













Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor, Black
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Brandon
> 24 hourI must have purchased six or seven of these exact same monitors over the past couple of years. I cant remember when I bought the first one, but I remember thinking that it was SO much better than regular 1080 HD. The extra pixels really make a difference (this monitor is 1920x1200 versus a standard HD monitors 1920x1080 pixels). In my last job, I had two of these monitors side by side along with my laptop screen. When I quit, I purchased one of these to go in my new office, and will be buying a second soon. I have bought these for employees, too, and they all love them. The monitor has several inputs, such as HDMI, VGA and DVI. It has a USB hub, and comes with the USB cable to connect to your computer. This is pretty convenient - I have my wireless keyboard and mouse plugged into the monitor, along with an external hard drive and other accessories. When I get to the office I just have to plug in one USB cable and Im done. Ive even thought about getting a USB audio adapter so I dont have to plug and unplug my speakers -- I know, Im lazy. The image quality on the monitor is good too. Not that Id really be able to tell, Im practically blind. But blacks look black, and it gets pretty bright too. I just use it for email, programming, web browsing and taking the occasional phone order from a customer, so it does what I need. It will also pivot to 90 degrees too, my old boss used that a lot for editing spreadsheets and documents. I tried it with both one and two of these monitors, and I didnt really care for it. But its a great option to have if you want it. Bottom line, these monitors are awesome. And since they keep coming down in price year after year, they become more and more of a value. Ive paid almost $400 for these and they go for as little as $230 now. Keep your eye out for a deal, they go on sale all the time! Highly recommended.
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Steven
> 24 hourThis review is for people who are trying to decide between the Dell UltraSharp U2412M vs Asus PA248Q. I was really stuck when it came to picking between the two as they are very similar and in the end I ordered both of them and was able to compare them side by side. The following reviews are from my personal experience comparing them side by side, not from any of the specs. Hopefully this helps someone make the right choice for them. The Dell: The picture quality is slightly better than the Asus. Colors are a little bit more rich and the contrast is a bit better on the Dell. Refresh rate seemed to be about equal on both monitors. The monitor I had did not have any back light bleed either although it did have a bit of IPS glow (a little less than the Asus) but thats expected. The anti glare coating was not a problem for me at all. The Dell also is missing several features that are nice to have. It only has DVI and VGA and the USB ports on the side are 2.0. One complaint I had with the Dell is the menu system. Your choices for calibrating the monitor are fairly limited and the menu system is not the easiest to use. The stand feels good and it is spring loaded so the monitor slides up and down very easily. The Asus: This monitor seems to me to be superior is every way except for the picture quality. The picture quality, while very good, is slightly worse than the Dell as mentioned above. A lot of people complain about back light bleed with this monitor but the one I received had no back light bleed. It did have a little bit more IPS glow than the Dell however. One nice part is that the Asus has tons of nice features such as USB 3.0, 1:1 picture scaling, it comes calibrated, has HDMI, has picture in picture and has measurement overlays on the screen. The menu system on the Asus is better than the Dell because it gives you a lot more options for adjusting the image and the buttons on the side include a little joystick that makes operating the menu very easy and nice. The Stand is very sturdy and nice although I think I preferred the Dell simply because of the spring. The anti glare coating on the Asus did not bother me at all and is basically the same as on the Dell. One other thing is that even though the Asus is shown with a red line on the bottom, it doesnt actually have it, its just black. Conclusion: The Dell has slightly better picture quality and the Asus has better everything else.
