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Jason K.
> 3 daySo after weeks of watching, I went ahead and bought two of these monitors for 265 when a resaler (Triplenet pricing) was having a sale. First impressions were good, the monitors had a simplistic, utilitarian design I especially liked and the stands seemed solid (Im using a monitor stand so I cant comment on those). Upon installation I was blown away by the display quality and viewing angles. The rumors are really true about these monitors; even though its only a 78% gamut display, you wont know the difference unless you are a professional who relies on color accuracy. The display will blow you away if you are coming from a TN panel. I spent the afternoon looking at photos, admiring the quality of the color reproduction. Its actually much similar to getting a new pair of glasses. Also Id like to add that the input lag is minimal and I was able to play FPS games with no ill effect. However, a month into the purchase I noticed a small plastic plate in the rear had popped out. I had to use a knife to lift the plastic to pop it back in. It hasnt set properly and still pops out slightly. Now, I dont know if this was a defect or a shipping problem, but it is an issue that I believe has to do with the cheap plastic construction used on the monitor. On a related note, the (Amazing) panel feels cheaply constructed on a physical level. When you push in the panel, it has way too much play, going a few millimeters past its point. Now I know these seem like trivial, superficial problems, but I expected much more from such a highly regarded monitor that costs about $280 average (at the time). Overall, Im happy with the monitor, but just beware of what it really is before you dive in. An entry-level monitor with cheap materials with a great display. The construction is really just a minor gripe, and monitor does its job well, so Im giving this 4 stars. Pros: Great colors and viewing angle (The 178 degree viewing angle makes portrait orientation a possibility) Intuitive menu makes for easy, quick adjustments USB hub is very useful Comes with most cables, but not DisplayPort Clean, modern design Cons: Flimsy construction, a lot of play in the display Cheap materials used Anti glare causes some discoloration at certain angles (very, very minimal) EDIT: Just noticed the damaged/defected monitor also has a yellowish tint compared to the other one. I never really noticed until now, dropping a star for that. For me, the color wasnt such a big issue, but for many others, it might be huge. Again, take this monitor for what it is: an upgrade for the average consumer, not for professional creatives who rely on color accuracy. Update from 9/13/2014: Got a chance to use the stand, and I can certainly say that this monitor is rugged where it matters, although there is some shaking if you are typing really hard. But, for 99% of the time, you wont even notice it. Aside from the stand, everything is working as it should, and Ive had no problems except for this tiny bright dot that only shows when there is a white background. Not a huge issue but its there... so I stand by my original rating of 3 stars. The value is there, but Dells QA could use some work.
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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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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.
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I. S.
> 3 dayI bought this monitor for use with photo editing. I calibrated the monitor right away using a spyder pro. The difference was small, but now it is accurate. After I started using this monitor, I realized my eye strain was much less than original LCD screed that came with the computer. This monitor is also very sharp, you can see amazing details. After using it for 4 months Im very happy, my only down side is, the plain white (websites etc.) look a bit warm, before and after calibration. Also on right edge and left edge there is a little color shift (pinkish on the right greenish on the left) when looking at plain white screen, (browser, word document etc.) The shift is barely noticeable, and you really have to look to see it, but its there. It doesnt interfere with my editing at all, but its worth bringing up, and hence 4 out of 5 stars. Anti glare coating is amazing, and I have not experienced the frosted look if you crank up the brightness all the way, which is way too bright for any situation, that is the only time I see a bit of frosted look Overall I would highly recommend the monitor, colors are sharp crisp and vivid. Sharpness is amazing, and there is very little eye strain when using it. If it werent for a very slight color shift from left side to right side of the screen (Im very picky like that) I would give the monitor a solid 5 star review.
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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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Keegan Jacobson
Greater than one weekGreat monitor, IPS is on point. The LED on the monitor can be a little bright if you keep them in a dark room, but its easy to fix if it bugs you. The colors and quality are one of the best Ive ever seen. Ive been running three of these together for a few years now, and I believe it to be a problem with my AMD graphics card at first but I did have some issues driving three of these in Windows. Being a 1920x1200 monitor, almost everything worked just fine but occasionally you do come across a game that stretches or doesnt look right even when proper display settings are in place. Thats probably because almost everything is built for 1920x1080, youll definitely run into times where you find wallpapers for 1920x1080 wallpaper sizes only but its not so much of a problem now. I would have given these monitors 5 stars but there are just a few quirks that leave me unable to do that. There is a tiny tiny bit of latency being that it is IPS and that cant really be helped being that this an IPS monitor so you should know what youre getting into. If I reviewed this a few months ago I would have considered the 5 stars, but it seems that Dell has really dropped the ball with something regarding these monitors because there is an issue with Windows 10 (possibly just the November 15 update and beyond) regarding EDID support I believe, or something where this monitor gets knocked into 640x480 and the only way to fix it is to unplug the power for a bit and replug it in. It sounds like user error but if you search for this monitors model number followed by Windows 10, youll see people having issues with this specific monitor. I believe the 12 in the model number (U2412M) designates 2012, as in this is a 2012 model - so keep that in mind that it appears that Dell has several successors now. For its time it was a star and must have, but that time has moved on now.
