A little history and some specs.
Some history
My look at the Dell 3007WFP-HC doesn't purport to be an exhaustive technical analysis of the panel's attributes. Rather, like anyone considering a PC monitor of this size, key attributes such as size, image quality and all-round suitability will be discussed.Going back some 4 years, my previous 5 monitors have been the Samsung Porsche-designed 171P, Samsung 181T, Dell 2001FP, Dell 2405FPW, Dell 3007WFP and, now, the Dell 3007WFP-HC. I've personally paid-for all of those monitors and none, therefore, have been review samples.
As an enthusiast who likes to be at the cutting-edge of technology, each of the monitors were purchased near the time of their respective introductions to the market. As a point of fact, I purchased the Dell 3007WFP in January 2006 and the HC variant in mid-February 2007, direct from Dell UK. Yes, it's an expensive business!
Notwithstanding Apple's excellent, but expensive, Cinema panels, the 2405FPW really kicked off the high-resolution TFT revolution when it was introduced two years ago, priced at around £700 and offering 1920x1200 pixel area as standard. It set the benchmark for all other companies to follow and the price was such that it was in reach of enthusiasts looking to build a high-end system. Inputs, too, were excellent, and it had most of the bases covered. The rise in copy-protected digital content exposed the 2405FPW's Achilles Heel, that is, the inability to process HDCP-protected sources.
Dell then introduced the massive 3007WFP some months later. It competed against Apple's 30in Cinema HD display but undercut its rival's price considerably. Priced at £1,000+ at the time, the 3007WFP wasn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, sure, but the pant-wetting resolution induced many, including yours truly, to shell out the necessary pennies and revel in WQXGA glory - you needed a dual-link-capable graphics card just to drive it - and, frankly, didn't know where to look, such was the screen real-estate.
Dell, however, removed much of the 2405's connectivity but added HDCP support. The 2405FPW's replacement, 2407WFP, updated the specs to support HDCP and matched the 3007WFP's cooler-looking aesthetic. Since then, Dell has also introduced a 27in WUXGA model and, as per this review, debuted the 3007WFP-HC. Phew!
The table below, then, lists 5 Dell monitors that have become favourites with folks looking for big-screen TFTs at, dare we say, reasonable price-points given the sheer pixel array.
| Dell 3007WFP-HC Specification | |||||
| Monitor | Dell 3007WFP-HC | Dell 3007WFP | Dell 2707WFP | Dell 2407WFP | Dell 2405FPW |
| Pixel Array | 2560x1600, WQXGA, RGB subpixels | 1920x1200, WUXGA, RGB subpixels | Pixels | 4,096,000 | 2,304,000 |
| Display Size | 30-inch, diagonal | 27-inch, diagonal | 24-inch, diagonal | ||
| Viewable | 29.7-inch | 27-inch | 24-inch | ||
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | ||||
| Luminance | 300cd/m² typical (claimed) | 400cd/m² typical (claimed) | 450cd/m² typical (claimed) | 500cd/m² typical (claimed) | |
| Contrast | 1000:1 (claimed) | 700:1 (claimed) | 1000:1 (claimed) | ||
| Viewing Angles | ±89° horizontal ±89° vertical |
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| Pixel pitch | 0.25mm | 0.303mm | 0.27mm | Display colours | 16.7-million (8bpc) |
| Colour gamut | 92% of NTSC | 72% of NTSC | 92% of NTSC | 72% of NTSC* | |
| Pixel Response | 12ms black-to-black 8ms grey-to-grey |
14ms black-to-white 11ms grey-to-grey |
16ms black-to-white 6ms grey-to-grey |
6ms grey-to-grey | 12ms black-to-white 16ms grey-to-grey |
| Inputs | DVI-D (digital) dual-link required for optimal resolution support. HDCP- compliant No other video inputs |
DVI-D (digital) with HDCP DSUB VGA (analogue) S-Video (analogue> Composite (analogue) Component RGB (analogue) |
DVI-D (digital) DSUB VGA (analogue) S-Video (analogue> Composite (analogue) Component RGB (analogue) |
||
| Power Consumption | 177W peak | N/A | 80W peak | ||
| Dimensions (locked in landscape mode) W x H x D (including stand) | 690 x 469.7 x 200mm | 634 x 441.8 x 243.15mm | 559 x 387.9 x 195mm | 559 x 451 x 229mm | |
| VESA Mountable | Yes (100mm) | ||||
| Weight | 11.38kg | 12.5kg | 8.3kg | 9.8kg | |
| I/O | USB2.0 (1 upstream, 4 downstream) 9-in-2 media reader |
USB2.0 (1 upstream, 4 downstream) 9-in-1 media reader |
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| Warranty | 3-year next business day exchange | ||||
| Current price at Dell | £892.01** | N/A | £977.60 | £522.58 | N/A |
* - Dell has also announced an HC version of the 2407.
** - the vagaries of Dell pricing is such that the 30in panel is currently cheaper than the 27in model.
The 3007WFP-HC, launched in February 2007, usurped the incumbent 3007WFP as Dell's high-end monitor of choice. So why did Dell choose to update a monitor that, by all accounts, sold well in its intended space?
High Colour
During the course of the evaluation of my previous 3007WFP, I noted that the panel suffered from uneven backlighting issues that caused the left-hand side to display images that were a little darker than the right-hand side. Further, compared to the excellent SPVA-equipped 2405FPW the 3007WFP produced a somewhat washed-out image, with clarity seemingly compromised for pure size. Yes, the 3007WFP's image quality was good but it wasn't an upscaled version of the 24in model, unfortunately.Dell, it seems, has incorporated an LG Philips LM300WQ3 S-IPS (Super In-Plane Switching) panel in the HC model and increased the contrast ratio - up to 1000:1 - while reducing the brightness to 300cd/m². However, the most telling difference is in the ability to display a wider range of colours through the use of a wide CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlight.
Having a wider CCFL, all other things being equal, the HC model is able to produce 92 per cent of the NTSC colour gamut, whereas the non-HC model provides around 72 per cent, which equates to common sRGB. The NTSC (1953) standard defines the total number of colours that can be shown on a television, so a 'perfect' NTSC picture would encompass 100 per cent of the standard.
Dell's 92 per cent coverage should translate to richer, more life-like colours with, in particular, various shades of green being better portrayed - they tend to be at the end of the colour space. Note, however, that a steady number of monitors, mainly professional, are now shipping with LED-backlight displays that are able to display the Adobe RGB colour space - 114 per cent of NTSC - which is used by many decent digital cameras. A wider gamut is always better but Dell has managed to raise the quality without raising the price. Remember, the 3007WFP-HC is not in competition with dedicated professional monitors that usually ship with additional features such as auto-colour calibration.
Response time
The use of a different panel between 30in models leads to a lower response time for the 'HC. Dell quotes an 8ms grey-to-grey and 12ms black-to-black. I observed very few problems with the original 3007 with regards to gaming and video playback, so the improved response time should bolster the HC's credentials as a large-screen multimedia monitor.Sundry
Dell has shoehorned the new panel, which is the only differentiator between the two 30in models, into the same overall frame. That means a lack of analogue inputs, understandable due to the extreme native resolution. What's bemusing is that Dell hasn't seen fit to add a second DVI input such that two PCs' video can be driven concurrently.Current price gravitates around £900. That's a hell of a lot of money to drop on a single display when multi-monitor setups provide greater flexibility, but the price, I note, is competitive against Dell's competitors'. Users even contemplating this model should understand that you can concurrently display four 1280x800 panes.