Dell U2311H

An update for those that care:

I just ordered a U2311H yesterday and my "estimated delivery date" is 7/19/10. I wouldn't mind having it sooner but I'm not in a huge rush. I am hopeful that they will ship it sooner.
 
Just got this monitor on Monday, and I'm a bit worried about a few things. I don't know if it's just because I come from an old ViewSonic VP930 that's gotten "washed out" over the past 5 years or however long I've had it, or if my U2311H just isn't very good.

- Every time my brother steps into the room, he says that the screen looks way too blue. I agree, but I've tried to get used to it. It's not easy, though. I've tried messing with the Custom RGB preset and removing some blue, but it seems extremely jumpy. Just notching down the blue value by 1, the screen will look very red or green.

- I'm not sure what it is, but it might be the contrast. My VP930 looks very washed out compared to the U2311H, which has very deep blacks and very bright whites. The colors and overall picture just generally seem too dark, though. However, upping the brightness results in blinding whites.

- It looks as if the screen is a lot more blue on the left-hand side than the right-hand side. I don't notice any yellow on the right, though.

- With my room darkened and on a completely black screen (well, you can see the mouse cursor too), I took this picture at an angle. I'm very negatively surprised to see such strange color shifting on an IPS-panel. The picture is untouched. Is this normal?
IMG_1126.jpg


I don't want to crowd the thread with too many pictures, but here's a link to some more pictures I took: http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii189/Duckimoo/U2311H/

The monitor was dirt cheap, but I'd still like it to be at least somewhat calibrated with decent color reproduction. Any way to achieve this from just messing with the Custom RGB and Brightness/Contrast settings, or would I need an actual hardware-calibrator to get decent results?
 
The above pic looks to show alot of backlight bleed

get a colorimeter if you want true accurate display.
 
That looks pretty bad compared to the pictures I've seen from other people. I'd probably get a replacement if you can.
 
I got my u2311h running finally. I have a colorimeter (i1display 2 equivalent), but I haven't tested with it yet - I'll post results when I can.

So far it seems ok - definitely better than some of the crap I've seen in this thread, so I feel lucky.

- There is some backlight bleed, but not enough to warrant a return. My friend thought the bleed was minimal.
- The IPS-glow is present when viewing darker backgrounds horizontally off-axis, but it's less pronounced than the glow of my NEC 20wmgx^2 AS-IPS screen.
- Initial testing on the Lagom website: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ - looks promising. No pixel-walk, I can differentiate between blacks... good enough.
- No dead/stuck pixels... I think

- The anti-glare matte pattern is acceptable. I wish it were sparser, but it's fine.

- The screen is in-set a few millimeters such that light reflects off the bevel and creates the appearance of poor lighting uniformity (especially apparent because I use a black windows background, and my icons are lined up along the left-border). Fortunately the bevel is flat black, so it's not as bad as it could be. I'm nitpicking, but even my old hulk of an NEC was better-designed in this regard.

- Unless I discover some huge flaw, or the colorimeter informs me that the LCD performs miserably, I'll be keeping it. Yep - I think I got lucky :) For once :D
 
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Just ordered the 2311 for $260 plus tax Canadian. Sweet Deal! (Sale Price + discount coupon).
 
Which discount coupon? Just saw these on sale on the Canadian website and i'm considering picking up three of these for an eyefinity build (was going to get them in the US but this sale makes it a better deal up here)
 
Blindman the details for the promotion were on redflagdeals.com. It may have expired by now though.
 
dongle07 said:
Update: this monitor can take 480i/p (and other resolutions) YPbPr signals over VGA. That is awesome.
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dongle07 said:
Confirmed: can accept component signal over VGA. D-sub -> component cables are ~$5 at monoprice. This monitor rooooolz for the price.
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Awesome indeed. Have any of you tried hooking up a console to the monitor this way? If so, what were your results?

Hmm, I wonder whether YPbPr-over-VGA is supported by the U2211H as well?
 
I should have been more clear; when I typed "confirmed" I meant that I had tried out my PS2 and my Wii via component -> d-sub. It works great and I couldn't detect much/any extra lag.
 
dongle07 said:
I should have been more clear; when I typed "confirmed" I meant that I had tried out my PS2 and my Wii via component -> d-sub. It works great and I couldn't detect much/any extra lag.
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Nice. I also just now realized that it was you I quoted both times, not two separate people. *facepalm* :p

I'm seriously thinking about finally investing in an LCD monitor (U2211H/U2311H) and a PS3 ;) PC over DVI, PS2 over Component->VGA and PS3 over HDMI->Displayport.
 
