Dell’s attractive 2407WFP has been sitting pretty on the A-List since June and it’s easy to see why. Nothing comes close to it on the catwalk with its elegant yet sturdy silver stand, while it’s future-proof thanks to HDCP compliance and a stunning array of ports and extras.

Rotate the screen through 90 degrees and you’ll find DVI and VGA inputs, along with component, composite and S-Video for other sources. On the left of the screen is a media card reader for all formats bar xD-Picture cards, and there are two convenient USB ports on the side and a further two round the back.

The stand is height-adjustable by 100mm as well as tilting and swivelling, and the side bezels are just 20mm wide. No speakers are integrated, although an optional 2 x 5W speaker bar can be added for $79.

The 2407WFP is easy to set up thanks to the clearly marked buttons and graphical OSD. The brightness setting is too dark by default, so we pushed it to maximum (rated at 450cd/m2) and switched to custom colour mode. With all three individual colours (RGB) set to maximum, the display is vivid, bright and a joy to use.

The 1920 x 1200 resolution is perfect for 1080p video and placing two documents side-by-side. Also, the picture-in-picture function means you can view two video sources simultaneously. But the 2407WFP does have its weaknesses. Our colour ramp tests showed minor banding, which doesn’t bode well for smooth colour transitions, and we saw occasional evidence of this in shadowy areas of our DVD. It’s hardly noticeable, though, nor is the slight blue tinge to the screen. The 16ms response time looks a little tardy and meant there was a tiny amount of blurring visible in fast-moving scenes.

The Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP is an impressive LCD and, if an HDMI port isn’t required, it’s a more stylish alternative to the BenQ.