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Review: Dell 3008WFP 30" Monitor

First impressions and some photos of this monster.

 

I decided it was time to move up to a larger monitor for my main computer monitor. After passing by and drooling at the 30" displays I'd see at stores, I was leaning towards 30" and spent a fair amount of time looking at reviews for various models.

In the end, I went with the Dell 3008WFP 30 inch UltraSharp Widescreen Digital Flat Panel. I probably would not have even considered this were it not for Uncle Sam bestowing upon me a tax refund, so I considered it my duty to do my part to help stimulate the economy by coughing up the bucks. Besides, just as I was trying to decide, Dell knocked $300.00 off the price. So yeah.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the specs, since you can find those anywhere, instead I've just taken some photos and wanted to leave my impressions overall.

Arrival: I ordered the monitor online from Dell on 4/3/2009. At the time of the order, they gave an estimated shipping date of 4/16/2009. (I'm not sure why it would take 13 days to ship a monitor...maybe they were waiting on new ones to be built or something?) It arrived on the 17th, so their prediction was fairly accurate. The shipping box had a nice crushed corner on the upper left, but since these things are usually encased in styrofoam, I wasn't too worried about that.

It was indeed packed very well inside the box.

 

Once unpacked, the monitor includes the following items: (Left to Right) DisplayPort cable, Dual-link DVI cable, blue cloth for cleaning screen (?) power cable, USB cable, product information guide and CD. The CD has a monitor setup guide and user's guide, along with the usual related product information. There's also a standard VGA video cable, that's already attached to the monitor.

According to the label on the back, this unit was assembled in Mexico, and is a Rev A02.

In addition, there's a printed version of the setup card, which looks like this:

 

 

Setup. True to form, I ignored all setup info and just plugged everything in. It worked. Yay!

I was happy to see there were no stuck/bright pixels.

 

 

I'm using this monitor as the center monitor in a 3 monitor setup. I suppose that's partially insane, but I like a lot of screen real estate when working with 3D programs and Photoshop.

An interesting thing to note with the above image: I've set the desktop color to be 50% gray. Look at the difference in the brightness and evenness of the displays. The left monitor is an IBM 21" CRT, that used to be my main monitor. It's set to be as bright as possible, without losing my blacks. The rightmost monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 960BF LCD flatpanel. Notice how it's also dim by comparison, and a bit mottled as well. The Dell is at 75% brightness.

 

Here a snapshot from a recent vacation is set as the desktop image. And yes, the difference is this obvious when you look at them while working. The vibrancy of the Dell is really pretty amazing. If I was dead set on the brightness levels matching on all 3 monitors, I could reduce the brightness of the output from the Dell, but I usually just display panels and information on the left and right monitors, so I don't have a problem with it as it stands.

 

Some 30" monitors have a problem with "light leaks" around the edges of the frame. This is a 1/6th of a second exposure at ISO 1600 with a full black desktop setting. There's a slight bleed at the top just to the left of center. None of that variation can be seen in normal use.

 

Buttons are on lower right...Input Selection, Picture by picture, OSD Menu select, Brightness and contrast, Auto adjust, and power.

 

 

On screen display menus:

 

 

This shows the back of the monitor and the stand. Some have complained that the stand is too thin/wobbly and if they're pounding away at their keyboards the monitor will wobble. To that, I can only say "Get a real desk!" If the monitor is well supported, there's no wobbling, even if you pound on the surface of the desk.

 

Inputs

 

 

Gaming: My main reason for buying this monitor was for working with graphics programs for my artwork. But I would be a big fat liar if I said that were the only reason. I play games as well, both PC and console, so was also eager to see how that would work. Since the Dell 3008 has a "scaler" it can handle any resolution you throw at it, which you need for game consoles. And it looks great. Here's a shot of the Playstation 3 (going in through component) and Super Stardust HD:

 

A photo of a screen can't really do it justice...suffice it to say it looks pretty awesome!

 

Here's an example of Picture by picture. Above, you can see component input from the Playstation 3 on the left, next to DVI input from the computer on the right. So you can be playing games on the left while browsing on the right, which is kinda cool.

 

The newer Sony PSP (known as the PSP-2000 or Slim) has the ability to output to an external display. You need to buy a special cable for this, and it allows you to output component. Above, you can see the screen setup.

