Tech*Anovitas has largely served as a bulletin board of sorts for rumors, news and theories about the Dell 2407 24'' widescreen LCD monitor. There's actually a reason for this, and it's not that I'm one of those rabid Dell fanboys. (I don't have anything against the company per se, I simply don't own any Dell products.) I was/is in the market for a monitor upgrade and it seemed that the 2407 might hit the sweet spot between performance/features and value. (Incidentally, in the previous post I reported that the 2407 rev A02 was going to be the initial product release in America; actually, rev A01 was released first, but Dell will be shipping revision A02 starting Friday June 9th, 2006. I’m not sure what the latest revision attempts to fix yet but I’ll provide specifics as soon as possible.)

The point is that the ongoing saga leading up to its release was of personal interest because I wanted a reasonably priced HDCP compliant 24’’ LCD monitor. Since the Samsung 244t appears to have more input lag (rumored to stem from DVI circuit problems) than either the 2405 or 2407 and an unreasonable 14 to 1500 USD price tag (Eizo has a 24’’ offering [CE240W] that’s real hardcore but even more expensive), my choices were limited. Well now there’s an even newer kid on this new 24’’ block, the Benq FP241W, which will supposedly be priced at around $900 USD.

The listed resolution is 1920x1200, with an 800:1 contrast ratio, 300 cdm2 of brightness, a 6ms gtg response (I rely on real-world experience rather than pixel response times from the manufacturer, and this case is no different), and a whole lotta inputs: Check this out- DVI-D, D-Sub15, Composite, Component, S-Video, and HDMI inputs (plural)! The HDMI inputs are fully HDCP compatible and are said to accept signals up to a full 1080p (1920x1080) resolution. Dailytech has some information on it as well.

The Benq is probably using an S-PVA panel, which is a guess based on the specs. I’ll try to confirm this ASAP. I don’t know of any online retailer that’s currently stocking this item but I’ll keep an eye out…