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Advice on this U2713HM

S

StoleMyOwnCar

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Messages
3,526
Hi, everyone. I recently bought a Dell U2713HM for completing my build. I got much of my research material from reading through your forums, so I would like your help with a decision regarding this monitor.

Exchanged about 3 different monitors (U2711,Samsung 970D, ASUS PB278Q) these until I finally ended up with this thing. Microcenter is quite excellent about their returns and they sure do keep up their end of the bargain. I got this for $670 (extra 2 year carry in for $100, too, so $760). I'm quite willing to pay extra just to deal with Microcenter instead of anyone else. They are absolutely EXCELLENT about customer service.

My evaluation:
- This one does not have much backlight bleed that I can notice in any kind of general usage scenario (though there will be pictures for that near the end of this post), and it has no dead pixels (that I have yet seen and I usually catch them very quickly; if it's there it must be in the very edge). I think there may be some bleed across the top, but I do not see any in the lower left that people usually complain about, aside from the usual IPS glow. The bleed across the top seems to be fairly mild from what I can tell, not very noticeable during normal use.
- The revision is R00, April 2013 (which seems rather bizarre, but whatever).
- I'm not sure about backlight uniformity.
- I also have had FF14 (which looks great on this) going for a good while and not seen any burn in when I alt tabbed out or anything (is there some better test I should be doing for this?). I have also not seen any obvious yellow tinge anywhere.

- On the other hand, it does have crosshatching. This problem seems to be prevalent in the older panels. It's generally not noticeable unless the background is the right color (and even then it's not terribly prominent), but I mostly notice it along the bottom and right sides. The other locations may have it, but I'm probably not at the right angle to see it. I think I can live with it, as I mostly do gaming and anime viewing.

Now, then here are some pictures of the monitor, again from various angles. The first set is a completely dark room with the monitor set at roughly 66 or 70% brightness (which is what I have it on while gaming)... Apologies for the less-than-stellar quality, my camera is not good on this Galaxy S3:

Black:
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White:
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So, my options:
1. Try to get another U2713HM and hope it's better.
2. Get a ViewSonic 2770 and hope it's not plagued by the usual quality control problems it seems to have, and that I can get it from a reliable retailer in the case that it is, so I can keep exchanging it.
3. Downgrade to an ASUS and hope that this one doesn't have any dead pixels or backlight bleed.
4. Keep this.
5. Other (explain)

Right now, I'm leaning towards 4, since crosshatching isn't that bad of a problem (from what I can tell, compared to most of the crap that 27 inch monitors can have on them)... and I'm also really tired of going around exchanging $700 monitors... but I would like your opinions, based on the screenshots I have provided as well. I would make a poll, but I can count quite fine and I would prefer opinions with words backing them up rather than just a silent submission.

Thank you. This is an important purchase, and it's been stressing me out considerably.
 
Hi

As a U2713HM owner I'd like to comment. Seems like you have a good panel generally. Glad to hear you're not experiencing any issues with it in general use.

What you're seeing on the top pictures is likely IPS glow, since the pictures are taken at a (small) angle. If you really want to register any backlight leakage, you' better take a picture from a distance with a camera that can zoom in. Other than that, if it doesn't show up in dark game scenes or the movies you play, I's say it's not a deal breaker. Besides, you probably don't play those games at 60% brightness in a dark room anyway. With regard to the glow: any new IPS or PLS display will show glow when viewed from an angle, so there's not much choice there.

On the second set of images you can see that the uniformity isn't perfect (the screen is slightly darker in the corners). I also have it on my monitor, though it's only visible on large white or very light planes (such as a file browser or white web page).

I think it's unlikely that you'll get a better U2713HM. If you see only minimal backlight leakage from a distance, it's as good as it gets. I haven't even checked if the crosshatching is fixed in certain revisions (and even if it is, it would be difficult to get exactly that revision/version).

In general I would suggest you try the monitor for a couple of days and if you don't notice any artifacts in your day to day use, enjoy your screen and don't look back ;) That's what I did at least. Any monitor on the market is a compromise, so it's about getting one that is good at what you think is important and perhaps less good in things that are no priority for you

That being said, there are probably others who are more up to date with the most recent models...

Best regards
 
Hello, thanks for your reply... glad someone was actually willing to help me out (on another forum I got a very helpful "HAHAHA YOU OVERPAID FOR IT LOL".

I have read that the newest versions don't have crosshatching and also have less backlight bleed, but they also seem to have their own issues (can't find the thread where they were talking about them)? Also the Microcenter doesn't seem to have any more of these in stock, which makes this a bit troubling. No telling if any new shipments they get in will have the new panel or not anyway, or whether they'll be better than what I've got.

I'm starting to wonder if I should just return this and get one of those cheap Korean panels. If anything I get will be a compromise, what the heck is the point for paying more for the compromise? Why not pay ~$300 and be like "yep, well this was expected anyway"?


Anyway, I took some screenshots with my phone camera. Zoomed in from about 5-6 ft back, it's about the best I can do with this camera (it's the best we have in the house). The brightness is on 100%. The last screenshot is with automatic light control, so it tries to brighten things up I guess.

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My question isn't really whether or not I can deal with this--it doesn't look that bad in real time use, and humans can deal with a lot of things. The beef of my question I suppose is this: should I be dealing with this? Does it seem reasonable for the price to you, compared to other 1440p options out there? The crosshatching is mainly something I see while browsing on internet forums with brighter backgrounds. I don't really notice the backlight bleed much, but is the amount on the this monitor reasonable for the price?

You get where I'm going with this type of questioning?

Thanks
 
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