So, the Eizo S2231W went back to the store (kudos to Proline.pl for a problem-free returns policy) and my search for a new 22″ LCD continued. After some more Web research, my attention turned to the recently released Dell 2209WA. According to the well-informed posters at hardforum.com, this display is supposed to be a big deal for three reasons:
- It is a 22″ panel that doesn’t use cheap TN technology. Up to now, the only non-TN 22″ displays available had been the Eizo S2231W, the Lenovo L220x (which has ultra-tiny pixels), and the HP LP2275W.
- It uses an IPS panel. IPS panels are currently considered better than TN and PVA/MVA panels. They are supposed to have better color fidelity and better viewing angles than other panel types.
- It only costs $380 (in Poland), half the price of the Eizo S2231W!
Spurred by rave user reviews, I quickly found a store that carries these monitors in my city and made sure that the store would accept a return if I didn’t like the screen for whatever reason. Having spent the equivalent of $750 on the Eizo a few days before, I almost felt like I was getting the screen for free this time!
My expectations were pretty high. Everyone and their mother says that IPS panels are better than S-PVA, so despite the budget price of the Dell 2209WA, I expected the image quality to be close to that of the Eizo S2231W. I was concerned with quality control issues like uneven backlighting or bad pixels. But what was really on my mind was the text clarity: Would the Dell be as horrible as the S2231W? I hoped it would at least be in the same league as my trusted Eizo S1910.
Text quality
As soon as I unpacked the Dell 2209WA, I placed it next to my S1910 to check how the text looked. I could barely believe my eyes. Not only was the Dell in the same league as my old display — it was actually better! All the letters looked sharper even after I dialed down the sharpening control (the default setting of 50 amounts to subtle sharpening; to disable sharpening altogether, you need to set it at 40).
The explanation for the difference in favor of the Dell 2209WA turned out to be quite simple. The subpixels on the S1910 are not rectangular. Their shape looks a bit like this: “>”. On the other hand, the Dell 2209WA has rectangular subpixels, which are better suited for the subpixel rendering used by ClearType.
Here is a photo which compares the pixel structure of the Eizo S1910 with the Dell 2209WA (sorry for the slightly out-of-focus S1910 photo):
Image quality
Now that the text sharpness concern is out of the way, let’s take a look at other issues:
- Color reproduction: Side-by-side comparison with the Eizo S1910 shows that the Dell 2209WA displays slightly less saturated reds. The subjective color quality when viewing photographs in full-screen mode can only be described as very good.
- Black level: Compared with the Eizo monitors that I have owned or tested, the black level is quite poor. Dark photographs and dark scenes in movies and games appear flooded with a dark shade of grey, which makes for a washed out, bland image. Eizo monitors, while incapable of displaying true blacks, still manage a good contrast ratio when showing dark images. The Eizos show a clear difference between e.g. RGB (0,0,0) and RGB (2,2,2), so the picture retains a lot of “punch”. On the Dell, the near-black shades are still distinguishable from each other; however, the perceived contrast is lower. From my point of view, the difference between the Dell 2209WA and an Eizo (S-)PVA screen is so large that I think I would rather watch a movie on a smaller 4:3 screen with a good black level than on a 16:10 screen with a black level of the 2209WA. Perhaps I will get used to the lower quality over time, but it’s certainly a big step backwards. (If you used a TN panel before, you will likely consider it a step forward. It’s all relative.) [Added Nov 2009: I have to confess I watch movies on the Dell most of the time, despite the poor black level. It still bothers me, but it turns out I’m too lazy to move my displays around every time I want to watch a movie. Plus I like the bigger size.]
- Brightness: The display is definitely too bright. Most hardforum.com users seem to set the brightness at 15 out of 100; I set it at zero. Even at 0 brightness, I find the monitor unusable in an unlit room at night — I have to put an Ikea Grönö lamp with a 40-watt-equivalent bulb right behind it. This is a perfect example of unethical marketing trickery. Pumping up the brightness allows Dell to advertise an impressive contrast ratio, which looks good to ignorant consumers, but really means nothing in terms of picture quality. The real quality of an LCD is measured by its black level. If the black level is good, you don’t need dazzling, eye-burning whites to maintain a high contrast ratio. In fact, a critical user will quickly find two things: (1) that bright whites are very hard on the eyes, (2) that the “turbo-brightness” trick does not work anyway when dark images are being displayed.
