Dell U2412M - 16:10 IPS without Breaking the Bank
by Chris Heinonen on February 28, 2012 9:00 AM ESTDell U2412M Color Quality
With that long write-up out of the way, you might expect that there was something in particular to the U2412M that led me to explain our testing and results. There initially was but it actually proved to be a software issue; still, I thought the explanation on the previous page would be useful for everyone. For our uncalibrated measurements, I used the profile included on the CD, set the brightness to 200 nits, and then measured using the i1Pro meter.
Here we see a score over 7, which is about what we expect to see on a monitor straight out of the box. Comparing this to previous displays isn’t easy to do as most of those used the i1Display2, which isn’t nearly as accurate as the i1Pro is. Of course, all displays do better once calibrated, so I kept the brightness target at 200 nits, with a white point target of D65, gamma of 2.2, and minimum black target.
The errors for the Dell look very similar to what we have seen on other monitors. The color gamut is not AdobeRGB, so some of the patches are outside of the range for the display and can’t be rendered correctly. This leads to the spikes in the chart for blue samples and the higher average dE. We included the median dE number so you can see that the value drops quite a bit if we look at that. Everything other than blue is pretty good, and the grayscale is right around 1. So this is nice overall, though not perfectly accurate due to the color gamut and possibly due to the 6-bit panel. Now we will profile again to see if the results are similar with a target of 100 nits instead of 200 nits.
The error seems to rise a bit here, most notably in the grayscale that you would want to keep very neutral for print work. Most colors stay below 3.0 in their error (which is considered the threshold of being visible to the naked eye in motion) but again the blues are past that and errors would be visible to someone that was looking. For serious print work, you probably need to look for something that can use the full AdobeRGB gamut.
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ExarKun333 - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Dio you need to be spoon-fed? Dell makes more expensive IPS monitors. You just need to go to Dell.com to see them. U2410, U2711, U3011, etc.DParadoxx - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
I dont because I already own those monitors. The point is to give feedback for the site. Thanks!cheinonen - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Perhaps a comment like "What I'd like to see in the future are some reviews of 16:10 panels with true 8-bit or 10-bit IPS panels" would be more helpful, since when it just says "Finally a 16:10 review, but its eIPS.... no thanks." I have no idea if you want TN, 10-bit IPS, VA, 120 Hz, etc...kevith - Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - link
Behold, a fair and enlightened rich kid, nice.Touche - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
What are the disadvantages of eIPS?phantom505 - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
6 bit with tricks vs true 8 bit.... read 1st page.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Also, e-IPS has narrower viewing angle than S-IPS/H-IPS.Ratman6161 - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
My older U2410's are also 1920x1200. We also have a slew of Cheap Dell 19 inchers that are 1440x900 which, unless my math is flawed is also 16:10. Paging through their consumer oriented models you do mostly see 16:9. But if you check out the small business section (or corporate or Education\Government) you can find lots of 16:10 options.Death666Angel - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Did you read the first page? He never said this was new. He said it was where wide screen started and then faded away concerning the budget displays.Considering the price of this monitor, it is a rather new thing to find 16:10 with non-TN panel insides.
Ratman6161 - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
What I'm saying is that 16:10 budget displays never did fade away. You just have to know where to look for them and it will not be with the consumer oriented products. At my office we have at least 60 19 inch 16:10 displays. We got about half of those in mid 2009 and the rest in mid 2011 for about $139 each.