The Dell 2407WFP-HC, the new star ?
Dell changes its star screen, the 2407WFP-HC ! A hurrah is heard…in some but not all countries. In the USA, everything is just fine. 669 dollars for the new generation 24 inch or 488 Euros taxes not included. Buyers can rejoice. Even if we add the French VAT of 19.6% by being honest at the border with customs, the total cost would be 583 Euros – an entirely competitive price with other current 24 inch offers by Iiyama, Belinea, and Hyundaï. Except the 2407WFP-HC’s ergonomics are in another class as it's vertically adjustable, can be pivoted and has card players and an integrated USB hub. Also, even if its design wasn’t revised it is still very attractive.
In France though, we have good reason to make a sour face because Dell launched its star screen for 981 Euros. Sometimes it can be found on sale for 735 Euros. So why such a difference and can it be negotiated down?
There was talk of being able to negotiate a discount with Dell and so we contacted their sales service. However, they appeared reticent. It was impossible to get the smallest price reduction (besides with larger orders) even at the time when the screen is offered at its highest price, which was the case when writing this article. On the phone, representatives are very courteous and yes they are aware of the difference in price. By the way, this is also valid for all accessories for sale on Dell’s website. However, she explained that this was due to the differences in living standards (?!?). The US has somehow been relegated to developing country status without any one telling us.
The only good news from our telephone enquiry was that we learned Dell would continue its (irritating) habit of promotional pricing. At times the monitor will at a high of 981 Euros and other times on sale at 25 % less or 736 Euros. This was the price of the previous version, the 2407WFP, at the end of its life.
From the Dell 2407WFP to the 2407WFP-HC
Launched in June 2006 at an initial price of 1159 Euros, the 2407WFP is now replaced by its clone except with two letters more and an additional technological detail.
The Dell 2407WFP-HC is strictly identical to the previous version except its backlighting, which has been replaced by a new wide gamut system. The light which is now emitted, enables the screen to attain colors which were formerly inaccessible on previous versions. Normally, this represents two major improvements :
from a theoretical point of view, those who work professionally with images with their digital reflex, printers, photo editing software, and who want to go from the sRGB color space to Adobe RGB or NTSC can now display the real colors of an image on the screen. It’s an essential point because a printer’s color space is noticeably larger than that of traditional monitors. And for this reason, an image on paper can be significantly different from what is seen on a screen. For example, if we are going to print thousands of catalogues with sweaters, it’s best to display the actual red that clients are going to receive. If not, there could be potential significant returns.
From a practical point of view, it’s been shown that wide gamut screens tend to offer better color gradations in movies. This most often involves 8 bit screens like sRGBs with the same input signals. It is an unexpected improvement but it’s there – in not all but in most cases. It can also possibly be explained by the fact that
wide gamut monitors and therefore the circuitry is more recent than sRGB versions, which means that image processing algorithms may have been reviewed and improved. This benefit is therefore not necessarily related to wide gamut technology, but it can often be associated. The potential improvement then involves all users and not just professionals, because these Full HD 24’’s can adeptly display ADSL TV (with an HDMI/DVI cable, for example), DVDs, or even better, HD in BluRay, HD-DVD or VOD.
The tests
We run tests for reaction time in games, delay of display, and video rendering (SD, HD 720p, HD 1080p). We also evaluate ergonomics, viewing angles, the quality of upscaling, and the panel's brightness homogeneity. In short, we look at all aspects of a screen.
For color fidelity we use the LaCie Blue Eye Pro colorimeter, based on the Gretag tool and coupled with the new LaCie software suite. More evolved than the previous version, this helps us to compare a monitor’s display quality (color spectrum and DeltaE) in standard settings and after calibration. Results are sometimes surprising as it’s often best to take the time to manually adjust colors (or at least contrast, brightness and color temperature).
The results of our study of 18 patches makes it possible to create a table visually resituating the variation of colors compared to an ideal grey scale.
Rather than a response time measurement with an oscilloscope, we photograph the monitor in action. This is an effective way of capturing afterglow. The program used is
Pixel Persistence Analyzer r (PixPerAn for short). Pictures showing these ghosting effects are captured with a Canon 350D at a shutter speed of 1/1000 s. We take 50 pictures in burst mode for each test to precisely measure the progression of afterglow between images. Otherwise, we haven't given up on the practical tests in games, HD and DVD video, web surfing, etc.
Finally, we measure the delay to display images compared to CRT monitors.
The test computer is self-assembled, has an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor and NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX card
