DELL 2209WA - Flickering Blue

I have used the DELL 2009WA for a couple of months now. This is my short review


My first impression on this monitor was good. Out of the box the build quality is good. I don't call it excellent, the panel's front bezel is not that sturdy, built quality of the rest of the panel and the stand is good. First thing I checked was the viewing angles. It has good horizontal viewing angles, even when viewing at extreme angles. It is a lot better than TN panels, but vertical viewing angle from the top are not good. From the bottom again it is good. Since vertical viewing angle from the top is not that important to me, it is not much of a concern. The Brightness levels are high on this monitor. I am currently running it at a brightness level of 18.

The colour of the folder icons in win XP did not look natural to me (compared to my CRT, and i tried all the presets on the monitor), nothing serious, for gaming and movies I did not notice much of a difference. I wanted to try calibrating the monitor and see if it makes a difference. It may not be that important to me because I don't do any professional photo editing but any way I wanted to take a shot at it. I found a thread where someone has uploaded their colour profile and settings for 2209WA. After using these setting and colour profile, the colour of folder icons were better. Overall the colour reproduction was better, but I could only notice this on close examination.

After just under a month of usage (28 days of usage, average of 2 hrs per day), the blue LED under the power button started flickering. The next day it died completely. But in standby the orange LED blinks properly. Looks like some other people also had the same experience. Cheap LEDs are used. As long as the panel is working as it should I did not want to RMA the monitor for a power LED problem. After reading the following threads I definitely did not want to take
the RMA route.
U2410 : flickering power button LED - DELL COMMUNITY
http://www.erodov.com/forums/u2410-f...led/27706.html

Overall it is a good monitor with minor issue. It meets my expectations as mentioned above easily. I felt at home with this monitor after switching from a CRT.

Pluses
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* Good for movies and gaming.
* Good Colour Reproduction.
* Good viewing angles
* e-IPS panel.
* Powered USB ports (Powered only if the monitor is on. I don't use these much. For some people this may not matter.)
* Good sturdy stand, with lot of adjustment options.

Negatives
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* No HDMI.
* Blue power LED died within a month of light usage.

I give it a 4/5.