Dell's next-gen 30-incher sports Displayport and HDMI

12 Nov 2007 | 23:58 GMT

By Theo Valich

WHILE DELL'S ORIGINAL thiry-inch 3007 had some limitations in terms of limited resolutions and features, Dell is making sure that its next-gen part will meet every geek's needs..

Dell looked hard at all the faults of the 3007WFP and 3007WFP-HC and is now ready with its successor, after some nine months of development.

Meet the 3008WFP

For starters, absolutely the worst feature that 3007 series was known for was connectivity.

The 3007WFP/WFP-HC shipped with only single dual-link DVI connector, which was abysmal compared to cheaper 2707WFP, 2407WFP and the 2405FPW. All three sported DVI, D-SUB, component and S-VHS connectors and had a USB 2.0 hub, plus 9-in-2 card reader.

Connector overview: 3 and 4 are speaker outputs (HDMI), 5 is D-SUB, 6 Component input, 7 is DisplayPort, 8 HDMI, 9 are DVI-D's, 10/11 TV in

With 3008WFP, new benchmark will be set. This monitor comes with two dual-link DVI connectors, thus hardware testers will be able to hook up two testbeds via DVI, and one testbed via analogue D-SUB connection. This is only the beginning, since this baby also comes with Component, S-VHS, Composite in, USB upstream connector (for 4-port USB hub and 9-in-2 card reader). This normal (for 2405/2407/2707 monitors) is expanded with both Displayport and HDMI connectors.

If you use HDMI-DVI converter such as one from Hiper, you can connect a testbed #4 onto this monitor, while Displayport enables you to test Displayport graphics cards, meaning computer n umber five.

The video processing chip in the monitor will enable decent resolution scalability, so you will be able to use 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, 1680x1050 and all other often used resolutions.

Dell's 3008 will tilt and swivel, and this time around, vertical extension capabilities are improved. µ

© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007