Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor, Black
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Chris Cardinal
> 3 dayI was hemming and hawing back and forth between the U2412M and the U2410, its older brother. Im an amateur photographer and do a lot of post-production work in Lightroom and my old 2007WFP Dell 20 monitors werent cutting it in terms of display area. The 24s bring so much to the table and I love 16:10... Ill never go 16:9 as long as its an option. In the end, the insane cost difference to step up to the u2410 was just too much... even though it offers a wider gamut (which is really not something most people will notice, except perhaps in cases of professional print work) and some additional ports, it just wasnt worth it for me. (And I had heard rumors of weird pink/green issues on earlier models of the u2410 that scared me a bit). I will warn this: the u2412ms DEFINITELY REQUIRED CALIBRATING, especially if you want to use two side-by-side. I borrowed a friends Eye One Display calibrator to get them VERY close to each other... the available profiles online did nothing but blow out detail and low-end greys. The calibrated monitors are MUCH better and nearly imperceptibly off on whites. (The calibrator was 5+ years old, I think one of the newer ones would fare better.) These displays are also insanely low temperature. The 2007/2009WFPs which I have and use at work put out a fair amount of heat, but the u2412m uses half the power even at full blast and even after several hours, its very difficult to find any place along the back of the panel thats emanating heat in any measurable sense. This is great if you live in Arizona like me and already have plenty of heat to contend with during the summers. Over all, I couldnt be happier with these. (Except, perhaps, if they were pre-calibrated, but thats what the u2410 offers over the 2412.) Theyre a fantastic size, theyre amazing for gaming, photo finishing, video, and everything in between. I havent seen any ghosting or streaking or even any burn in or anything like that and the build quality of these displays is just great.
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K. Cuva
Greater than one weekOrdered a used Dell U2412 monitor from Discount-Computer and Im impressed. The packaging was top notch. The monitor was surrounded by plastic air bags sealed in a box and then within another box. It even arrived a little ahead of schedule. Ordered a grade B monitor. I was a little hesitant at first but figured Id take a chance. Im not disappointed. I was so happy with the purchase that I ordered a second one from the same vendor. No noticable imperfections when the screen is on. I use it for my home office PC. Imho the 16:10 aspect ratio should be the standard for all monitors.
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Ken in WA
> 3 dayPrevious to this I had run a pair of Dell 2005FPW / 2007FPW S-IPS monitors because I do amateur photography and some design work. Color shift and accuracy matters more than response for me, even though I do game sometimes. The Dell 2005 was dying, losing its sync until warm ....So I went off to find a new monitor. I really wanted a 24 this time vs a direct replacement for the 20.1. But I was worried that e-IPS was fine for most, but not someone who often returns monitors... ME. My 2007FPW works fine.. but after 5 years the CFL back-light is unable to reach the 120 luminance setting I use when calibrating.. besides that it is working well and I have been happy with Dell Monitors. Next year the other monitor will get replaced.. but not sure what size. So After reading all the great reviews and the few bad reviews.. I decided to go for it on the Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24 My concerns going in were: > LED Backlite being too blue > Coating being differing / worse than what I was used to > Viewing Angles being less than S-IPS I got it set up today.... WOW!! I love the larger screen area... The controls are easy to use and the labels on the screen that come up make adjusting it in the dark easy.. Even before I got it calibrated there were some things I noticed. The color was good and it didnt suffer from the intense blue tints some of the first LED backlit screens did which made me avoid them for years. I like the anti-reflective coating. If I put my face closer than 18 inches from the monitor I can see it, just like on my previous two monitors and then only on a white screen. I dont see it when working at my normal distance which my eyes are tuned for. (only distance I dont need glasses) I use a Pantone i1Display to calibrate my monitors.. It calibrated perfectly... and am thrilled I wish the old monitor was as bright... but both are now color-temp and contrast calibrated to almost match. As you see I gave it 5 Stars.. Here are the low points, (Note that on a $290 24inch IPS monitor these NITS are not worth more than a half star and I am rounding up. >E-IPS vs S-IPS Side to Side in landscape mode I see the same viewing angle. If I stand and look down, I see the new 24 dim faster than the older S-IPS so the top to bottom viewing angle is not quite as good. I probably wouldnt run ii in Portrait mode because of that. But I havent tried.. When I do I will update the review. >When Calibrating the monitor the contrast, brightness and RGB settings were a bit coarser than I would like. This means that while my eye couldnt see a shift in brightness or contrast.. the calibration sensor would jump from just below perfect to just above prefect on the sensed levels. But I got it where I wanted and the calibtation curve as good as any Monitor I have owned. Thats it so far. If you cant deal with the screen coating or sit the right distance from the screen and are used to clear screens.. I can see why some people might not like this.. But I have a Window and or a TV behind me in the office.. the Anti-reflective coating is a godsend.. I have NO reflections even from intense sources of light behind me. For Photographers and Designers looking for a good monitor on a budget, that can be calibrated this is a solid choice I have nor problem reccomending.(Though at this price is not able to display a full Adobe RGB Gamut.) Dell saved some money by dropping HDMI ( so did my HP notebook which also has display port) If neded the adapters are a couple bucks. A non-issue. But the image quality is top notch. And great for this use.
