Dell 3007WFP

30" Widescreen. 2560 x 1600 resolution, 14ms Response time (11ms G2G), 700:1 Contrast Ratio, 400 cd/m2 brightness, 178/178 Viewing Angles.

2x DVI connections, Integrated 4 port USB 2.0 Hub and 9 in 2 Card Reader. HDCP Enabled

Dell decided to go one better than their already very popular 2405FPW, and release a massive 30" WS monitor (well, 29.7" viewable). This has a huge resolution as well to back up the size, offering the same number of pixels as three 19" TFT's! This resolution offers the smallest pixel pitch of any of the screens as well, at 0.250. The size of this screen obviously makes it a potentially excellent choice for someone looking for not only a large PC screen, but a multimedia and movie screen rolled into one. Perhaps the biggest drawback of this size is that to run games and this kind of huge resolution needs a very powerful graphics card, or even two! You'll need a dual DVI output to support the native resolution of 2560 x 1600 and to even hope of having a half decent frame you'll need something like a 7800 GT SLI. This screen needs more than double the power needed to run a 1600 x 1200 resolution. However, image scaling is said to be very good on this screen, and so playing at lower resolutions can still keep a good level of image quality and sharpness.

The screen itself features a 30" S-IPS panel from LG.Philips, the LM300W01. This has been used previously in the Apple 30" Cinema Display as well, but curiously Dell list this as 11ms on grey to grey transitions. It looks like there has been some introduction of overdrive as also used in the 2405FPW (rated 16ms response time, but 12ms or even 8ms G2G in some specs). There are rumours that Dell may switch to using the 30" Samsung PVA panel which has recently been released, and will also be featured in Samsung's own 305T screen. However, at this time, it seems the Dell is using an S-IPS panel from LG.Philips.

There is very minimal OSD selection on this screen, with the only direct adjustment available being brightness. Instead, you have to rely on Dell's own Color Monitor software. Annoyingly, this supposedly can't be installed on a non-Dell PC. Dell have also done away with some of the added connectivity which made the 2405FPW so popular. The S Video and composite connections have gone now sadly, bur fortunately the USB and card reader remain. Performance wise, the image is sharp and clear, and gaming is actually very good. You need to be a couple of metres away really to enjoy gaming, but this really helps make the most of the screen and any afterglow is soon forgotten. Movie playback is again fine from a couple of metres away. Perhaps the main issue which seems to be effecting the 3007WFP is panel uniformity, and this is probably down to the size and configuration of the CCFL backlighting mostly.

Official Dell Spec

(Dell 2405FPW in front of, and then next to, the 3007WFP. Shows the size of this screen)

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Reviews:

BeHardware Review (March 2006)

PC Mag Review (January 2006)
Firing Squad Review (March 2006)

ExtremeTech Review (January 2006)

Hexus Review (February 2006)

Ubergizmo Review (February 2006)
Prad.de Review (February 2006)

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Advanced Tests:
Taken from BeHardware:

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User Comments:

BEHARDWARE: "The monitor is big and imposing, and Dell has signed it and included –thank you- a vertically adjustable base. What a blessing! Only a few monitors are designed to offer such functions. Manufacturers often tend to think a heavy panel will eventually break the product. For now it holds on pretty well. The screen slides perfectly. It is a real pleasure to adjust.....it is hard to find a faster memory card player than this one. In short, this monitor’s memory card player will often replace your previous external dedicated memory card player (very effectively) or even the direct USB connection between cameras and computers (that have transfer rates a tenth of what we saw here).

