Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" IPS LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 8 ms

I just want to write this review for people who wants to register this monitor with Dell so that it will be covered by Dell 3 years dead pixel warranty. If you chat with Dell reps, they will say that the monitor is not covered under Dell bc it was a third party purchase and all warranty will be referred to the original place of purchase. If you chat with Amazon reps, they will say that the monitor will only have the standard Amazon 30 days refund/replace warranty. By searching the Dell forum, I've found out that it is possible to have this monitor purchased from Amazon and still be covered under Dell's warranty. I have done this and it does work, although it was a bit of a hassle from Dell reps. My recommendation is if it is the same to purchase from Dell and Amazon (i.e. same price after price match, plus tax and shipping), then do yourself a favor and buy it directly from Dell. I only bought it from Amazon bc I have gift cards.Here is what you have to do:First, do not call the number provided by Dell website as they would just transfer you all over the place or hang up on you. Instead, call this direct number: 1-800-624-9897.Once on the line, tell the rep that you need to create a unique Dell Order number for the monitor that you bought from Amazon. They will contact the "Tag Team", at which point you will need to provide the following information.Purchased Retailer name:Purchase Date:Monitor Model:20 digit Serial Number (PPID):Your InformationEmail:Name:Shipping Address:Phone:Once everything is done, you will be provided with a Unique Dell Order Number to write down.Now that is over with, I can proceed to write about what I think of the monitor. So far, it has performed beautifully. The anti-glare coating is a bit intrusive for me but I like it better than having a reflective screen. Of course, having anti-glare means that the picture won't be as sharp, relatively speaking of course. Still very sharp compared to TN panel. As for the color and picture quality, it is excellent out of the box. However, I have chosen to use flatpanelsHD.com calibration number and it is much better. Made the color more accurate. Just make sure you have the right Revision as there are many different revision on this monitor out there and each one is calibrated differently at default. You can find your revision number on the label sticker with your serial number. I have revision 00, assembled in January 2013.As for connection, I have no problem with the lack of HDMI as the monitor does not have a speaker anyway. I use an HDMI to DVI cable and a regular 3.5mm audio output for sound from my laptop. It is a bit unfortunate that a DisplayPort cable was not provided as I could have used that for my laptop connection and have the DVI port for my PS3. For PS3, I use HDMI to DVI and a standard PS3 A/V output for the audio. You need to change audio output in the PS3 setting for this to work. For XBOX 360, I use the VGA output which also has L/R audio.Set up out of the box was a breeze. The range of movement for this monitor along with the stability of the base is excellent. I love that I can rotate it in portrait mode for web browsing as it gives me a lot of real estate or to play shmups in TATE mode. If you need to rotate it counterclockwise, then just unscrew the four screws in the back plate, rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, and screw it back.Playing game on this using the XBOX 360 or PS3, I have noticed no lag or blur images. However, I don't play any fast moving games like FPS or fighting games so it is not really a big test for the monitor. Watching Blu-ray movies on this monitor is not too bad. While the color is brilliant, the black is not that great. IPS monitors are not known for their great contrast or minimal lag time. If you bought this monitor, then you would have already known that. It is excellent for graphic/photo editing and pretty good for movie and games. Color reproduction of photo's taken by my camera are very detailed, very accurate. If you want to buy a monitor mainly for games or movies, then go with TN monitor. If you want accurate color reproduction and viewing angle, then go with IPS monitor. If you want something in between as a compromise, then go with VA monitor.It's been one week and it is still working great. I have not seen any dead or stuck pixel. I have also noticed that the monitor does not give off a lot of heat. The monitor control is very easy to use. Sure, there are a lot better monitors out there, but they are very expensive. For $200 plus tax (Texas resident), I think you can do a lot worse than this IPS monitor. Very happy with my purchase.

I've been using Dell flat panel monitors for quite a while now. My first was a Dell 2005FPW, which I now use as a secondary monitor. I have Dell 2209's and 2210's at work, and have previously used 2207's. Each monitor has been incrementally better than the previous, but these IPS LED panels are more than an incremental improvement. The backlighting is remarkably even for this price point, colors are accurate and consistent without being overly (and unrealistically) vibrant, and the U2312HM has all the connectors you expect from a monitor these days.Being a very picky, almost videophile user, I found the on-screen controls to be a bit lacking, but far beyond my Acer 24" LED (my one and only foray into Acer monitors because it was terrible). I used the Lagom calibration website (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/) and the on-screen controls to get the monitor as close as I could to perfectly calibrated, then ran through the site again with the NVidia software to dial the screen the rest of the way in to perfect. It was far less time-consuming than when I did the same with my Acer, and was slightly faster than doing it with my old Dell 2005FPW (thanks to more robust on-screen controls making the second pass much quicker).Once dialed in, this monitor is really beautiful. As I mentioned before, this monitor replaced a truly terrible Acer 24" LED and the difference when playing games is tremendous. Darker games like Diablo 3 don't wash out as the LED backlight is even and not excessively bright. More colorful games like Super Hexagon really pop, adding new dimension to some of my older games (Assassin's Creed never looked this good on my old Dell or the Acer). Ghosting doesn't appear to be much of an issue with this monitor, though I'm coming from a truly terrible monitor that ghosted like crazy, so I may not be the best source for that.As I also use this monitor as my primary monitor when telecommuting, text quality is also very important to me. I use Visual Studio and Eclipse on a daily basis, and have fairly bright text on a black background in both IDEs. I've found that this reduces eye strain for me, and switching from the Acer, which blew out the black to a medium gray color, has further reduced eye strain. Black text on a white background, like most websites will probably use until we pry white backgrounds from their cold, dead hands, is more jarring but still crystal clear on this monitor. I don't personally use the monitor in portrait orientation, but many of my coworkers use theirs in that way. So good news for them, as this monitor's stand is actually tall enough to allow for that! I do use the rotation on the stand to easily plug in cables though, so it has utility beyond simply keeping the monitor in portrait orientation.My only observed flaws are pretty minor. The input selection is a little goofy, as the monitor doesn't have a dedicated input selection button like my old Dell 2005. Instead, source selection is opened when pressing either of the two lower buttons (directly above the power button) if the active source has no signal. If you have a signal on the active source, then you have to go through the main menu to the Input Source sub-menu and change it there. Seems like a lot of clicks to eliminate a single physical button. It's also stupid to me that the on-screen menu isn't consistent with what is opened when pressing buttons. All things considered though, it's a minor annoyance.Another minor annoyance to me is that the power button doesn't respond to quick presses. Every monitor I've ever owned does, so I've spent the last 15 years developing a habit of quickly tapping the power button on each monitor and my desktop when I walk away from my desk for the night. Unfortunately, that has led to this monitor being left in Sleep Mode all night. Again, it's a minor annoyance, but I guess having this feature is good for some as it prevents someone from accidentally turning off their monitor in the middle of something important.tl;dr: Great monitor with even backlighting, excellent colors, adequate calibration capabilities built in, and plenty of connection types, all at a bargain price for its size. Given the price difference, I don't see the need to get those extra 120 lines for the 24" version. A must buy for anyone looking for a quality monitor at the $200 price range.