Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: 23-inch, QWXGA, LCD, Monitors | Themes: Display Panels and Monitors
Dell and Samsung have launched new 23-inch monitors with an ultra-high 2,048 x 1,152 (QWXGA) resolution, ushering in a new era of monitors.
It was only a few days ago that Samsung announced the industry’s first 2,048 x 1,152 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio monitor. The new 23-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX can provide enough screen real-estate to view two A4-sized documents side-by-side, while still leaving enough room to display the Windows SideBar. Following Samsung’s lead it would seem, Dell has since also unveiled its own 23-inch monitor, the Dell SP2309, featuring the same awkward high-resolution.
While it might be easy to assume the two new monitors use the same LCD panel, according to the specifications for each monitor, there are some differences. The Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX is stated to have a contrast ratio of 20,000:1 and a response time of 5 ms. Conversely, the new Dell SP2309 is stated to have a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and a response time of 2 ms.
While not much is still known about the Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX, the Dell SP2309 did appear for a brief time on the Canadian Dell website revealing some added information. The Dell SP2309 has a brightness of 300 cd/m2, offers 160-degree viewing angles, includes an integrated 2.0-megapixel webcam, displays 98-percent of the NTSC color gamut, can be wall-mounted and offers HDMI, DVI-D and VGA video inputs. The Dell SP2309 was listed with a price of $419.99 CAD ($349 USD) and is expected in the US soon. The Samsung SyncMaster 2342BWX was announced in South Korea for ₩389,000 ($293 USD), with there being no mention of a U.S. release date.
While a resolution of 2,048 x 1,152 would seem extremely high, it does not actually offer significantly more pixels than current 1,920 x 1200 resolution displays; 236k-pixels versus 230k-pixels. The main difference instead appears to be in terms of aspect ratios, where the two new 23-inch monitors offer an aspect ratio of 16:9, while many traditional wide-screen LCD computer monitors offer an aspect ratio of 16:10. With high-definition video content often being offered in an aspect ratio of 16:9, the new monitors would help to eliminate black-bars, image stretching and image cropping that could occur when displaying such content.
The new 2,048 x 1,152 resolution monitors do introduce their own issues though. Full high-definition video content is presented at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, which means that to fill the screen completely, the image would need to be scaled up in resolution. Image scaling could potentially result in reduced image quality and it may have an adverse affect on system performance. As such, a powerful graphics solution would be recommended for such a monitor, especially for those wishing to do some gaming at native resolutions.
Another issue with these new monitors is that a 23-inch 16:9 display is actually smaller overall than a 23-inch 16:10 display. Mind you, it is not a noticeable difference, but it will result in a wider, yet smaller, screen. These two new 23-inch monitors also offer very high pixel-densities, because of their relatively small screen sizes and high resolutions. Such high pixel-densities often results with everything on the display appearing very small, including fonts. For those who are okay with reading tiny fonts, high pixel-densities may not be a problem. For others though, the eye strain of trying to read such tiny fonts can often lead an individual to lowering the screen resolution, resulting in blurry text.
Microsoft is aware of this high pixel-density issue however, offering a feature in its Windows Vista operating system that attempts to solve this issue. The feature (DPI Scaling) allows users to increase the size of icons, interfaces and fonts to compensate for the high pixel-densities, keeping the display crisp and sharp. While this feature in Windows Vista is not quite yet perfect, or well known by many users, the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 operating system is expected to make further improvements to this feature.
Samsung believes that by 2012, 67-percent of the LCD monitor market will be feature 16:9 aspect ratios. If future operating systems are also able to improve high DPI compatibilities, monitors such as these two new 23-inch monitors could be a glimpse of the future.
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get it right the Dell is 80,000:1 contrast ratio
I bet most videocard can't display that resolution correctly let alone game support.
meh
still to low for me
"While a resolution of 2,048 x 1,152 would seem extremely high, it does not actually offer significantly more pixels than current 1,920 x 1200 resolution displays; 236k-pixels versus 230k-pixels."
Did someone fail math class?
