The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 27, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Quantitative Analysis
For the duration of this review, we connected the UltraSharp 2005FPW and Apple Cinema 20” simultaneously to a Radeon X800 Pro with factory default settings on both DVI connections unless stated otherwise. Brightness has been set to maximum as well.Luminance
Brightness ranked as one of our most important display qualities. The largest mistake that we see people make when they buy a new LCD is to put their new, bright LCD in a dim, dark room (and then turn the LCD down to 25% brightness). Not only is this terrible for your eyes, but it also unnecessarily offsets hues; a blue screen in a dark room doesn’t look the same as a blue screen in a well lit one!Below, you can see a comparison of the brightness for each of our LCD monitors.
Our Contrast Ratio
We will note the same observation from the 19” LCD Roundup two months ago. Using PreCal and our ColorVision Spyder, we will measure the luminance of a pure white image and a pure black image on the LCD monitor. The observed contrast ratio is simply the highest recorded luminance divided by the lowest. All measurements are in candela per meter squared; larger contrast ratios are more desirable.| Observed Contrast Ratio | |||
| Highest Recorded (white image) |
Lowest Recorded (black image) |
Observed Contrast Ratio | |
| Apple Cinema 20" | 247.4 | 2.4 | 103.1 |
| BenQ FP931 | 256.4 | 3.6 | 71.2 |
| Dell 1905FP | 234.6 | 2.6 | 90.2 |
| Dell 2005FPW | 280.4 | 2.6 | 107.8 |
| NuTech L921G | 278.2 | 2.6 | 107.0 |
| Planar PE191M | 234.0 | 3.0 | 78.0 |
| Samsung 193P | 230.4 | 2.2 | 104.7 |
| Samsung 910V | 219.8 | 2.6 | 84.5 |
| Sony SDM S94 | 233.8 | 3.0 | 77.9 |
| ViewSonic Q190MB | 261.8 | 2.6 | 100.7 |
Contrast ratios were fairly close to what we expected to observe. The Dell display does emit whiter whites, but at the same time, our darkest darks were not quite there. Keep in mind, the accuracy of our ColorVision Spyder is only within 0.2 cd/m 2, and this plagues the accuracy of our results. Our numbers should give you a good estimation of where each display falls in line with another, but it is far from an absolute authority.
For those who would like to see how the Apple Cinema 20” and Dell 2005FPW compare head to head, we placed an image spanning both displays on the desktop and took a snapshot. The image below is the raw image before we cleaned it up for easier comparison.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
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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