Dell SP2208WFP review

Dell SP2208WFP Review

Reviewed by: Matthew Elliott

Reviewed on: 30 April 2008

The Dell SP2208WFP offers a winning combination of high performance and low price. With a useful feature set and competitive price tag of £199, it's hard to make an argument against this 22-inch widescreen LCD.

Design
The Dell SP2208WFP boasts a clean and simple design. A 19mm silver bezel frames the display, which widens to 25mm along the top where the 2.0-megapixel webcam resides. A glossy black belt runs along the sides, which matches the black rectangular base. We'd opt for a matte black bezel, however, because it provides better contrast against the display itself while also receding into the background during movie watching.

You'll find hiding on the side two of the Dell's four USB ports

In the lower-right corner, you'll find five buttons for powering on the display and navigating the onscreen menu. A blue LED lets you know which video connection you're using: 1 for VGA, 2 for DVI and 3 for HDMI. The onscreen menu lets you adjust the colour, brightness and the position of the image.

The stand provides a very stable base that is not prone to wobble, and we like the look of it more than Dell's standard flying V base found on its enterprise-oriented UltraSharp line. It doesn't offer height adjustment, however, or the ability to swivel the display into portrait mode. The only physical adjustment you can make is tilting it forward and backward.

It may be more of a useful feature to us, as we set up and take down LCDs more than the typical consumer, but the stand simply snaps into the back of the display -- no tools required -- for a blissfully easy setup. A rectangular cutout in the arm of the stand helps you hide video and power cables.

Features
In addition to the standard VGA and DVI video connections, the Dell SP2208WFP also boasts an HDMI port, giving you the ability to connect the display to any graphics card and a wide range of consumer electronics. It offers HDCP support for displaying high-definition copyright-protected content. As with any 22-inch display, the native resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels means you won't be able to display 1080p video without scaling.

There's also audio and power jacks for Dell's optional £35 speaker bar that attaches to the bottom of the display. Rounding out the features are four USB 2.0 ports and a 2-megapixel webcam with dual microphones.

Dell backs the monitor with a three-year warranty.