Hint: 2048*1152=2,359,296
Font-scaling features have been around in Windows since XP at least, if not earlier. Step 1: right-click empty desktop, and select properties. Step 2: select "Settings" tab. Step 3: Click "Advanced". Step 4: Choose a different DPI setting (e.g. 120).
Alternatively, just go to the "Appearance" tab instead of the "Settings" tab, and change the font size.
Regardless, I don't like them making yet another resolution that games, video and other stuff will need to scale to. If they had tried to make it 2133 x 1200 so that they could fit full-res 16x12 and 19x12 games and images on it, but with a 16:9 ratio, fine. But this seems to be just an arbitrary resolution with no clear raison d'etre (^).
jeffunit, their math is right - they rounded, you did not. congrats.
@frozenlead
You also need to learn math. it's 2.36M pixels (right) vs 236k pixels (wrong). Toms' didn't do the math right and you just sounded stupid.
Ah not sure but think jeffunit, is making light of it being 236k and not 2,360 K
CJDavE2, you forgot to factor in the Magic Number Decimal Point, wherein you can arbitrarily place a decimal point wherever you want to determine the "Right" number. :-P (see also "Factors of 10") Agreed. Toms goofed on their math.
Also, what basis is the assumption that 16:9 is going to be THE aspect ratio for monitors by 2012? Movies seem to be going even wider like 2.39:1, which would still create bars at the top and bottom. I think Hollywood and the Tech industries need to agree on a standard. While Art films can do what they want, they can't expect the experience of squinting at a super wide angle screen to be pleasing to the general population.
operating system that attempts to solve this issue. The feature (DPI Scaling) allows users to increase the size of icons, interfaces and fonts to compensate for the high pixel-densities, keeping the display crisp and sharp. While this feature in Windows Vista is not quite yet perfect, or well known by many users, the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 operating system is expected to make further improvements to this feature.
How would that work? Wouldn't these setting be over ridden with drivers from nVidia/ATI?
Also, what basis is the assumption that 16:9 is going to be THE aspect ratio for monitors by 2012? Movies seem to be going even wider like 2.39:1, which would still create bars at the top and bottom. I think Hollywood and the Tech industries need to agree on a standard. While Art films can do what they want, they can't expect the experience of squinting at a super wide angle screen to be pleasing to the general population.
It does seem to be the standard being pushed, based on the new Hi Def video formats so I think it is a fair statement that this is the ration being targeted.
I just hope that computer displays don't go past the 16:9 (at least as the defacto ratio) to try and cater to the movies being made... a computer monitors primary purpose is not to watch movies.
The math is incorrect, I saw that too. As for the monitors they seem to me to be a waste of cash as we can get the Samsung 26" for about $400 CAD right now. Even if it is fewer pixels, there is so much more size on the screen that it is really worth it, even if the pixel sizes/density is higher.
To frozenland, the math is RIGHT? are you drunk? they missed it by a factor of 10! How about I work to build you a pc and instead of charging you $30/hour labout I charge you $300?
Furhtermore why are samnsung and dell not investig more money and marketing into oled? bah, this is just a cheap ploy to increase their market size by creating a niche.
I meant to say labour, not labout. woops. The monitors are still a waste!
I just picked up the Samsung 2343BWX from Costco for $259 (with a $70 off discount). I hooked it up to my work pc with a low end Q35 Intel embedded analog video adapter and it was able to display the full resolution at 32bit, and it looks great! Not at all too small of fonts like I was initially concerned about. The controls are embedded touch-sensitive on the bezel and they work great. There is no USB, No sound and no HDMI ports... just a single D-Sub and a DVI port (which is all I need). Warranty is three years though Canada service. There was a sheet taped to the monitor that says DVI video cards might have a problem displaying full resolution on the monitor, and if so, go D-Sub (which I did and it works great) or go with a DVI dual...something (sorry, the sheet is at the office and I'm not). I can speak to the 5ms speed, since I'm just using it as an office monitor. No height adjustment, but it tilts up and turns left and right. At the price I paid for it, or less, I think it's well worth choosing over a much lower res. 21-22" solution, or a much more expensive 24" monitor.