Dell 2405FPW monitor review

Having now spent the best part of a month beneath the shadow of Dell’s 24″ wide-screen LCD behemoth, the 2405FPW, I thought a mini-review might be in order.

Twenty four inches might not sound big for a monitor when compared a TV but bear in mind you’ll be sitting only a couple of feet away. It will take up most of your vision without moving your head. In fact RSI of the neck could become an issue here if you are not sitting far enough way to take it all in one go.

The 1920×1200 panel is sharp with no blurring or edge enhancement artifacting over DVI (unlike my Iiyama E511). Getting the color temperature right was a little fiddly and the menus themselves ok if you can get used to a horizontal row of buttons providing vertical movement. The 16ms response time is superb with no ghosting or other problems even in games such as Half-Life 2 DeathMatch.

The beast is equipped with DVI, VGA, component, composite and s-video inputs with the last three available as picture-in-picture on top of the DVI or D-Sub. This means that if you’ve got a video recorder, DVD player or satellite system or games console then the Dell will be happy to display those too.

It features a four port USB 2 hub and 9-in-1 media reader for pulling data off the numerous flash cards around. This turns out to be significantly faster than using a camera and it’s USB cable. Dell thoughtfully include both VGA and DVI cables in the box and the stand allows the monitor to be vertically positioned to your preference. It also has the ability to rotate the display 90′ from landscape to portrait however this feature seems ill thought out and the cables are easily caught up despite the stands attempts at cable management.

Overclockers are doing them for £599 ex-VAT this week and Dell have offers on all the time. Just check out the small business and home sections separately, as there are often offers only for one market. HotUKDeals sometimes have additional discount coupons too (and not just for Dell).

A real winner of a display packing a great quality panel and a whole host of features at a price below the competition even when at full retail price. For comparison (all are 1920×1200, 3 year warranty):

• Dell 2405FPW 24″ DVI/VGA/s-video/composite/component, 4xUSB2,16ms response, 1000:1 contrast, £580-£799
• Apple Cinema Display 23″ DVI, 2xUSB2 2xFW400, 16ms response, 400:1 contrast, £894
• Samsung SM-243T 24″ DVI, 25ms response, 500:1 contrast, £874
• Viewsonic VP231wb 23″ DVI/VGA, 16ms response, 500:1 contrast, £1034

[)amien