When comparing Dell P2217H vs Dell P2418HT, the Slant community recommends Dell P2418HT for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” Dell P2418HT is ranked 18th while Dell P2217H is ranked 32nd. The most important reason people chose Dell P2418HT is:
The Dell P2418HT has two programmable bezel keys that can be programmed to access the most commonly used functions.
Specs
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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 Flicker-free
This monitor doesn't put additional stress on your eyes as its backlight doesn't flicker. This is important as monitor flickering is one of the leading causes of eye fatigue.
Pro Doesn’t suffer from image retention
You can leave the monitor on for long periods without having to worry about pixel damage because the Dell P2217H does not have any problems related to image retention.
Pro Excellent ergonomics
You won't have any trouble setting this monitor according to the needs of your workspace since the Dell P2217H supports all of the necessary ergonomic adjustments. Additionally, you can easily change its orientation from landscape to portrait, and vice versa.
Pro Has a USB hub
You can charge external USB devices and connect them to a computer using the monitor's USB 3.0 hub.
The hub consists of four downstream ports that are used for connecting peripherals and a single upstream port that connects the hub to a computer.
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.
Pro Has programmable keys
The Dell P2418HT has two programmable bezel keys that can be programmed to access the most commonly used functions.
Pro Works well with Windows
Those who work with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 will not need to install any additional software or drivers to run the Dell P2418HT.
Pro USB hub
The monitor’s USB hub consists of two downstream and one upstream USB 3.0 ports which can be used to charge peripheral USB devices or connect them to your computer.
Additionally, the Dell P2418HT supports fast charging.
Pro Flicker-free
The Dell P2418HT doesn’t put additional stress on your eyes because its backlight doesn’t flicker. Monitor’s flickering can cause severe eye fatigue after extensive use.
Pro Excellent touchscreen monitor
The Dell P2418HT is among the best touchscreen desktop monitors in its price range because its picture quality, touchscreen capabilities, connectivity, ease of use, and range of ergonomic adjustments are superior to what the majority of competitors on the market offer.
Pro Good overall picture quality
Not only does the Dell P2418HT offer substantially better picture quality than its competition, its native contrast ratio, peak brightness, gamma, and color accuracy are on par with what the best desktop monitors offer.
The monitor’s premium-quality panel allows it to display beautiful images, with reasonably thick and intense blacks, vibrant and accurate colors, and realistic mid-tones. Dark scenes look excellent thanks to the monitor’s native contrast ratio of 1138:1 that makes blacks appear rich and deep. Colors pop and look vivid as the panel approaches peak brightness level of 250 nits. The intermediate tones look lifelike thanks to the P2418HT’s near ideal gamma value of 2.23.
Moreover, the monitor’s color inaccuracies are insignificant since its average color error dE of 2.19 is imperceptible.
Pro Well-designed articulated stand
The monitor’s articulated stand allows you to switch between desktop and touchscreen modes quickly. Its heavy base and rigid arm ensure that the monitor doesn’t feel loose.
Furthermore, the stand supports a generous range of ergonomic adjustments that will let you get the best possible viewing angles.
Pro Responsive touchscreen
The P2418HT’s touchscreen panel feels excellent to use thanks to the monitor’s high accuracy and excellent responsiveness. Swiping, pinch-to-zoom, multi-finger, and two-handed operations are also present due to the 10-point touch support.
The panel’s touchscreen resolution of 4096x4096 ensures high accuracy as it gives the monitor more than 16 million touch-spots which are distributed across the 23.8-inch display of the Dell P2418HT evenly.
The touchscreen feels highly responsive because of its low input lag of 35 milliseconds, which is an excellent value for a touchscreen since even the fastest smartphones/tablets are usually noticeably slower.
Pro Good overall picture quality
Not only does the Dell P2418HT offer substantially better picture quality than its competition, its native contrast ratio, peak brightness, gamma, and color accuracy are on par with what the best desktop monitors offer.
The monitor’s premium-quality panel allows it to display beautiful images, with reasonably thick and intense blacks, vibrant and accurate colors, and realistic mid-tones. Dark scenes look excellent thanks to the monitor’s native contrast ratio of 1138:1 that makes blacks appear rich and deep. Colors pop and look vivid as the panel approaches peak brightness level of 250 nits. The intermediate tones look lifelike thanks to the P2418HT’s near ideal gamma value of 2.23.
Moreover, the monitor’s color inaccuracies are insignificant since its average color error dE of 2.19 is imperceptible.
Cons
Con Limited color space
The Dell P2217H is not the right tool for color-critical applications because it supports only 92.7% of the sRBG color space.
The sRBG is the default color space for web applications, SDR media, and the standard Windows environment.
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.
Con Lacks speakers
This monitor does not have onboard speakers.
Con Needs ambient lighting
The monitor doesn't look good in a dark room because its panel cannot fully absorb the monitor's backlight, which makes some areas on the screen look non-uniform.
This problem is common among most monitors in this price range.
Con Lacks 3.5 mm audio jack
The Dell P2217H does not have a 3.5 mm analog audio output.
Con Bad for bright rooms
The Dell P2217H can't fight glare in bright rooms because its peak brightness is not high enough.
Con Unsuitable for gaming
Button presses may feel delayed and disconnected while playing fast-paced FPS games because of its high input lag of 70 milliseconds.
Con Picks up fingerprints
The monitor’s plastic front layer seems to attract noticeably more fingerprints than other monitors that use glass coating.
Con Can’t fight glare
The monitor will not look good in a bright room because its 250 nits of brightness are not enough to fight glare and reflections.
Con Needs calibration
To unleash the full potential of the Dell P2418HT, you’ll need to calibrate it. The calibration procedure will take you around 5-10 minutes since all the key settings are available on the Internet.