Kurotetsu, your recommendation was great. And thank you everyone else for presenting all the options that were better deals than the U2711 at $950.
I've had the HP ZR24w (24" IPS) for almost two weeks and am very happy with its performance and the $400 shipped price. It came for the last few days of my dissertation and (like so many people in this thread suggested) I love the size and the 1200 vertical pixels. When I zoom out to see two pages, those two pages are actually bigger than the 8.5x11 paper they're representing. That larger perspective helped when I was rearranging pieces of the paper and adding transitions. It was also beneficial when I made several graphics for a 42" plotter.
wibeasley wrote:I'm not sure I've even seen a non-TN monitor.
I have to make fun of myself for this statement some more. Not only was my Dell 2005FPW an IPS panel, but it turns out that the other monitor (a Sony SDM-HS95P) uses a Fujitsu MVA panel. I'm less surprised by this than the Dell, because when I selected the Sony at BB 5 years ago, I was convinced it was worth the extra money (but I wasn't aware of the reason or the technology).
So now that it's established I have little credibility recommending monitors, here's my feedback about the quality of the picture: It is much brighter and whiter than the 2005FPW at its brightest. I've fiddled with the limited physical controls and the Nvidia software adjustments without success, but that doesn't mean much because I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I'll learn about color calibration sometime.