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untrioctium
> 3 dayPros: + Nice 1920x1200 resolution. I dislike the recent trend of making computer monitors 16:9 instead of 16:10. + Extremely bright on full blast + Great and sturdy adjustable stand with a 90 degree swivel (great for coding or web use) + Anti-glare coating isnt as noticeable as other reviewers claim + Matte screen. I hate glossy screens with a passion. + Convenient USB ports on the side and back + Have yet to see a single dead pixel. + Decent response times. Ive done some gaming on it and havent noticed much (if any) ghosting. Cons: - Backlight bleed. Mine isnt as bad as others Ive seen, but its still there. Lowering the brightness seems to help; you can turn it down to zero even and still have a bright picture. Its really only noticeable if the entire affected area is black. Im not too upset with it, and I dont feel like playing the RMA lottery to see if I get a better one and then end up with a worse one instead. The bleed is my only real complaint. If youre looking for a quality monitor in an affordable price range, I would definitely encourage getting this. Dells monitors have always impressed me with their quality, and a cheaper off-brand monitor wont look as good (even if its the same actual panel).
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RV
> 3 dayI am a professional photographer and look at 100s images a week. My previous Samsung burned out and I needed a monitor for clear and and good resolution but at a budget price. I looked and after reading the reviews of monitors, the Dell 2412 certainly surpassed all the others out there in the below $300 price range. I received the monitor ( even sooner than Amazon estimated...Thanks Amazon) opened it and had it up and running in under 30 minutes. It came right up and looked great right out of the box. I did calibrate it later as it did need some tweaking but nothing dramatic.The GUI is well positioned, very easy and logical to use. The stand I think is certainly strong enough and it rotates, extends, and tilts very nicely. Found no bad pixels and the 1980X1200 is extremely nice compared to the 1980X1080. Overall I am VERY Satisfied. I gave it a 4 vs. 5 star because it had no hdmi input or 3.0 USBs. Actually very minor but just thought it should have had a hdmi for an IPS panel. The DVI output is just as good as an hdmi unless you need sound or you have a much larger display. Read a few complaints about the stand, bad pixels, too bright, poorly made, unattractive material used for the matte screen causing an unpleasant look.................but IMHO this is an excellent monitor for the price and I experienced none of shortfalls others have mentioned. I am running Vista and this review was written after only 3 days of use.
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James
> 3 dayI was a bit hesitant at first (I am a student and have a limited budget), but decided my laptop screen alone was too small for what I needed to do (simultaneously webcasting, typing notes, and having reference material up). Since the monitor was on sale, I decided to give it a go. As my first IPS monitor, after about a weeks use at 8+ hours/day, I must say it is fantastic. The colors are rich, images and text are clear, and there is a certain vibrancy/clarity that is not apparent in other monitors I have used. The stand enables the height to be easily adjusted, and there are a variety of ports to connect your computer (refer to the description - this monitor does not have HDMI). I do not notice any of the abnormalities referred to by other reviewers such as significant yellowing or distortions due to the anti glare screen. Not to mention my desk is right next to a window, yet I can comfortably use this screen without glare problems. As a long time computer user (over 15 years), I must say this is the best monitor I have ever used and I would agree its probably the best in this price range. Also realize that this monitor has a 1900x1200 native resolution which is a plus (better vertical viewing space than the more common 1900x1080 monitors).
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J. Ireland
> 3 dayIve been trying to find a new monitor for some time now. I tried 27 monitors but in every case there was a problem with them - color desaturation, glass chips, LED bleeding, dead pixels, stuck pixels, defective ports, etc. Maybe I have terrible luck but is it so much to ask that a monitor actually fully work out of the box? Apparently so - I gave up on 27 monitors and turned to 24 monitors. Even in that range I had a real issue finding one that I liked (including other Dells) - until I came across this monitor. This is how monitors should be: sharp, clear, colorful, responsive, and with no defects. I liked this monitor so much I ended up getting three of them (and none of them had any problems). The picture is excellent and the colors are perfect. I havent noticed any ghosting when gaming and the viewing angle is great. The ONLY thing bad I have to say about the monitor is its lack of connections. Oh sure, it has DVI, VGA, and DisplayPort but I would have liked to have seen a second DVI port and/or an HDMI port (I hook in a Windows box and a Mac Mini). A very minor complaint, though. PROS: *Great Picture/Color/Response. *Everything worked! No dead pixels, no stuck pixels, no damage, no marks, no LED bleeding, no desaturation, great lighting and color balance - this was true on all three monitors. *Good menu system. *Excellent adjustable stand. *1920x1200 resolution is nice, 16:10 makes a huge difference. CONS: *Connections - would have been nice to have a second DVI port or an HDMI port; minor complaint though. This is easily one of the best monitors Ive ever seen, now if only there was a 27 version. I highly recommend it.