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The Dell SP2309W is a stylish looking screen – when you take it out of the box the screen can bend backwards on the stand so its completely flat on the horizontal axis. While this is a somewhat useless mode in the real world (unless you have a neck like a giraffe), it actually comes in handy when connecting all the cables.
Connectivity is catered for with DVI, HDMI and D-Sub inputs as well as two 3.5mm mini jacks – there is also a 2 megapixel webcam, two microphones and a Type B USB port with two USB2 connectors. At the rear is a semi hollow arm to neatly tuck away all the cabling.
As I touched upon earlier the stand is extremely flexible and allows for a wide range of positions across the axis. Sitting level with your desk or right up to 120mm above it. The screen can be tilted to almost any conceivable angle however strangely Dell have not offered an option to rotate the panel into portrait mode which seems a strange omission considering everything else on offer.
First glances at the screen are a little concerning, it is extremely reflective … to an almost ‘mirror' like finish. I was however immediately impressed with the colour reproduction especially considering the modest TN foundations. Being critical, the colours are slightly over-saturated.
Playing with the OSD is necessary to get the most from the panel and this is when things get really interesting – if you hover your finger over the front fascia at the bottom right, there are sensors built into the chassis which detect movement and throw up the onscreen menus – unfortunately the finish is prone to picking up every piece of dirt imaginable (see image below).
Technically this is actually the most impressive menu methodology I have seen to date and is a pleasure to use. Unfortunately being so used to expensive high end panels it did take me time getting the screen to display images in a manner I was happy with. It is possible however and for the modest asking price of around £200 you can expect some compromises. Thankfully the annoying beep that sounds with any movement or setting can be easily disabled from one of the advanced menus.
The default screen settings are reasonably good, but I found a slight fuzziness with fine text until I changed to sRGB. I quite liked the dynamic contrast enabled (80,000:1) however the brightness and contrast settings needed to be adjusted to suit my particular tastes. The colour presets are utterly useless, however they are on almost every screen I have used so this isn't something specific to the particular panel. The multimedia setting for instance should really be relabelled to “Stevie Wonder's favourite setting”. (No offense meant Stevie I am a big fan of your music).
