CNET Editor's rating: 7.8 out of 10
Reviewed by
Jeffrey Fuchs
Review date: 03/27/06
Release date: 03/27/06
The good: Excellent image quality; lots of adjustments options; composite and S-Video ports; USB hub; picture-in-picture window.
The bad: No dedicated brightness or contrast buttons; onscreen menu is difficult to navigate; base is slightly wobbly.
The bottom line: The attractive Dell UltraSharp 2007FP combines superior image quality, a full range of adjustment options, and a fair price. The result is a 20-inch LCD that's hard to beat.
Dell gets just about everything right with the UltraSharp 2007FP. The $539 price is competitive, and the combination of ergonomic design, chic good looks, and practical extras is sure to please home and business users alike. Many more-expensive 20-inch LCDs, such as the Samsung SyncMaster 204T and the HP LP2065 offer similar adjustability and performance, but both monitors lack the variety of inputs and the low cost of the Dell UltraSharp 2007FP. For identical features in a wide-screen format, check out our review of the Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP.
The 20.1-inch Dell 2007FP features the same two-tone color scheme and attractive, versatile design as other members of the UltraSharp family. A thin, black bezel frames the screen, and a slim neck extends from a Y-shape base. This design offers exceptional flexibility, with 45 degrees of swivel to the right and left and five inches of height adjustment. The panel also pivots from landscape to portrait mode and tilts 5 degrees forward and 20 degrees back. The pivoting action is a bit stiff, and the short back leg of the base makes the 2007FP a tad unsteady, but the overall merits of the design far outweigh these minor shortcomings.
Lined up on the 2007FP's back panel are connection ports for DVD-D, VGA, composite video, and S-Video, as well as one upstream and two downstream USB 2.0 ports and a 12-volt audio jack for connecting the optional $29 Dell Sound Bar. Two more downstream USB 2.0 ports are tucked behind the monitor's left bezel. Dell includes analog and digital cords as well as a USB cord.
Five control panel buttons are clearly labeled with white-on-black icons for switching input signal and navigating the onscreen menu (OSM). Dell takes an interesting approach to its OSM layout; instead of a box in the middle of the screen, the OSM is a line of squares along the monitor's bottom edge labeled Exit, Brightness & Contrast (contrast is VGA-only), Auto Adjust (VGA-only), Input Source, Color Settings, Image Modes, Display Settings, Menu Settings, and PIP Settings. When you select a square, it brightens a little and its tiny icon changes color, but even with these cues, it's difficult to tell which option you're selecting. To complicate matters, each adjustment option has its own menu and submenu of adjustment choices to scroll through. This allows for a plethora of adjustment options, but the menus are difficult to navigate; we wish there were dedicated shortcut buttons for the most-common image adjustments, such as brightness and contrast.
The Dell 2007FP performed extremely well on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests. At its native 1,600x1,200 resolution, the 2007FP's text was black, sharp, and entirely legible. Grayscales progressed smoothly from deep black to bright white, with only very minor pink and green tints. The 2007FP's colors were bold and accurate, though in our color tests, red took on an orange cast and light blue appeared slightly violet, and adjusting the screen's settings didn't eliminate these errors.
DVD playback on the Dell 2007FP was only average, which is not surprising, considering the 2007FP's middling 16-millisecond pixel-response rate. We noticed average amounts of digital noise and ghosting, though errors weren't excessive. Games, however, looked sharp with lots of detail in both bright and dark areas and vivid colors throughout.
The Dell 2007FP comes with an industry-standard three-year warranty and 24/7 toll-free tech support. You can buy one additional year of coverage for $29 or two years for $49. User guides, product support, troubleshooting tips, and a Dell-hosted customer information-sharing forum are all available on Dell's Web site.
8 out of 10 - Excellent One Model, Two Displays? The DELL LCD Inconsitency Conspiracy; Is it IPS or PVA?
Side by side (both cloned in DVI-D) I found two ?identical? 2007FP monitors to be very different, and in fairness ...
Side by side (both cloned in DVI-D) I found two ?identical? 2007FP monitors to be very different, and in fairness to the consumer they should not share one model number.
You better watch out, DELL plays a dangerous game with their LCD monitors. Some people go so far as to call it a bait and switch scheme, using expensive high quality LCD panels for the initial product release (and initial reviews), then silently switching to lower quality LCD panels later in production for the bulk of the consumer run. There is no question of *if* they switch the panels, it?s an absolute matter of fact that they do. The question is why do they do this and not inform the consumer? Well guess what, I?m not going to get into that. Nice intro, eh? This review is about two different versions of one monitor.
