Dell G2410 review

Aside from the energy modes, OSD options include the mainstays: brightness, contrast and various colour options. The presets are separated into two categories: graphics and video. There are six graphics presets to choose from: 'standard', 'multimedia', 'game', 'warm', 'cool' and 'custom'. The movie presets are: 'movie', 'game', 'sports' and 'nature'. The presets don't change anything other than the red, green and blue colour balance. Therefore, how well each setting works will be subjective. There are also options to adjust the hue and colour saturation, and you can set the OSD to stay on-screen for up to a minute too -- useful for anyone who will spend a good amount of time calibrating.

The G2410's 16:9 aspect ratio supports a 'Full HD' 1,920x1,080-pixel native resolution. This continues the trend of more and more monitor vendors moving towards the 16:9 from 16:10 aspect ratio, because high-definition content -- in particular 1080p movies -- can fit onto a 1,920x1,080-pixel screen without distorting the image.

Performance
We tested the G2410 with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 97 in our DisplayMate-based performance tests, which is the highest we've seen yet. We compared it with the 24-inch Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP, which scored a 90, and the S2409W, which scored an 87. The G2410's accurate reproduction of colour and its screen uniformity impressed us the most. In the dark screen test, the display yielded the least backlight bleeding we've seen in a monitor, suggesting that movie watching on the G2410 will not be plagued by backlight glare during dark scenes as some monitors are. The G2410 easily passed all of our colour tests, getting perfect scores in all six tests.

Great DisplayMate scores don't always translate into similar results in our real-world test, but the G2410 has some of the deepest blacks we've seen on a monitor -- a critical attribute for good movie playback. We used the movie preset to check out War of the Worlds on DVD and House of Flying Daggers on Blu-ray. War of the Worlds looked great for a DVD, with a deep black level and accurate colours. House of Flying Daggers also had deep blacks, accurate colours and solid picture fidelity, without any ghosting or streaking. The Samsung SyncMaster T240HD was previously our favourite display for watching movies on, but that distinction now belongs to the G2410.