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Jeff
> 24 hourMost PC monitors these days are 16:9, because manufacturers can steal the panels from HDTV makers for cheap. The problem is 16:9 is a terrible aspect ratio for computing - reading a web page or writing a Word doc is not the same as watching a widescreen movie. The Dell U2412M is a 16:10 monitor - a much more usable aspect ratio for general computing. Those 120 extra pixels really do make a BIG difference. But you usually only see this in more expensive professional monitors because these panels are not used in any other industry. The volume is lower, hence the prices are higher - and that means theyre usually relegated to high-end displays. This is one of the few ~$300 16:10 PC displays, and its a good one. No, its not perfect - no monitor is, and let me dispense with the monitors bad points first. Like the (16:9) ASUS PB238Q I traded in for this, mine doesnt have perfect uniformity - one side of the screen is ever so slightly brighter (and bluer) than the other. This is a common problem for LCDs, but most people would never notice it, and even a nitpicker like me only ever really sees it on a solid white or light grey background. The physical look of the monitor is pretty basic and isnt going to win any beauty awards - it has that mid-90s Dell style, with the rounded edges and silver accents they used to use. I actually liked the physical look of my ASUS monitor better, with its industrial style sharp edges and corners and darker black plastic and panel. The Dell doesnt look quite as professional. But this consideration goes away as soon as you turn the monitor on and start using it. Most of these seem to have a little bit of corner light bleed and mine is no exception, though its not noticeable at all except on a totally black screen. The only time I ever actually see it at all is when watching letterboxed movies. The bottom right (coincidentally where the power LED is) is the worst offender on mine, although oddly it goes away completely if I look at that corner dead straight-on. But then Im looking at the rest of the monitor askew. Of course, as cheap as it is and unlike previous Dell UltraSharp monitors, this one is a 6 bit panel that uses interpolation to manage 16.7 million colors, and its only got an SRGB color gamut. Thats by design and not really a criticism, but just be aware of it if youre a photographer. Dell still makes other UltraSharp monitors intended for professionals - this isnt one of them, although its good enough for me and it should be good enough for anyone not doing critical photo editing. Now for the good stuff. As mentioned, theres the aspect ratio. Already explained that. This monitors also got an e-IPS panel and has basically plasma-like viewing angles - you can turn it any which way and it looks pretty much the same (except for the corner bleed on dark scenes). Its also *capable* of very accurate colors, although youll need to calibrate it to get them. Matte screen, and the anti-glare coating is not grainy or otherwise noticeable. Its perfect. No glare, no reflections, no cross-hatch, no graininess. Insist on nothing less than matte! The stand, while not the prettiest, is functionally among the best Ive ever seen. Its got height adjustment, tilt, side to side rotation and portrait/landscape rotation - you can basically move it on any axis! My ASUS PB238Q did this too (and so does the PA248Q), but theyre some of the only monitors thatll do all this in the lower price ranges. It also feels solid and doesnt wobble, although it does sometimes get a little off-axis on its own, and you have to sort of re-center it. Its BRIGHT! IPS panels are often a little dark - my ASUS actually looked dim at 100% brightness with my blinds open on a sunny day. This Dell ships set to 75% brightness and its already brighter than that. Most calibrated settings Ive seen for this monitor end up with a brightness setting of around 35%. Its DARK! The black level is pretty amazing for an LCD monitor. Granted, the corner bleed kind of screws up the consistency a little bit, but I tested the black level side by side with my ASUS and it was really no contest. The ASUS did have a more consistent black, with no corner bleed at all, but it was really more of a dark grey across the whole panel. The Dell does have corner bleed where some light comes through, but most of the panel is BLACK. That includes the area where youd be watching movies or TV shows. Overall Im cursing Amazon yet again for not letting me give half stars, because this is a 4 1/2 star monitor. Its not perfect and it doesnt have the wide gamut of the 2410 that preceded it, but then its also about half the price so its easier to overlook its flaws given all you get for the money. Find me a better 24 16:10 monitor at this price and Ill buy it.
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J. Ireland
> 24 hourIve 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.