If you don't know a lot about LCD technology, you will need to at least understand the meaning behind S-IPS and S-PVA to figure out what?s going on (scroll down a bit to ABOUT THE DIFFERENT PANELS). These are two different LCD technologies representing two very different manufacturing techniques--and two very different display styles.
------------------------------- 2007FP S-IPS and S-PVA compared:
2007FP (S-IPS)
I am now using the 2007FPb A03 S-IPS version (LG.Philips LM201U05) as of this morning as my primary monitor. It is right on par with the 2001FP (also S-IPS) it shares the desk with. Putting the S-IPS 2007FP in ?Mac Mode? gives it a slight edge over the 2001FP. Everything about the image is beautiful. Text is sharper than the 2001FP, which has a thicker kind of ?cleartype? look to it but is softer overall. Color is slightly better on the 2001FP, but the viewing angle is much better on the 2007FP S-IPS. This version of the 2007FP is a great monitor.
2007FP (S-PVA)
I just passed off a the 2007FP A03 S-PVA version (Samsung LTM201U1) to a co-worker. I found the S-PVA panel was useless for determining shadows and highlights, and I had to move my head left to right to see the entire range of the screen. It did look more intense dead-on than the S-IPS version (like an X-brite/Truelife display), so my co-worker preferred it for her windowed office. The colors were bold but inaccurate, and subtle shading or gradients were not always visible. This panel also has a more apparent ?screen door? effect than the S-IPS panel. 90% of my daily work is in the Adobe CS2 Suite in a light-controlled room (as in I got no window but I make it sound good), so the PVA version wasn?t good for me. Bold and bright it is, soft and beautiful it is not.
Also: 2007WFP/FP users UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE or ask DELL for a trade if you have the ?banding? issue (A00-A01), it is a problem with a solution.
------------------------------- ABOUT THE DIFFERENT PANELS:
Google a few things: "A Little bit on LCD's", "DELL Censors Panel Lottery Info", ?LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple?, and ?Got my replacement 2007s and took lots of pictures?. Also look up ?Liquid Crystal Display? in Wikipedia.
Put very simply:
---S-IPS--- (DELL uses the same LG.Philips S-IPS panels Apple uses in their Cinema displays) have superior true color values, the most consistent image (highest viewing angle), and creamy smooth contrast, and are *the choice* for photo editing and graphics work. S-IPS image quality looks as close to a CRT as an LCD can get. Not the absolute brightest or fastest of the lot, but it?s generally considered the ?best.?
---S-PVA--- ?WOW Factor? monitors. Extremely intense, bright displays with high contrast. These have a harsh appearance compared to S-IPS but have the deepest blacks and brightest (glaring?) images of all LCD types, so they are well suited to handle various lighting conditions. A good choice for movie watching, these are the panels typically used in HDTVs as they are cheaper to manufacture and usually blow people away in brightly lit retail showrooms.
DELL frequently assembles same-designation monitors using either panel type (general rule of thumb ASOI seems to be lower quality in Europe, UK and Canada, higher quality in the USA, Asia and Australia). So what should be two separate models are sold as one, sometimes depending where you purchased it, sometimes depending when. The 2007FP & 2007WFP both exist with four revisions to date (A00-A03), and at least five LCD panel possibilities between them. Unfortunately you will probably not know ahead of time which one you purchase. -------------------------------
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by soupyhotness (see profile) -
January 17, 2007
5 out of 10 - Average What was actually reviewed by CNET?
Sadly inferior to the previous model (2005FP) in several ways. Cheaper construction materials (plastic bezel lower quality etc). Stand although ...
Sadly inferior to the previous model (2005FP) in several ways. Cheaper construction materials (plastic bezel lower quality etc). Stand although slightly more attractive, is not as practical to use (egg swivel function takes feet with it!). Now includes power supply and no longer an external brick. When this item was reviewed above, all stock allegedly had a flaw which produced unacceptable banding and blurred text (particularly with white text on a black background). The CNET test results indicate very good greyscale and text clarity results which is very odd as Dell have now issued a REV02 firmware update to address the aforementioned problems with previous production... Backlight bleed though appears to be better on the 2007FP. Sad that Dell appear to be undoing the previous goodwill felt for their own brand monitors. A lot of trust seems to have been squandered by cutting too many corners and misjudging how sophisticated and knowledgeable a lot of their monitor customers are/were... Cheap (in US) and not very cheerful. In UK this item retails at $860...!!!
