Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" - user experiences?

titaniumx3

titaniumx3

titaniumx3

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I'm looking for a 23" (or larger) 1920x1080 (or higher monitor) for under £300. It's mostly for games, movies and occasional photo editing. I also occasionaly have other people looking at the screen and hence I'm interested monitors with wide viewing angles.

I've looked at reviews on the Dell U2311H and the general consensus is that it has good colours and contrast, with decent black levels. Viewing angles are good, but black level suffers at extreme angles and theres some sort of colour tinting at such angles (?). Pixel response times and input lag is also very good and acceptable for gaming.

I'm in no way looking for a professional quality monitor and at this price, don't expect it anyway and to be fair, I'm pretty happy with the quality of the very average LG 22" TN based LCD I currently have, but obviously would welcome something of better quality; I just don't want it to be any worse!

So, any first hand user experiences would be much appreciated. :)
 
Go from TN to IPS, you go up level :)

I'm using U2311H, everything is so good. And " black level suffers at extreme angles and theres some sort of colour tinting at such angles" is hard to see, tinting and white glow is a specify of IPS panel.

When see at extreme angle you will see some tinting at black color, other color is OK, I don't annoy with that. I take some pics for you, at last pics can you see the difference vs orther pics ? :)

I think you will like with U2311H:







 
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Thanks for the pictures!

It seems the reviews are right, but from your pics, the contrast and colour tinting doesn't seem that bad and something I'm prepared to live with.

Hmmm, choices, choices ...
 
Near as I can tell from mine, the angle's got to be pretty extreme before you notice any tinting. I agree with minhbh - huge upgrade from TN.

It's worth calibrating it though - at the very least you'll want to drop your brightness down to 30%. I use mine for photo editing, so I've colour calibrated it.
 
Possibly a silly question, but what exactly do you mean by calibrating? Are you just playing with the monitor's built settings or are you using some sort of external calibration tool?

Also, can't I just use someone elses calibrated settings for the same monitor?
 
titaniumx3 said:
Possibly a silly question, but what exactly do you mean by calibrating? Are you just playing with the monitor's built settings or are you using some sort of external calibration tool?

Also, can't I just use someone elses calibrated settings for the same monitor?
Click to expand...

Like almost DELL Ultrasharp, the brightness is too high with factory setting, you must adjust it combine adjust red, green, blue color to have best quality and color precisely! That is calibrate.

You can calibrate by adjust "gain color" in hidden menu of LCD too, but with me U2311H don't need go to hidden menu to adjust, adjust common menu is enough.

My setting:
Brightness: 35 (default 75)
Custom RGB:99-95-98
 
Currently have a Samsung 215TW, S-PVA from memory.

Looking at getting a new monitor and im close to hitting place order - Is this worthwhile for me? Keeping in mind the input lag on this monitor, having measured is quite dreadful.
 
After much deliberation I've just ordered the U2311H. In an ideal world I would have prefered a 1080p Monitor that has IPS, LED backlights and 120hz refresh rate all in one package, but I reckon I'll have to wait a fair while untill that becomes a reality.

Also if I were to use the calibrated settings from a review (e.g. www.flatpanelshd.com or www.tftcentral.co.uk) would I get something close to what I'd get if I used a proper monitor calibration tool? I don't require super colour accuracy, but I'd prefer as much colour accuracy without the need to shell out for a calibrator.
 
titaniumx3 said:
After much deliberation I've just ordered the U2311H. In an ideal world I would have prefered a 1080p Monitor that has IPS, LED backlights and 120hz refresh rate all in one package, but I reckon I'll have to wait a fair while untill that becomes a reality.

Also if I were to use the calibrated settings from a review (e.g. www.flatpanelshd.com or www.tftcentral.co.uk) would I get something close to what I'd get if I used a proper monitor calibration tool? I don't require super colour accuracy, but I'd prefer as much colour accuracy without the need to shell out for a calibrator.
Click to expand...

Please let me know which revision you get from ocuk & a mini review would be awesome.
 
titaniumx3 said:
In an ideal world I would have prefered a 1080p Monitor that has IPS, LED backlights and 120hz refresh rate all in one package.
Click to expand...

Same! But not to mention it would probably cost a few hundred pounds more.
rickh said:
Please let me know which revision you get from ocuk
Click to expand...

I asked a few days ago and they said all their stock was A00. :( But mine's arriving tomorrow anyway :)
 
He, I've saw some LED TN, pos is power saving and thin panel, thay can not win IPS with traditional CCF backlight about quality image, panel is key factor.

U2311H after calibrate, it take 25W, same Acer 24 LED panel TN, power save more 2209WA.

And if make LED light for IPS LCD, the price will go up to the sky. About 120Hz, I think it belong technology like as IPS panel only archive 6ms now, hope future IPS upgrade to have fast responsitive and have 120Hz :)

My U2311H Date is 2010/07 and revision is A00
 
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I just got one today, although not from Overclockers. Upgrading from a no-name TN panel from China (got it off my dad, never been able to find out who made it), the leap from TN to IPS wasn't as great as I imagined it would be. However, colourful things look beautiful. Games such as Audiosurf are vibrant, the colours are amazing, and at the 1080p resolution with no pixellation to be seen in games, the graphics become very crisp and lovely. The screen is a nice size, and the stand is wonderful. Playing arcade games in MAME in portrait mode is awesome. Viewing angles are nice, although the image does get a bit tinted when looking at it from an angle. However, you probably won't ever look at it at those angles. It also doesn't feel too hot, and I've had it on for several hours now. However, I am having some issues...

