Comparison

The 2005FPW from Dell is more than a year old, but is still one of the best 20 inch widescreen monitors money can buy. It uses the exact same panel as Apples much more expensive 20 inch Cinema monitor, but adds height adjustment, a plethora of input options, and is rotatable. A tribute to Dells fantastic abilility to crank out high quality displays at an extremely fair (And often rebate-assisted-ridiculous) price.

Standing the 2005FPW against the Acer makes the AL1916W look small and slightly lower class. The Dell really is a huge monitor, especially when extended vertically as far as it can go. The screen is only marginally larger, but because of its positioning, the screens prominence gives the impression of it being larger than it actually is.

What becomes immediately apparent when looking at the two monitors side by side is the different color quality of the two monitors. While the Acer has a slightly washed out palette, the Dell maintains vibrant, full colors across the entire width of the screen.

Color uniformity is quite good on the Dell monitor, and noticeably stronger than on our Acer display. There is no apparent ghosting, and the monitor has slightly better black performance. The monitor does not come close to being as bright as the Acer, but in turn, gives much more vibrant colors.

Between these two monitors, the Dell would definitely be our pick, although the two screens are seperated by about $100 on a lucky day of Dell rebates, so the two aren't necessarily directly comparable either.