First Impressions of the HP ZR24W 24″ display

On Monday, my new HP ZR24W 24″ display arrived. As excited as I was to finally have a new monitor, a sudden fever Monday evening postponed my glee.

My fever broke early Tuesday morning, and within a few minutes of waking up, I found myself staring at this:

HP’s packaging was solid but definitely not as aesthetically pleasing as unboxing an Apple product. But I don’t mind that in the least – this display is $500 less than the comparable Apple display. Inside the box were the following components:

• a warranty pamphlet
• a VGA to VGA cable
• a DVI to DVI cable
• the display itself
• the display stand
• a USB cable

The display had a small starter guide affixed to its front side. One of the main tips gleaned from this guide was the strong suggestion to use the included DVI cable with the display. I willingly complied. The cable itself is less bulky compared to the one that was bundled with my older Samsung.

The HP stand is heavy and secure. I was really impressed with its beefy build construction.

Documentation came in the form of a visual guide. Pretty self-explanatory.

Attaching the display to the monitor was literally a snap. No screws involved. The connection between the base and the display is solid. (i.e. it won’t tip over unless a LOT of force is applied.

Finally, we have the display connected and powered on. Best of all the display is matte!

The first time I powered the HP ZR24W on, the brightness was incredibly high. Thankfully, the convenient front button display controls made it easy for me to adjust it to ‘normal’ levels. It’s very easy to swivel the display side to side and up and down, but I haven’t tried transforming it into ‘portrait’ mode yet. I have also yet to test the USB ports that run under the bottom of the display. The HP ZR24W includes a VGA port, a DVI port and 5 outgoing USB ports. There are no HDMI connectors, but that’s not a concern for me whatsoever.

The color of the display is uniform and crisp, and there were no dead pixels to be found. It’s a great display for the price (roughly $350), but I find myself missing the extra real-estate of my older 30″ display. I know I’ll eventually adjust, but the 30″ display just spoiled me.

All things considered, I like the HP ZR24W a lot. So much so that within the next year, I plan on adding a matching HP ZR24W to my Mac Pro.

-Krishna

Krishna October 7, 2011 HP displays