Recently we had an overhaul of our office equipment and I got a new monitor to with my computer. Not that there was a problem with the earlier one though the screen did have some nasty stains. Anyway the IT department said that these new monitors are a lot better than earlier ones so I did not mind my friend sitting on my desk staring at me constantly to be replaced by a newer, fresher and smarter friend.

I enquired further into this friend on my desktop and found that it is not exactly very new in the sense that this model by Dell U2410 was released somewhere in late 2009. So it is pretty old by the standards of technology innovation age. However, it is fairly new in the sense that it uses the IPS tech which is a far departure from the PVA panels used by my earlier friend. Now this IPS is meant to enhance the colour sharpness of the monitor and hence is a critical factor of improvement if the work is colour intensive. Another feather in the cap is that it increases the contrast ability of the monitor besides the Adobe RGB (red, green and blue) colour gamut, a package of improvement in colour sensitivity.

SETUP

It is as simple to setup as a piece of cake. When the IT guy unpacked the box there were 2 parts, the monitor and its stand. The guy left with the thing on my desk expecting me to do the rest as he had many more desks to visit, unpack the box and take the empty box back on his trolley.

The two pieces lock together securely in a lock-key manner. No messy screwing or need of specialist knowledge. The stand is of tough metal and looks very sturdy and durable. It also offers a good tilt to the monitor. I can swivel it at decent angles on either side. It is also height adjustable and has a sound pivot. I have just a small complaint of my friend here. It does not rise enough from its base, maybe 6 inches of the desk and when pivoted it reclines back a little. Not that it poses any problem to me but leaves him in a relaxed and slightly inattentive.

SLOTS

In this era of networking and staying connected it is natural for my friend to feel deprived if it did not come with enough slots to make good connections. The manufacturers have been very generous to him. It has been provided with 4 USB slots - 2 on the left hand side just behind the bezel and 2 behind the monitor itself. Besides it comes with a memory card reader also on the lefthand corner behind the bezel. My complaint here is that the card reader is not compact flash compliant, again a bit of a let-down. There is also a pull-out info tag to get the familiar with the antecedents of your friend.

There is also an USB input hub, VGA, 2 DVIs, video input slots, a HDMI slot and a display port. The only thing worthwhile that is missing is the S-video slot. The only complaint might be if I am being fussy is the lack of digital outputs for sound. They are analogues which reduces the sound clarity.

LOOK

It looks smart and impressive in black with a greyish leg and sides. Touch sensitive buttons adorn the right lower corner by the side of the power button. The power button lights up blue when the monitor is on and glows orange when in standby.

FUNCTION

It takes a bit longer than expected to start.

The touch sensitive buttons deserve special mention. Though it is smart to operate with some sensor recognising your fingers proximity but it is not a one touch system. On turning on the monitor the touch buttons all light up simultaneously and then dims. When dimmed these buttons cannot be pressed again. Now you need to press the bottom main button to activate the other 4 buttons.

The monitor has a context sensitive display system. It means that the buttons call up input selection menu when not active and standard menu when active. As mentioned earlier it is not one touch but you do have the ability to utilise shortcuts for Preset, Brightness and Contrast, Auto Adjust, Input or the Picture In Picture selection.

The colour setting is pretty impressive. I could adjust RGB in Gain as well as Offset. Not only did I manage to adjust RGB for Hue and Saturation but also the CMY (cyan, magenta and yellow). There are other modes too - Standard, Multimedia, Game, Warm, Cool, Adobe RGB and sRGB.

Though I friend does not suffer from snoring problem (no operating noise) it does have high temper (its top gets heated up when constantly in use).

IMAGE

The most important criteria in a monitor are of course the quality of the images. As said earlier it excels in this due to its superior IPS tech and 12-bit colour processing. The black and white, grey and the colour images are supreme. There are no fuzzy colour overlaps - the colour contrasts are sharp and distinctions clear even in the slightest of variations.

When you have a 24 inch monitor then obviously you are tempted to play a game or two or watch a video after office hours. I use the custom preset rather than the presdeined one to get my perfect picture. It gives a vast variety of aspect ratios - fill, aspect and 1:1 and offers option for everything. There has not been any ghosting issue till date with the videos.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This 24 in, 1,920 x 1,200 pixel monitor offers really impressive stuff within this budget range of sub £400. It has good looks, sturdy built, flexible adjustments, impressive image quality, connection slot for practically everything and perfect ergonomics. It does have its share of faults like any human being but has given me immense pleasure ever since it arrived on my desktop. It is a screen to behold and cherish.