Dell U2412M

10e: can my yellowish tint on my monitor be due because of my dvi connection on my macbook pro or it's really the screen? or can it be because of panel uniformity or is it really just a tinting? All the monitors I've bought from Dell had the yellowish (u2311h and this one), so I am wondering if it's not better just to get my money back instead of playing lottery with Dell...but then, what other good monitor can I get that doesn't cost 500 dollars...

Does the tinting cover the whole screen or just a portion of the area? Monitors at this price don't come out of the box with a particular white point. If you want 6500K you have to calibrate or buy a more capable model.
 
10e: can my yellowish tint on my monitor be due because of my dvi connection on my macbook pro or it's really the screen? or can it be because of panel uniformity or is it really just a tinting? All the monitors I've bought from Dell had the yellowish (u2311h and this one), so I am wondering if it's not better just to get my money back instead of playing lottery with Dell...but then, what other good monitor can I get that doesn't cost 500 dollars...

I'm not trying to doubt you, but does this yellow tinting seem viewing angle dependent?

The reason I ask, is because if I move my head upwards in relation to the screen, the bottom begins to yellow, but if I move it back down to where my head is just above centre and two feet away it disappears for all intents and purposes.

Is it something you can photograph and is easily seen?


At the end of the day, it's up to you on what you are willing to tolerate, and whether you are prepared to do an exchange and possibly get a better, or worse one in terms of quality. There is no guarantee either way that you will absolutely be happy.
 
Looking at Prad.de review, color uniformity seems a bit disappointing. I wonder how much variance is there between different units.
 
Just put in my order. Thanks LOLANG! I'll post up my initial impressions once it gets delivered.
 
Snowdog, your post and photos were very helpful. Still considering U2412M. Vertical viewing angle issue is only noticeable on my old 17" Dell E173FP when looking from below - color is darker at screen top than bottom ("gamma shift?"). But who looks up at their screen? I sit directly in front of the screen and don't notice vertical viewing problems. Was your photo (white text-on-blue background) taken with 17" or newer 24" monitor? Will vertical viewing issue be much more pronounced on 24" TN, even when sitting in front of screen? Is TN horizontal viewing angle "glow" in your earth photos similar to what people are calling "IPS glow" on the U2412M?

My monitor short list: Dells (U2412M and P2412H) and Samsung S24A650D. Want to avoid "RMA hell" of sending/receiving monitors because of QC or inherent panel tech problems. Are concerns and issues of HF contributors regarding U2412M (IPS) and S24A650D (PVA) negligible relative to weaknesses of TN including Dell P2411H and P2412H?

If I could be assured of getting a U2412M (without IPS glow, backlight bleed, uniformity issues, tinting, dead pixels, and other QC problems), I'd buy it now. But trying to figure out whether it pays to play the "panel lottery" when I can buy a new Samsung or Dell TN and be done with the monitor-buying process.

Still trying to understand whether the U2412M (IPS) concerns are negligible or will be real noticeable and annoying. I don't have the high color and contrast standards of HF contributors and maybe the P2412H will be good enough for me. Trying to figure that out.
 
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Snowdog, your post and photos were very helpful. Still considering U2412M. Vertical viewing angle issue is only noticeable on my old 17" Dell E173FP when looking from below - color is darker at screen top than bottom ("gamma shift?"). But who looks up at their screen? I sit directly in front of the screen and don't notice vertical viewing problems. Was your photo (white text-on-blue background) taken with 17" or newer 24" monitor? Will vertical viewing issue be much more pronounced on 24" TN, even when sitting in front of screen? Is TN horizontal viewing angle "glow" in your earth photos similar to what people are calling "IPS glow" on the U2412M?

You tend to get used to the vertical shift on a TN monitor when it is your only screen type, but it is ever present, not just looking from below. I remember massive frustration when doing some image editing with similar images below and above. That makes the gamma shift obvious. But most of the time our brains filter it out.

Screen size makes almost all defects worse. Angular defects have bigger angles to work with. Uniformity problems are more evident of larger areas, and have a greater chance of occurrence. Glow from my TN is very similar to IPS glow but again bigger screen makes it worse everywhere. Not many people ever complained about IPS glow when screens were under 20". I find at 30" it can be a problem. 24" might be an issue depending on the individual. The image of the TN screen was my old 17" Dell 1707fp.


