When we first reviewed the 2407WFP, it was one of only a handful of 24in LCDs and, although it had features way ahead of its time, the price was prohibitive. Now, everyone’s churning out 24in models at increasingly attractive prices, so we weren’t surprised to see Dell go back to its 24in blueprints.

The result is the UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC, essentially the same monitor but with a new S-PVA panel that can now display 92% of the NTSC colour gamut, hence the ‘high-colour’ (HC) suffix. The price is up a little, too, so we hooked it up to a PC via DVI to see if the difference was noticeable. At first glance, a nasty green tinge had us fearing the worst, but a bit of tweaking worked wonders.

None of the preset colour schemes produced a usable image, but switching to custom colour eliminated our fears and produced a beautiful white. We then raised the brightness and lowered the contrast to give a nicely balanced image. Whites are bright, yet our black screen showed no backlight bleed or uneven areas.

Gradient ramps were flawlessly reproduced, as were our greyscale tinting tests. The only technical setback occurred in our motion test, which the Dell couldn’t reproduce without stuttering. This would suggest it may not be ideal for entertainment uses, although we didn’t see any related problems in our real-world video and gaming tests.

Elsewhere, the Dell retains the futuristic styling, with the superb stand that tilts, turns, rotates and lifts through 10cm. There’s no HDMI, but you get DVI (with HDCP compliance) and VGA. There are also component, composite and S-Video connections, and an optional 10W soundbar can be added.

Comparing it to the A-Listed Samsung 245BW is hard, as this is better equipped and designed. But whether it’s $100 better is debatable. Photo and video editors will love the increased colour gamut, but entertainment lovers may stick with the Samsung.

Copyright © 2008 Dennis Publishing

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