Dell U2211H impressions

I just got my U2211H monitor today. 1920x1080, 21.5", E-IPS.

The first thing I noticed after setting it up is that the AG coating is very distracting - adds a strong grainy texture to light areas. Black text on white is not very clear - much like reading a newspaper. Dark backgrounds with light text is fine though - the hardforum color scheme looks good!

The viewing angles are not as good as the Dell 1905 monitor (which is PVA I believe). My NEC 20WMGX2 (H-IPS) also has better viewing angles and text is easier to read on the NEC. I am rather disappointed with E-IPS so far - there is a noticeable dimming of white background as I move my head off-axis. On the other hand, it doesn't have a strong purple glow on black that my NEC has.

Gradients look good - very little banding. Ghosting for motion seems okay, using the lagom.nl LCD tests. Grayscale is fine too - just as good as the NEC.

If it weren't for the AG coating this monitor would replace my NEC 20WMGX2 - but as it is, I will only use the 2211 for my PS3 (because of the 1920x1080 native resolution).

QC issues: There is a very slight pink tint on the left half of my monitor. This is very subtle but is most easily seen when the monitor is placed in portrait mode.

It seems I am lucky - I cannot see any stuck on pixels yet. I am pretty sure the annoying AG coating would hide them if they are there.

My U2211H is made in China. I got it for $242 CDN (after GST and $12 environmental fee for Alberta). I ordered it during the Dell of Days deal on Wednesday.

Followup: The height of the image area is smaller than my NEC20WMGX2 - maybe about half an inch or so - this means the DPI is a bit higher than the NEC.

Also, there IS a purple glow in black - it's darker than the NEC's, but also seems to appear more easily. This could be related to the viewing angles being not as good.

There is some backlight bleed at the top right quarter of the screen - it's not too terrible, but more noticeable than my NEC - but keep in mind I had to exchange my NEC 3 times to get one that didn't have yellow tint or burnin heh.

Thanks for the review! I'll be sure to add my own to this thread when I get mine in a few days. I'll also see if I can post some pictures of things like tint, bleed, pixels (if I can zoom in that much =D), and maybe a few other things if I can get them to work.

Great review. I might pick one up as a second monitor.

Nice, picked it during the same deal as well, can't wait to try it.

Thanks for the kind comments! It's really more of an impression but as time goes on I may add to it - I eagerly await your thoughts when you guys get yours!

Rectal Prolapse said:

Thanks for the kind comments! It's really more of an impression but as time goes on I may add to it - I eagerly await your thoughts when you guys get yours!

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I just got the e-mail saying that it's shipped and on it's way. Is it bad that I'm THIS excited for just a monitor? xD

Oh man, it arrived, and so far it's BEAUTIFUL! I'm waiting for nightfall to take a few pictures to get a good idea of blacks, viewing angles, and stuff. Right now it's plugged in through DVI, but I just ordered my new tower so I'll be able to play around more with the DP and then try to push it higher than 60Hz. Now where did dad put that 12MP camera of his...

I should note something before I start: I have the very early stages of an eye condition called keratoconus, which means the lenses of my eyes are pushing out and forming into a cone shape. Mine's very very mild, but it does effect my vision strangely. High-contrast change of colors bleed/streak downward when going from light to dark. My brain handles most of the deciphering for images, but reading text can be tricky when lines are close together vertically on a screen and it's white on black. [H]ere isn't extremely bad; I can see text well, but I still see some streaking. Thus my brightness and contrast needs may be different.

Did a few tests last night, didn't have as much time as I would've liked to do things since I work today as well (Saturday, and I'm at work right now typing this ).

I used Calibrize to eyeball a good color setting in Windows XP. I set the brightness to 3 or 5, and the contrast to 65, but this was too dark for me and I couldn't read much of the text on my monitor very well. I upped the brightness to 20 or 22 and was satisfied. I also kept the monitor setting at Standard and Sharpness at 50.

