Dell 2209WA

Full Review

The fact that the Dell 2209WA monitor manages such a high rating despite costing a lot more than its Full-HD compatriots tells you all that you need to know about this monitor. The eIPS panel used inside this monitor puts this monitor in a league of its own when it comes to performance. IPS stands for In-Plane switching, and quite simply, this is the best of all the LCD panel technologies.

As befits its professional status, the 2209WA has understated design. The angular lines and simple buttons don’t distract you from the panel. The excellent stand was the only one in the comparison with height, swivel and pivot adjustments, in addition to the tilt adjustment that all the others had. The monitor lacks an HDMI input, and the maximum resolution is only 1680x1050, unlike some of the others that go up to 1920x1080 - the Acer H235H or the Benq G2220HD, for example.

Color quality of the Dell 2209WA's eIPS panel was expectedly excellent, with perfect scores.

The performance tests were where the IPS panel really showed its prowess. The average brightness of 188 lumens was a little lower than the others, but it aced everything else. The black to white contrast ratio of 800:1 was extremely close to the manufacturer’s claim of 1000:1. More impressive was the checkerboard contrast ratio of 425:1. Color quality was expectedly excellent, with perfect scores. Here, with an ideal setting of 6500 Kelvin, the 2209WA averaged 6415 Kelvin over nine readings at different parts of the screen. DisplayMate tests were taken with a yawn and a giggle, as it set the highest scores in each and every test.

Bottom Line

The Dell 2209WA is expensive, but the lack of full-HD, HDMI, and a higher price not withstanding this monitor is far beyond other 22-inch monitors in terms of picture quality.