Can’t decide 215TW or 20WMGX2???

B

bmdoss

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Dec 13, 2006
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I am in the process of replacing my broken viewsonic P810. I have narrowed the search down to the NEC 20WMGX2, which looks awesome besides not being able to rotate the panel into portrait, and more expensive and smaller than the Sammy 215TW witch looks perfect besides the input-lag issue but some people don’t see it. My usage will be 90% photo/video editing, desktop apps and 10% Gaming. Will the NEC be that much better to sacrifice 1in and an increase in cost? Or is there another panel I should be looking at?

I would try for the 2007wfp but I don’t want to deal with the lotto issue. Has anyone seen these panels side by side? I will be calibrating whatever panel I get to sRGB with a Spyder2pro. But from what I have been reading either panel should be somewhat close out of the box.

Thanks for any help
 
Well I have ordered the 215TW from newegg and if it doesn't deliver I will upgrade to the NEC
 
Well I am sending back the 215tw and getting the 20WMGX2 the Samsung has a little screen door effect that bugging the dickens out of me
 
I'm tried to get one myself yesterday. I went to the local Circuit City and Best Buy but they will only sell that NEC online. I was hoping to see/buy the monitor in store but it looks like I'll go to Newegg if Im stuck buying online anyway. Post back how things go ; )
 
abcdelight said:
I'm tried to get one myself yesterday. I went to the local Circuit City and Best Buy but they will only sell that NEC online. I was hoping to see/buy the monitor in store but it looks like I'll go to Newegg if Im stuck buying online anyway. Post back how things go ; )
Click to expand...

250 Best Buys have the 20WMGX2-BK in stores and Frys electronics has the white/silver version.
 
Thanks. I went to BB 2 days ago and it wasn't on display. I asked if it was in stock and they looked it up in front of me and said it was "restricted" item and I could only get it online (second time I was told that at that store). I am in metro NY and things get weird like that here. I'll see if there is another BB location in reasonable distance. I see Dell has it now too and they still have 400 beans of mine from the 2007WFP charade. I might have better chance of finally resolving issues with an exchange. Would never have believed trying to get a decent monitor would be so hard a few months ago.
 
I seen one at our local BB 2 days ago... It will be interesting to see both of these LCDs side by side
 
I just did a zip code search on Best Buy site and all 7 stores listed as near me don't carry the monitor in house. But, in the meantime, I realised I might not like the black version since I just noticed in pic here that the front bezel is still silver on that. Newegg has the white one for around 550 US witha rebate. Not bad considering it has speakers and a TV tuner. A Dell 2007WFP would be an extra 40 with speakers so it would be 440ish at full price. The NEC is reasonable all things considered. I just like the Dell stand a lot better.
 
Well I have them both :) It took me about a second to pick the NEC.. Really guys this is worth every penny!!!!!!!
 
I read that a lot in reviews people make about that monitor: " worth every penny". NEC might want to use that as a slogan - or rename monitor the NEC WEP20.
 
The nec has a .258 dot pitch. In other words.... NO SCREEN DOOR EFFECT! xD

Dude.. Just buy the nec. You will not regret it. I don't. :D
 
You are correct Damuman. I got the NEC 20WMGX2 today and I have no screen door effect AT ALL. I had the Dell S-PVA last month (oh and Dell also says its monitor has a .258 dot pitch) and the screen door bit was so bad it looked like the monitor panel had a coating of fine dust on it. This NEC is so clean and clear, I thought I saw a dead pixel and it was just an almost microscopic speck of dust. I would never have noticed that on the Dell at all. Whoa.....
 
Ya the Screen Door Effect was my main complaint about the 215TW so I got the NEC Every time I set in front of it puts a grin on my face :D
 
That doesn't make sense. The NEC should have more of a screen-door effect than the Samsung because S-IPS panels have more spacing between pixels than S-PVA panels. Nobody seems to understand what I mean because people keep using the words "screen-door effect" to describe something totally different. The NEC definitely does have a screen-door effect, but it's not really a problem unless you're sitting less than a foot away.



abcdelight said:
You are correct Damuman. I got the NEC 20WMGX2 today and I have no screen door effect AT ALL. I had the Dell S-PVA last month (oh and Dell also says its monitor has a .258 dot pitch) and the screen door bit was so bad it looked like the monitor panel had a coating of fine dust on it. This NEC is so clean and clear, I thought I saw a dead pixel and it was just an almost microscopic speck of dust. I would never have noticed that on the Dell at all. Whoa.....
Click to expand...
That's the anti-glare coating, not screen-door effect.
 
The 215TW when photo editing made my pictures look dirty.. You can really see the effect when moving a white window across the screen. The NEC does not have this effect. When looking at the screens side by side you can really see a HUGE difference in contrast, color and what I would call the Screen Door Effect or what ever was making the sammys picture look dirty. When you look really close at the NEC you can see pixel separation but it is not as pronounced and does not effect the over all picture quality as on the sammy.. IMHO having had both on my desk..
 
ToastyX said:
That doesn't make sense. The NEC should have more of a screen-door effect than the Samsung because S-IPS panels have more spacing between pixels than S-PVA panels. Nobody seems to understand what I mean because people keep using the words "screen-door effect" to describe something totally different. The NEC definitely does have a screen-door effect, but it's not really a problem unless you're sitting less than a foot away.

That's the anti-glare coating, not screen-door effect.
Click to expand...

I get no SDE at all from my 215tw. There may be confusion with silk screen effect.....that's when there looks to be a fine shimmer on the screen. But the Samsung doesn't exhibit that either. I don't know if NEC has done anything with the glare I saw on the screen last time I saw one of those monitors. But it bothered me. And I also thought it was a bit small north and south.
 
