayed out and inaccessible. I have to make adjustments through the graphics card drivers, and problem is that they are not global - I have to make application specific changes - which can get to be a pain. So for each game I play, I have to adjust the monitor brightness yet again. But that is a minor quibble for somebody like me - who is mainly using this for games and watching movies. May be that is the nature of DVI - I don't know. This is my first monitor to use DVI. By the way, do not bother using this monitor on anything less then a pure digital interface. While there is VGA port in the back, hooking up you computer to this monitor via VGA will guarantee you an awful image at 1920 x 1200 resolution. The price of using this quality monitor is a requirement for a quality graphics card. For graphics professionals, having access to and ability to adjust display features is more important and you must make sure your graphics card is compatible. The 1920 x 1200 resolution does require an upper-end card with lots of memory. I have an ATI 9800 Pro with 128 MB, and it is more than adequate (for now). You can go lower if you are mainly using the 2D environment, but for games, you want something more powerful if you want to play at the native resolution of 1920 by 1200. Fortunately for the upper end games that require more power, you can set the LCD to display at the specified resolution, with the surrounding areas blacked out - that way the image does not look bad. If you plan to play the latest games, you will need a beast of a graphics card. I have played Guild Wars, Psychonauts, and Unreal Tournament 2004 at the native 1920 x 1200 resolution without any problems (I did have to tone down the details in Guild Wars for a smooth frame rate). But games like Doom 3, Half Life 2 - my 9800 Pro just will not cut it. As for image quality itself, the monitor is absolutely beautiful! Once you are satisfied with the adjustments, you will not look at a prettier picture on you computer from another monitor. This is the best monitor out there for computers, regardless of price. I have seen competing products from ViewSonic, Sony and the Apple Cinema displays, and I still think the Dell beats them hands down, at almost half the price! I always used to get headaches after just an hour sitting in front of a CRT monitor, but never LCDs. The Dell 2405 replaces a 19" Sony Trinitron flat screen CRT and I am glad to have made the switch! The good thing about LCDs compared to CRTs is that the geomtry is perfect everytime, all the time. You never have to make any adjustments. Unlike with my CRT, where it never quite looked right at the edges, no matter how many adjustments - either there was a curve at the top or at the bottom, or at the left side or right side. One side always had some curve. Bottom line, this is a great monitor, once you have made the necessary adjustments to your liking. At the $899 price point, and all the other features that competitors do not offer - HDTV resolution, 9-in-1 card reader, 4 USB 2.0 ports, multiple connections options, portrait and landscape modes, view angle and height adjustments - makes this monitor a tremendous value. Just be forewarned that once you switch, you will not like going back to anything less.

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Beautiful display. Colors are vivid, and the scree ...

Posted May 30, 2005 - Beautiful display. Colors are vivid, and the screen is *very* bright. You may need to lower your contrast & gamma settings if you work in a low-light room like I do, or else the screen may be too bright. This monitor doubles as a PC monitor (using either DVI or VGA connection, although DVI is clearly the best choice here), and as a TV monitor (providing composite, s-video, and component video inputs). The picture-in-picture option is handy, but not as much as having a video-input on your computer. The included stand is very well designed, too. You're able to tilt the monitor back/forward, side to side, raise/lower the height, and even rotate to a vertical orientation (which is only helpful if your video card supports a rotated display). You will need to adjust your video card for a rotated output before you rotate the screen, as trying to do so afterword may be difficult. Games look very sharp and vivid on this screen. Running games at native resolution may be a problem if you don't have the latest and greatest video card, but running at lower resolution looks OK when stretched. Playing full-screen video from PC is flawless, especially if the source is HDTV video. I prefer to watch video on my computer monitor now rather than my 20" television. You should check the display resolution settings on your computer after connecting this monitor, to set your resolution to 1920x1200 32bpp. Otherwise if you leave it set at your old resolution (most likely a 4:3 resolution), you will end up with a distorted ugly display. Reviewers writing negative reviews about a distorted, stretched display most likely have not done this. All in all, this 24" LCD totally destroys my old 17" CRT I have been using for the past few years. If I ever need any more workspace (I'm having a hard time filling up 1920x1200 at the moment, but I'm sure this will change), I would definitely buy another one.

