Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

  1. #1
    I mod everything I touch. Indybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,782

    Default Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    I got the Gateway FHD2400 4 days ago, heres another TBCS-Exclusive Indybird Review:

    Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor Review

    Purchase:
    I purchased it from Circuit City (Store) for $499.99 on sale.
    Here it is on their site.

    Specs:
    -24" Screen Size
    -160° (Horizontal/Vertical) Viewing Angle
    -16.7 Million Colors
    -400 cd/m2 Brightness
    -1000:1 Contrast Ratio
    -92% Color Gamut
    -3ms Response Time w/ "Ultra Response" and 5ms w/o*
    -Glossy Screen Coating
    -60KHz Refresh Rate
    -Connections: DVI, HDMI, VGA, Component, S-Video, Composite
    -4 Port USB Hub
    -150W Power Usage
    -Stand Adjusts Height, Tilt and Rotation (Portrait/Landscape)
    -Supports HDCP
    -Supports Picture-in-Picture
    -Touch Panel OSD

    Unpacking:
    The FHD2400 comes in the classic cow-pattern Gateway box.

    The box doesn't say too much other than the basic specs, but it doesn't really need to since, by the time you've gotten the box, you've already researched the monitor (at least you should've). Since I'm buying it retail I expected the box to be physically in good condition and it was.

    The first thing you seen when you open up the box is the quick install guide. For the sake of this review I read this to see how easy to read it was (I would've thrown this aside otherwise).

    It has everything someone (with or without computer knowledge) would need to setup this monitor. I always thought it was a good idea to have a quick start guide on top of everything, and I'm glad Gateway chose to include one.

    Next, you'll find the monitor and stand encased in plastic-bags and foam. Everything here is very well protected and I am willing to bet would not be damaged even in a very rough shipping.


    Contents:
    The FHD-2400 comes with the monitor (of course), stand, DVI Cable, VGA Cable, Power Cable, USB "B" Cable, Manual, EzTune Software and stand screws.

    In addition, this monitor comes with a theft-protection plan (in addition to the standard Kensington universal lock). This packet includes a sticker to put on your monitor that says "This display is protected by Gateway Shield Anti-Theft Software". I'm not so sure if a thief will even see that while stealing this, but more on all of that later.

    The Monitor:
    The FHD2400 is definitely one of the most visually appealing monitors I've ever seen. Though it doesn't look like a fancy, designer style monitor, it is still very attractive and matched my Black, Silver and Blue (Lights) setup.

    The bezel of the monitor is glossy black with a brushed silver lower-portion. The screen itself is glossy and when combined with the glossy bezel, creates a very sharp look to the monitor.

    The stand is also silver and is made out of very sturdy metal. In the arm has a much-welcomed cable-routing hole to keep the back nice and clean. The stand can adjust height, swivel and tilt. The height can be adjusted from 2" off the table to 7.25" off the table, and the movement is very fluid. The only problem with the height adjustment I had was that when you pick up the monitor, the strong spring causes the stand to extend itself, which can become very annoying. The swivel allows you to view the monitor in portrait mode. This also works very well, except when swiveled to portait it is not perfectly vertical, it is off by a little bit.

    Lastly the tilt is very simple and fluid. It tilts from approximately 92° (90° is when monitor perfectly vertical) to 80°, which is more than enough. It can also be mentioned that Gateway has also implemented a means of rotation. They put small wheels in place of feet near the front of the stand, so that the monitor can be rotated with ease. However, I found this feature to be extremely annoying because the monitor would slip every time I adjusted it. Luckily, these wheels are removable, and I definitely chose this option.

    Next up are the inputs. The FHD2400s lineup of inputs is definitely the most impressive I've ever seen in a monitor. You get an HDMI port, DVI, VGA, Component, Composite and S-Video.

