HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor

If you don't want to read my long rambling, skip down to the pros and cons below. Also read my update below.

I previously owned a 'Samsung 226BW' for 6 years (TN panel) and had the 'HP LP2475w' briefly (H-IPS panel, instead of e-IPS like this ZR24w). My problem with the LP2475w was it's wide gamut and I wanted consistent color saturation across the entire desktop. I wanted a good looking monitor for multiple purpose, for work and entertainment. This ZR24w meets my need, it only come with a few small imperfections, but they are not bad enough so I would still recommend it.

General impressions, the good stuff:
-The monitor has a very sturdy stand. After turning the brightness down to zero (which is still bright enough), it output around 37watt which is acceptable. The monitor is very bright, but CCFL backlights are known to slowly dim as it gets more hours, so this is a good thing for the long run.

-The colors are simply stunning, combined...Read more

It is getting increasingly difficult to find 16x10 monitors. I don't watch TV on my displays, I program computers. All I care about is real estate and text. I want maximum pixels. And the text must be sharp. PIXELS & TEXT. That's it.
So I bought a $700+ Samsung 245T a few years ago. IPS or SPVA are the best options for a non-professional display, according to the internets. The cheaper TN-panel monitors look like crap. I know because a couple years ago I mistakenly bought a "cheap" (450 bucks) Acer 24" monitor to pair with the Samsung and it gave me a headache trying to discern the blurry text. Why I kept that turd around for 2 years is a mystery, but I did.
Anyway, I was trying to dig up a comparable display to the Samsung (since it's no longer in production) and considered the very-well-reviewed Dell 24" IPS. It comes in at 500 + tax. Not bad. Then I discovered the HP. 405 shipped, no tax. Duh.
It's not very pretty, it seems a smidgen cheap in build quality, but...Read more

It seems the monitor industry has adopted 16:9 as standard widescreen which is great for watching movies but not for PC use! With a 16:10 aspect ratio (which I've found is hard to find!) you won't have to scroll as much since you have another inch+ or so height on your monitor. The height on the ZR24W, 1200 pixels, is the same as a 20" 4:3 aspect ratio standard monitor. If you pop in a movie you should have thin black bars on the top and bottom but no stretched screen like the another review mentioned. ??

I use the Dell U2410 at work which is 12 bit and about $150 more than this monitor and I really can't tell any improvement. I'm not a power user but I do some entry level graphics design but this monitor is an 8 bit that shows 16.7M displayable colors, the U2410 is a 12 bit and can display 1 billion+ colors but the human eye can only distinguish about a million. Plus most video cards only process around 16.7 million colors. So someone please explain what's the big deal...Read more