Get a Dell 2005FPW now or wait for the refresh?

gizmo1990 · 5 Mar 2006 at 22:58

I'm in the market for a wide screen tft and it seems that Dell are widely recommended around the net.

My budget is around £400 (possible stretch to £500) so thats the 2005FPW.

Thing is I'm aware of the upcoming refresh to Dells line and I'm in two minds what to do.

On the one hand the current price of the 2005 is good (due of course to their upgrade soon no doubt) plus the fact that as the monitors are at the end of their cycle the tech should be very mature.

On the other though is that soon a new update will be out sporting improved specs no doubt but back to the old prices.

So does anyone here have any advice for me? Should I take the plunge now or wait? :confused:

sablabra · 5 Mar 2006 at 22:59

I would pick the NEC LCD20WGX2 over the dell 2005fpw

. At least you should take a look at it, I think it looks WAY better.

Baddass · 5 Mar 2006 at 23:06

i think it might be wise to wait for the 2007WFP to emerge myself. It all depends what you're using the screen for really, but the panel in the 2005FPW is a couple of years old now really, and there is hopefully some nice improvement in responsiveness, as well as colour reproduction and black depth in the new generation of IPS panels. Their release is imminent, likely to be at CEBIT 2006 (9th - 15th March) so i think it would be wise to hold off. Not to mention the ongoing issues the 2005FPW has with backlight bleeding!

gizmo1990 · 6 Mar 2006 at 00:00

Thanks for the head up Baddass. I didn't think the refresh was so soon. How long after they announce it do you think the monitors will be available?

sablabra, thanks for the NEC suggestion. I checked it out and specs and performance wise it seems cool. However I really don't like the design of it unfortunately. It looks like its got a big tube of marshmallow for a frame!

Baddass · 6 Mar 2006 at 00:15

well the hope is that the new models will be announced very soon, that is what is rumoured on the net, and it would make sense for Dell to do this at CEBIT to get all the publicity. However, it is hard to tell how quickly they will become available. Either way, i think it might be a good idea to wait and see what the new models are like