    The HDMI and DVI are both HDCP compliant. You can hook just about everything up to this. I currently have my computer hooked up through DVI. In the future, however, I will be getting a cable box and Xbox 360. It will be nice to know that I will have plenty of inputs for these. In addition to having a multitude of inputs, you can even do Picture-in-Picture across two of them at a time! I've seen picture-in-picture in only a few monitors, and it is definitely welcome here. Though I wasn't able to test it out yet I can tell you its features. You can change the location of the PIP, change it's transparency, change its source, position, size and PIP picture settings. There are also some more PIP features added with the installation of the software but more on that later. There is also a 4-port USB hub built-in. The USB upstream and 2 of the 4 downstream port(s) are in the back, with the other two downstream on the side. I actually didn't ever think I'd use a USB hub on the monitor, but I've found it to be a lot more convenient than the front USB on my computer case.

    Lastly, the Power Light/Button and Menu Light/Button can be seen on the right side of the monitor. I say "Light/Button" because they are both back-lit touch-sensitive buttons. The lights are unobtrusive, and can even be set to more dim levels through the OSD. Both lights are blue when the monitor is on w/ a signal, Power is blue and menu is orange when it is on w/ no signal and only the power light is on and is purple when the monitor is off/in standby.

    Picture Quality
    But of course you don't buy a monitor for its physical looks and technical specs, you buy it for how good it's picture actually looks. This monitor definitely delivers in this area and will not leave you disappointed. Lets get started with the colors.

    I am going to have to say that the 92% color gamut (advertised) looks just about amazing. The colors are vibrant and life-like, and never over-saturated. If there is one point on this monitor that I could 110% guarantee, it is the color. Your photos, videos, and games will look so much better with color like this. Seeing a grove of trees in Oblivion or Crysis actually looks more realistic thanks the the incredible color reproduction of this monitor.

    Next up is the brightness and contrast. When I first took this monitor out of the box and hooked it up, I was a little disappointed here. The brightness seemed decent but the contrast was lacking. However, with a little bit of tweaking in the OSD I got this monitor's brightness and contrast on-par with the color. Blacks are blacks and whites are whites. At my settings, the contrast does not wash anything out, and keeps the blacks very dark. I actually have the brightness set to 100%, which I've never been able to do on a LCD without making the picture look bad. Its almost a strain on your eyes, but I kinda enjoy it. This is where I really run in to the picture's only physical flaw: the backlighting. Though it is very even in the middle, there is some backlight bleed on the right and left.

    Thanks to my last monitor, I am used to this and it doesn't bother me too much, but it is still an annoyance none-the-less. Luckily that was the only physical flaw with picture; this monitor came with no dead/stuck pixels or visual "dents".

    EDIT: See Update #2 below for revisions on the backlight bleeding problem.

    Next is the sharpness of the screen. Once again, this monitor delivers, and strongly at that. Be it HD Movies, pictures or games, everything is razor sharp and extremely clear. My high-res car pictures can really show off their details thanks to the clarity of this screen.

    There is only one quirk; text doesn't look as good as everything else. I immediately noticed this when I went onto a website. By any means, its not bad, its just not as nice as previous monitors that I've used. Also, this monitor upconverts lower resolutions absolutely beautifully (apparently thanks to the "DCDi Chip by Faroudja"). I lowered the screen to both 720 and 480 HD. At 720 I almost confused it with 1080, and even at 480 I was still impressed.

    During this testing I've used my Computer and my friend's Xbox 360 (through VGA). Both looked exactly the same, so all of the comments above seem to apply to all of the HD inputs.

  2. #2
    I mod everything I touch. Indybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,782

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Performance/Use
    I've used this screen for 4 days now, and have done: Photo Editing, Web Browsing, Gaming and Movies. I haven't noticed any problems relating to the performance aspects of this monitor (Response Time and refresh rate). During gaming I noticed absolutely no ghosting or blur (unless it was intentional). I even turned of the "Ultra-Response" feature (which lowers the response time to 3ms from 5ms), and I still could not see any ghosting.

    Day to day use of the monitor and its functions were easy and effortless. The touch-panel menu controls work flawlessly and are an elegant solution to OSD control.


