HP W2207 user reviews

Pros Even the dullest images appear brilliant and stunning.

Cons Even the dullest images appear brilliant and stunning.

Summary After using this monitor for about a month I have come to the conclusion that this monitor is both spectacularly good and at the same time spectacularly bad, and the reason for both is the same reason. This monitor is bright and gorgeous described by one rather articulate writer as "juicy." I'll throw in my 2 cents by agreeing with that statement. This monitor is juicy, and displays a wonderful image of almost any picture. There are three things that I use this monitor for, and for two of them it is excellent. For one use however, it is pretty bad.

First, I'm a gamer. In the gaming department this may be the best LCD I've ever seen, or is at least the best I've ever owned. Ghosting is minimal or non-existent, colors are vibrant and bright. Images are clear and crisp. Even non-native resolutions are handled well. This is a top-notch gaming LCD. Its true, water looks wet, fog looks cold, grass appears to be alive and looking directly into the virtual sun makes you squint.

Second, I use my PC as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). For videos this LCD again is one of the best I've ever seen. It could almost pass for a plasma HD TV. Again, bright colors, and vibrant images. DVDs and HD TV look great. Movies come to life. I was surprised how dark of black this LCD can make. It almost looks like it could be a plasma.

Third, I use my PC for some Photoshop and image editing. This is where the monitors strength becomes its weakness. Because this monitor improves the visual quality of most images it becomes very difficult to get accurately displayed colors, brightness and contrast for images.

For example, one day was I creating some DvD jewel case labels. I got them looking just right and went to print them. They printed very dull and dark, the brightness/contrast was too low. And yet the image looked GREAT on my monitor. After a few prints that were too dull like this I moved the images on to an iMac. Sure enough, the images appeared as they were (dull and dark) on the Mac. The Mac gave me a better idea of how the images would actually print.

My conclusion: An average user cannot go wrong with this monitor. What user wouldn't want a monitor that brightens up every image it displays? A graphic designer however, may want to consider that color replication on this monitor is difficult to achieve. Yes it can be done but its an uphill battle and the included software does not help (do not install it).

As a last note, I did install the monitor drivers (note: JUST THE DRIVER, not the HP management software) and it did help to improve the overall image, especially text and it caused no problems. VGA or DVI connections seem to make very little or no difference to image quality. Both look great.

Pros Big, bright, inexpensive

Cons Software!!!, color rendering/fade

Summary I bought mine yesterday and spent several HOURS trying to get it "right" last night.

The editors at CNET harped briefly about the "HP MyDisplay" software, but they didn't harp quite enough. Maybe it's better if you're running Vista, but you know what? Most people aren't running Vista. I use XP and the software was so troublesome that I uninstalled it and downloaded the latest one from the website. That wouldn't work either, so I eventually uninstalled it gave up on the software completely.

One of the more aggrivating bugs involves the fact that the software WILL NOT set the monitor's resolution to its maximum settings despite having a beautifully-rendered little button on the screen to do so. Click that pretty little button all you want. Your resolution won't change. If I can't take advantage of the resolution, then what's the point?

And after you run through the software once and try to use it again later, nothing works at all!!!! You can move that little contrast slider all you want. Your contrast won't change.

Okay, so the software sucks. I'll just use the manual buttons to operate the OSD, right? Nope. Apparently the OSD conflicts with the software and the OSD menu disappears almost immediately after you access it (less than one second). After I uninstalled the software for good, the OSD worked fine. (sigh)

So I eventually used my Gretag Macbeth Eye-1 monitor calibrator (which I love) to get the colors right. But wait... what's this? When the screen is viewed straight-on (not at an angle), the top of the screen is darker than the bottom. In other words, it fades gradually from top to bottom. This will not be a big deal to most users and can be ignored if you just want a big pretty monitor. But for those of us who do serious photographic editing on our computers (e.g. for money), this fault is absolutely NOT acceptable. Not by a long shot.

Because of the inability to utilize the maximum resolution settings, I have to use the 1280x1024 option available in Windows. The 1600x1200 setting is outiside the monitor's cabaility and results in a remarkably annoying error message that stays in the center of your screen indefinitely until you change the resolution settings back.

So with the 1280x1024 resolution, if you choose to fill the screen, everything gets stretched. Circles look like ovals. Squares looks like rectagles. This may not be a big deal unless, again, you just happen to derive income from editing photographs. Not cool. Not cool at all. If that darn "preferred resolution" button would work...

