The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 27, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Cable Management, Pivot, Stand
Cable management is very important to us, and Apple’s cable management might only be second to Samsung’s SyncMaster 193P or SyncMaster 172T. In fact, if you don’t mind the power brick, Apple might even excel past Samsung with this regard. Power, USB, Firewire and DVI signal are all transmitted via a single (proprietary) cable from the panel. The result is a very clean, no nonsense look that really complements the all aluminum bezel in only the best way possible.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Apple takes a more subtle approach by locating their Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 inputs behind the bottom right of the panel. This was slightly awkward at first, and we actually ended up using a separate USB hub, since the hubs were very difficult to attach and detach easily. On the other hand, Apple gets points for including a Firewire 400 input, something that we were accustomed to quite quickly. Below, you can see the input set of the Dell 2005FPW.
Dell might not stack up to Apple as far as cable management goes, but how important is cable management compared to monitor flexibility? Flexibility is a term that we’ve had to coin over the last few display reviews for lack of a better word to describe how we can manipulate a monitor. Dell, in fact, allows us to rotate to 90 degrees counterclockwise, pivot to 90 degrees in either direction and tilt 45 degrees vertically. Several degrees of freedom are not something that we particularly lust for in a display, but they certainly have their functionality to some. ATI and NVIDIA both include pivot drivers in their latest driver packages, so pivoting can be enabled via the desktop control panel. For everybody else, Dell includes their own pivot drivers as well, although we had some difficulty getting these to work correctly on multiple display setups.
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cnlsilva - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
Thanks for the article - I have an LG/Phillips 1680x1050 display on my laptop and it is great. The only display I can see that could beat it would be tthe 1920x1200 display now on the Dell XPS Gen2 laptop. A review on that display would be nice.Two questions:
1. Anyone have any information on the 17" 1680x1050 display as separate units - I have DVI out so it would be nice to dual monitor - although that is a VERY wide dual display - too wide perhaps.
Loved the article - a few errors(please edit this and remove this statement):
page 10 "Unlike analogy" -> analog
page 10 "uses much simplier" -> simpler
Pastuch - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
Fantastic article.RE: Widescreen Gaming
I too found the Widescreengamingforum and was shocked that with simple registry changes you can adjust most games to the native resolution you desire. I play Halflife 2 (CS Source), Farcry, Warcraft 3:FT (DOTA), Doom 3, and Everquest 2 on my 2005fpw without any stretching issues.
This forum thread has over 90 pages of responces from Dell 2005fpw owners. The thread is actually a review. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=24...
stukafox - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
Has anyone been able to purchase this monitor at the listed price of $486.85 from the Dealtime link? I click on the 'BUY IT' and am directed to Dell's site, which lists the monitor at $749, less a 25% discount of $187.25, for a total of $561.75. This is far from the $486.85 listed at Deal Time.Any idea what's going on?
Ibrin - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
I run the website that was mentioned earlier (WSGF), http://www.widescreengamingforum.comI posted an article over on the AnandTech forums about this article. The author is quite mistaken, and most new games do support widescreen. If you'd like a bit more detail on some of the games that do support widescreen, you can hit the forum topic here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...
If you'd like detailed info, including on to hack/mod some of your favorite games to run in widescreen, head on over to the WSGF
golemite - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
few things...1) world of warcraft does support 1680x1050 natively, surprised you didnt see this in the resolution settings
for other games check out widescreengamingforum.com
2) 16:10 is usually used for computer/laptop monitors because it is felt that 16:9 doesnt give u an adequate workspace. it is suppose to be the recommended aspect ratio for Longhorn as well
3) dell will actually replace your LCD for any reason, even down to 1 pixel or backlighting problems within 21 days or so of purchase as part of their total satisfaction guarentee (or similarily named policy) many early adopters have apparently done this successfully
JNo - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
oh yeah - thanks Sandys (#37 & 39) - that rocks! really helpful and saved me a lot of time...got a modded xbox with monster component, so it's getting even more tempting... just need to find a friend willing to contribute to getting the two at the discount...
JNo - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Also, I am guessing that the panel in the Dell 2405 may be the same one as in Sony's P-234/B (23" 1920x1200 widescreen, 16ms response time) reviewed here:http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=son...
Can anyone confirm?
djbkim - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
My guess is that Dell LCDs are compatible with Macs. Dell's website has only PC compatibility listed.djbkim - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
MJA - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
at one time the dell 2005FPW was selling for $386 (techbargains.com codes)I got mine for $486