Dell U2412M

I want one of these to supplement my current 24" 1920x1200 TN display. I bought the TN way back when, because i was doing a lot of gaming and needed the fast response. Now i care more about image quality. My concern lately has been that all the new displays are 16:9 which irritates me. I had a 1600x1200 display (4:3) in 1999, I refuse to have less vertical resolution than i did 12 years ago!
 
According to dell.no the screen will be available in Norway on the 4th or 5th of August.
I'm guessing this covers rest of Europe as well.
 
+1 curious to see how this screen is like.

I have a U2410, and I was considering buying another one used to replace a hp w2207, but now I should probably wait and get one of these to pair up with my "old" U2410 (and then later trade the U2410 for another U2412...).
 
haha, I have even older one, 2407WFP... either this x3 or U2311 x3... but this one got more pixel... I really want this to be good one.
 
I just ordered 2 to flank my 30" Dell. Poor man's eyefinity. Don't have the funds to buy 2 additional 30" ers. #firstworldproblems :(
 
I subscribed and I see everything else other than his review! AHH! lol. I cant wait to see the review
 
This just showed up on the dell New Zealand site with a price tag of $499 NZD.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Yes! Review soon is a must. I have this thing in the Dell shopping cart and I and so tempted to press the button. I am not a rich person, so I could never afford the 30 inch dell. This resolution and quality for this price is amazing. I've only ever heard and seen good things about Dell monitors.
 
Early impressions:

The box is a clamshell design. You have to open it, lay it on its side and pull the two pieces of foam out. The stand is not attached to the monitor which is abnormal for Dell.

The monitor clips onto the stand and there is a button on the monitor itself which releases the clips and thus the stand.

The screen is physically the lightest IPS screen I've used/lifted. It was almost as light as some of the lightest TN panels like the BenQ V2400W/G2400W, but construction feels solid and robust.

The box comes with all three cables + one power cord:

DVI-D, VGA and USB upstream (A to B) which is a nice touch.

Panel uniformity is quite good, in fact surprisingly better than I thought. White doesn't look like it's tinting left to right or top to bottom, and it might be that the bottom of the panel is a little tiny brighter than the top, but I will have to measure it tonight. No dead or stuck pixels. No apparent BLB (just IPS glow).

Anti-glare is not horrible. I'd say it's definitely better than the U2711. Maybe I'll go look at an Asus PA246Q in a local retail store to compare. Basically it's not a bother to me.

Default settings are 75 brightness and 75 contrast. The colorimeter says that is 249 cdm/2 whites with this setting, ie. too bright for most.

Contrast ratio to my eyes looked pretty high and the colorimeter and Lacie say that with a 249 cdm/2 white the black is .22 cdm/2 which is over 1100:1. I consider that quite good. Default calibration looks OK, and Lacie says average DE94 is 3.7 and worst is 8.4, but that's with no RGB tweaks or anything so I'll see if I can get that down before profiling and fully calibrating. Gamma is off at 2.0

The 6-bit+FRC implementation is not noticeable. Unless you have some sort of super oscillating laser vision and can see it, it looks the same as my LCD2490WUXi2 sitting next to it.

Input Lag seems low. I'll check it out on the splitter with the CRT Brick in comparison, but it is definitely ahead of my NEC which is 2 frames lag.

Strangely enough the colorimeter says the white is warm at 5916K which is one the warm side, but I think green is pushed up, because it almost seems a bit yellow to me.

Preset color modes are Standard, Multimedia, Movie, Game, Text, Color Temp. and Custom. More tonight

Aspect Ratio is 16:10, 4:3 or 5:4. No 16:9.

No input source button on the main menu, so you have to hit the menu button, then go Menu, then Input source.

Definitely sRGB gamut. The colorimeter and Lacie say it fully covers sRGB, almost exactly the same as my LCD2490WUXi2.


So far it seems like a decent screen. I will run more fun tests tonight, but it's real and it's here :)

Sorry no time for photos. Off to my super boring training class. Blah.
 