- “Wet screen” / Sparkle effect: Visible if you take a close look. Any more of it, and it would be a problem for me. I still don’t see why manufacturers can no longer make a proper anti-glare coating like that of my Eizo S1910 (made in 2005), which displays perfectly matte solid-color areas that don’t sparkle like they are covered in hair gel.
- Color shifting: I expected my Eizo S2231W to have the infamous “Rainbow White” effect. It didn’t have it. But the Dell 2209WA seems to be a textbook example of it. The left side of the screen has a greenish tint, whereas the right side is slightly reddish. The effect was present on both the units that I tested. I don’t think it will be too much of a problem for me, but if you are sensitive to hue shifting, be warned. [A week later: I can just barely notice the color shifting, even on grey areas taking up the entire screen. I think it was more noticeable when I first tested it. Did the monitor “burn in” or something? Anyway, it didn’t bother me before, it bothers me even less now.]
- White glow / silvery shimmer: Along with the poor black level, this is a major problem with the Dell 2209WA. As I’m writing this, I’m smiling at all the people on the Internet who have written that IPS panels have better viewing angles than PVA panels. Sure, the colors don’t change as you change the viewing angle; instead, all the dark areas of the screen start to glow. For example, I normally sit about 70 centimeters from the screen. When playing a game with dark areas (e.g. BioShock or Mass Effect), I can always see bright, shimmering patches in the lower left and lower right corners of the screen. (That’s the best-case scenario after adjusting the monitor tilt.) The effect goes away only when I sit 1 meter from the monitor, but then I have to be looking at the exact center of the panel. If I move my head 3 centimeters to the left or right, the white glow reappears. When the screen is completely black, the white glow is impossible to eliminate completely, unless I sit 1.5 meters or farther from the screen. Considering the fact that the blacks on the 2209WA are pretty grey anyway, this is a screen that has serious problems displaying dark images.
- Backlight uniformity: There is a small bright patch adjacent to the top edge of the screen, about 13 cm from the right edge. I had my unit replaced because of this. The replacement unit has a slightly less visible patch in exactly the same location. I will not be replacing this unit, as it looks like this problem is present in the entire batch. Besides, this minor glitch is completely overpowered by the angle-dependent white glow described above.
- Bad pixels: No bad pixels on either of the units I’ve tested. Pretty good.
Angle-dependent white glow on the Dell 2209WA (from a distance of about 70 cm)
Ergonomics
- Heat / power issues: Internet wisdom says IPS panels consume more power than PVA panels and the Dell 2209WA seems to confirm this. The back of the monitor can get quite hot in normal operation — in contrast, the back of my other display (Eizo S1910) gets barely warm. On a warm summer day, the Dell can really add to the temperature in my small room. This could be the result of the absurdly bright backlight that Dell used in this display (see above).
- Noise: This display is quite noisy. There is a pretty annoying high-pitched whine (1) right after you turn it on (for at least a few minutes), and (2) when it is displaying resolutions and refresh rates other than the native 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz. For example, there is a loud whine during the BIOS POST sequence, which uses character mode. During normal work in the native resolution and refresh rate, I can only hear a slight buzzing inverter noise at a distance of about 70 cm. This noise is not particularly annoying, but I can hear the buzzing go away when I turn off the monitor. This is in a quiet room at 2 am, when the loudest sound is the sound of my (quiet) hard drive and the near-silent fans in my PC (I’m a bit of a silent-PC enthusiast). While at other times of day it is a complete non-issue, I sure don’t like the fact that my new monitor is a source of noise in my system. If you use stock cooling in your PC, don’t worry about the noise — you probably won’t hear it, as long as you stick to the native resolution.
