Dell UltraSharp U2410 review

With a 1,920x1,200-pixel native resolution, the 24-inch, 16:10 Dell UltraSharp U2410 monitor offers great performance with games and movies, a host of connection options and ergonomic features, and a robust on-screen display. It's available now for around £450.

Angle fanatic's dream
The U2410 has a matte black chassis with a grey highlight running through the middle of the panel. The panel is 44mm deep, but the back of the display, which houses the backlight, connection options and ventilation system, extends another 38mm, bringing the monitor's full depth to about 82mm. The panel measures 559mm wide, which is about average for a monitor of this screen size. The surface of the screen is slightly frosted, with a smooth, matte finish. The bezel measures 19mm on all sides.

The rectangular footstand measures about 310mm by 198mm. As such, there was virtually no wobbling when we knocked the monitor from the sides, even with the monitor's height at its maximum level. With the screen height at its lowest setting, the distance from the bottom of the bezel to the desktop is 32mm. At its highest, it's 130mm.

The panel swivels about 70 degrees left and right, and tilts back about 25 degrees. The panel can be disconnected from the stand and mounted VESA-style on the wall. Also, the panel pivots 90 degrees to the left for portrait mode.

Get connected
The U2410 includes a plethora of video-connection options, all located on the back on the panel. There are two DVI ports, a VGA and HDMI port, a DisplayPort, and a set of component and composite connectors. The only missing option is an S-Video connection, originally included on the UltraSharp 2408WFP. Also included are two downstream USB ports, one upstream USB port, an audio-out port, and a speaker port. Accessing these connections is fairly easy, especially when the panel is pivoted 90 degrees to the left. On the left side of the panel are two additional USB downstream ports and one card-reader port compatible with xD-Picture Cards, MultiMediaCards, SD cards and Sony Memory Sticks.

The U2410 has a plethora of video-connection options located on its posterior

The on-screen display follows the label-free design seen on many recent Dell monitors. Five buttons line the lower right-hand corner of the U2410's bezel. Pressing any of the buttons brings up the OSD, which pops up parallel to the button array, and each option corresponds to one of the four buttons. Once a new menu comes up, the function of the buttons changes dynamically, as the top two buttons become the up-and-down arrow buttons used to navigate. Since any button labels for the OSD are actually on the screen, calibrating the display in a dark room is painless.

Due to the low sensitivity of the OSD buttons on the U2410, it sometimes proved necessary to press them harder than with other Dell monitors. Also, the opposite seemed true for the power button. Located directly below the OSD, there were more than a few times when we mistakenly turned off the monitor while attempting to calibrate it.

OSD options include the standard brightness, contrast and colour options. The presets are separated into two categories: 'graphics' and 'video'. There are numerous graphics presets to choose from: 'standard', 'multimedia', 'game', 'warm', 'cool', 'Adobe RGB', 'sRGB' and 'custom'. The video presets are 'movie', 'game' and 'nature'. The presets don't change anything other than the red, green and blue colour balance. Consequently, how well each setting works is subjective, although there are some glaring problems with the RGB presets, detailed in the performance section below. There are options to adjust the hue, sharpness and colour saturation, as well as additional options for setting the OSD to stay on-screen for up to a minute. That's useful for anyone who will spend a good amount of time calibrating.