Dell creates useful product for gaming

---

Product: Dell 2407WFP
Website: WWW.DELL.COM
System Requirements: Computer equipped with DVI-I, D-SUB or component interface
Price: $749.00 / £552.24 / €815.45

---

MOST OF YOU, our dear readers, own or work on 17-inch or 19-inch monitors, and haven't thought about using a bigger screen or at least, were not ready to shell out massive amounts of money to afford one.

But, two years ago, Dell broke widescreen monitors into the mainstream with its 2405FPW, a beautiful monitor selling for around a $1,000 and yet offering full HD (1920x1080) resolution. This monitor quickly became the weapon of choice for many gamers, and from the middle of nowhere, widescreen enthusiast community appeared on the map, offering hints in order how to make games work with widescreen resolutions.

I remember the Need for Speed: Most Wanted case the most, since EA hid the cockpit textures and models inside the code, and if you would unlock widescreen, you would get all camera views Xbox 360 version had. Nevertheless, that is just EA for you, "it's inside the game." We are reviewing Dell 2407WFP, a monitor that launched in the middle of last year. There are two reasons for this review today: Recent reduction of prices in Blighty and EUrozone made it for a good reason to take this model for a test drive and see what changed after the launch. Second reason is more important one: reviewed monitor revision is "A04", manufactured in December of last year.

The monitor

This monitor has a surprisingly low footprint, yet it offers plenty of workspace

This monitor features Samsung's S-PVA panel marked HN208L, featuring a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels which are ticking at 60 Hz. Physical characteristics of this display are 6ms response time with 1000:1 contrast ratio and 450 candelas of brightness. In subjective opinion of this author, 2407WFP actually has better, darker level of black than 3007WFP has, and much better picture homogeneity - no smudges are present on the screen.

The panel is an 8-bit one, so it is not the high-colour (HC) panel that is featured inside latest 3007WFP-HC and 2707WFP-HC, but it still offers good colour quality in movies and games - better quality than most 6-bit panels that are shipped in 17" and 19" forms. Sure, if you put this monitor next to a $6000 LCD TV, the TV will have better picture quality, but in real world, this model shows picture equal to almost every LCD TV you can see in the store.

Monitor comes in a variant of silver-coloured plastic and black mat front. We do not understand why Dell is not offering a more souped-up version with glass cover or shiny packaging instead of mat, because colours would look even more vivid. But then again, Samsung is the company that makes the panels, so we can only hope that Dell will get a deal on shiny-wrapped panel as well. If you are asking yourself what is the catch with A04 revision, the answer is simple - first A00 revision used problematic LTM240M2 panel, featuring major issues such as banding and blurred text.

Situation got better in latter revs, the A02 and A03, and majority of users of those revisions did not complain about the huge problems first revision had. For the A04, Dell opted for two versions of the Samsung S-PVA panel, HN208L or HN213. Other difference from A03 is updated firmware and a little bit different OSD (On-Screen Display).

Full of inputs, but not all of them are here

One of the things I liked on the 2407WFP is attention to detail, not so easy to find in today's world of fast-moving and simplified solutions, so checking up this monitor up close really does not bring some Dell-related feeling, but rather a guideline where Kevin's R&D team should go in future. Design is good and will fit nicely with your gaming G15 keyboard, or with a more stylish design such as diNuovo.

The monitor itself features a number of inputs and outputs. Backside features DVI-I with HDCP malware support, D-SUB (Analogue VGA), Component, S-VHS and Composite. Sadly, HDMI is not present, but since this monitor does not come with speakers, we cannot put this as a minus. However, there is one brilliant feature that we would like to see on every panel out there, not just on king-sized 24" displays:

Yes, the 9-in-2 card reader. However, this card reader is not just a feature - in fact, this is one of the fastest card readers we have tested, and you can easily pay 30 dollars for a card reader of equal speed. If you own a digital camera, cellphone or a PDA with variants of MMC, SD, MemoryStick or CompactFlash, you will be adding or removing content in a matter of seconds.

