Monitor Review: The 27-inch, DisplayPort-equipped Dell 2709W

Dell’s latest 27-incher, the 2709W is finally here. The 27-inch category is underappreciated in our opinion, because we find that it satisfies a sweet spot that doesn’t really exist with the 30-inch models, and to a lesser extent, the 24-inch models. The problem with 30-inch monitors is what I call the distance-resolution-size relationship. Basically, because of the resolution, you must have the monitor fairly close to you, but because of the size, it’s a little strenuous to take in as a result of it being larger than your normal field of view at that distance. You’ll have to constantly turn your head to look at different parts of the screen. In addition to that, it’s more difficult to have even backlighting in larger monitors, a problem made worse when you sit close, and you need to. We were under the impression that the 24-inch models offered the best distance-resolution-size relationship, but after seeing this 27-incher, we think it takes the cake. You can move the 2709W back to a comfortable distance, where it perfectly occupies your field of view, and look at an almost perfectly even backlight. The resolution at 1920×1200 is the same as 24” models, but is more comfortable to view at the 27” size. It also allows for more flexibility in terms of monitor placement.

 

Aesthetically, we think the 2709W takes a step back from its predecessor, the 2707WFP. That model had a metal casing, a glass base and a beautiful weighted height adjustment. By comparison, the matte black plastic encasing, the plastic base and the occasionally-stuck height adjustment mechanism pale in comparison.

 

 

The 9-in-2 card reader occupies its usual spot, and there are 4 USB 2.0 ports, as usual. Connectivity is definitely better than before with Displayport, HDMI, 2 x DVI and component, so that makes up for the aesthetic loss somewhat.

 

 

One cool thing is capacitive touch controls, though our 3007WFP-HC has them as well. Here though, they somehow detect your presence even before you touch them! Normally, you don’t see anything except the blue status/power light. When you approach it (with your hand or an inanimate object, I did attempt to fool it with my mouse) a light mysteriously appears.

 

You touch this light… and four more appear, along with the menu on the screen. The five blue lights act as soft buttons for the menu, and this one is fairly intuitive as far as monitor menus go. Pull your hand away, and the lights disappear into the black bezel one by one. Nice, but I’d still rather the metal and glass.

 

The display quality is where the 2709W redeems itself and marks a bit of a step forward for computer monitors. You see, the 2709W is the first consumer-grade LCD monitor that is competent in terms of black level and, resultantly contrast. It is not only significantly better than other computer monitors, but better than some LCD TVs as well. And this difference is immediately obvious as well. Others who came and saw the monitor were surprised at the intense blacks and vivid colours.

 

 

A desktop wallpaper of a leopard’s face showed such great contrast between the light and dark spots of fur that I was reminded of the latest and greatest in the other room, the Pioneer PDP-5020HD 50-inch 2nd generation Kuro plasma. OK, so it wasn’t nearly as good as the Pioneer, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. Suffice to say, this is one of the best choices for people who watch movies on their oversize computer monitor, bar none. Lag was not noticeable, though if it is an issue for you, many TN panels are better in this area. Overall though, they cannot compete with superior panels like the one in this 2709W. The colour accuracy is not as good, but more noticeably, colours just look flatter and have less pop. There is also very little colour shift on this unit, a significant departure from the TN we were previously testing. The colours out of the box were quite decent, and after a little calibration were just about excellent. Most 24- and 27-inch models have some sort of built-in scaling, and this one does as well. On a purely subjective level, the quality of scaling appears to be much better than the 24-inch 2408WFP and its predecessors. No “jaggies” were visible at any time, even in BIOS, so kudos to Dell on this feature. Our unit didn’t have any dead pixels, just like all the other Dell Ultrasharps that have made their way here, but curiously had dancing red pixels around some text when connected to our Hackintosh running 10.5.4. It didn’t exhibit this phenomenon in Vista, but strangely again, it surfaced when connected to another computer running XP. We have concluded that it is indeed the monitor, and we’re looking into it further.

If I may relate monitors to cars, the Dell 2709W is what we’d call a sleeper. It doesn’t look particularly fancy, none of its bits cry out for attention (like the 2707WFP did), but its performance belies its looks… excellent. We were very impressed with the deep blacks, the contrast and the overall image quality. The 2709W offers a smattering array of inputs that would please just about anyone, making this a very strong offering. Dell offers a zero dead pixel program on their Ultrasharps, which is great, except for their outsourced support, which is not. We also weren’t too fond of the dancing red pixels, but we’ll get back to you with more information on that once we look into it.

Overall, we give this Dell 2709W an 8 out of 10. Highly recommended!