HP w2408 LCD Monitor
24 Inches can mean a lot of things. It could be a 24" large pizza, it could be a set of 24" rims, or it could be 24" of snow. All of which wouldn't sound too awkward to talk about. I however, will be talking about my newest toy, a 24" Widscreen LCD monitor.
Ever since stumbling across a black Friday deal for a 24" Samsung LCD monitor, I had been on the lookout for something similar. My original plan was actually to go to the USA on Thursday, buy the monitor at full price then go back on Black Friday to claim back the full sale price difference. This plan would ensure that I would get myself a super deal for only $349.99.
Upon coming closer to the actual date, things didn't quite work out. I had a midterm on Friday morning (ensuring that I would not be able to line up in the wee hours of the morning) and the original price was $499.99 which required a mail-in rebate. A US mailing address with my name was nonexistent, and thus my mind was made up. I would go to the store on Black Friday in the afternoon and if they happen to have one of the monitors in stock, I would buy it. If not, then oh well. Come Black Friday...no monitor.
But one thing that I figured out while monitor shopping was that I began to see that my original plan of buying a 22" Widescreen monitor was flawed. It wouldn't be able to play HD video in full Resolution and it really wasn't THAT big of a jump from my Macbook resolution. In other words, it was too small. I had to have something that would transform my desktop landscape.
A few weeks later I decided to casually browse the internet. Lo and behold, Amazon.com pulled through with a monster of a deal on a monster of a monitor. It was an HP w2408 Widescreen 24" monitor. It had height adjustments, it could tilt, pivot, had a built in USB hub and greatest of all, it sported a 92% colour gamut, meaning that it was able to display a wider range of the colour spectrum as opposed to the industry norm of 74%. The crazy deal was $160 off the original price of $599. It was no Black Friday deal, but it was the best price on the internet, anywhere.
I had it shipped to my friend's university in Detroit but since it was so big and expensive, I wanted to get it back across the border without paying Canadian tax. I obviously couldn't ask my friend to smuggle it in for me, so I made a day trip down to her university for a day of study-smuggling.
So as to not raise suspicion I needed to be across the border foe a few hours at least. I also had a slew of excuses for the case of the officer finding out I was transporting a very large monitor. "My friend let me borrow it for the month" or "I just bought it and brought it over to watch some movies" were some of the excuses. I really didn't want to come to that because the possibility of lying badly was very real.
I decided to park at the Renaissance center because it was relatively close, was cheap and most of all, had a 24 hour mobile security service. Although, I would actually be skeptical about what that term really means because as I was walking out, I saw an old burgundy Cadillac with three black guys in bandanas. I know that they weren't there to park and I thought I saw one guy with a shotgun… I didn't want to look too closely!
The Detroit Mercy School of Law (yes, there is a law school in downtown Detroit) was my study area for the morning. It was quite comfortable because I had my laptop with me and the wireless Internet was fully accessible. For once, I didn't fall asleep while studying in a library.
And then the moment came...time to pick up the monitor!
I met my friend around noon and we proceeded to the office to start the escort of the precious cargo. I did wonder a few times if the package really did arrive and whether the online tracker could have been wrong, but the moment I stepped in front of the desk, I saw my 24 inches of widescreen wonder! It was quite entertaining walking around with it because everyone who saw it was commenting on it.
"Oooo...I'll have one of those!" or, "I could use a TV like that"
Before packing it in the car, I had to unpack it from the box to make sure that it looked 'used'. That involved tearing off the packing slip, opening all the bags and untangling the wires. Being in downtown Detroit, I really did not want to walk down to my car holding a large monitor worth a few hundred dollars. They've got Shotguns, I've got pixels. 'nuff said.
I told my friend to wait 7 minutes indoor, then wait by the roadside. I would pull up in my car and escort the precious cargo to its final destination: Canada. I had all the excuses running through my head but luckily the border guy was really friendly to me. I pulled up to the gate and had a nice conversation.
Border patrol - "What's your citizenship?"
Smuggling agent - ‘Canadian’
Border patrol- "Ok, have a good day."
Precious cargo had been delivered.
So what was it like? Well, the first time I placed it on my desk I had step back and say…Wow! You just have absolutely no idea how big a 24” monitor is until you stick it on your desk. Think about it this way, all my life, I’ve been saddled with a tiny little 17” monitor that wasted about half my desk space. Now, I’ve suddenly had a monster of a 24” monitor that is bigger by more than half a foot, has roughly three times the pixel count and takes up a fraction of the desk space. It’s like moving up from a Smart car to a Cadillac Escalade. This will eat lesser monitors for lunch!
Don’t for one second think that I forgot to plug it in while gawking at its grandeur because that’s the best part. I first hooked it up to my Macbook because set up would be ridiculously easy. No drivers, no problems, just plain glory in 1920x1200 pixels.
Upon firing up the screen, I opened up an HD movie. This is where the first disadvantage of my monitor pops up. No, I’m not going to talk about the pixel response time or ghosting, my monitor handles that with aplomb. But, I will talk about escalation.
With a monitor that can display moves at full HD resolution, it would be a waste if I can’t play movies in high definition. Of course, I could download 25gb Blu-ray rips but that would be tedious and totally illegal. The only logical step would be to buy a Blu-ray player. Up-conversion DVD players just won’t cut it.
But a computer monitor is not just about playing movies, its about gaming! Sadly, up comes the next big disadvantage. My Macbook is nowhere close to a gaming machine, and my ‘gaming’ computer is a 7 year old desktop that desperately needs upgrading. The problem is, a simple video card upgrade would not be enough to play the latest games at my monitor’s maximum resolution. I would need to upgrade the processor, the video card, the motherboard, the ram, and just about everything else! I’m talking super computer specs, the F1 of computers.
Finally, the worst disadvantage is actually moving down to a smaller monitor. It’s amazing how a large monitor changes the way you browse the Internet. You can open two full web pages side-by-side so you can browse on one page while the other one loads. Or, you can fill one half of the screen with a webpage and fill the other side with 6 full chat windows or 12 overlapping. I can even view entire page scans and PDF’s at full size! The opportunities are endless. Stepping down to my Macbook screen makes me wonder how I even can manage…don’t even mention going to a 17” monitor because I will go mad.
So if you’re reading this, I have a few tips for you. If you plan on buying a 24” monitor, plan ahead, and think about it very hard because its going to make every other screen in your house inferior (save for HD-TV’s). You’re also going to have an incessant need to spend more money and you will start to do more things at once on your computer than you ever thought possible. This is not a decision to take lightly. Come to think of it, I’ve only used it for two weeks and its already starting to look a bit too small…
