2007WFP, my thoughts...

Hi there people.

I have been following the 2007WFP saga on these forums for the last 3 months, and continually come back to check on the latest posts.

When the 2007WFP was first announced, I like many of you, fell head over heels in love with this new good looking panel. It was only to be released in South Africa in July, so I was quite anxious to see the banding issue resolved before purchasing the unit.

I am by no means an expert on LCD panel technology, but as a “Power User/Gamer”, I extensively research any technology purchase thoroughly before pulling the trigger. Price is obviously the main factor for me, Dell’s prices are generally excellent for what you get, isn’t it one of the main reasons why we bought this panel?

I work daily with Dell LCD panels and must say that when my A02 “made in Czech Republic” 2007WFP arrived a few days ago, I was floored! I, like many of you, will use the “Desktop Mode” since I am normally wary of any image ‘post-processing’ that I have little or no control over. I believe that if you have a decent video card, all the necessary adjustments can be handled by it, even DVD de-interlacing using Nvidia’s Pure Video or ATI’s AVIVO technologies.

I think people need to make a distinction between features that they required and paid for and features the manufacturer added as “value adds’. I’ve read many posts here complaining that the banding was only fixed in Desktop mode, when we have paid for all 3 modes. Did any of these original purchasers know that this panel had a Faroudja post processing chip before purchasing? Was this an implicit requirement for this purchase? In most cases no. If you need the chip to work for your specific needs, you have it. If you prefer to calibrate and adjust your image yourself, you can. Dell has obviously erred on the side of caution, not wanting to alienate either user.

Granted, the replacement process for the A00 owners was far from perfect, causing frustration among many. But ask yourself this, would most other manufacturers acknowledge the ‘glitch’ and implement a fix as quickly as Dell has? Even though it was technically not their fault? Would they have tasked a forum moderator, ChrisM, to co-ordinate the replacement effort with the close co-operation of so many concerned users? You could perhaps argue that it was because of all the useful discussion on this forum, that Dell could respond quickly. They basically had all the info they could ever want.

Recently, Dell has been making a conscious shift towards the Gaming/Multimedia power users with their XPS range and the acquisition of Alienware. Their Core market continues to be the big corporates, but they are slowly recognizing the benfits of making high-end products for those multimedia and gaming users.
Is this panel High-End? Price wise no, feature wise yes. It is truly a bargain for what you get.
Dell recognized the success of the previous generation 2x05 FPW range of LCD’s and obviously wanted to add better ergonomics, better aesthetics and better picture quality. The latter didn’t come off well, but isn’t the Faroudja chip supposed to be a high end video processor? Hmmm…


Anyway, as we all should know, LCD panel technology in itself is imperfect. There are manufacturing concerns, uniformity issues, etc… This is the reality now, we can only hope that the powers that be can give us panels of CRT quality, in a flat panel form factor that everyone will be happy with. Or am I being naïve in saying that everyone would be happy?

My particular panel isn’t perfect, and I did not expect it to be either. It has a slight uniformity issue on the right hand side next to the bezel. But I can only notice it when I scrutinize the panel close up. Viewing angles are excellent with this S-IPS panel, but this was never an issue for me, as I am one of those strange people that sit in front of their screens! 
I will not be using this panel to watch DVD’s or HD material, as I have a 50 inch Pioneer 5060 Plasma panel for that! ;)
Playing games, such as Half Life 2, FEAR, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2 and NFS Most Wanted is an absolute pleasure on the native resolution. I am no HardCore gamer, but the colour reproduction is excellent (something I value more than response times), while I have noticed no motion lag either.

For the 2007WFP users out there with the A02 or even A01 versions, be proud of your astute purchase. For those still on the fence, what are you waiting for? Pull that trigger now, you will have no regrets! For those still waiting for their replacements, be strong, I’m sure you will eventually have a panel in your possession that satisfies your requirements.

Thanks for reading!!