E207WFP or SM-206BW?

aaron_yume · 16 Jul 2007 at 20:00

I'm considering buying a sub £200 20" TFT monitor to replace my 19" CRT screen. I've never used a TFT monitor before so am very dubious about the transition which is mainly to try to reduce eye strain and desk space used.

At the moment I'm considering the DELL E207WFP or a SAMSUNG SM-206BW for purchase. Although my main interest is with picture quality, I could really do with a monitor that has a stand which allows the height to be adjusted and/or the screen to be rotated into portrait mode (more interested in portrait mode for a 2nd screen later down the line tbh). I suspect both these monitors probably won't have good adjustments on their default stands mind.

Any advise on which screen is better and/or other recommendations on the stand issue?

Pajeh · 16 Jul 2007 at 23:34

Looking at the same 2 monitors, hopefully someone will be able to provide some help.

Either of these have a Kensington security slot?

Pulseammo · 17 Jul 2007 at 11:39

As far as I am aware neither of those screens do portrait mode (you said it's not a big issue, but its one thing I can comment on (hopefully get the thread going

)). The dell offers tilt only, no height, and I'm reasonably sure that it doesn't rotate. I think that is possibly the same for the samsung.

aaron_yume · 17 Jul 2007 at 12:03

Thanks for the reply Pulseammo. Thought that would be the case.

I'm now thinking that maybe it's worth me spending a litle more and going for the Dell 2007WFP so I at least get the option and have a (better?) S-IPS screen although the 16ms refresh scares me a little.

Nullvoid · 17 Jul 2007 at 12:31

The cheapest widescreen model I can find with height adjustment+swivel (as opposed to just tilting) is the 20" Viewsonic vg2030wm, but the quality of its panel isn't quite up there with the Samsung you've picked out (in particular it has a pretty poor response time even though it is labelled as '5ms'.

Beyond that, I know the HP w2207 would perfectly cater to your needs, but it's a 22" monitor and at £229.95 it's above what you were looking to spend. There's a pretty thorough review here: http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2007/review-hp-w2207.html#Introduction

Edit - a review of the Dell 2007wfp from the same site: http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review-dell-2007wfp.html

Depending on how 'hardcore' your gaming is you might not notice any problems at all.

aaron_yume · 17 Jul 2007 at 13:24

Not quite sure what a 'hardcore' gamer entails but I'm not a fan of fps games and generally stick to 2D and arcade style games. I do do a lot of video editing so I think better colour representation is more important for me.

The HP w2207 looks fairly good for my needs although the reason for 20" over 22" would be to have smaller pixel size (0,282mm vs 0,258mm) footprint.

Just ordered the Dell 2007wfp as the more I look at it's reviews the more I'm attracted to it and although it's over budget, I suppose it's better to pay a little more than regret not doing so later on.

Still very vary/dubious on the refresh rate/black representation issues of TFT screens so I'm pretty anxious to see what I'll make of my 1st TFT screen.

fobose · 17 Jul 2007 at 13:42

2 2007WFP's here, been great for gaming on (and using 360 too), movies look good and the colour is just awesome. You wont regret it.

Clarkey · 17 Jul 2007 at 13:47

2007WFP rocks, although TN panels are very good these days.

555BUK · 17 Jul 2007 at 15:17

2007WFP's give better colour reproduction and wider viewing angles than any other screen in my office. I have not compared one side by side with my 206BW at home, but I think the Dell just edges it.

aaron_yume · 19 Jul 2007 at 22:03

Well I've had time to get used to my DELL 2007WFP and although initially I was in two minds about the TFT monitor I'm now quite/very happy with it.

It does appear that I have 2 pixel faults on the screen, although you can only spot them on a solid black background. Not quite sure what you would call that pixel problem but its nothing major as it's not very often I'm faced with a solid black background.

Not quite sure why I was so worried about the refresh rates being lower on these S-IPS panels as apart from some mild blurring of background (not foreground) elements when moving a camera around very quickly, I'll be damned if I can notice anything under most conditions.

One annoyance I have is that when running native 1680x1050 desktop I can't select the 1:1 pixel ratio mode, so I end up having to go into the monitors menu everytime I want to play older games that only support 4:3 aspect with low resolutions after I've loaded them. But can't find fault with anything else.