Gateway's FPD2185W 21-inch widescreen LCD

The official announcement isn't until Thursday, but a few stores have quietly started selling the FPD2185W, Gateway's brand new 21-inch, 1680 x 1050 widescreen LCD monitor. They're pricing this one at $599 — which means they're more or less going after the 2005fpw, Dell's much-loved 20-inch LCD. And even though the FPD2185W doesn't quite have the edge in price (if you dig around you can find a 2005fpw for way less than $599; Ryan paid $345 for his), it does have at least one major advantage over the competition — it just happens to be one of the first LCD monitors to support HDCP, or High Definition Copy Protocol. HDCP is the embodiment of lameness, but at least having a compatible display means that you won't have an obsolete LCD on your hands when Windows Vista arrives or when all this next-gen high-def gear starts showing up in stores and you want to watch a movie on a protected high-def Blu-ray discs or HD DVD (Stephen Speicher explains it all pretty well here). Anyway, the FPD2185W also has a integrated Faroudja chip for enhanced video processing, a built-in 4 port USB hub, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 178 degree viewing angle (both vertical and horizontal), and an 8ms pixel response time.