Oh_Lets_Say__Moe said:
Anyone have any luck getting this Dell Small Business coupon lately? http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1520942

That was through slickdeals for 239.00 + free shipping. Someone in the thread said the coupon's expiration date isn't until July 31st 2010.
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I was not able to get that deal, it seemed to have been removed from the Small Business section when I ordered mine. I did have a 15% off cupon from Dell from my last purchase that I was able to apply.
 
Any idea how much I can get one of these for now? The site says $320 USD, before shipping and tax? any coupons available right now?
 
I would avoid this monitor if i were you. I got one made in June a week ago and it had very bad Colour and backlight uniformity as well as banding ?!?! The monitor also turns itself off randomly when connected through dsub (with my laptop). I got it replaced and the new one is even worse with awful backlight bleeding and a dead pixel along with an even worse colour uniformity. I also have a nec ea231wmi which uses the same panel but shows no banding whatsoever, behaves as expected through vga and has a more uniform colour reproduction. So if you are between those 2 monitors DO NOT get the dell.
 
I still want one, but $320 + tax and shipping doesn't feel like a good deal. I might pull the trigger though, even with a 10% discount.

I wish there was some way to monitor multiple bargain / coupon sites for a single search term.

I'd also go for the Dell 2209WA if that wasn't $319.00 at the moment as well.
 
I just got my U2311H for 1899 DKK (about 320 USD) including 25% vat here in Denmark (great price). The unit is from May 2010, model is U2311Hb and revision is A00.

Pros:
- No dead / stuck pixels
- Great colors after calibration (too blue with standard settings)
- Fast response times (no ghosting / input lag)
- Low power consumption (29 watt)

Cons:
- A little darker in the left side of the screen (minimal after calibration but still noticeable)

These are my calibrated settings (this is done manually using color scale images):
- Brightness: 90 (white becomes too gray'ish when lowering the brightness)
- Contrast: 75
- Preset: Custom (RGB): Red: 99, Green: 99, Blue: 92

I generally like this monitor especially with games and movies because the colors are way better than my previous TN based one. I also like that the vertical viewing angles are better because my old one had trouble with gray colors which became much lighter no matter how you sat in front of it. I would have liked that the backlighting was a little better so that the left side wouldn't be darker though I can live with that minor problem.
 
After reading numerous reviews I finally pulled the trigger with one of these to replace my loved, but aging 226BW now that I do more photography than gaming. Hopefully it's as good as everyone says.

Now that I've ordered I predict some amazing coupon/price drop etc any moment now.
 
Does anyone know dells return policy? Do they charge a restocking fee? make you pay return shipping?

I'd like to give this screen a try, but don't want to blow $50-$75 if I don't like it
 
llmercll said:
Does anyone know dells return policy? Do they charge a restocking fee? make you pay return shipping?

I'd like to give this screen a try, but don't want to blow $50-$75 if I don't like it
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No they don't charge anything. They come to your house with the replacement and take the old one with them. I am gonna try for a second replacement in the hope of getting a panel with no banding and more uniform colours, wish me luck !
 
SkiesOfAzel said:
No they don't charge anything. They come to your house with the replacement and take the old one with them. I am gonna try for a second replacement in the hope of getting a panel with no banding and more uniform colours, wish me luck !
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You must be very lucky if they do that. When I had to return my AW2310 because I wasn't satisfied with it, they charged me $75 to restock it, as well as $10 for return shipping.

This monitor, on the other hand, has me very interested. I've been looking for a good replacement for my FP241VW for a loooooong time.
 
DarkAngel_ZERO said:
You must be very lucky if they do that. When I had to return my AW2310 because I wasn't satisfied with it, they charged me $75 to restock it, as well as $10 for return shipping.

This monitor, on the other hand, has me very interested. I've been looking for a good replacement for my FP241VW for a loooooong time.
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Ultrasharp return policy = better AFAIK
 
DarkAngel_ZERO said:
You must be very lucky if they do that. When I had to return my AW2310 because I wasn't satisfied with it, they charged me $75 to restock it, as well as $10 for return shipping.

This monitor, on the other hand, has me very interested. I've been looking for a good replacement for my FP241VW for a loooooong time.
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This is their policy in my country and AFAIK most of the world. Since you are looking to replace a monitor with a good panel, i would advise you to look for the nec ea231wmi instead of the dell if the price difference is small were you live. The dell will look nice to anyone coming from a TN panel, but has allot of serious flaws that will be apparent to anyone else. With the nec you will get better build quality and most probably a better panel too (at the very least you won't have to put up with banding).
 
