Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice monitor but too flawed for serious graphics uses, September 15, 2008
For the advanced PC or Mac user who values wide viewing angles and colour accuracy, this is an excellent LCD. Dell recommends this monitor for "accurate color representation" in the "home and office", and describes it as offering a "satisfying viewing experience when engaging in digital content creation, gaming and HD entertainment". Depending on where you're coming from, this could be the best monitor you've ever seen or just not good enough to make the grade. Read on for my experience with it. Ergonomics and connectivity are certainly top notch. One possible issue is the extended colour gamut - colour managed apps will display colour accurately, but some apps will have ridiculous neon colours as a result. Lightroom, Photoshop CS3, the Vista desktop (Explorer, photo viewer etc.), and Mozilla Firefox (once configured) all work correctly.
I ordered my monitor on September 4, 2008 and received the original revision, despite a firmware update being released all the way back in June already! I wouldn't ordinarily mind but the original firmware only allows the user to adjust sharpness in increments of 25. The default value of 50 is too high, causing colour halos around text. Dropping it to 25 results in a picture that is way too soft. This also tends to emphasize grain in photos and jagged lines in vector graphics. The new revision firmware should sort this out but don't assume that you'll get it - you might need to send it back to Dell for an update.
What is a more serious issue for graphics/photography users is the so-called "contrast shift" or "gamma shift" that is inherent to PVA matrices. This means that the halftones will shift in brightness when viewed off-centre. This is a major problem as you only need to move your head a few centimeters to notice it. With a panel of this size, simply moving an image from one side of the screen to the other will result in a visible change as you drag the window across. This is the reason we don't buy cheap TN panels in the first place! Except, TN panels change contrast when you move your head up and down. PVA panels change (and quite significantly) when you move left to right. This is arguably even worse, as monitors are wider than they are tall, and typically you'll stay at a constant height when sat in front of a computer.
My last problem with this monitor is hard to describe - some users report is as "DLP-like colour rainbows". I can notice it easily if there is some white text on a black background (e.g. a command shell), or a low-key black and white image on the screen, and move my eyes from one side of the screen to the other. As your eyes move across the screen, the B&W image will temporarily appear to have vivid red/green/blue colour stripes across it. This effect happens to me often enough (without specifically looking for it) to be annoying.
Now onto the positives, of which there are many. The stand is excellent - moves smoothly, yet manages to be well damped. It has a small footprint yet is very stable, and rotates nicely along the vertical axis. The portrait orientation pivot feature might come handy to some. The monitor looks like a serious piece of kit and feels very well put together. On the back, there are all the inputs one could wish for - including the new DisplayPort connector. I think it's particularly well suited for general multimedia and productivity tasks. Watching video on it is fantastic thanks to bright colours and wide viewing angles. Gaming is another strong point - I tried Crysis (using PC over DVI, scaled from 1600x1000) and Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360 over VGA connection, scaled from 1280x800), both were stunning although I still prefer my couch + plasma TV when it comes to recreation ;-)
My monitor is going back to Dell as a result of the above mentioned issues. I still believe it is a very solid choice but not the right one for me. However besides the inherent S-PVA problem of contrast shift, the remaining issues are inexcusable at this price level from a major manufacturer like Dell. Especially when a fix for at least one of them has been available for some months now.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the 24" monitor to beat., August 19, 2008
The 2408WFP is remarkable right out of the box. The professional online reviews are correct. No bluster. A good deal can be had at dell.com
I'm an amateur photographer, and I am a fussy about color reproduction. I also endlessly write and proof documents for work and school. I bought this 24" LCD monitor to replace two hulking Dell CRT monitors (19 " & 17"). They burn a lot of juice and heat up my home workspace. I was very reluctant to give up my two monitor set up because for over ten years I've relied on it at work and at home. I also like the image quality and contrast capability of my high-end CRTs. I'm sort of old school, I guess.
I hooked up the 2408WFP to a VGA output, and I'm running it at 1200 x 1920 (native). I found with *no* adjustments, the 2408WFP produces very good colors for photo editing and really snappy text for composition and proofing. I'm particularly amazed with the skin tones and the text sharpness.
I was torn between the purchase of two high-quality 19" LCD units or the 24" Dell. I took the plunge and bought the 2408WFP. I don't miss my dual CRT set up much. I prefer the LCD for long work sessions because I no longer have eyestrain. Also, with grid lines in Invidia nView Desktop Manager, it's easy to pull up evenly sized side-by-side Windows, just like with dual monitors. I may buy another LCD some day. Not now though.
The large screen of the 2408WFP is a gas for Web surfing and DVDs. The 90 degree screen rotation is my must-have feature; I enjoy reading my online newspapers more. I also proof huge, blown-up documents with the same ease and accuracy I enjoy with printed copy. I never seemed to catch all problems while editing on screen.
There are some compromises with LCD compared to CRT, however, I feel this LCD is well worth it from a practical standpoint.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning Color and Contrast, Lacks Some Smoothness with Text, July 5, 2008
Overall, this is an excellent monitor-the image quality is great, excellent motion-response for video and games, minimal if any ghosting, and lots of picture adjustments. The connection options are very nice if you plan to connect multiple devices, although I personally haven't used any of them, so I can't speak to any limitations or caveats.
I also use an Apple display of the same size (which is twice the price, due largely to the aluminum enclosure), and this Dell preforms better in almost every way. The one thing I really like about the apple display is that it's text display is quite a bit smoother. I'm on a mac where high-quality text anti-aliasing is standard, so that's a tiny bit disappointing. Still, probably the only reason I notice it is because the Apple does it slightly better. Also, the Dell is slightly slower waking from standby. In most other ways the Dell is superior (adjustability, color, contrast).
I'm very happy with the Dell and I've had no dead pixels or other problems of any kind.
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