Related link: http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=2400
The last time I bought a new monitor, I was running a Mac IIci. That refrigerator-size screen was top-rated back then (1998), but lately it seemed blurry. Or maybe that was my eyes, after eight years of soaking up its retina-burning radiation. I had taken to running the 19-inch screen at just 1,024x768, which made things more legible but required lots of window shuffling.
Then a 3D graphics enthusiast tipped me to the Dell 2005FPW, a 20.1-inch widescreen LCD that reportedly uses the same LG/Philips LCD panel as Apple’s $799 Cinema Display. My wife’s Dell laptop has a beautiful screen, so after some more research (read: searching for reviews that gave me “permission” to make the choice I wanted to make), I bought the Dell. Even with tax, it cost $300 less than the Apple. If I’d bought back in November, I could have saved even more. And amazingly, the shipping was both free and fast—the monitor arrived about 30 hours after I ordered it. Apple took weeks to ship my G5.
I was pleased to see that the Mac recognized the monitor’s odd 1,680x1,050 resolution right away, even though that combination hadn’t appeared in the Monitors menu before. (Apparently the monitor introduces itself to the computer, because a 2005FPW color calibration profile showed up as well.) I’m really enjoying the new desktop space—both physical and virtual.
Some other nice surprises: The Dell has four USB jacks and four video inputs (DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite), along with a front-panel button to switch among them. (The Apple has a single video input.) The extra input let me hook up the old beige G3 I keep around to run my Korg OASYS-PCI soundcard, which never got OS X drivers. I also plugged in the composite video output from my camera—just because I could. After some futzing with the Dell’s onscreen controls, I figured out how to keep it from stretching the non-DVI video inputs horizontally.
The Dell also offers amusing picture-in-picture and picture-beside-picture modes, though I haven’t been able to get DVI and VGA signals to share the screen. Oddly, the display also rotates 90 degrees. Maybe that’s helpful for reading legal documents or long Web pages? Or looking at tall photos? I’m an audio guy, so all I can say is I like it so far.
Speaking of looks, many people have complained that the black plastic Dell doesn’t look as nice as the aluminum Apple display. That’s true, but hardly worth 300 bucks in my book. After taping my logo over Dell’s and downloading a bunch of crisp 1,680x1,050 wallpaper from Interfacelift.com, I’m liking the looks even more.
Now that I have the G3 back in the lineup, though, I’m really noticing its noisy power supply. Please leave a comment if you know of any alternatives.
Other successful upgrades, anyone?
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Mac
Comments (11)
Read More Entries by David Battino.
To undo the rotation, turn the display counterclockwise. You may need to tilt the bottom of the screen toward you slightly first.
I see that you noticed the dell's ability to swing its display 90 degrees. I have too, though inadvertently. How do you undo it? I don't know how it happened.
Thanks in anticipation
Why not just upgrade the power supply fan?
Hey, thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out. —David
Why not just upgrade the power supply fan?
The cheapest solution to your beige G3 option might be to replace the loud fan in the power supply with a quieter version.
I once did this to my Power Mac 7600 by purchasing a Panaflo model fan. Cheap, and made a big difference!
This is a great monitor
I noticed the same thing with Dell's UK prices - for once Apple were actually competitive (especially once I challenged them to price match another site - they matched the same price even though it didn't include p&p, beat it by 15 quid and gave me next-day courier delivery - moral of that story is shop around before going to Apple on-line).
While I think that in general it's a mistake to think the same LCD panel = same monitor, the reviews of the Dell have all been very positive (it's other specs also match the Apple display) - had the UK price been comparable I'd probably have gone for it. As it is, I'm glad I was 'forced' into the nice silver finished Cinema Display . . .
This is a great monitor
As long as your equipment can work with the slightly unusal native resolution, this monitor is great.
Dell USA seem to do good deals on it at source, but I found Dell UK selling it at a premium. However, buying it via a grey distributor bought the price down to that of the US price tag.
It's a fantastic montior, and the extra input for DVI in addition to VGA nicely allows me to run both a PC and a Mac into it.
You can also hook up a digital TV box to it via a SCART->SVideo, a great and fairly cheap way of getting TV into your office.
Bought a couple of 17" Dell Monitors
Our old 17" CRT had a Power Computing logo on it. Gives you an idea how old that was. When I got my son a new Mac Mini, I bought two Dell 1704FPT monitors. Both my son's Mac Mini and My old Mac Cube recognized the monitors and had the right profile.
The computer display on the Mac Mini can also be rotated 90 degrees (actually, it can also be rotated 180 and 270 degrees according to the System Preferences panel). However, my Mac Cube doesn't have that option. It would be nice if there was some sort of key combination that could rotate the computer display 90 degrees to match the Dell monitor instead of going to the Preference panel each time.
We also appreciate the new USB ports. I was about to pick up a second USB hub because we were out of USB ports. Now, I have USB ports to spare.
Harshness
Yeah, the Dell is crazy bright. According to the comparison article I linked to above, it has a different backlight. The brightness is great during the day, though, because I can leave the curtains open. —David
Holding out for the Dell 30"
I think if I do upgrade from my 20" Apple ADC LCD, it will be to Dell's 30 incher once it comes out in early '06. You know it's going to be way less expensive than Apple's 30" and I'll be able to hook my consoles up to it no problem.
From what I know, the ADC displays are manufactured by someone else... can't remember who, but I just like these displays better for some reason. They somehow seem less... harsh I guess.
Rotating your Dell
The determinant whether you Mac supports rotation is the video card: Apple has written rotation support into its ATI drivers, but not its nVidia drivers.
That means my G5 (with an ATI 9600) and my mini (ATI 9200) can handle my Dell 2005 FPW with rotation, but my PowerBook (nVidia 420 Go) can't.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it: It's fantastic for morning websurfing. I've got a bunch of pages set to come up in tabs at a single click, and with the display in portrait, I can see pretty much the entire page. That means I load all 15 or so pages, then quick-scan and command-w my way through them.
It's a lot quicker than when I have to scroll the page.
24" wide version even better
I bought the 24" wide version when it was on sale in the UK.
It has all the above features, PLUS
Component video input (RGB)
7-in-1 memory card reader
90 degree rotation, although the Mac does not recognise this.
Will