    The OSD is very well laid-out and easy to control, two attributes of which are commonly lacking on most OSDs. In addition to that, the sheer amount of customization is mind-blowing (as far as monitors go). From here you can adjust the usual brightness and contrast, color, OSD position, language and input but you can also adjust things such as LED brightness, audio feedback on touch-panel buttons, PIP settings, video modes (DVI's color and VGAs geometrical adjustments) and lastly gamma. Thats right, gamma adjustment on the monitor. I love that feature, it is definitely a vital part of the picture adjustment.

    Software
    Gateway includes a custom Gateway version of Portrait Softwares "EzTune". This software normally just allows the customization of display settings but on the Gateway Edition paired with a Gateway monitor, it can do so much more. Sadly, I however could not witness any of these features first hand, because EzTune (even the latest version off their site) would crash every time I attempted to use it. I've sent them an e-mail, and when I get it working I'll update the review. So until then I'll tell you the features that I've read about from the menu and their site.

    EzTune allows you to access every single one of the monitors settings from the computer, and even adds extra functionality not normally available with just the monitor. The first notable feature I saw was the automatic display rotation. When you rotate the monitor into Portrait mode, EzTune will automatically rotate Windows with it. So apparently there is some sort of sensor in the rotator (correct word?) that allows the software to detect it. Next up is the monitor protection, which I briefly mentioned earlier. With this option turned on the monitor will only work on computers given permission to use it by EzTune. You can protect it even more by setting a user-pin to this, so that it will not work without the PIN number. The last added feature is the PIP adjustments. Not only can you move the PIP, change its size, etc. but with the software you can set the PIP to go transparent whenever the mouse passes under it. I can't wait to try out these features because they all sound very cool.

    Conclusions
    This monitor really has blown me away in pretty much every aspect. The color, clarity, physical appearance/design, and performance has really shown me how a top-of-the-line monitor should look. Aside from small problems such as the not-as-sharp text and the backlight bleeding, I was thouroughly impressed with this monitor. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat, be it if they would be using it for web, movies, photos or games. Though the software didn't work, (I am currently talking with Portrait Software about that) the monitor was not left without almost all of its features and therefore it did not bother me.

    Pros:
    -Great appearance
    -Solid construction
    -Flexible stand
    -Wide range of inputs
    -Glossy screen (can be a con for some)
    -Easy to use Touch Panel OSD
    -Picture in Picture
    -Amazing Color and Clarity
    -Extremely good contrast and brightness
    -Has Several security features
    -Great software included
    -No dead pixels or backlight bleeding

    Cons:

    -Text is not as sharp as everything else
    -Springy stand can be annoying
    -Software crashes

    Ease of Use: 10
    Build Quality/Appearance:10
    Picture Quality:10
    Performance:9.5
    Software:9
    Overall: 9.7


    -Indybird

    **Update #2**

    After I finally re-installed windows onto my RAID 0 setup, I reinstalled the EZTune Software. This time...it works! I tried out everything from the advanced PIP control to the brightness/contrast to the calibration tool. Everything worked great, and I feel EZTune is a very cool and useful piece of software. There was one flaw though; the auto-pivot would not work. In case you are wondering, auto-pivot automatically rotates your desktop when you physically rotate your screen. I contacted Gateway and they seem to think its a monitor flaw. Anyway, after calibration the colors looked even better! I am in love with this monitor all over again.

    **Update #1**

    After 18 days of use I could not stand the backlight bleeding anymore. I don't know if it had gotten worse or if I am starting to mind it more but I had to return it. By the way, this is the reason I did not but it off of newegg. I took it to Circuit City, got a new one, brought it home, hooked it up and...
    Its flawless! Yes, I said flawless. No backlight bleeding whatsoever! I didn't even know that was possible. But wait theres more! I am noticing that the vertical contrast is a little better. When I slouch in my chair the top of the screen doesnt go dark anymore.

    Make sure you buy this monitor from a retail store because it seems as if you have a 50/50 chance of getting a flawless/small flaw monitor.