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2405FPW

Posted Sep 24, 2005 - I use 2405FPW for work, and that means staring at it for hours. It's default brightness level is way too high, and not even turning it all the way down helped. Fortunately RGB channels can have gains regulated separately, and adjusting them allows for a really reduced brightness. I connected monitor using DVI input and picture is very clear, without peaks and troughs characteristic of analog connection (also available on this model). I'm using not so new GeForce 4200 TI and it handles native monitor's resolution (1920 by 1200, true color) just fine. 2405FPW offers portrait mode and it's my preferred configuration. It's ideal for browsing long web pages, as well as editing long passages of text. It should be noted however, that portrait mode ability built into nVidia's driver leaves much to desire (it's very slow as of version 78.01). Highly optimized solution exists and could be used instead: Pivot from portrait.com. Not as well integrated into the system as nVidia's driver (so some applications are not recognizing portrait mode) it's nevertheless much faster. So much so that I could give up on upgrading my video card. Photographs displayed on this monitor look very good, but it should be noted that I have no comparison nor the reference point. This monitor without driver's gamma correction seems to accent dark gray levels when compared to the typical CRT monitor. nVidia driver offers ability to tune gamma look up tables and this operation darkens image a bit. 2405FPW is capable of smooth image resizing when input resolution is lower than the native one. Considering amount of input options this is a welcome feature. Another goodie is a built-in card reader. It's truly convenient. On the downside USB ports in this monitor can only offer 2.5 W of power which isn't enough to connect a pen drive. Another weakness is intrinsic to LCD technology (at least for the time being): depending on the angle of viewing perceived brightness differs a bit. It doesn't bother me when looking at images, but uniformly white surface of a text editor seems to be slightly darker at the bottom. Sitting slightly over two feet from the monitor I look at the bottom/top of it at an angle of about +/-25 degrees (in portrait mode). It is a bit of a problem, but I can live with it. Overall I'd say this monitor is well worth the money I paid for it (about $924 with S/H). Screen size is huge: it's so big that I have to use it in a portrait mode to really utilize this whole space.

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Great Monitor

Posted Jan 9, 2006 - I'm using this monitor both for work and personal use. Having used 17" monitors in the past, the extra screen real estate is very welcome. I've watched a little bit of video on it (played through DVI, not the other available inputs) and it looks fine. I haven't played any high frame rate video games on it, so I can't say how it stacks up with CRTs in that department. The design is elegant, and it's been problem-free so far.

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UltraSharp Dell

Posted Oct 17, 2005 - Good price performance. Use it daily and the resolution/size make it very good for multiple applications. You can display 2 pages at acutal size side by side and you still have some room.....

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I've been using Dell Monitors at work for 2 years ...

Posted Jun 24, 2005 - I've been using Dell Monitors at work for 2 years now. I currently use 3 of the 20.1 inch ones on my workspace. Basically the 24" widescreen versions have 5% more vertical screenspace and 27% more horizontal screenspace and a bigger base, but the technology is nearly identical. It is simply the biggest monitor you could want on your desktop for gaming. If it were any bigger, I would probably push the monitor back to compensate. Sitting next to this beast of a monitor is an old Viewsonic VX900 19" LCD. Granted it's a older monitor, it still looked great in my opinion. But compared to the Dell, the colors were darker and grimier. The Dell was so unbelievably crisp and bright. The whites were very white. Simply awesome. Performance while playing games is wonderful. There is no ghosting while playing HalfLife 2 or World of Warcraft at 1920x1200 resolution. I have a fast machine and a good video card, so the frame rate is a flawless 60FPS. My advice is to buy this monitor. The future of games and movies is moving to 1080p resolution, and I don't suspect there will be any need for a higher resolution for many years. The monitor is the one piece you should spend the most money on, because you'll keep it the longest, through several upgrades. Ironically, you need a fast machine to get a decent frame rate at this resolution. I have a Athlon 3700+ SanDiego chip with 2GB DDR 400 and GeForce 6800GT Ultra 8x AGP and have no problems with frame rate at max resolution. I did look at the Apple Cinema Displays. They were not nearly as good. They lacked inputs, controls, and gaming performance. They look great for still images, so it's more for an artist. Do not let the significantly lower price of the Dell trick you into thinking it's junk. They are into serious mass production and they sell them as fast as they can make them. Mine cost $1012 shipped.

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The best of the best WideScreen LCD monitor in the ...

Posted May 5, 2005 - The best of the best WideScreen LCD monitor in the market! Very affordable price. Superb vibrant color. Height adjustable stand. Lots of inputs for gamer. 1000:1 contrast ratio is amazing, much better than 2001FP or 2005FPW. You won't lost details in dark scenes when you play games. The big screen can let you show 2 pages simultaneously in Microsoft Word. Again, this monitor is the best of the best! Absolutely worth every penny you spent!

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I just received my monitor yesterday. It was a sna ...