- Startup time: The backlight takes a long time to reach its proper brightness. When I turn on the Dell and my Eizo at the same time, the Dell is initially much darker than the Eizo and takes about 20 minutes to “catch up”.
- Response time: Subjectively better than my old Eizo, but not by much.
- 75 Hz refresh rate: The 2209WA supports a 75 Hz refresh rate, which means that it can display 25% more frames per second than a standard 60 Hz LCD. This makes for much more fluid motion in videogames. It really makes a difference in almost every game. However, turning on 75 Hz is tricky. You need to add a custom display mode in the nVidia control panel (if you have an nVidia card) or in Powerstrip (if you have an ATI card). Besides, when I set my monitor to anything over 60 Hz, the usual power supply noise it emits becomes much louder and turns into a high-pitched whine. It is quieter at some refresh rates than at others (in my case 73 Hz was relatively quiet), but it never completely goes away. In the end, I have decided to stick to 60 Hz.
- Input lag: I did not notice anything troubling.
- Anti-glare coating: Apart from the slight sparkle mentioned before, the anti-glare coating reflects a bit too much light. When I put it side-by-side with my Eizo, it is obvious that the Eizo is “more black”.
Summary
- Text/office work: Very good. Text is very crisp, though brightness needs to be set at close to zero for comfortable work. If you like working with the lights out, I would recommend putting a 40 watt lamp right behind the monitor. You might also need to dial down the contrast, sacrificing color quality.
- Photo viewing/editing: Satisfactory. Colors are well-reproduced and photos look basically the same as on much more expensive Eizo FlexScan LCDs. However, dark images look worse due to the combination of the mediocre black level and the white glow effect (you have to sit at a distance of 1 m or more to eliminate the latter defect).
- Movie viewing/editing: Poor. Movies have a lot of dark, moody scenes, which look washed out on the 2209WA, even if you sit far away from the screen and position the monitor carefully to avoid the white glow effect. I’m afraid grey isn’t the new black…
- Gaming: Mixed bag. Shooters and RPGs often use shadows to create atmosphere. On this monitor, these scenes have little depth. Brighter, more cheerful games look fine. On the other hand, the possibility of using a 75 Hz refresh rate (despite its relative noisiness) means that this monitor can display more fluid motion than typical LCDs.
My search for a 22-inch widescreen LCD that would match my 19″ Eizo S1910 has turned out to be a disappointment. Four years after I bought that display, there appears to exist no 22″ that is good at everything: text work, photo editing, movies and games.
That said, I will be keeping the Dell 2209WA. Why? First, I’m running out of options. The only non-TN 22″ that I have not yet tested is the HP LP2275W, but since it is equipped with an S-PVA panel, I expect it to have the same ClearType defect that made me return the Eizo S2231W.
Second, if I have to choose between a monitor that is suitable only for text work and a monitor that is only good for photos, movies and games (Eizo S2231W), I’m going to choose the former. After all, the amount of time I spend reading websites and working with documents far outweighs the combined time I spend working with Photoshop, watching movies or gaming. Last but not least, the Dell’s low price more than makes up for its shortcomings. If you cannot get a monitor that does it all, at least get an inexpensive monitor that satisfies most of your needs.
good review, I agree with most of it, my old vp930b VA monitor does have better blacks than my 2209WA, however I do think the blacks on the dell are good enough for movies still , they nowhere near as bad as my TN’s. Out of all the reviews I have read on the net I think yours is the most accurate and shows no bias. I got no colour shift on left and right side of my screen I could just be lucky there, also no backlight bleed but I do get the white glow affect at angle.
Thank you for referring me to this review. Clearly, it is a compromise. I was torn between purchasing the Eizo S2242W and the HP LP2475W. On balance, I think that the HP is perhaps the best in this price range (Less than £500 in the UK).
I hope more companies start going with e-IPS panels for budget monitors. Seems like every LCD I see now is TN.
