Dell P2416D review – an affordable monitor with QHD resolution and complete sRGB color gamut coverage

dell p2416d cover photoDell have a lot of offerings when it comes to monitors. They are among the major manufacturers to offer high quality products at affordable prices. Today we are going to take a look at Dell P2416D, an affordable model with high-end specs. P2416D offers QHD resolution in a 23.8-inch monitor, which allows you to see a lot more content with greater detail. The model also has wide viewing angles and complete sRGB color gamut coverage, and is therefore good for both serious work and entertainment. In addition, the display position can be adjusted in many ways, making the monitor more convenient to use.

In this review you will find information about the monitor’s design, ports, ergonomics, power consumption, settings, as well as in-depth test results.

Check the current price of Dell P2416D here:
http://amzn.to/1Lncf3r

Contents


What’s in the box

Along with the monitor, the box contains the stand, a cable cover, a power cable (which will vary by country), a DP cable, a USB 2.0 Upstream cable, a quick setup guide, safety and regulatory information, as well as a drivers and documentation cd.

Dell P2416D content 2

Design and construction

Dell P2416D offers a simple and elegant design with a slightly curved back and rounded edges. At the front, in the bottom middle, you have the Dell logo, and at the bottom left – we find the power and four function buttons. The top, left, and right sides of the monitor are clean. Around the back you have the mounting slot. In it we see the VESA mounting holes, which allow you to attach your monitor not only to the stand, but also to a wall. There is also a regulatory label listing approvals. The stand release button is located below the mounting slot. At the back you will also find a security lock slot, barcode serial number, Dell Soundbar mounting slots, USB downstream port and a cable management slot (to tidy up cables when the monitor is mounted to the stand).

Dell Back Info

Looking at the bottom, we see the AC power cord, DisplayPort input, HDMI port and VGA connectors. There’s also a USB 2.0 upstream port and three USB 2.0 downstream ports and a hole, which can be used to lock the stand by using a M3 x 6 mm screw (not included in the package).

Dell ports


Dell P2416D ports 2

Dell P2416D ports

Ergonomics

Once you mount your monitor to the stand, you can regulate its height and angle, as well as rotate the screen to portrait mode. At the lowest regulated point, Dell P2416D is located 4cm above desktop level, and at its maximum – 17 cm.


Dell P2416D height comp

Dell P2416D TILT compilation

Mounting the monitor

Mounting Dell P2416D to its stand is fairly easy. The first thing to do is remove the cover and place your monitor on it. Then you fit the two tabs of the upper part of the stand in the groove at the back of the monitor, after which you just press until it snaps into place.

dell monitor stand attachment and removal

Removing the stand is done in a somewhat similar fashion. First you place the monitor on a soft cloth, then you press the stand release button and just remove the stand away from the monitor.

If you want to mount Dell P2416D to a wall, you must again place the monitor on a stable surface with a soft cover, then you remove the four screws securing the plastic cover (the manufacturer recommends a Philips crosshead screwdriver for the task). After that you attach the mounting bracket from the wall mounting kit to the monitor and follow its instructions when mounting it to the wall.

dell p2416d wall attachment

Attaching and removing the cable cover is also an easy task. First you fit the two tabs to the bottom part of the cable cover to the groove on the back of the device, and then you press the cover until it snaps into place. In order to remove it, you just press the tab at the top of the cable cover and then remove the other two tabs from the bottom part.

dell p2416d cable cover attach and remove

Buttons and OSD menu

Buttons

Dell ButtonsBefore we take a look at the OSD menu, we will explain what the aforementioned four function buttons do, since they are used to open and navigate through the menu.

The top two buttons are shortcut keys and can be assigned to open different sub menus. The factory set menus are Preset Modes and Input Source. The third button, Menu, is used to open the On-Screen Display (OSD) menu, through which you basically can regulate almost everything on the display, and is also used to confirm a selection. The fourth button is the Exit one. It is used to get back from a sub menu or to close the OSD main menu.

These buttons serve different purposes depending on which menu you are in. In the OSD menu the top two buttons are navigational tools (the first is used to move up, the second down), while in sub menus they are used to adjust the values (increasing/decreasing the ranges, respectively).

On-Screen Display menu

In the OSD menu you have the following categories: Brightness/Contrast, Auto Adjust, Input Source, Color, Display, Energy, Menu, Personalize, and Others. To access each of these, you must first press the Menu button to open the On-Screen Display menu. After that you use the top two buttons to navigate between the sections, and press the Menu button to select the one you want. (The Auto Adjust option is only available when you are using the analog [VGA] connector).

The settings we can regulate in the OSD menu are pretty standard, and you can check them out in the images below.

dell osd displaydell osd energydell osd menu settingsdell osd menu1dell osd menu2dell OSD other settingsdell osd personalize

We are going to take a deeper look at the preset modes, since they are of higher importance and matter to our tests.

The preset modes from which you can choose are Standard, which loads the monitor’s default color settings, Multimedia, Movie, Game, which load the most ideal color settings for the respective task, Paper, which loads the ideal brightness and sharpness settings for viewing text and also blends it’s background to simulate paper media without affecting color images (this applies to RGB input only), Warm and Cool, in which the color temperature is increased or decreased so that colors appear warmer with a red/yellow tint, or cooler with a blue tint and Custom, which allows you to manually adjust the color settings.

dell osd color menu

Depending on the situation you may get various warnings in the OSD menu. You can view the warning captions in the images below.

dell osd input source warningdell osd no cable connected warningdell osd power saving warningdell osd warning DCdell osd warning PC settingsdell osd warning res 1dell osd warning res 2

Display tests

Dell P2416D has a QHD panel with an IPS matrix and matte anti-reflective coating. Its diagonal is 23.75-inch (60.33 cm) and the resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels. Aspect ratio is 16:9, PPI – 124 and pixel pitch – 0.205 x 0.205 mm. The screen will appear to be “Retina” if you look at it from distance equal to, or greater than 71 cm (beyond that the human eye can’t spot individual pixels).

