There are other reviews for this monitor out there that have far more depth than what I will write. The purpose of my review is to prevent someone from making the same mistake I made.
IPS panels seem to have a reputation for the best image quality, best color reproduction, and best viewing angles. The only downsides being higher price and slower response times.
I had been looking for a 20-24" LCD with good image quality and bought into that view. I purchased the Dell U2211H, which Dell shipped the next day from Tennessee.
For perspective on where I'm coming from, I've been looking LCD monitors daily for general purpose reading and viewing for over a decade. I am well aware of fonts, anti-aliasing, and general display characteristics but I am not a photo or video pro, so I can't comment on color accuracy, etc.
I've had the U2211H set up and been lookin at it for a week now.
Viewing angles are indeed superior to non-IPS panels. Pictures look very nice on it. But text...
Text looks downright awful on this monitor. It makes my eyes hurt to read from it for long.
I thought perhaps I haven't looked at a large panel for a few months, maybe they are all like this. But the 24" Samsung panels I worked with last year displayed text perfectly.
All the panels built into laptops I've used display text perfectly.
As I looked at it and pondered the disaster, I determined that text looks so bad because bright colors (think white background) look glittery on this panel. This makes the edges of fonts glittery, which makes for a reading headache.
I thought perhaps I have a bad unit. But I wasn't going to waste time talking to Dell reps before doing some more searching. And lo and behold, I am not alone! I came across this which also has references to related discussions:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1466914
Why didn't I find that before making the purchase?
Anyway, the point I hope to make here is that IPS panels, at least the bargain models (less than $800 perhaps?) are probably NOT good for reading text.
Anyone want to buy mine for non-text use?
IPS panels seem to have a reputation for the best image quality, best color reproduction, and best viewing angles. The only downsides being higher price and slower response times.
I had been looking for a 20-24" LCD with good image quality and bought into that view. I purchased the Dell U2211H, which Dell shipped the next day from Tennessee.
For perspective on where I'm coming from, I've been looking LCD monitors daily for general purpose reading and viewing for over a decade. I am well aware of fonts, anti-aliasing, and general display characteristics but I am not a photo or video pro, so I can't comment on color accuracy, etc.
I've had the U2211H set up and been lookin at it for a week now.
Viewing angles are indeed superior to non-IPS panels. Pictures look very nice on it. But text...
Text looks downright awful on this monitor. It makes my eyes hurt to read from it for long.
I thought perhaps I haven't looked at a large panel for a few months, maybe they are all like this. But the 24" Samsung panels I worked with last year displayed text perfectly.
All the panels built into laptops I've used display text perfectly.
As I looked at it and pondered the disaster, I determined that text looks so bad because bright colors (think white background) look glittery on this panel. This makes the edges of fonts glittery, which makes for a reading headache.
I thought perhaps I have a bad unit. But I wasn't going to waste time talking to Dell reps before doing some more searching. And lo and behold, I am not alone! I came across this which also has references to related discussions:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1466914
Why didn't I find that before making the purchase?
Anyway, the point I hope to make here is that IPS panels, at least the bargain models (less than $800 perhaps?) are probably NOT good for reading text.
Anyone want to buy mine for non-text use?