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Patrick Montelo
> 3 dayI bought two of the Dell u2412m monitors that Im using on a Mac Mini for software development. Since I look at a lot of code all day long, text clarity is very important to me. I also use the monitors for graphics design and editing, so color performance and contrast is important as well. I also work in an environment where I have a lot of outside light coming in (including a window behind my chair), so an anti-glare coating was critical for me. Based upon the reviews I read here, I was a little concerned about the anti-glare coating on the u2412m and how that would effect my ability to read text. At times my eyes have had a little bit of a problem focusing on the text, but my brain seems to be adjusting to them after a day or so. Its a little hard to describe, but its like my eyes initially focused on the anti-glare coating instead of the image behind the coating. When I have a problem focusing, if I blink my eyes, they seem to refocus. In any case, after a couple of days, the text appears to be easier to read and I seem to have less eyestrain after a long day of coding on these than I did with my old monitors (Acer AL2216W). The color performance and contrast of the u2412m is significantly better than my old monitors, these look very rich compared to the old screens. Out of the box I did notice that one of the monitors had a slightly warmer white color than the other. This appears to be due to how they are calibrated for the Standard setting at the factory. I found that if I switched the color settings on the monitors from Standard to Custom Color and set the R,G,B levels to 100 on both monitors, then the colors appeared to be nearly identical. I am running with the colors at 100, contrast at 75, and brightness at 20 which seems to be about perfect for me. I now have 3 monitors connected (two of the Dells, and one of the old monitors) and I can say that overall I am very pleased with the improvement. The new monitors draw less power too, about 18 watts each with my settings vs 31 watts each for the old monitors. So now I am thinking about buying a third u2412m... This may not be the perfect monitor for my needs, but at this price point it does seem like a good choice and Im happy with the purchase. The stands also have great adjustability and the extra usb ports are very nice with my Mac.
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matthew
> 3 dayThis is an excellent monitor with a sharp, clear picture. I like the 10:16 aspect ratio which gives a taller screen for the same nominal size. It is great for business applications. I worked in an office where we had at least 30 of this exact model and everyone really liked them. As far a I know, none had any issues with dead pixels or other failure and they were used every day. A super great feature is the very adjustable ergonomic stand. it is very solid and has very good range of height, tilt and swivel. I love the thin matt (non-shiny) edge boarder and the non-glare screen. A couple of reviewers have complained about the non-glare screen being grainy, but I have no idea what they are talking about. The picture and color are excellent. This has DVI and VGA inputs, but no HDMI which may be an issue to some. But the DVI will give you the same picture quality and if you want decent audio sound with any monitor you will need separate speakers and hook up any way. Very few monitors have built in speakers that could use the HDMI sound, and those that do are usually poor quality. I got the Dell AX510 sound bar to go with this and it fits great, looks good, took 5 minutes to easily install, and sounds good, (better than typical built in speakers). But if you want rich, high quality stereo sound youll need stand alone speakers.
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Mike Vande Ven Jr.
> 3 dayBought this monitor to be a second monitor for my MacBook Pro with Retina display. At first I was underwhelmed by this monitor, but now I like it, but dont love it. Note that my main two uses for it are photo editing and Diablo 3. The good: - The resolution is the big winner. The extra pixels over HD resolution is very nice - Has a display port. This makes connecting via thunderbolt easy. - Numerous options in the menus for tweaking display characteristics, and I like how it shows the power consumption based on what you choose - Very quick to start up/respond from sleep with no stupid logo screen - The IPS panel ensures no color dithering while editing photos The bad: - 24 inches is huge! I really wish this resolution was available in a 21 inch IPS. That would also have the side benefit of making this monitor sharper - I cannot get the colors/brightness to line up with the MacBook Pro display. I have spent hours calibrating using the OS X built in tool, and changing settings in the monitor. Looks like I will need to use a calibration device that supports multiple monitors.