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by idleworld (see profile) -
June 27, 2006
7 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Very nice looking LCD monitor
I purchased it with Dell 5150, the price was awesome with the package. This monitor has 2 extra USB ports ...
I purchased it with Dell 5150, the price was awesome with the package. This monitor has 2 extra USB ports on the side, very helpful when you use thumb drive a lot.
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by freewilly (see profile) -
September 3, 2006
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular really good quality and sharp display
i got this with my xps 600 .this has a very clear sharp lcd screen i also have my xbox ...
i got this with my xps 600 .this has a very clear sharp lcd screen i also have my xbox hooked up to it very clear . great for watching movies and other multimedia
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by blk_wolf (see profile) -
June 10, 2006
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 out of 10 - Very good Good clear reliable monitor.
Great LCD monitor for a good price, but you might sacrifice a little bit of quality.
Great LCD monitor for a good price, but you might sacrifice a little bit of quality.
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by archangel201086 (see profile) -
August 19, 2008
3 out of 10 - Poor Don't buy to hang on wall
If you already have a Dell wall mount, then you might be ok. But I already purchased a VESA standard ...
If you already have a Dell wall mount, then you might be ok. But I already purchased a VESA standard wall mount for my Samsung monitor and do not want to be held hostage to Dell to the tune of $160 for another wall mount.
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by ketama (see profile) -
May 29, 2007
4 out of 10 - Mediocre Nice but...no dual monitor support for DVI-I
This is a spectacular inexpensive monitor as long as you are using only one monitor and/or VGA. If you ...
This is a spectacular inexpensive monitor as long as you are using only one monitor and/or VGA. If you have a video card with only DVI-I support, you can use one of these monitors, but not two. What happens is that the "primary" monitor will come on, but the "secondary" monitor will enter "power save" mode during the boot up and not come back on. Dell's tech support was very nice, but their solution is: use the VGA inputs instead. Both of my monitors will be returned to Dell tomorrow.
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by tazreed (see profile) -
January 3, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Very very good
The one and only thing about this i would warn people about is that you need to use the dell ...
The one and only thing about this i would warn people about is that you need to use the dell drivers don't let it just use the plug and play monitor profile the performance will be differnt (and by different i mean better.) This moniotr looks great has a ton of connection adn the price is pretty decent too! this one really is a no brainer buy it!
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by behemoth85 (see profile) -
October 6, 2006
6 out of 10 - Good Bad internal connection, screen shuts off with slight bump
The screen will turn off (power is still "ON") with the slightest bump. The screen will come back on when ...
The screen will turn off (power is still "ON") with the slightest bump. The screen will come back on when you push on it or tap it. I'm assuming it's a bad internal connection. Dell is replacing it soon since the warranty is still good. You'd think that they could put the connections in a better location to hide the wires from drooping down under the monitor. For the price, I wouldn't consider another, but perhaps I just got the lemon of the bunch. Overall it has great resolution and mine had no dead pixels. As always, consider the extended warranty before purchasing.
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by Spacemonkee (see profile) -
September 1, 2006
( The image of the product displayed may be of a different color )
Display
Diagonal Size
20.1 in
Viewable Size
20.1 in
Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch
0.255 mm
Max Resolution
1600 x 1200 / 60 Hz
Color Support
24-bit (16.7 million colors)
Max Sync Rate (V x H)
76 Hz x 81 KHz
Video Bandwidth
162 MHz
Response Time
16 ms
Front Panel Controls
Adjust +/-,
Power on/off
Controls / Adjustments
Input select,
Brightness,
Color balance
Display Positions Adjustments
Tilt,
Pivot (rotation)
Display Screen Coating
Hard coating,
Anti-glare
Video Output
None
Signal Input
DVI-D, VGA
Features
UltraSharp,
Capsulated Color Filter (CCF)
Image
Image Color Temperature
Adjustable
Display (projector) image aspect ratio
4:3
Image brightness
300 cd/m2
Image Contrast Ratio
800:1
Max horizontal view angle
+89 / -89
Max vertical view angle
+89 / -89
Video Input
Analog video signal
Composite video,
RGB,
S-Video
Digital video standard
Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
Audio Output
Type
None
Input Device
Input device type
None
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces
1 x Hi-Speed USB upstream - 4 pin USB Type B,
1 x DVI-D - 24 pin digital DVI,
1 x S-video input - 4 pin mini-DIN,
4 x Hi-Speed USB downstream - 4 pin USB Type A,
1 x VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15),
1 x Composite video input - RCA
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