Replacement for Dell U2311H

After many years of great service, my beloved U2311H just died on me, for no apparent reason.

I'm now looking for a replacement but i am a bit at a loss of what to get. My first instinct was to go for the closest thing that's currently available, namely the U2414H, but a friend of mine who has had both said that the picture quality of the latter is actually worst, noticeably so, and some google searches seem to confirm the fact.

Are there other alternatives? I don't need anything fancy. 60Hz is good enough for gaming for instance and 1080p was also more than sufficient for me. I just want those vibrant colors and picture quality, at a similar price range since i don't have much to spend.

Please help, since i'm now using some crappy 21 incher until i get a new monitor, haha.

It's funny because lately I have been researching what to do if I ever happened to be in your unfortunate situation. The U2311H is an amazing monitor (mine is fortunately still working), all the other IPS monitors that I have seen since I bought it in 2011 were worse in some way: whitish IPS glow, backlight bleeding, lower contrast, worse colors, etc. Playing the panel lottery with current IPS panels is not worth it.

If I were you, I would go with this monitor: Samsung C24FG70FQU.

It is a VA panel (so none of those IPS glow issues and maybe less chance of backlight problems too), height-adjustable, 144 Hz, FreeSync, 1080p, Quantum Dot technology with more accurate and vibrant colors. Your mileage may vary due to the fact that it is curved, however.

I don't think i will like a curved monitor. Are there any other options?

You could try another VA monitor that is not curved or play the IPS/PLS panel lottery. I cannot give any specific recommendations though, IPS panel quality seems to be hit or miss. One of our customers bought a 34" Asus 1200$ monitor and had to return it because of the backlight bleed. A colleague of mine recently bought a P2417H and it had that whitish IPS glow and maybe some bleed in the lower left corner. Not good at all.