4.5 stars - very good, highly recommended | HP W2207H 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor

Exchanged a 24 SOYO for an HP22 | HP W2207H 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor

computers & hardware:


	• HP W2207H 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor Hewlett Packard Hewlett Packard average customer review:based on 56 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great with a few caveats

We tend not to be at the "bleeding" edge of technology -- usually buy things when they become mainstream or needed as a replacement. We had a really great 20 inch NEC Multisync CRT -- excellent color. It finally failed, so we opted for an LCD monitor. We settled on this monitor because of the great reviews and the Amazon sale price.

The reviewers who gave it five stars were dead on about the image quality. I'm going to cover a few caveats that might be of interest to someone who's had a CRT monitor and is moving up to LCD for the first time.

First, size. Older CRTs typically had a 3:4 aspect ratio while the newer widescreen LCDs will typically have an aspect ratio of 16:9. Since displays are typically measured along their diagonal, a 20 inch widescreen could have a shorter viewing height than a 20 inch normal screen (not quite as bad as it might seem since LCDs typically quote viewable area while CRTs quote the display tube size rather than viewable area). The 22 inch HP has a slightly taller viewing area than the 20 inch old NEC -- perfect.

Video adapter. Our old computer has an old display adapter. The maximum resolution that it supports is 1024 x 768. HP recommends the new display operate at 1680 x 1050. It's a good idea to operate LCDs at the recommended resolution since the LCD has a native resolution -- any other resolution must be emulated with less than perfect results. Make sure your video card supports the recommended resolution. If it doesn't you may want to consider a new video card. If your computer is older, it may use the AGP instead of PCIX video interface. If so, you may need to shop around a bit to find an AGP video card for your computer.

Color. If you owned a really good color CRT, you might be a bit disappointed with this monitor -- the color saturation and contrast ratio still are not quite up to the old CRTs (in my opinion). It could be that a model from a higher price range might compete with the CRTs in this area.

Glare. This model has a high-gloss screen. If your old monitor was located in an area that had a window nearby, the glare might be a little distracting.

Viewing angle. This monitor has good viewing angles --though I think color quality suffers when viewed from more than 45 degrees. For a single user, shouldn't be a problem. If two people are sitting at the monitor (e.g. kids playing) the color may appear a bit off.

Convenience. Much thinner and lighter than a CRT. Reclaims a bunch of workspace.

If you want to use the HDMI cable instead of the VGA cable (unit comes with both), and your video card has a DVI port, you'll need to buy an HDMI to DVI converter (typically a few dollars).

All in all, a great monitor, especially considering the price. In the past, I wasn't impressed enough by LCD image quality to consider one as a CRT replacement -- especially since LCDs used to cost quite a bit more than CRTs. Looks like technology has advanced to the point where LCDs can compete both in price and picture quality.

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4.5 stars - very good, highly recommended

I've had this for 6 weeks. It worked flawlessly right out of the box -- I didn't need to fiddle with the color/brightness/contrast settings at all.

The display's picture and video quality is outstanding with rich colors and deep blacks. When I bought my Dell XPS laptop, I paid extra to upgrade to an LED display, which is better than the standard one. I used to love my laptop's display - until I got this HP monitor!

Text quality is good to excellent, depending on the font and size. Small font sizes are pretty readable, though some fonts aren't quite as crisp as I would have hoped for what, to me, is a fairly high-end monitor.

The included speakers are mediocre at best. If there is a version of this monitor that doesn't have the speakers (but is otherwise identical), then I'd recommend you get that instead.

I really like that you can turn the monitor 90 degrees to portrait mode, and the picture will automatically rotate so that it has the correct orientation. This is great for viewing documents as they would print on a standard sheet of paper.

This monitor has an HDMI input and comes with an HDMI cable. (Those cables are expensive, so it's great that HP includes one!) My Dell XPS laptop has an HDMI output, so that's how I connect. HDMI makes hookup easy, and maximizes picture quality. Most laptops don't have HDMI outputs, but if you have a DVI output you can get a DVI/HDMI adapter, or you can simply use the analog output.

If looks matter to you, I think you'd be happy with the looks of this monitor. The front has a piano gloss black frame around the edge of the display. The side and rear views are nothing special but not ugly like many monitors. I think the monitor looks good, but understated, so it blends in rather than sticks out.

