• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

24" LCD Monitor for Gaming and Photoshop

General Kenobi

General Kenobi

Senior member
I'm looking for a 24" LCD monitor primarily for gaming, but I also need it for some non-professional Photoshop CS4 usage, so I'd welcome your input on this. My price range is 215€/290$. My current monitor is an LG Flatron Slim LCD (2ms latency).

What I need from the monitor:

  • Low latency / no ghosting
  • Decent color accuracy
  • Good for reading text, even small fonts / no artefacting
  • Height adjustable
I don't need HDMI or any other than DVI connectivity. I do realize that the good stuff usually costs more than what I've got, but I think that my needs can be more or less met with this budget.
 
For color accuracy you'll want to get an IPS like monitor rather than TN. Some of the IPS monitors are also very good for reducing ghosting. Unfortunately I don't know a single monitor that matches both those requirements in your price range, they are basically twice the money (£450 ish) at 24". Something like the Dell U2410 or the HP equivalent. Take a look at the below site that does really good in depth reviews of monitors and you should be able to find something you can live with or determine you need to raise the budget:

http://tftcentral.co.uk/
 
If you have something similar to Craigslist, you might try there. The Dell U24xx monitors are always available around here.

I just picked up this one:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/m.../LS24A350HS/ZA
(tilt, but not height adjustable)

It's a TN panel, and as such, not nearly as good as an IPS panel, but it's still pretty decent. My uses include gaming, internet, and Office applications.

I'm not totally happy with it...I still don't think LCD monitors are as sharp and crisp as a good quality CRT, but unless I want to buy an 8-10 year old Sony CRT, I'm just not going to get what I want...and my budget will NOT allow buying a large IPS monitor.
 
Would a U2412M work? It's eIPS, so it's only 6-bit, but that may be good enough for large values of "decent color accuracy."
 
BrightCandle said:
For color accuracy you'll want to get an IPS like monitor rather than TN. Some of the IPS monitors are also very good for reducing ghosting. Unfortunately I don't know a single monitor that matches both those requirements in your price range, they are basically twice the money (£450 ish) at 24". Something like the Dell U2410 or the HP equivalent. Take a look at the below site that does really good in depth reviews of monitors and you should be able to find something you can live with or determine you need to raise the budget:

http://tftcentral.co.uk/
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out shortly.

BoomerD said:
If you have something similar to Craigslist, you might try there. The Dell U24xx monitors are always available around here.

I just picked up this one:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/m.../LS24A350HS/ZA
(tilt, but not height adjustable)

It's a TN panel, and as such, not nearly as good as an IPS panel, but it's still pretty decent. My uses include gaming, internet, and Office applications.

I'm not totally happy with it...I still don't think LCD monitors are as sharp and crisp as a good quality CRT, but unless I want to buy an 8-10 year old Sony CRT, I'm just not going to get what I want...and my budget will NOT allow buying a large IPS monitor.
Click to expand...
The most popular nation wide classifieds system here in Finland is more akin to eBay. It's a decent option I suppose, but I've always been worried about dead pixels to the point of paranoia - I need the 14 day no-questions-asked return policy that I get when I'm ordering from an online retailer. Amazon UK is my option if I was to order from abroad.

As for that particular Samsung monitor, I've checked it out at a local brick & mortar store, and I wasn't too impressed. I didn't have the opportunity to sit around calibrating it, but the general appearance wasn't too appealing to me. The glossy finish on the chassis distracted me on the physical side of things as well, I prefer an all-matte finish.

ViRGE said:
Would a U2412M work? It's eIPS, so it's only 6-bit, but that may be good enough for large values of "decent color accuracy."
Click to expand...
Remobz said:
Dell U2412M is a low end IPS, but worth the money if one is on a budget.
Click to expand...
I'll look into this as well, there's probably a review for it on the review site that BrightCandle mentioned above. It appears that the sale on this one expired locally though, so I'd have to fork out 299.90€ for it.
 
