Dell 2209WA: 22″ LCD Monitor with IPS LCD Panel


Dell 2209WA Specifications

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CNET: The Dell 2209WA is a 22″ LCD monitor that sports an e-IPS (In-Plane Switching) LCD panel. The ‘e’ prefix probably denotes ‘economy’ and makes IPS LCD panels a lot more affordable. The price is AU$459 or right around US$300: a bit on the expensive side for a 22″ LCD monitor but we’ll see if the price is worth it.

I believe the 2209WA is the first 22″ with an IPS LCD… actually Apple’s 22″ LCD monitor from a very long time ago would be the very first. IPS LCD panels geared for LCD monitors are mostly manufactured by LG Display (LPL). Hitachi, IPS Alpha and HannStar are others that also supply IPS LCD panels. (Full disclosure: I used to work at LG Display but no longer do.)

Viewing angles are very wide at 178/178 but that’s only half the story: colors shift very little at wide angles, a feature not all LCD panels can claim. The 6ms response time is good but not ultra-fast; 1000:1 contrast is very good on a monitor; the 300 cd/m2 of brightness is quite bright (you’d want to dim it a bit). The 2209WA comes with two connections: DVI and VGA.

I would like to see a 22″ IPS version with a 1920×1200 pixel format: that would make it THE best 22″ LCD monitor. CNET AU did a quick review and stated that, “This is the best 22-inch monitor we’ve seen.”

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BenQ G2220HD: 22″ 1080p LCD Monitor


BenQ G2220HD Specifications:

The BenQ G2220HD is a 22-inch LCD monitor sporting a 16:9 aspect ratio with a pixel format of 1920×1080. The 22-inch is actually 21.5. Viewing angles are a bit limited at 170/160 due to the TN LCD panel but the response time is relatively fast at 5ms, fairly bright at 300 cd/m2 and the static contrast ratio of 1000:1 is pretty good for a monitor. There are two connections: DVI-D with HDCP and VGA. When I see a 16:9 LCD panel mated with a DVI connection, I wonder if the left hand was talking to the right hand. Clearly the G2220HD is geared for those who want to watch HD content on the monitor. It would seem obvious that an HDMI connection would be the better choice. The best option would have been to have added an additional HDMI connection and increase the price by $5-$10.

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Sony VAIO P: More Information


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UMPC Portal: The Sony VAIO P is the company’s entrance into the netbook market. But with a twist: the VAIO P will sport an 8″ TFT LCD that is ultra-wide and featuring a 1600×768 pixel format. That’s more than a 2:1 aspect ratio. Sony has given us a bit more information about the VAIO P stating that, “A new ‘Light’ is coming!” You can take that two ways: light as in feather light or a new type of lighting technology. I will take it both ways.

I want to believe that Sony will use all the weight-saving technologies that it knows to bring this 8″ netbook down to under 2lbs. I would expect a combination of high-tech materials such as aluminum, magnesium and carbon fiber to get the job done. Also, I expect Sony to use a RGB LED backlight to bring you a 100%+ NTSC color gamut and an ultra-high contrast ratio that result in a LCD that you have not seen before on a portable platform.

Sony VAIO P Specifications known so far:

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Wide Screen Display: Productivity Enhancer?


Rafe Needleman from Crave (CNET) wrote an interesting piece titled, “The myth of width: When wide screens don’t work.” He makes the point that for people who engage in “boring old square work” it is more productive to be using “boring old squarish computer screens”. The reasoning behind that is most of the work we do benefit from a portrait display and not a wide display. Needleman isn’t anti-wide, he does recognize that wide displays enhance our experience for entertainment such as watching HD videos and makes sense for LCD and plasma TVs to be wide. But what has prompted him from writing this article? His new Apple MacBook.

The 13.3″ MacBook has a pixel format of 1280×800, which translates into an aspect ratio of 16:10. 16:10 is fairly standard in the world of notebook PC displays. “The column came about because my new MacBook has a wide-screen display. It’s gorgeous and great for watching videos, but it does not help my productivity one whit. I have to scroll more when I’m reading and writing, which slows me down,” laments Needleman. When he mentions scrolling he is refering to vertical scrolling. This is interesting to me.

Vertical scrolling should not be a concern since a great majority of notebook PC displays have only 800 pixels. Except for the Lenovo X300 (has a 1440×900 LCD option), nearly all 13″ notebook PCs sport a 1280 x 800 pixel format. So MacBook or otherwise you’re stuck at 800 vertical pixels. If you want more vertical pixels you could opt for a LCD that sports 1680×1050 or 1920×1200 (or 1920×1080 on some of the more entertainment oriented gear). But you’ll need to get a bigger LCD: 15.4″, 15.6″, 16.4″, 16.8″, 17″, 18.4″ (I think there are a few more sizes that I missed).

“Most popular sizes of wide-screen displays show fewer vertical pixels than the more-square sizes they directly replaced, reducing the amount of text that can be comfortably shown on one screen without scrolling.” I will have to disagree with this statement.

Before the notebook PC displays began shifting to wide the most popular sizes were 14.1″ and 15.0″. Both of these sported a 4:3 aspect ratio and a pixel format of 1024×768. There were 1400×1050 and 1600×1200 options but again most consumers opted for the “XGA” pixel format (1024×768). Even the squarish 12″ and 13″ notebook PCs at the time had 1024×768 pixel formats. So the boring square displays had 768 vertical pixels and now the new wide displays have 800. Needleman should be happy that he’s now getting more vertical pixels so he can scroll less, not more.

To be fair, not all wide displays benefit those who mostly work. If you want a dual-window setup you will need at least a 1920×1200 pixel format so each window has 960×1200 to work with. The 960×1200 pixel format is not ideal for surfing the Internet since most websites are designed around a 1024 horizontal pixel window, but most of the websites have small borders around them that the absence of 64 pixels can be dealt with without too much hassle. The other window can be used for Word, Excel, etc. A dual-window Word setup is really helpful when you’re editing. I have experienced a significant jump in productivity with dual-window setups for many applications.

With a 1920×1200 pixel format Microsoft Outlook is now quite usable with the “Reading Pane” set to the right. The extra screen real estate helps a great deal in Excel when you’re working with a lot of numbers. Of course it is great for entertainment uses too. But a 1920×1200 display isn’t for everyone since it is limited to slightly larger notebook PCs and is about a $100 option over the 1280×800 that you typically see. The bottomline is: wide displays can certainly boost your productivity but you’ll need to get a wide display with a 1920×1200 pixel format.

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Sanyo Xacti DMX-HD2000: 1920 x 1080 at 60fps


Sanyo Xacti DMX-HD2000 Specifications

Video Capture: 1920×1080 at 60fps
Colors: Black and Champagne Gold
Monthly Production: 10,000 units
Availability: February 6, 2009

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Sanyo → Engadget: The Sanyo Xacti-line of camcorders just got a bump in specifications that should be very popular with anyone who is interested in shooting some nice 1080p footage. At 60fps. Most 1080p camcorders are limited to just 30fps and at that rate a lot of fast moving objects are not captured very well; just not very smooth. At 60fps even objects that move fairly quickly should be captured and viewed without a lot of jaggies.

The Xacti DMX-HD2000, shown above in Champagne Gold and Black, will be available next month. The video will be stored in AVC/H.264 format, which a lot of video processing programs will be able to easily handle. You really don’t want to have to transcode one video file format to another when importing to a video processing program: quality deteriorates so much that HD becomes almost SD like.

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