Micr-Dell P2416D

Dell P2416D has comfortable viewing angles. The image below should help you evaluate the image quality.

Angles-Dell P2416D

The measured average maximum brightness is 265 cd/m2, with max deviation of 16% (Preset mode:Custom – Colors, 100% Brightness, 100% RGB). The average color temperature measured on a white screen in the same mode is 6965K.

BefCustomMax

All the tests below were done in “Standard” mode.

Color reproduction

On the image below you can see the display sRGB color gamut coverage (which is a standard for all things Internet and HDTV-related). We use the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram to represents the spectrum of colors visible to the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy of your device. The standard colors in rec.709/sRGB, (which are commonly used in HDTV and on the Internet) are surrounded by the black triangle, while the wider Adobe RGB color gamut, which is important for high quality cameras and print prep, is represented by the gray triangle. The colors inside the black triangle are basically used everywhere by millions of people, and their accurate reproduction is of key importance to the quality of the display. The yellow triangle represents the area of color gamut which Dell P2416D covers. Or, put in terms of simple figures – 100% of sRGB and 77% of Adobe RGB color gamuts, which guarantees an image with accurate and vibrant sRGB colors.

Gamut-Dell P2416D

The image below illustrates the same thing, only before profiling (factory settings). The colored circles represent the colors which the monitor must show (sRGB/rec. 709 Standard Color Gamut Reference Colors), and the white circles are the results. You can see main and additional colors with 100% and 50% saturation inside the sRGB gamut.

MeasuredColors-Pre-Dell P2416D

We profiled the display in the Standard preset mode with 50% brightness and 6500K target color temperature.


BefStandardMax

BefStandard50

The calibration was done using X-Rite i1Display Pro. The color accuracy was measured before and after calibration, and it was high even with the factory settings.


GrayBefStandard-50

GrayAftStandard50


RGBCMYBefStandard50

RGBCMYAftStandard50


Gamma-Bef-Dell 24 Monitor (P2416D)

Gamma-Aft-Dell 24 Monitor (P2416D)

We tested the display with 24 color samples, which contain some of the most common colors our eyes are able to identify – light skin tones, dark skin tones, sky blue, grass green, orange, etc. After the profiling the color accuracy was excellent – avg DeltaE 2000 = 0.41.

StandardResult-50-DellP2416D

StandardREPORT-50-DellP2416D

Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM, Screen flickering)

Dell P2416D’s display does not emit PWM across all brightness levels and won’t cause any additional discomfort to your eyesight (and thus, to your brain).

PWM-Dell 24 Monitor (P2416D)

Gaming capabilities (Response time)

The graph below, which mainly concerns gamers, represents an illustration of the pixel refresh time from black to white and white to black, for 10% to 90% and back. We measured Fall time + Rise time = 10.3 ms (5.1 ms + 5.2 ms, Fast mode). The matrix is fast for its type.
ResponceTime-Dell P2416D

Conclusion

Dell P2416D’s display will find many applications in your home – gaming, Web browsing, watching videos etc, thanks to its highly detailed image reproduction, accurate colors, comfortable viewing angles, high contrast and lack of PWM across all brightness levels. It could also be used for drawing and Web design, but it isn’t suitable for professional photography or graphic design.

Verdict

Dell P2416D offers a lot to consumers, given its price (below 400$). The design of the device is pleasant, mounting it to the stand is easy, and it can also be attached to a wall thanks to its VESA mounting holes. The button layout is simple and the OSD menu offers a lot of settings, as well as many Preset modes which help you quickly adjust the monitor’s colors, sharpness, brightness etc to the ideal settings for the given task. The display has a very high resolution, great viewing angles, superb color accuracy (in sRGB mode), and it got very good results in our tests. Perhaps the only downside of the monitor is that it uses somewhat outdated connection ports (looking at you, USB 2.0!). Overall Dell P2416D left us with a good impression.

Check the current price of Dell P2416D here:
http://amzn.to/1Lncf3r

Pros

  • Great price (below 400$)
  • Sharp resolution – 2560 x 1440 pixels
  • Many options in the OSD menu
  • Adjustable height, tilt, swivel and pivot
  • Complete sRGB color gamut coverage


Cons

  • USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0 ports

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
7 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Matteo
Matteo
8 years ago

Hello, is this monitor good for programming purpose or fonts are too small ?
I will use it on Mac Mini (using mini-display port)
Thanks

max
max
8 years ago
Reply to  Matteo

Yes. It makes your workspace larger l. The only downside of this monitor is that it is only 24inch. Thats why the fonds are abit small so if you got bad eyes, it may cause some reading problems

Shawn
Shawn
7 years ago

Care to upload the ICC profile?

Simeon Nikolov
Admin
7 years ago
Reply to  Shawn

Sorry – Unfortunately, we don’t have it anymore, but from now on our reviews will feature a really interesting profile pack with three useful profiles. More on that here:
http://laptopmedia.com/reviews/how-to-take-advantage-of-laptopmedia-office-web-design-gaming-and-health-guard-profiles/

Mattias
Mattias
7 years ago

bought 2 for programming.. works really good, use one pivoed.. you can always increase textsize if u feel the text is to small

zaosan
7 years ago

Thank you for the very comprehensive review!
Some other sites tend to call reviews simple aesthetic descriptions with the addition of factory technical details…