I'm getting quite severe ghosting, it seems. In games such as Crysis, I can notice it pretty well, and even in films (HD or DVD quality, doesn't matter) I'm getting stuttering, especially in panning shots. It's really distracting, and I'm not sure if the monitor's response time is really slow, or if I have a faulty panel. If anyone can help me with this it would be appreciated, as I have 7 days to return it, I think (more if it IS faulty). I've seen a lot of people saying it's fine for gaming, but when I'm getting stuttery images even in films, it makes me wonder if mine is faulty somehow. There are however no dead pixels that I can see. Can someone else who has a U2311H offer some insight into my problems? Maybe there's a certain setting I'm overlooking. I'm going to test it some more and see if I adjust to it. But if not I'll return it.

My monitor was manufacuted on week 23 of 2010, if anyone's interested.
 
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Sushi Cat said:
I just got one today, although not from Overclockers. Upgrading from a no-name TN panel from China (got it off my dad, never been able to find out who made it), the leap from TN to IPS wasn't as great as I imagined it would be. However, colourful things look beautiful. Games such as Audiosurf are vibrant, the colours are amazing, and at the 1080p resolution with no pixellation to be seen in games, the graphics become very crisp and lovely. The screen is a nice size, and the stand is wonderful. Playing arcade games in MAME in portrait mode is awesome. Viewing angles are nice, although the image does get a bit tinted when looking at it from an angle. However, you probably won't ever look at it at those angles. It also doesn't feel too hot, and I've had it on for several hours now. However, I am having some issues...

I'm getting quite severe ghosting, it seems. In games such as Crysis, I can notice it pretty well, and even in films (HD or DVD quality, doesn't matter) I'm getting stuttering, especially in panning shots. It's really distracting, and I'm not sure if the monitor's response time is really slow, or if I have a faulty panel. If anyone can help me with this it would be appreciated, as I have 7 days to return it, I think (more if it IS faulty). I've seen a lot of people saying it's fine for gaming, but when I'm getting stuttery images even in films, it makes me wonder if mine is faulty somehow. There are however no dead pixels that I can see. Can someone else who has a U2311H offer some insight into my problems? Maybe there's a certain setting I'm overlooking. I'm going to test it some more and see if I adjust to it. But if not I'll return it.

My monitor was manufacuted on week 23 of 2010, if anyone's interested.
Click to expand...

Stuttering isn't a symptom of monitor response time.
It's most likely that your pc can't deliver 1080p video smoothly - even doing this is a big job for a not-so-new pc.

Download fraps, run it and then open your video/game.
If the fps (yellow number in top corner) changes during the film then it's your pc for sure & you need to look at getting a better pc.
 
I just bought a new PC tcapable of maxing out Crysis. The specification is:

Processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 (Quad Core) overclocked from 2.66GHz to 3.6GHz
Memory:
4096MB RAM (Corsair GT Dominator)
Hard Drive:
1 TB (Samsung F3 7,200rpm)
Video Card:
ATI Radeon HD 5850 (Flashed with custom BIOS and overclocked)
OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I checked the frame rate, most of the time it sticks at 24FPS and I can still see the "stuttering". It does drop occasionally, but even at points where it's at 24FPS I can still see it.

I guess the actual definition wouldn't be called stuttering, but it looks similar. The image is a bit juttery. Kind of like in this picture - http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zNcUd-6JMdA/RiVwyDfAWvI/AAAAAAAAAjM/L4ZMumSGHyM/s400/Ghosting_1.jpg - only not as bad as that is.

EDIT: Ok I just tried a DVD (Kill Bill Vol.2), instead of a file and I can't see any of the "stuttering" issues I've seen with other things. Odd. The framerate didn't drop once, either. I'm going to test some of my DVD rips vs. my actual DVDs now.
 
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titaniumx3 said:
How many revisions are there and what have the newer revisions changed? How do you check what revision you have?
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Just A00 and A01 to my knowledge. A01 supposedly started showing up mid July. Not sure what they've changed to it though. Maybe the unbalanced luminance or colour tints that some people have been experience.. that's just my speculation though.
 
I just got it and initial impressions of build quality are excellent. It's mostly plastic, but it's the hard as wood type of plastic and feels very sturdy and solid, with no 'creaking' sounds you normally get when handling cheaper monitors. The stand is very well built and very intuitive to use, and provides pretty much all the adjustments I need (height, tilt and rotation). The screen surface has a smooth matte texture and gives off no reflections or glare. Also the styling is spot on, very professional, sleek and clean looking.

As for the screen itself, as soon as I turned it on (without any calibration), I instantly noticed a big difference coming from my 22" TN panel (3 yrs old). The blacks look very black, almost like ink and whites look more white. Colours look impressively vibrant and deep, but more importantly, everything looks much more consistent across the whole screen. In comparision my old TN looks dull and washed out, with blacks looking a complete mess. Plus the slightly tighter pixel pitch makes everything look a bit mroe crisp.

Movies look jaw dropping, literally. Just watched a good 30mins of Avatar (1080p), even though I just put it on for a quick test, it looks that good. As SushiCat said, everything that is colourful, looks beautiful and really catches your eye.

Response times seem more or less the same as my TN panel (2ms), though there does seems to be slightly more blurring when dragging windows across the screen; nothing major though. Using a HD5870 I haven't really noticed any stuttering at all in movies, appart from the usual juddering you get when watching 24fps movies on a 60hz screen. Haven't tried any games yet, but I expect a similiar story.

Thankfully, viewing angles are superior to my previous monitor and while there is a reduction in contrast when viewing from an angle, it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be and the main thing for me is that there's no noticeable colour shift. From extreme angles I did notice a slight purple tint in the corner, but it's not huge and from a such a stupid angle, it's irrelevant to me. This is all in dull daylight conditions (not very bright).

Unfortunately I recently moved into a converted loft and haven't had the time to install curtains, so I can't really tell how the panel will perform under dark conditions, but so far I'm very impressed. :)
 
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