I've been a computer gamer for as long as I can remember. I always had to have the best graphics card available and if my cpu was not in the top 20% I was unable to sleep. Things change though and a high framerate is no longer my top priority (although it is still important). Instead I now strive for the highest possible image quality. I was quite content with my gaming framerate, but I realized that all the beautiful colors the card was rendering were not being shown in their true glory due to my rather small and dated monitor. Fast forward a few weeks and I have Dell's 24" monitor sitting right here on my desk, just waiting to give me a tan from the explosions in Battlefield 2142.

The Dell 2407WFP

The 2407WFP is Dell's newest 24" widescreen monitor. It's not the biggest they manufacture, but 24" gives the highest value for money especially as resolutions over 1920x1200 tend to require a good dual graphics card solution for modern gaming titles.

As you can see in the above shot the box looks rather bland and except for the small 2407WFT text on one side you'd be hard press to guess the contents of it. Inside the monitor is firmly held in place by a Styrofoam frame.

The packaging also includes a VGA and DVI cable, an USB upstream cable and the manual/driver CD. All in all pretty much standard fare so far.

The panel

Looking at the panel itself the first thing (besides how big the screen is) that you will notice is how relatively thin it is (8cm at its thickest in the middle of the screen and only 4,5cm at the edges). Considering all the inputs and outputs (more on them in a bit) and the fact that the power supply is internal that is quite an achievement. The border of the screen is perfectly sized at 2cm and contains only the Dell logo and the 6 control buttons.

The stand is well designed with several customization options. The base allows you to rotate the screen by 45° into both directions. You can also tilt the screen by 3°forward 21° backwards. The stand also extends vertically by up to 10cm.

It is also possible to rotate the screen by 90° clockwise and use the monitor in “Portrait view mode” (particularly great for viewing forum style websites). This is done through the graphics drivers (ATI, nVidia and Intel support this via their respective control panel) so you can't just rotate the screen but must also change the view mode in Windows.

The design of both the stand and the panel itself are really slick and minimalistic. The prevalent black color around the screen gives it a mean look while the silver stand and back of the panel provide a nice contrast to the rest. The control buttons located on the bottom right provide good feedback and the 6th one (the power button) has a green LED behind it. To the left of the buttons there are 5 backlit numbers (1-5) which mark which input is being currently used.

Technical screen data
• Monitor size and type : 24" (61.0cm) active matrix TFT
• Resolution : 1920 x 1200 / WUXGA
• Response time / Brightness / Contrast Ratio : 16ms (black to white) or 6ms (grey to grey) / 450 cd/m2/ 1000:1
• Monitor revision: A02

During operation the top of the monitor became very warm to the touch, but moving the hand away by only a few centimeters was all it took to feel no temperature radiation from the screen. Considering its size and the brightness levels we were quite pleased with this.

Inputs/Outputs

The 2407 is loaded with connectors and it supports almost every standard one could think of (save for HDMI unfortunately). Located on the back you can find all the input connectors – the AC power connector, the DC power connector for the Dell Soundbar (optional attachable speaker – not included), the DVI and VGA connectors, the composite and S-Video connectors, the component connectors, an USB upstream port (used to connect the PC to the USB hub of the monitor) and two downstream USB ports (useful for USB mice/keyboards). On the left side of the screen there is a double card reader which supports all the standard memory cards and bellow it there are two additional downstream USB ports.

Interface

The user interface (accessible by pressing the menu control button) is well designed and provides the user with plenty of options. Other than the standard brightness and color settings you can switch the input source (can be done by pressing one of the control buttons when outside of the menu as well), change the color settings (important for people who work with graphics), change the display settings (Wide mode, sharpness and zoom for lower resolutions) and select the image mode (gaming, multimedia and desktop). The later changes the color ranges and enables some color enhancing techniques for gaming and multimedia. If the monitor is connected to an analog source the menu will give you the option to set up the image (pan, stretch, etc.). The last setting in the menu (which is, again, also controllable via a button) is the Picture-in-picture option. As the name implies you can watch the video coming from two inputs, either side by side or by having the second source display itself in a small box in the upper right corner of the screen. Those of you that will use the screen in portrait mode will be happy to hear that you can set the menu to be displayed vertically (horizontally when in the portrait position).