Dell 2407WFP and 3007WFP LCD Comparison
by Jarred Walton on March 2, 2007 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Color Accuracy
Something far more important than contrast ratio or brightness is the accuracy of the colors that are produced. A bright display with a high contrast ratio could still have terrible color reproduction, and it's not always possible to correct this. Most people will simply "eyeball" the display output to try and determine what looks best, and there are various color charts available online that can help. Outside of image professionals, that is often sufficient, and most users will find that their eyes adapt to whatever display they use and it is only when doing side-by-side comparisons that differences become apparent.
Monaco Optix XR Pro was used to generate reports of color accuracy, after performing initial calibration using the software. 24 color patches are sent to the display with the colorimeter measuring the resulting values. The difference between what is requested and what the LCD actually shows is known as Delta E, with lower values being better. Any score less than one is basically "perfect" - the naked eye is not going to be able to tell the difference - and scores less than 2.0 are very nearly perfect. Ideally, you would want all of the tested colors to have a Delta E of less than 1.0, but almost no one is likely to have problems with anything scoring below 2.0. From 2.0 to 4.0, most people still won't notice the slight inaccuracies in the color palette, but when comparing displays side by side it might be noticeable -- multimedia professionals would prefer something a bit better. Anything above 4.0 begins to represent a more significant deviance, and numerous scores above 6.0 will almost certainly be noticeable by just about anyone using the display.
The problem with calibrating a display is that it doesn't help all applications. Specifically, the video overlay used when watching DVDs or other movies completely bypasses any color correction, so you are essentially stuck with the uncalibrated colors. It is possible to tweak things slightly on some LCDs using the OSD, but the amount of color correction that can be done via the OSD pales in comparison to color profiles, and on models like the Dell 3007WFP there is no option to adjust colors outside of software. Ideally, we would like to see video drivers begin to apply color profiles to the overlay output as well, but we're not sure how much work that would require -- or if it's even possible.
We'll start with the uncalibrated results, as that is closer to what many people will experience. We should also note that color accuracy can vary from panel to panel even within the same model, so the results we are reporting are only from looking at a single LCD.
Without any form of color correction, the color accuracy of all of these displays is pretty poor. The good news is, for a lot of people it won't matter all that much. As we mentioned before, your eyes and brain tend to adapt to whatever you see, and for a lot of people they might notice a difference between displays but they would have difficulty quantifying one as substantially better. Subjectively, the only display out of these four that was discernibly worse was the old 2405FPW. While our instruments are able to measure extremely small Delta E differences, anything less than 3.0 is usually good and up to around 6.0 is "good enough".
If the uncalibrated results are disconcerting, at least the good news is once you calibrate any of these displays you end up with very good results. Of the four displays we've looked at so far, the 3007WFP ends up having the best color accuracy. This could very well be attributed to the use of an S-IPS panel as opposed to the S-PVA panels used in the other three LCDs. Surprisingly, the 2405FPW still comes in second place once calibrated, although differences of a few tenths generally amount to splitting hairs. We should also note that the variation between calibration runs tends to be about 0.2, and over time you will need to adjust the color profile in order to maintain accurate colors. Basically, if having accurate colors is important to you, you will probably want to invest in some hardware to help out.
Update: Additional information on viewing angles and color calibration for print work with these displays is available in our Acer AL2216W review.
Something far more important than contrast ratio or brightness is the accuracy of the colors that are produced. A bright display with a high contrast ratio could still have terrible color reproduction, and it's not always possible to correct this. Most people will simply "eyeball" the display output to try and determine what looks best, and there are various color charts available online that can help. Outside of image professionals, that is often sufficient, and most users will find that their eyes adapt to whatever display they use and it is only when doing side-by-side comparisons that differences become apparent.
Monaco Optix XR Pro was used to generate reports of color accuracy, after performing initial calibration using the software. 24 color patches are sent to the display with the colorimeter measuring the resulting values. The difference between what is requested and what the LCD actually shows is known as Delta E, with lower values being better. Any score less than one is basically "perfect" - the naked eye is not going to be able to tell the difference - and scores less than 2.0 are very nearly perfect. Ideally, you would want all of the tested colors to have a Delta E of less than 1.0, but almost no one is likely to have problems with anything scoring below 2.0. From 2.0 to 4.0, most people still won't notice the slight inaccuracies in the color palette, but when comparing displays side by side it might be noticeable -- multimedia professionals would prefer something a bit better. Anything above 4.0 begins to represent a more significant deviance, and numerous scores above 6.0 will almost certainly be noticeable by just about anyone using the display.
The problem with calibrating a display is that it doesn't help all applications. Specifically, the video overlay used when watching DVDs or other movies completely bypasses any color correction, so you are essentially stuck with the uncalibrated colors. It is possible to tweak things slightly on some LCDs using the OSD, but the amount of color correction that can be done via the OSD pales in comparison to color profiles, and on models like the Dell 3007WFP there is no option to adjust colors outside of software. Ideally, we would like to see video drivers begin to apply color profiles to the overlay output as well, but we're not sure how much work that would require -- or if it's even possible.
