Dell UltraSharp 2001FP

Posted 05/18/2004 at 3:57pm | by

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On the surface, the 2001FP clearly has the edge. It’s got a generous 20.1-inch viewable area with a 1600x1200 resolution, a handsome midnight-gray enclosure with silver accents, and an ultra-flexible neck that lets you not only tilt the screen forward and back, but rotate it to a portrait orientation (any videocard worth owning will let you configure the content on your display accordingly). Another benefit of the 2001FP’s physical agility is that you can easily access the bounty of inputs that reside on the monitor’s underside: DVI, VGA, S-Video, and Composite-Video—all at your disposal and ready to accept a variety of video signals. A picture-in-picture option lets you watch content from two different video sources—say, your PC and a TV—at the same time. Furthermore, the 2001FP can double as a four-port USB hub as long as it’s connected to a USB port on your PC.

DisplayMate was the 2001FP’s final hurdle. Here, Dell’s monitor fared somewhere between the VGA-only PL170 and Samsung’s 172X in the app’s highly exacting image scripts. On the grayscale ramps, the 2001FP had more trouble at the darker end of the spectrum, where subtle differences in tone were harder to discern than at the lighter end. But, overall, the 2001FP performed well and text reproduction was laudable even in a serif font. In other words, we feel confident recommending this monitor for the vast majority of desktop chores.

With all of the 2001FP’s fine features, its proven ability to withstand the rigors of gaming, and a reasonable price tag for its size, it’s an undeniable value for desktop users and an obvious winner in our book. --Katherine Stevenson

Screen: Functional design, nice big screen, good gaming performance.

Scream: Less-than-perfect resolution of dark grays against a black background.

Month Reviewed: June 2004
Verdict: 9
kickass=yes
URL: www.dell.com