Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW Wide Aspect Black 20.1" LCD Monitor - T6130
by Dell Computers
|
List Price: Our Price: $109.00 You Save: $640.00 (85%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW Wide Aspect Black 20.1" LCD Monitor - T6130
Customer Review: IF you get a good one...
Summary: 2 Stars
These Dell monitors are the bargain of the wide screen LCDs available--sort of. While the price can't be beat, many buyers (myself included) have had issues with backlight bleeding.
Backlights are what make the picture visible on a LCD. They are positioned behind the screen to provide the illumination, since liquid crystals emit no light in and of themselves. LCDs are not very proficient at blocking the backlights entirely, and so this type of monitor in general is not able to display very deep blacks. Backlight bleeding occurs when the lights shine through or *around* the screen, spilling over onto the display. The result is non-uniform illumination, and sometimes, hot-spots. This is most noticeable during game play in a dark environment or when viewing movies that have dark scenes, especially when the room lights are low. In my case, it is extremely noticeable and bothersome when viewing and editing photos. I tried two of these monitors and sent them both back.
If you work in a brightly lit office setting and rarely look at content that is mostly shadow (tending toward black), you may never even notice the problem. You might even get a 2005FPW that does not suffer from backlight bleeding, although that would be a stroke of luck. Some estimates say that well over half of these screens have this condition. I found one gentleman who auditioned FOUR of them and did not find a good one.
As always, your mileage may vary. Caveat Emptor.
EDIT: The previous reviewer's comment about contacting tech support (the Service Tag problem) is a valid point. It took me nearly three hours to arrange for a replacement. This process is much more painful than it needs to be.
EDIT 2: I allowed Dell to send me a third screen and I'll be keeping it. It also has some bleeding, but I have to look at a black screen in an unlit room to be bothered by it... something I can live with. If all the monitors in this model line were as good as the one I now have, this would easily be at least a 4 star product.
Speaking of stars, I have to give Dell one for working with me on this, but the initial annoyance over the difficulty in reaching anyone helpful won't soon be forgotten.
Customer Review: Honestly - the worst customer service ever!! DO NOT BUY A DELL
Summary: 1 Stars
I would give this product negative stars if I could. My advice, buy an Apple, their customer service is unmatched by any other I have experienced.
I have 3 Dells, nearly all the same system. My problems started with the last one purchased. From the moment of setting it up, it NEVER worked properly. We called the tech support - and the nightmare began!!
Now I have issue with any company who makes a majority of their money in an American market, whose entire sales staff is all American, or at least speaks without accents, and then suddenly when you call tech support with your valid issues you are only speaking to foreigners with such heavy accents and very little regard for American customs and ways of life.
Dell out-sources all of their tech support to India and now the Philippines, which are two countries that are far more economically depressed than ours. This becomes an apparent issue when you are trying to solve a serious tech problem and you are met with the attitude of being a spoiled and ungrateful American, and treated as if your valid problem is trivial. I chalk this up to the fact that what you spend on your computer as one purchase takes them a huge amount of time to earn. I could be wrong, but after dealing with the tech support for over two years, I feel as if I am experienced enough to make that call.
Another issue that is painfully apparent when dealing with the out-sourced tech support is that the accents are so heavy that it is very hard to understand what they want you to do, and when you repeatedly ask them to repeat themselves, they take offense. I often find myself telling them my phone has an awful connection and to please spell what they are saying. I never want to offend anyone, and usually on the phone with tech support I often feel as if my valid requests of speaking slowly and loudly and spelling do indeed offend them, and thus the quality of service dramatically decreases. I become frustrated, as do they. I don't blame the innocent support staff, they are just doing their job to the best of their ability and are human. I blame Dell for not providing the proper training for these people, if they are to troubleshoot the American market, perhaps not only computer classes are relevant, but to ease the stress of their staff, accent reducing classes would be appropriate. I have heard they may have begun that, but for this product loyal consumer it is a bit too late.
