I was not completely satisfied with the Viewsonic VA2012wb I got from Costco, so I decided to take advantage of some coupon codes and get the Dell 2007WFP for $449.

This review focuses on the Dell 2007WFP, but I will be making comparisons between the two. I kind of borrowed the format from Gibber's comparison review.

Specifications:
Diagonal Size: 20.1"
Viewable Size: 20.1"
Display Type: Flat Panel Display / Active Matrix TFT - Desktop
Depth: 7"
Features: 100 mm VESA® Mounting, Antiglare with Hard-coating 3H, Includes Height Adjustable Stand
Height: Compressed: 13.1", Extended: 20.2"
Weight: 11 lbs (monitor only)
Width: 18.6"
Image Max H-View Angle: ±89°
Image Max V-View Angle: ±89°
Color Support: 16.7 Million
Compliant Standards: VESA®
Connectivity Technology: Cable
Device Type: Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor
Diagonal Size ( Viewable Size ): 20.1" (20.1")
Dimensions (WxDxH): With Stand: 18.6" x 7" x 13.1" to 20.2"
Dot Pitch: 0.258 mm (Pixel Pitch)
Environmental Parameters: Temperature:- Operating: 41° F to 95° F, Storage: 32° F to 140° F; Humidity:- Operating: 10% to 80% (non-condensing), Storage: 5% to 90% (non-condensing); Altitude:- Operating: Up to 12,000 ft, Non-operating: Up to 40,000 ft; Thermal dissipation: 238.84 BTU/hour (maximum), 187.66 BTU/hour (typical)
Image Brightness: 300 cd/m²
Image Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Max Resolution: 1680x1050 Pixels
Max Sync Rate (V x H): 76 Hz x 81 kHz
Port(s) Total ( Free ) / Connector Type: 15-pin D-Sub/DVI-D/S-Video/Composite Connectors
Power Consumption Operational: 75 W (maximum), 55 W (typical)
Warranty: 3-Year
Compatibility: PC

My Test System:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Thermaltake Venus 12
ASUS A8N-SLI
2GB OCZ DDR400 Dual Channel Platinum
eVGA 7900GT with nVidia 84.21 drivers
Windows XP Pro SP2

Review:
There was initially some confusion as to what panel type the 2007WFP uses, but now most sources say that it uses an LG.Philips S-IPS panel like the 2005FPW does. Here is a screenshot of the 2007WFP's service menu, confirming that it is the LG.Philips S-IPS panel:

To enter the service menu, turn the monitor off, hold down the menu button and the + button at the same time, and while you're holding them down, turn the monitor back on. The monitor will take a second longer to come on. Once on, wait a second and then press the - button and the service menu will pop up.

Cost:
Dell - $449 after coupon codes (regular price is $529)
Viewsonic - $400
Conclusion: Viewsonic is cheaper, but the prices came out close and wasn't such a deciding factor for me. I would not pay the full price of $529 for the Dell right now though, due to its current issues.

Adjustability and Features:
Dell - Height adjustment, tilt, swivel, pivot, USB ports, composite input, s-video input, HDCP-compliant DVI, D-Sub, split/PIP screen, aspect ratio
adjustment
Viewsonic - Tilts only, built-in speakers, DVI, D-Sub
Conclusion: No comparison here. The Dell wipes the floor with the Viewsonic.

Color/Picture Quality:
Dell - Richer more vibrant colors.
Viewsonic - Good, but kind of washed out compared to the Dell, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as the slightly washed out look actually kind of looks good to me in a way.
Conclusion: I adjusted both monitors to have the settings as close to each other as possible. My fiancee thought the Dell looked better, but after adjustments, she found them to be very close.


Viewsonic VA2012wb: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast


Dell 2007WFP: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast


OSD:
Dell - Dell took an innovative approach with the onscreen display, having it across the bottom horizontally. It is not too complicated, and you can see what is being changed on most of the screen.
Viewsonic - A standard OSD in the middle of the screen, navigated vertically.
Conclusion: It is a personal preference as to which you prefer, and personally doesn't matter much to me either way.

Response Time:
Dell - Advertised 16ms, speculated at 6ms(gtg)
Viewsonic - Advertised 8ms(gtg), probably 16ms bwb
Conclusion: The subjective response times are nearly indistinguishable. Minimal ghosting using an online ghosting test. I did some testing in the PixPerAn text scrolling test, and at faster speeds, the text is actually a bit more readable on the Dell. I haven't been able to break a score of 8 on the Viewsonic, while on the Dell, I can reach 9 or 10. Dell wins this one by a hair.

