Major Upgrade

Simply put, this monitor exceeded all my expectations.

The first thing anyone notices is the sheer size of the monitor. It is a little intimidating when first pulled out of the box. When I first started using computers I had a twelve inch monitor. Each new monitor was a little bigger than the one that came before it and each increase was welcomed but hardly noticed. Upgrading from my 19" wide screen LCD to this 24" monitor was a bit of a shock. This monitor seems to have roughly the screen area of all my previous monitors combined.

Thankfully in use the monitor is not as overwhelming as first feared. For most tasks anyway. There are still a few things where the size makes it too much to take in but those are generally addressed by windowing the application.

This is the first monitor I have had where I have felt I could run programs in windows without giving up anything. Windowed applications have always been hindered by not being able to display all of the information needed at once. Not so on this monitor. I can run windowed apps in windows roughly equivalent to standard 17" monitors side by side. It is wonderful.

The next major feature of the monitor is it's inputs. There are inputs for VGA, DVI, Composite, S-Video, and component video sources. This allows the monitor to be hooked up to multiple devices, be they computers, DVD Players, Video Game Consoles, or nearly anything else that connects to a television. Switching between inputs is as simple as pushing a button. It also has built in picture in picture and picture by picture which allows viewing content from two sources at the same time.

I have my monitor connected to both my computer and my old Xbox. This allows me to play Xbox games while keeping an eye on program installation progress, download progress, or while waiting for a raid to get ready in an MMO.

I have plans to hook a HDTV satellite receiver to the monitor since the resolution of this monitor is actually higher than HDTV. This not only will provide excellent picture quality but with picture in picture I can keep an eye on the news or a sporting event while working on the computer.

Probably the biggest weak point of the monitor's many inputs is the fact that it does not detect active inputs on it's own so if you turn on a device it stays on whatever device you were using last until you tell it which input to watch. You also need to configure which input to use for picture in picture it is not able to detect that on it's own. I use a Dell projector that is several years old that did this automatically so the fact that this new monitor lacked that functionality was a bit of a surprise. Manually configuring inputs is not hard just an extra step that a modern device should take care of on it's own.

All the video inputs are great but there is no audio inputs which leaves it up to the user to find a way of managing the audio from all the various devices they hook up to the monitor. My HDTV ready television/monitor in my living room addressed this by having inputs for the audio as well as the video and then sending the audio out a single output from whatever device was on the primary screen. I don't know if there was a practical way to build this in to a flat screen monitor, but it does make it so an amplifier or audio switch is almost required to take full advantage of the monitor. I ran the audio from my Xbox to my computer which solves some of the problem but it required adapters and is not scalable to the amount of audio inputs that would be required for all the potential video devices.

Another nice feature is the stand that comes with the monitor. It raises and lowers about 5". It also allows the monitor to be rotated into a portrait orientation. This makes the monitor very nice for reading forums and for print layout. Not everyone will have a use for this feature but those who do will value it and those that don't might get some entertainment from it for the gee whiz factor.

The monitor also has a built in four port USB hub and Memory Card Readers. This provides a handy desktop location to plug in your keyboard and mouse along with two additional devices without cluttering up your desktop with cables running to the computer. The card readers cover most modern flash memory formats which is handy is you have a digital camera.

One accessory I did get for this monitor was the speaker Dell designed for it. The speaker clips on to the bottom of the monitor and draws it's power from the monitor so the only cable visible coming out of it is the audio input cable. It has two headphone jacks as well which makes for a convenient desktop location to plug in headphones. The sound is good but light on Bass due to the small size of the speakers. The volume is more than adequate for most purposes. Making it a great choice for office and general home use. Gamers will want more. A small in-line sub-woofer would be a nice addition for gamers with limited space.

If you are in the market for a monitor of this size the Dell 2407 is one I would not hesitate to recommend. It's clarity, brightness, and features put it ahead of the pack.