Which 24"+ LCD?

After recently "upgrading" from my old 19" PVA to a 23" TN, I decided that TN is definitely not for me. The viewing angles of the TN were horrendous and there was an unnaceptable amount of color shift sitting right in front of it. Wasn't a fan of 16:9/1080p either. So I would prefer something with more height, both in resolution and physical size.

Going by what's available in my country I've narrowed down my choices to these:

HP ZR24w - $530
Dell U2410 - $740
Dell U2711 - $950

Monitors are expensive here, yes

Now, from what I'm seeing in reviews, the U2410 has slightly better viewing angles than the ZR24w, otherwise they are very similar. The HP supposedly has better black levels but only with the TFTCentral contrast setting at 100 method, which I haven't seen anyone report to have successfully replicated either. The contrast ratio for both monitors seems to range from 450:1 to 700:1, depending on a review

Then there is the U2711. Better blacks, much higher resolution and at this price, seems like a MUCH better value than the U2410. My only concern is the small pixel pitch. I do wear glasses but I can see relatively fine without them. Still, going from 0.29mm to 0.23mm is worrying me.

I need the monitor for work, web surfing and some gaming. Input lag and response time are not an issue for me. I need good viewing angles, decent colors, decent contrast and good vertical resolution. So far I'm leaning towards the ZR24w because I'm not sure the U2410 warrants the $210 price difference. Poor black levels is a worry though. The U2711 seems great except the pixel pitch is very small - I'd be very interested to hear people's experiences and thoughts on this.

Are there any alternatives to these aside from professional NEC and Eizo monitors? It doesn't have to be IPS. PVA, MVA or whatever is fine as long as it's not a TN. Any input is greatly appreciated

I just purchased an HP ZR24W today i will let you know how I like it when I get it. From what I have read and I have researched for 2 weeks now it seems that the HP is the best deal and though the dell has more connectivity options in now way does the Dell warrant such a huge price difference.

I cant say the HP just yet but for the price and the panel and the great reviews... its almost a no brainer unless you just have the money to blow!

falconman515 said:

I just purchased an HP ZR24W today i will let you know how I like it when I get it. From what I have read and I have researched for 2 weeks now it seems that the HP is the best deal and though the dell has more connectivity options in now way does the Dell warrant such a huge price difference.

I cant say the HP just yet but for the price and the panel and the great reviews... its almost a no brainer unless you just have the money to blow!

Click to expand...

reason dell cost more is that it's a wide gamut monitor. the HP is sRGB only
the dell 24in is 96% adobeRGB

that color gamut was what warranted the price increase over the HP

but if OP doesn't care about wide gamut then HP is the better choice

mistachewey said:

reason dell cost more is that it's a wide gamut monitor. the HP is sRGB only
the dell 24in is 96% adobeRGB

that color gamut was what warranted the price increase over the HP

but if OP doesn't care about wide gamut then HP is the better choice

Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? Wider gamut does not necessary mean higher price.


The HP ZR24w uses an e-IPS panel which is less expensive to manufacture than S-IPS or H-IPS panels. The two Dell whic hthe OP has listed uses H-IPS panels and generally offers a little better viewing angles, color accuracy, and response times compared to the less expensive e-IPS panels. Not sure if black levels on a H-IPS panel is better.

The high resolution on the 27" Dell also concerns me. I would like to see it in person before even considering purchasing something with that resolution. I personally use 25.5" (sometimes referred to as 26") with 1920 x 1200 resolution.

Here are reviews for each of the monitors:

HP ZR24w
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr24w.htm

Dell U2410
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2410.htm

Dell U2711
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2711.htm

can you point me to a wide gamut display that is less expensive than a standard gamut display?

i don't recall seeing one being less expensive

I don't have the U2711, but do have the Apple 27" cinema display. I believe both have identical ppi, so text should look identical on both. For me, the text is too small on the Apple. I think there are people who feel the text is fine, but I feel it's too small. I've had to set it to 125% and change the fonts under Personalize to 14. After doing this, tough, the text looks pretty good. On some sites in Firefox, I've also had to zoom in because the text is too small for me.

Thanks for the replies. I don't need wide gamut, so it's a good thing the HP is sRGB only. Don't need any of the extra connectivity options of the U2410 either. So out of those two, the ZR24w is likely the better choice for me.

I've tried messing around with the dpi size in windows 7 and I'm not really happy with it. Some applications look good, some don't. I set the zoom setting in my browser to 80% to simulate the 0.23mm pitch of the U2711 and the text is indeed very small. It would look crisper on a true high resolution display but would still be too small for me I think.

The ZR24w seems to be the best choice then. Poor black levels worry me though. I'm absolutely fine with black levels of my current display but I don't know how it compares to the HP.

I'm nearsighted and have a display with 0,255mm dot pitch, which makes most of the text on the web to small for me, especially since my glasses are old and my eyes have changed since they were bought.
I use the zoom function in the web browser and think that works just fine. Actually, I have set Opera to always display web pages with 120% zoom. If that's to small or big, one can easily change the zoom factor by tapping the plus or minus keys.
When reading or writing text in some text editor, I just increase the font size (WordPad) or zoom.


10 example pics
http://3.file.am/5896

Just below the blue banner there should be a link
Download Details
Operas skalning.rar - 4.33 MB
This file has been downloaded 0 times.

Ahh, Opera does a very good job at scaling. I had used it as my main browser for years but switched to Firefox because of a few addons I can't "live" without. Zooming/scaling in Firefox kind of sucks. Really slows down the browser in some cases too.

What worries me about the U2711 is that I may end up zooming in the text and interface wherever possible which would in the end kind of defeat the whole purpose of buying a high resolution screen. If it had an A-TW polarizer then I could simply sit closer to the screen and enjoy all the benefits of a large screen and high resolution.

I've done some calculations and simulated the pixel pitch of the U2711 on my old CRT and I think it would be too small for me. Also tried my friend's laptop with 0.25mm pitch and think I could live with that but anything smaller would be too small. Changing to higher DPI definitely helps but many applications look weird with big text and tiny interface/icons.

Seems the only choice for me is the ZR24w and I'd have to live with poor contrast ratio because even if the TFTcentral method does work I'd really prefer to go with lower brightness than that. I can't believe I can't find a suitable replacement for my 5 year old monitor in the price range of up to $1000