First, full disclosure: I've tried this monitor with a couple macs. Also in general I'm a big fan of Dell monitors, I have two right now at home (where I do a lot of photo image processing) and I've had nothing but Dell monitors at work for years (where I do scientific image processing). I've never had a complaint about their monitors, in general the Ultrasharp series are great quality for a good price.

On to this monitor: I've had two of these now, and while I really like the size and resolution I think I'm going to give up. The first one had a few bad pixels, pretty bad backlight bleedthrough in one corner (and noticeable in all 4 corners) and one dark corner. (How do you get a corner to have bleedthrough when it's dark and be dark when it's light?) On that one the top layer of the screen also seemed to not fit quite right, it would make a pop sound when I tried to wipe the screen like it was moving or warped. The second one had much more severe backlight bleedthough in only one corner, and then one spot along the top of the screen. It was visible in normal computer use, not just dark scenes. So either I'm extremely unlucky or the quality control is just not what it should be. None of the other Dell monitors I've used have had a single bad pixel or this level of bleedthrough.

And then there's the truly puzzling anti-glare coating. It's not a matte finish like the other Dell monitors I've had, it's more coarse and kind of sparkly. When the screen is bright it's really annoying, when there's any room light it makes the screen look washed out. It's intolerable for photo editing, which is what I got this monitor for -- it makes my images look noisy and speckled. And again, all of this is in comparison to other Dell monitors. I'd never considered getting a glossy screen for photo editing before looking at photos on this screen, but that would be better than this. Best would be a matte finish like their older monitors had.

I got this monitor for photo editing because of the resolution, size, and color calibration. But the uneven backlight & bleedthrough and sparkly coating make it entirely unsuitable for that. I guess it's going back.

A couple updates:

First: I bought this direct from Dell, and I'd have to say their customer service is now so bad that I'm not sure how they stay in business. I won't bore you with the details (what I'm writing here it a tiny fraction but already more than enough) -- you can find many stories across the web about the several hour long calls with infinite transfers until someone finally accidentally hangs up on you. Count on any interaction with them taking several hours spread out over a few days before you finally end up talking to a US based rep who can actually do something (several of the overseas reps told me outright that they are not authorized to do anything other than charge you more money or transfer you).

Anyway, when I finally got to a US based rep when I called about the problems with the second monitor, he said no problem just return it and they'd issue a full refund. Quite nice of them I thought. Only they never issued the refund, and when I'd call or email no one could ever help. I finally had to take it up with my credit card company, and they issued a full refund after looking over the tracking information and (with me on the line) talking to a Dell rep who was so unhelpful that the bank rep hung up on him. They gave Dell something like 45 days to respond, which Dell never did, so the refund became permanent. After that Dell contacted me again asking if it was ok for them to charge me again now that the bank has issued me refund. (?!?) The bank/credit card company was actually _very_ unhappy that Dell contacted me again after the fact, saying that it violated their contract with the credit card company, and insisted that Dell not contact me again. (Which they have not.) So yeah, Dell seems barely functional these days both in terms of quality control and customer service. That's a bad combination.

Second, in case anyone's wondering if the U3011 has these same problems (I was): I'm using a Dell U3011 part of the time at work now. It has the same annoying anti-glare coating, but the backlight uniformity seems much better. Also, since the pixels are larger on the U3011, you're not tempted to sit as close, so I don't notice the antiglare coating on it as much -- it gives me the impression that it's not as bad, but I think it's just that I'm sitting further away. I still think it would annoy me when it came to photo editing, and I don't think I'd get one for that, but in other use it's not that noticeable.

I've had this monitor for a month now and I've to say that it's phenomenal. I was using the Dell 2405FPW for 5 years until the U2711 was released, almost matching the resolution of the 30-inch (2560 by 1600), at almost half the price. It's a bargain.

