HP LP3065: A new contender for the 30" throne
by Jarred Walton on March 22, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Closing Thoughts
A large 30" LCD is definitely a luxury that only a few people are willing to afford, but if you have the money and other hardware necessary, using a computer takes on a whole new dimension with such a display. Games can feel even more immersive, but truthfully we find the extra screen size to be more useful outside of gaming situations. The ability to have numerous applications open without the need to overlap windows can increase productivity for example, and it's also possible to have two or three different versions of a document open at the same time for easy side-by-side comparisons.
All other things being equal - and in our testing we would have to say that the Dell 3007WFP and HP LP3065 are in a dead heat - price and features are going to usually be the determining factors on what LCD people want to buy. In the features department, we definitely give the edge to HP, but this will really only matter to people who plan on using more than one computer with the display. Otherwise, you could basically purchase either of these LCDs and be happy.
What about price? Looking online, current prices on the Dell 3007WFPHC and HP LP3065 are the same: $1699. HP currently offers a $40 mail-in rebate, and Dell has frequent sales that drop the price of their 30" LCDs by as much as several hundred dollars. If one of the displays is substantially cheaper, we would recommend saving money. Just keep in mind that a dual-link DVI KVM switch can cost several hundred dollars, so if that feature is something you would find useful we really can't see any reason to get any 30" LCD other than the HP LP3065.
We had a conversation recently about which company was better: HP or Dell? One person commented very simply: "Oh, HP is much better!" When we asked why, he gave the tongue-in-cheek response, "Because my wife works for HP." That's a pretty fair summary of the situation in our book. If you have any reasons or relations that make you prefer one company over the other, either 30" LCD will work very well. If you don't have any preference, we would purchase the HP simply because those extra DVI inputs could prove useful, if not immediately then at some point during the life of the display.
Is a 30" LCD the best display on the market? That really depends on what you plan on doing with your computer. If you like to run numerous applications at the same time, the added real estate can prove handy. Games and movies also look really nice on a large display, although as we mentioned on the Dell 3007WFP review HDCP support on dual-link DVI is currently not possible. Hopefully that never becomes an issue, and as long as Hollywood doesn't begin enabling the ICT (Image Constraint Token), it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to have a multipurpose display, however, we would seriously consider a 1080p LCD HDTV as an alternative. Some of those LCD TVs might not fit very well on a computer desk, but then some of them aren't much larger than the 30" LP3065.
It was interesting to hear from HP about the reasons current 30" LCDs don't have on-screen displays or support for non-dual-link inputs. While plenty of people will be happy with the displays as is, we are definitely interested in seeing next-generation 30" displays that have improved circuitry to allow for other resolutions and input options, along with an OSD. The small pixel size on the 2560x1600 panel seems to allow lower resolutions to run without feeling quite as blurry as they do on other LCDs. Perhaps that's simply because the scaling is being done on the GPU rather than on the display itself, but owners of the latest generation gaming consoles would probably like to be able to use one of these displays as well, especially in situations like college dorms where having multiple displays often isn't possible. However, until we see such 30" displays, we would rate the HP LP3065 as the best shipping 30" LCD, even if it's only by a small margin of victory.
A large 30" LCD is definitely a luxury that only a few people are willing to afford, but if you have the money and other hardware necessary, using a computer takes on a whole new dimension with such a display. Games can feel even more immersive, but truthfully we find the extra screen size to be more useful outside of gaming situations. The ability to have numerous applications open without the need to overlap windows can increase productivity for example, and it's also possible to have two or three different versions of a document open at the same time for easy side-by-side comparisons.
All other things being equal - and in our testing we would have to say that the Dell 3007WFP and HP LP3065 are in a dead heat - price and features are going to usually be the determining factors on what LCD people want to buy. In the features department, we definitely give the edge to HP, but this will really only matter to people who plan on using more than one computer with the display. Otherwise, you could basically purchase either of these LCDs and be happy.
What about price? Looking online, current prices on the Dell 3007WFPHC and HP LP3065 are the same: $1699. HP currently offers a $40 mail-in rebate, and Dell has frequent sales that drop the price of their 30" LCDs by as much as several hundred dollars. If one of the displays is substantially cheaper, we would recommend saving money. Just keep in mind that a dual-link DVI KVM switch can cost several hundred dollars, so if that feature is something you would find useful we really can't see any reason to get any 30" LCD other than the HP LP3065.
We had a conversation recently about which company was better: HP or Dell? One person commented very simply: "Oh, HP is much better!" When we asked why, he gave the tongue-in-cheek response, "Because my wife works for HP." That's a pretty fair summary of the situation in our book. If you have any reasons or relations that make you prefer one company over the other, either 30" LCD will work very well. If you don't have any preference, we would purchase the HP simply because those extra DVI inputs could prove useful, if not immediately then at some point during the life of the display.