Last edited:
After reading a very exhaustive review at TFT Central, I've come to the conclusion that this particular monitor would fill my needs rather well. As a result, I'm considering bumping up my modest budget up to 300€. I could manage it, because the store is having one of those "buy now, pay in February w/ 0% interest" deals.

I haven't seen anything comparable from the other good brands at this price, so U2412M is definitely the top candidate as of now. I do have one concern though: the anti-glare coating on the U2412M panel is said by some to be... well, inadequate, to put it nicely. The question is, would I actually notice anything since I've never had a desktop monitor with a glossy panel finish?
 
For Photoshop I recommend the asus PA246Q. I have it and the colors are amazing. I don't game so I can't say anything in that regard.
 
Well, after reading more reviews and user comments I came to the conclusion that the anti-glare coating issue is more of a bother to people who are used to glossy panels.

The gaming performance apparently isn't bad either, although some ghosting in fast paced FPS games was reported, as well as some movies. I don't watch movies on my computers though, so that point is moot. I mostly play RPGs and strategy games, so I don't think that the ghosting will be an issue. On the plus side, there isn't that much input lag.

Dell UltraSharp U2412M appears to be a great monitor for its price, so I went ahead and ordered one for 299.90 euros. It should arrive within 2-5 business days, so I'll most likely be able to post my comments on it next week or so.
 
General Kenobi said:
Well, after reading more reviews and user comments I came to the conclusion that the anti-glare coating issue is more of a bother to people who are used to glossy panels.

The gaming performance apparently isn't bad either, although some ghosting in fast paced FPS games was reported, as well as some movies. I don't watch movies on my computers though, so that point is moot. I mostly play RPGs and strategy games, so I don't think that the ghosting will be an issue. On the plus side, there isn't that much input lag.

Dell UltraSharp U2412M appears to be a great monitor for its price, so I went ahead and ordered one for 299.90 euros. It should arrive within 2-5 business days, so I'll most likely be able to post my comments on it next week or so.
Click to expand...


Yes, I am looking forward to your comments. Hope you like it🙂
 
General Kenobi said:
Dell UltraSharp U2412M appears to be a great monitor for its price, so I went ahead and ordered one for 299.90 euros. It should arrive within 2-5 business days, so I'll most likely be able to post my comments on it next week or so.
Click to expand...

Funny the price difference; you're getting a 130 euro difference between the dell and the asus. I just checked and the price difference in the US is about $85 or 64 euro
 
There is only one glossy IPS monitor, which is what you want for photo editing, the Apple Cinema.

A dirty looking sparkly antireflective coat is horrible when you're trying to see a picture.
 
General Kenobi said:
Dell UltraSharp U2412M appears to be a great monitor for its price, so I went ahead and ordered one for 299.90 euros. It should arrive within 2-5 business days, so I'll most likely be able to post my comments on it next week or so.
Click to expand...

Please post your thoughts fter yoou have had a chance to play around with the monitor. Especially the gaming aaspect. I have been looking at that monitor for little while now.
 
cantholdanymore said:
Funny the price difference; you're getting a 130 euro difference between the dell and the asus. I just checked and the price difference in the US is about $85 or 64 euro
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's the taxes. Finland likes to put high taxes on pretty much everything. Nordic welfare state at its finest.

Throckmorton said:
There is only one glossy IPS monitor, which is what you want for photo editing, the Apple Cinema.

A dirty looking sparkly antireflective coat is horrible when you're trying to see a picture.
Click to expand...
And I don't use a Mac. Not to mention that those monitors cost around 400 euros used here at 24". Yeah, used.
 
Last edited:
Alright, I've been testing the monitor for some hours now, and here are my thoughts on this upgrade.

Included: Monitor Stand, Instruction Leaflets, Driver CD, VGA Cable, DVI-D Cable, PC USB Connector Cable, Power Cable. Note that this monitor doesn't have an HDMI port.

Exterior: U2412M has a very nice black matte finish (you can also get it in silver), and the included monitor stand is really easy to attach or remove, it's basically a push-click system. The stand is also very sturdy for a plastic piece - it doesn't wobble, and the monitor hardly ever shakes if you don't bump into your table. The monitor tilting (sideways, up & down) works smoothly, and isn't too loose if you accidentally bump it with your hand while plugging USB devices. The height adjustment is the icing on the cake - it just seems so effortless, yet you can be sure that it doesn't move on its own. Bonus points for the internal power supply!

