Dell's New 20-Inch Wide-Screen LCD Monitor

Dell today unveils its new 20-inch wide-screen LCD, the $529 UltraSharp 2007WFP. I spent a little quality time with PC World's review unit.

First off, its looks: The 2007WFP has the familiar "midnight gray" (read: black) cabinet and matte-finish silvery stand we've always seen from Dell. As with other recent Dells, the distinctive half-moon stand has given way to a more standard-two footed design. Our model didn't come with the Dell soundbar speakers attached to the bezel of the monitor in the photo, but you still get the idea. I had no trouble adjusting the height, tilt, swivel, or pivot features.

2007WFP low res.jpg

The 2007WFP packs in some entertainment features, such as S-video and composite inputs and an easy-to-use picture-in-picture/picture-by-picture function. My favorite thing, though, was the on-screen menu. Instead of taking its usual boxy form in the middle of the screen, this menu--summoned with one button push--lays out a row of icons at the bottom of the screen, almost like a taskbar. It's very easy to make adjustments while you're still looking at the screen.

Without testing in the PC World Test Center--a rather intense process that requires several models of the same native res--there's no way to formally explain the image quality. I did put it through some trials, though. At defaults, the screen showed fine details in our photos of tropical fish and a cityscape. Text looked nice, too. I found the screen settings basic and easy to understand: Three screen modes (gaming, multimedia, and standard), a few color modes, and a few other things to tweak.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl definitely looked best in the multimedia mode, although the waves looked a bit choppier than I like. I saw a little ghosting and motion artifacting, as is typical for LCD monitors. All in all, it definitely looks like a model I'd like to run through the full PC World Test Center gauntlet.

The aspect ratio of wide-screen monitors feels very comfortable and natural to me. Do you like them, or do you prefer the standard 4:3? If so, why? And am I the only one who really liked that half-moon stand?

Comments

The half moon stand was really good looking (I use one); but I have to admit, this stand is much more impressive. Working with wide-angle presents some problems with powerpoint shows. Some of us need to use that quite often. Moreover, somehow a 20" wideangle looks smaller than a 20" 4:3 LCD. But I could be wrong.

Mushfiqur Rahman

March 27, 2006

8:57 AM PT

I'd say for movies and gaming I prefer a widescreen, as I have on my laptop. But the two desktops I owe have 4:3s, which are great for web-browsing and word formatting (when going online on widescreen a lot of space is being left free and the pages are being mounted in the middle of the screen... somewhat hard to read with high res. unless, ofcourse, the page is set to 100% auto and you know how to change the size of the text in your web browser).

Fez

March 27, 2006

9:29 AM PT

I have the 19' ultrasharp, I gotta say I think I prefer the 4:3 format. It just.....seems bigger. And I like the new stand, too. The half-moon one looks ok, and keeps with the overall industrial look of Dell's. But the two legged one just looks cleaner.

Ladiesman

March 27, 2006

9:56 AM PT

I like the two legged design. I bought the 2005fpw a month or so ago. I like the widescreen. Browsing the internet is easier. If I don't rotate the screen, I just have two windows open side by side, which is nicer. True, the 24 in would be better, but...

I don't have any problems reading text at high res, 100%.

Specs didn't change much, the only difference is the inputs underneath are arranged better, and the contrast went from 600:1 to 800:1. Price stays the same, which is nice.

j.rocke

March 27, 2006

11:10 AM PT

I do prefer a bigger sized-widescreen than the one I have in my laptop. I got a Magnavox 32" HDTV LCD for $677, plus it's got 2 component video inputs and I really think that the S-Video and composite inputs seems to be useless to me, as component video provides highest quality than S-Video and Composite but DVI transmits signals digitally. I'm glad that my TV comes with DVI connector, VGA connector, and Component Video inputs.

Grayson Peddie

March 27, 2006

1:55 PM PT

Try doing a search for "2007WFP AND banding" or "2007FP AND banding" and you might find any of a number of forum threads and reviews of the major color banding problem on these Dell models.

exposeit!

May 07, 2006

2:10 PM PT

is it any good for watching sport via a set top box?

jas

July 17, 2006

5:42 AM PT