Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor, Black
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Jake
> 3 dayA few weeks ago an old ASUS 19-inch 16:10 Aspect Ratio monitor I had was dying so I decided to start looking for another monitor. I use my computer for work, audio-recording, general web browsing, and some gaming. The pros of this monitor are basically that it is a 16:10 monitor in a sea of 16:9 monitors. It had a good better than hd resolution at 1920x1200, and it was HUGE. The colors were very in-your-face making photos clear. Some of the cons are that it has only USB 2.0 ports in a hub on the monitor, a yellow tinting along the side that would not go away, and the glow (or backlight bleed whatever you want to call it). The glow is a big one. The previous monitor I had was a TN monitor. After considerable research I decided to buy this one since many of the reviews said it had good colors and good viewing angles because it is an IPS Panel. It did have good colors in the areas where the color wasnt tinted yellow. The left side had a strip of about one inch that was coloring everything yellow no matter what angle I moved to. However the biggest issue was the glow, which was present during the day (bright lights are in my home office so I can reduce eyestrain), but worse at night when everything was darker. Before I continue I will have to give a little background on myself. I suffer from Migraines with Aura, if you dont know what that is I urge you to look it up. Then look up a visual demonstration. I am extremely photosensitive and suffer from frequent headaches. All these issues are unrelated to my eyesight and I do get my eyesight tested regularly and have perfect vision. The major issue pointed out in the pictures is the Corner Glow. Reading the descriptions of other monitors and some input on forums I discovered that IPS glow is something that you have to live with. The problem is that I cannot live with it. At a distance the glow disappears...somewhat (the one with minimal bleed is the one taken furthest away from the monitor). I could place it further from my face, but in order to read the screen at a further distance I would need either computer glasses with a magnification or to set the text size a bit bigger. Setting the text size bigger somewhat defeats the purpose of having 1920x1200 monitor resolution as the enalrged text causes pages to take up just about as much space as a 1920x1080 monitor. Another issue is that I dont have a large enough desk to set my monitor more than 3 feet from my eyes. This edge glow was strange as I dont recall it ever being present on any of my previous monitors. If you research Migraine with Aura you will see that it causes a blind spot in the field of vision, the glow on the bottom edges triggered that as it washed out the colors on the lower corners. I can understand how some users can live with it if they dont have this issue, but I could not. Constantly seeing lighter spots in the corners of the screen was unacceptable. Another thing I must point out is that the monitor was bright as can be and lowering the brightness below around 90% caused this thing I learned to be called: PWM Flicker, which explains why I ended up getting a headache after using it for a while at 50% brightness. I dont recall where but it was noted that this monitor begins the PWM flickering at anything below 100%, if this is so I didnt really notice it until I hit 89% brightness. Also, I must note that lowering the brightness DOES NOT get rid of the glow. Some research on IPS Glow uncovered that pretty much the only way to avoid it is to shell out some cash for a high quality IPS Monitor with an A-TW Polarizer. So while the color was nice, Id rather have poorer colors in exchange for something that wont give me a migraine whenever I use it. I eventually went with a high-refresh rate, flicker free monitor that doesnt hurt my eyes or head. Overall: Your Mileage May Vary.
