Well if I were still working there I'd be able to check the monitor beforehand for dead pixels for you (I used to do that occasionally). I don't work there now though and am nowhere close to the company now so that's out of the question. Same goes for FS/T stuff heh.
Picture quality, MVA's have better picture quality than the more widespread TN panels. TN panels' best selling quality is their response time, but otherwise, they're worse than other panels (such as MVA) in almost every respect, i.e. viewing angle, contrast, etc. Except for price -- one of the reasons why TN panels dominate the market now is that they're the cheapest to make (and because people are so concerned with response time and letting themselves get hoodwinked by misleading stats). I've never noticed any ghosting with the V293, though admittedly I never tested it out for ghosting -- mostly I was just looking at the Aquarium screensaver wondering if I was about to blow out our demonstration model while fiddling around with the controls in the back (that's not recommended by the way). Some of the reviewers on Newegg reported that it's a 6-bit monitor, which I find surprising, because Chi Mei's own site says it's 8-bit (16.7M colors) and they're not shy about admitting 6-bit. Now that I'm not working there though I can't test it out personally, so I can't give a conclusive answer on that. It's unfortunate that they didn't say anything conclusive -- I got no idea if it might be a resolution (hence interpolation) issue or video card issue or whatnot since one merely says it's a 6-bit without any qualifications and another says there's video artifacts (this is out of over 100 reviews). Otherwise though, I used to be against 6-bit monitors but now I'm kinda unsure because I recently found out that my laptop is 6-bit...after it tested perfectly fine on those varying shades tests that are supposed to make 6-bit artifacts show up (it failed my 252-255 brightness test though, which was how I found out). So I'm not sure if that would be a concern. Otherwise, the screen really is bright, and the contrast really is really good. Some people complain about the bright blue power LED at the bottom of the screen; some people also complained then covered it with tape.
As for reliability, all I think I'm allowed to say is that the defect rate for Chi Mei monitors (or at least, the ones Amptron sells) is below 1%. Actually, it's far less than that (I've seen the RMA stats) but that 1% figure is stated on the website so I'll assume that's public =P until I see it get pulled. I have no idea on Dell's. The majority of our returns actually work perfectly fine, which annoys the head of the RMA Department to no end (people always think the monitor is the cause of the problem, even if it's something dumb like the video cable's not properly connected). The most common defect off the top of my head is a bright (or dark for MVA panels such as the V293) vertical or horizontal line of pixels, which is because the scan or data connection got screwed up. But that shows up soon as you turn on the monitor so it doesn't show up over time, so no worries about stuff like that for FS/T unless they ripped you off.
Amptron only provides warranty service to the first consumer purchaser. So if you get it from FS/T then um...make sure you get the original sales receipt as well. And pay attention to the name on the receipt if you ever need to return it. Heh.
Oh yeah. One of the monitors at work had a green dead pixel. I took a piece of paper to cover it (so I don't ruin the screen's finish) and rubbed it with my thumb. It went away and hasn't come back since, so now I think that the whole rubbing thing really does work sometimes. I'm guessing it works if the particle is loose, but won't work if the particle is stuck or if the pixel's dead because the assembly failed in the first place.
And I just looked at Dell's specs for the 1800FP (
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/m...nglish/specs.htm?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19 ) and it really does say that the 1800FP is 17 lb (with packaging it's 22 lb), so I'm at a loss to explain that, since I measured the V293 myself and it was only 10 lb with the stand. I got no idea why the physical dimensions are so similar either (I measured those myself as well when I was at Amptron; note Chi Mei's don't give info for if you take the stand off).
Okay enough rambling for now.