At my work, I am running two Dell E1911 monitors from a dual video card where one is connected via DVI and the other with VGA. I'm doing an extended desktop setup where the second VGA monitor is used to drag over windows to use as reference. So far, I am very impressed with these monitors.

These monitors are boxed with VGA and DVI cables, but no adapters. The base stand needs to be attached, but it just snaps in place. All you have to do is set the base on a table, then push the rest of the monitor down on top of it. The screen itself is very light so it was no problem. After that, just connect the power and video cables then you are ready to go. You should do this with the computer turned off so that you can boot with both monitors attached. Otherwise, Windows may not always pick up the second monitor and you might run into some issues trying to set up extended or multiple displays.

After installing these monitors on a Windows 7 Professional PC with a dual video Asus Radeon HD 4550 card, I ran the built in calibration utility to fine tune the way the screens look. On the DVI one, I had no problem getting it just right, but the VGA one was blurry until I ran the auto adjustment option from the monitor's OSD menu. Since running that, both screens are sharp and clear. I honestly can't tell the difference between using VGA and DVI on these two monitors.

From a design standpoint, my only complaint is the placement of the screen's menu buttons for adjusting brightness, contrast, and so on. If you are using multiple displays like I am, and you put the monitors side by side, you can easily bump them into each other and activate the buttons. I suppose it is nice that they can be so easily found and pressed, but I prefer recessed buttons that are out of the way unless you need them. Otherwise, the base is stiff and you can easily adjust the tilt just the way you like it. The black plastic housing of the screen is smooth and simple, which is great.

These 19" widescreen monitors have a 16:10 aspect ratio, so they look a tad wider than other monitors which use a 16:9 aspect ratio. In a windows environment, this is great for sticking menus up to the side of the screen while working in programs like Photoshop or Dreamweaver. The native resolution of this model is 1440 x 900, which I like because I hate when monitors have such a high resolution that everything appears so small on screen that you have to make a bust of adjustments. With its 1000:1 contrast ratio and 5 ms response time, you could still do some gaming on this screen but it is mainly classified for business use.

One interesting thing I noticed is that when my PC comes back on from sleep mode, the VGA monitor will show the display a split second before the DVI one. I was always under the impression that DVI was faster than VGA, but this may have more to do with the video card or even slight manufacturing differences in the two monitors. It's certainly not a problem.

In the end, I am quite happy with my two Dell E1911's and think they make for an excellent widescreen desktop setup. I had never used dual monitors before and it took me a little while to get used to that configuration, but now I don't think I could ever go back. It's just too nice to have extra windows on display at once, especially when I have to work out of one screen while referencing information on the other.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 130