Dell UltraSharp U2414H 23.8 inch Widescreen IPS LCD Monitor (1920 x 1080, 2M:1, 250 cd/m2, 8 ms, HDMI/DP/mini DP/USB)

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With an average static contrast ratio of 1224:1 in ‘Custom Color’, the U2414H put in an impressive performance. Our test settings involved only very minor adjustments to colour channel and didn’t have a significant effect on contrast which remained at 1193:1. The ‘Standard’ preset involved some predetermined colour channel adjustments but contrast again remained strong at 1150:1. A similar story for the ‘Color Temp’ preset, set to 6500K by default, which yielded a contrast ratio of 1165:1. Under ‘sRGB’ the contrast dropped slightly to 1043:1, which is still pleasing considering that the full factory calibration is enforced on this preset. The remaining presets had a slightly more pronounced effect on contrast but it still remained around 1000:1, dropping to 968:1 at lowest using the very poorly balanced ‘Movie’ preset. NOTE:You can only run the built-in diagnostics when the video cable is unplugged and the monitor is in self-test mode. The power light glows an unobtrusive gentle white when the monitor is on and flashes intermittently when the monitor is on standby. If you prefer you can disable the power LED when the monitor is active in the ‘Energy Settings’ of the OSD. Some other useful features in the OSD include two customisable ‘Shortcut Keys’, which are activated using the first two control buttons before you enter the main OSD menu. By default these are set to ‘Preset’ and ‘Brightness’, whilst the third button is ‘Menu’ and the fourth is ‘Exit’. After entering the main menu the buttons are navigational; ‘Up’, ‘Down’, ‘Enter’ and ‘Return’. As the video below shows, the OSD system is fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. Further details in the PDF user guide. It’s important to bear in mind that PixPerAn only takes into account what the camera sees – and that is trailing resulting from the pixel response behaviour of the monitor. These pixel responses vary depending on the shades involved in the pixel transition (PixPerAn tests a limited range of shades) and these are only one piece of a much larger jigsaw anyway. There is a very thorough analysis of the factors affecting pixel responsiveness in our dedicated article on the subject. Our ‘real world’ testing below pulls all of these factors together and gives subjective impressions on a range of game and movie titles. The only retrograde step is taken by the panel resolution. Compared to its predecessor, the excellent UltraSharp U2412M, the U2414H’s Full HD, 1,920 x 1,080 panel has lost 120 pixels of vertical resolution. This is disappointing, as we much prefer the spacious feel of a 1,920 x 1,200 monitor to that of standard Full HD model; the extra pixels extend the height of your workspace by around an inch, which makes a far greater impact in daily use than you might expect.

The bottom bezel of the monitor is around 18mm (0.71 inches), housing OSD (On Screen Display) controls and a power button to the right. These are touch-sensitive, facing forwards. They’re reasonably responsive to the touch – not the most responsive touch controls we’ve seen on a monitor but not frustrating unresponsive either. extras like ambient light sensors or card readers which can be useful in office environments. There wasThe greyscale gradient appeared was very smooth without banding or obvious dithering. There was again some slight temporal dithering in places if you looked closely but this was well-masked. The very high end wasn’t completely pure due to the screen surface, either. subtract half of the average G2G response time from the total display lag. This should allow us to give a good estimation of On Battlefield 4 there was a degree of detail loss peripherally due to IPS glow, particularly in the bottom corners of the screen from a normal viewing position. Elsewhere contrast was good without significant loss of detail and good distinctions between light colours and darker surrounding shades. Bright colours, particularly patches of sky in the daylight and artificial lights in the dark, exhibited slight graininess compared to a semi-glossy (or of course fully glossy) screen surface. Such areas were free from the heavy grain or ‘smeary’ look that accompanies some older IPS models such as the U2412M, however. Unfortunately this utility doesn’t do anything to the DisplayPort signal. We only had one U2414H with us for testing, but suspect that running them in ‘Surround’ using the MST/Daisy Chain capability of the monitor will use the correct signal as well because the resolution used (5760 x 1080) is PC only. If not a solution would be to use HDMI ports (or DVI ports using a DVI to HDMI cable) on the GPU(s). We simply used the HDMI connection and the utility to correct the colour signal (universally – even for games that ignore custom resolutions) and the difference in gamma, colour depth and contrast compared to an uncorrected signal was remarkable. AMD GPU users don’t have to worry about this and should be able to use DisplayPort or HDMI quite happily. This can be rectified for both DisplayPort and HDMI by creating a custom resolution with a 59.999Hz refresh rate. This will be treated by any application* as 60Hz but uses the correct Full Range RGB 0-255 colour signal. The process for setting this up is shown in the video below.

We also considered the colour performance of the monitor on the Blu-ray of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder. This title really played to the strengths of this well-configured IPS panel. The consistency of individual shades (such as character skin tones) was very strong, allowing the monitor to correctly display an array of closely matching shades with good distinction. There were some good deep and neon colours as well, such as bright greens and yellows and deep purples. These had a rich look – not a match for the arresting vibrancy we’ve seen on some recent semi-glossy VA panels with their exceptional contrast, but far from washed out.levels of motion blur, but there was some slight dark trailing introduced here. The BenQ GW2450HM's is based on an AMVA panel (as opposed to IPS) and Finally, the Dell U2414H posted an input lag time of only 4ms which is brilliant for a budget monitor. We did not notice any delays or misconnected inputs during our testing with this device. Despite the limitations in its capabilities, the IPS panel in this product provided us with an enjoyable experience. Thoughts on the Dell U2414H Similar to ‘Standard’, very close to target white point (6500K) but slight green channel weakness remains. mode in the OSD menu to allow us access to the individual RGB channels. Adjustments were made during the process to the RGB channels as shown in the table above The on-screen display is far better than most. The four touch-sensitive buttons on the front work reliably, and although they aren’t labelled, context-sensitive icons pop up on screen to show which button you need to press. The menus provide easy access to all the features, and it’s easy to tweak the brightness, contrast and picture presets and toggle settings on and off.