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K. Crawford
Greater than one weekI just purchased my 3rd one of these, to round out the display capability of my laptop/docking station. Theres a lot to like about this monitor: 1. IPS display. After having bought a traditional LCD and seeing how the colors skew across the screen, I knew IPS was worth the extra cost. Frankly, I dont have a real need for it, but its just nice to have a display with consistency. 2. LED backlighting. The market is flooded with these now, but when I first bought one of these a year ago, it wasnt the case and the premium for them was steep (except with this one). LED saves energy, which saves both money both from the wall outlet and from the A/C not having to evacuate the heat from the room. It also supposedly has truer whites, but I must admit I cant see the difference. 3. 16:10 resolution. Frankly, I think 4:3 is even better, but those days are sadly gone for good. I had a 1600x1200 21 tube monitor for years and it was great. Since most of what we do on the computer is vertically oriented, losing 120 vertical lines for a 1920x1080 / 16:9 display (the vast majority of displays these day) really stinks. By going 16:10, this is 1920:1200, so I didnt lose pixels in either direction. 4. Dell speaker accessories. I guess a monitor with built-in speakers would be OK too, but often the sound quality is pretty weak. With Dells AS501 (or newer AS510) speakers, they snap right onto the monitor and get their power from the monitor. No wall wart to deal with and the speakers go to sleep when the monitor does. They sounding pretty good to boot. 5. The built-in USB hub is nice too I guess. About the only warning Id give about this monitor, is that its dot-pitch is a bit low. The defacto standard is about 100 pixels per inch and this one is about 90 ppi. One could both consider this a plus (its a large display) and a minus if youre putting it next to other monitors. Originally I had this next to a laptop display which had one on the higher side of the defacto standard (I forget now but Im thinking about 110 ppi). Let me tell you, the difference made things cumbersome. When you dragged windows between screens, they physically change size, the text gets smaller/larger, etc. It was more disconcerting than I expected. It wasnt long before I managed to squeeze another $300 out of the budget to get a second one. So, if youre planning on setting up multiple monitors, be aware of the pixel densities and try to match them as well as possible. If youre buying all new ones, make sure theyre the same... and 2 of these is as good a choice as you can find in this size/resolution range. So I really like this monitor, and now that my new laptop supports 3 displays... Im adding another one. :)
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Nebula
> 3 dayMy vintage 2005-ish Samsung 213t (21.3) monitor quit abruptly on me a month ago, so I had to scramble to get a replacement. I had been very pleased with the Samsung, even though it was a TN type display. The IPS-panel Dell U2412M doesnt disappoint. My, how the technology has changed! Im a photography hobbyist, and I fuss a fair amount over color fidelity, sharpness, detail and the like. However, I cant afford more than a basic investment in digital photography. I use a pretty ordinary Canon photo printer, and Ive been fairly satisfied with the look of my images on the Samsung and in print. With the U2412M, images are represented even more accurately on the display while maintaining quality output from my printer. The U2412M is designed to be highly compliant with the sRGB color space, which is appropriate for my purposes. It doesnt even attempt to handle the much wider Adobe RGB color space, but that range of colors isnt supported online anyway. In fact, unless I were to output my photos primarily to a high-end printer with an Adobe RGB gamut, that capability would be wasted (and so would my money). Heres what else I like about the Dell U2412M: * It has a full 1200 pixels of vertical, like my Samsung. I find vertical screen space to be exceptionally valuable, and was shocked to discover that few reasonably priced monitors these days have more than 1080 pixels. I dont need a wide movie screen on my desk; thats what my TV is for. * Its EPEAT Gold Energy Star compliant. This is hard to find in any large monitor. * Its screen is anti-glare. I dont understand the current obsession with glossy surfaces; the reflections on such monitors are incredibly distracting and make photo editing difficult. And no, the anti-glare surface doesnt bother me at all. * Its amazingly lightweight. Maybe this is normal these days, but the old Samsung weighs three times as much. * It has all the positioning adjustments you could want (tilt, swivel, height, and landscape/portrait pivot). Especially useful is the height adjustment: I can push it down to 1 from the desktop, so I dont have to tilt my head back to see through my progressive lens glasses. And my one caveat: The U2412M claims to have a 178° viewing angle both vertically and horizontally, but in practice, it doesnt seem to be even as wide as my old monitor. Outside a cone of about 90°, the brightness falls off significantly. This hasnt really been a issue as I sit pretty well centered when I use it. Your mileage may vary. Update: Upon further consideration, I think I overstated the viewing angle issue. The display exhibits some minor brightness variation when I move well off-center, but it remains quite impressive. Practically speaking, I dont think youre likely to find this a problem.