We'll start with the uncalibrated results, as that is closer to what many people will experience. We should also note that color accuracy can vary from panel to panel even within the same model, so the results we are reporting are only from looking at a single LCD.
Without any form of color correction, the color accuracy of all of these displays is pretty poor. The good news is, for a lot of people it won't matter all that much. As we mentioned before, your eyes and brain tend to adapt to whatever you see, and for a lot of people they might notice a difference between displays but they would have difficulty quantifying one as substantially better. Subjectively, the only display out of these four that was discernibly worse was the old 2405FPW. While our instruments are able to measure extremely small Delta E differences, anything less than 3.0 is usually good and up to around 6.0 is "good enough".
If the uncalibrated results are disconcerting, at least the good news is once you calibrate any of these displays you end up with very good results. Of the four displays we've looked at so far, the 3007WFP ends up having the best color accuracy. This could very well be attributed to the use of an S-IPS panel as opposed to the S-PVA panels used in the other three LCDs. Surprisingly, the 2405FPW still comes in second place once calibrated, although differences of a few tenths generally amount to splitting hairs. We should also note that the variation between calibration runs tends to be about 0.2, and over time you will need to adjust the color profile in order to maintain accurate colors. Basically, if having accurate colors is important to you, you will probably want to invest in some hardware to help out.
Update: Additional information on viewing angles and color calibration for print work with these displays is available in our Acer AL2216W review.
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Renoir - Monday, March 5, 2007 - link
Yeah I imagine you're right about the dell being able to scale the HDCP content to full screen. Was just wandering given that the review of the http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2078203...">HP LP3065 specifically states that it doesn't have a video processor and also suggests neither does the dell 3007. Also the editor spoke to HP after I brought up the issue of HDCP only being supported via single-link DVI which I got from this site http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=288...">Few paragraphs down and they told him the monitor DOES support HDCP over dual-link. So it would appear that not all lcd's have scalers which is the source of my confusion.TheUsual - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
I have experienced the input lag. I had an Acer 24", I think it was the 2416WD. The lag was very noticible when playing UT2004. My brother's 19" Hyundai and my crt had no such problem. Maybe you could find someone on your staff who does notice the lag to report on this aspect.musicalfruit - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
How 'bout doing a shootoff between the Dell displays and the Apple Cinema Diplays?The Mac guys at work want ACDs because they're "better" than the Dells. And naturally, I want to save money by buying Dells. Any benchmarks to support either argument would be great!
JarredWalton - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
I actually asked for a review sample from Apple a while ago; they declined. I'd like to see if they are any better myself!aixkan - Thursday, March 15, 2007 - link
I have read many comparisons when I worked in Germany 2 years ago – while not perfect, the ACDs consistently were voted the best by the editors of a (neutral) major PC tech magazine (named "c't"), although they always remarked that they were substantially more expensive. Apple does seem to make a good product.I saw a side by side test of a 23" ACD beside the $5000 color calibrated EIZO CG221 at the CeBIT '05. The ACD was obviously not comparable at less than half the price, but you really had to look closely to see the differences.
TheUsual - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
My brother has the 1080P Westinghouse TV and I must say the pc looks stunning on it at 1920x1080. I would really like to see a comparison between the Dell 24" and the WH 37". The WH allows you to do PIP with TV and Computer and swap it back and forth. This is a great feature. I was checking out Sony LCDs and I don't believe they support PIP and the new Sharps do now have rbg inputs. So plese, a WH 37" review?orion23 - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
Yeah...Loving the new Anandtech with some cool reviews....
I should get my 24-inch Dell LCD by Tuesday / Wednesday of next week, which will replace a Dell 20.1 Inch LCD. Let's see how it does!
asusk7v001 - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
Thanks anandtech for a Comparison like thisHowever, for some people like me who want an "All In One" TV/PC monitor which been looking for 2 years now. Recently, there are companies start making 32" 1080p TV. I really would like to see how these TVs compare to PC monitors and some lower resolution
TVs such as 1366 x 768. Lastly, what are the best viewing distance for those TVs as PC monitors
Thanks
hwac
qwerty3788 - Saturday, March 3, 2007 - link
These monitors have a builtin power transformer that is noisy. I had to return my 3007wfp (tried two) because of the noise. If you are working in a silent environment I suggest you buy something else...http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=d5286df8...">Many others have reported the same problem, so it's not just me.
Zebo - Friday, March 2, 2007 - link
Another issue I have is when you say motion is fine with these and no one will notice. I think everyone will notice this:http://www.veoh.com/videos/v270495J23AR3RZ">http://www.veoh.com/videos/v270495J23AR3RZBetter yet: In your testing..
Try running Titan Quest, kill some enemies and hit the alt key to see what they have laying on the ground after death while you are moving/walking - I bet you can't read what those items are because of the blur with any PVA. You must stop to ID them.
I'm very picky and notice blur 100% of the time even with he fastest LCD's like LCD20WMGX2 and Viewsonics 922 but the PVA's inside the Dell and GW are the slowest tech out and it's not right to tell people they wont notice when most will. Forum thread complaints bear this out.