Great review. Took delivery of one on Monday for business use, buying another three. I agree almost entirely…
I have barely any issue with black levels or colour uniformity, but I do have a slight backlight fall off at the extreme right hand side of mine – not really a problem though. Overall this approaches the clarity and comfort of the excellent Samsung 214T/244T 21.3″/24″ 1600×1200 / 1920×1200 models (PVA with pure rectangular sub-pixels) we use at work, but it clearly a lot faster (less lag) without suffering from flicker. The 0.282mm dot pitch is slightly inferior to the 0.271mm I’m used to – I can see pixellation with both – but its a fine compromise as other users have fewer problems getting Windows to display things big enough and sharp. For a £200 monitor to come this close to £400-800 performance, I’m impressed.
Will be reading up on the HP LP2475W not it’s in the £400 range and offers a few extra niceties for home use… If it has rectangular sub-pixels and single frame lag and better video performance it may well be the one…
Thank you for this review. I’m looking for an upgrade from my Dell 1905FP MVA/PVA panel (not sure which is in my specific one) and was considering this monitor since I really NEED a bigger screen. However, my 1905FP screen is PERFECT with no color shifts or variances with angles. I’m really having trouble finding a monitor to upgrade to that is of the quality of it.
Hopefully at some point I can find a bigger monitor as good.
Thanks for the review. Having been using the excellent AG Neovo E-19A for the past several years, I’ve missed – and resisted – the LCD widescreen boom. Widescreen has usually meant short screen, and I can’t see the point of giving up height for width. Plus, I’m not a gamer. Perhaps that’s why I don’t have the same sense of urgency (or is it desperation?) that is drawing so many to the Dell 2209WA. My E-19A is failing a little with flickering on dark background websites (when scrolling) and it’s decision time about whether to repair or move on. Thus, I’ve had one of these Dell monitors in front of me all day.
While I’ve got the calibration reasonably well worked out, and the colors look good, the one thing I can’t get past is the brightness. A number of reviews point out that its minimum brightness setting is around 125 cd/m2, which if one checks around is in the range of a bright office. Well, I abhor bright flourescent-lit offices and certainly don’t like bright rooms at home. For me, window light is good enough during the day and an adjacent hall light or small desk lamp at light. On the principle that a monitor’s brightness should accord with the viewing environment, this monitor leaves the user like me at a disadvantage. Cutting the brightness to 0 and contrast to around 50 helps, but doesn’t solve the problem – and introduces a certain lack of clarity. Moreover, the monitor’s brightness tends to wash out light colored images and video scenes (e.g., snow). That leaves me thinking that the AG Neovo, like the reviewer’s Eizo, still has a future.
Thanks for sharing. I recently cancelled buying a 22″ Samsung when I found reviews of this monitor.
I think for it’s price, it is decent enough for most of the consumers, more than you can expect from a TN panel if you’re photo editing enthusiast in a tight budget.
GREAT and informative review, it discusses all my initial concerns and confirms all the design flaws that hardocp thread introduced to me, without discouraging me from buying it 🙂
Three questions:
Have you tried 50Hz output (from PC)?
Is the VGA cable attached to the monitor? How long is the cable?
Was your Dell manufactured in China or in Czech Rep.? Or elsewhere?
Pozdrawiam.
1. No, I haven’t. The default is 60 Hz.
2. It’s not permanently attached to the monitor. It’s hard to say how long it is without unplugging it, but I think it is 2 meters long.
3. It was made in the Czech Republic.
I generally agree with your comments, but I’ll say one thing that I feel you left out. Comparing these LCDs as you have is like comparing a Ferrari to a Porsche. I’ve been using CRTs for years, and the Dell 2209WA is clearly better than any of the TN alternatives that have been available for years.
When you think of the selection of models available today, it’s downright disappointing, but it’s clear today that the 2209WA is one of a very small handful of monitors that are actually half decent.
Regarding noise.
Does it disappear when brigthness is set to 100% (lower it for a moment in drivers ;).
Is there other type of noise connected with whats displayed (contrasty text) and contrast settings?
Paweł,
It does not disappear, but it loses a high-pitched (whining) component. The brightness has to be exactly 100.
