Dell UltraSharp 2001FP Preview: Gaming LCDs for the Masses
by Kristopher Kubicki on November 10, 2003 12:36 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Wallmount, Swivel, Pivot & Cable Management
How many of you remember the pivot feature on the 191T LCD that we reviewed last year? That's right — Dell brought this feature back in the 2001FP. The original Samsung 191T was pivotable, but fairly awkward. The 191T cable management provided difficulties when attempting to pivot the unit. Dell took a slightly different approach to this problem, but essentially reevaluated the stand of the LCD in the form of a primitive universal joint.
Click to enlarge.
Dell's first move was to build the monitor in two separate pieces; the mount and the screen are two totally separate units. The screen has a receptacle for a standard 100mm VESA wall mount, but can be interchanged with the stand. Interchanging the stand with a VESA wall mount was very simple and requires no tools. Dell deserves some extra credit points here. It sounds obvious, but believe us, not many monitors are built this way. As you can see below, the stand allows a swivel of about 50 degrees left and right, as well as a 90 degree pivot clockwise. A small button locks the monitor in place in either landscape or letter pivot mode.
All of the inputs are fed into the LCD under the stand mount. This is acceptable, but not particularly thrilling. Samsung's 192T, arguably, has the best cable management, with the interfaces all running down the inside of the stand. Dell's whole stand can be folded into VESA compatible mount point. On one hand, we enjoy the fact that Dell set the monitor up to be easily interchanged with a VESA arm, but on the other hand, we miss the extremely simple cable management on the 192T.
As somewhat of an unusual move, the 2001FP has a small cable holster at the base of the stand. Good intentions, but poor foresight. Any premium VGA or DVI cable has an insulator a few inches from the end, and usually, this happens to be the same linear distance as the cable holster on the bezel. This is fine if you keep the monitor stationary, but if you pivot the screen, the cable instantly snags on the holster. This, therefore, makes the holster useless.
We would further like to note that even if you do not use the holster, the monitor can still be a slight pain to rotate. It needs to be tilted slightly before pivoting because there is not enough clearance between the monitor base and the screen bezel to come all the way around in an upright position.
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miomao - Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - link
marcstThe new NEC 2080UX+ (note the "plus") has the same panel of the Dell 2001FP.
:)
KristopherKubicki - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
Its the same thing. :) So in a way, you have the new champ ;)Kristopher
marcst - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
Before pronouncing the 2001FP as "new big LCD champion", you should really have a look at the NEC 2080UX, 1600x1200, S-IPS-Panel. Really awesome panel, and not a single annoying dead pixel/subpixel (my panel)!KristopherKubicki - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
We tested with a 9800 Pro. Sorry about the mixup.Kristopher
miomao - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
No CRT is sharp as LCD...and for color next years we will have 30bit colors LCDs.
Remember Sony will stop Trinitron production in 2004!
The main issue of LCD will remain fixed resolution.
wicktron - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
it's improbable for lcd's to ever match the color accuracy and sharpness of a crt.ripdude - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
neat article.I still find the performance of (any) LCD unrewarding for its price. Until LCD's are on the same quality as CRT's I'm not trading in my 17" CTX :).
Slingman - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
Great article Anandtech! I know a lot of us were waiting for a good review of the new LG panel. My only question would be in regards to how it compares to the Samsung 213T? I believe this to be every bit as competitive as the 192T is, especially considering it runs at 1600x1200, just like the 2001 FP does. Granted, it is more expensive, but many of us will use it as a basis of comparison when shopping for a new 20"+ display.Before knocking the review for their comment on DVI, one should have their facts in line. All the newer video cards on the market, in particular the newer Radeons and Geforce FX's, support 1600x1200 on the DVI interface. You do not need a pro-level card in order to do this.
mcveigh - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
can't remember where I saw it but 9800 series does it I believeShalmanese - Monday, November 10, 2003 - link
What video card did you test this with? To the best of my knowledge, consumer grade cards only support 1280x1024 on DVI. You need a fairly expensive pro card if you ever want to use 1600x1200 on DVI which makes it rather flippant to recommend that people can ignore the VGA issues and use DVI instead.