Cadalyst - September 2007 - (Page 18)

cadlabsreview which the image was scaled to fit the screen) usually provided a somewhat granular appearance. Even though it’s generally expected, the appearance wasn’t up to what Cadalyst readers would want from a monitor that they would sit in front of and use for extended periods of time. I looked at the LCD monitors in this roundup in several different modes, including the default/optimal resolution and color depth. With the display quality being consistently very high for this group of monitors, the evaluation was difficult. Certain things stood out during evaluation — lack of more than the most basic connectivity options, for example, or a warranty that goes beyond the norm. With the overall quality of the large LCD monitors I tested being very high, those slight flaws have a way of getting magnified in the final tally — one-quarter of one point off in one area can be a determining factor, or it can be balanced by another factor that might be less apparent at the time of testing. For example, the two 30” displays reviewed here offered excellent display quality, but they lacked many of the basic screen adjustments found in their smaller brethren. Pricing tends to be another area in which an otherwise excellent monitor can get less-than-top ratings. If the pricing of a particular display is out of line with comparable displays included in the roundup, I made a deduction that can again be amplified as a result of the weighted nature of the report card. Even pricing proved difficult to evaluate — obviously, a 30” panel should cost more than a 21” panel, all other things being equal — so I had to look at pricing related to size and features. Although I certainly observed some differences from monitor to monitor, the display quality varied little. My thought was that if a display was particularly remarkable, it received an A+ rating for display quality, but the display quality of the group was so high that all received a grade of at least an A. Other factors, such as warranty or price, tended to vary more than display quality. For a thorough comparison, please consult the accompanying online feature table at www.cadalyst.com/0907monitors-table. The flat-panel displays submitted for this roundup are the best that Cadalyst has seen. While it seems that I say that every year, there’s a reason — they really are better every year. If you’re in the market for an LCD flat-panel display, your choices have expanded greatly, both in quality and in sheer size, whatever your selection criteria may be. In the not-too-distant future, we’ll be seeing more displays with a higher color gamut and even greater image fidelity, but most users will find much to like among the LCD flat panel displays reviewed here. UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC Dell When Cadalyst first 800.WWW.DELL looked at the Dell Ultrawww.dell.com Sharp 3007WFP-HC Price: $1,499 (www.cadalyst.com/ 0406Dell3007WFP), I was impressed with its size as well as its overall construction quality and the excellent display quality. The 30” active matrix TFT LCD panel offers a native resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, response times of 12 ms black-to-white and 8 ms gray-to-gray, and a 92% color gamut. The brightness rating for the UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC is 300 cd/m2, and the contrast rating is 1,000:1. The display quality of the Dell UltraSharp 3007WFPHC is excellent, and it sailed through the benchmark tests with perfect scores. Reds were very slightly on the orange side, but other colors were as expected. The display has a rated 178° viewing angle both horizontally and vertically, and this seemed to be fairly accurate, with no noticeable fall-off or screen darkening when viewed off angle. As is true with all of the 30” panels that I’ve seen, users have little ability to control the onscreen image. It has no OSM, per se, but the monitor has three touch buttons at the bottom right of the bezel for adjustments. These buttons are – (minus), + (plus), and Power. The minus and plus buttons are used for brightness adjustment The 30” Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC has a native resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, which provides excellent display quality. It received perfect scores in the Cadalyst benchmark tests. 18 September 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.dell.com http://www.cadalyst.com/0406Dell3007WFP http://www.cadalyst.com/0406Dell3007WFP http://www.cadalyst.com/0907monitors-table http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - September 2007

Contents Editor's Window Techtrends: Resurrecting an Unforgettable Second Living Large UGS Solid Edge v20 Adobe Acrobat 3D v8 Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended CAD Manager: Managing 2D and 3D in the Same Office MCAD Modeling: Where is MCAD Going? AEC in Focus: Automated Estimating and Scheduling Using BIM CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes CADfidential

Cadalyst - September 2007

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