Dell UltraSharp 2001FP

...be obtrusive. The screen is big enough to be watched from ~1.5m away, any further and you will lose out in detailed epic views such as those in Lord of the Rings and the like. For this kind of use the Dell 2405FPW is better suited, simply for size advantage.  ... more

Colour Reproduction:

Image 1: Colour Palette Picture - Colours are well defined and realistic (for a well lit room), not bright to the extent of lurid and exaggerated. Crisp to the extent that every smear and white spec on the clear plastic bottle and glass beaker is evident; you can count the grains of powder paint if you are so inclined.

Image 2: Colour Sands - Vivid colours; if I squint I get a mauve-indigo smear, slightly bluer than red. I think the image is slightly biased towards blue, but the reds are well represented…tough call. Each colour is distinguishable from the others.

Image 3: Doom 3 Screen Shot - Blacks are a deep, deep black. However there is no strain to see anything. It may as well be floodlit. Assumedly colours/greys are as they should be or more distinguished than they should be, this screen may be more defining than it should!

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Gaming:

Pixel Response Program: Results = not run (Manufacturer's spec 16 ms)

Gaming Observations: - In a bright and colourful game like Counter-Strike: Source ghosting is evident if you look for it. Quick turns will see the corners of walls smear, but the textures retain much of the detail when moving across the screen. Many claim this monitor doesn't ghost at all, in truth it does but it is minor and hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for. The crisp and well-defined clarity and high resolution will more than make up for any minor image-trailing. DVI-in gives bonus of centred output, 1600x900 isn't far off 2005FPW resolution (1680x1050) and gives 16:9 instead of 16:10.

Unreal Tournament Test Video (17MB) - Every flaw in the video was highlighted by the screen, this is a GOOD thing! The frame rate was a tad low to ghost, but having played the game proper extensively I can vouch for it's handling of fast game play. Like CS:S, expect minimal ghosting but very good colour representation. The old 'look around with white stars on black space' test retains the stars, a blurrier/ghostier(!) screen loses them behind the trail of black space.

Although recently most computer use has been relegated to Microsoft Office (which notably will run 2xA4 portrait sheets side-by-side at 94% zoom or in portrait mode (monitor tilted through 90°) a portrait page with a significant zoom.) The screen has seen much gaming use, mostly first-person shooters. Only the more hardened, grizzled and finicky of professional gamers will object to the screen (on the grounds of ghosting). 1600x1200 will require a fair heft of video-muscle, but anyone with 12-16 pipes on their card should be fine. Games like the recent 3D Prince of Persias are a sight to behold.

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Panel Uniformity:

Black Screen - Black is obviously slightly less than perfect but takes a good stab at pitch black. Light distribution is fairly even although bottom-right corner is detectably brighter, not by much however. Severe nit-picking in mentioning this flaw, but I'm reasonably sure my eyes aren't deceiving me.

White Screen - Top-left corner seems slightly darker than the rest of the screen, as with the black though the effect is negligible to the extent I doubt its existence.

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Image Clarity:

60Hz cap, however great clarity; given the definition of each pixel on this screen (to the extent some complain of the 'screen-door' effect). Cleartype is a must. Rotating the screen through 90° removes Cleartype and text suffers considerably for it. With Cleartype text is smooth and crisp through DVI, VGA suffers slightly with minor distortion.

Q. Does DVI make any difference to the image? - DVI is flawless, VGA is very good but noticeably less well defined. Large blocks of shade/colour flicker with noise, albeit to a smaller extent than I've ever seen on a CRT.

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Viewing Angles:

Vertical: - Slight darkening at extremes however remains 100% legible with small text. Viewing angles for this screen are exemplary.

Horizontal: - Slight blue-green shift towards extremes but again remains 100% usable and only really noticeable in purposeful comparison with perpendicular viewing. I'll stress slight, viewing angles are irrelevant in terms of detail and being at a ridiculous angle to the screen will be a problem long before any negative effect is noticed. Great for home cinema or collaborative work.

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Movie Playback:

Matrix Reloaded Trailer (58MB, 640 x 346 resolution) - Movie looks watchable but screen shows up the limitations of DVD format, let alone quicktime/DivX type movies. Mild trailing visible when looping small sections of the movie and studying closely, difficult to spot even then though. The large variety of shades in the 'pile-on' scene is rendered beautifully and realistically.

General Movie Playback: - In comparison to 5:4 TFTs, the 4:3 aspect ratio of the 2001FP makes the screen seem like widescreen at first. DVDs of TV shows (like Futurama and Family Guy) will run fullscreen and be displayed impeccably. Animations such as Futurama feature large blocks of luridly demanding colour and are flawless. HDTV (of what little is currently available) will have you ridiculing the skin conditions of your favourite actors.

Widescreen films are displayed well and black borders are of sufficiently deep-blacks not to be obtrusive. The screen is big enough to be watched from ~1.5m away, any further and you will lose out in detailed epic views such as those in Lord of the Rings and the like. For this kind of use the Dell 2405FPW is better suited, simply for size advantage. 

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