24 Inches of LCD Love

I finally broke down and bought the LCD of my dreams, the Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW.

I was a little worried at first, given my Dell 19" LCD wasn't fast enough to game on--games needing quick refresh (like first person shooters) cause blurring and ghosting--which is why I kept the Compaq V1100 CRT as my main monitor.

(That's the new 2405 on the left, next to the existing 1905.)

I'm happy to report that the 2405 is fast enough to handle any game I've thrown at it. The feature set is plenty impressive as well:

• An awe-inspiring native resolution of 1920 x 1200
• A multitude of connectors
  • One analog D-sub
  • One digital DVI
  • RGB component video
  • Composite video
  • S-Video
• Several modes to accomodate the different signals (16:10 native aspect, 4:3 side banding, etc)
• Picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture functionality
• A built-in 4 port USB 2.0 hub
• An integrated 9-in-1 flash card reader

The panel is especially bright and contrast is acceptable for great picture quality. One complaint I have is that the aspect controls are a little buried in the menus. When I run a game that doesn't support the 16:10 aspect I have to spend too much time twiddling the menus to get the panel to do 4:3 side banding.

I highly recommend the UltraSharp 2405FPW, especially during Dell coupon specials where the panel drops to ~$700.