SkiesOfAzel said:
This is their policy in my country and AFAIK most of the world. Since you are looking to replace a monitor with a good panel, i would advise you to look for the nec ea231wmi instead of the dell if the price difference is small were you live. The dell will look nice to anyone coming from a TN panel, but has allot of serious flaws that will be apparent to anyone else. With the nec you will get better build quality and most probably a better panel too (at the very least you won't have to put up with banding).
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Those 2 monitors use the same panel. Can you show pics of banding, I've not seen or heard of this on the U2311h other than your post.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Those 2 monitors use the same panel. Can you show pics of banding, I've not seen or heard of this on the U2311h other than your post.
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I know that both use the same type of panel from LG but nec has better quality control and it shows. I will take some pics tomorrow from both these monitors displaying the same gradient so you can judge for yourself.
 
CJRP said:
An update for those that care:

I just ordered a U2311H yesterday and my "estimated delivery date" is 7/19/10. I wouldn't mind having it sooner but I'm not in a huge rush. I am hopeful that they will ship it sooner.
Click to expand...


Just received the monitor this morning, 7/13/10. It took Dell 5 business days to ship it out, and two days for FedEx to deliver it.

First impressions are good. Backlight is even without bleed, no dead pixels, one stuck sub-pixel near the edge of the screen, only visible in complete darkness with an all black screen with my face three inches from. Definitely not worried about that.
 
After using this monitor for a little while, it seems that the left side of the screen is now only darker for like 5 minutes after you turn it on and then the backlight seems to even out. I don't know if these screens need some burn-in/warm-up time but it's nice to see that yet another problem has gone away. I don't regret getting this monitor. I only expected it to have better viewing angles than my previous TN based one and this is definitely the case. I'm also impressed that it only uses 28W compared to the 80W my previous Samsung 24" used. I don't think anyone can complain especially at this price level unless you get one of the really faulty ones.
 
Hi all,
Been using the monitor for like 1 month now and there is just a little I can complain about. I saw few questions here asking about its performance in FPS games. As I play mostly FPS games, I can share some experience. Quake Live runs very smoothly and the monitor is definitely NOT the reason I lose games :). Call of Duty 4 is also perfect. Starcraft 2 looks great on it, but it would probably look good on any other monitor. If it was gaming what was holding you back from buying this monitor, you don't have to worry any more - go for it, it's definitely worth the money.

What I miss is a second DVI or HDMI connection (it doesn't have any). I would like to connect my settop box to be able to watch TV on it but I hate switching DVI cables every time I wish to watch TV. I have bought HDMI to DisplayPort reduction but it didn't work. Any suggestions here? I'm not that experienced in this sector :)

Thanks
 
Oh_Lets_Say__Moe said:
Did you try something like this? --> DisplayPort Male to HDMI Male 3ft Cable - monoprice.com

I was thinking of buying that. They have an adapter as well.
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"Note: While DisplayPort connectors are capable of passing an HDMI signal, DisplayPort and HDMI signals are basically different and not compatible with each other. In order for this cable to function properly, you must have a DisplayPort source device capable of producing and passing out an HDMI signal through the DisplayPort jack."

This is the same I have bought, I works the other way around. We all need to connect HDMI source device to DisplayPort monitor. :-(
 
My U2311h arrived today at work, so far impressed. I will take some pics when I bring it home, otherwise I won't get much work done today.

Very little backlight bleeding noticed, close to (almost as good) viewing angles as the 2209wa I have, pixels all check out, good color and brightness. The flourescents here don't allow me to get a good idea of how it will look at home, though.
 
Nodlle_____ said:
"Note: While DisplayPort connectors are capable of passing an HDMI signal, DisplayPort and HDMI signals are basically different and not compatible with each other. In order for this cable to function properly, you must have a DisplayPort source device capable of producing and passing out an HDMI signal through the DisplayPort jack."

This is the same I have bought, I works the other way around. We all need to connect HDMI source device to DisplayPort monitor. :-(
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Does your video card have a DisplayPort output? If it does, use that for your PC and get an HDMI-->DVI cable for your other device.

If your video card doesn't have a DisplayPort output, you can try getting an HDMI switch:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10110

That'll let your PC and other device share a single DVI port (using an HDMI-->DVI cable obviously).
 
King of Heroes said:
Does your video card have a DisplayPort output? If it does, use that for your PC and get an HDMI-->DVI cable for your other device.

If your video card doesn't have a DisplayPort output, you can try getting an HDMI switch:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10110

That'll let your PC and other device share a single DVI port (using an HDMI-->DVI cable obviously).
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I have older MacBook Pro, that's why I "had" to go for this DELL, to get a good quality monitor. I have only one DVI port. I was also hoping I could avoid having another "box" on my desk :-/

Also - the monitor supports DELL SOUNDBAR - does any one here have any experience with it? DisplayPort transfers audio + video, will the SoundBar be able to play the audio transferred by DisplayPort?
 
Dell small business is having a 1 day sale today. July 15. U2211H can be had $239.00. Unfortunately the U2311H price is still at 319.00 with a preliminary ship date of 7-27-10.
 
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