Features & Specifications
The first thing you notice when you unbox the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD is the size of the display. 30” is a huge screen size and while 6” more space compared to the 24” LCDs I normally use doesn’t sound like much, there is a huge difference. The Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD replaced the old 30” display that carried the same model number, minus the “-HC” designation. The new display has the same gray-to-gray response time of 12ms but improves upon the color gamut that the screen can reproduce, hence the –HC (high color) designation of the new screen.

Other changes include upping the contrast ratio to 1000:1 on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD as compared to the 700:1 on the old screen. The native resolution of the new Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD is 2560 x 1600 at 60Hz and viewing angles are 178 degrees vertical and horizontal, brightness is 300cd/m2. Those who like to watch Blu-ray or HD DVD movies will be glad to know that the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD DVI-D supports HDCP.

Dell used a very nice stand on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD that offers height adjustability, tilt, and pivot adjustment. The only thing you don’t get adjustability wise on this display is rotation to portrait mode. On the side of the display there is a 9-in-2 media card reader and four USB ports built-in. The media reader accepts CF, SM, SD, MS, and MMC cards according to the label, not sure what the other four formats it can read are since they aren’t listed on the site either.

Gaming, Movie Watching & Work
There are many tasks I ask a display to perform through my normal use from watching movies, to surfing the web and typing, to playing PC games. I watched my favorite Blu-ray movie, “Casino Royale”, on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD and found the color reproduction to be fantastic. Colors are bright, vivid and life like, skin tones are natural and there is absolutely no motion blur or ghosting with video playback.

Normal PC work is easy and more productive on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD. I was able to get more windows open on the screen at once and didn’t have to flip back and forth between windows. I also noticed that the colors displayed on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD were much brighter and more vivid when I was looking at websites I typically visit. Take the green here on I4U; it went from a darker green on the other monitors I have used to a bright and vivid lime green that was much more attractive. I didn’t notice this difference in color saturation and brightness when I was testing the HP 30” LCD.

Now for the best use of the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD, PC gaming. If you have never played new PC games like FEAR, Oblivion or Command & Conquer 3 at 2560 x 1600 you haven’t really seen what the game can look like. Command and Conquer 3 at 2560 x 1600 is simply stunning, the colors and the rendering of the units, buildings and environments is fantastic. It’s like this game was intended to be ran at 2560 x 1600. There was no ghosting, smearing or tearing of images during this game or any other games I played from FEAR & Oblivion to Battlefield 2142 & Quake 4. Even when games don’t support 2560 x 1600 like BF2142 and Quake 4 they still look very good on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD.

My review sample had not one single dead pixel on it, which is great. When you spend this kind of money dead pixels can be irritating to find on your new display. To enjoy the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD requires a dual link video card, which every one of the NVIDIA 8000 series cards are, as well as lots of the 7000 series cards NVIDIA still offers. There are also lots of dual link ATI graphics cards available. That said if you intend to play PC games on the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD at 2560 x 1600 you need a powerful video card, often two of them in SLI mode. The NVIDIA 8800 GTS, GTX and Ultra are probably the best cards to couple with this display.

Personally, I would recommend a pair of 8800 GTS 640MB cards if you go that route, a single GTS can be underpowered in some games at 2560 x 1600. I tested the Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD with a single XFX 8800 Ultra XXX card and it performed fantastically at 2560 x 1600 in all the games I played. A single 8800 GTX would probably do the trick as well, though I suspect when DirectX 10 games hit market this summer to game at 2560 x 1600 you will need a pair of the GTX or Ultra cards. Overall the only thing I wished for on this display that wasn't included was an additional DVI connection so I could hook up an additional PC to the display.