Defect Status: I couldn't believe my luck when I confirmed that there weren't any(!) dead or stuck pixels on this 24" monitor. I guess Dell puts more emphasis on quality control than LG. Or maybe I just got lucky here. There's very little backlight bleeding in my unit, so little in fact that I can only spot it with a full black screen, which is a rare occurrence.

Panel Quality: The panel quality is pretty obvious in use after switching from my old TN panel to this low-end IPS one. The color accuracy is pretty good out of the box as well, but a calibrated .icc profile will provide even better results. The Standard mode is the most accurate mode out of the box. U2412M is everything you'd expect from an (e-)IPS panel in this price range according to my research. However, if you're coming off a glossy monitor, this Dell UltraSharp may not appeal to you, as the anti-glare coating is present. My old monitor's panel also has a matte finish, so personally I don't really notice it unless I look for it.

Menu Design: The menu system for making hardware side tweaks and calibrations is pretty clear in my opinion, and you can also change the default functions for the quick keys. It has automatic input source detection on by default (VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort).

Windows Environment: I haven't encountered any issues in standard use, although you may want to tweak your system font size / style depending on how small text you're comfortable reading with each font style. Text sharpness and readability are above average even on default Windows font settings, and this is at only 50% monitor sharpness (default). If you're looking for a monitor for text editing purposes, I'd still shop around, although I've heard several coders mention their like for this monitor. It's definitely too bright on its default setting, so I dropped the Brightness level to 35%. Note that I don't have to deal with anything but artificial lighting.

Gaming: I haven't noticed any ghosting while playing games, even though this monitor does have a higher latency value than most TN panels. And there's basically no input lag. The color reproduction is excellent at this price. Altogether I've been pleased with U2412M's gaming performance, and my conclusion is that it's unlikely that you'll notice any major ghosting even in fast paced shooters unless you're a professional gamer or reviewer.

Photoshop: The color accuracy is also more than adequate for my (non-professional) graphics work in Photoshop CS4. I don't do 3d, so I can't comment on that.

Conclusion: Dell UltraSharp U2412M is the best monitor in its price range for me, and I'm definitely not regretting purchasing one. After I get my new rig together, this monitor will top it off nicely. I would recommend this monitor if you like gaming and graphics designing on a non-professional basis.
 
Yeah. I don't have DisplayPort compatible hardware on the other end at the moment. Not that I actually need DP yet anyway. Dell didn't include a DP cable either, although I must say that it would have been surprising on a value-based model like U2412M.

And VGA... well, who would buy an UltraSharp only to use VGA? 😛
 
Your review pretty much matches my experience. I've been with mine for well over a month now. Much nicer than my old PVA panel Dell Ultrasharps.

Seems like they made the right tradeoffs to keep the price down and an excellent option for a significant bump up in color quality for the lowest price.

I don't know if you've been fiddling with the RGB, but I settled in at 98R / 90G / 92B / 50 contrast / 35 brightness.
 
Concillian said:
Your review pretty much matches my experience. I've been with mine for well over a month now. Much nicer than my old PVA panel Dell Ultrasharps.

Seems like they made the right tradeoffs to keep the price down and an excellent option for a significant bump up in color quality for the lowest price.

I don't know if you've been fiddling with the RGB, but I settled in at 98R / 90G / 92B / 50 contrast / 35 brightness.
Click to expand...
I haven't done much tweaking on it yet, as I've been somewhat busy during the Holidays. I've noticed that 75% contrast is pretty much optimal under normal lighting though, but I haven't tested it at 50% yet.
 
Thanks for the good review. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for my next monitor purchase, this one will definitely be on my list now.
 
No problem, I'm glad if you found it useful. And like said, the only real knack on this monitor (for non-professional use) is the fact that it has anti-glare coating if you absolutely hate it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top