Dell G2410

The 24 inch Dell G2410 is plainly designed with angular features and a black matte finish. The bezel measures a short 0.75 inch long on all sides and the middle of the bottom bezel has a slightly raised silver Dell logo on it. The panel is nearly 1 inch deep (In comparison, most 24 inch models we've tested have a panel depth of more than an inch) however, the back of the display which houses the backlight, connection options, and ventilation system extends another 1.5 inches, bringing the full monitor depth to about 2.4 inches.

The panel width measures 22.4 inches long average for a monitor of this screen size. The rectangular footstand measures 10.75 inches in width, with a depth of 6.1 inches. The footstand is a short 0.5 inch tall. We saw only minimal wobbling when we knocked the display from the sides, but with such a long and flat footstand, you'd really have to knock it hard before it toppled.
The bottom of the bezel sits about 2.75 inches from the desktop, but unfortunately, this screen height is neither adjustable nor is there a screen rotation or pivot option useful if you prefer portrait mode.

The capability to tilt the screen back 25 degrees is the only ergonomic feature included. To keep the price and energy footprint down, Dell only includes DVI and VGA as connection options. You're out of luck if you want to connect an external Blu-ray player, since there is no HDMI which is a mainstay on most monitors this size. The most improved feature of the Dell G2410 is its on screen display.

The OSD follows Dell's recent stellar, labelless design last seen in the SP2309W and S2409W. This OSD, however, is even simpler and easier to use with more features. Four buttons line the lower right hand corner of the bezel. Pressing any of the buttons brings up the OSD, which pops up parallel to the button array, each option corresponds to one of the four buttons. Once a new menu comes up, the function of the buttons change dynamically, as the top two buttons become the up and down arrow buttons used to navigate though the newly seen menu.

Since any button labels for the OSD are actually on the screen, calibrating the display in a dark room proved painless. Pressing the button next to "Energy Modes" on the OSD brings up a menu for choosing three different modes that determine your monitor's energy footprint. Choosing Standard lets the user manually set the display's brightness. Energy Smart activates the ambient light sensor and caps the screen brightness at 66 percent.

The ambient light sensor will adjust the brightness based on the level of light in the room the lower the ambient light level, the lower the brightness automatically adjusts. Energy Smart Plus is identical to Energy Smart, but adds dynamic dimming, which automatically dims the backlight when the screen shows an image that is overly bright or all white. As you change options that affect your energy footprint brightness, the three energy modes you'll see an Energy Gauge in the OSD.

The gauge is a meter that dynamically changes based on how much power your monitor is consuming. Take your brightness to full and the gauge goes into the red. Bring the brightness back down and your gauge responds by turning green. Ultimately, the Energy Gauge is not that useful, as it depends primarily on your monitor's current brightness level however, this is a welcome first step and we'd like to see Dell and other vendors continue to develop its usefulness.

Aside from the energy mode options, OSD options include the mainstays brightness, contrast, and various color options. The presets are separated into two categories Graphics and Video. There are six Graphics presets to choose from: Standard, Multimedia, Game, Warm, Cool, and, of course, Custom. The movie presets are Movie, Game, Sports and Nature. The presets do not change anything other than the Red, Green, and Blue color balance and therefore how well each setting works will be subjective.

Also, there are options to adjust the hue and color saturation in addition to options like setting the OSD to stay on screen up to a minute useful for anyone who will spend a good amount of time calibrating. The Dell G2410's 16:9 aspect ratio supports a "Full HD" 1.920x1,080 pixel native resolution. This continues the trend of more and more monitor vendors moving toward 16:9 from 16:10 because high definition content in particular 1080p movies can fit onto a 1.920x1.080 pixel screen without distorting the image.