Dell 2405FPW
The only member of the 24" family in this roundup, this monitor is also the only PVA. The 2405FPW features a VA Samsung panel. If we take a closer look, like with the Dell 2005FPW previously tested, we notice that the manufacturer was less enthusiastic about his characteristics than Samsung. On the one hand, we find the Dell 16 ms response time on the product page and, on the other, the panel product page for Samsung at 8ms! The difference is probably due, like with the 2005FPW, to a panel modification during production. Because, and it is important to remind you of this, Dell is one of the manufacturer who change the products’ components, but not their names.
To sum up all this, the panel included a VA with a grey-to-grey response time (with
overdrive) of 8 ms. It is Samsung’s answer to AU Optronic that the panel tested in the
ViewSonic VP191b.
Ergonomics
What a pleasure to test these kinds of monitors. Despite its big size, the monitor is vertically adjustable and has a pivot mode. On the left side and behind, an USB hub with four inputs to connect an USB key easily, a webcam, and a mouse…Still at the back, we find all the necessary inputs for video branching and consoles: YUV, S-Video and RCA. And finally, the icing on the cake, the left side features four memory card players compatible with Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, MMC and SD memory cards.
Well done Dell, this is indeed an excellent result!
Color quality
We didn’t know the panel type before this test, and judging from the results, it was obvious that it was a PVA monitor. This technology is the only one to produce such deep blacks with high color accuracy and with very wide viewing angles as well. IPS and TV panels are less gifted in all these areas.
Take a look at the graphic:
How to interpret the graph?The X axis is 0 to 100, 0 is black and 100 is white.
When Delta E > 3 the desired color is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
When 1 < Delta E < 2 colors are accurate. When Delta E < 1, the result is perfect.
Black is really black (0.27 cd/m², IPS panels are generally twice as high), all the color shades are accurately reproduced. White is at 246 cd/m². This is quite high, especially if you only use this monitor to type texts, but it isn’t its main use. It is very good for games or video. It is also interesting to note that Dell offers good standard parameters, half as bright as this monitor is capable of (500 cd/m² according to the characteristics).
To finish with this part, values measured with this brightness resulted in a 910:1 real contrast ratio, very close to the 1000:1 announced. Only PVA panels are capable of such results. The MVA (manufactured by CMO, AU Optronics or Fujitsu before) provide 700 :1 for the best of them. The IPS and TN are below 500:1.
Viewing angles
Viewing angles with a perfect image are lower than the ones announced (see
this page for more info on this subject). In practice the image is "perfect" on 80°, very good up to 90° and clearly whitens from that point on. The image is still visible, that isn’t the point, but its quality is strongly reduced. No other technology provides really better viewing angles. CRT panels are disturbed by ambient light and IPS panels are comparable… Perhaps OLED monitors will provide better results? It is true we tested a couple of prototypes with very impressive results on this point.
Games
It is time for the Samsung engineers to wake up. Or is it the Korean marketing department? This 16 ms monitor, 8 ms according to Samsung, and the
16 ms PVA Dell 1704V doesn’t provide better results than the 25 ms tested here during the last few years.
Of course, playing World of Warcraft with this monitor is extraordinary. If you have a very good graphic card, playing in 1920 x 1200 is a real pleasure. It is hard to come back to smaller monitors. But for Unreal or other FPS it is another story. If the character is static, we can only admire the contrast, color quality, precision of the shapes (at least with the standard resolution). If you move your mouse, it ruins everything. There is an afterglow and this is quite unbearable for really fast game fans.
You will, however, get used to this afterglow in time. It is disturbing but it all depends on the level of quality you require. In this respect, our requirements are probably too high and surely above average. Especially when a manufacturer announces an 8 ms response time that is supposedly perfect for all games. But we regularly receive readers’ comment saying that they aren’t disturbed by this effect, which seems horrible to us, and that they don’t even see what we are talking about. Anyway, now you know what we think of this monitor as regards fast games.
Video
It is so disturbing to see such a waste that I was tempted to simply copy /paste the paragraph written for the
1704FPV test. In the end the Samsung
overdrive has nothing but downsides. Response time is reduced and maybe that is a good thing for characteristics and sales, but the reactivity has not changed one whit, and the video quality is awful. Previous PVA and MVA monitors without
overdrive, provided very high quality videos with nice color shades without twinkling. This panel twinkles and provides broadly uniform color areas, instead of color scales. All formats and colors are concerned by this problem DVD, WMV 1080p, MPEG2 1080p, dark, light, vivid colors...
This only serves to increase even further the AU Optronics’ and the VP191b’s good results. They too announce an 8 ms response time with a VA panel thanks to the overdrive, but they didn’t only stop there. They have also changed the crystals’ viscosity, the cell shape…
Our doubts about the practical interests of this technology increased daily.
After our first very bad impression, we need to once again provide some perspective as regards our judgement. It all depends on how you are going to use it. If it really replaces your TV, you will watch movies from your couch 2 meters away from the monitor. Up close the image will never be as nice as a CRT monitor but from that distance you won’t notice it.
Take a look at this manufacture’s dead pixel policy by clicking here! 
