The W241D was one of the most awaited screens by readers on our forum.  Their hope was to find the qualities of the W240D with an added USB hub and larger viewing angles.  The downside to this, which was a bit unexpected, is that the W241D is much more expensive than the W240D.  So is this difference in price justified?

Tests revealed a first surprise. It is impossible to change color settings on the DVI or at least through some obvious adjustment.  Actually, it is possible to access a non-documented hidden menu that isn’t mentioned in the product guide.  First turn off the screen, turn it on again, press the ‘’up’’ button and the menu will appear giving you access to other controls.

The W240D vs. the W241D

Reactivity: advantage to the W240D which is slightly more reactive.  You cannot see this in the Product Face-offs but actually there is a third intermediate state between the best and worst result in game rendering.  By the way, we are working on a new version of this section that will better show you the real reactivity of screens in a more precise manner.

Color rendering: advantage to the W240D, which has more accurate colors, particularly in darker tones.

Black levels:  the W240D wins again.  The W241D’s black colors are washed out just like those of the Daewoo 240WB which is based on the same panel.  Therefore, contrast is around 800:1 on the W240D and less than 600:1 on the W241D.

Energy consumption: the W240D! The W241D consumes 50% more energy or 62 watts instead of around 40 for a normal 24 inch.

Viewing angles: this is the only advantage of the W241D and vertically it’s much better.  At least the screen doesn’t darken when seen from below.  However, if we wanted to be meticulous, we could say that the W240D has better viewing angles from the sides.

Reverse ghosting? Please excuse the crude expression.  It signifies an occasional defect that is rather rare:  the presence of a negative ghost image behind objects in movement.  So was the screen tested affected like certain W241D according to (rare) reader testimony? After test in games, movies, and moving palettes and windows, we didn’t find anything.  So does this mean that all W241Ds are exempt? Most likely, although there could be a small chance of the contrary.  We saw this same problem on a Dell 2407WFP-HC.  The model we received was not affected as well as a second one brought into our labs by a reader for verification.  Despite all of this, apparently a majority of these monitors had this problem.