We're all creatures of habit, to one degree or another, and hardware enthusiasts are certainly not strangers to the rituals associated with a highly anticipated product's release. The cycle, from rumor to review, is always filled with enough emotional combustion to try even the hardiest consumer. After long months of waiting, a few early reports out of Japan and Australia had many of us scrambling to find another 24'' LCD monitor to further overextend our credit on.

Regarding the Dell 2407, we're at the point where the shadow of speculation is pierced by the first rays of light, and the early adaptors don't like what they see...However, some new(ish) info and an excellent, more positive perspective can be found at TFT Central, which is a thoroughly informative and highly readable website in general.

2407 Gradient Banding, First Image

Second Image

Dell 2405 Reference, First Image

Second Image

Dell 2407 Text Display Problems

The images above clearly illustrate the problems that threads at WS Gaming Forum were referring to, but a firmware update has been issued to address them. It would stand to reason that the current A00 panel will soon receive a revision to A01, but there still isn't any concrete information from Dell on that matter.

As stated in the TFT Central piece, issues like "fuzzy text" on the 2407 may not be noticed by the "average" user, and the firmware (which, by the way, Dell themselves must install for you- it requires a return) seems to have alleviated much of the color banding (the more serious problem).

The American release will probably be the rumored revision A01. I'm sure it won't be the last revision the 2407 undergoes, but it's encouraging that this product could still turn out to be what we had hoped for, which is a "large" LCD PC monitor with good image quality, decent color reproduction, adequate pixel response time, HDCP support, a passable contrast ratio, and a good overall Dell pricing strategy. I won't get into a PVA vs. IPS discussion right now, but I will say that if June brings the release of an NEC and/or Apple (A)S-IPS product, it will be interesting to see how the competition heats up.