Question about Dell U2312HM

Lightwave · 10 Feb 2012 at 15:46

So I got the Dell Ultrasharp and I'm pretty happy with it, but I noticed something interesting when I compare it with my old laptop screen (it's a 5 year old MSI laptop): The detail of certain subtle textures when viewed on the monitor is actually lower than on my laptop screen. For example the background of http://www.youtube.com/ looks near-solid color, whereas I can clearly see the pattern on my laptop. Here's the youtube background pattern image:

I've noticed this on other sites as well.

Also, on some calibration test pages (e.g. http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php), the near-whites are more easily distinguishable on the laptop screen than on the Dell monitor. I tried playing with different brightness/contrast settings, but it doesn't bring up any more detail. Any ideas if this is normal?

Can anyone with a Dell Ultrasharp clearly see the pattern above?

PCM2 · 10 Feb 2012 at 17:02

You're talking about a patterned texture in this example with very light grey on white. The problem is that the grey will be masked by the matte antiglare surface. Presumably your laptop has a glossy screen? There's the difference.

Lightwave · 10 Feb 2012 at 17:09

Yeah, the laptop screen is glossy. It's a bit unfortunate because I wanted to use the Dell for web design, but now it's hard to work with light textures.

PCM2 · 10 Feb 2012 at 17:40

I understand your frustration. I work with people who need to do 3D modelling with very fine texture detail and they are unable to use the U2711 for that purpose due to the screen surface. Luckily it's a fairly dark lab that the computers in so the super-glossy Apple Cinema Displays work well without reflections being an issue. Given that many people aren't given that luxury a low haze matte surface (like you get on AUO VA panel monitors) would be welcome. There's certainly a gap at the 23-24" screen size where low haze or even glossy IPS panel monitors are concerned. I know this isn't much comfort to you since you can't really change this on the U2312HM but at least you won't rip your hair out in a futile attempt to correct this issue by calibration.