Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW Black 24" LCD Monitor

Have bought 5 of these 24 inch...

Strengths: great color , great contrast

Weakness: none

Have bought 5 of these 24 inch LCD's, not one dead pixel in any of them, no issues, have compared them with EIZO's and SAMSUNGS, better contrast and colors.

By anonymous; - Nov 29, 2005

Best 24

Strengths: Awesome picture, games play great on it, no noticeable ghosting or sreaking, big screen for a good price, USB ports, lots of inputs

Weakness: Almost to big! That's really it.

This thing is a beast, awesome for movies though, make sure you have it near a place where you can lay down or sit down comfortably and watch movies on it. Screen is perfect size if you're a big computer person. Games, movies, running multiple windows in applications are so much easier on this monitor. It costs a decent amount of money but it's well worth it. I upgrade my monitor about every 5...
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This thing is a beast, awesome for movies though, make sure you have it near a place where you can lay down or sit down comfortably and watch movies on it. Screen is perfect size if you're a big computer person. Games, movies, running multiple windows in applications are so much easier on this monitor.

It costs a decent amount of money but it's well worth it. I upgrade my monitor about every 5 years so spending a good amount of money for something I'll be staring at 3-5 hours a day is worth it. Don't skimp when it comes to buying a computer monitor, this is well worth it.

Colors are great, games can't look any better, just make sure you have a good video card to run games at high resolutions. It's able to pivot, swivel comes in real handy when you want to adjust it to different users.

Dell just came out with a new 30" LCD the 3007WFP with WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. No regrets this monitor still has the perfect size/money ratio. Any bigger then this and you may as well buy a full-up LCD television display to be your monitor.

By Gigahertz20 - Jan 6, 2006

This monitor is breathtaking! I...

Strengths: The design, the color, no dead pixels. The USB ports on the side of the monitor are extremely convenient and the memory card inputs for compact flash and SD memory cards are fantastic

Weakness: After startup, the monitor sometimes defaults to mode where the screen fonts are not completely clear. You have to go into display properties and change the settings back and forth. After that everything is fine.

This monitor is breathtaking! I have used many other montiors at both work and home and this one blows the competition away. The ability to swivel to any position and swing into portrait view are especially useful.

By chuckgarcia - Nov 19, 2005

This is an astounding monitor,...

Strengths: Incredible picture quality, and incredible amount of display “real estate” at an extraordinarily competitive price point.

Weakness: Default settings are a tad too bright for true photographic accuracy.

This is an astounding monitor, especially considering how it’s pricing absolutely stomps on the competition! Dell 2405FPW: Tested on nVidia 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards, analog and DVI ports, single and dual monitor configurations under Windows XP Pro SP2. Calibrated & profiled with Monaco Optix XR Pro, and ColorVision Spyder2PRO. I bought the 2405FPW to use on my secondary computer,...
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This is an astounding monitor, especially considering how it’s pricing absolutely stomps on the competition!

Dell 2405FPW:
Tested on nVidia 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards, analog and DVI ports, single and dual monitor configurations under Windows XP Pro SP2. Calibrated & profiled with Monaco Optix XR Pro, and ColorVision Spyder2PRO.

I bought the 2405FPW to use on my secondary computer, which frequently runs extended video rendering projects. The main purpose was to get more desktop “real estate” for menus and controls in various video editing software packages.

Of course, I had to try it on my main computer as well, which is a nVidia dual DVI setup running twin Samsung 213Ts used primarily for photo editing. I temporarily replaced the primary 213T to see how it looked, and I nearly left the 2405 in that position! I eventually decided that since the secondary computer only has one monitor that more desktop real estate on that system was more important.

The 2405 has very natural color. Not quite as perfect straight out of the box as Samsung, but very, very good. It’s default brightness is also too high, straight out of the box it may leave you thinking that a picture is properly exposed, when in fact it is under exposed. If you are considering a monitor in this price range, you should also consider a calibration package as well, for greatest viewing enjoyment.

With a monitor of this quality, you absolutely MUST use the DVI port on your video card. Unfortunately, video cards prior to nVidia 6000 series typically do not support more than 1600x1200 on the DVI port, so you should strongly consider a new video card if you are purchasing this monitor for an older computer. When used on a DVI port of a graphics card supporting 1920x1200, this monitor is so sharp you just might cut yourself on it! There is absolutely no ringing (ghosting) along the edges of lines, even if they are only 1 pixel wide, and sharpness is perfectly uniform from edge to edge.

Installed on the analog port of an nVidia 5000 series card, the monitor exhibited a strange quirk:
When cold booting the computer, the 2405FPW display was VERY fuzzy, and no amount of “Auto Adjusting” or manual adjustments would make it better. (this might explain why one reviewer was very disappointed with this monitor). However, getting an exceptional, sharp clear picture was as simple as warm booting the computer (Windows Restart). The 2405FPW ran Auto Adjust both times, but somehow the restart allowed for a sharp picture, while the cold boot did not. A higher end nVidea 5000 series card did NOT exhibit this quirk. Using a monitor of this quality on the analog port of any video card is simply criminal. Text, thin lines, and abrupt color transitions will invariably show some amount of ringing. These are color inaccuracies at the edges or transitions, which often give the impression of reduced sharpness, or on particularly bad video cards, downright fuzzyness! So do yourself a favor… don’t even bother with the analog port on your video card!

