Why You Can Trust CNET Dell S2409W review: Dell S2409W
Dell S2409W
If you're looking for a low-priced 24-inch monitor, the Dell S2409W will serve you well. For as little as $300, the Dell gives you VGA, DVI, and HDMI connections, great performance for games and movies, and an intuitive and elegantly designed onscreen display (OSD) that includes a plethora of useful options. Compared with the $690, 24-inch Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP, the S2409W lacks connection options and ergonomic features. Still, if price is your focus, the Dell S2409W provides good quality for the money. The BenQ E2400HD is available for about the same price, but it has slightly worse performance and fewer OSD options.
Dell S2409W
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Design and features
The bezel of the 24-inch Dell S2409W is a striking, glossy black that reflects everything. The bezel measures a short 0.75 inch long on all sides, and the middle bottom of the bezel has a slightly flush, silver Dell logo on it. The panel is nearly 1 inch deep, which is thin for a 24-incher. (Most 24-inch monitors we've tested have panels well over an inch deep.) A thin, 1 centimeter strip wraps around the outer edge of the panel, bringing the panel width to 22.75 inches; that's about average for a monitor of this screen size.
The circular footstand is nearly 9 inches in diameter and unfortunately doesn't provide the type of stability we expect; it doesn't take much lateral force to wobble the whole display.
As mentioned, the Dell S2409W can be found for as low as $300, but not without some sacrifices. To get the price that low, Dell skimped on a few ergonomic features, including screen height adjustment, rotation, and pivoting. The screen does tilt back 20 degrees and forward 5 degrees, but that--and a hole in the display's neck to route your cables--is all the ergonomic benefits you get.
The Dell S2409W's connection options include the video connection trifecta of VGA, DVI, and HDMI. Although the VGA and HDMI are easy to reach, the DVI port sits just a little too close to the display's neck to rule out hand cramping when trying to connect the cable. Sadly, Dell only includes a single VGA cable with the monitor, so if you want to risk hand cramping, you'll have to invest further.
The OSD button labels are located on the bottom right side of the bezel and consist of four buttons (located on the right side of the panel): a Menu button, an Up button, a Down button, and an Enter button. Calibrating the display using the OSD in a lit room where you can see the labels is simple and easy. Worse, the buttons are only separated by a sliver of space, so it's difficult to tell where one button begins and another ends.
If you'd rather not deal with the sometimes headache-inducing process of calibration, the OSD includes nine preset modes including Standard, Movie, Sports, Nature, Game, Multimedia, Cool, and Warm. Each mode alters the sharpness and color temperature in an attempt to make it more suited for the task at hand. We found that the Standard preset was the best all around for movies. The Movie preset's picture is over-tuned to the point that dithering is very much apparent and details that should look smooth look bumpy instead. The Game preset, however, was tuned better than Standard for games.
The OSD interface is the same one Dell started using for the Dell Crystal. It's an elegant and intuitive interface that includes typical controls for brightness, contrast, and color options, but also controls that directly affect the OSD, like a menu timer and controls to modify the OSD's level of transparency.
The most touted feature of the 24-inch Dell S2409W is its 16:9 aspect ratio, which supports a resolution of 1,920x1,080. Dell and other vendors refer to monitors capable of this resolution as "Full HD" monitors. This is an interesting name given that a 16:10 24-incher would have an even higher native resolution of 1,920x1,200, but we digress.
More and more monitor vendors are starting to move toward 16:9 from 16:10. The main reason for this is that hi-def content, in particular 1080p movies, can fit onto a 1,920x1,080 screen without necessitating that the image being stretched or scrunched.
Manufacturer's specs:
Resolution: 1,920x1,080
Pixel-response rate: 5ms
Contrast ratio: 1,000:1
Brightness: 300cd/m2
Connectivity: HDMI, DVI, VGA
HDCP compliant? Yes
Included video cables? VGA
Performance
We tested the Dell S2409W with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 87 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests compared with the 24-inch BenQ E2400HD's score of 85. The two displays exhibited similar performance in most of the DisplayMate test screens, but the Dell scored slightly better in our color tracking tests as it exhibited no noticeable compression or expansion at the dark or light ends of the color scale. A color-tracking error occurs when the intensity of red, green, and blue (RGB) do not adjust identically with signal-level changes. During two color tests, Low Saturation Colors and 64-256 Intensity Color Ramp, the BenQ showed clear signs of expansion at the light end of the scale, while the Dell displayed the colors in the scale smoothly.
The Dell S2409W posted a brightness score of 242 candelas per square meters (cd/m2), according to our test, which is lower than the 300 cd/m2 maximum claimed by Dell. The BenQ E2400HD barely bested it with a 246 cd/m2 brightness rating. Contrast ratio was more favoring to the Dell as we measured it at a 1,001:1 contrast ratio, virtually the same as Dell's claimed 1,000:1 rating. This beat out BenQ's 892:1 contrast ratio by more than 100.
We got a huge surprise when we looked at World of Warcraft on the Dell S2409W; it looked crisp, colorful, and darn near perfect running at 1,920x1,080. WoW looks great on pretty much every monitor we test, however, we do want to point out a viewing angle problem. Unfortunately, viewing the game from a lower-than-optimal viewing angle made the screen darken to the point that graphic details of the game could not be seen--typical of most TN panels. See the paragraph at the bottom of this section for more details on viewing angle.
When watching our favorite test scenes in the Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD on the Dell S2409W, what we noticed most was that its performance was virtually identical to the BenQ E2400HD's. Colors were vibrant, but didn't have the same kind of pop like we saw with the Apple LED Cinema Display. The blacks were deep without losing any dark details in dark scenes. We didn't notice any streaking or ghosting, and the screen remained sharp for a DVD.
The 1080p Blu-ray version of House of Flying Daggers looked great for the same reasons stated above; however, we did not notice any quality advantage to the screen's 16:9 aspect ratio.
The best settings we determined for watching games and movies on the Dell S2409W, was Standard preset mode, with a contrast of 65, and the brightness set however high your eyes can take. We settled on an 87 for brightness.
The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colors and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, picture quality at nonoptimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from nonoptimal angles. Both the Dell S2409W and the BenQ E2400HD displays use TN panels, and when they are viewed from the side angles, the screens appeared to only darken slightly. When viewed from the bottom the screen darkened immediately but not as dramatically as some smaller monitors like the Gateway HD1900 and the Samsung SyncMaster 953BW. Of course, when viewed from the optimal angle, we had no problems.
 Juice box |
| Dell S2409W | Average watts per hour |
| On (Default Luminance) | 36.1 |
| On (Max Luminance) | 41.58 |
| On (Min Luminance) | 18.11 |
| Sleep | 0.84 |
| Calibrated (200 cd/m2) | 33.08 |
| Score | Fair |
| Annual energy cost (@$0.1135/kWh) | $11.35 |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Find out more about how we test LCD monitors
Service and support
Dell backs the S2409W with great coverage, including a three-year parts-and-labor warranty that covers the backlight. It also offers support through a 24-7 toll free number, 24-7 Web chat, and fast 24- to 48-hour turnaround e-mail. Navigating Dell's site and finding the drivers, product manual, and quick guide was simple and easy.
Dell S2409W
Score Breakdown