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Casch
> 3 dayExcited to get the new monitor I had it plugged in within the hour. Nicely stylish, and very sturdy I was sure I had made a good choice. I am a photographer and while on a budget I DO need something that is accurate that I can count on. This is my third IPS monitor and is replacing an excellent (expensive) 8 year old 16 X 10 24 HP that gave out. Here is how it fared. Turning it on I LOVED the extra real estate that a 16 X 10 monitor gives the viewer. I couldnt imagine editing photos with anything less. Viewing angles are great. When sitting at a dual monitor setup you are never really lined up to be square with either monitor. The wide viewing angles offered by IPS are fantastic. Plenty of ports on the back and side for anything you are doing. I just use the DVI so I didnt test anything else. Convenient control placement. But, I noticed (side by side) that the colors did not match my other smaller IPS monitor (LG). Not even close. The LG took a little tweaking to get it right so I began to set it up. The LG was close out of the box, in fact, all I had to do was turn down the brightness. Not so the Dell. The colors were all slightly off out of the box. First of all it comes too bright... this is common and a simple test to achieve the proper brightness is to peer at a gradient and adjust till it you see the differences between black blacks and white whites. You can accomplish this by visiting any number of sites or by using the Windows excellent Advanced Color Management tool in control panel. Once that was done I still had colors that were off and dull compared to what I was used to. Plugging in a Spyder 3 finally did the trick. It took the Spyder about 5 minutes and the screen colors matched (very close at least). Colors are bright and seem to be accurate. When something is printed at the lab I use it is right on so.... Here is the conclusion. While much better than any tn monitor it still falls short of the full IPS experience that I had from my previous IPS monitor (I assume that much of this is caused by the 6 bit panel instead of 8 bit). It will have to do for now as I cannot afford the $1000 replacement cost of the previous monitor. It is sturdy and built well. Controls are well thought out and easy to navigate. Lots of connectivity. All things that add to its value. Is it worth its price, absolutely. Does it it rate 5 stars unfortunately not. PROS 16 X 10 Native format (lots of extra real estate from a 16 X 9) Lots of ports- 1 DVI-D with HDCP, 1 DisplayPort 1 VGA,1 USB upstream port 4 USB downstream ports, Dell Sound bar Budget priced for an IPS Great wide viewing angles Accurate colors once calibrated CONS Factory Settings without hardware calibration are going to be disappointing. 6 bit color not 8 bit so to achieve 8 bit color it needs to dither. (I knew this before I ordered but if you didnt...) only standard RGB gamut not wide gamut. Even then falls a little short of the full RGB spectrum
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sethestate
Greater than one weekThe monitor itself is awesome when you consider how little it costs. But setting it up was a real hassle for me. Granted I am running a 5 year old system, but it is a Dell computer, running a Dell monitor, replacing a Dell monitor... how hard should that be? Anyway, to resolve this, I needed to address two problems (at least on my machine). First, when I bought my PC, it came with a graphics card that only has DMS-59 pin as a digital connector. These things are outdated. So I needed to buy a DVI-D to DMS-59 connector. Mind you, the stupid DVI-D connector is also outdated, but the regular DVI-I that is popular today also works with it. I just wish the Dell tech knew this and told me so. Second, I needed to unravel the driver puzzle. Basically my graphics card does not have a driver that supports Windows 8.1 (which I am running). I looked into buying a new graphics card, but then would also have had to update the power supply... which basically costs as much as a new computer when you add all this stuff together. So I finally learned that you can use the old Vista legacy driver... and now it works perfectly. I hope I never have to go through that again, but at least I can say the monitor works great. Now I just have to get used to the idea of moving my mouse from one side alllllll the way to the other :)
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Thelma Meyer
> 3 dayUpdate on monitor 2-12-2014 Raised monitor from 1 to 4 stars! Miracle! The computer was repaired by HP - at first the repaired computer didnt SEE the monitor! (kept going into sleep mode) THEN I tried connecting it to DVI port (instead of DVI to HDMI) Still didnt work - then I just started hitting keys on my keyboard, turning mouse on and off - and.... voila! The monitor was live! (Dont know if the change of port had anything to do with it -- maybe banging the keyboard?) Worked splendidly for a few days - then I thought to reconnect my 2nd monitor (which I had disconnected from DVI) to the HDMI Well... the screen started to flutter when I started a PowerPoint slideshow. This is just what happened before the monitor slowed down to the point of uselessness. I immediately disconnected 2nd monitor -- dont understand this at all! The screen still flutters when I start slide-show -- but everything else is working beautifully. Keeping fingers crossed and praying. I really do love this monitor! previous 1-star review. ............................. It seemed to work all right for about a week. Then my computer, became erratic, slowed down, and became unusable. It was under warranty to HP - they put in a new hard drive. Now the monitor will not come on at all. It goes right into sleep mode. I have 2 other monitors that work as soon as I plug them in. Not this Dell. I am totally mystified. And so disappointed that it is too late to returrn..
