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The Dell P2217H is a versatile 21.5-inch entry-level IPS monitor. It’s suitable for general purpose applications like browsing the web, watching media, working in a standard Windows environment, and casual gaming.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Suitable for occasional gaming
The Dell P2217H offers good gaming experience for a general purpose display in this price range because of its reasonably low input lag and good motion handling capabilities.
The monitor feels responsive because of its input lag of 9.8 ms. Only gaming monitors in this price range outperform such result.
Motion looks reasonably clear because only tiny traces follow fast-moving objects on the screen. The monitor's pixels need only six milliseconds to change their color, which reduces motion blur.
Pro Good picture quality
The monitor's contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are on par with what the majority of competitors in this price range offer.
The monitor's IPS panel displays good-looking picture, with bright and saturated colors, reasonably deep blacks, and lifelike intermediate mid-tones. The colors pop thanks to the monitor's peak brightness of 250 nits. Dark scenes look pretty as the monitor's native contrast ratio of 1147:1 is high enough to make the IPS panel display good-looking blacks. The intermediate tones are well balanced as the monitor's gamma of 2.18 is only 1% away from the ideal value.
Additionally, color inaccuracies are very hard to spot because of its average color error dE of only 3.2.
Pro Good for general use
While it does not excel in any aspect, the Dell P2217H has enough versatility to be a decent general purpose monitor. It features good picture quality and excellent connectivity, combined with an impressive range of ergonomic adjustments.
The monitor is also suitable for occasional, non-competitive gaming since its input lag and pixel response time are low enough to grant reasonably smooth and responsive gaming experience.
Cons
Con Default picture settings aren't the best
You need to calibrate this monitor to achieve the best color accuracy. Fortunately, the calibration procedure of the Dell P2217H is straightforward, and all the ICC color profiles are available on the Internet. Fortunately, you won't need any specialized equipment to calibrate this monitor.