I’ve been keeping tabs on Dell’s 2005FPW 20.1" LCD ever since I first heard about it on Engadget. Other than price, the big problem with most LCDs — as I see it — is that most of them have a fairly paltry resolution. I mean, sure, a 19" LCD may sound nice but what good is it if it can only handle 1280x1024? But, that’s where the 2005FPW comes in. It’s 20.1 inches and has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 (with a 12ms response time, if you’re curious).
I also found a comparison between this monitor and Apple’s 20" Cinema Display at AnandTech. Apparently, they use the same LG.Philips panel and, unsurprisingly, they perform about the same. Granted, Apple’s display may have the edge on aesthetics but AnandTech concludes by saying that the “UltraSharp 2005FPW is the display that we have been waiting for”.
This was sounding pretty good so far, but then I found an item on DealNews which further sweetened the deal — you can get the 2005FPW for about $400 + tax through a series of coupon codes:
Once again, the Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor costs $749 at Dell Home. Add any item to bump your order over $750 (e.g., this CD-R media) and apply coupon codes “S0BDZ6HBTFDPSL” and “79VT3767HP833W” to drop the net price to $396.85, not including the cost of the extra item. With free shipping, that ties last week’s listing for the lowest total price we’ve seen. The 2005FPW sports a native resolution of 1680x1050, 600:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness, an integrated 4-port USB 2.0 hub, and S-Video, composite video, DVI, and VGA inputs. Offer ends May 23 at 7 am ET, but these coupons will likely hit their limits sooner.
Though the item appeared on DealNews on Friday, I only saw it today. I wasn’t sure if the coupons were still valid, so I just tried adding the LCD to my cart and applying the coupons — it worked! But, at this point, I had other matters to consider. Firstly, did I really need a new LCD monitor? ;) I already have a 19" CRT at home and at work and it dawned on me that a one-for-one replacement wouldn’t give me much. Just to be sure, I Googled for some “LCD vs CRT” comparisons and came across this Monitor Buying Guide at C|Net.
As I can see it, it basically works out like this. LCDs are thinner, have no refresh-rate flicker and a crisp image; but, they’re also more expensive and their color rendition may be inconsistent. CRTs, on the other hand, are relatively inexpensive, have good color rendition and they can easily display varying resolutions; however, they’re energy inefficient and it’s apparently barely impossible to get perfect screen geometry.
Looking over the pros and cons, the upshot appears to be that I could get perfect screen geometry without convergence problems but that it’d cost me $400. And, at this point, I think I’m going to pass. Don’t get me wrong, this LCD from Dell looks pretty sweet and I’d almost surely buy one if I didn’t have a 19" display but, of course, I already have a 19" display.
Maybe I’ll just wait for Dell’s 24" UltraSharp 2405FWP? Its 1920 x 1200 resolution would be definitively larger than what I have now. However, its $1200 price tag — which is cheaper than the $1500 for Apple’s equivalent-resolution display — is still a bit out of my reach.
A friend of mine just got the 24″ for $1000. The 20 wide and regular aspect monitors seem to go for under $500 usually (like you said above). I miss your computer hardware posts. What’s your computer environment nowadays? Mostly Mac? (I remember the powerbook posts.) I hope to buy a new desktop this summer. Give me inspiration! :-)
Hi Josh. I haven’t posted much about hardware recently as it hasn’t changed since I last posted about it ;). I still have the Athlon desktop along with my 15″ PowerBook.
I’m still mulling over a switch to the Mac but I haven’t quite found an editor which I like yet. That, and the virtual desktop app which I was using hasn’t been compatible with Firefox for a while now.
I think I’d still like to move to OSX but there’re just those couple things holding me back for now. The “summer upgrade” is tempting, too, but I think I need to figure out my primary OS before that ;).