Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP in da house!

I've been in the market for a Dell 24" Ultrasharp widescreen and I've been tracking pricing on the Dell for quite a long time now. They've been stubbornly in the upper $600 range for what seems like an eternity and that was just way too costly. When the price finally dropped to the lower $500 range, I started to get on the fence.

Me: "Hmmm. The NEC (my 8+ year old 20" CRT) takes up so much desk space. I am not maximizing my new PC! But man, it's $500 ! "

So I decided to seek counsel from some friends. Let's call Friend #1 the Angel-on-the left-shoulder and Friend #2 the Devil-on-the-right shoulder :-)

Friend #1: "your stocks are down, and you guys want a new house......"

-and-

Friend #2: "you just upgraded your computer, right?
Friend #2: you're in need for a monitor upgrade."
.
.
Friend #2: "i do think that you are doing yourself a disservice by upgrading your box and not a display.
Friend #2: you aren't realizing your full potential!"

Could not argue with either. At the end of the day, the Devil prevailed. Darn you Friend #2 ! :-)

What I like about the 2408WFP
- Desktop space recovery. My arms can now rest on the desk. My wrists are saved.
- Matted screen. If the Ultrasharp had a glossy, reflective screen it would have been a deal breaker. It does not bother me that plasma can have some glare but reflective LCDs bother the heck out of me.
- Bright. Much brighter than my CRT and uniform.
- Colors are vivid from the S-PVA panel. But right out of the box, the colors are way oversaturated. I'll use my colorimeter later on to see if I can correct the colors without killing the brightness too much. I never owned an IPS panel so I'm not sure if they are that much better but I think the added premium of a S-PVA over a TN panel is worth it for me.
- 1920x1200 native resolution with gaming is absolutely stunning. Fallout 3 (above) on the PC is simply breathtaking.
- Sharpness. Much sharper than my CRT. Makes a huge difference on games.
- Viewing angle much better than I expected.
- Build quality. I am anal about this. For whatever reason, I think the triangular base is darn cool.
- Built in USB and flash card reader.
- No input lag detected so far. I have the A01 version which supposedly fixed this known issue.