Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP Monitor

More than a monitor

By Steve  Jan 21, 2007 | 1 out of 1 found this Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP review helpful

Pros: Plethora of connection abilities, dazzling image

Cons: Plethora of connection abilities, not well integrated

With 5 viewing modes, selected by a button on the front, picture in picture overlay, picture in picture split frame, composite, RGB VGA, DVI, USB, component video, attachable decent sounding 10 watt soundbar, auto-power saving mode, and dozens of con...figuration settings, you'd think this would come with a manual. It does not. When I got it, it was one of the few affordable 24" monitors around of any quality, and with a 3 year warranty to boot, I sprung for it. It does come with a DVI cable - saving an easy $60 or so. It also pivots, if you like working on long documents or proposals, or surfing the web without ever having to vertically scroll, heh... With the composite and component video options, as well as the sound bar, one could use this as a TV monitor, but the soundbar is not integrated well - it just hooks on, and is powered by, the monitor. The cable for it is a standard PC analog sound cable. Since it's so multi-purpose oriented, I kinda feel it should have come with a remote, but alas, you have to manually select "channels&qu
ot; (inputs). A major flaw that I don't like is that you cannot connect the VGA and DVI connections simultaneously - yet you have to use a button to select between the two - an odd "feature&quo
t; - it would be great to swap between a vga laptop and DVI desktop - even seems designed to do that, but it won't. The USB connections have both passthru and offer connection to the side mounted multitude of memory card slots - add this up with the memory card slots on a PC, and the memory card slots on a photo printer and you'll find yourself learning how to remove/unmount/hide drives in short order. The image quality is remarkable, but I'd expect that. It is also of gaming quality, with almost no smearing or tearing due to the high refresh rate. Since this can operate as a regular HDTV, (1080P), it's definitely got it going on. I suppose tho, that connected to a PC and a composite/component tuner, DVD player, set top receiver... you wouldn't need the remote, as it goes into power save mode after the signal is down. Being only 24 inches tho, I can't see someone using this as a primary entertainment TV. I guess, in summary, that it is a poorly designed hybrid, well executed, or vice versa - if that makes any sense. The key features I was looking for, quality of image, no dead pixels, and smooth video and gameplay - are all there in spades. The rest is dead weight (for my purposes, anyhow). Read more Less