If I could be assured of getting a U2412M (without IPS glow, backlight bleed, uniformity issues, tinting, dead pixels, and other QC problems), I'd buy it now. But trying to figure out whether it pays to play the "panel lottery" when I can buy a new Samsung or Dell TN and be done with the monitor-buying process.

Still trying to understand whether the U2412M (IPS) concerns are negligible or will be real noticeable and annoying. I don't have the high color and contrast standards of HF contributors and maybe the P2412H will be good enough for me. Trying to figure that out.

Ultimately you can only determine this for yourself as individual variation in perception of monitor issues is actually much greater than monitor quality variations.

Personally I would never play RMA lottery. I received two different model LCDs from Dell that I didn't like, and I sent them back and never ordered another of that type.

Buy one of each (IPS and TN) from Dell and return the one you find least objectionable. :D
 
Does the tinting cover the whole screen or just a portion of the area? Monitors at this price don't come out of the box with a particular white point. If you want 6500K you have to calibrate or buy a more capable model.

just a portion of the center of the screen.....and to answer to 10e, no, it's not because of the viewing angle because I don't move my head and it's straight in front of me on the wall and the upper page is white and when I slide it to the center of the screen, it becauses yellowish ...
 
You tend to get used to the vertical shift on a TN monitor when it is your only screen type, but it is ever present, not just looking from below. I remember massive frustration when doing some image editing with similar images below and above. That makes the gamma shift obvious. But most of the time our brains filter it out.

A new 24" screen won't have much more vertical height than my old 17" Dell, so vertical gamma shift shouldn't bother me (I don't notice it on my 17" screen but as you said maybe my mind is filtering it out).

Screen size makes almost all defects worse. Angular defects have bigger angles to work with. Uniformity problems are more evident of larger areas, and have a greater chance of occurrence. Glow from my TN is very similar to IPS glow but again bigger screen makes it worse everywhere. Not many people ever complained about IPS glow when screens were under 20". I find at 30" it can be a problem. 24" might be an issue depending on the individual. The image of the TN screen was my old 17" Dell 1707fp.

I've viewed 24" TN panels in Best Buy and didn't notice any TN glow. I'll go to BB and check out the 23" LG IPS. If I don't notice any IPS issues on the LG, maybe I won't notice them on the U2412M.

Hard Forum contributors have such high standards for monitor color accuracy so how can they put up with any IPS glow, tinting, backlight bleed, dead pixels, and other stuff that directly impact color accuracy? That's puzzling. Their complaints to manufacturers should result in those issues being resolved by now because IPS panels have been around a while. Maybe a 24" screen is small enough that I won't notice IPS issues? At least it's not 30".

Ultimately you can only determine this for yourself as individual variation in perception of monitor issues is actually much greater than monitor quality variations.

That's an interesting point, ergo the Best Buy visit. Usually, the stores have demo programs running on the display. Maybe they'll let me use Windows on the monitor so I can test different backgrounds and websites.

Buy one of each (IPS and TN) from Dell and return the one you find least objectionable. :D

Hmm, tempting (but sneaky) idea. :cool: I'm looking forward to when I can replace that old monitor in my Signature line. :rolleyes:
 
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I just chatted with a Dell rep who offered me $50 off. Still not as good as LOLANG's rep but pretty good for 2 minutes of online chatting.
 
Just put in my order today with LOLANG's rep, $319.20 shipped. She said it's about a week now for them to ship, so now I get to sit and fidget for a bit. ;)

Thanks again LOLANG, and to 10e and everyone else in the thread who convinced me to order one of these. :D
 
Mine is coming in 2 days. How is everybody taking a pic with the screen all black? Is there a mode to go in or you just load a black background or.....?

Thanks.
 
How good is this screen for watching movies on? Personally I'm not a hardcore pedant, I'm just a casual who wants to put a bit of extra money in a quality display (I won't upgrade very soon again:cool:)

Someone recommended the Eizo 23" because of its deeper black but after a bit of consideration I think I shouldn't go below 24" and I sort of want the 16:10 ratio for its all-round usefulness (I know it has no use in movies). Black borders do not disturb me. (I could as well be disturbed by the space between the monitor and the floor couldn't I?:cool:)

Is this the best 'budget' IPS 16:10 there is? (I guess technically it's not really budget but from an IPS viewpoint it maybe is.)
 
Just ordered a couple U2412M in Spain, got a decent price through a friends company: 540€ (270€ each) tax included.

Thanks to all that supplied their experiences with them as it provided info enough for me to decide, specially 10e.

