Date: June 28, 2006 - Author: Greg King - Editor: Rob Williams
Are you looking to upgrade your dated CRT or small LCD? Dells 1907FB provides a full 19" viewing area and supports 1280*1024 at 75Hz. It also includes a slew of extra features.. even two USB ports!
Since joining Techgage, I am often asked for recommendations concerning hardware upgrades and new builds. While it is of great importance to carefully plan what components you will include in your build, the only question I ask is how much do you want to spend?
The first piece of hardware most people think about is the processor. Secondly, the choice video card is just as important. The one item that most people overlook, or at least doesnt give much time or consideration to, is the monitor. Your choice of monitor is what is going to display the image from the PC that you so carefully planned for and built.
When the choice of monitors is considered, you have 2 primary choices, CRT and LCD. While CRTs are bulky and rather huge, they do have incredible picture and considerably cheaper than their flat, LCD brethren. You can also decide on a LCD screen. LCD displays are smaller and lighter than CRTs but for a while, not suitable for gaming. As time went on however, the response times came down and gamers began to adopt them at a much higher rate.
For me, I have always run a CRT monitor primarily because of the price of LCD displays. Yet in the past few years, the prices of LCD screens have dropped and you can now get a large LCD for a decent amount of money. The choices of LCD manufacturers are somewhat large but like any market, there are a few names that stand out. The most notable are Apple, ViewSonic, Sony and LG. One company that some overlook is Dell. Dell has made a name for themselves in the monitor business with their huge displays. By huge, I mean 20, 24 and 30 displays that are, to say the least, awe inspiring.
Today we are taking a look at the Dell UltraSharp 1907fp. As the name hints at, this is a 19 LCD (flat panel) monitor. The 1907 offers a wide range of functions, all of which I will touch on later in the review.
The styling of the 1907 is simple yet elegant. When I say elegant, I do not mean it in an Apple sort of way, but it was well engineered and pretty straight forward.
When the 1907 arrived, it came in two pieces. You had the monitor itself and you had the stand on which it is mounted to.
If you look closely at the stand, you see that the mounting bracket sits rather low on the vertical part of the stand. This is a nice feature that allows you to move the monitor up or down to a position that is most comfortable for your eyes. There is a lock on the back of the monitor that allows you to lock the 1907 in its lowest position. When the button is pressed, you can move the display up and down to your desired height.
On the back of the 1907, we find the DVI and analog ports, the power port as well as a pair of USB 2.0 ports powered by a patch cable that runs from your computer and plugs into the monitor itself.
There is also a square indention in the middle of the back that is there for mounting the 1907 on its included base. This is quite easy to do and takes very little time to put the display on its base.
Being an electrical device, it is going to give off a certain amount of heat. To counter this, Dell has included slots in the monitors housing to allow hot air to escape out of the inside of the casing.
Another neat feature of this monitor is the USB 2.0 ports. This provides easy access for me when I want to plug in a thumb drive or perhaps even retrieve pictures from my digital camera.
As stated earlier in the review, the USB ports are connected to your PC through a patch cable that plugs into an open USB port on your PC and connects to the monitor on the back.
Another nice perk to the 1907 is the ability to route your cables through a hole in the back of the base to coral your cables. This isnt anything huge but it is a nice feature that gives at least my desk a bit cleaner look than it has had in the past.
I also want to point out that most monitors make you purchase a DVI cable separately. Some do not. I am happy to say that Dell is one such company that includes a DVI cable with the monitor.
There is one final thing that I would like to show you before we get into the details of this monitor and that is the set of control buttons on the lower right hand side of the monitor.
From left to right, these buttons allow you to control different aspects of the monitor itself. The first button on the left will switch between 2 separate video sources. What this means is that you can have 2 separate computers and have the 1907 switch between them. Second from the left, you have the button that brings up your control menu. I will touch more on this menu later on in the review. The third and fourth buttons allow you to select different options in the control menu. The fifth and final button is the power button and this obviously lets your turn your 1907 on and off.