There was a problem, however. Brightness is far from being homogenous on this panel. A specialist on big TV monitors confirmed that it was the one major issue for this type of product as the bigger the monitor, the more effect backlighting can have. It’s really difficult to have the same color quality all over the panel and brightness gaps are considerable, up to 40% between two corners. Brightness varies from 126 cd/m² on the top left corner to 176 cd/m² on the lowest right hand corner! We measured up to a 40% higher brightness and these variations have direct consequences on color quality. After these measurements we went back to the manufacturer a little worried....Perfectly aware of the consequences of such a result they (Dell) offered us to replace the monitor. But differences measured on the second one were even higher! We measured 138 cd/m² on the top left corner, 187 cd/m² in the middle and 207 cd/m² in the bottom right. This time there is a 50% performance gap! We will stick to the results of the first one…With our measurements, we would not be inclined to recommend this monitor to graphic designers for whom color quality is important. Calibrating this monitor isn’t enough, because only one area is calibrated. Moving one picture from one area to another will change colors and it’s disturbing.

Not every graphic card is equipped to display a resolution of 2560x1600. First of all, to display as many pixels via a standard DVI port, you have to use a card equipped with a Dual link type input. Indeed in standard mode, DVI is restricted to 1920 x 1200 and you have to couple two TDMS 165 MHz signals to generate the 2560 x 1600. This is the case of the 7800 GT, 7800 GTX, X1600, X1800, and X1900. If the game does lag, there is the future Quad SLI solution… or reducing the resolution which is a more reasonable option. It is possible to play at half the resolution or 1280 x 800. Of course, everything is less accurate but perfectly sharp and the most power hungry games reach higher framerate....Play in full resolution (and) you will be amazed. We guarantee total immersion in the game. Of course to play, step back at least 1.5 to 2 meters. Your field of vision will cover the whole monitor and you will get the second non-negligible advantage of less noticeable afterglow.

We clearly see that afterglow is (more apparent) to TN, IPS and fast PVA's under 6ms. This is what we can see in games when we are close to the monitor. As soon as we step back a little, it’s negligible. The 3007WFP will also be very convenient for many gamers. Sport, plane strategy games and MMORPG (like WoW) are really impressive. For other FPS it’s a little more delicate. On the one hand there is the afterglow effect and on the other 3D resources are required.

Like all IPS monitors, this one benefits from very wide viewing angles. It’s wider than TN and VA's. Like all IPS, this monitors has twinkling effects in color scales. Just like with games, you only have to step back a little when you watch a movie. From a distance of 2 meters you won´t be disturbed by afterglow or the movement of pixels. So is it oversized? The answer is no. It’s like when the 17" LCD arrived on the market and we found them enormous compared to the 15" and 14". It’s the same for the 19" then the 20" and the 24". Once again, we get used to this diagonal really quickly and we started to find other monitors a little too small."
 

PCMAG: "In normal desktop use, you'll actually want to crank the 3007WFP's brightness down to minimum. Staring at a large, overbright display for a full day is a recipe for eyestrain. The display's lowest brightness settings are in line with ergonomic recommendations, but the display still maintains a contrast ratio close to the rated 700:1. n terms of performance, image quality is quite good on this display, with both video and desktop graphics images appearing crisp and clean. In our lab tests, we discovered some issues with backlight uniformity. In actual desktop PC use, this isn't noticeable, but you can see some hot spots in video content that has lots of dark material.

EXTREMETECH: "One area where the Dell display performed impressively was in color-temperature tracking. To summarize our lab results, the Dell 3007WFP offers excellent contrast ratio and luminance numbers, good color-temperature tracking, and a typical CIE color response curve. Uniformity is a bit of a concern, though in daily desktop use, it's not an issue. We used the 3007WFP for normal office tasks, including writing, web browsing and some Photoshop work. Having the ability to open lots of windows and being able to see most of them was a real productivity enhancer. On the other hand, we did occasionally suffer from the "tennis game spectator" effect—you have to move your head sometimes to take in the entirety of the display. Video playback looked pretty good, although some digital video showed slight scaling artefacts. We saw no evidence of streaking or ghosting during game play or watching DVD movies. The PC Magazine synthetic test, which moves a colored box around the screen at high speed, only showed tearing near corners, but the overall artefacts were minimal.