Viewing Angles:
Dell - The S-IPS panel has much better viewing anles. It gets a little darker as you move, but only slightly. At extreme angles, the screen has a pinkish or purplish hue, especially visible on a black background.
Viewsonic - TN panels are known for their horrible viewing angles, and this one is no exception. Vertical viewing angles are worse. The monitor looks great if you are sitting in front of it with your eye level at the top of the screen, but if you even slouch a little, with your eyes dropping a bit below the top of the screen, the picture already gets a bit darker.
Conclusion: Dell once again wipes the floor with the Viewsonic here.

Viewsonic on left, Dell on right




Screen Uniformity:
Dell - The previous model, the 2005FPW, is known for having horrible backlight bleeding as a widespread problem. The 2007WFP, on the other hand, has absolutely NO backlight bleeding.
Viewsonic - Minor backlight bleeding across the top and bottom.
Conclusion: Congratulations to Dell for fixing the backlight problem for the new model.

Viewsonic on left, Dell on right


Scaling:
Dell - Between the video driver software utility and the aspect ratio scaling on the Dell's OSD, it scales very well to non-widescreen resolutions.
Viewsonic - Viewsonic's widescreen monitors have not been built to scale very well, and if it doesn't display the correct aspect ratio for a non-widescreen resolution, it displays a corrupt image.
Conclusion: Again, no comparison, the Dell clearly wins here.

Gradient Banding:
Dell - Despite eliminating the backlight bleed, Dell managed to introduce a new problem. Every person who bought a 2007WFP and checks gradients while connected via DVI reports gradient banding. Gradient banding is minimal connected through VGA, but is pretty bad in DVI. It is not too bad in Desktop Mode, but is a bit worse in Multimedia Mode, and the worst in Gaming Mode.
Viewsonic - The Viewsonic has very minimal banding, and is quite smooth.
Conclusion: Viewsonic wins this round. A few people on the different forums, mostly the same people as a matter of fact, are very negative towards the Dell about the gradient banding. If in the Desktop Mode as previously stated, there will probably not be any banding noticed in normal usage. I have not noticed any banding in games, videos, or pictures, only gradient tests. Hell, I have some gradient banding on my 37" Sharp Aquos LC-37D6U when I tried the gradient test on it, but never noticed any problems playing games or watching TV and movies on it.

UPDATE: I have noticed that some banding is more noticeable in certain games, specifically F.E.A.R.

I am not a professional graphics artist, nor do I edit pictures a lot, so the Dell is probably good for me. If you are a professional graphics artist or edit a lot of pictures, you might want to consider a different monitor, especially if you insist on only using DVI. If you have this monitor, and the banding really bothers you, you may want to strongly consider just using VGA. Personally, I can't really tell a difference between VGA and DVI on the Dell as far as image quality goes.

It is currently unknown what exactly is causing this bad gradient banding. There is some speculation that it might be because of bad or improperly tweaked chips for the DVI. Given Dell's track record for not fixing monitor issues, such as with the 2005FPW's backlight bleeding, I don't know how, when, or even if the problem will be fixed.

I used a popular gradient test to look for banding:

Viewsonic, DVI




Dell, VGA




Dell, DVI, Desktop Mode




Support:
Dell - Dell is now notorious for their bad, outsourced customer support. My last couple of calls to them for work were not too great. After receiving the monitor, I decided to try calling their technical support for the simple answer of how to get into the service menu, or find out what type of panel the 2007WFP uses. The person that answered the phone was very difficult to understand, I couldn't get his name, even after he tried to spell it out, I still could not understand him. We proceeded, and I found him to be utterly worthless and of no help. I asked him how to get into the service menu, and after several minutes, he told me how to get into the regular OSD by the button on the front of the monitor. He could not figure out how to access the advanced service menu, and failed to tell me what kind of panel it has after asking him whether Samsung or LG.Philips makes the panel. I brought up the gradient banding issue, and he did not even know what it was. I had to explain what gradient banding is to him. After that, I just gave up and ended the call, even though he did offer to attempt to troubleshoot it.
Viewsonic - I have not had any experience with Viewsonic support, but I also have been seeing bad reviews about them.

Which to choose:
I would really like to keep both, but can't really afford to. The Dell is better than the Viewsonic is every way except for the gradient banding in DVI. It has many more positives than the Viewsonic does, and is also a lot better looking. So despite the banding, I am more inclined to keep the Dell. My fiancee, who reviewed over the monitors alongside me, is quite firm that I should keep the Dell and return the Viewsonic, as what matters is how the monitor performs in real world usage rather than gradient tests.

