Dell U2711 27inch Widescreen Monitor Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Despite what is essentially a glowing feature set that does, for once, translate into real world performance, deciding whether the Dell U2711 should be your next monitor is far from an easy question to answer. IPS technology does have one or two drawbacks for gamers, mostly due to a touch of input lag and slightly sluggish response times (even if we didn’t notice much of the latter).

Clearly if you play fast-paced twitch games regularly, these may be off-putting issues. Input lag does exist in this screen, and many of us noticed it as soon as we went from a nearby TN panel to the U2711. However, having used scores of monitors over the last year or two, most of us have come to the conclusion that input lag shouldn't put you off what is an otherwise great monitor.

Response time too seems to be a regular point of concern when we've looked at monitors with anything more than 2ms - it's really time to put this to bed as it's simply not worth a second thought if it's less than 10ms. That said, it's your money, so if you have doubts then you should aim to try the screen for a while before you buy, or talk to the retailer about the possibility of returning the screen after purchase if you’re not satisfied with it.

The new 16:9 aspect ratio has been another bone of contention in the past. With the U2711 though, this simply isn't an issue. The vertical resolution of 1,440 is a huge upgrade from 1,080 or 1,200, and the screen itself is so large that the fact it's 16:9 rather than 16:10 just doesn't come into the equation.



This brings us on to how we felt having used the U2711 for a few days with several other decent monitors such as the Dell 2407WFP and 3007WFP-HC around for comparison. A 27in screen, rather than being an oddball between 24in and 30in displays, is actually better than both in many ways. A 30in screen can sometimes feel too big, requiring you to move your head, and taking up a lot of desk space. Your average 24 inch 16:10 or 16:9 monitors are more practical, but ‘limited’ to 1,920 x 1,080 or 1,920 x 1,200 resolutions.

The high resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 suits the 27in size of the panel, and just feels right, even if you'll need to enlarge icons and the Taskbar. In fact, after using this screen for a while, we prefer its size to that of a 24in or 30in screen. We’d like to think that 27in, 16:9 screen will become the luxury display of choice, if only to bring the price down a bit - £900 is a touch steep at first glance, after all.

Conclusion

When you look at it though, the price isn't actually so crazy. The Dell 3008WFP is over £200 more and doesn't offer a lot more in the resolution stakes, even if there’s an additional three inches of screen. It's ungainly in comparison too, and not very practical unless you have a humungous desk. A great 24in screen costs around £450 – half that of the U2711 – but you’re not only losing three inches in screen size, but 1.4 million pixels too.

This is a premium product, though, there’s no denying that. But it delivers on nearly everything that the phrase ‘premium product’ should – it’s a joy to use, will impress your friends with its quality, and has an aurora of exclusivity. If only the stand looked a bit sleeker. If you want a large screen that’s easy to live with and has eye-popping visuals, this is it.

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• 8/10