Slashdot Mirror
Dell Selling 30" Flat Panels
bling..bling writes "Apple is not the only company selling 30" flat panel monitors. Dell is now offering a 30" flat panel display that has a native resolution of 2560x1600 and sells for $2,199. Just like the apple 30" display you do need a dual link DVI video card to drive this massive beast. This monitor also sports four USB ports and a media card reader.
I've been waiting for Dell or someone else to release a 30" display and hopefully bring the prices down. I'm tired of the dual monitor thing, I want one display device on my desk, just make it a very large device.
See the details on Dell's web site on the new Dell 3007WFP 30-inch widescreen digital flat panel monitor."
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
I'm tired of the dual monitor thing, I want one display device on my desk, just make it a very large device.
that's great, except the human field of vision is wide, not tall. So the multi-monitor setup is more efficient.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I don't know for you, but flat panels make my head hurt. Literally. I know they're the latest craze and all, but I get one big headache after 1 or 2 hours AutoCADing with one. I can go a lot longer with my 10 year old 21" CRTs without headaches. I guess it's the light source or something, because I tend to get headaches with neon lighting as well.
Too bad, because I really like the form factor (big tubes are space wasters) but unless they improve whatever it is that makes me sick, I'll stick with good ole CRTs.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Does anyone else find that these large LCD's are getting less and less comfortable to view? I have a 15" and a 17" panel here, and they're not too bad. The viewing angle works out well so that if I'm basically in front of them I get to see pretty even lighting.
But a friend's 24" dell panel looks a little dark at the corners when I'm right in front of it, and moving my head side to side lets me see one side or another a bit better, but not both at the same time. The one Apple 30" panel I've managed to look at was so huge that the viewing angle problems were really apparent.
Is this just me seeing this, or are all those people with 30" panels just happy to be using massive amounts of screen area and not worrying about the light falloff near the corners? I don't consider myself a monitor snob but I really don't find those large panels acceptable when it comes to displaying a nice even picture from side to side.
I've ordered one, and it's set to arrive in a day or two. One interesting detail about the process is that Dell's website seems to consider it a system, rather than a monitor. This added some odd things (which were later stripped) such as a 7 day delay in shipping for "build" time.
I've been using dual 20" CRTs at home for a long time, but at work, I got a Dell LCD about 6 month ago. Having used it as my primary monitor for half a year I decided I was going to upgrade my home setup for Christmas. While looking for coupons for the 2405 though, I heard about the 3007, and decided to wait and get just one of those instead.
Apple's been selling their 30" for god knows how long now. Dell has now joined the game.
I expect that if Dell are using a more modern panel, then Apple will soon have an updated 30" product, not to compete but just because their 30" is due for an update... then again we are talking about Apple, who seem to forget about products once they're launched.
It'd be nice if both had more inputs though. I don't need that many 30" displays in the house, and considering my TV is a 24" widescreen CRT I think I'd switch entirely to the 30" computer display for everything. As a high end product I'd understand if it only offered, say, two HDMI inputs alongside the dual-link DVI. An svideo/SCART would be nice too though.
I'm tired of the dual monitor thing, I want one display device on my desk, just make it a very large device.
Everyone knows the real display technology of the day is Toshiba's Surface-conduction electron-emitter display.
It's 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 1ms response time, and you can get it in 55".
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
There's not that much exciting stuff happening at the bleeding edge this time of year, so they're spending more editorial space on general interest issues where formerly bleeding edge things are going mainstream, which might be of interest to anyone looking to buy in the near future?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
DELL 700:1 Contract Ratio
The difference is that Dell is claiming figures based on smoking crack, and Apple's is actually somewhat reasonable. The first thing I did when I got my 20" from Dell, was calibrate it.
According to the calibration device (Eye-one Display2), none of the specs were even close. I think the "true" contrast ratio turned out to be more like 1:250, and when I did brightness testing- brightness on the panel actually went DOWN with time at any setting over "75"; Dell's design pretty clearly overdrives the backlight(probably damaging it), and it is probably to be able to brag an extra 30-40cd over "the competition". Which is hilarious, since the thing is so damn bright, I have to keep it on the lowest brightness setting.
Maybe I'll re-run the calibration right now and get actual numbers and post them as a follow-up, so you can see how lousy true specs are compared to what is claimed on paper.
Please help metamoderate.
I'm tired of the dual monitor thing
Multimonitor setup is more sensitive to your eyes. With the two monitors you need to refocus when you look the other monitor, this "exercise" saves the eyes from the strain caused by staring into one monitor from fixed distance for a long time. The best setup so far (that i tested) is 1600x1200 (left) 1920x1200 (center) 1600x1200 (right) with a TV display far behind so i can focus my eyes to distant display as well as near displays giving my eyes lot of exercise. I've found that my eyes keep refocusing on the other displays when it is no longer confortable to stare into one for too long. I have no eye sight problems since.
I have a 30" cinema display at home and two 23" cinema displays at work. I do an equal amount of programming from each. I like the dual-display setup better for programming. For programming it seems to be easier to arrange the windows (IDE,firefox,terminals,etc) in the most efficient way. When using programs like autocad and photoshop though, the 30" is much better.
No dead pixels on my Dell 24", thank &deity;. No idea how reliable the 30" is there (I don't plan on getting it anyhow).
I wonder how ATI takes it when Dell only recommends five specific nVidia cards for the screen.
(Interestingly, nothing on TV inputs, if any; actually seems to pass the "no HDCP to pay companies to restrict how I see video in full quality" test.)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Indeed. And unlike the new 30" beasts which only have DVI, the 24" have five different video inputs. And as the four on my 20" Dell widescreen aren't enough for me, I'm thinking a pair of 24" LCDs would fill my desktop nicely.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
A while ago people where pointing out that Dell was selling "the same" display as the Apple for the 20" but sooo much cheaper.