@10e:

Thanks for sharing your early impressions! May I ask how noticable the "IPS glow" is? Is it less or more visible than on other IPS monitors? If possible, could you please post a picture showing the screen from off-center angle when it's displaying a black image (with low room lighting)?
 
It's an e-IPS screen, I doubt it's very different as far as glow goes from something like the ZR24w.

Regarding the price announcement, glad they kept it under $400 MSRP.
 
Someone please comment on gaming if possible! FPS & RTS.
This looks like a good candidate to replace TN's if the input lag is not too bad!
 
10e said:
Early impressions:

Strangely enough the colorimeter says the white is warm at 5916K which is one the warm side, but I think green is pushed up, because it almost seems a bit yellow to me.
Click to expand...

Sounds quite good overall. I am thinking one of these would be a good companion for my 2490.

With regards to colorimeter not jiving with your eyes, have you considered the problem colorimeters have with different kinds of back-lights? They essentially need a correction matrix for each different type of back light to get accurate readings.

With the amount of screens you test/use, you might consider getting a spectrophotometer at some point.
 
10e said:
No input source button on the main menu, so you have to hit the menu button, then go Menu, then Input source.
Click to expand...

So none of those buttons on the front allow you to quickly cycle inputs then? That sounds a bit annoying with multiple screens. :/

Aside from that, all sounding good so far though. Would appreciate some pics when you have time. :)
 
wagoo said:
So none of those buttons on the front allow you to quickly cycle inputs then? That sounds a bit annoying with multiple screens. :/

Aside from that, all sounding good so far though. Would appreciate some pics when you have time. :)
Click to expand...

You should be able to customize the quick-access buttons. I've got a U2311h, and that one had the same "problem" of no input selection button. I found that I could change one of my quick access buttons to the input selection button.
 
Snowdog said:
Sounds quite good overall. I am thinking one of these would be a good companion for my 2490.

With regards to colorimeter not jiving with your eyes, have you considered the problem colorimeters have with different kinds of back-lights? They essentially need a correction matrix for each different type of back light to get accurate readings.

With the amount of screens you test/use, you might consider getting a spectrophotometer at some point.
Click to expand...

I did some other testing with brightness and contrast changes and the lowest brightness at default was 86 cdm/2. Alternatively the black point was .07 cdm/2 so the contrast ratio stays consistent through the brightness range.

I may look at the Eye One Pro or ColorMunki depending on what I find in reviews and after I sell some screens :)

I found this to be the case with the U2711 too which is CCFL, so maybe my eyes are at fault lol. Green changes on whites don't seem to affect color temp much according to my I1D2 from SVii or the one that came with Lacie Blue Eye Pro.

bencho said:
Someone please comment on gaming if possible! FPS & RTS.
This looks like a good candidate to replace TN's if the input lag is not too bad!
Click to expand...

I will take some responsiveness photos ala TFTCentral to show what I am seeing. I'll also see if there are any overdrive adjustments that can be made. Doubtful but I'll check.

So far input lag seems low so if responsiveness is good too I'd say it should be fine.

wagoo said:
So none of those buttons on the front allow you to quickly cycle inputs then? That sounds a bit annoying with multiple screens. :/

Aside from that, all sounding good so far though. Would appreciate some pics when you have time. :)
Click to expand...

I'll also check this out. That would be nice. All the menu buttons do the same thing on first press, which is, to give you the top level of the menu.
 
John2000 said:
@10e:

Thanks for sharing your early impressions! May I ask how noticable the "IPS glow" is? Is it less or more visible than on other IPS monitors? If possible, could you please post a picture showing the screen from off-center angle when it's displaying a black image (with low room lighting)?
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem any worse than other eIPS screens, though it seems less than the 2209WA did (going from memory).

The ability to show a low black level and lower the backlight alot seems to also reduce the white mirror glow typical of this panel.

I'll photograph this as well and compare it to both my 2490 and 2690, the latter of which has an A-TW polarizer.
 
