Gateway FPD2485W: 24" LCD Beauty or Beast?
by Jarred Walton on February 22, 2007 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Specifications
From the previous page, it's probably apparent that manufacturer specifications don't necessarily mean a whole lot. In some cases, the numbers appear to be purely for marketing purposes, and the importance and accuracy of the quoted figures are often suspect. Before we get to our measured values, however, let's take a look at the manufacturer specifications.
The FPD2485W is a 24" LCD, and many of the features are similar to competing models. As expected, the native resolution is 1920x1200, and most of the other specifications are similar to other recent 24" LCDs. Brightness, contrast ratio, pixel response time, and viewing angle are what we'd expect to find in a good-quality LCD, but we will wait until we do some actual testing to say whether it meets the specifications are not.
One of the nice aspects of this LCD is that you get a variety of connections. Dell's 24" LCD nearly matches the FPD2485W in terms of input possibilities, but Gateway goes one better by including two component video inputs. HDCP support is also included for the DVI input, which is one of the problems people face with older LCDs. While the display is clearly designed to function as a computer display first, it is also fully capable of functioning as a 1080i HDTV (as well as a 720p HDTV), although you will need to provide your own speakers or purchase the optional speaker bar.
1080p support is present if you use the DVI or VGA ports, but the component video appears to be limited to 1080i support. Users hoping to hook up an Xbox 360 to this display will likely be disappointed with the lack of 1080p support over component video, but at least they can still use a VGA adapter. PS3 users on the other hand would want to use an HDMI to DVI adapter to get 1080p support; the problem with using the DVI port that way is that it's more likely you would want to have your computer using the DVI input.
The LCD panel is an S-PVA active matrix TFT, which is again similar to what many other 24 inch LCDs are using. There aren't all that many LCD panel manufacturers, so the display manufacturers will often use the same base panel. Backlighting and signal processing can still utilize different components, however, which can affect various aspects of the display. The Gateway FPD2485W uses a Faroudja DCDi signal processor, which is one of the more respected brands.
One area that is definitely important to a lot of people when looking at LCDs is the warranty/replacement policy. Unfortunately, here the Gateway LCD doesn't fare as well. It comes standard with a one-year limited warranty with the option to purchase a two-year extended warranty (three years total) for an additional $30. That warranty will cover problems with the backlight and panel up to a point. What the warranty doesn't cover to a large extent is stuck pixels. While it is unusual to get a display with more than one or two stuck pixels these days, there's always a risk, and some companies offer a 30 day guarantee that there will be no pixel defects. Gateway takes a more lenient approach and will only replace panels if there are ten or more total stuck pixels, or three stuck pixels clustered within a one-inch area. For a 24" display, most people could probably live with a few defective pixels provided they aren't in the center of the display; up to eight or nine is quite a lot, and even though $700 isn't a lot to pay for a large LCD, anyone that purchases such a monitor only to discover several pixel defects is going to be disappointed.
If you're concerned about the warranty/replacement policy, it is also possible to find the Gateway FPD2485W at major electronics chains. By purchasing locally you should be able to either try out a display in person before buying it or else return it immediately if you discover a problem. If you purchase the display direct from Gateway, any repairs will also require you to pay for shipping the LCD back to Gateway. However, it may be possible to get on-site service if you purchase a display along with a Gateway computer. We spoke with customer service a few times regarding this and they could not give a definitive answer, so for now the best way to get local service is going to be purchasing locally.
From the previous page, it's probably apparent that manufacturer specifications don't necessarily mean a whole lot. In some cases, the numbers appear to be purely for marketing purposes, and the importance and accuracy of the quoted figures are often suspect. Before we get to our measured values, however, let's take a look at the manufacturer specifications.