So to prevent the distortion, you can use the OSD to squeeze the aspect ratio back to "normal", but then why bother having the wide monitor?

(sigh) I'll return mine tomorrow for a refund. I hope all this ranting proves useful for some of you.

Pros Ideal Size, Resolution and Quality for software developers and PC users.

Cons Not much, except would have liked 1080p support and a slightly better View angle in portrait mode.

Summary Hi,

I work for a LCD monitor chip company and know what actually goes into these monitors. And for the first time i am convenced to say this is the prefect PC monitor.

I wanted a bigger monitor to do by software coding comfortably, i have tried (in-fact programmed) a number of different monitors of various sizes and Panel Resolution and this is perfect in both aspects, any bigger you have to turn you head quiet a bit. Any more brighter and your eye would get tried in about an hour.

I tired the 24 inch LG 1900 x 1200 resolution, it has the newer S-IPS technology panel so gives better view again in both landscape and portrait mode. But the Color are too artificially lot of color banding artifact and photos look really ugly. Even with my experise on adjusting video quality, LG was really bad.

I have tried Samsung monitors too.. but sucks same as LG, but with TN panel so slightly less viewing again and less expensive.

Mind you the 1680 x 1050 resolution of Hp was not my first choice infact hp was not even in my radar. but i was seriously looking for higher resolution portrait display panel so that i can see big chunks of code in one screen. so i thought 1900 x 1200 (which is the current easily affordable highest resolution) was the right one, but after much experimentation the Hp 2207 1680 x 1050 was the ideal resolution and size for comfortable viewing and coding for hours. the 1900 thou can fit in lot more pixel looks very small and will strain your eye easily. So for resolution 1680 x 1050 is the right one.

The Brightness is right too, i have worked in video quality field for some time and discussed with collegues too, 250 to 300 cd/m2 is the ideal brightness for monitor for long time viewing, Any higher your eye will strain, infact you need higher brightness only when your are at less 6 to 10 feet away from display and watch a video. Not for programming. Hp 2207 panel is actually very bright , so i had to reduce it to 50% level, The control is good and precise unlike LG 24 and Samsung (just take my word for it the way they control brightness is important and Hp does a good job, compared to LG and Samsung).

Overall for the first time as i mentioned i am very happy with this monitor and will positively recommended to any PC users.even gamers. Its THE RIGHT SIZE AND RESOLUTION AND BRIGHTNESS AND QUALITY period!!!.

Few nice features, the controls are simple and good enough (not too much, not too little, its just right). The OSD rotates in portrait mode. The Stand and tilt ajustment is wonderful and smooth (best i have seen so far).

Few improvements desired: it does not support 1080i or 1080p resolution out of my PS3. Since the Panel is TN type, the viewing angle in portrait mode can be made better. but Landscape mode is good enough.

Pros Excellent & flexible resolution; crisp, clear images; awesome with Xbox 360 (altough native resolution is 1680x1050, montior auto adjusts to the 2nd best resolution on Xbox)

Cons Outside of Photo setting, Quickview factory settings are bland. However, can easily implement custom setting

Summary I've postponed switching to LCD for years because I found the technology of the CRT screens was better. In fact, I still cannot stand the LCD monitor I have at work. I just bought the w2207 to use on my new 410 XPS Dell computer and my Xbox360 and it is an absolute dream. I was torn between comparable models by Dell and Viewsonic, but I have absolutely no regrets about purchasing the HP w2207. Unlike the Dell & Viewsonic, I feel that the HP has, or dang close to, the sharp contrast of a CRT but now it's in high definition. HD computer images are absolutely amazing on this monitor. I should note that because of reading other reviews on this site I have not install the HP software on Windows Vista. (At the moment, Vista is a moderate headache by itself, so I wasn't about to make things more complicated.) I also can't see how the software could really make the monitor better. There are plenty of menu options to make adjustments if one would desire. Gamers will also be quite satisfied. I personally find the screen to be rather huge, but I am only sitting 3 feet away from it. I'm also unaffected by the other complaint by a prior reviewer that the top of the screen is darker than the bottom. However, the reviewer did claim a unique use of professional image art.
Overall, if this monitor caught your eye, rest assured that you won't be disappointed. I shopped for 2 months dreading that I'd end up dropping $350 on something I be slightly disappointed in. For once I feel that an electronic device I bought was actually worth it.