The contrast setting does not affect the noise.
There is an additional slight rattling noise when you display bright images, like a large window with a white background.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for a very good review.
Compliments on the review. It well opens my eyes to the shortcomings of this screen. I will however still buy it as my old trusted 19″ PVA screen is close to drawing its last breath.
I intend to use it mostly for photography. And although it isn’t a first choice for that it still fares well ahead of any TN based competition in the budget price range. I will have to live with its flaws until I can afford sth better.
I have the 2209WA and it has perfect back lighting with no bright spots. There is no hum and it doesn’t get hot. I experienced no color shift from one side of the panel to the other. I found color saturation to be very good. I use the panel generally for photo work. I’m not sure how much the Eizo costs, but it was probably a hell of a lot more than the Dell which cost me about $215. You might say I’m lucky in getting possibly the one Dell 2209WA that doesn’t have nearly as many problems as yours, but I actually have two 2209WAs and both are nearly identical in quality. If I were you, I would send your panel back to Dell and ask for another…
Gzz on good review.
Question for those who seem not to have lighter corners issue: where were they made?
Perhaps backlight is bleeding through panel made in only one of dell factories?
…or different quality for different markets?
Thanks very much for such a useful review.
Like you, I am far more concerned wuth text quality on a monitor than anything else, as I write a fair bit and read even more. I have no use for watching movies or playing games on my PC, but I do work a little with Photoshop Elements.
Here’s my issue: I’ve been using a Dell 17″ Vostro 1710 laptop with so-called WUXGA display (1920 by 1200), Vista Business Service Pack 2, and the display is BRILLIANT for writing and reading. I believe that Vista has Clear Type turned on by default, so I was particularly interested in your comments on the Eizo’s poor text rendering. Why? Well, my desktop has a Dell Ultrasharp 1908FP monitor (1280 by 1024 native res.) which doesn’t render text particularly well under XP Service Pack 3 with, obviously, Clear Type turned on.
I had been recommended the new 22″ Eizo S2242W for improvement, as it has a native res. of 1920 by 1200, and I assumed that the smaller pixel pitch would make the letters clearer than my existing Dell 1908FP.
Now, what you seem to be saying is that this ain’t necessarily so because the Eizo S2242W has the same S-PVA technology as the S2231W that you returned as it was so poor with text. By the way, I use Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 far more than anything else, both with Vista and XP.
So, am I right in thinking that the raw size of pixels (ie smaller and more of them in native res.) is not as important as how the panel actually lights up those pixels, especially under Clear Type? Because if that is the case, it would appear that I’d be better off with the Dell 2209WA’s larger but better rendered pixels…and saving about 60% on the purchase price over the Eizo at the same time!
Thanks again for flagging. It’s great to read a monitor review that has something important to say about text for we writers – most barely even mention it.
The Dell 1908FP has a TN panel, which is supposed to display very sharp text. Some of the reviews at http://reviews.dell.com/2341/320-5293/reviews.htm also praise the text sharpness on that display.
I’m thinking maybe it’s the large dot pitch that’s bothering you. Personally, I don’t have a problem with slight pixellation, as long as I can clearly make out the boundaries between the pixels and the background. For me, blocky and sharp trumps smooth and fuzzy any day.
Some other ideas:
1. Make sure your monitor is plugged in with a DVI cable. You will never get 100% sharpness if you use an analog cable, no matter how high-end your display. (Sorry if I have just stated something that’s obvious to you.)
2. You might want to try the ClearType Tuner application, available from Microsoft. It allows you to tweak the ClearType settings.
3. You’re not working in portrait mode, are you? ClearType only works in landscape mode.
Thanks again for being so helpful. All 3 points you raise already covered.
Maybe it’s a case of my trying to do the impossible – replicate the display on my Vostro laptop on my desktop!
I believe you’re right about being bothered by the large dot pitch on the 1908FP, which would suggest that a 17″ screen with the same resolution might get a little bit closer to what I’m after. I can get hold of a 1708FP for little outlay, and that has the same native res. as the 1908FP. Or is that not going to be noticeable enough to make any difference?