 

 

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops being output through the Dell. When you output a game from the PSP, the screen area is centered on the display with black letterboxed areas on all sides. Still, on this monitor you're looking at an actual display area of about 10" x 18" which isn't too shabby. You can see the PSP in front of the monitor at the bottom for a size comparison.

 

I'm probably going to have to update my graphics card to deal with these higher resolutions. My current Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS that was so awesome just a year or two ago isn't going to cut it for FPS at higher res. I don't actually play that many PC based FPS games though, and so far the card is holding up pretty well for other games. Even at standard resolutions, a 30" monitor is just incredible. Here's a shot of Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II. It just about fills your view when sitting at normal monitor viewing distances!

 

Final Thoughts

When I first started looking for a monitor, I had a few specific needs in mind.

1) I wanted a monitor with a built-in scaler. There are a number of 30" monitors out there that don't have scalers. What this means is that they will only work at specific resolutions. This might not be an issue for you if you only want a monitor for use with a PC, as you can adjust the settings with your graphics card. However, you won't be able to use things like game consoles, digital cameras, DVD players, etc., because the resolutions of these devices don't "match" the monitor's resolutions.

2) I wanted a lot of choices for inputs. A number of monitors only support DVI, or DVI and VGA. In fact, the model previous to the Dell 3008 was the 3007. A lot of people were unhappy with the fact that it only had a single DVI input. The 3008 has inputs for VGA, component, HDMI, 2 DVI inputs, S-Video, and composite. And best of all, it's got an input for DisplayPort which is what the next standard will apparently be for when I build my next system, so it's fairly future proof as well.

3) I wanted a good warranty. Dell has a 3 Year warranty that seems to one of the better ones offered.

4) Not as important, but I like On Screen Displays. Apparently many of the monitors without scalers don't have them.

 

Other cool stuff:

USB input which gives you 2 extra USB ports on the input panel of the monitor, and another 2 on the side of the monitor.

Built-in card reader on side of monitor.

 

Things I was Concerned About That Turned Out to Not Be a Problem

While researching reviews, I came across a few things that some had mentioned that made me nervous:

1) Sparkle. This has to do with the coating on the surface of the screen which bothers some people. I can see it if I hold my nose about 9" from the screen and look carefully, but in normal use I don't see it at all.

2) Wobbly stand. I mentioned this previously...the stand seems fine to me. If you grab the screen and shake it, it will "bounce" for a couple seconds before it comes to rest, but in normal use (on a firm surface) there's no issue that I can see.

3) Visual results from scaling. Again, something that hasn't bothered me. There's bound to be a slight softening to an image when it's upscaled, But I consider it minimal. Or to put it another way, if I have to choose between a game console image that's been scaled a bit vs. no image at all on a monitor without a scaler, I'll go for the scaling.

When it comes to things like the scaling and the sparkle, I really would suggest you find a dealer where you can view ahead of time if you're really particular about image quality. I live out in the sticks, and nobody within 200 miles had one I could look at.

I'm still a bit nervous about the fact that there have been problems, especially with earlier models concerning DVI ports going bad. On the other hand, I've read this was due to driver issues, and it sounds like it's much less of an issue now. I guess that's why it's good to have a warranty with a replacement policy.

 

Pros:

  • Huge, bright, dynamic image that fills your whole view
  • Every input I could want
  • Built-in scaler means I can use just about any source as input
  • Work looks great, games look great!

 

Cons:

  • Pricey. As of this writing with the Dell discount, it's still $1399.00. But if you want a big screen, you pay the man.
  • Took 13 days to get here. I guess good things come to those who wait.
  • I'm nervous about a DVI input going bad since it's happened to others.
  • I've noticed some "tearing" on the right side of the screen when I'm outputting from the playstation 3 at some resolutions, but I'm not sure yet if it's the monitor, or the PS3, or the cables. Will report more when I know more.

 

Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase. The brightness and clarity are really something you have to see to believe. I honestly don't know what I would change to make it better, so I'm a happy camper. I'll update this review if/when I have any additional info, as I've only had it for about a week so far.

Hope this was of some use if you're looking at 30" monitors!

-Eric Gooch

 

 

 

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