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PRH
> 3 dayI have been using the monitor for only a week, so I can say nothing about reliability. It is labeled with a manufacture date of November 2012. The colors are very nice, perhaps a bit better than my older LCD monitors, but nothing spectacular like others have reported. The 1920x1200 format is very nice for CAD (computer aided design) work. There is no problem with the antiglare coating, as others have reported. It has a smooth flat appearance just like my two older Samsung monitors. I work mostly with white backgrounds (CAD and word processing) and I see none of the glittery effect reported in earlier posts. I have noticed no stuck pixels or the backlight bleed that others have reported. Perhaps these were initial production problems. I see no blurring, streaking or other artifacts when playing DVD movies or with action games like Flight Simulator X (running with all options maximized, 30 frames per second and 1920x1200 pixels). Other comments about the 8 ms refresh causing blurring are pretty silly, since our nervous system cant distinguish events shorter than about 20-30 ms. It is connected to an Nvidia Quadro 2000 video card through a DisplayPort cable. Pros: Easy setup. Windows 7 found it and automatically installed a U2412M driver. Height, angle and rotation adjustments are easy. Cons: It doesnt include a DisplayPort (DP) cable. It has black buttons on a black bezel (if there are labels, they are black too). They are essentially invisible under normal room lighting. I know this is the current silly fad, but it is just stupid! When I first turned it on it reported that there was no VGA cable connected and that it would shut down in five minutes. This was silly since it was connected with a DisplayPort cable. I pushed on the buttons (not sure which one because it is black on black) and eventually an input selection menu appeared. When I selected the DisplayPort input it switched and has worked correctly ever since. This should have been unnecessary - with only one cable connected it should have auto detected the signal. A minor annoyance is the way the power, video and USB cables attach on the rear of the display panel. When you rotate the display the cables are dragged with it and may hang on nearby objects. It would have been much better to attach the cables to the base and make the connections to the display internally at the rotation point. The display has two USB ports on the left edge. If used these cables stick out several inches making it necessary to have a lot of clearance. These ports cant be used in a multi monitor system with another monitor sitting next to the U2412M (or anything else close by). Also, if the monitor is rotated these cables are dragged to the top of the display high above the desk top. The side of the display isnt a good location for cable connections. Other comments: This is not a problem with the monitor, but when I installed it Microsoft Office had to be activated a second time. Just for changing monitors on the machine! Thats nuts! I dont know if Microsoft does this for all monitors. I knocked off a star because of the black on black buttons without labels and the failure to auto detect the signal. Otherwise it is very nice.
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L. Arcos
> 3 dayI am a gamer and regular computer user and for me this monitor is just perfect. When I built my gaming rig I had to purchase a new monitor for it so had to get rid of my 24 iMac with IPS 1920x1200 resolution, I said oh well Ill just get this 1080p TN (I didnt do my research on TN and IPS before purchase) panel with 2ms response time ( since it was for gaming this was what I was looking at the most ). Well 1080p felt weird and cramped and the colors were different than my previous display (iMac 24) I thought oh well Ill get used to it, but no I didnt so I did my research and found out about IPS and TN panels. Armed with new info I set out to buy an IPS panel that wasnt too expensive and with decent response time for gaming and of course this new panel had to be 1920x1200. After searching the web and reading many reviews online many people seemed to suggest this monitor and pointed to a review on TFT Central, after this review I was hooked and went ahead and purchased it. If anyone is in doubt about buying this monitor go check out the extensive review over at TFT Central. Set up: I have this monitor connected to a Mac mini through display port and my gaming PC connected through DVI. Both work great with excellent color and image quality, the monitor wakes fast from sleep and goes to sleep fast when device is off compared to my previous panel. Pros: e-IPS Panel (Beautiful colors compared to TN panels) Price (Compared to other IPS panels this is a steal) Resolution (1920x1200 is simply better than 1080p, for TVs 1080p is fine but for computer monitors those extra 120 pixels do wonders) No ghosting or input lag ( I didnt see a difference in input lag between this and my previous 2ms response time TN panel) Adjustable ( This monitors adjusts up, down, tilt, swivel, etc.) LED ( Thinner, lighter, disperses less heat, consumes less power ) Cons: Small light bleed on one of the corners ( This is very small and noticeable only when the screen is completely dark, this may vary with each monitor ) No HDMI ( This monitor does not have an HDMI connection, so if HDMI is a must for you this may be a problem) Final thoughts: This monitor is good for someone that wants a monitor to game and regular computer use with great colors and quality. The price is really good for the quality and resolution that you get and I would definitely recommend this monitor.
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scienceandcake
> 3 dayAfter shopping for a new monitor, this is my third that Ive ordered from different places, second of this model. Finally! Ive found something I can keep. The model I received from amazon is in 96% perfect condition. Stable base (which was actually why I had to return the previous model), no backlight bleeding, the monitor is very bright, so I have the brightness turned down to 30 or so, which is great. The IPS viewing angles are fantastic compared to other IPS displays Ive seen. The only problem is that when I have totally black screens, like end credits or something, there is the slightest vertical streak on far right side of the screen. its very thin, less than 4mm across, and the pixels are good, just slightly slightly greyed out? I never actually see this error unless its a totally black screen. Also, its so far to the right, Im never really looking over there. 24 is a pretty big screen! Other than that, its perfect. No issues in my 4 days of ownership. Oh, but I would advise to just go to the Dell site to get the drivers for the monitor, the disk didnt find the monitor when I put it in. Downloading the drivers works perfectly.