THE widescreen display to own

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent value, s-video inputs, bright, crisp images, USB ports on monitor

Cons: Some backlight bleeding, no HDCP support (added to 2007FPW)

The Bottom Line: 
For $400, the 2005FPW is a great value. This should be the standard for LCDs. Make the move to widescreen!

Author's Review
Widescreen displays are growing in popularity, obviously. Most PC manufacturers are starting to offer them, or even include them, with desktop computer purchases. Apple has been pushing them for quite a while too (more on Apple later). It's no surprise that Dell, one of the leading PC builders, is offering the 2005FPW 20" widescreen LCD monitor.

Quite simply, the 2005FPW is an outstanding display. Dell's LCDs have generally been regarded as some of the best and the 2005FPW doesn't disappoint.

The stand, for starters, is the same as most other Dell displays. It is a simple rectangular body with a nice rubber cable hiding piece on the backside. The height-adjustment is a nice feature not found on many other non-Dell displays. The height-adjustment lets you move the monitor to a more comfortable position, helping to prevent improper posture and carpal tunnel. You can also rotate the display 90 degrees to aid in page-reading. I find that in portrait mode, I can easily read a full page of text and part of the next one as well.

The panel housing attaches easily to the stand with a firm click, and can be easily removed if you want a wall mount. Aesthetically, the display is just like all the other Dells: a simple black case with silver accent. It's certainly nothing to write home about, but it matches Dell's desktop cases well. The display also has a nifty feature not found on most other LCD panels: side USB ports. These are very handy for USB flash drives...no more bending over to the desktop case, flipping open covers, or using ugly USB hubs.

On to what matters most: the panel itself. Dell sources most of their LCD screens from Samsung and LG, much like other manufacturers. In fact, the panel in the 2005FPW is IDENTICAL to Apple's 20" LCD that retails for several hundred dollars more. Contrast on the 2005FPW is excellent, with blacks being very deep and dark, and the whites being almost painful to look at. Color reproduction is vibrant as well; there is minimal color shift or bleeding when the DVI cable is used. The panel is in the UltraSharp line, meaning that it offers higher native-resolutions; in this case, 1680x1050. This improves the readability of text significantly.

Additionally, a user can navigate through the menus to tweak color, brightness, and contrast settings to their liking. This is very useful when a non-computer video source is connected, such as an XBOX or DVD player. And yes, the 2005FPW has both composite (yellow RCA plug) and S-Video inputs. More bang for your buck...you can easily hook up an additional input source and use the handy picture-in-picture feature. I have my XBOX hooked up, for example.

The biggest problem I see with this display is that the backlights bleed slightly. Some searching on the Internet revealed that this is a hit-or-miss problem, with some experiencing the bleeding, and others not. Mine screen has it. I can best describe it as slight patches of over-lit black near the edges. You only see this when looking specifically for it, and when the screen is display almost entirely black. When navigating through your operating system, or even playing games, it isn't visible.

My advice is to purchase it with a desktop; it is not an expensive upgrade, especially on the XPS line. When I purchased my XPS 400, the 2005FPW was only a $170 upgrade. When purchased with coupons or on sale, it can be had for under $400.

Whereas Apple charges $799+ for the IDENTICAL screen, Dell adds more features and charges half the price. What's not to like about that?