New Dell U2412M 24" Monitor

I am working on a new website for Fuel Multimedia this week, and the Photoshop design that they gave me was HUGE. We are talking 37,000 pixels wide! With that size of a concept, even my 27” iMac looks a little small. Of course no monitor would fit the whole thing at full aspect ratio, but I wanted to have a setup where I could have one screen dedicated to just Photoshop, while I worked with the code and the browser on the other screen.

[caption id=“attachment_64” align=“alignleft” width=“300”] Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24” Montior[/caption]

After doing some quick research online, I found that Dell recently introduced a new 24” monitor that offers a fairly high resolution, at a very fair price. With a native resolution of 1920x1200 and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, this monitor can start to compete with the higher end professional monitors. The monitor retails for $399 US, but you can find it even cheaper then that if your diligent. I picked it up for $360 after a couple of Dell.ca coupons curtsy of Air Miles Shops.

What really drew me to this monitor was the features it had over most of the other monitors on the market. I don’t know when this started to become the norm, or why, but most monitors now come with a fixed height. Meaning you can’t increase the height of the monitor’s stand. Most monitors now are designed to be tilted upwards. Frankly, I like looking at my monitor, not down on it like it’s some second rate piece of technology that can’t even go eye-to-eye with me.

The Dell monitor slides up and down effortlessly. You can adjust the height on the fly with very little resistance. The monitor stand also swivels in multiple directions. You can keep the base stationary, while moving the monitor left to right. It can also be turned into portrait mode, as shown in the picture.

The display looks great when editing in Photoshop or playing games. I found the colours to be well represented, and found the quality very sharp. While it’s still not at the same sharpness as my 27” Cinema Display, the huge price difference lets me quickly forgive any small shortcomings in that area.

I would highly recommend this monitor to anyone needing an upgrade, or who spends a lot of time programming (the portrait mode is perfect for a programmer’s editor). The size, resolution, quality and price of this monitor make it one of the best buys on the market. I plan to buy a second one for my upcoming gaming rig, and quite possibly a third.