Is a 30" LCD the best display on the market? That really depends on what you plan on doing with your computer. If you like to run numerous applications at the same time, the added real estate can prove handy. Games and movies also look really nice on a large display, although as we mentioned on the Dell 3007WFP review HDCP support on dual-link DVI is currently not possible. Hopefully that never becomes an issue, and as long as Hollywood doesn't begin enabling the ICT (Image Constraint Token), it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to have a multipurpose display, however, we would seriously consider a 1080p LCD HDTV as an alternative. Some of those LCD TVs might not fit very well on a computer desk, but then some of them aren't much larger than the 30" LP3065.
It was interesting to hear from HP about the reasons current 30" LCDs don't have on-screen displays or support for non-dual-link inputs. While plenty of people will be happy with the displays as is, we are definitely interested in seeing next-generation 30" displays that have improved circuitry to allow for other resolutions and input options, along with an OSD. The small pixel size on the 2560x1600 panel seems to allow lower resolutions to run without feeling quite as blurry as they do on other LCDs. Perhaps that's simply because the scaling is being done on the GPU rather than on the display itself, but owners of the latest generation gaming consoles would probably like to be able to use one of these displays as well, especially in situations like college dorms where having multiple displays often isn't possible. However, until we see such 30" displays, we would rate the HP LP3065 as the best shipping 30" LCD, even if it's only by a small margin of victory.
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gfisher - Sunday, July 26, 2009 - link
My HP machine has an NVIDIA 8500GT graphics card. I'm interested in buying a HP LP 3065 thirty inch monitor. Will the card drive the monitor at full speed?DaveJDSP - Sunday, December 30, 2007 - link
Jarred,I cannot possibly thank you enough for testing and posting photos of viewing angles. When doing critical photo/graphics work, it is essential that the top and bottom of the screen appear consistent from a fixed viewing point in the center of the screen. The larger the monitor, the more critical this becomes, as from a fixed point, the eyes scan over an arc of 10-20 degrees or greater.
Most monitors that I have seen at local stores have viewing angles that are totally unsatisfactory for critical work, even from a fixed eye point. And there are very few local stores that carry a sufficient selection of better and larger monitors, suitable for more critical work, so that the buyer can evaluate those monitors in person. Therefore, your complete and comprehensive reviews become even more critical.
Thank you again for your excellent reviews and for including such critical viewing angle information.
Dave
chakarov - Friday, March 23, 2007 - link
Contrast by specification shoud be 1000:1 but you measured it 585:1.It is interesting what to believe.
JarredWalton - Saturday, March 24, 2007 - link
As I explained in the Gateway FPD2485W review, contrast ratios, brightness levels, response times, and various other "spec sheet items" are often seriously exaggerated. While technically a higher contrast ratio is better, a 500:1 or higher real value is generally more than sufficient. There's also a possibility that at some specific setting the HP would come closer to 1000:1 - doubtful, given the results on the three tested settings (uncalibrated, calibrated, and print calibrated), but still possible.The basic issue is with backlight bleed - i.e. blacks that aren't actually black. In theory, any proper display would have an infinite contrast ratio, as black would be 0 and anything divided by zero is infinity/undefined. Some displays (the Acer, for example) achieve higher contrast ratios by having blacker blacks; others like the Gateway get them by having insanely bright whites. Anyway, more is not always better, as the color accuracy of the middle tones isn't represented by contrast ratio.
michal1980 - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
what about input lag vs a crt?crts should be the baseline since they seem to show close to 0 image lag.
lcd vs lcd is nice to, but if all lcds are off by a large number of frames from a crt, that will still suck
Souka - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
I feel a CRT vs LCD war thread starting..... ;)JarredWalton - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
LCDs are still slightly slower than CRTs, but we have abandoned the CRTs, or at least I have. I no longer have any for testing, and the last CRTs I purchased are now over two years old, the Samsung 997DF and the NEC FE991-SB. There hasn't been a new really high-end CRT released in upwards of five years, I don't think. Five or six year old 22" CRTs (with a 20" viewable diagonal) are better than the later 21/22" models in terms of features and performance. Then there's the whole geometry and signal adjustment that needs to be done on analog devices. Personally, I wouldn't even consider a CRT for my computer use anymore.Given that we have the 2407WFP for testing and it has been used already, we would prefer to continue with that trend. A baseline is just that: a reference point. Baseline doesn't have to be "best" - and obviously quite a few LCDs are better than the 2407WFP when it comes to input lag and response times. So far, however, we haven't seen more than a 1 frame (*maybe* two with the Acer AL2216W) difference in output. So the largest difference we've seen is currently less than 0.02 seconds.
Souka - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Why not get a 30" Apple Cinema Display?AnnonymousCoward - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Let's see, $2000 for the Apple versus $1274 for the Dell. If you like being charged up the @$$, then be my guest.Now, the Apple is competing with the LP3065 and 3007WFP-HC; those panels are superior and $300 cheaper retail. Not to mention I just bought the HC from Dell for $1430+tax. Why would you pay $570 more for a worse product?
dcalfine - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
YeaApple made the first 30" dual-link LCD for consumers and is often considered better than the Dell. It would be wise to consider it a contender.