Dell 2709WFP!

[walibe]

Well heres my 2709WFP. Pictures to follow in several stages over several days .

Introduction

I've just built a new PC system, after using laptops for work and PS3/XBOX 360s for gaming for many years I couldn't resist the urge anymore. Its been three years since my last build. I spent days carefully selecting the components for my new PC. I carefully checked reviews, suppliers and costs and then placed my order with Scan. A few days later my goods were with me and my new PC took shape. I decided to run Windows 7 which back then was a technet exclusive preview which I am lucky enough to have access to. I sat back and enjoyed my creation for a few days before realising I had forgotten to sort the most important component of all. It wasn't the mouse or keyboard, it was the monitor!

I had been using a 2208wfp which is a reasonably nice 22" screen but the viewing angles weren't great and the fitting of a blu-ray drive to my build means I really wanted a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 screen. After a lot of hunting around I decided on the 27" dell 2709wfp after originally setting my budget at £200, hopefully when you read my mini review you'll begin to see why.

The beast arrives



The 2709wfp makes a big impression when you first lift it out of the box, its sheer size and weight ( 8.3 kilos) are clear for all to see. Note that unlike many of dells other monitors the 2709wfp comes with its stand already attached. The box certainly dwarfed the box my last monitor, the 2208wfp came in.

On opening the box you will find:

• User Manual
• DVI Cable
• VGA Cable
• USB Cable

The USB cable is used to connect the monitors USB HUB and card reader to your PC. There is no displayport cable but there are few users likely to want to use it anyway. Many other manufactures include accessories such as cleaning cloths but Dell have decided against it. This is probably down to Dells business orientation. In my line of work we issue literary hundreds of Dell monitors each year and they would only be binned before being handed to the user.
Luckily the dell monitor has a matt finish both to the screen and bezel which is in stark contrast to the piano finish frames and gloss screens that we have all become used to in recent years. It could be considered to be bland but its sheer size and uncomplicated design do give it a certain attractiveness. The main screens dimensions of 63.21 cm x 20.0 cm x 45.19 cm means most users will find the screen almost overwhelming to begin with when they first switch it on but you'll soon begin to wonder how you even coped without it.



The stand has changed from the more familiar 'flamingo' feet to a plain black base similar to what you would have on your main HDTV but connected to a height adjustable silver stand which allows for tilt (-3 degrees to plus 5 swivel and height adjustment of. Its very easy to adjust with just one hand and although this stand may not be as good as that of the 3008wfp it is still very easy to find a comfortable viewing position. Also note that behind the plate connection of the monitor itself is the VESA mount. Also note the only form of cable management present on this screen comes in the shape of a cut out in the base of stand. Not perfect but certainly functional.
If you can find a piece of equipment that can't connect to this screen then your doing very well indeed. Lets have a look:

• VGA
• DVI x 2 (HDCP compliant)
• HDMI
• Component
• Composite
• HDMI
• USB Hub (1 upstream provides 4 downstream)
• Card reader
• 3 x Audio Out
• (The 3 Audio out are to allow 5.1 sound output from the HDMI input.)

This has meant I've managed to connect everything from the PS3 to an AMIGA 1200 although if I was really fussy the inclusion of S-Video wouldn't have gone amiss. Still this is a very, very minor niggle on an excellent connection set.

It does make it an idea hub for a games room or a student pc etc. You can connect your XBOX, PS2/PS3/ Wii, PC, Laptop, Home Server, Sky Box and still have connections spare. It lends itself to many, many applications.

All these video inputs can be selected from the dells menu system. There has been much debate on this menu system on various forums throughout the net but as a quick tip your best using your thumb, or index finger if you have larger fingers to operate the touch sensitive menu system that lines up on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. There are better touch systems out there but it’s much improved from the A00 version of the monitor to this the A02. Place your hand near where the touch buttons are located which is almost invisible when not in use and the bottom most LED suddenly lights up and the OSD menu appears.

The on screen menu is easy to navigate and reminds me a little of Sony’s Menu system. You can easily change between devices, change colour settings, contrast and brightness.

PIP

Picture in picture is a great idea and an almost unusual feature on this kind of monitor but its not as useful as it at first seems. Like its siblings the 2709wfp can still only combine an analogue and a digital input and not two analogue or two digital inputs. My vision of Sky+ HD in the corner whilst gaming or internet surfing quickly disappeared.

Zoom

Zoom only works for the centre of the screen which means the tool built into Windows is actually far more useful.

Switching it on.

Windows 7 successfully identified the screen and adjusted the resolution to its native 1920x1200 resolution. Its great to still see wide screens still supporting these extra pixels as many are now falling into the 16:9 trap which is 1920x1080. This may be ideal for watching blu-rays without black bars but at a huge loss of screen real estate. It may not seem like a massive amount of extra screen space but it really is as the below diagram hopefully goes some way to showing.
The matt finish is perfect for this screen as something this size will easily catch the office lights if using a gloss finish. As it is, little to no reflection can be seen most of the time making it ideal for all tasks.