Now that we know what the monitor looks like, lets get into some details and see how the 1907 performs.
With any monitor, or piece of hardware for that matter, there are ranges of functionality. The specs of a 19 LCD are far different from those of a CRT. The most pressing difference is screen resolution. A 19 CRT has no problem running at 1600x1200 but an equivalent LCD is native to 1280x1024. This is a huge difference but for me, its perfect. With my old CRT, I was running at 1280x1024 so the jump to an LCD display should not be any problem at all. Below are the specs provided by Dell.
As stated before, the native resolution is 1280x1024 at 60 Hz. While this is native, you can run at resolutions lower than this. I personally prefer 1280x1024 but whatever resolution you want to run at is completely up to you. One nice feature about this monitor is the auto adjust options. What this does is it adjusts the screen to its optimal settings. No more adjusting the width and height of your display as this does all the work for you.
Below is a shot of the control menu. From here, you can adjust different settings for your monitor.
From these options, you can see that you can adjust the brightness of your monitor, and in the brightness option, you can also adjust contrast. You can let the monitor adjust it self if you so desire and control the position of the picture, but only left, right, up and down. You can not stretch the picture, only position it. There is an Image setting option, a color setting option as well as an on screen display setting. In the language tab, you have the option of selecting English, Spanish, French, German or Japanese.
Picture Quality and Adjustability:
When I was considering making the jump to an LCD screen, there were a few options in my head. I knew that I wanted a low response time so I could game. I also knew that I wanted a 19 screen. Not limiting it down much was I? My initial idea was to get one 24 Dell display and be happy with it. I did my research and while doing so, I received the recently reviewed Matrox TripleHead2Go. This kind of threw a wrench in my 24 display goal. I then decided, while looking at 24 Dells, to go with a 19 monitor so I could use the TripleHead2Go when I was able to get a hold of another 2 monitors. After careful consideration, I choose the 1907fp because of its digital output. I really do not need DVI, but my video card has the option so why not. I know thats a lame excuse but whatever, I wanted it.
The picture quality of the 1907 is exceptional to say the least. The picture is crisp and detailed and when to compared to my CRT monitor, the picture is just as crisp as well as brighter. One nice thing with a LCD monitor is that it does not flicker like a CRT does. This, over extended periods of use, is easier on the eyes and I for one love it.
As you can see, the pictures are clean and crisp, providing a solid display for everyday use. Everyday use? Everyday use is one thing, but can it game? Thats what I want to know.
Gaming with the 1907 is bliss as well. There were no instances of noticeable ghosting, and the picture was clean and crisp, just as we saw with the desktop.
While my camera does not do this monitor any justice, these are decent examples of how well this monitor looks when in a game. The movement is fluid and as stated earlier, there was no sign of ghosting.
The versatility of the 1907 can be seen in the following pictures and can be attributed to the stand that the 1907 sits on. In the pictures, you are able to turn the monitor 90 degrees to the right, giving you a tall and slender screen. While I do not prefer this, for those of you who might, it is good to know that this option is available.
When looking at this monitor, I come away liking almost everything about it. You have a rather large viewing area, crisp DVI picture and USB ports. The Dell 1907 has freed me from my gigantic 19 CRT and allowed me to stack even more junk on my desk than before. Thanks!
Thanks about all the cons that I can say at this point. There could be more options in the setup menu but I am just nick picking now. When compared to my old 19 CRT monitor, everything about it is day and night difference. No more refresh rate flicker, larger screen, crisper picture and much smaller foot print on my desk. When all is said and done, I am awarding the UltraSharp 1907fp a 9 out of 10 as well as my personal editors choice. This is a monitor that I have been using for about a month now and with every application I use, the value of this monitor goes up. The picture quality is astounding and the viewing size is incredible as well.
I leave you now with a few more pictures of the 1907.
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