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The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple

 by Kristopher Kubicki on April 27, 2005 12:05 AM EST
70 Comments | Add A Comment
70 Comments

Application Analysis

The core of our LCD benchmarking comes from real application analysis. We play with a lot of monitors and it gets easier for us each time to pick out problems with an LCD just by using the right application. Here are a few quick looks at some demanding full screen applications. We already ran ColorVision's OptiCal software, so all of our monitors are calibrated and adjusted to the same curves.

High Definition Video – We played the WMV9 1080p and 720p versions of “Under Sea Adventure” to give our monitor a little taste of high definition video. In many of our previous analyses, we simply ran WMV9 content unscaled to test color depth and clarity. However, since both the Apple Cinema and Dell 2005FPW are capable of widescreen unscaled aspect ratios (at least for 720p), we thought it best to put both of these monitors completely through their paces. No surprise, but there doesn’t seem to be any corruption or shifts in any of the colors. However, keep in mind that neither of these displays supports HDCP! We could not watch 1080i or 720p signals on either display from a regular Comcast HD receiver, since neither display has a DVI-HDCP input. While pin compatible, any HDCP source simply terminates after a few seconds of video. The Dell 2005FPW has a few additional inputs, so we can actually use a component-to-VGA (15-pin D-sub) cable and watch HD content in this manner. Of course, for the same reason why we don’t encourage anyone to use 15-pin D-sub cables for regular computer use, we really don’t recommend D-sub for TV either if it can be avoided. Unfortunately, in this scenario, it cannot.


Click to enlarge.

The Matrix Reload, The Matrix - We use the Matrix series to test full motion video on our LCDs. Since the Matrix isn't the best movie to test color reproduction, we typically only look for motion blur on gray-to-gray transitions or other imperfections in the signal. Both displays demonstrated accurate sharpness, although we noticed that the slightly duller Apple display had more of a “washed out” look to it in comparison to the Dell 2005FPW. Typically, we only see this on brighter LCDs with lower contrast ratios. Since the Apple 2005FPW has a (very) slight lower measured contrast ratio, this didn’t surprise us during out testing.


Click to enlarge.

World of Warcraft – Although I didn’t personally start playing World of Warcraft until Anand published his Performance Guide, WOW happens to be one of the most perfect games to test LCD gaming. The fairly rich color palette, high motion objects and often contrasting lights and darks make the game a perfect haven to really put a display to its limits. (Unfortunately, once you turn it on, it also becomes nearly impossible to stop playing and start writing). Putting our displays into mirroring mode and playing for a few hours really stresses the importance of good color calibration in game settings; for example, it became almost impossible to differentiate portions of the grass needed to be selected for a quest on both LCDs before calibration through ColorVision’s OptiCal. Because both monitors were using DVI connectors, these changes had to be made to the color curves on the PC because the functionality is disabled on the monitors.

Max Payne 2 - The extreme light and dark transitions in Max Payne still provide us with the sufficient criteria to benchmark transient response time; specifically, we can focus on the light and dark extremes. We detected no red shift (as we usually do on this game for PVA displays), and had no problem with motion blur.

Photoshop CS – We typically don’t mention applications like Photoshop, but while using some of our new found desktop space, we took to advanced features in Photoshop like a fish in water. It’s no surprise that high end graphics (and, of course, video) are done on these displays; the higher resolution and wider room allow us to spread the tool bars out further while giving us more room to work. Widescreen displays feel awkward at first, but given hours of tinkering and readjusting, the additional room feels almost necessary.


Click to enlarge.


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  • graphicsgal - Friday, April 28, 2006 - link

    Our ad agency is trying to decide which of these monitors to purchase for our print staff. Is there any info on any differences in printed pieces?

  • tmanXX - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link

    Does anyone know what revisions of the 2005FPW to stay away from?

    Thanx!

  • jchor - Thursday, April 6, 2006 - link

    Did anybody figure out the power saving mode problem?

  • cybrsamurai - Thursday, May 26, 2005 - link

    I have purchased four 2005FPWs with out a single dead pixel or problem. I even dropped one right on its corner from about 4 feet up still works fine. Dont be afraid embrace the good cheap monitor.

  • yacoub - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link

    Dell make good LCDs if you discount all the people who have had to return them for backlight issues and/or dead pixels. I'll stick with Sony after owning one that has not a single stuck or dead pixel and just a slightly brighter bottom backlight. Let me know when Dell ups the quality enough that I can be certain to get one without dead pixels (or let me know when they start selling these panels at b&m stores so I can return it right away if it has issues).

