alright, here's my brief comparison of the planar pl201m vs dell 2001fp, specifically regarding issues that have been brought up. my dell 2001fp is an oct. 2003 model, connected to an ati 9700pro all in wonder thru DVI.
1. graininess: dell indeed appears slightly grainier than the planar. this is due to the grid pattern of the anti-reflective coating. the coating on the planar shows slightly smaller grids than the dell, therefore less noticeable. however if you look up close, you can clearly see grids on both lcd. i also have a planar px191, a newer model, which shows similar grid pattern as the dell. overall, i think the grid pattern is not that big a deal, you won't notice it that much unless you are less than 5 inches away from the screen.
2. dead pixels: mine has none.
www.monitorsdirect.com has an online monitor tool for you the test out your monitor. i didn't see any dead pixels or sub-pixels on mine.
3. white spot (bleeding/leaking of light on top): mine does have the light leakage on the top of the screen like everyone else. it's minor, but it's there. it does vary with the brightness setting of the monitor. if you turn the brightness level all the way down to zero, the bleeding/leakage effect becomes less noticeable, but it does not go away completely. i looked at both of my planars, neither of them show the same effect, i abosultely couldn't see any leakage. you don't need to play a dvd in order to see this effect, simply set your desktop background color to black, and it's there on top of the screen.
4. color: the dell 2001fp indeed has very saturated and vibrant color at default setting. color is more saturated compared to my planar pl201m. however, i'm not sure if it's more accurate. both of my planar monitors were calibrated with an "eye-one" monitor calibrating device. since I don't have the "eye-one" with me anymore, i couldn't calibrate the dell. I don't think the color on the dell is accurate at default setting, but i'm sure you can calibrate it easily.
5. features: dell 2001fp wins in terms of features. it has s-video, composite video, dvi, vga, usb, and sound, more features than you'll need. it also offers picture in picture. dell beats everything in terms of features.
6. response time: even though the dell has 16ms response time vs the planar's 25ms, i really couldn't tell much difference in terms of ghosting. both don't really have significant ghosting. but i'm not a hard core gamer. if you use the tool on monitorsdirect.com to testing for ghosting, you won't see too much of a difference.
7. look: i think the dell looks better, i also like the pivoting option.
i was planning on selling my planar pl201m on ebay for around $650 and upgrade to dell 2001fp. after the comparison, i'm not quite convinced that it's an worthwhile upgrade. I paid $818 after tax for the dell, and it's definitely not worth $168 more than the planar. also i can not stand the fact that an $800 lcd monitor has a light leakage problem on the top. therefore i've already requested a RMA on the monitor, it's going back on Monday.
hope this helps. during dell's promotion, 2001fp and planar pl201m usually cost around the same, in that case i would probably get the dell. however, if the price difference is more than $100 between the 2, i would definitely get the planar.