Honestly, that is just the tip of the iceberg, more a point of frustration. And if you purchase a Dell and it has any sort of issue, you will end up feeling as if you are on the Titanic and are slowly sinking to the demise of your pocketbook and sanity.
To make an extremely long story short, we bought a Dell that never worked properly, and were told that if trouble-shooting did not work that we could return it. While talking to tech support we were treated as if we didn't know how to turn it on, and were talked down to on well over 100 phone calls with tech support. Out drama began on the first day of setup and has not ended, and our warranty expired 3 months ago with the same case number as the first day of setup. Ridiculous. We were lied to, made false promises, told a million different things, insulted, and we spent about $1500 for the privilege.
We were told that there was nothing wrong with it, that it was us, 4 months and 30 phone calls later it was diagnosed with a bad motherboard. Still didn't work, again we were told firmly that it was not the computer but rather the user, 2 more months and at least 30 more phone calls it was diagnosed as a bad hard drive. Still never worked properly and ever since they replaced the hard drive they will not do anything else, claiming that the motherboard and hard drive are the computer and that there couldn't be anything else wrong - except for the user. I reminded them that they repeatedly told us that if the troubleshooting was not successful we could return the unit - and they had the audacity to tell us we were over our time and that returns need to be within the first 14 days, when we made the original complaint we were well within it!! Talk about pissed off!! We gave them the benefit of the doubt and did as they asked, we were treated as if our heads were firmly planted up our rear ends, we were told that someone would get back to us - and they never did (we heard this at least 75 times). We escalated the case - twice and were met with worse service.
Having the same case number since before my warranty expired allows the warranty to continue coverage - but no one will call back, as our issue is so great that they send us to several different departments. As soon as the warranty expired on all other issues, they stopped responding to the same one we have had since the very first day. The last week of October I left no less than 20 messages via email and voice mail with 3 different people and to date have still not received a phone call back, and most were with the people that the case had been escalated to, who are supposed to be professional and extremely qualified. My warranty expired on October 26th while actively dealing with the original issue. I have written letters, I have made phone calls, I have done as much as I have he time to do - and they have never replied. AWFUL!!
If you purchase a Dell and it has any kind of issue, you are in for a world of frustration. Like I said, we have 3, and the last one was a horrible experience, the first two never had a problem. I would never purchase another product by Dell. If I could afford to take out a full page ad in the New York Times for a year, I would do it to warn others of this horrible company.
If I had been paid a modest wage for the time I wasted dealing with tech support over this computer, I could have easily afforded to purchase a brand new, fully loaded, all the bells and whistles, wonderful customer service with an Apple computer, and still had money left over for a spa day and shopping spree. Plus I wouldn't have pissed away the original $1500 on the doorstop that Dell provided me.
RUN! RUN! RUN!
Honestly, the worst experience with any company ever.
Customer Review: Dell's UltraSharp 2005FPW.
Summary: 1 Stars
My review on the Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW:
1. At its native resolution the text is so tiny it is hard to read, especially with all of the brightness. The brightness and contrast have minimal to no effect because of the light from the backlight bulbs is so strong and of course these bulbs are not adjustable.
2. The colors are bright and vivid if viewing drawings and graphics since one does not what color the colors are supposed to be but if viewing photographic images where one knows what the colors should the colors are very unrealistic. It is nearly impossible watch DVDs because of the off colors. The monitor is incapable of producing pure black like when Star fields is the screensaver or on DVDs, which have black bands on the top and bottom.
3. There is no easy way to contact Dell technical support because one needs a service tag and monitors do not have a service tag. I wasted over four hours with technical support because no one knows how to do anything but read back what is in the instruction manual on the CD. I did get another monitor shipped but it has the same design flaws as the original.
4. The angle of view is extremely narrow, measured in inches. If I view the monitor just slightly to one side or up or down the colors are even more horrible.
5. The monitor can be used with text if one uses 150% font size (at least I found one good thing about Dell's UltraSharp 2005FPW.
My recommendation is 0.5 out of 5.0 (50% is the monitor and 50% is Dell's lack of tech support).
Jim Winkler
Plano, TX