  • Ranger8P - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link

    Did you guys have the model A01 or the model A02? I didn't see that mentioned in the article. I recently bought a 2005 and it has the same manufacturing date as the one in your review. It's an A01

  • pucerian - Saturday, May 21, 2005 - link


    great place to get high resolution widescreen wallpapers for these monitors is InterfaceLIFT

    http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/resolutions.php...
    http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/resolutions.php...

  • LorenAmelang - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link

    Great Review - Thank You!

    A couple of user comments asked about the S-Video & Composite video performance - here's the scoop:

    Before I ordered my 2005FPW, I tried to find out how it handled widescreen 16:9 vs. conventional 4:3 aspect ratios for the video inputs. I found no clue. But since video was not my main concern, I ordered it anyway - how bad could it be?

    Now I can tell you. It is unbelievably disastrous. It doesn't do any form of video correctly. First, it completely ignores the (anamorphic) widescreen control signals from my DV camera and DVD recorder. All video is mangled in the same way.

    Its manual aspect ratio choices are "Fill" which warps either 4:3 or 16:9 video to the full 16:10 screen format, or "1:1" and "Aspect" which warp all video to a different wrong aspect. This is not 4:3 (1.33 : 1), nor is it 16:9 (1.78 : 1), nor even 16:10 (1.60 : 1). It is 1.50 : 1, which is what you get if you take 4:3 standard 720x480 DV video and display the non-square video pixels as square display pixels.

    Of course you can't tell this by measuring the image boundary, because the video image is severely cropped (overscanned), particularly in the horizontal direction. In terms of a 640 pixel wide image, about 42 pixels are cut off each side. In "Fill" mode, a 4:3 picture is even more distorted than the 16:10 ratio would suggest. If you choose "Aspect" to get somewhat closer to 4:3, you end up with black bars along those edges in place of the missing 1/8th of your video, but what you do see is still too wide.

    When you use the picture-in-picture feature, you don't get the "1:1" and "Aspect" choices. All video is stretched to fill the 16:10 screen area of each of the available PiP or PbP sizes.

    Why would Dell bother to add the hardware for S-Video and composite video inputs, and get the software so wrong? I suspect the hardware was borrowed from a 4:3 (1600x1200) monitor, where the "Fill" choice would at least display conventional video more-or-less properly.

    But why the neglect of the rectangular video pixels versus square computer pixels issue? Can anyone with a Dell 2001FP 4:3 display enlighten us as to whether it has "1:1" and "Aspect" choices, and whether they produce too wide a picture when fed 4:3 video?

    So what does the video look like, other than distorted? Very bright and colorful, and fast, but when stretched to fill most of the screen it is blocky. The scaling algorithm is nowhere near as good as that in my (original) Apple Studio Display, or in a Sony WEGA (DRC) TV.

    Oh well, the 2005FPW is a beautiful computer monitor. And my tablet's Intel Graphics adapter (82830M), which gave no hint of supporting 1680x1050 before the monitor was here, suddenly made that resolution available when the 2005FPW was connected. (Windows didn't show it, but the Intel control panel did.)

    One more thing... If you buy a Dell monitor alone, without a Dell CPU on the same invoice, you do not get a Dell "System Tag". Without a system tag, you can not access any of Dell's online support or chat support options. You simply do not exist.

    The telephone support people will talk to you if you give them a serial number or order number, but there is no support department dedicated to displays. I ended up being transferred to the Dell TV support people, and spent literally hours on the phone. Even sent them photos of test patterns to illustrate the aspect problems. I'm not sure I was even able to make them understand, let alone solve the problem.

    Best to just forget the 2005FPW has those S-Video and analog video inputs. Unless you have a thing for short, fat people...

    Loren

  • stevlevin - Saturday, May 14, 2005 - link

    Excellent review! It's way over my non-tech head, but I surely appreciate that these are both great monitors.

    Here's my problem. I bought the Dell 2005 and found with a DVI interface that it is so bright that it hurts my eyes, as #9 comment said. Apparently the contrast control is disabled with DVI, and the range of brightness control is very limited - extremely bright to very bright. I had to return it just on that basis.

    When I went to the Apple store, it appeared to me that the 20" Cinema display may have a greater range of brightness. Have others had this problem or found a solution? Am I missing something that might have allowed me to lower the brightness or adjust the contrast of the Dell monitor?

    Thanks for all comments.

  • wrack - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link

    So can I assume that any graphics card of ATI like, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800 will support the resolution in question.
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