Arrival date is 31st of August (at the moment). Will report back when they arrive so you know how they are behaving.

By the way, there's some talk about possible panel lottery with this ones but you also need to take into account that happy customers do not tend to come back to the forum to say how happy they are, while unhappy ones do to look for help to solve their problems. Actually there have been many stating they placed an order and never came back --> happy customers.
 
I'm waiting the english translations from prad to decide if buy or not this monitor for a new workstation.
 
Any hardcore pedants ready to help this casual young man? :p

The Eizo 23" is a superior monitor to these Dell models. E-IPS can be good value if you want to watch movies, but the Eizo's uniformity, linearity and gradation indicate a graphics monitor which these monitors are not.

There are other pieces to this person's puzzle such as whether he is willing to settle with 1080p resolution, whether he can accommodate a decent viewing distance and of course price.

Source: owning EV23 and two dells.
 
How good is this screen for watching movies on? Personally I'm not a hardcore pedant, I'm just a casual who wants to put a bit of extra money in a quality display (I won't upgrade very soon again:cool:)

Someone recommended the Eizo 23" because of its deeper black but after a bit of consideration I think I shouldn't go below 24" and I sort of want the 16:10 ratio for its all-round usefulness (I know it has no use in movies). Black borders do not disturb me. (I could as well be disturbed by the space between the monitor and the floor couldn't I?:cool:)

Is this the best 'budget' IPS 16:10 there is? (I guess technically it's not really budget but from an IPS viewpoint it maybe is.)

If your movie viewing will be from a PC then the Dell should fit the bill. The cPVA panel in the Eizo 23" is good for movie viewing as well because it has very good black level and high contrast, but it is let down by average response time, even though it happens to be the best Samsung-based cPVA screen in this regard too, it's still a bit lagging behind the Dell's more balance IPS response time. So if you like watching darker movies you will see more motion "smearing" on the Eizo.

Alternatively I'll agree with WhoisthisReally in that the Eizo will likely have better color calibration out of the box and superior image processing electronics.

Just ordered a couple U2412M in Spain, got a decent price through a friends company: 540€ (270€ each) tax included.

Thanks to all that supplied their experiences with them as it provided info enough for me to decide, specially 10e.

Arrival date is 31st of August (at the moment). Will report back when they arrive so you know how they are behaving.

By the way, there's some talk about possible panel lottery with this ones but you also need to take into account that happy customers do not tend to come back to the forum to say how happy they are, while unhappy ones do to look for help to solve their problems. Actually there have been many stating they placed an order and never came back --> happy customers.

Best of luck with your purchase Aldavian! I'm still enjoying mine quite a bit.

I'm waiting the english translations from prad to decide if buy or not this monitor for a new workstation.

I think you need a subscription, but it did come out (as promised) on the 22nd of August.

The Eizo 23" is a superior monitor to these Dell models. E-IPS can be good value if you want to watch movies, but the Eizo's uniformity, linearity and gradation indicate a graphics monitor which these monitors are not.

There are other pieces to this person's puzzle such as whether he is willing to settle with 1080p resolution, whether he can accommodate a decent viewing distance and of course price.

Source: owning EV23 and two dells.

A panel is still a panel and the electronics make a big difference. For example, I'm not 100% sure that the NEC LCD2490WUXi2-BK and HP ZR24W have the same panel, though it is likely, but the NEC's image quality is far superior in terms of color calibration even before using SpectraView II to fully calibrate it with a colorimeter. Yes, one can use a package like ColorEyes or Basic Color of Lacie Blue Eye Pro to improve the HP's color calibration with an ICM profile, but the potential tonal loss (especially with grayscales) would be obvious in comparison.

In addition the NEC has superior scaling and can handle video sources far better than the HP, so yes I'd have to agree, it's likely the Eizo is a better monitor with a "different" panel to express it objectively.

I've always been curious about this model of Eizo, but availability in Canada is a bit spotty, and return policies are associatively not very convenient, likely requiring a re-stocking fee of 10 to 15%.
 
Just put in my order today with LOLANG's rep, $319.20 shipped. She said it's about a week now for them to ship, so now I get to sit and fidget for a bit. ;)
Thanks again LOLANG, and to 10e and everyone else in the thread who convinced me to order one of these. :D

+1! The phone rep called it a 20% off sale.

