Dell U2311H: E-IPS, Full Adjustments, and DisplayPort
by Chris Heinonen on September 27, 2011 12:20 AM ESTBrightness and Contrast
When pushed to its maximum brightness level with maximum contrast, the Dell U2311H can manage to put out over 300 cd/m2 of light from a pure white screen. This is far brighter than most of us would like (other than perhaps Brian), and it does result in very washed out highlights, mostly related to the contrast level. This isn’t a level you would work at often, but if you needed to because of direct sunlight, the Dell could manage that. When keeping the contrast a maximum but reducing the brightness down to 0, the light output drops down to just over 100 cd/m2 whichis much easier on the eyes.
At these same brightness and contrast levels, the light output of an all black screen is 0.303 nits with max brightness, and 0.098 with minimum brightness. I should note that these measurements were taken with an Xrite i1DisplayPro meter instead of the i1Display2, as it does much better reading lower levels of light output. Unfortunately ColorEyesPro does not support this meter at this point and so I couldn’t use it for the whole calibration.
Looking at the On/Off contrast ratio that this creates, we see that both of these produce right around 1,000:1, so you can choose your preferred light output and you will likely get a contrast ratio right around the same level.
Brightness Uniformity
With 200 nits of light output in the middle of the screen for a white image, the light output drops as low as 161 nits on the left edge of the screen, while staying close to 200 nits on the right side of the display. I’m not sure if it is the layout of the backlights or something else causing this, but the light output is clearly less on the left side of the panel.
With a black screen, we see the same results. Light output is again higher on the right side of the display and lower at the left, with the upper-right corner being the brightest in both cases.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
65 Comments
View All Comments
Flunk - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
I have one of these, bought it for $220 CDN on sale a month or so ago. I haven't had any problems playing FPSes on it but your mileage may vary.I've been impressed by the build quality and the picture is better than any other monitor I've ever had, if you're not a graphics professional (then you need a 8bit panel) it's definitely a step above.
JoeTF - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
Uhm.Input lag is THE MOST IMPORTANT measurement with e-IPS displays, that are notorious for 30ms+ delays.
Skipping it is like skipping sequential read tests in hdd review.
gevorg - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
This is a previous gen monitor, plenty of reviews on the web. Input lag was measured here:http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2311h.ht...
enterco - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
I own a Dell U2311H, I can't see any noticeable lag. Anyway, the pixperan tool (pixel persistence analyzer) test image looks much better on this display than on my old TN display.ckryan - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
Chris,Are you the new display intern? I too inquired about the highly coveted display internship, but sadly had been beaten to the punch. Ironically, I too am named Chris, and since I had just purchased a new U2311H from Dell, was planning on doing a "review application" of it.
It's a good monitor for the price, but mine has some less than desirable characteristics. However, the input lag is quite low as verified by a couple of other reviews (and my eyeballs), and I only find the off-angle darkening slightly annoying. It calibrates pretty well for me and has excellent black levels for an IPS variant -- that, plus I find CCFL to be generally superior. Just because a display is LED backlit doesn't automatically mean it uses less power -- it's often the case, but identical models that vary solely by backlight use similar amounts of power. Finally, I haven't noticed any artifacts from the 6 bit + AFC implementation, which is a bonus. Overall it's pretty good, but now it's kinda close to the U2412 in price now that it's out, and it looks like a better way to go if you're a fan of 16:10 (and who isn't?).
Anyway, congrats and I'm looking forward to your future reviews.
Daniel Egger - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
> that, plus I find CCFL to be generally superior.CCFL die! Not dead yet? Damn...
The only problem with LED is that companies can't get their stuff together and do it properly and thus we still see crappy LED backlit displays while the high end still tends to use the more known CCFL backlight.
But since NEC recently announced a (what will hopefully turn out to be a nice) LED projector I'm getting my hopes up that we will eventually see a high end LED display from NEC as well. Once that happens HP and Dell will follow suit and we'll have an avalanche of professional grade LED backlit displays coming for us...
Pessimism - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
CCFL needs to die. They may look nicer out of the box but give them a year and they all look weak and yellow. The manufacturers use the cheapest tubes they can find with poor quality phosphors that rapidly loose brightness and color balance. At least LEDs remain consistent for longer, with those you deal with the clear plastic lenses yellowing, again because of poor quality materials.jecs - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
Don't hope CCFL to die too soon or we may get a lot of color precision problems. CCFL may seem old tech but it still produces more neutral color across the spectrum than a white only LED lamp. The downside is more power consumption and heavier units but it is not as important for professionals as it may be for consumers.On the other hand high end LED screens found today on very expensive TVs or monitors uses 3 LED color matrices for each color (RGB). So don't expect anything true LED for desktop use anytime soon.
softdrinkviking - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
jecs +1LEDs still have a long way to go.
they look washed out without being as bright as a CRT. (to me)
alanwong - Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - link
They're selling the U2312HM here in Australia, assume that means the U2311H is out of date?