Dell U2412M - 16:10 IPS without Breaking the Bank
by Chris Heinonen on February 28, 2012 9:00 AM ESTDell U2412M Design, OSD, and Viewing Angles
The look of the Dell is certainly utilitarian and not sexy. Unless you kept posters of 1980s-era minivans on your wall as a kid instead of a Porsche or Corvette, you are not going to find the U2412M to be an attractive display. But as we noted on the previous page, like those minivans, what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in utility.
Dell continues the menu system with four unlabeled buttons that control the OSD, and manages to make it fairly easy to navigate overall. I did hit the wrong button a couple times, so perhaps they could space them out a little more than they do, but overall the menu is easy to use and navigate. There is no switching between horizontal and vertical movements with the same set of buttons, which is a peeve of mine.
In our forums some users expressed concern about the anti-glare coating of the U2412M so I decided to pay extra attention to it. I have to say that I wasn’t bothered by it at all, and didn’t see anything to be concerned about. It certainly was nothing like the patterned retarder on passive 3D displays that drives me crazy from a close distance. If no one had mentioned the anti-glare coating to me then I wouldn’t have even noticed it was there. Perhaps I’m just not that sensitive to it yet and will become more so going forward.
Viewing angles are always a good area of performance for IPS panels, and you can see that in the included gallery. Overall the angles were good, with a loss of contrast at the extreme angles but nothing that you would notice in a normal working position, or even if someone was looking at your monitor for a presentation. Overall from a physical perspective the Dell was unexciting but didn’t cause any areas of concern that some other models have for me.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
143 Comments
View All Comments
Touche - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
And HP has possibly a higher led pwm frequency, which itself would be worth the price difference.piroroadkill - Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - link
Better service?Hm. When one of my backlight inverters went on my U2410, Dell immediately (as in, the very next day, it turned up) sent me a BRAND NEW U2410.. seriously, it was ~1 month after manufacturing date.
I checked that it was flawless, then 2 days later they took my old one away. I even got to keep all my cables, so now I have a stack of display cables.
I'm not actually sure how you could get better than that.
Stuka87 - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
And I love them both. I run them in a triple monitor setup with my Precision M4600 (Precisions display, plus both of the U2412M's)/Are they the best display out? Of course not. Are they are a GREAT bang for the buck, yes!
Death666Angel - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
"I can criticize the black uniformity as the corners were a bit bad, though being a lot better in this area will likely require going to an LED backlighting system..."The U2412M has LED backlighting.
starson - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
It's most likely edge-lit, so I assume he meant that it would have to be an true back-lit array to improve that aspect of it.Death666Angel - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
That was what I thought as well, but then he should write that, too, don't you think? :P There is a name for what he wants: full array (with local dimming).cheinonen - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
I said LED backlighting to differentiate from LED edgelit, which is what every monitor is out there right now, but I will clear that up. Sorry for the confusion.Death666Angel - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Yes, that was very confusing. Backlight just means anything that lights the LCD. It does not differentiate between edge/full array. CCFL is also a backlight, but it is mostly just used as edge lighting. LED can do both (and local dimming as a result). :-)IceDread - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Well, that's a dream I have.Does anyone know how far from my dream we are?
rscoot - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
If you want to spend $15 or 20k for a monitor and find a couple thousand other people willing to do the same, I'm sure some company will accommodate you as best they can.