Yeah, the dirty look is the anti-glare coating. All matte screens have that effect, and some are even worse than the Samsung. The NEC doesn't have that effect because it has a glossy screen.
 
"That's the anti-glare coating, not screen-door effect"

It's probably both on the Dell. I never liked matte finish monitors because they always looked artificially dull to me. That's one reason I never wanted an LCD (until recently most of the ones I saw looked dicey). I know up close a screen door effect can look like a grid but I think the more pronounced it is the more it will make its own haze from a distance. Plus the S-PVA's make so many things darker looking straight on. I tell you this NEC is like looking at a CRT. The Dell S-PVA would look really awful next to this NEC.

I once took a few pics showing how dark Dell was straight on and then at a tilt. Here I can use same Dell pic with same pic on NEC. Both monitors were facing straight and both at 50% brightness and both uncalibrated (both right out of the box). Guess which is which..

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9545/necdellnormalwebacb4.jpg
 
Were both these pictures taken on manual 'white ballance', 'exposure', 'shutter speed' and with all the jpg processing turned off?I can see the lower picture is generally brighter but that could be the monitor is generally brighter. I think you should aim to set mid-tones to the same value on this test to be fair because of the way our eyes would compensate for this a camera wont.
 
I just used my Canon S3 set on program. I originally took the Dell 2007WFP (S-PVA) photo a few weeks ago. I took a photo looking at Dell straight on showing that demonstrated how dark it was and then I tilted same monitor to show how much it brightened up. My intent was just to show how the S-PVA shifted. Anyone could take a pic of that if they have a photo with dark areas. S-PVA is known to be dark at 0 degrees and the Dell S-PVA was as bad as I have seen. The bottom and top of these are both the same Dell from a few weeks ago (and I had 2 of these that were each the same)

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7593/dell2007wfpwithspvapaneso4.jpg


I took the NEC photo at same distance and same ambient light without any fudging around. I was just interested in the photo shift which is a basic thing anybody can pick up once they know how to look for it. The NEC doesn't shift from front to side. I don't even get much purple in the blacks when looking sideways. I have to turn sideways and then look down or up to get the purple effect. Even then its minimal shift. This NEC really stood out even in the store next to all those yellowish suped-up TN's that are so popular now
 
abcdelight said:
I tell you this NEC is like looking at a CRT.
Click to expand...
I bought one of these, and took it back. I'm not saying its not a nice monitor, but lets not get crazy here. This LCD does NOT look that close to a CRT. I went back to my trusty HP7217A
:D
I thought it was a VERY nice monitor, the best LCD i ever tried, but the reasons for the return were mainly because the black levels were not very black, (oblivion/games had no depth to it/them) and that crazy dynamic contrast or something. That and the resolutions would not scale correctly, dont try to run anything other than the native resolution as everything WILL be streched, with no way to correct it.
Man, that was annoying, but I CAN see why OP would buy this monitor. It is very nice, but to me doesnt justify all the coin spent on it.
To each his own of course, and hope you like it!
 
"This LCD does NOT look that close to a CRT"

Well you haven't seem my 17 " Gateway EV700 from 2002! The NEC actually looks better. The Dell S-PVA didn't look better than my CRT except for the blacks and some details. If its dark blacks you want the Dell is very dark. I almost kept it just because of that. Unfortunately the dark areas can be so dark you can't even see details in photos. Even the noon sky is darker straight on. Games might be more forgiving. I don't know because I don't use games. From what I've seen though Oblivion looks really interesting and I would try that someday.

My Dell S-PVA had best blacks. But the NEC still looks black to me and not dark gray like my old CRT does. When it comes to details forget it. The CRT looks so soft and blurry now after this that I couldn't use it for much. The NEC is almost too aggressive for details. Poor quality content just looks so much worse. But if a Ferrari steering wheel vibrates at 180 is it fair to say say its a weakness because the Ford Taurus doesnt do that at 70?

My only real issue with the NEC so far are the menu buttons and toggle switch. They seem a bit flimsy and I could see the toggle missing in 5 years. But the remote makes up for that.
 
abcdelight said:
My only real issue with the NEC so far are the menu buttons and toggle switch. They seem a bit flimsy and I could see the toggle missing in 5 years. But the remote makes up for that.
Click to expand...
When i press the buttons it almost feels like i didnt press them so i stopped using them altogether and just use the remote now
 
Same here. Having large hands I like having the remote better than playing with even solid buttons that always seem to small ..tick..tick..tack..click..enough of that lol!

I was reading a guy at AnnandTech who does the main monitor list and he posted specs on how he keeps his monitor and I am trying them now (I like them so far because even 50 brightness is pretty intense for me):

brightness: 12.5
contrast: 97.0
advanced dvm: off
dv mode: standard
color: native

(From this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/message...word=&STARTPAGE=159&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

As an aside - something funny I noticed about this monitor. I opened the power cord first like I always do - and then I tried to straighten it like I always do by bending the folds in the opposing direction. I do this even though having tried it many times it never really works - until this time! When I bent the fold back it stayed bent in other direction. Then it went back to straight over night. Same with my connectors. That was impressive since I have cords from other things that still have iriginal bends in them from 3 - 6 months ago (including a Seasonic PSU).

I can only guess it has to do with the copper content. Copper is known for its pliability which is one reason its good for piping etc. A lot of wiring these days is aluminum. I am just speculating of course and Im not going to cut the wires open but these wires are definitely different from the last couple dozen things I got wires with.
 
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