So after a few hours of using the LCD, here are some of my thoughts:
First Impressions:
What a beautiful display! The unit itself is somewhat heavy (~20 lbs.) and has a very thin bezel surrounding the LCD. The stand is nice and big, completely eliminating the risk of falling over if accidentally knocked. The back of the case has a panel which slides down in order to cover the DVI and power cables. Overall a VERY clean and slick display.
Visual:
I had read a review that said there were problems with this LCD, especially at the corners. I disagree. The 4 corners look as good as the center, making the entire picture clear and crisp. The only thing that's a little off is that the corners might appear darker if you are too close to the panel, but this is because there is a protective layer covering the LCD, and it's just a bit hard to see the corners without moving your head. This is expected of an LCD of this size!
Color Replication / Image Quality:
I've read some reports that the color replication on this monitor is somewhat suspect. Where this might be the case for the professional photographer of graphic designer, any variance that is present is not at all noticed. The display is extremely sharp, clear, and colorful. Compared to my old CRT, it's leagues above.
Gaming:
My biggest concern with this LCD before I purchased it was it's performance in gaming or other video-intensive applications. Like I said before, I'm coming from a 21" Trinitron, which was the king of gaming CRTs. While this LCD does not seem to keep pace with my old CRT, it is better then adequate, but it will take some getting used to. There are 2 problems I think here. First, my current video card (9800Pro) can't handle playing games at 1920x1200. I don't believe what I am experiencing is ghosting per say, but more along the lines of video lag. From what I understand, ghosting makes things look blurry in motion, which is not the problem I'm experiencing. When I stand in one place and rotate around (Boat map from HL2) some of the textures will "stick" temporarily. It is nothing major, just not the smoothest visual representation. My x800XT is on the way from GameVe.com, we'll see how it goes when that arrives on thursday or friday.
As for gaming in the 16:10 aspect ratio.....WOW! It is literally like a movie in which you're the main character. I've tested out HL2 and CS:S and both support 16:10. It is what all gaming should feel like.
Dead/Stuck Pixels:
Unfortunately, I have 2 stuck pixels (on green). The are impossible to spot during typical use, but now that I know where they are I can find them on a completely back background. You really don't notice them unless you look for them directly, and they have more of effect on my mental perception of the monitor's imperfections then anything else. No big deal really, my old Trinitron had those 2 lines (as all Trinitrons do) but I got used to those within a day or so
Questions:
** This LCD has a 16ms response time (rise/fall), but what do the sync frequencies have to do with anything? The vsynch is like 95hz, hsync is 85hz. What should I set my refresh rate to in my display properties? I've had it at 60, 75, 85, 100, nothing looks any different?