HP sells an "easyclip" kit, which I bought. It includes four accessory holders that clip on to wherever you prefer along the side or top edges of the display. Two of these holders will hold a single photo or piece of paper (shopping list, perhaps). One holds a single flower, or a pen or pencil. And one holds headphones. I like having the easyclip holder kit, but it is definitely not essential. If you buy this monitor, it has a (removable) sticker on the base, advertising the easyclip kit.

If you have a laptop, here's a really useful thing you can do with this (or any other) monitor, depending on your laptop's video card.

After connecting the HP monitor, run both monitors simultaneously. Set either one to be the "main" one (with all your desktop icons and start button), and make the other one the "secondary" monitor. The secondary monitor acts as an extension to the main one. So, for example, you can drag anything from your desktop (say, a browser window that is not maximized) toward the right of the screen. As it starts to go over the right edge of the main display, it starts to appear on the left edge of the secondary display. You can run/view different things in the two displays - at the same time! I find this incredibly useful in my work - it greatly increases the effective screen real estate you have to work with. Very cool! Try it out!

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Exchanged a 24 SOYO for an HP22

I wrote a review on the SOYO24IN DYLME6 a couple of weeks ago. It had a nice picture but not as nice as this HP. See my review on the SOYO as I edited today to add the HP. I paid $280.00 for the SOYO and went and checked out the HP and paid $299.00 for it so I made out since the HP came with a VGA and HDMI cable. I see that I need a HDMI to DVI cable to hook up to my computer. I'm glad I read the review here as I was about to get a straight DVI to DVI cable.
:)
P.S. don't let the resolution numbers fool you. The reso on the SOYO is 19xx xxxx and the HP is 1650x xxxx and the pictures, text, graphics, movies, games are way better.

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Oi Mate this thing is Incredible eh!

At first i was totally in love with the 19inch one but hey i wanted something bigger that had hdmi which the 19 doesnt have.

I have been using this LCD/HDMI monitor for one day and playing Call of duty 4 and Ace combat 6 and to be honest mate, this thing is outta of what i thought it was going to be.

I trully recommend it for Xbox gamers like me that want something awesome to put their eyes on meanwhile playing and at the same time something with a great price!

Thanks a lot For reading Lads!!!

A great monitor

I finally upgraded from a 17" CRT to this 22" widescreen LCD. What a difference! The amount of extra space is wonderful and I'm now able to play computer games without feeling that my view is cramped. In fact, the screen is so big, I had to push it all the way to the back of my desk to be able to take it all in without feeling that I had to turn my head to read across the screen.

Some of the positives of the HPW2207h include a nice bright picture, beautiful colors (pictures just 'pop' out), easy control interface, and height adjustment. I was rather surprised to learn during my initial research that many lcd monitors don't have that last feature. I'm limited on height by a top shelf, so it was an important feature for me.

The only drawback that I've seen is that text seems a bit less crisp than it did on my CRT. I don't know if this is a factor of this particular monitor, this particular model, or possibly just they LCD technology in general. The only other LCD I've had experience with is a 17" at work. Whatever is causing it, I know that I do have to adjust my reading habits at times.

I should also point out that I'm currently using a VGA cable rather than DVI, so I'm hoping that the picture will be even better once I upgrade the cable.

I have not tried using the screen rotation because it wouldn't fit in my desk space, so I can't comment on that. In fact, I wish this model had a version without the screen rotation that cost a bit less - I hate paying for technology that I'm not going to use.

I also can not comment on the sound quality of the speakers - I have a wonderful subwoofer and side speakers, so there's no need to hook up the monitor as well.

I have seen some reviews (not necessarily on this site) state that they don't like the fact that this monitor is HDMI when most video cards don't have HDMI output. This was initially a concern of mine as well regarding a future computer upgrade, so I did a bit of research. It is now my understanding that DVI and HDMI are pretty much the same quality signal - the only difference being that the HDMI is also capable of tranporting audio. To get the higher quality digital signal, you just need a DVI-HDMI cable to use with your DVI video card and you won't be losing any quality over an HDMI video card (all other factors being equal). Of course, I will state that I'm not an expert in HDMI and that this is just information I've collated from the web from what appear to be legit sources.

If you pick up one of these monitors, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

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