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 Product:
Gateway FPD2185W 21” Widescreen Monitor
Manufacturer:
Gateway
Pros:
Excellent Image quality, , HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), lots of inputs, ability to swivel screen
Cons:
Menu buttons on the side are difficult to get used to, no DVI cable included, price.
ReviewThe Gateway FPD2185W is a 21-inch widescreen multimedia display with 1680 x 1050 resolution that we have been using at Digital Home for over a month now.
Because of its widescreen aspect ratio, this monitor delivers about 35% more resolution than a standard 21” LCD. The result is you can put more up on the screen.
In this reviewers opinion, the most important two features of any monitor are picture quality and the ability to quickly and easily the settings your monitor.
The Gateway FPD2185W excelled on both counts. 
We found this monitor delivered excellent bright picture quality and this reviewer refuses to go back to his old (6 months) dark 17” LCD monitor. In addition, once we got use to the menu buttons on the side, we found the monitor easy to configure.
Besides being an excellent monitor for computing, the Gateway FPD2185W performs well as a multimedia monitor that can accept inputs from your DVD player, an HDTV digital set top box or even a console gaming devices such as an Xbox. We hooked a DVD player to the monitor and found the picture quality to very good with no problems when displaying fast moving images.
The only real downsides we found with this monitor was the lack of a DVI cable, the awkward placement of the menu buttons on the side of the monitor (we would have preferred the front) and the price tag, which although excellent for a monitor this size, is probably more than most people are prepared to pay for a monitor.
Other notable features to consider if you’re looking for a new widescreen monitor are:
- DCDi by Faroudja video processing technologies which is great if you intend on hooking up a DVD player or television source to the monitor;
- High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) for playback of protected content through the DVI input;
- A height adjustable stand that can be raised, lowered, rotated, swiveled and tilted;
- EzTune software – although we did not make a lot of use of it, the monitor can be swiveled to portrait mode for the viewing of documents or webpages. The EzTune software automatically rotates the screen image when the monitor is alternated between landscape and portrait mode.
- Numerous Ports and USB Inputs – the monitor has numerous ports which allow you use your monitor as a widescreen television monitor including Composite, S-Video, Component, VGA and Digital Video Interface (DVI) with HDCP along with self-powered four- port USB 2.0 hub so you can plug in devices like a digital camera or MP3 player.
- Picture-in-Picture (PIP) functionality – if you are also using the monitor as a widescreen television, the monitor allows you to invoke PIP functionality thereby allowing you to watch multiple video sources simultaneously. The PIP images can also be adjusted to various levels of transparency.
Availability The Gateway FPD2185W is now available at a suggested price of CDN $799 ($599 US) although Digital Home purchased its monitor for $719.
Discuss and Learn More Discuss and learn more about LCD monitors in our Home Computing forum in the Digital Forums or read this thread about the Gateway monitor. Membership is free and with over 75 forums and 15,000 members, there is always something new and interesting to discuss.
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