Dell 2408wfp  

Design
Here it is -- the latest 24-inch iteration of Dell's multi-input monitor. From the start things don't look to have changed much -- indeed it uses the exact same form factor as 2407WFP-HC, or near enough as we can tell. The menu system has remained largely the same as well -- that is, not wonderfully intuitive, but it does the job.

It still has the same clicky push buttons at the bottom right (with quick access to brightness and contrast controls by pressing the "-" key), it still has the very functional stand that has swivel, height and rotate adjustments. It even has the card reader on the right hand side, and the four extra USB ports so plugging into your machine isn't such a chore.

Features
While Dell has been stationary on the design front, things have accelerated on the features front. While it still features the component, composite, s-video, VGA and DVI inputs, there's now a second DVI input, an HDMI input, and a Displayport input, much like its bigger brother, the 3008WFP.

The panel's been updated too, the end result being black levels are about as black as we've ever seen them, although the retina-searing white brightness that is the trademark of the high-end Dell monitors is still there, so you'll want to turn down the brightness and contrast from their default settings.

A new backlight is also being used, which enables a 1300:1 contrast ratio over the older 1000:1 (with a 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio -- which we dutifully turned off for testing), and contributes to the monitor being capable of displaying 110 percent of the NTSC gamut. It's a bit less than the 3008's 117 percent (possibly down to the use of a PVA panel over S-IPS) and the panel also doesn't feature the Adobe RGB profile that was present in the 3008's preset modes.

Like the 3008 you can't use Picture in Picture (PIP) or Picture by Picture (PBP) with two digital inputs (including VGA, for some reason) or two analog inputs. So if your main input is VGA, DVI-1, DVI-2, DisplayPort or HDMI, you can't pair that with another input from that list -- your only options are component, composite and s-video. The reverse is true: use component, composite or s-video as your main video source, and your only options for PIP and PBP are VGA, DVI-1, DVI-2, DisplayPort or HDMI.

In terms of controls for PIP, there are four different size options, and you can position it at any of the four corners. You can control the analog source's brightness, contrast, hue and saturation from the PIP menu, but only contrast if you're using a digital source. Finally, you can swap the PIP input to become the main input.

While both Xbox 360 and PS3 worked just fine (the component inputs now handle 1080p, and 1080i now looks good), we seem to remember the Xbox 360 through component looking better on the 3008wfp -- unfortunately we no longer have the 30-inch screen locally to compare to see if our hunch is correct. It's certainly still passable, however fonts seemed not as sharp and looked like they were scaled incorrectly.

An optional soundbar is available for the 2408wfp -- and if you hook up an HDMI cable that's carrying audio data to the screen and then hook the soundbar into the supplied 3.5mm jack, the 5.1 sound will downmix to stereo on the fly.

Performance
The supplied sRGB preset looked flat, undersaturated and lifeless, with no amount of fiddling rectifying the situation. This left us to use the default "Desktop" profile, which left colours a little oversaturated. Colour pros may need to be wary here.

As usual Dell's 24-inch screen blew through Displaymate, and fortunately didn't crush the blacks as quickly as the 3008wfp tended to. Gaming was excellent as expected, although the usual caveats apply with input lag and S-PVA screens for those who are susceptible to the phenomenon.

We're not exactly sure where Dell will go after this, feature wise. While image technology will certainly get better as time goes on, about all we could feasibly wish for is a built in KVM with dedicated USB ports, so when we switch between PC video sources we can still use the one keyboard and mouse -- however that's a luxury we don't expect to see any time soon, and suspect it's not in high demand.

While the 2408wfp is more evolution than revolution, when all this goes for under AU$1,000 it's hard to pass up, especially if you're looking for something in the size range.

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