It'll be interesting, and quite a change in size and hopefully more. For the past several years, I've been using an AG Neovo E-19a, one of the best little known TFT monitors that ever came out (just noticed at NewEgg it got 5 eggs from 26 of 31 reviewers, which even at NE is extraordinary for a monitor). In addition to the good discussion in this thread, the thing that swayed me from a HP2475W or Dell U2410 is that the brightness can reportedly be turned way down while maintaining a good contrast level and clear picture. I have hazel eyes and work with window light only during the day and usually no artificial light in the room at night (some from an adjacent hallway), so a bright white screen is really hard. A couple of years ago I bought a Dell 2209WA when they were going for $200, but even at low brightness it was too much and had to be returned. Is there some reason the higher quality non-LED IPS monitors are so bright? The Asus PA246Q is the same way.
 
Also ordered mine up thanks to LOLANG. Great deal and excellent rep to deal with. Can't wait!
 
I received my replacement for my yellow-tinted monitor. The new one does not seem to have a tint gradient, but there is a very fine, very dark gradient at the bottom that is noticeable on light colored pages. It literally looks like someone took a black-to-transparent gradient in Photoshop and took it up a centimeter. Now I need to decide if it's worth exchanging. In addition, the right side has a similar brightness gradient. Bah!
 
I received my replacement for my yellow-tinted monitor. The new one does not seem to have a tint gradient, but there is a very fine, very dark gradient at the bottom that is noticeable on light colored pages. It literally looks like someone took a black-to-transparent gradient in Photoshop and took it up a centimeter. Now I need to decide if it's worth exchanging. In addition, the right side has a similar brightness gradient. Bah!

I don't get it... could you explain further please?
 
So I recieved my U2412M earlier today, and I have some first impressions. Just keep in mind that I'm no expert on monitors, but I do have a tendency to pay attention to details.

My biggest disappointment is definitely the bleed. The bleed on the lower right is so bad it reaches out about one third of the screen both upwards and leftwards. The top left has an almost identical amount of bleed. The bleed in the top right is not as severe, but still pretty bad and almost meets with the lower right bleed at the middle of the screen. Only the lower left is free from backlight bleed. All in all, I'd say about one third of the whole screen area is affected by bleed. Rather terrible, I must say.

This is my first IPS-panel, and albeit being a budget one, I'm also somewhat disappointed at the viewing angles. It's a large improvement over my old TN-panel, that's for sure, but any dark areas of the screen will easily loose its depth and turn greyish only by moving to the side just a little bit. I don't even need to get out of my chair, as moving the head around is enough. Up and down wise though it's much better and can't be compared to my old TN-panel that would be barely watchable if I lowered my head a bit

Worth mentioning is also that I'm a person that prefers to sit very closely to the screen as I find it more immersing especially during gaming. It makes the screen cover a larger area of your view. I'm finding though that dark areas, the bottom corners in particular, easily get a greyish tint over them when I sit too close (a little over an arm's length away). I'd say you need to add another half arm's length to avoid this problem.

I wasn't sure what IPS glow meant exactly, but now I'm pretty certain. On a black background, there is a silverish tint covering the screen. As you move your head around, this tinting also moves on the screen. Very annoying if you'd be watching a black screen all day long, but thankfully, you don't.

Regarding the anti-glare "dirt". I didn't notice it at all in the first few hours, but then I began looking for it and now it's hard for me NOT to notice it. I don't have much to compare to because my old screen was a TN-panel HP W2207H with a glossy screen, so it had none of it. It's not noticeable while watching movies or playing games however, but hard to miss on any bright single color backgrounds. Other than that, it's not really visible.

I also wanted to see what all the overdrive fuss was about. While watching movies or playing games, I notice none of it. However, when you specifically look for it, you'll see it. I tried some strafing on my character in WoW, and if you'd look at a character and then strafe side to side, you'll notice that the whole character blurs out (and so does everything else really, but it's more noticeable on finer details). It's especially noticeable in their faces. Like I said though, this isn't noticeable unless you actually look for it. Playing normally it shouldn't bother anyone.

Other than this I find the color reproduction crisp and clear with more clarity in the dark areas compared to my HP W2207H. The image quality is definitely nice when you're not watching a single colored background. The viewing angles are obviously better even though I'm complaining.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the screen, but I honestly expected more from it. I just wish it didn't bleed so darn much. If it wasn't for the bleed I'd keep it without doubt, but for now I'm pretty undecided.
 
The problem is that many people here thinks that IPS is a panacea for all ills, your expectations are too high for a cheap monitor from Dell.
 
