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Dell 2405FPW is fantastic

ericschmerick

ericschmerick

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 18, 2004
159
43
I've been staring at the Apple 23 inch display for a long time, and comparing it to the HP, Sony, and Samsung, when suddenly Dell announced and launched their $1200 24 inch 1920x1200 display! I ordered one the moment it was available (1st of March), and received it today. Work BEAUTIFULLY with my powerbook 1.25 15 inch. No dead pixels, fabulous screen quality. Good colors out of the box, though even better after I calibrated.

If you've been holding off on the 24 inch screens, I'd strongly recommend a look at the Dell.

Take Care,
Eric
http://www.ime3.com/
 
are you having any shutdown problems? I read that someone was having a problem with their dell 20" lcd. when they shut down their mac the monitor was instantly turning their mac back on. something about the the monitor sending power back throught the usb connnection that sent a power on signal back to the mac.

bill
 
wkw said:
are you having any shutdown problems? I read that someone was having a problem with their dell 20" lcd. when they shut down their mac the monitor was instantly turning their mac back on. something about the the monitor sending power back throught the usb connnection that sent a power on signal back to the mac.

bill
Click to expand...

not having that problem with my 20" and my USB is plugged in.
 
ericschmerick said:
I've been staring at the Apple 23 inch display for a long time, and comparing it to the HP, Sony, and Samsung, when suddenly Dell announced and launched their $1200 24 inch 1920x1200 display! I ordered one the moment it was available (1st of March), and received it today. Work BEAUTIFULLY with my powerbook 1.25 15 inch. No dead pixels, fabulous screen quality. Good colors out of the box, though even better after I calibrated.

If you've been holding off on the 24 inch screens, I'd strongly recommend a look at the Dell.

Take Care,
Eric
http://www.ime3.com/
Click to expand...

I look at my 19 inch crt and sigh... oh, the pain, the pain... :(
 
No shutdown problems in terms of just letting the computer go to sleep. Mine sleeps just fine. The only issue I have with it is that it did something weird this morning when I tried to "undock" it to go to work. Usually I unplus power, then the USB cable (that has kb/mouse on it), and the PB instantly goes to sleep. This morning, it refused to sleep, refused to turn the external display off, and refused to recognize the kb/mouse even when plugged back in. I finally had to hard-reboot the PB.

I found that turning off the monitor before removing the PB from it is best. That seems to work just as I'd expect (as soon as power is removed, PB goes to sleep).

http://www.ime3.com/
Eric
 
Are the monitor controls grayed out when you plug your pb into it?
I recall reading somewhere that Dell controls became disabled when connected to a Mac on the FP2005W. Wonder if the behavior remains with this model.
 
I use my 2405 with my mini and it's absolutely positively phenomenal. The best thing I did since switching!

Highly recommended.

TM
 
I'm getting one of these in the next few days, I was wondering what we can do about the rotating screen. Is the software out there for that?
 
alright, so people are talking about this monitor with pb's. do they support the highest resolution 1920x1200? i have a rev c 12" pb and was interested. i know that the specs on the card state that it supports a higher resolution but it is at a different aspect ratio (1.333 vs 1.6). on the dell website, it says that the vid card wouldn't power it (NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 | No).

does this mean that it won't support full res or what?
 
minesgeek said:
alright, so people are talking about this monitor with pb's. do they support the highest resolution 1920x1200? i have a rev c 12" pb and was interested. i know that the specs on the card state that it supports a higher resolution but it is at a different aspect ratio (1.333 vs 1.6). on the dell website, it says that the vid card wouldn't power it (NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 | No).

does this mean that it won't support full res or what?
Click to expand...


I just got one of these monitors yesterday and it works great with my 17" powerbook 1.67. 1920x1200 is fully supported.


bill
 
this really is an amazing screen, i got mine (for $850 too!) and its just amazing. No regrets whatsoever, if you can afford one, get it
 
minesgeek said:
which video card are you using?
Click to expand...


