Just how good is it, Tarinder?
Display-related issues and other musings
The very nature of the panel requires that a dual-link DVI signal be transmitted from your graphics card. Now, with AMD introducing its Radeon HD 2000 series that incorporates at least a single dual-link port on every SKU, that's not a problem. NVIDIA, too, has raised its connectivity game and most new 8-series cards ship with the requisite dual-link transmitter.Problems can arise when ferrying HDCP-protected content on the display. The resolution is such that, as I've pointed out, HDCP signals also need to be sent across a dual-link connection. That limits your choice of graphics cards somewhat. What's more pressing is that, at the time of writing, AMD's Radeon HD 2600 XT has the necessary hardware for full-screen HDCP support but displays it at 1920x1200 with ugly black borders spoiling the picture and making up the rest of the pixel count.
Graphics cards with dual-link DVI but single-link HDCP, such as the GeForce 8800 Ultra, can only display 1080p HDCP-protected content at a quarter of the screen's resolution, so scaled-down 1280x800 (720p). The problems aren't inherently Dell's, however. Put simply, you need to research which cards can effectively display protected content at the highest resolution.
I had hoped that the 30in upgrade would see HDMI being implemented as standard. That's patently not the case and Dell will probably introduce it in the next refresh, when I suspect that LED-backlighting will be the order of the day. Dell might even eschew HDMI for DisplayPort but that's pure conjecture on my part.
Final thoughts
Much like the 3007WFP, the Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC is big and beautiful. Running 2560x1600 day on day gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling that (thankfully) isn't an onset of incontinence.The HC model uses a better S-IPS panel to beat out the regular WFP in practically every way. Colour vibrancy is the key and the wider gamut ensures that greens really are more natural and that deep reds are imbued with the purity of colour that you would see from your own eyes.
After having used my paid-for model for considerably more than 1000 hours in the last 5 months and not having suffered any image-related problems, the 3007WFP-HC is one piece of hardware, albeit expensive, that I would be loathed to part with.
If needs must, I could happily run 500GB of internal storage rather than the 2TB+ currently in my main box. I'd swap out a GeForce 8800 GTX for a lower-spec card and I'd even 'make do' with 2GiB of system RAM rather than 4GiB, but it would pain me to use any other panel. That's not purchase-justification disorder, folks, it's my honest opinion after having written over 300 reviews at HEXUS.net over the past 5 years and calling it as it is.
Could it be better? Yes, of course. Connectivity is lacking; there's a single DVI input, no HDMI and, priced at around £900, it's damn expensive. Still, I absolutely will not compromise on HIDs and displays as they're what I interface with on a daily basis.
Readers may prefer to spend the same money on a multi-monitor setup and that's fine. For me, though, there's little better than thrashing away at HomeSite on an almost-perfect 2560x1600 screen and still having gobs of screen real-estate spare.
Bottom line: once you try it, you won't want to go back to anything else.
HEXUS Awards
Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC
HEXUS Where2Buy
At the time of writing, the Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC can be purchased for around £892 (including VAT) here.HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any of Dell's representatives choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.HEXUS related reading
HEXUS.net - reviews :: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP LCD monitorHEXUS.net - reviews :: Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW LCD monitor
HEXUS.net - reviews :: iyama PLX486S-B1S 19” High Contrast LCD monitor
