Conclusion and Awards
Three years ago, I purchased my first 24" LCD, the Dell 2405FPW. It was on sale, so I got it at an absolute steal: only $1000! (Regular price was $1350 at the time.) Three years later, you can now find even better LCDs for roughly half that price. That's one of the great benefits of LCD technology over CRTs: prices may have started out higher, but they are dropping rapidly into much more affordable ranges. 21/22" CRTs seemed to bottom out at around $500 for years before they finally started to disappear altogether. There are still users that prefer the CRT experience, but after my upgrade three years ago I have never looked back.
Our roundup today examined five recent LCD introductions from different companies. Combine that with the 24" LCDs we've reviewed previously and we now have a good basis for ranking the current LCDs. If you're looking for a one-size-fits-all solution, unfortunately we cannot come up with a single recommendation. The 24" LCD market has split into two segments. On the one hand, we have S-PVA panels that provide great colors and viewing angles but struggle with input lag, and on the other hand we have TN panels that may not offer the most accurate colors but they have no discernible input lag (at least when compared to other LCDs). We are not bothered by input lag, but competitive gamers depend on every potential advantage they can get, so 20 or 40 ms can and will make a difference. We will therefore select what we feel is the best LCD for each of these markets.
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This is not to say that other LCD options are not worth considering. All of the 24" LCDs we've reviewed so far are at worst decent quality, and several can easily compete with our Editors' Choice recipients. The LaCie 324 for example is a professional monitor at a professional price; it's not something we would recommend for casual users, but imaging professionals and users in the desktop publishing industry might be swayed by its feature set. Depending on pricing, some of the other LCDs might become more or less interesting.
Unfortunately, we're still missing our "one ring to rule them all". [Ed: …and in the dorkness bind them?] What we'd really like to see is a single LCD that can combine the best aspects of the Dell 2408WFP with low input lag, and it might be interesting to see a glossy S-PVA panel as an option from one of the manufacturers. A lot of us still prefer matte finishes, but at least one of the editors has been swayed to the dark side by the Gateway FHD2400. If there is an inherent trait of S-PVA panels that causes input lag, another alternative we would be very interested in seeing is a 24" S-IPS panel. Considering our 30" HP LP3065 uses an S-IPS panel and matches the TN panels in input lag, that could be the perfect solution. We're sure there are plenty of users out there that would even pay extra money for such an LCD.
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feraltoad - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
Do you think a subsequent Dell Revision will fix this or as you suggest are we seeing possible limitations in that panel technology?Currently some users are reporting a "red tint" on the left side of their monitors. Has anyone experienced this?
Owners of the Dell 2408 I would appreciate some opinions about this monitor, because I want to upgrade to a 24inch LCD (& get rid of a CRT on a second PC), but as I currently have a 21inch LCD (HP f2105) that I am mostly happy with I want to get something thing that will be a definite improvement. As Jarred states the Dell, sans any lemons, looks to be perfect except for the slight input lag, and that's the concensus I've seen among opinions on various sites. I don't think I could even notice but I would like to hear some people with experience with the 2408. I would value Anandtech readers' opinions more than reviews off Dell's site since we are probably more on the same page.
Gast - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...From this should come your dork binding monitor, which looks to be the DoubleSight DS-263N with the chance of a polarizer. I'm sad that the article neglected to even mention this great resource.
rcraig - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I, too, am waiting for a review of the DoubleSight DS-263N. I have read a lot about this monitor in another forum and it seems to be the one monitor to rule them all. Great colors for phtotgraphs, low lag for games, IPS for great viewing angles, and 26 inches for only $680! It only lacks the many input features some offer, but it does offer dual DVI, VGA, and 4 USB's.JarredWalton - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I've sent a couple email messages to DoubleSight, so far with no response. Same goes for a variety of other manufacturers. I'd love to go out and buy the LCDs I want to review, but that's not financially practical. :-(XtAzY - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I'm just skimming through the article, but does it mention anything about GHOSTING?JarredWalton - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
You're talking about pixel response times. See page 12 and look at the images.musicman1352000 - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I have been waiting - desperately hoping and praying - that anandtech would review the dell 2408. It seems to be a stand out performer to me but I've been really put off buying it by the number of complaints of pink/red "tint", uneven brightness, colourful font halos, and bad input lag posted in forums. Reviews contradict each other and many people are waiting for a revision to solve the perceived problems like input lag (coming from an engineer, I am fully aware this particular problem can't be solved by a revision!). What I'd like to know is whether you noticed any of the problems I mentioned (not including the input lag which you obviously picked up on), and what revision of monitor you received (A00 or A01)? Also, Dell don't seem keen on telling users what versions of HDMI and displayport are used - do you know anything about this?JarredWalton - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I noticed no problems with the quality of the panel on the 2408WFP I received, with is revision A00. However, that doesn't mean some panels don't have problems. If overall quality is that important, LaCie seems to do a better job judging by their reputation (and price).I imagine part of the problem users have is that the default brightness on many monitors is way too high, and sometimes color settings need to be turned down as well. You can see that at 80-80-80 RGB with 50 on brightness and contrast, the Dell achieved exceptional color accuracy even without calibration. Is this just a cherry-picked sample? I certainly hope not!
I have no idea what version of DisplayPort the 2408 uses - and lacking any video cards with the feature I couldn't even test it right now. For HDMI, I would assume it's not 1.3, but I could be wrong. Probably v1.1 or maybe 1.2 - is there any easy way to tell? If someone can point me to a utility that will report the HDMI version, I'll be happy to test.
musicman1352000 - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
Mmm okay - thank you for replying.One of the worst things about living in New Zealand is the increased cost of buying computer parts, and the reduced ranges available (see http://www.pricespy.co.nz/cat_5.html#g147)">http://www.pricespy.co.nz/cat_5.html#g147). The Dell costs $1199.00 NZD here (and the Lacie is unavailable). That's approximately $930 when translated to USD. As I understand it the cost is ~$700 in the US?
With regards to the HDMI/displayport versions: unfortunately I don't know of any way in which you could test the display to find out. Tektronix offers software for 1.3b compliance testing (trial: http://www2.tek.com/cmswpt/swdetails.lotr?ct=SW&am...">http://www2.tek.com/cmswpt/swdetails.lo...CDSA7160...
but I think this is more engineering oriented. Maybe someone else has a suggestion?
Thanks once again for your opinions :)
feelingshorter - Friday, May 2, 2008 - link
I hope anandtech reviews some of the cheaper monitors in the future also. The cheapest monitors reviewed, being the gateway/samsung at 450 is a steep price for some of us.Just to name the cheaper ones on newegg, SCEPTRE X24WG is at 300 (AR) and seems to be the poor man's 24, or the KDS K-24MDWB at 350 is also at a reasonable price. Plus wouldn't comparing the low end be a good idea to see if you can justify paying for a $1000 lacie (or 500+) gets you more?