Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM 23 inch IPS LED Monitor

I have been looking at IPS monitors for some time, only affordable are Asus PA238Q and this. I bought this monitor for about 203£ including shipping from the merchant at Amazon.
It is a great monitor for everyday use. It is an e-IPS panel, which today is the lowest quality IPS panel. Still, I find this not a problem, since other IPS panels are at least twice as much expensive.

Picture Quality
Monitor has 16.7m colours, they are solid and saturated. Contrast is good. Black levels are not the best, especially when viewing from angle. Watching from a very short distances (70cm and less), it is possible to see between white pixels and this damaged the quality of the colour (this happens only with a very light colour, mostly white). It is great for gaming, people who say that IPS is not for gaming are wrong. At the moment I use this monitor for gaming on PS3, but in the future I will work with graphics applications (Photoshop etc) and I am sure it will perform well.

Performance
There is no ghosting, or at least no visible ghosting. Monitor finds connection instantly, turns into energy saving/sleeping mode as soon as I turn off the computer. I no longer have to check if the chair is in the right place, so I can see picture from the right angle. Monitor does not offer as good viewing angles as other type IPS panels, but it is fairly good (far better than TN).

There are no issues with tint or dead pixels with my panel, people used to complain about older Ultrasharp monitors which had slight tint issues.

Look of the monitor
Monitor looks great. It comes with buttons, not touch nonsense which many manufacturers use. The stand is top quality: functional and stylish. I was surprised how good the stand is. I heared people complaining about Ultrasharp coating, and it is indeed a problem when looking at white images. For gaming and movies watching, it is not a problem. For working and browsing (looking the the static white (or light) view) it is. It is a matte surface, I would much rather use this than glossy MAC screens which are a nightmare to work in the lit environment.

Connectivity
I am sure you can read it in the description. My issue is that there is no HDMI, I had to buy HDMI-DVI cable in order to connect my PS3 to the monitor. Monitor support HDCP, it is pretty much a standart these days. Monitor also came with DVI-DVI, VGA-VGA and one USB-something cables, official description does not mention them.

Conclusion
I have surfed a lot about this monitor, sadly there is no decent review of it. Some user impressions on youtube, some articles about specs. I was surprised that even one month after the release of the monitor no-one wrote a decent review. If you are reading my review in order to find out about whether or not you should buy this monitor, believe me, you will not be disappointed. Monitor also comes with Dell 3 Year Next Day replacement warranty, this is a major thumbs up for any device.

Only cons:
Coating produces ''sparkles'' (reason for -1 star)
Black levels can be darker
No HDMI

Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM 23 inch IPS LED Monitor

I also have been looking at 23 and 24 inch monitors for some time.
From professional and user reviews, I narrowed down to two : the ASUS AP238Q and DELL 23 and 24 inch IPS monotors.

I ordered the ASUS. (Paying for delivery.) Taking it out of the box, it really looked the part but...that's about it.
Appearances can and do deceive.

The ASUS had the following faults.

1.Excessive light bleed in three corners and on three sides.
2.HDMI failed to function.
3.Software on CD in RAR format couldn't use the ASUS drivers - I know nothing about RAR files.ASUS's reasons for this
were ridiculous - anti virus.
4.Support from ASUS - dismissive almost to the point of non existence like its HDMI.

I returned the ASUS monitor as faulty, had my payment refunded but had to pay for return of a faulty product.I then
turned to look at the DELL Ultrasharp U2312HM.

After further research on suppliers, specs and prices I went direct to DELL - with free delivery. I ordered on a
Thursday evening it arrived Saturday morning - from BELGIUM via UPS. Superb service, the package could be tracked
all the way.
The DELL Ultrasharp U2312HM went together very easily - very well designed.
When connected and powered up, I was immediately shocked how superior it was to the ASUS AP238Q.

