Owners: Dell 1702FP LCD Monitor, what do you think?

[ikaika1]

Um, oops.

Basically, I'm looking for a good all purpose/gaming 17" LCD under 800$, and it seems as if this monitor has come highly recommended. Whats the general consensus on how well this preforms in terms of brightness, color saturation, and ghosting? Any other recommendations?

 

[Apex]

Specs

If you're looking to game and play DVD's, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. 50ms response is very slow these days. 200nits brightness is a little below average, but 350:1 contrast is not bad. Overall, it just gets clobered by the roughly same priced Planar 17.4".

 

[ikaika1]

Ugh, its impossible to decide really. Do the specs tell the whole tale? Are 40ms turn arounds ALWAYS better than 50ms ones? I know it would seem so, but the reviews im getting from different people place the dell above the planar you mentioned. ive looked all around, but its really very hard to come up with a solution.

 

[test99]

For gaming don't even bother with the DELL LCD.

You need <25ms. pixel responce time otherwise the more fps you will get the more ghosting.

 

[ksdavis]

A question ... is it true that the Dell 1702FP is OEMed by Samsung and is the same as the Samsung 170T? Knowing this one way or another would be a huge help in my buying decision. Thanks!

 

[Apex]

Well, it's definitely OEM'ed by Samsung, but it's unclear whether it's the 170T or not:

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/monitors/1702fp/en/regs.htm#fcd

However, the specs are not identical on the two (the samsung is 220nits brightness, the dell has 200nits).

Then again, Samsung's specs on their own page are incorrect. The 170T shows up as an 18.1" panel with a .281mm horizontal dot pitch.

 

[azkiwi]

One man's paradise is another man's hell, but most reviewers - and more importantly, gamers - have complained that 40ms panels are too slow for FPS gaming. There are now quite a few faster LCDs to choose from. Viewsonic has a couple at 25ms and Compaq seems to be the top gamers pick right now at 20ms.
It is a tough choice, made more so by a number of these units only coming out Q4 01 and not making it to many reviewers. I think there are better choices in your price range.
Most of the panels themselves are made by 2 or 3 manufacturers, but obviously other components (e.g. the Pixelworks scaling chip) are added and implemented differently by the branding company, so it may be misleading to put too much stock in the base supplier.