On switching it on however you would be forgiven for thinking your Windows Desktop is about to be etched forever more into the retinas of yours eyes, such is the brightness of this panel. You may be wondering why Dell ship their panels at 100% brightness, but a quick dive into the OSD reveals the panel to be only at 50% brightness! I have never come across a panel this bright before. I quickly dropped the screen to 20% which is still too bright for many people but I do like bright panels. Once this is sorted you will start to see the wonders of having spent your extras pounds, dollars or euros on an S-PVA panel as opposed to the more common TN panels on lower end screens which actually includes models in this price range. So what’s the difference? Lets take a very brief look.

[walibe]

TN

TN Film or Twisted Nematic+Film is the most common type of panel seen today. It is relatively cheap to produce compared to other types of panel and has seen 24" panels fall below £200 ( which is no bad thing ) but there are some fundamental issues. One of the most obvious things is viewing angles. If for example you are looking at your screen head on, move a little upwards and then down a little and you will notice colours change significantly and the picture wash out. This also happens on the horizontal but TN screens have improved in recent years and the horizontal angles aren’t as bad. My biggest issue with TN screens are the depth of blacks. This is where black actually looks grey which means film play back in particular can be an issue.
TN Panels are also only 6-bit and offer the 16.7 million colours of PVA panels only through dithering. The best way to describe this is by comparing it to your printer. It uses combinations of dots of different colours to produce new colours it couldn't otherwise. The effect isn't perfect but its come a long way. TN panels do have the quickest response time of all panels which has made them ideal choices for gaming. There are a few other types of dithering but it gives you the idea.

S-PVA

S-PVA panels such as that used in the 2709wfp are true 8-bit panels offering a larger colour pallet than TN panels. (the human eye can't detect any more colours than this anyway apparently) with no dithering required. Contrast ratios are usually very good and offer superb depth of black. Viewing angles tend to be excellent across both the horizontal and vertical but the panels are more expensive to produce and don't have as quick response times compared to TN panels (more on this later).
A little bit of calibration later and we had a very satisfactory panel thanks to lagcom. Colours seem to come out of nowhere in games such as Crysis if you've been used to using a TN panel, its almost like entering a different world to that which you left but are going to need a good graphics card to power Crysis at this screens native resolution. My GTX260 can't quite cut it at this resolution and your going to need something like a GTX275 I suspect.

Contrast

After a little bit of fiddling Lagcoms calibration test came out like this. Colours seemed very even throughout the gradients from the very darkest to the lightest of shades with no blending of shades to be seen.
The black level calibration allowed a nice even spread of all colours. Dithering isn't an issue on this panel.
The banding test produced a very clean gradient with very minimal banding which can be reduced to next to nothing with a little tweaking. I may even be imagining it but heres the images my camera produced anyway.

I really can't emphasis enough how good this panel is in its overall image although those into image editing will have to spend alot of time adjusting the panel and will certainly require some decent calibration hardware, the rest of us will be pretty happy with a little work. RGB values are way over the top out of the box though.

Backlight bleeding is minimal and offers one of the better results from panels I have seen. The back light levels are pretty even throughout the panel without any noticeable patches. Some users reported pink hues on the edges of the monitor but I cannot see this nor reproduce this on the A02 version of the panel.

Pixel Pitch

This monitor uses a pixel pitch of 0.303 which some would argue is too much but the truth is that it simply isn't a problem. You need to be sat a reasonable distance from the monitor in order to beable to see all of it at once without moving your head. I actually found the 1920x1200 resoloution far more comfortable to use than I do on 24" equivelants.

Movie Play Back



These screen shots are courtesy of a LiteOn Blu Ray drive, Core Windvd 9 and hardware acceleration from the Gefore GTX260. Black is most definatly black, and anyone into media playback on their PCs which is most of us will know how important it is to have a good depth of black but at the same time you don't want other details to disappear into this blackness. The 2709WFP manages it well and once calibrated produces superb skin tones with a great sharpness. You will notice the screen is automatically doing 1:1 pixel mapping but it can stretch the image if you require. Tearing is also not really noticeable on this panel but minimal amounts of judering is present. This test actually made me want to go re-calibrate my Sony 40W4000, I was that impressed with this screen.

Web/Applications

Application use can be a real joy. Windows are crisp as is the text making it ideal for wordprocessing or even web development. The ability to have two windows side by side or even four by dividing the workspace into quarters can be extremely useful. No pink affect can be seen on the sides of the screen which some users have reported in earlier versions of this screen.

Gaming

Well it can't all be good, and there is a little niggle, maybe a big one. Input Lag. This is down to the 2709wfp processing in its electronics. This means there is a delay into what is fed into the screen and what actually appears on screen. On generation A00 panels this was between 60 and 70ms. This dropped to 40ms for generation A01, then it went back upto 60ms for early A02 which apparent shares the same firmware as the A01 and this later A02 screen I have tested gave results between 40-50ms. This is an issue. Games such as World of Warcraft, Settlers and single player Crysis are great and you won't notice it, if you do you'll grow used to it very quickly. The big issue is on-line play. I know people who won't play on servers pinging at 60ms so they have no hope with this monitor. The Lag is there and professional gamers need to look elsewhere.

Theres no escaping it. I once was very good at Wolfenstine Enemy Territory and Call of Duty, and I know the frustration this would give me, particuarly when playing against the kind of people who drop their res down to 1024x768 and details to minimal to given themselves that little extra advantage, for the rest of us just out for a laugh its just not going to be an issue. PS3 Gaming including on-line COD4 didn't exhibit the noticeable lag of the PC version. I can't tell you why although the PS3 version never feels as fast paced in all honesty.

The bottom line is that if you need a large screen that is good for gaming your going to have to go up the range to the 3008WFP which offers next to no input lag (we're talking single figures) but your going to have to drive the extra resoloution or settle on a smaller 24" from another manufacture as the 2408wfp is even worst. Another alternative is to buy a second screen just for gaming but with a 27" screen on your desk this is probably defeating the object of buying it in the first place.

Warranty

The 2709wfp is what dell calls a premium panel. It comes with 3 years warranty which includes bright pixel faults (even just one) and is covered by a swap out. Some retailers are offering 4 years for no extra charge. The pixel fault is the real gem as the 3 years warranty is semi-typical in this price range.

Value

In the United Kingdom dell are currently selling the monitor for just under £600 which at launch was a good deal. However with a little searching a more typical price is £440 from on-line resellers and from dell itself during special offer periods. Real bargains can be found on ebay where dell re-sellers are supplying the latest version of this screen for £379 + Postage. This makes it unbeliebable value for money and even cheaper than the 2408.

Verdict

Only hardcore games will have any issues with this screen. Once setup correctly it is a real beauty to use and its value is unquestionable. If you can afford it and have the desk space, theres only one screen for you, the 2709wfp. Its a screen you could easily keep for a few years before feeling any need to replace it. I don't think I've ever been this impressed by any single piece of I.T equipment before.

Buy it!

Hope it helps a few of you see the pros of S-PVA panels if not the 2709wfp.
I’ll add the rest of the pictures in over the next couple of days.

[format]

Very nice review - gutted it's not great for gaming though

It was a toss up between this or 2x24"... spose I'm going for the latter now.

[walibe]

If you ever get the chance to see one in person it would be worth testing to see if it does your nut in or not. the 3008wfp is turniung up for under £800 on ebay now aswell so theres lots of options but I think you may weell be better off with the dual 24s.

[keluar]

Just a word of advice,

Once you have gone for a 27 inch monitor, it is difficult to get back to a smaller screen!!!
so Choose wisely..


Proud 2707wfp owner

[PatK]

There's rumours of a 2710 before the end of the year. Personally a 27" is just the right size for me, but the input lag on the 2709 kills it for me. There's not a lot of non TN screens out there of this size that don't cost a fortune or have poor input lag (NEC etc) and the ones that are good for gaming (The LG and Hazro 26" screens) seem to have very poor availability. So you're kinda stuck with Dell. Oh well.. hopefully they get the input lag right on the 2710, whenever it shows up.

[cdm391]

I have been using the Dell 2709WFP for the last few month for work purposes - Excel, Internet etc and would highly recommend it. Not used it for gaming though!

[lazimutha]

Looks great

[richiejenkins]

Good review!

Might consider getting one of these or another Samsung 2433BW

[walibe]

I must say, unlike my usual monitor purchases I have no regrets buying this. There is a new version of it which looks identical but supports a higher resolution and even though I move reguarly between 1920x1080 on my Sony laptop and 1920x1200 on this Dell monitor it doesn't seem 'stretch' or bloated. Plus this is in 24" monitor territory, the new high res version is still in 30" territory price wise.

[GamerGuy]

Thanks for this its helpful

[Muns]

Thanks for the nice review. It does sounds like a great monitor, although personally I would prefer 2x24", which would be around the same price.

I bought the Samsung SyncMaster P2450H a few weeks ago. I was rather worried about viewing angles, but couldn't really justify the cost of higher than TN. Having used it for a while, I think monitors like this Dell would be suited to people who really need the colour accuracy, like anyone who deals with graphics.

Of course, if you have the money, 2x 2709WFP would do very nicely indeed!

[shawnsean]

gonna buy one very soon

[nishanthan]

Its a good review but the price is on the expensive side