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I've been using the Dell Ultrasharp 2709W for a few days now and everything has settled down now. I thought i'd do a mini-review to highlight the good and bad points as I see them. The background to this purchase was that I wanted to move my Xbox 360 into my study and needed a Full-HD (1080p) display for that. I also wanted to get rid of a 7" LCD TV that was on my desk as I had also purchased a PCI TV card and wanted to view TV programmes via my PC.
Furthermore, I also wanted to play games like Flight Sim X at very high resolutions. I was using a 19" TFT prior to the Dell Ultrasharp 2709W.
Make and Model: Dell Ultrasharp 2709W
Price: £439.74 (inclusive of VAT and postage)
Source: Dell
Buying Experience
It's hard to fault the buying experience when buying something from Dell. As usual, the order process was smooth and quick. I got confirmation emails instantly. The price was very good as it included a 25% discount from Dell. I was a bit concerned about the long estimated delivery date but got a very pleasant surprise when the monitor turned up in just two working days!
Setting Up
The monitor is well packaged and the box is designed very well to aid unpacking. It's a fairly heavy monitor, as is to be expected. The base is already attached to the monitor so there's no fiddling around with trying to get the base attached. The top foam packaging also holds the various cables and quickstart leaflet. Once the top foam packaging is lifted out of the box, you can lift the monitor straight out. The screen itself and the base is protected with some soft, thick, paper-like material. Once removed, the viewing area has an additional sheet of protection that is easily removed.
There are plenty of inputs on this monitor: 2 x DVI, 1 x VGA, 1 x component, 1 x composite, 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI. The monitor also has 2 x USB ports and 2 card readers. All in all, a very comprehensive set of inputs and useful ports.
Setting up was very simple. Simply plug the mains cable in and hook up all the sources. I used the supplied DVI cable to attach my PC to the monitor and component video cables for my Xbox 360. There is also an upstream USB connection on the monitor which connects up the two USB ports on the left-hand side of the bezel (two card readers are also located on this edge).
I also managed to perch my Logitech webcam on the top bezel of the monitor.
In Use
The monitor is powered up via a touch-sensitive power switch. It emits a long beep and then scans the inputs for a video source. It found the signal from my PC on the DVI socket without any issues. I found the monitor quite daunting as it is so large when viewed on a desk from just a couple of feet away. I have to be honest and, for a moment, I wanted to get my old 19" monitor back!
The display is very bright but you get used to it after a few days. It feels strange to run a browser session in full-screen mode. There is simply too much screen space. So, I now run everything windowed.
The screen adjusts very well. It can be rotated in the horizontal plane, lifted and lowered and tilted. Thus, it should be possible to adjust the screen so that you can view it comfortably. The base of the monitor has a smallish hole for cable management.
One minor point worth mentioning is that the Dell logo on the bottom bezel of the monitor is highly polished chrome and reflections on it can be a bit distracting.
There were no pixel issues at 1920x1200 32-bit resolution. I haven't noticed any issues with colour either.
Now some bad points: the user controls were a nightmare initially. I switched on my Xbox and wanted to change the input source but couldn't get the monitor to recognise any of my presses on the touch-sensitive buttons. There are five more touch-sensitive buttons located just above the power button on the bottom-right bezel. The power button is always illuminated when the monitor is powered on. As you move your hand toward the bottom-right bezel, the first control button illuminates. This is effectively the menu button that has to be pressed to get access to the functions on the other buttons.
Initially, this simply didn't work. I pressed and pressed and pressed this button but nothing happened. After an hour of trying I decided to RMA the monitor back to Dell. I then experimented a little and found a way to operate the touch-sensitive buttons: grab the back of the bezel with your four fingers and lightly touch the button with the fleshy part of your thumb - the tip doesn't work for me. Operating this menu button lights up all five buttons and displays their function on the screen next to them. The functions are:
- Preset Modes
- Brightness/Contrast
- Input Source
- Menu
- Exit
Selecting one of the functions brings up further menu options. I haven't really changed any of the default settings as these are fine for me. Selecting the component video source for my Xbox 360 resulted in an incredible picture. It's almost as if i've upgraded my games console as the difference is so noticeable. This alone is worth the price of the monitor!
I've also tried Flight Sim X in 1920x1200 mode and it looks amazing (but it only works at 16-bit colour depth at this resolution). I haven't tried any other PC games yet.
There is also a picture-in-picture option on the 2709W but I haven't explored this yet.
Summary
It's a very good purchase for me as it has allowed me to have a single display for my PC, watching TV in my study and console gaming. It's a very big step up from a 19" screen and looks big on a desk. The plethora of inputs has proved to be very useful as has the USB ports and card readers incorporated in the monitor.
The picture quality is very good, particularly if using a games console at 1080p.
The slight downside is the sensitivity of the touch-sensitive buttons that can prove to be frustrating initially. However, I have worked out a method of operating them that works every time now. The other minor issue the highly-reflective Dell logo that can be distracting.
Other than that, it's a cracking monitor and at the current discounted price, would be a better buy than the 24" Dell monitor if you have the required desk space.
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It's begging to be bought. Lots of beans on toast in my future I think lol
Originally Posted by edjay
