Dell U2410 comes pre-calibrated--with the paperwork to prove it

After struggling to find a 1920 x 1200 pixel monitor, Régis Jehl, our media centre and hardware specialist finally went for the Dell U2410, which took our top score of five stars when we tested it.  When it arrived, he also found a strange document covered in graphs and figures.

Dell U2410 MARCHANDS €     Amazon.co.uk  351.36  Amazon mark...  379.99  Dell for bu...  389.00  Amazon mark...  420.14  Amazon mark...  455.00  Dell for home  466.80  Compare prices

When we looked at it, we realised that it was report describing how the monitor had been calibrated for two different colour spaces, sRGB and Adobe RGB, which is used by some digital SLRs.  As well as the graphs, which show how well the screen displays each one of a series of test colours, there's a little bit of marketing from Dell, who promise that every single U2410 is quality controlled before it leaves the factory to make sure it has a deltaE below 5.0 in both colour spaces when it leaves the factory; we measured 2.3 when we did our own test.

As well as these colour tests, Dell also provides the results for its checks on colour temperature and the gamma curve, so you've got more than enough information to be sure that you won't end up with a screen with unworkable problems.

If our repeated requests for a U2711, which always seem to get forgotten about, are anything to go by, Dell isn't too keen to let us test its monitors.  That said, we can only welcome this decision to supply calibration reports with its monitors which can only strengthen the consumer's hand.

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