^ which picture?

edit: i see it now, but I think 10e has talked about the unreliability of that test in this thread.
 
So I recieved my U2412M earlier today, and I have some first impressions. Just keep in mind that I'm no expert on monitors, but I do have a tendency to pay attention to details.

My biggest disappointment is definitely the bleed. The bleed on the lower right is so bad it reaches out about one third of the screen both upwards and leftwards. The top left has an almost identical amount of bleed. The bleed in the top right is not as severe, but still pretty bad and almost meets with the lower right bleed at the middle of the screen. Only the lower left is free from backlight bleed. All in all, I'd say about one third of the whole screen area is affected by bleed. Rather terrible, I must say.

This is my first IPS-panel, and albeit being a budget one, I'm also somewhat disappointed at the viewing angles. It's a large improvement over my old TN-panel, that's for sure, but any dark areas of the screen will easily loose its depth and turn greyish only by moving to the side just a little bit. I don't even need to get out of my chair, as moving the head around is enough. Up and down wise though it's much better and can't be compared to my old TN-panel that would be barely watchable if I lowered my head a bit

Other than this I find the color reproduction crisp and clear with more clarity in the dark areas compared to my HP W2207H. The image quality is definitely nice when you're not watching a single colored background. The viewing angles are obviously better even though I'm complaining.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the screen, but I honestly expected more from it. I just wish it didn't bleed so darn much. If it wasn't for the bleed I'd keep it without doubt, but for now I'm pretty undecided.

My first impressions also when I got mine. The bleed/glow you described at lower right sounds very much the same that mine has, although on my screen the bleed that 'stands out the most' is at upper right corner. Though its hard to take a picture of it in the way you actually see it on the screen. Here's a shot how mine looks at close viewing distance in a dark room, and another one with more distance from the screen in a dimly lit room. Does this bleed/glow look similar to what you have on your screen?

I've been using it now for about total of 80 hours and the bleed haven't faded/changed at all. I'm currently waiting for a replacement from Dell.
 
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yikes, definite ghosting in the picture from the review

10e mentioned there was a similar amount of ghosting in the 'worst case' scenario (which interestingly is how that review pegged the image. Interesting there's no best case scenario pictures), and barely noticeable in the best case. Also if you read the paragraph directly below the image, they mention that the trailing isn't nearly as noticeable as you'd think from the picture.
 


Taken with my cellphone in almost totally dark room but it's pretty accurate to what I see in real life.

While there is a bit of back light bleed I don't think it's bad at all. Actually I didn't even notice it until I looked at the screen in complete darkness with black screensaver. I feel that may be the case with others as well BUT if you're not satisfied then by all means return or exchange your screen. Also I noticed that if I took a picture at the wrong angle it would accentuate the back light bleed.
 
My first impressions also when I got mine. The bleed/glow you described at lower right sounds very much the same that mine has, although on my screen the bleed that 'stands out the most' is at upper right corner. Though its hard to take a picture of it in the way you actually see it on the screen. Here's a shot how mine looks at close viewing distance in a dark room, and another one with more distance from the screen in a dimly lit room. Does this bleed/glow look similar to what you have on your screen?

I've been using it now for about total of 80 hours and the bleed haven't faded/changed at all. I'm currently waiting for a replacement from Dell.

Yes, that's what I'm seeing. My lower left corner is better, but I'd say all other corners are slightly worse on mine. I've noticed you can affect this bleed by pushing together the casing of the screen in the right places so I suppose it's a pane alignment issue (I don't know much about screens so this might always be the case?). Anyway, it's not really noticeable unless you have a dark somewhat color-uniform area in the corners.

I will send in mine for a replacement if it doesn't get better in a couple of days (which I suspect it won't, since yours didn't).
 
The Eizo 23" is a superior monitor to these Dell models. E-IPS can be good value if you want to watch movies, but the Eizo's uniformity, linearity and gradation indicate a graphics monitor which these monitors are not.

There are other pieces to this person's puzzle such as whether he is willing to settle with 1080p resolution, whether he can accommodate a decent viewing distance and of course price.

Source: owning EV23 and two dells.

In this case if you want the Eizo quality and you want 24" 16:10 there is the better/faster S-PVA panel from S2433W.

So if you like watching darker movies you will see more motion "smearing" on the Eizo.

Alternatively I'll agree with WhoisthisReally in that the Eizo will likely have better color calibration out of the box and superior image processing electronics.

This is why in this case a S-PVA panel is recommended instead of a cPVA.
 
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