Posted May 14, 2005 - I just received my monitor yesterday. It was a snap to connect and configure. The picture is sharp and clear. The monitor is very bright so bright in fact I actually lowered the Contrast and Brightness. I have it set on the MAX 1900X1200 setting and the text is sharp and Clear. The Built in USB Ports on the monitor are a great plus. It also has which I did not realize at the time of ordering are multiple card reader slots for Camera memory cards. This was a surprising added bonus. I am so far very pleased. With the quality of the product. It is very rare that I actually receive a product that offers more in the way of features than I expected. I am totally blown away...

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AWESOME!

Posted Nov 29, 2005 - I've had mine for several months now and when I first connected it, set it up and turned it on, I thought to myself... What the hell did I do??? I thought I made and mistake in purchasing it because it was HUGE- your eyes get used to having all the realstate and now I absolutely love mine. It is incredibly crisp and rich in colors... Now those who are new to LCD monitors need to keep this in mind- this monitor's native resolution is 1900 x 1200 (I think), but @ that resolution if you don't make adjustments to Windows everything is going to seem INCREDIBLY small (text, icons, etc). You have to go into "Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> General" and increase the DPI setting to "Large" also go into "Display Properties -> Appearance -> Advanced" select the item drop down box and select Icon. Increase the icon size to something like 40 or 50. And also due to this change, increase the horizontal and verticle icon spacing. Play with the setting until it's right for you. YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS MONITOR! And I have played FPS games on this monitor (Doom 3), and it looks great- no delay or ghosting... All around great monitor!

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The Dell 24” monitor is the best monitor I have ...

Posted Apr 20, 2005 - The Dell 24” monitor is the best monitor I have seen! This monitor was worth every penny. The 1900X1200 resolution looks fantastic and I have not experience any ghosting while gaming on the monitor. The stand is great because it allows the monitor to be adjusted to just about any position you need, the widescreen even rotates180 degrees. I highly recommend this product.

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Real estate

Posted Feb 9, 2006 - Its big, you already know that so I won't even bother talking about its size. Originally I was oogling the Apple 23 inch... but did the homework. There really aren't many makes flirting as of writing this with 23+ displays as most makers are still releasing their first 23+ inch displays. What sold me on the Dell was the constant positive reviews across the industry. All sources agreed (Cnet, PCmag etc) the 24FPW wasn't the best monitor ever but for what it offered in price to performance it was second to none. Any deficiencies with the picture are pretty much moot at the price point. DVI? A must. VGA? Check. Component? Oh yes.. S-Video? Got that too. RCA? yes. USB2.0 hub? Sure. Compact Flash/SD card/etc reader? Why not... Dell pretty much has gone with a kitchen sink approach offering more than most monitors ever will. The most compelling of the extras is the Component inputs that let this monitor do double time as an HDTV. I tested out Halo 2 on my Xbox and it was sufficient. As an analog the monitor the 2405FPW is acceptable, just get an old VCR (remember those?) as a TV tyuner and run a RCA cable and hey, you got another TV... or better yet, you can watch TV with its built in PIP. Just be warned, the Dell doesn't have any DNR (digital noise reduction filters) to help remove the noise from analog pictures so an LCD TV will look a little more clean but it certainly makes well for a makeshift TV. I wish this was out a few years ago for my frosh year of college. My only disappointments are the inevitable short coming of LCDs. A 16 ms pixel latecy is still rather noticeble. You can see the delay if you're astute and nit picky about your mouse and going from a life of CRTs, it also seems slightly chopping (although still producing 24+ FPS with full screen). The viewing angles are really good, and the picture is fairly uniform but a far cry from being a LaCie monitor. The worst of this monitor is it just lacks the visual appeal of the Apple Cinema Display. Black plastic and a silver display base (honestly Dell, c'mon, make at least all black) just seems sad compared to the beautiful sculpted aluminum. For all the features, controls, bells and whistles Dell still can't make up for their industrial design team. It'll wow your friends and family but in the heart of hearts its only a face that an owner could love. Honestly I'd love to get another one day and have dual 24s but for now, one is well worth it.

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BEST WIDESCREEN LCD AVAILABLE

Posted Mar 27, 2006 - I highly recommend this monitor. My previous experience was with the top-of-the-line Sony Trinitron 22" CRT. This monitor blows that one away. I have viewed other LCD monitors and have yet to find one that has the sharpness, speed, color, and clarity of text that this unit offers. At this price point it is a terrific bargain. If you do manage to find a negative review, rest assured it is due to user error or other faulty or mismatched components NOT this monitor.

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