If you own an SLR camera, you'll be in for a treat, because this reader proved to have the same speed as Sandisk's own 12-in-1 flash reader, and you have to admit that there is something in the fact that you plug the card in on the same device that will show the taken photograph as well.

Nevertheless, all of these features do not answer the ultimate question: How does it perform?

Test
We decided to test the monitor using several different configurations, and several different case scenarios. In this review, we will be focusing more on user experience than on synthetic benchmark scores, since monitors are devices that all of us experience individually. However, three different guinea pigs were chosen to give their feedback on the monitor: my assistant, a 46-year female know to this author as "mum" and me.

Testing configuration used were INQtest rig #1 consisted out of Intel Kentsfield QX6700, now deceased Intel D975XBX "Bad Axe 2", 2GB of Corsair Dominator 9136C5D, MSI NX8800GTS 640MB, 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 and Plextor PX-760A. On the other hand, we placed ATi's Radeon X1800CrossFire in the second computer to see how ATi graphics will fare with the 24" monitor. Besides these high-end graphics cards, we have checked the usability of this monitor with lower-end cards, such as PowerColor Radeon X1300 128MB HyperMemory 2 and Gainward GeForce 6600GT. The very first experience of 2407WFP will be: this is bigger than 24" size. Indeed, when compared to a 19" LCD, this monitor looks gigantic, and it feels like 10" more, not 6". For work in Windows, even a $100 card will serve you good, providing that you do not intend to play computer games and own a CPU powerful enough to churn out HD content. However, we could see an increase in productivity if your Excel warriors or code monkeys would use monitors of this size instead of smallish 17" and 19" ones. Sadly, most of the bosses do not even consider what a bigger screen would do for productivity of their own employees.

We have tested the monitor in professional, entertainment and gaming segment, with apps such as Adobe Photoshop 7.0, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Google Picasa 2 and InDesign, Excel, Word, FireFerret, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Nvidia SDK, our reference movies Superman Returns in DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats, and Terminator 2: Rise of Machines in DVD, WMV-HD and Blu-ray format.

When games are concerned, we tested Far Cry, GTR2, EVE: Online, Need For Speed: Carbon and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. We have also connected the Xbox 360 game console and checked Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3.

For the production part, we worked with Word, FireFerret, Acrobat and Photoshop, all at the same time - significantly saving time over working at one thing at the time. Yet, when it comes to relaxing part, watching movies in Full-HD resolution with no strain on the eyes is invaluable. When it comes to games, you will feel an instant boost in your gaming experience. This especially goes for racing games, where the screen is finally bigger than a steering wheel - and in MMOs, you will end up having advantage over your opponents - you can fit all of the add-ons and controls and still have bigger view area than on a clear 19" monitor, and that is something you can't buy. Playing WoW:TBC on a 19" screen after playing it on this one immediately leaves you feeling trapped and claustrophobic.

Xbox 360 was a bit short-stick experience in 1080i, but with Microsoft enabling support for native 1080p resolution, we have no objections on the size or picture quality. If you ran a 1080i resolution, not all will be perfect.

In Short
Dell 2407WFP is a monitor that will offer you best value for money when it comes to larger screens. You can expect that your productivity will go through a major and positive change, especially if you are journo, application developer or simply - gamer. Writing and researching through tons of PDF files is easy to handle, programming in 16:10 is something you have to experience, while gaming is just more immersive, but does not strain your eyes like the 3007WFP. ?

The Good
+ Full HD Resolution support
+ Number of connectors
+ Price

The Bad
- Mixup of revisions on the market (you can still get A03)
- Pro-gamers may feel latency in FPS games
- No HDMI connector (like we already wrote, this is not such a minus over the fact that the monitor does not have sound output)

The Ugly
In HC revision, this monitor would probably earn a clear 10 score. However, it probably would not cost as little as it costs today. Usual limitations of S-PVA displays apply, but those LCD technology issues are ones we have to live with.

Bartender's Report

Reviewed and tested by Davor Baksa and Theo Valich