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KO
> 3 dayI have never been a fan of LED monitors. Sometimes the brightness can be harsh on the eyes, but I was pleasantly surprised when I received my new Dell U2412M. My eyes were pleased with the IPS Display. The 24 size is perfect for a desktop. I was impressed with the stand and its adjustability that alone is worth the price, most monitors in this price range have a cheap plastic feel to them, not the Dell. I am just an average user who touches up some family photos, surfs the web. Out of the box, the image quality is fantastic and was easy to set up. There is no HDMI input on this particular monitor, you will have to use a DVI adapter if your PC does not have a DVI plug. For the price Amazon sold this for I can live without an HDMI input. Bottom line, I saved a lot of money and got a Dell U2412M, Best Buy could not even come close to this price. Read the reviews, a lot of people here with technical knowhow explain in detail what is good and what is not so good. I have no buyers remorse....I actually want to get a second one.
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Dave A
> 3 dayAs a long-time techie, Ive had a problem with Dell since their inception. Bad service, bad products, everything you wouldnt want in a company. Ive always avoided their products over the years. So it pains me to say that these monitors are top notch. The manufacture date is Sept 2012, not some random month last year. Initial product launch was early last year, so I was hesitant of getting something that has been sitting in a warehouse for almost two years. Five stars to the seller for this. The reviews here are what swayed me (that and Dell uses the same panels as other big names like Sony/Samsung, etc.), so I figured...the resolution is what I wanted, the price point is what I wanted, and looking at unrelated Dell products, the reviews have gotten a lot better, so I went for it. Crisp, clear, no dead pixels, they look fine out of the box compared to my two 24 Samsungs that Ive calibrated. Ill still have to go over the settings, just like any other monitor. Bezels are clean and slim. Solid construction throughout. Packed well. I bought two, and mounted them on a dual monitor stand I picked up [...] (5 stars to this product too, by the way) These monitors are for programming, so the 8ms G2G is not a concern. No photo/video editing, no games. _________________ Update 2/16/2013: I bought these last November, and Ive had them on 24/7 (with sleep mode). Every day I look forward to working on the computer with these monitors. They are just fantastic. Im adding a user-photo to show them installed.
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Him
> 3 dayI have two of these. One I bought from Dell. The other from Amazon 3 years after buying the first one. The first one is revision A03 and the new one is revision A01. It has the yellowish tint that people are complaining about in various places online. They are sitting side by side and its fairly noticeable. The thing is I dont know if I like the blueish tint of the A03 or the yellowish tint of the new A01... Im not too sure what to do. But know that it seems fairly consistent that all the current crop of Dell U2412M monitors have a slight yellow tint to things that are supposed to appear white. Its hard to fix this with any of the settings Ive tried so far. UPDATE: Ive decided to keep the second one with the yellowish tint because Ive found some pretty easy settings to make the color pretty closely match my the older A01 version I have. Go into the color part of the monitors menu system and set it up to have custom color, and then adjust the Red and Green settings each to 93, leave Blue at 100. Then set Brightness to 95 and Contrast to 70. This has done it for me. The two versions I have of this monitor are now close enough in color that Im going to keep the new one from Amazon. The yellowish tint is enough of a tint that its visible even if you dont have two of these monitors like I do. Ah, if all my problems were this bad I would be living a truly divine life.
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Danny
> 3 dayI work in I.T. and this probably one of my favorite monitors I have ever used. The Dell UltraSharp screen, while not 4K, makes it easy to read text off the display without easily detecting pixels. The colors on this monitor are fantastic. Plus, the 16:10 ratio makes it easy to see more of documents at once. The build quality of this monitor far surpasses typical monitors you would purchase. And, of course, the easily adjustable stand is fantastic. I find writing programs so much easier in vertical position, which can easily be done with this monitor. Additionally, I find myself changing the height and angle throughout the day as my activities change, relieving my back and eyes from strain. The only downside to these monitors is that they do not have HDMI inputs. However, the DVI input can be used as an HDMI port with an HDMI to DVI cable, so this is not a major downside. The monitors also have a 4-port USB hub, VGA input, and DisplayPort input. I recommend these monitors to everyone I work with, and bought 2 for my mother. Amazing product.