I turned off the lights, got my room as dark as I could, and put the screensaver on "blank" to get a full black screen. There are a few areas of back light bleeding in small strips, 4 at the top and 2 or 3 at the bottom. Not really anything like the extreme things I've been seeing from other people. I sat straight on and looked at the black level of it. When I deviated 1.5' to either side from a distance of 3' the purple hue started to show up, then as I went further right the slight orange appeared. It's not all that bad though, if a picture were there I'd be able to tell it is black.

I turned the lights back on and performed the same visual test. The black sort of hinted at being a very very dark violet past 2' to either side, and all it did was fill the screen the farther I went. I move around when I'm at the computer, but this is juuuust fine for me.

I loaded a few 1920x1080 images from google images to see how pictures looked, and wow am I impressed.

I'll run the one monitor site tonight on it and dig out that camera. Otherwise I'll be using my mother's 4MP camera. Either way, photobucket will be getting some pictures tonight.

If you are really brave, you can read more about removing the AG coating on these eIPS monitors (in the u2410 thread). There are some before and after pictures too.

sethk said:

If you are really brave, you can read more about removing the AG coating on these eIPS monitors (in the u2410 thread). There are some before and after pictures too.

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Nah, I like matte. Seems like a more natural display to me. Glossy just seems like it;s trying to hide something by being shiny. Though I do like my shiny, I prefer that my computer generate the shiny, not the mirror on my monitor. :3

Alright, so, I found my dad's camera and started taking pictures, used Lagom, was taking pictures of that...

and then I ran into the problem of I have no idea what I'm doing.

The camera is a PowerShot A650 IS, 12.1MP, with a lot of crazy fun features in manual mode. I got a few things (I made sure I did my best with the ghosting section), but I'm not sure what [H] wants to see. Any any help with the camera to get what you want to see would be much appreciated as well.

Here's the album for the Monitor pictures I felt comfortable uploading. http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i245/Senkyoka/Monitor Tests/

Possible pictures of interest -

- black screen, dark room, front: for screen uniformity/backlight bleed
- white screen, dark room, front: for screen uniformity/tinting
- dark image, dark/lit room, angled: viewing angle contrast shift/glow
- bright image, dark/lit room, angled: viewing angle

I apologize for not fulfilling my end, I will do so tonight (Central Time) after work. I've been busy with work and playing with the new rig I built last Saturday, but I'll tell you a few things I've noticed over the past week.

Colors are great, gradients are clear, and the monitor is responsive. I need some help getting the birghtness/contrast/colors set properly though since I'm rather new to that kind of adjustment. Once I get my OS finalized, stable, and in working order I'll start pushing the refresh-rate on it to see if it can do what the 2311 can do. Whites seem to be uniform.
Blacks are strange, and it's becoming more and more apparent. Directly head-on, it's black. There are back-light bleed areas at the top and bottom as I mentioned before, but I find ways can look past them. The problem really is the black-color shift/glow (I forgot what the proper term is). Slightly off-center and the black shifts to a very dark purple. This isn't very noticeable when colors surround the black, but when the opposite is true it's rather apparent. After I shift around too much, the orange starts to appear in the corners. You'll be able to see it better tonight when I try to take some pictures of it.

Update: I uploaded new photos to the photobucket folder. I took some pictures of: white (dark), black (dark & light), All colors gradient (dark), All colors gradient top-down (dark), black/left side (dark), black upper left (dark), black top-down (dark), black upper right (dark), black/right side (dark), black bottom-up (dark), white top-down (dark), white/left side (dark), and random test image.

Currently brightness and contrast are both at 62, Preset Mode: Standard, Mode Selection: Graphics.

Tried getting the monitor past 60 Hz, but powerstrip and ATi don't seem to get along well. Will keep looking for different things to try to get that extra Hz. I'm hoping for 72 Hz.

Anyone else have a chance to try this monitor yet? I'm a little concerned about it having only 2 CCFL edge lights vs. the 4 in the U2311H.

Looking for a smaller IPS monitor with at least a 1920x1080 resolution.

I had three of the U2211H monitors and they all were great. The cheaper you go, the less you have to expect in picture quality.
If you want 4 CCFL lights then the U2311H is what you should buy.