HP ZR24w review

[Vadi]

This IPS panel display has no wide gamut, and has good colours after calibration. It's very bright, even at zero brightness it's above 140cd/m2 and the black levels are not the best. But this is OK, as long as you don't use it always in a very dark room.

There is very little ghosting or input lag. For old games its 1920x1200 resolution is nice - you can play at 1600x1200 (1:1 pixels). There is an aspect ratio setting too. It only supports 60Hz, so it's no juderfree movie screen.

It's got an aluminuim frame - the build quality is nice, except that it's not perfectly vertical, when rotated to portrait. You can turn the display, also height adjustment is there. The package included VGA, Displayport and DVI cables. You can also turn off the LED light.
It's supposed to have a beefy PSU, but it seems you still may get a buzzing unit.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Nice, even has rotation for landscape/portrait views. And has a Display Port input. Only one DP connector however, so not DP chaining capable unfortunately.

If that had LED backlighting, that would be fantastic for replacing my old Dell 24" monitor. Still, pretty tempting.

Regards,
SB

 

[Jawed]

If that had LED backlighting, that would be fantastic for replacing my old Dell 24" monitor.

Why?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Why?

Lower overall power consumption. If my 24" document viewing monitor (the one in Portrait orientation) was only 2-3 years old, I wouldn't be replacing it period. But the one I have currently for that purpose was bought back in 2003 or 2004 so I've started to look for a replacement.

And if I'm going to do that I might as well make it cheaper to run everyday, as long as the monitor doesn't go tits up too early, it would be worth a modest price premium to have an LED backlit monitor.

I want to do the same thing with my LCD TV. But that's only about 3 years old. It would be financially irresponsible of me to replace it for a lower power LED TV after only that long.

Anyways, all that said. If my 24" monitor goes out anytime soon, this HP here looks like it'll be on the top of my list for a replacement monitor. It's horribly frustrating that all LED monitors that are currently being released appear to be the crippled 16:9 versions.

When in Portrait orientation, a 16:10 monitor is already just a tad too narrow. 16:9 just makes it worse. And there aren't any large screen 4:3 monitors. Although I think I'd prefer a 16:11 over a 4:3 (16:12) as it'd still leave a bit of room top and bottom for toolbars and whatnot.

Regards,
SB

 

[Squilliam]

I can't figure out how to rotate the display to be honest... DRUNK SB

 

[Ty]

I've had this display for quite some time and think it's a very good alternative to the Dell.

It's got an aluminuim frame

Mine is plastic I'm pretty sure. It's brushed and silverish so it looks like aluminum but I'm pretty sure it's plastic. The build quality IS nice but there is backlight bleed in one corner (lower left but I forget), lots of posts on this).

Still since I don't watch movies on this (I have Pioneer Kuro for that ), it doesn't bother me.

 

[Vadi]

Oh, I didn't look carefully enough. I was sure I read it was aluminium, and since it got a bit hot at higher brightness levels, I thought the "metal" acted as a heatsink.
I got a small amount of bleed in that corner too.
Apparently you can get it for under 300€ in HP friends store, oh well.

 

[Jawed]

Lower overall power consumption.

Well, watch out for the gamut then, because as far as I can tell all LED-backlit PC monitors have wide gamut, not sRGB.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well, watch out for the gamut then, because as far as I can tell all LED-backlit PC monitors have wide gamut, not sRGB.

I don't do color correction, photo editing, media watching, or game playing on that monitor so it's not a big issue. The main monitor is always going to be the more carefully selected one.

The side document monitors just need to have a few qualities. Wide viewing angles, decent contrast, rotation, and going into the future better power consumption. Which pretty much limits panel selection to IPS or some of the better *VA types. TN panels are absolutely horrid when rotating.

The only problem is noone seems to be making 16:10 monitors with LED backlighting anymore. And the ones that used to were in the 2-6k USD range for 24" monitors meant for DTP and graphics work.

Regards,
SB

 

[swaaye]

Wide gamut monitors need to be calibrated or they look rather awful for usual desktop duty. They appear very over saturated for usage that assumes sRGB (almost everything). I don't know much about the subject but apparently wide gamut is great for artists. This sounds like a headache to me as it's enough work to get a sRGB monitor looking good.

I am using a 2405FPW / 2005FPW pair at home yet. I probably will unless one starts going offwhite due to age or fries or some such. I'm not really much of a whiny individual when it comes to LCD "quality" but with these Dell screens I like the rotation, the quality scaling, the inputs and the USB hubs quite a bit.

I do almost all gaming on plasma now though because huge is good and so is that black level. Not to say that plasma doesn't have its own quirks but it is awesome for video and gaming.