As is so often the case with Dell's monitors, the 3008WFP is full of practical touches that set it apart from the competition, and lead you into thinking that you're using a top quality product.

In terms of connectivity, for instance, it has all sorts of inputs and outputs: two DVIs, VGA, HDMI, Display Port, RGB …

It doesn't stop there, though, as it also includes a four-port USB hub, a memory card reader and height-adjustable size.


While we're on the hardware, connoisseurs will appreciate the inclusion of an IPS panel.

This technology allows for a much better viewing angle than the more common TN panel, which is practically ubiquitous in TVs and laptop computers.

As you can see when you look at the viewing angles section of our Product Face-Off, this means that colors stay a lot more faithful as you tilt the screen away from you in different directions.

Colors
Those of you who've heard of IPS, though, will no doubt have another question: what's the black like?

Despite offering improved viewing angles, the downside of IPS is that it often renders blacks closer to pale, washed-out gray.

And that's exactly what you get here.

In fact, the poor results probably demonstrate why more and more manufacturers are leaving IPS behind, disappointed by its weak contrast which means it can't correctly handle details in dark areas of the screen.

The only way round these problems on an IPS screen is to radically skew the gamma curve, thus knocking out lighter shades to try and get a better view of darker ones … it's far from ideal, basically.

Another gripe is that the colors weren't very well calibrated by default.

Dell sell this monitor as a 'wide gamut', but they have paid no attention to correctly configuring the colors to show 'normal' shades properly.

Putting it in sRGB makes a noticeable improvement, but with an average DeltaE of 4.4, we're still along way from what you expect from a screen at this price.

Straight out of the box, this is not a monitor that is going to be ready for professional graphic design use.


Gaming
In terms of response time, this monitor is halfway between an average TN panel's 5 ms and the very best of the bunch, which clock in at around 2 ms.

That's not the main worry for gamers, though, who will no doubt want to avoid this monitor because of its problems with display lag, unsolved from Dell's 24'' series.

The delay is around 47 ms, or three frames behind the actual image sent by the graphics card, which is just too slow.

One final note: IPS technology is known for using a lot of power, and, once again, the 3008WFP was true to form.

It sucks in about 130 Watts, where as an average 24'' TN panel would only use 40 W, and a PVA panel 80W.