10e,

looking forward to a more indepth review like you have done before. And to your title being changed to [H]ardOCP Monitor guru...
You might as well become one.
 
10e said:
So far input lag seems low so if responsiveness is good too I'd say it should be fine.
.
Click to expand...

Low as in, you cannot tell at all ? <10-15ms ?

Low as in, there is slight lag, but its not bad ?

If you get the chance to run it next to a CRT tonight I wud be ur gud friend forever.
 
Looks nice, awaiting to read your impressions regarding the response time and whether it can support refresh rates higher than 60 or not.
 
10e said:
The 6-bit+FRC implementation is not noticeable. Unless you have some sort of super oscillating laser vision and can see it, it looks the same as my LCD2490WUXi2 sitting next to it.
Click to expand...
I'm curious what your experience with the Lagom.nl black level and, in particular, white saturation tests are? I ask because I've had some quite nasty experiences with a few recent 6 bit panels which those tests show.

EG When you look at the white squares, in the saturation test, do you spot any weird flicker or artifacts (like visible dots or lines) present in any of the shades? I actually had to deliberately calibrate a recent 6 bit panel slightly differently because certain shades of grey had issues, and one of those just happened to be the same shade as the default Windows 7 scroll bar, meaning there were visible lines on the scroll bar of every window! So I'm hoping those kinds of problems are not an issue with the U2412.

Same with things like failing to render dark greys below certain values on the black test, where it may cause other problems (such as an inability to differentiate between other lighter shades or loss of contrast) when attempting to compensate.

Also I'm curious if any shades of grey in the Lagom pixel walk inversion test flicker?
 
PatK said:
I'm curious what your experience with the Lagom.nl black level and, in particular, white saturation tests are? I ask because I've had some quite nasty experiences with a few recent 6 bit panels which those tests show.

EG When you look at the white squares, in the saturation test, do you spot any weird flicker or artifacts (like visible dots or lines) present in any of the shades? I actually had to deliberately calibrate a recent 6 bit panel slightly differently because certain shades of grey had issues, and one of those just happened to be the same shade as the default Windows 7 scroll bar, meaning there were visible lines on the scroll bar of every window! So I'm hoping those kinds of problems are not an issue with the U2412.

Same with things like failing to render dark greys below certain values on the black test, where it may cause other problems (such as an inability to differentiate between other lighter shades or loss of contrast) when attempting to compensate.

Also I'm curious if any shades of grey in the Lagom pixel walk inversion test flicker?
Click to expand...

No flicker that I could see and no dithering/lines/dots etc.... I always do the black and white level tests and the gradient test and it all looks very clean to me.

My only small issue was that the white saturation test shades that were closest to white (like 250 and up) were a bit cold/bluish, but I will be playing with OSD calibration as well as Lacie Blue Eye calibration to see if that can be removed.

I did notice as I lowered the contrast to 65 from the default of 75, the white temperature became a bit closer to D65 so I'll see if this affects the black/white level tests.

I'll also try the pixel walk test and see what it gives, but based on what I've seen from later Dell screens it shouldn't show me any outstanding issue.
 
Does the monitor properly playback 24 and 25 fps video?
The 2410 could not do this according to a post in the 2410 thread. 30fps was fine.
Also wondering if "game mode" has less lag than the other modes and what the trade-off is, if any.

Thanks for taking the time.
 
Megalomaniac said:
10e,

looking forward to a more indepth review like you have done before. And to your title being changed to [H]ardOCP Monitor guru...
You might as well become one.
Click to expand...

I second the title change! 10e helped me choose my last monitor, which was over 3 years ago. The guy is a monitor genius!
 
Amaze said:
Does the monitor properly playback 24 and 25 fps video?
The 2410 could not do this according to a post in the 2410 thread. 30fps was fine.
Also wondering if "game mode" has less lag than the other modes and what the trade-off is, if any.

Thanks for taking the time.
Click to expand...