Because I needed a connected speaker system to illiminate my desktop speaker I also bought the DELL Soundbar.
The Soundbar, attaches to the lower edge of the screen and is simplicity itself producing good sound quality.
I do not play games or videos on my PC so I only need good audible signals, a leass cluttered desktop and occasional
audio sampling.

I have a DELL Inspiron 17inch Laptop and know DELL products to be well-designed and well-made.

Comparisons between the DELL U2312HM and the returned ASUS AP238Q ?

The DELL U2312hm wins by a wide margin. The DELL screen deserves the label 'ULTRASHARP' it is easier on the eyes with
higher brighteness levels than the ASUS. Like the ASUS the DELL has the flexibility of height and tilt adjustments, wide
viewing angles and a screen that swivels to the vertical position giving a longer document view but there the similarities end.

The DELL screen setup menu is perfect in my view. Press any button on lower right hand corner and and the full menu is displayed.
Navigate up or down with additional options clearly marked and accessible. All logically laid out and large enough for anyone to
navigate with ease. Why can't other manufacturers design like this?

The ASUS menu is another matter. The difference is remarkable. The ASUS menu is poor, archaic in appearance and difficult to use.

My DELL U2312HM complete with the soundbar cost me £211, from DELL with free delivery. That was marginally lower than the cost of
the ASUS which has no speakers and its non functioning HDMI made the earphone sytem unuseable.
So the DELL was the much better choice, why I ask myself, didn't make it my first and only choice? Still, even at 75 I live and learn.

I read the user reviews on this page and also professional reviews, but I rarely write them. However, such was the difference in
experience on this matter, I hope anyone facing the same decision making process may find this helps inh their decision, as other
readers views, helped me in mine.

BSB2007

Great monitor!

I did a lot of research on monitors for my pc upgrade. I'm a hardcore gamer and on a side note, am enjoying Battlefield 3 & Skyrim a lot lol.

Anyway, as I am a gamer, I wanted to make sure the monitor I bought would be up to the task. However, I'm also a graphics and games designer, so it's important to have correct colour representation on the screen and a good size for managing complex scenes.

This monitor does it all!

Sleek and non-intrusive design. Easy to use U.I, fantastic picture and virtually no input lag. For those that don't know, input lag is a delay that is caused by a monitor between the graphics card sending the data to be displayed, and the monitor digesting and representing the data visually. Now, most monitors are around 30 m/s which is absolutely fine. Anything above 30 ms might be noticeable to some gamers, especially in fast paced games like UT or Quake. over 40ms and its going to be more noticeable and so on...

This monitor has an average input lag of, 0.8ms and a maximum of 30ms - meaning your always in a safe zone and 99% of the time your running at an amazingly fast feedback speed. Don't read too much into input lag, but its a factor because some cheaper monitors seem great until your missing a frame or so every other second (which could be the frame an enemy pops out by the way!). Saying that, just because a monitor is expensive, doesn't mean its a great monitor!

I've seen plenty of monitors for £300 and they aren't fit for anything but still images, even films can appear "laggy" - not good!

Anyway, that's enough scary lag shenanigans...

If your looking for a 22" - 24" monitor for under £200 that will do pretty much everything from hardcore gaming, to graphics design and also play consoles - its hard to find anything better than this. If your not as picky as me, you should find what your looking for, for about £150 ish

A down side, and one that doesn't affect performance is: No HDMI - this is a let down, as HDMI is pretty much a standard now! However, DELL (along with others) are trying to push a new standard called Display Port. There are no noticeable improvements to picture quality, its very similar to the HD-DVD vs. Blue Ray war. Anyway, to cut a long story short, you will need a graphics card that outputs display port, or hope its compatible with a cheap converter...otherwise its going to be around £80 for a converter!

I've got a graphics card that outputs Display Port so I'm ok - but its something that might be a deal breaker for others so I thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, great monitor. Difficult to find a competitor for the same price! Would have loved a 24" but its over £100 more so not really worth it.