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My first impressions review is below. Please note that all my impression are based on the out of the box default settings.
Price Paid: 200 dollars + sales tax
History
I was shopping around for a nice 22-inch to 24-inch monitor in the 300 dollar price range. What disappointed me, was that most of the monitors in that price range had TN panels, and of course had I not been on this forum I probably would have ordered a 24 inch TN panel monitor and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. This forum of course convinced me to look for a nicer IPS or PVA/MVA display. Then one lovely day as I was browsing the interwebs I spotted this monitor, my savior.
I pulled the trigger on it as soon as it was available for sale, for $299. However soon enough I found out that some people on this forum where getting up to $100 dollars off, and surely enough a couple of phone-calls later I managed to make a second order for the monitor for $200, I immediately followed that phone call with another phone call to customer care to cancel the $299 order. I was honestly skeptical this was going to work out, the price sounded too good to be true. However a couple of days later I had a shipping confirmation number and my monitor was happily leaving out of a Tennessee warehouse.
The box came in slightly beat up with a hole in one side and the safety tape ripped on one end, but hey its FedEx, they treat packages like, well packages... No reason to worry because the monitor is safe inside its styrofoam cocoon. Once I opened the box I found a VGA, DVI and USB cable, along with the usual manual and driver CD.
The Stand.
I think it's worth writing about it because most monitors in this price range have a stand that only has basic tilt functions, the Dell stand not only looks solid but feels solid as well. The stand has swivel, height adjustment, and monitor rotation functionality. Not to mention there is a hole in the stand to guide all your cables through. It feels very smooth when you perform any adjustments with the stand, no creaks or anything, feels like its gliding on butter.
The Monitor
In terms of ports this monitor is nothing special, a DVI, VGA, and 4 USB ports. There is a handy little information card that slides out that has all the monitor serial number information (in case you need to contact support, you dont have to climb behind your desk) that is located next to the side USB ports. If you need extra expansion you could always get a switch to add more DVI/HDMI ports. DisplayPort isnt that prevalent yet anyways, so no need to worry about not having it. The DVI port does have HDCP so you could hook up your Blu-Ray player. I have not detected any buzz or operating noise from the inverter, as the monitor seems perfectly silent. Honestly all I want is a good monitor, and for that I only need a DVI port, so this monitor definitely fit my criteria.
The Image
To be honest I haven't calibrated it nor touched any of the adjustment settings. It definitely needs adjustments, but I will wait until I get a calibration tool before making any judgements on the color reproduction and such. I just got this monitor literally an hour ago so all I did was watch a couple of HD trailers.I am pretty confident that this monitor will be completely awesome after some tweaking. But my impressions so far is that the backlight bleed is minimal and that the screen is very homogeneous. The blacks are very black and the whites are well white. The colors have a nice amount of saturation, the viewing angles are awesome, and the antiglare coating is very nice in my opinion.
In Conclusion
The monitor is definitely worth its $299 price, in fact some people in Europe are paying upwards of $500 for this monitor, but I would say its still worth it (as long as you dont need more built in inputs). I love this monitor and I think it appeals to a wide range of audiences, from photographers to gamers.
Videos
Viewing Angles Demo
On Screen Display (OSD)
Price Paid: 200 dollars + sales tax
History
I was shopping around for a nice 22-inch to 24-inch monitor in the 300 dollar price range. What disappointed me, was that most of the monitors in that price range had TN panels, and of course had I not been on this forum I probably would have ordered a 24 inch TN panel monitor and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. This forum of course convinced me to look for a nicer IPS or PVA/MVA display. Then one lovely day as I was browsing the interwebs I spotted this monitor, my savior.
I pulled the trigger on it as soon as it was available for sale, for $299. However soon enough I found out that some people on this forum where getting up to $100 dollars off, and surely enough a couple of phone-calls later I managed to make a second order for the monitor for $200, I immediately followed that phone call with another phone call to customer care to cancel the $299 order. I was honestly skeptical this was going to work out, the price sounded too good to be true. However a couple of days later I had a shipping confirmation number and my monitor was happily leaving out of a Tennessee warehouse.
The box came in slightly beat up with a hole in one side and the safety tape ripped on one end, but hey its FedEx, they treat packages like, well packages... No reason to worry because the monitor is safe inside its styrofoam cocoon. Once I opened the box I found a VGA, DVI and USB cable, along with the usual manual and driver CD.
The Stand.
I think it's worth writing about it because most monitors in this price range have a stand that only has basic tilt functions, the Dell stand not only looks solid but feels solid as well. The stand has swivel, height adjustment, and monitor rotation functionality. Not to mention there is a hole in the stand to guide all your cables through. It feels very smooth when you perform any adjustments with the stand, no creaks or anything, feels like its gliding on butter.
The Monitor
In terms of ports this monitor is nothing special, a DVI, VGA, and 4 USB ports. There is a handy little information card that slides out that has all the monitor serial number information (in case you need to contact support, you dont have to climb behind your desk) that is located next to the side USB ports. If you need extra expansion you could always get a switch to add more DVI/HDMI ports. DisplayPort isnt that prevalent yet anyways, so no need to worry about not having it. The DVI port does have HDCP so you could hook up your Blu-Ray player. I have not detected any buzz or operating noise from the inverter, as the monitor seems perfectly silent. Honestly all I want is a good monitor, and for that I only need a DVI port, so this monitor definitely fit my criteria.
The Image
To be honest I haven't calibrated it nor touched any of the adjustment settings. It definitely needs adjustments, but I will wait until I get a calibration tool before making any judgements on the color reproduction and such. I just got this monitor literally an hour ago so all I did was watch a couple of HD trailers.I am pretty confident that this monitor will be completely awesome after some tweaking. But my impressions so far is that the backlight bleed is minimal and that the screen is very homogeneous. The blacks are very black and the whites are well white. The colors have a nice amount of saturation, the viewing angles are awesome, and the antiglare coating is very nice in my opinion.
In Conclusion
The monitor is definitely worth its $299 price, in fact some people in Europe are paying upwards of $500 for this monitor, but I would say its still worth it (as long as you dont need more built in inputs). I love this monitor and I think it appeals to a wide range of audiences, from photographers to gamers.
Videos
Viewing Angles Demo
On Screen Display (OSD)
Probably it's been a mistake, but I've bought it and my order hasn't been cancelled. 