HEXUS: "The panel has an inch-thick bezel that uses a different type of plastic to other Dell TFT's. The top and bottom are accented with silver surrounds, and the 3007 looks more like a stylish TV than an ultra-high resolution monitor. Keeping a somewhat minimalist look, the 3007WFP has three buttons on the right-hand side. They're built into the bezel itself, keeping the smooth lines of the chassis intact. The +/- buttons control the panel's brightness, although a lack of an on-screen display is conspicuous by its absence. Incidentally, the buttons work off capacitance, so you only need to just touch the button(s) for them to become active. All other monitor-related functions must be run through your graphics card's control panel. The monitor has a reasonable degree of vertical adjustment. You simply push down on the top and the panel's height-adjustable stand lowers by up to 90mm, to nearly touch its base.

There's no high-definition media around that can correctly utilise the display's 2560x1600 resolution: even 1080p is limited to 1920x1080 pixels. The Dell 3007WFP has no inbuilt video-scaler ASIC, perhaps providing the reason why analogue inputs have been eschewed. Rather, scaling is handled by the graphics card in your PC, so, in the main, the quality of DVD playback (480p for PAL) will depend upon just how proficient your dual-link DVI card is. The initial problem with gaming at native WQXGA resolution is finding titles that support it. Most games' resolution options are limited to 1600x1200 or 1920x1200. However, should you find a game that can be run at 2560x1600, such as Far Cry, the result is nothing short of stunning.

ELRIC: "Absolutely bloody fantastic for playing games on tbh. I was a bit concerned when buying it that I would be moving around the screen due to the size. But after a day or two you get used to it. simply dwarfs my 2405."

D3LIRIOUS: "In terms of image quality I haven't noticed any problems as yet, other than the odd small graphical glitch in tiger woods 2006 where a small object may suddenly get drawn in the wrong place for a fraction of a second or the card may even skip a a frame. (the screen once went completely white for a very small fraction of a second - could barely notice it but it happened all the same.
I'm getting the feeling that the circuitry on these 7800 cards, or possibly other makes and models, were not really designed to run games at this rez and so there are very slight issues related to pushing so many pixels - even though in most situations the actual power is there - if that makes any sense."

PRAD.DE: "Using a Colorimeter, we went about cross-checking this monitor's brightness values. The minimum brightness we determined was 110 cd/sqm and the maximum was 391 cd/sqm. Hence, the display can't quite reach the maximum brightness value promised by the manufacturer. Generally speaking, the range for brightness adjustability is fairly large, whereas the possibility for reducing it down to overly dark levels is not provided. Given a normally lit environment, we deem it best to work with brightness levels around 140 cd/sqm. With the Dell 3007WFP, this corresponds to a brightness setting of about level 5 or 6.

The reproducible colour space of this display is quite large and the subjective image quality it can deliver looks very good. Quite contrary to colour fidelity, which did not prove to be one of the Dell 3007WFP's strengths. Thus, we deem this display rather unsuited for more demanding domains such as graphics work, picture editing or design. The responsiveness of the Dell 3007WFP is impressive. Even without Overdrive, this monitor can cope with fast displays. There is no perceivable amount of ghosting in fast paced first person shooters. We rate the Dell 3007WFP's interpolated image quality as very good, part of which can be thanked to the monitor's small pixel size of 0.250 mm. Interpolated images show only marginal loss in detail and focus.

Thanks to the S-IPS panel, very subtle grey and colour gradients are depicted clearly. The Dell 3007WFP doesn't have the slightest problem with dark movie scenes, fog, clouds or headlight glare effects. Due to the high resolution, the Dell 3007WFP will immediately bring to light any qualitative flaws that video or DVD material can have – like bad compression for instance. This monitor is built to display movie material of high quality, - preferably of HD quality. Given adequate movie material, the Dell 3007WFP will live up to its true potential and consequently reward the viewer with outstanding image quality."