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Dell UltraSharp U2311H review

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Verdict

Dell's 23in monitor delivers exceptional image quality, but the price is a touch high

Review Date: 5 Jan 2011

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £219 (£257 inc VAT)

Buy it now for: £191
(see more store prices)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
4 stars out of 6

Image Quality
5 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

If you've been drooling over the gorgeous Dell UltraSharp U2711 and UltraSharp U3011 monitors, but been put off by the giant-sized prices, then hope is at hand. Dell's 23in UltraSharp U2311H combines a high-quality IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, and, best of all, it costs a third of the price of its super-sized stablemates.

Delta E

Delta E is a figure that represents the difference between the desired colour and the colour displayed onscreen. Below 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye; an experienced viewer may notice differences around 3-4. We measure Delta E with a colorimeter before and after calibration.

Even before you turn it on, the UltraSharp U2311H makes a strong first impression. The crisp, square design and matte grey and black plastic give it an air of class which eludes the likes of Viewsonic's VP2365wb. Practicality hasn`t fallen by the wayside, though. The stand twists left and right, rotates into portrait mode and rises up and down by 100mm. Connectivity runs to D-SUB, DVI, and DisplayPort inputs, plus a four-port USB hub.

After installing the monitor driver supplied by Dell, we weren`t entirely impressed by the image quality. Colours appeared wildly oversaturated, and in gradient tests we noticed obvious banding artefacts.

However, changing the monitor to its Custom (RGB) setting, leaving the individual Red, Green and Blue controls set to maximum and uninstalling Dell's driver swiftly improved matters. Our test images and Blu-ray discs now looked amazing, and the gradient test showed a smooth transtition from black to white with no banding.

Putting the U2311H to the test with X-Rite's i1Display 2 colorimeter produced impressive results. Its colour temperature of 6,466k and average gamma of 2.2 were almost perfect, and colour accuracy was good too, with an average Delta E of 2.2, and a peak of 6.3 in the blues. Contrast was impressive, with a recorded ratio of 945:1.

The U2311H isn't quite as accurate as some of its rivals, but that's balanced by precious few weaknesses. Input lag averaged only 12ms, and while the E-IPS panel's response time isn't as quick as monitors with TN panls, it didn't bother us during gaming.

In fact, the only thing that might temper your enthusiasm for the U2311H is its price: it's significantly more expensive than the A-listed ViewSonic VP2365wb. The Dell gives a slightly more even performance, but with ViewSonic's zero-pixel defect guarantee and equally fine colour reproduction, the UltraSharp U2311H has to settle for second best.

Author: Sasha Muller

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Comments

User comments

Sadly...

...just another 16:9 letter box, computer monitors should be at least 16:10!

By Rouleur on 9 Jan 2011

@Rouleur

Cant agree more, i'm in the market for a decent 22" 16:10 screen and cant find one anywhere. 16:9 is a horrible setup for PC use.

By JStairmand on 10 Jan 2011

Hot Deal For This Monitor (not spam)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-u2311h-ultras
harp-ips-panel-23-monitor-delivered-for-194-18-del
l/862119
After cashback, with Quidco or TopCashBack, this monitor is available for ~£180 delivered (inc VAT). At a price like this, the ratio can be practically ignored, as multiple could even be bought, pivoted, and put next to each other for a resolution of (x * 1080) by 1920, where x is the number of monitors. With a monitor like this, at a price like this, there is almost no reason not to buy.

By anon123 on 28 Jan 2011

Another thing...

I forgot to mention, by getting 3 of these monitors at the deal price, you would have a greater resolution than both the u2711 and the u3011, for a total price much lower than both.

By anon123 on 28 Jan 2011

Yes, the above post isn't spam, it surprised me as well

I had a look at the link above (posted by anon123) and it's true that Dell are currently doing quite a big discount on this monitor (expires 28 Feb 2011). I went via Quidco and got the Dell 25% website discount, additional 5% voucher (the 10% one had expired, unfortunately), and 10% Quidco rebate.

So that came to £204 (inc vat, delivered) in hard cash, and with £20 back via Quidco eventually.

I was going to go with an NEC EA232WMI but the £100 saving rather swayed me in this Dell's favour.

By TerabitTerry on 10 Feb 2011

Dell discount makes the difference

Just purchased one of the monitors with the discounts - fired it up and nearly fell off my chair - it's truly stunning!!

Go for it.

By Purchexec on 10 Feb 2011

16:10 No way

Why does everyone seem to think that 16:10 displays are better. If you want lots of height go get a 4:3 display. The reason you cant find a decent 16:10 monitor is because if its 16:10 its automatically terrible. 16:9 is by far the best (personally I want 21:9)

By Gamgigo on 23 Jul 2011

People prefer 16:10 as it gives a significantly better display for computer use, and also for high end photo work, where widescreen is useless, resulting is a waste of space when editing full frame images. 16:9 is a tedious waste of time for professionals, it's consumer technology sadly leaking into the pro arena, because the 16:9 panels are unsurprisingly cheaper to make in quantity. Incidentally, this product was discontinued from Dell a while ago, it is no longer a current model...

By isofa on 24 Nov 2011

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