| Gateway FPD2485W Specifications | |
| Video Inputs | Analog (VGA) Digital (DVI with HDCP support) (2) Component Composite S-Video |
| Panel Type | LCD Active Matrix TFT |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.270mm |
| Colors | 16.7 million |
| Brightness | 500 cd/m2 |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 |
| Response Time | 6ms (gray to gray) |
| Viewable Size | 24" diagonal |
| Resolution | 1920x1200 |
| Viewing Angle | 178 vertical/horizontal |
| Power Consumption | 125W |
| Power Savings | 5W |
| Power Supply | Built-in |
| Screen Treatment | Antiglare |
| Height-Adjustable | Yes |
| Tilt | Yes |
| Rotation | Yes |
| Auto-Rotation | Yes |
| Swivel | No |
| VESA Wall Mounting | 100mmx100mm |
| Dimensions w/ Base (WxHxD) | 22.25"x17.5"x10.5" (lowered) 22.25"x22.5"x10.5" (raised) |
| Weight w/ Stand | 20 lbs |
| Dimensions w/o Base (WxHxD) | 22.25"x15.25"x2.75" |
| Weight w/o Stand | 15 lbs |
| Lamp Life | 50000 Hrs |
| Mtbf (excluding lamp) | 50000 Hrs |
| Approvals | UL, cUL, FCC Class B, NOM,CE, TUV/GS, VCCI, TCO'99 |
| Additional Features | (4) USB 2.0 (USB connection to PC required) |
| Audio | Optional Full-length Speaker Bar (Integrated power connection to main panel) |
| Limited Warranty | 1 year parts/labor 3 year parts/labor extended warranty available |
| Pixel Defect Policy | 10 or more total stuck pixels 3 or more clustered (one inch circle) |
The FPD2485W is a 24" LCD, and many of the features are similar to competing models. As expected, the native resolution is 1920x1200, and most of the other specifications are similar to other recent 24" LCDs. Brightness, contrast ratio, pixel response time, and viewing angle are what we'd expect to find in a good-quality LCD, but we will wait until we do some actual testing to say whether it meets the specifications are not.
One of the nice aspects of this LCD is that you get a variety of connections. Dell's 24" LCD nearly matches the FPD2485W in terms of input possibilities, but Gateway goes one better by including two component video inputs. HDCP support is also included for the DVI input, which is one of the problems people face with older LCDs. While the display is clearly designed to function as a computer display first, it is also fully capable of functioning as a 1080i HDTV (as well as a 720p HDTV), although you will need to provide your own speakers or purchase the optional speaker bar.
1080p support is present if you use the DVI or VGA ports, but the component video appears to be limited to 1080i support. Users hoping to hook up an Xbox 360 to this display will likely be disappointed with the lack of 1080p support over component video, but at least they can still use a VGA adapter. PS3 users on the other hand would want to use an HDMI to DVI adapter to get 1080p support; the problem with using the DVI port that way is that it's more likely you would want to have your computer using the DVI input.
The LCD panel is an S-PVA active matrix TFT, which is again similar to what many other 24 inch LCDs are using. There aren't all that many LCD panel manufacturers, so the display manufacturers will often use the same base panel. Backlighting and signal processing can still utilize different components, however, which can affect various aspects of the display. The Gateway FPD2485W uses a Faroudja DCDi signal processor, which is one of the more respected brands.
One area that is definitely important to a lot of people when looking at LCDs is the warranty/replacement policy. Unfortunately, here the Gateway LCD doesn't fare as well. It comes standard with a one-year limited warranty with the option to purchase a two-year extended warranty (three years total) for an additional $30. That warranty will cover problems with the backlight and panel up to a point. What the warranty doesn't cover to a large extent is stuck pixels. While it is unusual to get a display with more than one or two stuck pixels these days, there's always a risk, and some companies offer a 30 day guarantee that there will be no pixel defects. Gateway takes a more lenient approach and will only replace panels if there are ten or more total stuck pixels, or three stuck pixels clustered within a one-inch area. For a 24" display, most people could probably live with a few defective pixels provided they aren't in the center of the display; up to eight or nine is quite a lot, and even though $700 isn't a lot to pay for a large LCD, anyone that purchases such a monitor only to discover several pixel defects is going to be disappointed.
