Best bang-for-buck IPS monitor?

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Incindre

117 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 21

#175499 1-Jul-2015 19:16

I'm moving up in the world and retiring my 24" TN monitor and looking to replace with a pair of 24" IPS panels on a Vesa stand.

I do Graphic Design, CAD/CAM and Video editing, so top end colour accuracy and screen real estate are highly important. I'm not wealthy enough to splash out on anything pro-grade however so it's got to be something $400-$500 region.

The Dell Ultrasharp U2412m seems to have held solid reviews as the best 'bang for buck' monitor for decent colour performance since its release in 2011. It's so popular that you simply can't find anything else on Google when you search for products along similar lines... But is it still the best?

Are any of you knowledgeable types aware of a better screen to come on the market in the last 4 years for a similar price point? I can't seem to make any research headway after many hours.

bairdo

16 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1335359 1-Jul-2015 20:48

Ive got a couple of them myself and would generally recommend them, however one has a blueish tinge and the other is yellowish so dont count on them looking the same, but at the $500 mark there's not alot you can do about that. also i think i got them direct from dell for around 350-380 on two separate occasions, so you can get them cheaper.

Incindre

117 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 21

#1341832 12-Jul-2015 22:17

Managed to get my hands on two U2414h's, which are essentially the newer version of the U2412m's.
Got 'em mounted on on a dual Vesa stand and they look mighty fine with their small bezels, although one of them has a few dead pixels in the upper right hand corner, and the back-light bleed is quite annoying when watching videos (especially as the bleed is quite different between each screen... hurts me right in the OCD!)

A warning to anyone with an older graphics card looking at grabbing a new Dell Ultrasharp. The only inputs are Display Port and HDMI; I had to buy some DVI to HDMI adapters and then hacksaw some of the plastic casing off so they'd fit next to each other on the graphics card's outboard DVI ports.

Also, Nvidia cards don't output full RGB over HDMI by default (something that I only discovered by accident), you have to dig through the Nvidia Control Panel's "Resolution" and "Videos" sections to enable "Full RGB" in the Dynamic Range settings.

mattwnz

20515 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4795

#1341843 12-Jul-2015 22:43

You may find 23 inch 1080 ones are quite a bit cheaper , for not a big loss in pixels. I've got a u2410 and a u2311h, and both produce pretty good quality colours. The 2410 though has noticeably slightly better and deeper reds.

chaka160

127 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1346974 18-Jul-2015 21:35

I own and am selling my U2312HM, if you want to grab that.

In any case, I'd say it's probably a good bet. I found the accuracy really good, and it helped a lot in the photo editing I was doing.

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