But, hey, it’s all so subjective, isn’t it? I can’t abide jagged text so I just have to have Clear Type turned on.
One further small question: is there any difference in the way Vista and XP handle and display fonts? My laptop is Vista, while my desktop is XP. I only use Word 2007 on my desktop under XP, and someone told me that the new fonts in Word 2007 display better with Vista. Is this true?
If you’re talking about the C-fonts (Calibri, Candara, Cambria, Corbel, etc.), I have used them on XP, Vista and Win7 and haven’t noticed any difference. The default ClearType settings might be different between XP and Vista/Win7, but I always tweak them by myself, so I wouldn’t know.
Hi Tomasz,
I have been using Eizo S2231 for about 1.5 years and I have just installed Dell 2209 screen at my Mum’s and been looking at it. Both have cleartype turned off and on DVI. The text indeed looks different in E-IPS panel and I must admit I personally like the one from S-PVA much better. I guess I even like TN better (I use it at work).
I was surprised when I read your previous Eizo review. Dell’s text looks too “raw” and “thin” for my taste and with colors different than black on white background (for example menus – black text on gray background or any webpage where background is not white) it starts having some sort of white shadows when viewed from a distance. I am thinking of bringing back cleartype for Dell, so that it does not hurt my eyes.
So in summary
– for Eizo, cleartype off gives me ideal
– for Dell, can live with both cleartype on/off, but none of them is perfect
So it seems like it is a more subjective matter than I thought. I would recommend everyone go and check with your own eyes before buying.
Cheers.
How nice to find people who actually own the machine. I am about to buy because i want to se a full A4 text page on screen and thought the portrait position, not an easy feature to find, would be ideal. Now it seems doubt is being thrown on that as something called ‘Clear Type’ does not work in portrait mode. Does this monitor realign a page of text when the screen is swivelled to portrait position or is there some software involved that I may not have so the feature is useless to me anyway. I would like some advice please.
I currently use a 17 inch CRT LG Flatron 795FT. Will I be downgrading my picture for Microsoft Office type work if i buy a flatscreen moinitor?
Great review. Can you write an article about the ideal TV size (42″, 46″, 50″)?
Great review and this is the first time i see text quality in review. However i use samsung 2253bw you can check it, its very good for movies and games but there are not such reviews around it.
Just a very quick update on the Eizo text issue.
I’ve now got an Eizo 19″ S1921 which I’ve used to make direct comparisons with the Dell 1908FP Ultrasharp I mentioned above.
The text is almost EXACTLY THE SAME in appearance at the native resolutions of 1280 by 1024, but the Eizo scores better in colour depth and accuracy, and is brilliant for Photoshop.
So, at least for my eyes, it would appear that more pixels and smaller dot pitch rather than higher quality panels is the only thing that will improve the appearance of text.
Very interesting information concerning text and display sizes.
The ideal sizes seem to be 19” and 22“.
What is your experience with 23” displays for text?
It’s 14 months ago since this review was posted. What happened on the market in the meantime?
Is the Dell 2209WA still the benchmark for a reasonable good and affordable 22″ monitor with E-IPS? Are there no alternatives?
What about (for example) the Futijsu P22W-5 ECO IPS or the LG W2220P-BF. Why are there almost no reviews of these monitors on the internet?
Asking this, because I am in urgent need of a new 22″ monitor, as follow-up for my good old iiyama 19″ CRT. Mainly for text, Photoshop and webediting.
Suggestions would be very welcome!
It sounds like you got a bum set. The Dell 2209WA has a batch suffering from known defects with whining and uneven coloring and backlighting. Take advantage of the three year warranty and try to get a replacement set from a later batch. You probably have the Rev. 00 or Rev. 01 set. Try to get a Rev. 02, which might be brighter but doesn’t have a whining or backlighting problem. The set will be a refurb so you might have to go through a few before you get a good one, but Dell has been pretty patient with the Advanced Exchanges. Good luck!
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Thanks for the smart review!
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Kudos!
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