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What monitor to replace Dell 2209WA

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What monitor to replace Dell 2209WA

I am out of ideas...

from Elemental Forums

I have a question for y'all self-taught experts in things shiny and coloful (lcd displays, not dwarven gems), so gather round and listen my sad story.

 

In 2009, I saw that a pearl among the monitors is coming to the market - Dell 2209WA, a true 8-bit color e-IPS, with wunderbar colors, slightly larger input lag, I give you that, but otherwise an excellent panel. We lived happily since then, but recently, an ugly yellow vertical line of non-functional blue sub-pixels have scarred this beauty, so it's time to claim my warranty.

Sadly, the monitor is discontinued, so I stand before the question what to pick instead? Dell support was kind enough to supply me with Dell U2311H, but since it is just a 6-bit + FRC panel, I mind the flickering caused by the temporal dithering. Also, the left side of the panel is tinted towards blue, while the reight is slightly more red. What's more, the panel emits a high-pitched sound when operating - not too loud, but enough to be bothersome. I am obviously not too happy with such a replacement, but what model would you recommend? I will gladly pay something extra to get on par with the 2209WA celestial perfection, but sadly, all the "new" models seem like serious downgrades.

133,998 views 26 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Hello, 

Asus PA246Q had good reviews. It all depends on whether you can stand the horrible WLED backlight or not. I found out I could not, so I reduced my demands to absolute minimum and found out that I will rather have worse colors and viewing angles than the horrible stroboscopic ghosting the combination of WLED + IPS (PLS) showed me, and I jumped for one of the last old, and discounted Benq G2420HD TN monitors, and I am quite happy with it. After a few weeks, the perceived downgrade of color quality vanished (after all, I mostly work with UNIX terminals and play games), while the fast response and consistent low input lag is a nice thing (and yes, even 2209WA had input lag spikes). As a nice bonus, it has a HDMI port, so I can use both my PS3 and PC without the need to touch the cables. But most importantly, I can work all day and game in the evening, and my eyes are just fine.

I hope that this BENQ will last until the WLED tech is ironed out ( I have heard that people are able to modify the PWM cycle to have less abrupt changes of state by HW modification [capacitors? I am not an expert in this]), or OLEDs finally become affordable (I am willing to shell a lot for an OLED monitor).

However, the sad reality of today is that even a lot of money won't buy you a good, ergonomic monitor today.

As for you, it all depends on what your preferences are - if you insist on IPS and the nice colors, I recommend that Eizo Foris 2332, it's really a decent monitor, but the eyestrain is a killer (for me). If your preference is fast, twitchy gaming, I recommend a 120Hz TN monitor - I did not get one, because of the eyestrain problem (there were no CCFL ones in the market anymore). If you need deep blacks for movies, xVA tech is the way to go. It all depends on whether you can stand WLED backlight. If not (like me), you will have to hunt for preowned pieces, or obscure shops with really old stocks.

Good luck in any case!