The monitors in Dell's UltraSharp line have won numerous Editors' Choice awards over the years in recognition of their excellent performance and plentiful features, and the UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor U2417H ($349.99) continues that trend. This 24-inch display uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology to deliver spot-on color accuracy, excellent grayscale performance, and wide viewing angles. It also has a fully adjustable ergonomic stand, a four-port USB 3.0 hub, three digital video inputs, and a DisplayPort output for connecting multiple monitors. It's a bit pricey for a 1080p display, but it's still our top pick for midsize, mainstream monitors.
Design and Features
The U2417H($256.49 at Dell) is a sharp-looking monitor. It uses the (almost) bezel-free InfinityEdge design featured on Dell's XPS 13 Touch laptop, making it ideal for side-by-side, multi-monitor applications. The 1,920-by-1,080 panel has a non-reflective coating, a peak brightness of 250 cd/m2, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 16:9 aspect ratio.
The black-and-gray cabinet weighs 7 pounds and is supported by an ergonomic stand that offers tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustments. It also has VESA-compliant mounting holes for use with an optional wall-mounting kit. There are four video ports at the rear of the cabinet, facing downward, including an HDMI/MHL input, a full-size DisplayPort input, a mini-DisplayPort input, and a full-size DisplayPort output that can be used to connect multiple monitors in a daisy-chain configuration. They are joined by an upstream USB 3.0 port, two downstream USB 3.0 ports, and an audio output. Two additional USB 3.0 ports are located on the left side of the cabinet.
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There are five buttons (including the Power button) located under the lower bezel, off to the right. They are used to access and navigate the settings menus, where you can adjust Brightness and Contrast levels and select one of eight picture presets, including Standard, Multimedia, Movie, Game, Paper, Color Temperature, sRGB, and Custom. There are also Sharpness and Dynamic Contrast Ratio settings and a Gamma setting (PC or Mac), but no advanced color settings like you get with the Acer H257HU($369.99 at Acer), another top pick.
The U2417H comes with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight and is covered by Dell's Advanced Exchange Service, which guarantees that a replacement unit will be sent out (if necessary) within one business day. Included in the box are a DisplayPort and USB (upstream) cable, a Quick Start Guide, and a resource CD containing drivers and a User Manual.
Performance
The U2417H is an excellent performer. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, the factory calibrated IPS panel delivered very accurate colors out of the box. Red, green, and blue colors, which are represented by the colored dots, are all aligned with their ideal CIE coordinates, which are represented by the boxes. The panel's ability to display very dark blacks helped punch up colors on my test images, and colors appeared rich and well saturated while displaying scenes from Marvel's Ant-Man on Blu-ray.
The panel aced the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test, cleanly and accurately displaying every shade of gray from dark to light and providing sharp highlight and shadow detail in my test photos. Color quality and image detail remained intact, regardless of the viewing angle.
The U2417H doesn't target gamers, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for some after-hours fun. Although its 6-millisecond pixel response produced noticeable ghosting artifacts in my Crysis 3 (PC) and Grand Theft Auto V (Sony PlayStation 4($799.95 at Amazon)), the artifacts weren't overly intrusive. The panel's 10.2-millisecond input lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command), as measured by a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester, is impressive, but not quite as short as the BenQ XL2430T($470.69 at Walmart) and SW2700PT($529.99 at Amazon), both of which measured 9.5 milliseconds.
The U2417H doesn't offer an Eco power-saving mode, but it doesn't really need one; it consumed a mere 14 watts of power during testing when set to the Standard picture preset. That's a bit more energy efficient than the Acer R240HY($126.49 at Amazon) (19 watts) and quite a bit more efficient than the Viewsonic XG2401($301.14 at Amazon) (29 watts) and the Acer H257HU (32 watts).
Conclusion
The Dell UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor U2417H delivers the rich, accurate colors and superb grayscale performance that we've come to expect from the UltraSharp family of monitors. Its 24-inch IPS panel provides deep blacks and wide viewing angles, and it won't stress your utility bill. Granted, the U2417H's 1,920-by-1,080 panel can't match that of the Acer H257HU (2,560 by 1,440), but its overall performance is on par with the Acer H257HU, and it is equipped with more features, including a fully adjustable stand, a high-speed USB hub, three digital video inputs, and a video output for daisy-chaining multiple monitors. As such, the Dell UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor U2417H is our top pick for midsize, mainstream monitors.
Dell's good-looking UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor U2417H delivers accurate colors, crisp grayscale reproduction, and wide viewing angles, and it's loaded with features.
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