Yeah, it seemed to be using the same Panel but the backlight is different and I had a chance to compare both the Apple and the Dell and the Apple IMO looked better, brighter (I am writing it on that one right now).
Michael
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
I hope that manufactures continue to embrace higher resolutions as I have loved the 1920x1200 (WUXGA) screen on my Inspiron 8500 (another Dell plug) for three years now and have considered replacing the computer, but have not becuase I love the screen so much. I understand that manufactures have a lack of incentives for making such high resolution desktop panels, but if you use a WUXGA laptop display you'll realize how beautiful it is. The reason I am such a fan of these laptop panels is that, as previously mentioned today, the human field of vision is far wider than tall. Furthermore, it is much easier for the eye to collect information in as short an arc of eye displacement as possible. When I am writing GUI's and scripts for my engineering classes, being able to see all the information very quickly is hugely valuable and efficient. Still, I don't know why so many people care about screen SIZE so much more than resolution. I truly wish there was some way of getting my WUXGA resolution on a stand alone flat panel, but doing so would require a screen 23" or larger and costing more than I can afford. If Dell makes twin WUXGA's, I'll be sold.
I have powermanagement enabled, but only after 45 minutes as I find it a nuisance when the screen shuts off while I am watching something or doing other work.
Also, when I leave I want the display to blank immediately. I have tried to use the "activate screensaver when moving mousepointer to screen corner" function, but it seems it can only activate a screensaver, not the powermanagement.
Furthermore, leaving the system in inactivity time-out powersaving is somewhat unreliable. Sometimes it wakes up because it believes the mouse has moved.
This is a Linux system. But my experience at work with Windows systems shows the detection time and system slowdown for USB is similar, so it is probably caused by USB design defects, rather than operating systems.
Well, with my workaround the display is usable. But the 3007FPW does not allow this workaround (I believe), so I thought one better be warned.
I'm an Apple fanboy, but the Apple Displays are among their worst products. The casing looks great, but there have been numerous issues with them including pink hues, bad backlighting, weird lines streaking across them, and more. And that's not getting into the problems with dead pixels and always on pixels that every LCD has. The Apple 23" has been of particular worry.
The Apple Support forums (discussion.apple.com) is filled with complaints. Obviously, most people who don't have issues would not visit, but just go to an Apple store and look at the ADCs there for pink hues, and I think you'll find more displays with problems than without.
Obviously, using them as a full-time solution is not optimal.
There is nothing plugged in to these slots and connectors normally. I use them for my USB key and would use them for cards if I had those.
The problem still occurs when everything is empty because there still is a hub and a couple of cardreader USB devices that are being detected, and an eager "hwscand" process that likes to find out what exciting new hardware there is to be found, automount cards, etc.
In this, Linux is becoming more like Windows. By default, it is doing things that you don't want it to, and you have to find out how to make it stop doing that.
Ummm some folks?... Think a wall arm mount so you have zero foot print on your desk and a movable display.
I don't know if this is still the case, but Dell used to use Samsung manufactured panels in their monitors. Samsung makes the best LCDs on the market.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Is this some new meme I missed out on?
Fortunately not. That is why the use of the input select switch is a workaround for the problem.
It is merely a convenience issue now. The input select needs 5 presses for a complete cycle (5 inputs), and it reacts slowly when the monitor is in standby.
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productde tails.aspx/monitor_3007wfp?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s= bsd
What did the Eye-One software report the native white point of the Dell display at? My cinema display comes out at 6400K native, which is pretty damn good (I think).
My 23" Cinema Display defaulted at 6700K, measured with an EyeOne. From what I understand, a difference of 300 Kelvin is impercievable.
HIgher resolution != Smaller text
Any decent OS or web browser will let you scale up font sizes. The end result is that your text is the same size, but smoother.
I *hate* OSes that do that! If I'm paying top dollar for lots of pixels it's because I want to put lots of text on that screen. If you feel that you need more pixels in each character in order to make them readable then I suggest you're using the wrong fonts.
The *right* fonts, by and large, are the twenty year old ones that came with the original Macintosh, especially Monaco (and Geneva for variable width). Monaco 9 is still today very hard to beat as a font for terminals or programming. And it's not just Mac-heads who think so -- I know lots of Windows and Linux people who swear by it (or close clones) as well.
Just make sure you remember to turn anti-aliasing *off* for those fonts. They're perfect already, and hand-optimized pixel by pixel by the best in the world (Susan Kare) in a way that a smoothing engine can never match.
Now, I have a couple of questions about the Dell monitor, in case anyone knows the answer, as I'm considering requested these monitors at work.
1. Is it fanless? I have been told that the Apple monitor in its aluminum case is fanless. If I get one of these monitors, I would like it to be fanless and then disconnect the fan in the video card. I don't intend to run games that exercise the GPU, and I'm willing to replace a burned out $200 video card occasionally in exchange for more quiet.
2. Can this monitor rotate 90 degress like the other larger Dell flat panels? From the pictures, it looks like the margins around this monitor are thinner than on the Apple monitor. I would be nice to be able to rotate this monitor 90 degress and be able to set up a wall of them on my desk without any special mounting hardware. Unfortunately, I do not see any mention on the Dell web pages about being able to rotate this monitor, and its mounting assembly looks like it might not be able to do so, although this is not clear. At least the Apple display uses some kind of industry standard removable mounting bracket, so there is more hope that someone will make a 90 degree rotating bracket for it.