Digital Trends

Gateway FPD1930

December 1st, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Setup and Use

The Gateway FPD1930 is a very easy monitor to setup. Windows XP recognized the monitor immediately and there were no drivers to install. The manual that comes with this display is pretty detailed and explains exactly what steps you need to follow in order to get it setup correctly. Our monitor came with no bad pixels or trouble problems.

The on screen display (OSD) navigation and look is very similar to that of the Samsung monitors. Simply press the source/set button to automatically adjust the displays resolution.  We had to turn our brightness and contrast levels all of the way up to get it to satisfactory viewing. Because of this monitors low 300:1 contrast ratio, we would recommend you do the same. Overall the OSD is very easy to use and setting up this monitor is a breeze because there really is not much you will need to do.

If you plan on using this monitor with the DVI input for word processing and other basic applications, we recommend using Microsoft's True Type feature to make text easy to read. Speaking of text, the FPD1930 does a good job of displaying text on various backgrounds, both light and dark. We did experience pixel fusion, where some of the text was bunched together and darker than the surrounding text, but this is usually fixed by scrolling up and down the page until the text shows up correctly.

In our movie tests, the FPD1930 was not very bright compared to other 19' LCD monitors. There appeared to be a considerable brownish tint to the movie as well. The upside is that there was no flashing present in the movies and trailing was very minimal. The black bars present on most movies were very dark with no apparent light bleeding from the edges of the display.

In our gaming tests, the FPD1930 showed results that were similar to our movie tests. There was a brownish tint to the screen, but blacks were relatively deep. For first person shooters, you will want to stick to a traditional CRT since the FPD1930 showed ghosting and trailing in all of our 3d tests. For those that like to play real time strategy games (RTS) or slower paced role playing games, the FPD1930 should be fine for your needs.

Conclusion

The FPD1930 is not a particularly bad LCD monitor, its just that there are so many other LCD displays in this price range that offer considerably more “bang for your buck”. The FPD1930 has limited adjustability, below average performance, especially for hardcore gamers and a relatively high price tag. If we were to recommend a 19” LCD monitor in this price range, based on our tests we would have to go with Samsung's 192T. But if you currently have a Gateway system, do little gaming and would like a new monitor to match, the FPD1930 should fit the bill quite nicely. Just be forewarned that you are paying a premium to have this monitor match your Gateway system with no further benefits.