My powerbook has the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128mb video card.

if your 12" pb will support an apple 23" monitor then I bet it would support the Dell 24" as well, they both use the same resolution
 
wkw said:
My powerbook has the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128mb video card.

if your 12" pb will support an apple 23" monitor then I bet it would support the Dell 24" as well, they both use the same resolution
Click to expand...
that is what i am betting as well but i am looking to see if someone has some experience with pb with my card...the 64mg GeForce FX Go5200
 
wkw said:
I just got one of these monitors yesterday and it works great with my 17" powerbook 1.67. 1920x1200 is fully supported.
bill
Click to expand...
On the Dell 2005FPW 20" unit the native resolution is 1680 x 1050, and that's where you'll get the best sharpness for that model.

PS. The 1680 resolution is supported by a 32 MB ATI Radeon 7000 PCI under OS 9.2.1 on a beige G3, so it's pretty hopeful for any newer ATI based video, and probably on nVidea units of 32 Mb and higher too. Haven't tried pushing it higher.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com
 
minesgeek said:
that is what i am betting as well but i am looking to see if someone has some experience with pb with my card...the 64mg GeForce FX Go5200
Click to expand...
so does anyone have the GeForce FX hooked up to a dell 24" widescreen, and if so, what resolutions are supported? Does it power that display well or is it sluggish?
 
amoildani said:
this really is an amazing screen, i got mine (for $850 too!) and its just amazing. No regrets whatsoever, if you can afford one, get it
Click to expand...
$850!?! That's outrageous. Can you tell us where you got that deal?
 
Correction

Dell does not make better monitors than apple. If anything, they make comparable quality. Dell does not make monitors, they make shiny bits to stick on the side of the monitors to make it look like they made it. It's all usually korean parts these days. Several months back, apple's LCD supplier was Japanese, a big jump in quality over Korean, but who knows now. Anyway.
 
Lol Korean quality is bad?

Apparently you have never heard of Samsung LCDs (even though they take a big chunk of the market). Or Samsung TCCD (RAM)? It takes a HIGH quality manufacturer to make RAM that all the major brands use (Corsair, G.Skill, Geil, Kingston, OCZ, etc.)

Ever heard of "LG" panels? Tons of LCD manufacturers use that panel in their LCDs. Guess who makes it? That's rite. A Korean company.
 
SPUY767 said:
Dell does not make better monitors than apple. If anything, they make comparable quality. Dell does not make monitors, they make shiny bits to stick on the side of the monitors to make it look like they made it.
Click to expand...
By that logic, Apple doesn't make monitors. Maybe they don't make computers either since they take parts (CPU, GPU, RAM, HD, optical drive, etc.) and make fancy boxes for the parts to go in.

Anyways, I feel like you're trying to make a declaration of faith that no Dell product could ever be better than an Apple product. It seems kinda silly. Let's compare the two on specs alone...

Apple 23"
$1800
1920x1200
600:1 contrast
16ms response
270cd/m2 brightness
.258mm pitch
DVI-D input
2 USB 2.0, 2 Firewire 400 ports
VESA mount

Dell 24"
$1100
1920x1200
1000:1 contrast
12ms response
500cd/m2 brightness
DVI-D, VGA, S-Video, Component inputs
4 USB 2.0 ports
9 in 1 card reader
VESA mount

On paper, the Dell panel is clearly superior on contrast, brightness and response. The extra inputs and the card reader are nice for some people (I would use the extra inputs for a console and my PowerBook). The Apple display gives up two USB 2.0 ports for 2 firewire ports, but is $700 more. Considering Dell has offered coupons and discounts that get the 24" display down under $1000, it's hard to imagine that anyone would seriously argue that it's not better than the Apple 23" display. I mean, really, what was your point? That the Apple display offers a similar value at $700 more because it has Apple's shiny bits stuck on the side instead of Dell shiny bits? Even though the panel specs are not as good? Give me a break.
 
so does anyone have the GeForce FX hooked up to a dell 24" widescreen, and if so, what resolutions are supported? Does it power that display well or is it sluggish?

i hate to interrupt with my question again but here goes...
 
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