You mean, does it handle refresh rates other than 60hz? We already asked for that :)
 
Amaze said:
Does the monitor properly playback 24 and 25 fps video?
The 2410 could not do this according to a post in the 2410 thread. 30fps was fine.
Also wondering if "game mode" has less lag than the other modes and what the trade-off is, if any.

Thanks for taking the time.
Click to expand...

From a player, probably not, but if it's from a computer and we can force 72 or 75hz, then theoretically we should be able to without juddering because these are exact multiples of 24 and 25.

From a player because of the limited aspect modes of 16:10, 5:4 and 4:3 it won't look right anyway.

rmp459 said:
Low as in, you cannot tell at all ? <10-15ms ?

Low as in, there is slight lag, but its not bad ?

If you get the chance to run it next to a CRT tonight I wud be ur gud friend forever.
Click to expand...

I'd probably say the first one. It seems to be very responsive. My plan was to get the CRT and U2412M on the same VGA splitter and run the test from there. I believe my CRT can do 1920x1200 @ 60hz. It looks like crap but if I can see the numbers, that's good enough for me.
 
10e said:
From a player, probably not, but if it's from a computer and we can force 72 or 75hz, then theoretically we should be able to without juddering because these are exact multiples of 24 and 25.
Click to expand...

Ah I see. I wasn't entirely sure what the difference was but I understand it now. I don't suppose any standalone players let you choose higher Hz other than maybe 120Hz?
Also, can we force higher Hz over DVI or is DisplayPort needed?

10e said:
From a player because of the limited aspect modes of 16:10, 5:4 and 4:3 it won't look right anyway.
Click to expand...

This leads me to another question I been wondering. If a movie is 2.35:1 or any other aspect ratio above 16:9(which is 1.78:1 I believe?) does the actual movie image appear smaller on a 16:10 screen or is it just the obvious bigger black bars?
 
I believe you'll most likely have to use DP to get anything >60hz out of this display because of the bandwidth limitations of single-link DVI.
 
Amaze said:
This leads me to another question I been wondering. If a movie is 2.35:1 or any other aspect ratio above 16:9(which is 1.78:1 I believe?) does the actual movie image appear smaller on a 16:10 screen or is it just the obvious bigger black bars?
Click to expand...

Smaller than what? A 24" 16:9 screen? Yes marginally. If it is a 4:3 classic movie/TV show it will be quite a bit bigger on the 16:10 monitor. Naturally the monitor that best matches the aspect is going to be slightly bigger.

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?0739ba2d8981e73eeb2576e59a243e67

Click different aspect ratio links at top, to check image size.

I don't know why people obsess over such trivia.

Use MPC-HC and add a touch of zoom if black bars bother you that much.
 
Who's obsessing? I was simply wondering.
Thanks for the link.

Black bars don't really bother me that much but I suppose it would be an annoyance on a monitor with a lot of backlight bleeding.
 
Eh... I dont really understand what you guys talking about on last 2 pages. :s So is the monitor any good?
 
steal said:
I believe you'll most likely have to use DP to get anything >60hz out of this display because of the bandwidth limitations of single-link DVI.
Click to expand...

True, 16/10 displays are so rare these days I keep forgetting it is one :D and it does increase the bandwidth needed quite a bit I guess.

Anyway, smooth movie playback can also be achieved with 50hz or 48hz, so even if it doesn't support higher refresh rates it can still be good for movie playback if it supports lower hz.

hz >60 is, however, a HUGE plus for gaming. I'm really addicted to 75hz now that I got an IPS panel which supports it. Whenever a game or application reverts it back to 60 I can feel it instantly (actually, even on the desktop just moving the mouse around).
 
Amaze said:
This leads me to another question I been wondering. If a movie is 2.35:1 or any other aspect ratio above 16:9(which is 1.78:1 I believe?) does the actual movie image appear smaller on a 16:10 screen or is it just the obvious bigger black bars?
Click to expand...

The movie image is squeezed to fit on the screen, the black bars are the result of maintaining the original aspect ratio, so you're getting all of the pixels of the movie, but it appears smaller than it appears on a 2.35:1 screen.

Does that make sense?
 
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