  3. #3
    Does it come with Spinners?
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Fresno CA, USA
    Posts
    99

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    You had it on its native resolution right? Odd that the text looked funny. At first I thought you purchased a LCD TV, which is bad choice for up close clarity since the resolutions are much lower than the monitor brothers.

    Awesome Review! +rep!
    "I may talk gibberish, but I don't talk crap"

    http://www.pkgaming.com/main/index.p...ail=0&viewkey=

  4. #4
    I mod everything I touch. Indybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,782

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Quote Originally Posted by Skriger View Post
    You had it on its native resolution right? Odd that the text looked funny. At first I thought you purchased a LCD TV, which is bad choice for up close clarity since the resolutions are much lower than the monitor brothers.

    Awesome Review! +rep!
    Yeah, I had it set to full res. I read in some reviews that other people were having the same problem. The thing is, I've gotten used to it, and I can't even really notice it anymore. Its just that when I first started using it, it was a noticeable difference.

    -Indybird

    EDIT: I do have a question though:
    How do I utilize the HDMI audio output for this monitor? I understand that that connector is made for the Gateway speaker bar, but it is labeled HDMI audio output which makes me think that I can still use it for other things.

  5. #5
    iShot the Sheriff jdbnsn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Normal
    Posts
    8,241

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    you lucky bastard
    "At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost..." -Dante Alighieri

  6. #6
    Spam Sniper SgtM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    4,545

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Quote Originally Posted by jdbnsn View Post
    you lucky bastard
    Ditto.

  7. #7
    Average Rocket Scientist Aero's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    1,585

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    lol, I actually spent about 10 minutes at Best Buy the other day drooling over this thing. I had to fend off 3 sale associates. I've been looking for a laptop for months, then I saw this, now I'm trying to price out a desktop that can handle video editing (who games anymore, if it can handle video editing, it must be friggen fast).

    Anywho, do you think you can get a picture of it straight on in portrait mode? You say it doesn't turn the full 90 degrees? That would annoy the crud out of me.

  8. #8
    I mod everything I touch. Indybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,782

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Quote Originally Posted by Aero View Post
    lol, I actually spent about 10 minutes at Best Buy the other day drooling over this thing. I had to fend off 3 sale associates. I've been looking for a laptop for months, then I saw this, now I'm trying to price out a desktop that can handle video editing (who games anymore, if it can handle video editing, it must be friggen fast).

    Anywho, do you think you can get a picture of it straight on in portrait mode? You say it doesn't turn the full 90 degrees? That would annoy the crud out of me.
    It's only by the slightest bit, but it is noticeable. It honestly seems like a isolated flaw; I'm willing to bet most of these don't have the same problem.

    Heres the pic of portrait mode:


    I have the camera at a perfect 90° so you can see how off it is.

    -Indybird

  9. #9
    Code Monkey NightrainSrt4's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Your cookie jar
    Posts
    2,679

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Nice review!

    I have the old version but 22". Great monitor, least for my needs. At that time the 24" was ~700 so I went with the 22".

    I was looking at the new 24", and although nice I will stick with the 22" i have. For one reason. The old version stands are extremely robust. The newer stands just don't seem to be of the same quality and sturdiness.

    But, on the other hand the new ones consume much less power than last years model. Ehh...

    Very nice!

  10. #10
    I mod everything I touch. Indybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,782

    Default Re: Review: Gateway FHD2400 24" LCD Monitor

    Quote Originally Posted by NightrainSrt4 View Post
    Nice review!

    I have the old version but 22". Great monitor, least for my needs. At that time the 24" was ~700 so I went with the 22".

    I was looking at the new 24", and although nice I will stick with the 22" i have. For one reason. The old version stands are extremely robust. The newer stands just don't seem to be of the same quality and sturdiness.

    But, on the other hand the new ones consume much less power than last years model. Ehh...

    Very nice!
    Really? You don't like the stand? In terms of construction this thing is absolutely solid, and it is very adjustable also. Whats the difference between the old and new stands?

    -Indybird

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •