Dell U2415 24-inch 1920 X 1200 Led Monitor Review
The inquiry
- Why you lot should trust the states
- Who this is for
- How nosotros picked and tested
- Our pick: ViewSonic VA2456-MHD
- Runner-upwardly: ViewSonic VX2485-MHU
- Upgrade pick: Dell P2421
- The competition
- Footnotes
Why you should trust us
I've been testing, reviewing, and otherwise writing near PCs and other gadgets for AnandTech, Ars Technica, and Wirecutter since 2012. I've been building, upgrading, and fixing PCs for two decades, and five of those years were spent in IT departments buying and repairing business laptops and desktops also as helping people buy the best tech for their needs.
Our monitor guides benefit from the practiced advice of Wirecutter senior staff writer Chris Heinonen—AnandTech's sometime monitor guru and the guy a number of other reviewers go to for display-testing advice. He helped u.s.a. figure out the best hardware and software to use for our testing, and he designed the evaluation process.
Who this is for
The main reason to buy a 24-inch monitor in 2020 is to save money—monitors 27 inches and larger, peculiarly 4K models, can cost anywhere from two to 5 times as much equally a 24-inch 1080p monitor. But 24-inch screens also don't cost much more than 21- or 22-inch monitors, despite being noticeably larger. That'south the main reason we focus on this screen size and resolution in our guide to the all-time budget monitors, and why many of the picks in that guide are featured in this one. These monitors aren't ideally suited to professional photo and video editing work, but they have meliorate image quality than a inexpensive laptop screen or the years-erstwhile monitor that came with the last desktop computer you bought, and you can get a good ane for $100 to $150.
But a 24-inch monitor is also a solid selection if you're working with limited desk-bound space and just don't accept room for a 27-inch monitor. If you can spend a scrap more money, nosotros recommend one other blazon of 24-inch monitor that can aid you make the most efficient use of that infinite.
Monitors with a 1920×1200-pixel resolution requite you 120 more vertical pixels than a 1080p monitor, making the screen slightly taller but giving you enough extra room to view a few actress rows in a spreadsheet, or to read another paragraph in a document or article without scrolling.
Generally, you can't find new 24-inch monitors with a 4K resolution (or 3840×2160 pixels). For those, y'all'll demand to step up to the 27- and 32-inch models nosotros recommend in our guide to 4K monitors. The college resolution can display sharper text and more detailed images, and you tin make the picture larger or smaller without losing item or making things look blurry or overly pixelated.
How we picked and tested
Size and resolution aside, there are a lot of factors that determine whether a monitor is pleasant to look at and whether information technology will encounter your particular needs. When we research monitors, we're looking for the post-obit:
- Size and resolution: We focus on 24-inch monitors considering they're bigger than any laptop display, just they're cheaper than a 27-inch monitor and take upwards less space. At this size, 1080p resolution (1920×1080 pixels) will expect reasonably sharp, and text and images should exist large enough for virtually people to see without straining their optics. If you're willing to spend more, taller monitors with a 1920×1200-pixel resolution can provide more usable screen space without an increase in footprint.
- Brandish engineering: Await for monitors that use IPS (in-plane switching) display panels, not TN (twisted nematic) panels. TN panels are cheaper, but not by much, and IPS panels offer ameliorate viewing angles and color reproduction.
- Ports: At a minimum, a monitor should have an HDMI connection or DisplayPort for connecting to a reckoner; ideally, a monitor will have both. Budget 24-inch monitors usually also include an old-school analog VGA port. If a monitor includes a USB-C port that tin can receive a video signal from a laptop and provide power to it at the aforementioned time, that's a bonus. Built-in USB hubs for connecting keyboards, mice, webcams, and other accessories are likewise overnice to have.
- Price: Good 24-inch 1080p monitors generally cost $100 to $150. Taller 1920×1200 monitors usually toll between $200 and $300.
- Stands and VESA mountain support: For cheaper monitors, a stand that can tilt the monitor upward and downwards without wobbling too much is the best you tin promise for. More expensive models include stands that can also swivel, enhance and lower the monitor'south height, and pivot ninety degrees into portrait mode. All the monitors we recommend across Wirecutter back up VESA mounts, if you desire to hang them on your wall or use a divide monitor arm.
- Contrast ratio: We measured each monitor'southward contrast ratio, the difference between the brightest white and the darkest black that the screen can display. A dissimilarity ratio of 1000:i or higher (note that higher is better) is typical of the IPS panels we recommend, which makes the nighttime areas of a screen easier to see when you're watching a movie or playing a game. Having a good contrast ratio is a lilliputian more important than having authentic color—you lot can often fix inaccurate color subsequently the fact by calibrating the monitor yourself, but a poor contrast ratio is harder to accost.
- Color accuracy: For any kind of photo, video, or graphics work, a monitor'southward colour accuracy ensures that your images wait the style yous intend them to when they appear on another screen or in impress. More expensive monitors sometimes come calibrated from the factory to ensure more consequent and authentic colour; budget monitors typically don't. Most people don't demand perfect colour accuracy, but it should exist good enough that photos from your phone or movies you download don't look weird.
- Warranty: The monitors we recommend all include three-year warranties instead of the one-year warranties more than typical for laptops and other consumer electronics. We also pay attention to each manufacturer's dead pixel policy—the number of vivid or "stuck" pixels and the number of nighttime pixels that a monitor needs to have earlier the manufacturer will repair or supercede it.
- High refresh rates and variable refresh rates: A loftier-refresh-rate monitor is ane that tin can refresh the contents of its screen faster than the typical sixty times per second (besides called 60 Hz). Variable-refresh-rate monitors (also called adaptive sync) can match the monitor'due south refresh rate to the frame rate of a game you're playing, making gameplay smoother and eliminating screen tearing. The virtually common adaptive sync technology is FreeSync, which works with most contempo AMD and Nvidia graphics cards and doesn't add together much to a monitor'south cost. We don't consider either of these features essential for a 24-inch monitor, but if you plan to play games they tin can exist nice to have.
To test those monitors, we used each model for typical desktop work for a few hours, noting the sturdiness and quality of the stand up and how easy the monitor was to adjust using the on-screen controls. Nosotros test for some common problems that can agonize LCD monitors, similar depression-light flicker (also called PWM flicker) and image retention.
We and so tested the accurateness of each monitor'due south color—a screen with besides-brilliant, oversaturated color might await good to the naked middle, only if it isn't representing colors accurately, photos, videos, and spider web pages won't look the fashion their creators intended. We tested each monitor using an X-Rite i1Basic Pro and an X-Rite OEM i1Display colorimeter, likewise as custom tests in the Calman software calibration suite designed by Wirecutter senior staff author Chris Heinonen. The Calman tests produce DeltaE 2000 numbers, which testify how much the displayed color deviates from what it's supposed to be: the lower the number, the improve the outcome. A DeltaE value less than ane.0 is perfect. Under 2.0 is good enough for impress-production work, and you wouldn't notice a difference if you had a perfect reference to compare confronting. Ratings above 3.0 mean you'd probably come across a difference with your naked eye.
Color gamut, or the range of colors that a device tin accurately represent, is also important—color accuracy doesn't mean much if your screen shows just a portion of the colors meant to be displayed—so we used our Calman tests to determine how much of the sRGB color gamut each monitor'southward screen could reproduce. The ideal score is 100%. Our numbers don't go past that because reporting numbers larger than 100% tin can give the impression of full gamut coverage fifty-fifty in cases where that isn't true—for case, if the monitor displays many colors exterior the gamut without displaying all the ones inside it. More expensive monitors and laptop screens sometimes support a wider color gamut called DCI-P3, but you won't detect budget monitors that display all of those colors.
For each round of tests, nosotros adapted the monitor's brightness to 140 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter), a good value for everyday apply, and set its contrast equally high as it could go without losing white details. Nosotros tested unlike congenital-in color presets for the monitors that had them, noting the ones that produced the most accurate colors.
Our option: ViewSonic VA2456-MHD
Our selection
ViewSonic VA2456-MHD
Best 24-inch monitor
The VA2456-MHD has a reasonably color-authentic screen with expert contrast, DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, and decent-sounding internal speakers. Its stand tin only tilt up and downwardly, but that's fine for the price.
The ViewSonic VA2456-MHD is a 24-inch 1080p monitor with an IPS screen that offers a peachy dissimilarity ratio with detailed blacks, plus reasonably accurate color. It has HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA ports, so you tin connect just well-nigh any computer to it, and the stand isn't too wobbly or cheap-feeling. And the monitor includes okay-sounding internal speakers and a three-twelvemonth warranty.
The VA2456-MHD is as well our selection in our guide to budget monitors, which has more details and other options for similarly priced displays. Equally a budget monitor, it doesn't include many extras. At that place's no USB-C port or USB hub here, the stand can but tilt the monitor upward and down a few degrees, and it doesn't support refresh rates higher than threescore Hz or FreeSync. Just if you lot simply want a decent external monitor for a laptop or desktop, information technology handles all the basics well.
Runner-up: ViewSonic VX2485-MHU
Runner-up
ViewSonic VX2485-MHU
Great for saving space
Information technology costs a flake more than coin than our pick, but the ViewSonic VX2485-MHU has a USB-C port that can charge most 13-inch laptops, which can save space past eliminating extra chargers and cables from your desk setup.
The ViewSonic VX2485-MHU costs more than than the VA2456-MHD, and its color and contrast aren't quite as skillful. But this is one of the cheapest monitors you become with a USB-C port, which can replace both your laptop'south power brick and an HDMI or DisplayPort cable, saving you valuable space on your desk if you take a cramped setup. The monitor can provide up to sixty Due west of ability to a laptop, which is practiced enough for well-nigh 13-inch laptops (including the MacBook Air and Pro and the Dell XPS 13) and other laptops without powerful dedicated graphics chips.
Nosotros go into greater detail almost the VX2485-MHU in our guide to budget monitors, only the brusque version is that there aren't many reasons to buy this over the cheaper VA2456-MHD if you plan to employ it with a desktop PC or don't care well-nigh USB-C. Its stand swivels the screen from side to side simply is otherwise like, and the warranties are the same. The VX2485-MHU does back up a 75 Hz refresh rate and FreeSync, so it might merit a second wait if you play games, simply other budget monitors similar the Acer CB242Y bir offering those features for less money.
Upgrade selection: Dell P2421
Upgrade option
Dell P2421
More usable screen space
The Dell P2421 has a taller aspect ratio than our other picks, which means it offers actress vertical infinite that's useful when scrolling through big spreadsheets or long web pages and documents.
Buying Options
*At the fourth dimension of publishing, the toll was $240 .
A few 24-inch monitors still use a 1920×1200-pixel resolution, an extra 120 vertical pixels that our 1080p picks don't have. That means it will take up about the same amount of space on your desk equally a 1080p monitor simply give yous some extra room for scrolling through large spreadsheets or long documents. Dell'due south P2421 is the best of these taller 24-inch monitors, because it has lots of useful ports and a USB hub, proficient color and contrast, a flexible stand, and a great iii-twelvemonth warranty with a good expressionless-pixel policy. It usually costs well-nigh $100 more than the ViewSonic VA2456-MHD, only information technology'due south a big footstep up in nigh every respect.
The P2421 is missing a USB-C port, just information technology has simply most every other kind of monitor port that has ever existed—ane DisplayPort, one HDMI port, a DVI port, and a VGA port. If you connect your computer to the monitor'south USB Type-B port, it enables the two USB 2.0 ports on the back (ideal for mice, keyboards, and webcams) and the two USB iii.0 ports on the side (better for flash drives and hard drives that benefit from extra speed).
Unlike our main pick's basic tilt-simply stand, the P2421's stand can tilt, hinge, heighten and lower the monitor, and pivot it xc degrees into portrait mode. If you're non using the VESA mounting compatibility to hang the monitor on a wall or installing your own monitor arm, this is the best kind of stand y'all tin become with a computer monitor, and it makes the P2421 flexible enough to fit into all kinds of desk setups.
