Pros & Cons
HP f2304 Specs
| Aspect Ratio | 16:10 |
| Landscape/Portrait Pivot | |
| Native Resolution | 1920 by 1200 |
| Panel Size (Corner-to-Corner) | 23 |
| Video Inputs | Component |
| Video Inputs | DVI |
| Video Inputs | S-Video |
Company:
Hewlett-Packard Co., www.hp.com
Price:
$2,099 direct
Spec Data:
23-inch diagonal screen size; analog VGA and digital, dual-mode (DVI-I) interfaces; 1,920 by 1,200 native resolution; 0.26-mm pixel pitch; 1.6:1 aspect ratio; 16-millisecond pixel refresh response time; 176-degree horizontal and vertical rated maximum viewing angles; DVI, VGA, component, and S-Video video inputs; Macintosh compatible; built-in speakers.
Pros:
Very good color and gray-scale tracking. Thin and light. Works very well as a PC display and well as a video display device.
Cons:
No remote control. Inconsistent dark values and visible cloud artifacts on a pure-black test pattern. Off-axis viewing is not especially good. Connector cover panel is too hard to get on and off.
Bottom Line:
Destined to be primarily a PC display, the f2304 can also handle some part-time duty as an HDTV monitor. Its built-in audio system won't knock down any walls but is okay for TV viewing.
Review
Knowing a hot market when they see one, big PC makers are getting into the HDTV business. HP's new f2304 23-inch High-Definition LCD Monitor is a hybrid...
HP f2304 23-inch High Definition LCD Monitor
Knowing a hot market when they see one, big PC makers are getting into the HDTV business. HP's new f2304 23-inch High-Definition LCD Monitor is a hybrid meant to function primarily as a PC display, but it can also pull double-duty as a 1080p-capable HDTV (minus TV tuner). The panel does very well as a PC display: Apple Cinema Display owners may even turn a little green with envy. And it's acceptable, though not optimal, for video viewing.
The svelte, wall-mountable case weighs in at 21 pounds and includes a pair of decent embedded speakers on the sides. About the only thing missing from the mix is a remote control, though because the f2304 is intended primarily as a PC display, this is pardonable.
We measured the unit's contrast ratio at an average of 466:1, which is good, and not far off from HP's stated contrast ratio of 500:1. But the highest measured contrast ratio was 25 percent higher than the lowest—a much wider spread than we'd like to see. Bright and dark value uniformity was also subpar. A pure white and two gray test patterns revealed good visual consistency, but in what should have been a pure black image, the f2304 produced very dark gray clouds. Fortunately, the clouding wasn't apparent in dark DVD content.
We also noticed that at wider angles, the f2304's performance was less than optimal: Black tones turned reddish when viewed at an angle of about 45 degrees. That said, black levels were markedly better than those we saw in the
The f2304's claimed response time of 16 ms should be suitable for HDTV content at 60 fps. We fired up AquaMark3 on it to check for ghosting (which would indicate slow pixel response) and we saw none. AquaMark3's dark scenes revealed good detail, and HDTV content from our Sencore VP920 looked sharp, too. (To learn about our testing methodology, click here.)
The f2304's speaker sound was decent for casual TV watching, but the low-frequency response was sorely lacking—typical for built-in audio.
For space-challenged environments, the f2304 is a good all-in-one choice as an exceptional PC monitor and an acceptable HDTV.
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Final Thoughts
