Dell UltraSharp 1905FP: Setting the Bar for New 19" LCDs
by Kristopher Kubicki on January 29, 2005 12:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Quantitative Analysis
For the duration of this review, we connected the UltraSharp 1905FP to a Radeon X800 Pro with factory default settings on the DVI connection unless stated otherwise. Brightness has been set to maximum as well.
Luminance
Brightness ranked as one of our most important display qualities. The largest mistake that we see people make when they buy a new LCD is to put their new, bright LCD in a dim/dark room (and then turn the LCD down to 25% brightness). Not only is this terrible for your eyes, but it also unnecessarily offsets hues; a blue screen in a dark room doesn't look the same as a blue screen in a well lit one! Staring at your monitor shouldn't feel like staring into the sun. If you have plenty of ambient light around, you would be surprised by how much different a 250 nit LCD looks compared to a 300 nit LCD.
Below, you can see a comparison of the brightness for each of our LCD monitors.
The 1905FP sits right in the middle of the pack for brightness.
Our Contrast Ratio
We will the same observation from the 19" LCD Roundup two months ago. Using PreCal and our ColorVision Spyder, we will measure the luminance of a pure white image and a pure black image on the LCD monitor. The observed contrast ratio is simply the highest recorded luminance divided by the lowest. All measurements are in candela per meter squared; larger contrast ratios are more desirable.
| Observed Contrast Ratio | |||
| Highest Recorded (white image) |
Lowest Recorded (black image) |
Observed Contrast Ratio | |
| BenQ FP931 | 256.4 | 3.6 | 71.2 |
| Dell 1905FP | 234.6 | 2.6 | 90.2 |
| NuTech L921G | 278.2 | 2.6 | 107.0 |
| Planar PE191M | 234.0 | 3.0 | 78.0 |
| Samsung 193P | 230.4 | 2.2 | 104.7 |
| Samsung 910V | 219.8 | 2.6 | 84.5 |
| Sony SDM S94 | 233.8 | 3.0 | 77.9 |
| ViewSonic Q190MB | 261.8 | 2.6 | 100.7 |
The Dell 1905FP emits a brighter image than the Samsung 193P, but at the same time, it also has a slightly higher darkest dark. Even though the Samsung 193P and Dell 1905FP are using the same panels, Dell may be giving the backlights a little bit of a boost in power to increase brightness. Both LCDs appear in the middle of the pack for contrast ratio.
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Golfxcellence - Friday, February 25, 2005 - link
I bought this monitor based on the review. This is my first LCD. My photos look wonderful, text is very readable, but any sort of mpg video is very very poor compared to my crt. Is this normal? if it is, it may have to go back.Thanks for any comments or suggestions to fixing the problem.
Garry
oasked - Monday, February 21, 2005 - link
*******This monitor has serious ghosting issues.
Get something else instead.
Even the cursor blurs. I bought one based on this review - BIG MISTAKE.
Even my mates 25ms monitor has less ghosting than this.
It does look good, but its deceptive.
******
ahc11 - Friday, February 4, 2005 - link
I am having a problem with this monitor that I cnanot solve:Basically, what happens is that the monitor goes into power save mode and turns orange. When I click the OSD button on it, it says "please move mouse/keyboard".
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know
neurocyb - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
NEC makes an 18 and 20" displaywhy have these not been included in reviews??
TheDotProduct - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
rivethead:#########################################
Arrrgh! It shouldn't be this difficult. All I want is a 17" 8-bit panel from a good manufacturer with a response time of 16ms or less.
#########################################
Dam straight you are thinking along the exact same lines as me!
Well common Samsung/Sony/Viewsonic/Benq/Dell give us what we want! We will even pay you for your bother ;-p
rivethead - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Good luck in your search for information on the UltraSharp 1704FPV.I've tried to get information from every source I can think of (I even tried re-sellers on e-bay).
I've come to the following conclusion:
1) No one at Dell knows if their LCDs are 6 or 8-bit.(at least the CSRs and Tech Support people who I've talked to)
2) If it's this hard to get a simple question answered, I'm not sure I want to buy any Dell product.
I know that Dell makes a 17" LCD they call the "173". I'm betting it's the same panel that's in the Samsung 173. So after reading this review, now I'm wondering what panel is in the 1704FPV and 1704FPT? Another Samsung product? Which panel?
Arrrgh! It shouldn't be this difficult. All I want is a 17" 8-bit panel from a good manufacturer with a response time of 16ms or less.
I will say this: having these Anandtech reviews certainly is a help. Thanks!
rivethead - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Benmohr - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Enjoyed reading the article and all the comments. However, having recently bought a new Sony A Series VAIO Laptop with an X Black screen, all I can say is WOW!!!!!! The Dell, and for that matter, most screens dont even come close. Why????Thresher - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Time for a review of the 2005, don't ya think?TheDotProduct - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
I too want to know about the 1704FPV. Is it 8 or 6 bit? (sorry about the empty posts by the way)