As a present for my saint (I don't know if this is the proper expression in English) — which I celebrate today due to my second name (Manuel) — I got a BenQ FP202W flat panel. It's a 20" wide screen, providing a 16:10 aspect ration at its native resolution of 1680x1050 pixels. This contrasts heavily with my now-old Viewsonic E70f, a 17" CRT doing only 1024x768@85Hz.
And man, this new monitor is truly amazing. Maximizing windows is a thing of the past! (Except for the media player, of course ;) Being able to have two documents open side by side is great: for example, you can keep your editor in one side while reading a reference manual in the other side without having to constantly switch between windows; and even then, there is still room for other things. Moreover, playing Half-Life 2 in widescreen mode is... great :)
I've also tried to plug it to the iBook G4; it works fine for most things but feels a bit sluggish when some effects come into the game (aka, Exposé or Dashboard). Looks like its video card is not powerful enough to handle it flawlessy (something I can understand). I ought to try its clamshell mode, though, as disabling its builtin screen may make it faster; but first I need to get a USB keyboard...
Concluding: while the old CRT monitor was still in perfect working condition, the switch has been great. I don't know why I hesitated to do it ;) If you have the money to buy such a display, I certainly recommend it.
Happy new year 2006!
Is the FP202W good? Do you notice any ghosting in game?
ReplyDeleteDo words blur when you scroll down a webpage?
Please let me know. Thank you.
I haven't had much time to enjoy the display yet, although I played HL2 a bit. It is great; I don't notice ghosting, but maybe that's because I haven't played intensively yet.
ReplyDeleteAs regards blurring, words seem to be very stable.
Seems to be a good monitor so far.
Thanks Julio.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it has enough vertical space for word processing and stuff? I am planning to switch from a 19" LCD (which is very tall because of the 5:4 ratio).
Do you mind playing HL2 intensively and see if it blurs or ghosts in game? Thanks in advance.
Yes, it has enough vertical space (1050 lines is very different from the 768 I previously had, so to me it's plenty of space!). And one of the marketing notes for this screen is the ability to edit two a4 pages at once ;)
ReplyDeleteWRT HL2, I sure will play more intensively, but I'm in the middle of final exams now so I should postpone it some days...
Thanks and np about HL2.
ReplyDeleteIs the vertical viewing angle alright? Like, will moving your head slightly up and down greatly affect the color?
I finished HL2 again some days ago. I haven't noticed any blur while playing; it was simply amazing. Keep in mind though that you will need a powerful video card to move such resolution. My GeForce 6600GT can barely keep up with high quality settings but without anti aliasing nor any other fancy stuff.
ReplyDeleteAs regards the color... looking at the monitor form a higher position affects it noticeably. A low height increase is not a problem though. And you can easily adjust the monitor's angle in such cases.
Looking at it from the downside yields better results.
Looking from both left and right sides also affects the color, but you have to move far more than in the other two cases to really notice it.
I know this response comes very late... but given that this post is quite popular among my visitors, I hope this comes useful to them ;-)
He julio,
ReplyDeletethanks for posting on the benq. Just one question:
Does the Ibook simply work with the native resolution, because when i just plug in the monitor-adapter, there is just the 1600*1200 resolution to select.
So does that change when using the real monitor? And what kind of graphic card do you have in it?
Already the radeon 9500 or the old 9200?
best and thanks, Stephan
If I plug the monitor adapter alone, I can only see resolutions up to 1024x768.
ReplyDeletePlugging in the monitor bumps them to much higher values, though, including the correct native 1680x1050 resolution.
I have a Radeon 9550.
I've got the same Monitor since 3 days now and i am total happy with. It got 8ms / 16.7 mio colors (no cheap 256k color with interpolation) and i use it to play WoW in 1680x1050 resolution. So no real 'ghosting' to see there, F.e.a.r in 1280x960 dito (emulation but looks good !). Quite funny WoW run 1680x1050 resolution without any problems. However i got a GF7800GTX to fill it.. It's really a blast these 16:10 display format o.O. You almost fall into the screen, much better immersion over all. The monitor is a bargain imho and 16:10 FTW !
ReplyDeleteLucky me these Monitor had no pixel errors, wich can happen with any brand of course.
Nice to know you like this monitor too :-)
ReplyDeleteIn my case, mine has a bunch of bad pixels; I think there are more than the maximum tolerable, but I do not know for sure. They are unable to show pure white but instead show some tone of pink, which is only visible if you look from one of the monitor's sides.
However, as they are almost unnoticeable (you need to know where they are to even see them), I didn't bother to complain because I was afraid to get a newer one with really dead pixels (full black or white).
Enjoy your new monitor!
Hi, I'm thinking about buying this monitor, too. Is it possible for (one of) you to post some photos of the monitor (to get an impression of viewing angles, brightnes, colors, etc.) or even make a video while gaming?
ReplyDelete