The Dell 2405FPW is a great monitor, and simply can not be beat for the price. Colors are fairly accurate for photography, and can be brought to near perfection with standard calibration tools. Video is sharp, and free of ghosting, even scaled up to full screen resolution. Kudos to Dell for improving color accuracy and picture quality greatly from previous models such as the 2001FP.

By TechnoGuru - May 14, 2005

I was eying the wonderful LCD ever...

Strengths: Deep rich colors, bright screen, sharp image. Absolutely zero defective pixels. HDTV native resolution. Huge screen size for desk top - but perfect for games and DVDs. No ghosting. Great price!

Weakness: Confusing user interface (buttons and OSD) for making adjustments. Screen too bright out of the box - have to tone it down. Terrible instructions - no physical manual, only on CD.

I was eying the wonderful LCD ever since Dell made the announcement in March 2005. It was initially introduced with coupons that brought the $1200 MSRP down to $899. I missed out on that, but decided the next time the price dips that low, I am taking the plunge. After taxes, my final price came in just under $1k. That is an amazing price if you consider what the competition sells their similar...
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I was eying the wonderful LCD ever since Dell made the announcement in March 2005. It was initially introduced with coupons that brought the $1200 MSRP down to $899. I missed out on that, but decided the next time the price dips that low, I am taking the plunge. After taxes, my final price came in just under $1k. That is an amazing price if you consider what the competition sells their similar spec product for.

Right out of the box, the physical set up instructions are simple and easy to follow with the included flow chart (mounting it on the included stand, attaching the appropriate cables, etc). But once you turn on you computer, things get complicated. First, there is no physical manual - it is electronic-HTML based and on the CD. Second, the autorun feature on the CD did not work (gave me error messages), so I had to futz around on the CD to find the necessary instructions on how to lower the brightness. Third, unlike what the ReadMe.txt says (mentions some 2405FPW.inf file that is NOT on the CD or available for download on Dell's website), there is no specific driver for the monitor, you have to use the ones that come with your graphics card.

And here is where another problem crops up. I am not sure whether it is lack of specific drivers for the LCD or the nature of the DVI interface, but most of the adjustments mentioned in the electronic manual cannot be done. And that includes the brightness adjustment, contrast and gamma. They show up when you bring up the OSD, but they are grayed out and inaccessible. I have to make adjustments through the graphics card drivers, and problem is that they are not global - I have to make application specific changes - which can get to be a pain. So for each game I play, I have to adjust the monitor brightness yet again. But that is a minor quibble for somebody like me - who is mainly using this for games and watching movies.

May be that is the nature of DVI - I don't know. This is my first monitor to use DVI. By the way, do not bother using this monitor on anything less then a pure digital interface. While there is VGA port in the back, hooking up you computer to this monitor via VGA will guarantee you an awful image at 1920 x 1200 resolution. The price of using this quality monitor is a requirement for a quality graphics card.

For graphics professionals, having access to and ability to adjust display features is more important and you must make sure your graphics card is compatible. The 1920 x 1200 resolution does require an upper-end card with lots of memory. I have an ATI 9800 Pro with 128 MB, and it is more than adequate (for now). You can go lower if you are mainly using the 2D environment, but for games, you want something more powerful if you want to play at the native resolution of 1920 by 1200. Fortunately for the upper end games that require more power, you can set the LCD to display at the specified resolution, with the surrounding areas blacked out - that way the image does not look bad. If you plan to play the latest games, you will need a beast of a graphics card. I have played Guild Wars, Psychonauts, and Unreal Tournament 2004 at the native 1920 x 1200 resolution without any problems (I did have to tone down the details in Guild Wars for a smooth frame rate). But games like Doom 3, Half Life 2 - my 9800 Pro just will not cut it.

As for image quality itself, the monitor is absolutely beautiful! Once you are satisfied with the adjustments, you will not look at a prettier picture on you computer from another monitor. This is the best monitor out there for computers, regardless of price. I have seen competing products from ViewSonic, Sony and the Apple Cinema displays, and I still think the Dell beats them hands down, at almost half the price!

I always used to get headaches after just an hour sitting in front of a CRT monitor, but never LCDs. The Dell 2405 replaces a 19" Sony Trinitron flat screen CRT and I am glad to have made the switch! The good thing about LCDs compared to CRTs is that the geomtry is perfect everytime, all the time. You never have to make any adjustments. Unlike with my CRT, where it never quite looked right at the edges, no matter how many adjustments - either there was a curve at the top or at the bottom, or at the left side or right side. One side always had some curve.

Bottom line, this is a great monitor, once you have made the necessary adjustments to your liking. At the $899 price point, and all the other features that competitors do not offer - HDTV resolution, 9-in-1 card reader, 4 USB 2.0 ports, multiple connections options, portrait and landscape modes, view angle and height adjustments - makes this monitor a tremendous value. Just be forewarned that once you switch, you will not like going back to anything less.

By dmjseller - Jun 21, 2005