On the other hand, part of me says to return the Dell 2007WFP and not put up with their crap quality control and gradient banding issues.

One more thing is this though, what other 20" S-IPS panel can you find for under $500, is HDCP-compliant, and offers as much adjustability, inputs, and features that the Dell 2007WFP does?

Other Thoughts:
I have done extensive research on LCD monitors, and it seems that there is not a perfect 20" LCD. They all seem to have one thing or another wrong with them. Some things I have found on other popular competitors that I was considering to get:
Viewsonic VX2025wm - Does not scale well, reported backlight bleeding in the corners, reported bad screen door effect, reported minor gradient banding (but not as bad as the 2007WFP). I checked it in a store personally, and also noticed the bad screen door effect, although some say it could be the anti-glare coating causing this look.
Dell 2005FPW - Widespread horrible backlight bleeding, and some reported bad screen door effect. So if trying to decide between the 2005FPW or 2007WFP, you have a choice between horrible backlight bleeding, or horrible gradient banding. Great job for dropping the ball again Dell!
NEC WMGX2 - Does not scale well, reported minor backlight bleed that may go away, glossy reflective screen not for everyone, way too expensive.


At this point, unless Dell fixes the banding issue, I cannot go forward and outright recommend this monitor.

I will make updates to this review with any new findings and experiences.

excellent comparison, thanks a lot.

great mate just what I was looking for. I'd settled for the 2007wfp but then after hearing about the banding issues was starting to be a little concerned.

I was starting to consider the NEC WMGX2 but dont like the stand or the glossy coating.

Just gott wait for the damn thing to be released in the UK now.

Scott

How do you enter the service menu?

To enter the service menu, turn the monitor off, hold down the menu button and the + button at the same time, and while you're holding them down, turn the monitor back on. The monitor will take a second longer to come on. Once on, wait a second and then press the - button and the service menu will pop up. I just added this into the review as well since more people may want to know.

The banding seems to be a DVI issue. How does the screen perform with VGA in normal use?

To be honest, I can't really tell a difference between VGA and DVI on the Dell as far as image quality goes.

Is it possible the DVI banding has something to do with the HDCP over DVI added to the new models?

It might have to do with the chips of the DVI, not necessarily having anything to do with HDCP specifically.

To be honest I was getting a little worried about my purchase of the 2007wfp, but after seeing this review everything has been cleared up. The only issue that was starting to make me rethink my choice was the banding, but over VGA it seems to not be a problem at all. Thanks for the review.

People tend to freak out when they read someone's complaint about a product they ordered. I think you would find that most people (even the ones who were upset about it) would be happy with their monitor if they had not read about the problem from someone else.

Yes, I can see the banding when I run a program that puts up a gradent display, but after spending days testing every game and application I have, I cannot find a real world example of a problem.

The 2007fpw is better than most other 20" panels all the other ways if you compair them side-by-side. I am keeping mine.

I disagree. I see the banding a lot on the internet. Plenty of websites out there use gradients as backgrounds and my 2007 bands on every one of them.

Another issue I have with the Dell -- the text via DVI just isn't sharp. I find myself blinking, trying to see if its my eyes or not. I'ver never had this before. There's a fuzzy "softness" sometimes that I just can't get used to.

So bottom line is I'm sending my 2007 back to Dell.

I think some people are just taking banding too serious. I can understand your concern if you were a graphic designer or a photographer. But how is banding affecting web surfing and gaming? for me, i would do anything to avoid the hassle of exchanging monitors if my problem is really not a problem that could potentially affect my happiness. i think some people jsut have too much free time.

Great review. Too bad about the banding seems like everything else is well done.

I have one odd question. How dim does the monitor go when you turn done the brightness. I like a dim screen (easier on the eyes) and Dells seem over bright, sometime even with the backlight right down to zero.

Can it get as dim as a CRT? How bad does it look when dim?

Uhm guys, the banding is absolutely horrid on DVI on the 2007WFP. I own one, and like ALL of them, it has terrible banding on color gradients. It's RUBBISH to pay this much for a monitor and be forced to use the VGA's inferior picture quality (if you can't tell the difference in general, you're blind). The DVI on this is unacceptable and must be fixed before anyone should consider buying one. Sadly, there are no other monitors on the market that offer both the esthetic styling and input options of the 2007WFP, so I'm keeping mine. I also can put up with the banding for now, but it's still extremely disappointing.