Verdict: Dell's latest big TFT is a mixed bag of vibrant image handling and odd colour reproduction.
Other than the luxury of a 24in TFT and the sheer extravagance of a 30in TFT - in both size and price - there are two monitor sizes from which to choose, the more common choice being the 26in model. However, Dell is the only company so far to offer a larger 27in widescreen TFT in the shape of the UltraSharp 2707WFP.
Rather than trying to minimise the visual impact of such a large monitor by using a black frame, the bezel of the 2707WFP has a brushed aluminium finish - an indication that for those who use their PC as more than just an office system, this screen is intended to be the focal point of a room.
The design of the 2707WFP is more in-your-face stylish compared with previous Dell screens. The stand, with its mixture of elegant curves and circular joints, makes the clean design of previous Dell screens look basic and boring. It's a functional design too, with the cable-tidying mechanism integral to the stand, rather than comprising a series of plastic loops that look more like a design afterthought.
The slightly bland rectangular base is a letdown, but the materials used are finished to a high standard that befits the price you pay. Disappointingly, you can't rotate or swivel the screen on its base, but the effortless height adjustment and tilting mechanism (pictured right) makes it easy to set up the screen. The smooth, counterweighted height adjustment mechanism means that the 12.5kg screen never feels cumbersome.
Despite being physically larger than a 24in TFT, the 2707WFP uses the same amount of pixels - 1,920 x 1,200. Regular readers will probably worry that by 'stretching' the same amount of pixels over a wider area (using larger pixels and extra inter-pixel spacing), image quality will be affected. The size of the individual pixels is described as pixel pitch (or 'dot pitch') and is much larger on this screen than it is on a 24in TFT - 0.303mm compared to 0.270mm.
Dell uses an 8-bit Samsung S-PVA panel in the 2707WFP. The 8-bit nature of the panel lets it display the 'true' colours of an image - the image as it's output by your graphics card, which will have 16.7 million colours. Inferior TFTs have only 6-bit or 6+2-bit panels, and are therefore restricted to displaying only 262,000 colours and dithering (guessing the colour of one pixel by interpolating its colour from those surrounding it) to get up to 16.2 million colours. However, the dithered colours won't match the actual colours the screen should display, so there's less colour accuracy. The S-PVA technology of the panel should provide a vibrant image, generous viewing angles and a good pixel-response time.
Armed with this knowledge, we began our DisplayMate tests to ascertain the exact weaknesses and strengths to look for when conducting our real-world tests. As expected, we saw vivid colours and smooth colour gradients, which were indicative of good colour handling. The 1,000:1 contrast ratio also offered good definition towards the lower end of spectrum, which should provide richly detailed shadows.
In real-world use, however, colours - especially greens - looked a little iffy. Customising the RGB values helped to make the colour mix a little less odd, but greens were still too lustrous, making what should be natural outdoor scenes look synthetic. Every type of image suffers, and we particularly didn't like the odd hue the 2707WFP gave skin tones. However, the massive contrast range helps the detail in shadows and the over-vibrancy helps some games to look more realistic.
We were pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the 2707WFP, however, with the larger pixel pitch not proving to be a problem. Playing through 1080p trailers for action films 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and 'Transformers' revealed that the 2707WFP offers a sharpness comparable to that of a 24in screen when close-up. The larger size gives the 27in the advantage when you're sitting further away too. Despite being a huge, high-resolution monitor, there was no observable ghosting or blurring during fast action scenes, which attests to the monitor's grey-to-grey response time, rated at 6ms.
The screen has plenty of video inputs for connecting multiple video sources, with both composite and component video, as well as the usual D-SUB, S-Video and HDCP-compatible DVI. A notable absence, however, is an HDMI port for hooking up an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player, although Dell had added a 4-port USB hub.
Conclusion
We were impressed with the sharpness and clarity of the Dell UltraSharp 2707WFP, and its impressive contrast. However, while the monitor performed well in our technical tests, the screen wasn't so impressive in real-world use. The unshakable green bias detracts from the quality, and adds an unwelcome synthetic look to images.
The Dell was especially unconvincing when tasked with the subtlety and delicacy of skin tones. The 2707WFP's appearance might put many people off - we prefer not to be distracted by a shiny frame - but the killer blow for the Dell is its price. Weighing in at £734, the 2707WFP is simply too close in price to Dell's excellent £880 30in 3007WFP-HC to be a tempting purchase.