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Kentucky Colonel
> 24 hourOkay, whats lacking - there is no HDMI input. Does that matter? Not really, I discovered. I had an Amazon basics HDMI to DVI adapter cable - and thats all it took - and since there are no speakers in the Monitor, an HDMI input would be misleading. I absolutely love having the extra 120 pixels vertical the 1920x1200 offers over the usual 1920x1080 of an HD screen. I can slide show HD pictures without losing the menus at top or bottom - same for movies. I can put two pages side by side on MSWord, and the whole text of both shows up. The anti-glare surface is like the other Dell AG screens Ive seen - and to my eyes, works as it should - I dont have to dim the lights to see what I want to see. The easy access menu allows me quick changes for brightness and contrast if Im in bright room. Did I mention the premium screen standard? Mine had no pixel problems whatsoever - but if it did, I think that even a single bright pixel qualifies for a replacement with the Dell Premium Screen policy. (Of course, you should double check to see if thats still in effect.) The stand - that is another premium feature missing from many other units - it slides up, down, pivots left and right, and will reposition to vertical as well as horizontal - all without having to release any catches or buttons. You just move it, and it goes. Theres actual metal in the stand, too! (Not just plastic.) Of course, the extra pixels and sweet stand wouldnt mean much if the image werent so gorgeous - but it is. I can see colors and details never before visible on my 17.3 laptop screen - and from angles that make it possible for others to see them as well. It even comes with VGA and DVI cables bundled. But, as I said, I use my HDMI to DVI adapter (which I did have to get separately), and it works without a hitch. I plug it into my laptop HDMI output, and the laptop has learned to turn off the built-in screen and automatically switch to the Dell. This is a model that has been tried and tested - and nothing is lacking, unless you want speakers.
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Artem A
> 24 hourHello everyone. So I just got this monitor. I just want to make it clear, that I am not a designer, photographer or someone who, for professional, or whatever other reason is very picky about colors and distinguishing between 96 and 100% blacks. I am a scientist and I mostly use this monitor in portrait orientation (one of the reasons I actually bought it is that it easy rotates 90 degrees -- and it indeed does that easily) for reading articles and writing. I use this monitor with my MacBook Pro connected via DisplayPort-MiniDisplayPort cable. This setup works perfectly for me, and I dont seem to be having problem other people described with this setup (as display not going to sleep, or going to sleep after couple of minutes of usage). Using Macs, I really like the view angle of IPS technology, and this display performs just as well as my MBP display. Color: Little hint for Mac users here, if you go to display setup (on the monitor itself), it does have a Mac profile (it is PC by default). This setup delivers exactly (at least to my eye) the same colors as my mbp display. People are also bothered by anti-glare coating on this display. I can understand that it may bother someone, but I am actually a fan of antiglare displays (even my laptop has a customized AG display) and I find this one very good. I also think that 2 usb ports are handy, but a card reader will be useful too, as other people have reported. Bottom line: amazing monitor if you want to read and type on it (cant say about other applications). Perfectly works with Mac laptops, being much cheaper than Apple Displays (more than 2 fold) and has antiglare coating, unlike apple cinema display. Very easy to set any position you want. That is it for now.
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Chris Cardinal
> 24 hourI 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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Dave A
> 24 hourAs 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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Marcos M.
> 24 hourI initially was in the market for a 27 IPS but couldnt seem to find one for a price I felt comfortable paying. I decided to go with this UltraSharp as it had good reviews from other photographers. I am very happy I did. The 24 is plenty of room for editing large images especially with a smaller monitor working in unison that I use for menus and tools leaving almost the whole 24 area available for the image. I know it may sound strange, as it did for me in some other reviews, but it really is nice having those extra pixels. 1200 vs 1080. I havent tried watching widescreen movies or anything on it so I cant speak to that formatting but for photo editing, web browsing or just any other general use its really great to have that real estate. The colors on the monitor were awesome right out of the box and I havent needed to do any adjustments or calibrations. The viewing angle on the IPS is awesome. I catch myself still moving my head around (to adjust for various brightness levels from different viewing angles on my old macbook pro) while editing only to find that I dont need to anymore. The flexibility of the monitor is great and easy to change and adjust. The USB port on the side is convenient. Editing on this display is so much more pleasurable than my old MacBook Pro 17. I can tell this is going to be a productive relationship.
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RV
> 24 hourI 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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