The 1067:1 contrast ratio on the P2421 doesn't set whatever records and can't quite match the ViewSonic VA2456-MHD'southward, simply it'south typical for most computer monitors. Its color accuracy is also skilful but non great, and roughly on a par with the ViewSonic's.ane It's accurate enough that images and webpages will look more than or less similar their creators intended them to, which is all that nigh people need.
Iii-year warranties are standard for all the monitors nosotros recommend, but the P2421 too comes with Dell'south Premium Panel Guarantee. Dell will repair or replace your monitor if it has even one brilliant-subpixel defect—a dot on the monitor that stays bright white no matter what yous're looking at. Most warranties will tolerate two or 3 of these earlier they'll replace the monitor. However, Dell will tolerate up to five dark-subpixel defects before information technology will replace your monitor.
The P2421 is from Dell's business-oriented Professional product line, so it doesn't back up actress features like high refresh rates or FreeSync. Games volition benefit from the monitor'due south extra screen space only like whatever other app would. But if you care more about smooth, super-responsive gameplay, the P2421 might not be the best choice.
The contest
xvi:10 monitors
The Asus ProArt PA248QV is almost as good as the Dell P2421 on paper, and it commonly costs less. It is missing a DVI port but has all the other brandish inputs and a four-port USB hub. Its stand is as flexible, it likewise has a three-yr warranty, and when using its sRGB preset its color accuracy is really pretty skilful (though the effulgence isn't adjustable in this mode). Only we observed some faint image retention in our testing. If that doesn't bother you lot, the PA248QV is the cheapest otherwise decent 1920×1200 monitor you lot can purchase right now.
The Dell UltraSharp U2415 was our previous tiptop pick in this guide, and while information technology's an older model, it'due south extremely similar to the P2421 overall. They await pretty similar, their stands are functionally identical, and they have the aforementioned warranty. Its ports differ slightly—it has one additional USB 3.0 port, and trades the DVI and VGA ports for one additional HDMI connector, a mini DisplayPort input, and a DisplayPort output. The U2415 is also usually a piddling more expensive than the P2421, its contrast ratio isn't quite as proficient, and because it'south older it'south a trivial heavier and uses a flake more power. If yous can observe information technology for less than the P2421, though, it's still a proficient choice.
HP'south Z24n G2 was a previous runner-up option in this guide, and information technology's the only 16:10 monitor we tested to include a USB Type-C port. However, that port tin only provide up to 15 Westward of ability to a connected device, which is far short of what you demand to accuse almost 13-inch laptops. This ways it doesn't save you lot the space or the cables that brand most USB-C monitors easy to recommend. It'due south likewise the near expensive of the xvi:10 monitors we tested.
Dell'south U2412M is a pick from a much older version of this guide, but Dell still sells it for around the same price as the P2421 or the U2415. Even if it were cheaper, though, it would be hard to recommend in 2020—it doesn't take an HDMI input, all of its USB ports use USB 2.0 instead of USB iii.0, and information technology's much larger and heavier than the P2421, which might go far harder to squeeze onto a cramped desk.
Nosotros didn't test Lenovo'due south ThinkVision T24d-ten. It meets all of our requirements for a skilful 24-inch monitor, including a USB hub and all of the display inputs nosotros typically look for, and it normally costs almost the same as or a petty less than the Dell P2421. It'southward just harder to detect at well-nigh retailers, and it'south got a chunkier stand that adds nearly 4 inches to its depth compared with the P2421 (10.3 inches versus 6.five). This makes it a difficult sell if yous're buying a 24-inch monitor mainly to save space.
4K monitors
Most companies have stopped making new 24-inch 4K monitors, but we did test the LG 24UD58-B confronting the Dell P2415Q in 2019. The LG's screen was less accurate than the Dell'due south by a broad margin. This model as well has fewer ports (2 HDMI ports and 1 DisplayPort connection), its stand tin only tilt the monitor upwardly and down, and similar all of LG'south consumer monitors its warranty lasts only one year.
Footnotes
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-24-inch-monitor/
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