The resolution is outstanding at 2560 by 1440. Yes, there's 160 pixels missing from the bottom compared to a typical 30-inch, but coming up from 1920 by 1200 it doesn't really matter.

The colours are vibrant, which is great. The text is a bit smaller, of a size you typically see on 13-inch laptops. It took me a while to get used to the smaller font size.

This set is still non-glossy. But apparently, Dell has applied some anti-glare coating. I've read on forums that some customers disliked it but I've no problem with it - I didn't even detect it was there.

Compared to a 24-inch (1920 by 1200px), the U2711 isn't much taller, it's much wider. I can fit two webpages, 1024px each, and still be able to see icons on the desktop.

Backlight bleeding is barely noticeable. It means if your widescreen movies still show the letterbox black bars, you'll be less distracted.

The U2711 also works well with my PS3 via HDMI. I'm not sure of the audio capabilities but I use a 2.1 speaker plugged in with a 3.5mm jack. One thing to note is you'll have to set the audio settings on your PS3 to output 2.1 sound to make sure they output all the sound, dialogue, effects, surround, etc.

Gaming on the PS3 is very enjoyable. The games are upscaled and there's a notch of graininess. Not really an issue unless you're sitting really close. Everything looks snappy and I don't notice any lag but I'm don't really play FPS games.

Note that this monitor would require a decent graphics card with dual-DVI output. If you want to game at the maximum resolution, then you need a powerful card.

This is a huge physical monitor. My table is really small and it took up almost half of it. But not regrets.

I managed to get this LCD at US$690 equivalent in Asia, Singapore. It's well worth it. This set is going to last me for a long time, until the slimmer LED version comes out in who-knows-which year.

I would recommend this monitor to graphic designers, photographers or anyone who multi-task a lot.

- For Mac Users -

I'm using this on a Mac Pro and have powered it on two graphic card, not both at the same time. It's plug and play, no drivers required.

On the ATI Radeon X1900XT, you won't be able to see the dual boot screen if you hold Alt after the startup (that's if you're using Boot Camp). On the ATI Radeon 4870, it works just flawlessly.

- For technical reviews, just visit the links in my comment section. I found and used them while researching on the U2711.

- Update: 21 Jul 2011 -

After a year or so, my Dell monitor started having brightness flicker. It seems to affect just the DVI (both ports). I called up Dell and they sent me a replacement (refurbished) monitor the next day to my doorstep. Didn't lose any downtime. Excellent service.

The Dell U2711 is one of the best monitor's for photo editing or any detailed work when you want color correct photo's on the market . I have to tell you the the mistake these people make when buying this monitor the uninformed 1 star reviews unplug their monitor and unhook the DVI-Cable then rehook this monitor up with the "old DVI cable" .." NEWS FLASH " The monitor comes with a DVI-cable and it's a dual link DVI cable "Lamon's terms it looks the same on the outside look inside the plug it has twice as many pins as your old DVI cable . Why ? It's a dual DVI-Cable despite it's name it's a single cable with twice as many pins .. What's the difference you might ask ? Sparkles on white can't read the text colors off and can't get to max resolution and that's where this was designed to run 2560 X 1440 ..Don't hook up your old DVI- cable it's a single link don't use it follow the instructions in the box .. Next make sure you have a newer video card in at least 32bits GT 550 TI ,GT460 or even GT 240 would be fine..Don't use the HDMI it's way less defination than your dual link DVI cable and it becomes a one starr review ..The monitor settings should be on Adobe RGB and your LIGHTROOM 4 and any adobe should also be set to prophoto RGB this renders more colors for editing .. I bought the spyder 4 elite pro and the monitor settings only needed a tweak of brightness 16 down and a slight contrast 50 adjustment colors were spot on .. This monitor is tack sharp and the colors are excellent HD videos look real good too :D I would recommend this over anything especially at this price it's too bad alot of reviewers didn't hook this up right it's like giving some caveman advanced technology and they didn't know how to use it ..