If you're concerned about the warranty/replacement policy, it is also possible to find the Gateway FPD2485W at major electronics chains. By purchasing locally you should be able to either try out a display in person before buying it or else return it immediately if you discover a problem. If you purchase the display direct from Gateway, any repairs will also require you to pay for shipping the LCD back to Gateway. However, it may be possible to get on-site service if you purchase a display along with a Gateway computer. We spoke with customer service a few times regarding this and they could not give a definitive answer, so for now the best way to get local service is going to be purchasing locally.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
77 Comments
View All Comments
strikeback03 - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
thanks, that makes sense. I assumed the LUT was applied to everything the video card sent to the monitor. However playing with my calibration settings in the GretagMacbeth software and also with the nVidia controls provided in their settings package did not touch the video image.My current desktop monitor absolutely destroys blacks in it's out-of-the-box configuration. Calibration can make most stuff OK (not great) but since it does not affect video, movies such as the Matrix or V for Vendetta are unwatchable.
JarredWalton - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
I didn't notice any issues with blacks being "crushed", but there were some other issues I'll address shortly in regards to colors.chizow - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Crushed blacks are a pretty bad problem with miscalibrated displays. Basically if you use the provided calibration software EzTune and calibrate the display based on what the captions tell you, you'll get an overly dark setting with really high relative contrast. In games and movies, the result is horribly crushed blacks with no detail/difference in blacks and brain-searing light/particle effects. For instance, in Dark Messiah, I felt like I was running around with a blindfold on...except for the blinding light coming off my Lightning Shield, which I avoided using at all costs.Justin Case - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
Note that most lossy video compression algorithms will eliminate more detail from very dark (or very bright) colors than from midtones, so if a DVD appears to have crushed blacks, that could be just a poor encode.Most 3D games have a local gamma setting, so a wrong value there can also make things look bad.
Having said that, poor loss of detail and posterization in dark areas is a problem with some LCD panels.
Justin Case - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Laptop panels are typically picked for their low power consumption, not color accuracy, which makes those values a bit odd. What model is your laptop? And have you measured other monitors with the same calibrator?Anyway, simple calibrators won't measure things like color variation with angle of view, light bleed, etc. (which aren't issues for CRTs, but are for LCDs), so the deviation alone isn't a complete measure of the overall image quality.
strikeback03 - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
Thinkpad T43 with the Flexview (IPS) screen. There is some slight contrast change with viewing angle, but it's the best I have seen in a laptop. Other displays I have checked include my desktop LCD (cheap, with predictably bad colors, which is why I'm looking to replace it), a cheap old CRT (not very good), and a few ViewSonic CRTs at work (good results from calibration on all).JarredWalton - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
You should see the results from an older laptop I have. Even calibrated, dE is still a whopping 7.8! There are a few colors (blue and yellow I think) where I couldn't get dE to anything lower than 16-20. Heh. If you've got a display on a laptop that can get an average dE of anything less than 2.0, you're doing *VERY* well! My future laptop reviews will take a closer look at the laptop LCD quality....StevenG - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Some sites have reported extensively on the issue of input lag with LCDs. They have found that if you drive a CRT and an LCD at the same time, the image on the LCD will often lag the CRT by 1 or more frames. So what you are seeing on screen with an LCD is actually up to 50 or so ms behind the image that is being produced by the video card. This is one reason why I still don't use LCDs for gaming (the other reason being low refresh rates, which means a low frames/second limit if you enable vsynch - I refresh at 100 Hz at 1280x1024 on my 21" CRT, and there isn't an LCD on the market that can match that).I would like to see Anandtech explore this issue of LCD lag.
Justin Case - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
You have a 5:4 aspect ratio CRT? If not, you should be using 1280x960. If you pick 1280x1024, most games will assume you're using a 5:4 monitor (LCD), and the image will be slightly distorted (vertically compressed).JarredWalton - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Refresh rates are one of the advantages of CRTs that nothing else is currently able to match, unfortunately. I wish we could get 100 Hz refresh rates on LCDs, if only to avoid reduce the appearance of screen tear with vsync disabled, but the digital connection precludes that option for now.As for input lag, the pixel response times can make the LCD always appear one frame behind what is supposed to be shown, i.e. the GPU sends frame 1, and then 1/60 of a second later it sends frame 2, etc. The LCD receives frame one and the pixels start to transition, but the transition takes anywhere from 2-20ms (depending on colors and LCD). If we just say it takes ~16ms, that's one screen refresh. I've heard other LCDs may buffer input so that there's an additional lag, but if so I can't say that my eyes are sharp enough to detect it.