I recently purchased a new display for use with my laptop as an external monitor. After doing quite a bit of research online, I opted for Dell’s newly released SX2210 monitor. To get right to the point, Dell’s SX2210 is the best monitor I have owned to date, not to mention much cheaper ($219) and prettier than the rest (previously owned an Apple 20″ Cinema Display and a Dell Ultrasharp 22″ monitor). The 21.5″ high definition monitor sports HDMI, DVI, and VGA connections on the back, which are great for hooking up an HDMI equipped XBOX 360 or PS3 and having two computers hooked up (one on DVI and the other on VGA).
As you can see from the picture above, the monitor includes audio in/out and USB ports (two more USB ports are included on the back of the monitor itself). The design of the monitor is very appealing, featuring a white “piano” finish on the back and an aluminum base.
The monitor has a MAX resolution of 1920×1080, which is a lot of real estate space for a 21.5″ monitor, since most typical 22″ monitors support up to 1680×1050 resolution. A word of caution though, if you plan on using this monitor for gaming, then you better have a good enough video card to support gaming at a high-def resolution. I tried playing Call of Duty 4 on my 15″ Macbook Pro and ran into some video problems. I now have this monitor hooked up to a Dell XPS gaming computer with dual Nvidia 9800GT 512MB video cards installed and gaming with this monitor is now absolutely AMAZING. The colors that come out of this monitor are quite vibrant.
Features
A neat thing about this monitor is that it comes with a built-in webcam, which supports facial recognition for logging into your computer (haven’t tried out this feature yet). I don’t use the webcam much but I tested it and the image quality is better than the image you would get from the built-in webcam on a Macbook for example. Even though I don’t use the webcam that much, the built-in dual mics have been really useful for making VOIP calls using Skype.
Concerns
This monitor is not height-adjustable, which can be a nuisance at times, but I’ve learned to live with it (display can be tilted). As you can see from the first image, the monitor sports a glossy display. I’m actually not a fan of glossy displays. They can be quite a nuisance in the wrong lighting conditions, especially when you have light coming in through a window behind you. However, if you compensate by moving your monitor around or simply don’t find reflections on your monitor all that annoying, then you’ll be just fine.
If you have any questions please comment and I’ll make sure to respond promptly.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a question on the height of the monitor and would appreciate a measurement. The monitor is listed at 15.63 inches on the Dell web site. What is the height of the monitor including the stand? In other words, what is the measurement from the top of the monitor to the desk/flat surface the monitor sits on? THANKS!
It’s a little less than 18″, with the display perfectly perpendicular to the surface it is sitting on (display can be tilted). I did my best to take measurements with a ruler, as I did not have a tape measure handy. Hope that helps!
Hi, just wanted to know : does it works at full resolution (1920×1080) when hooked to your macbook pro via DVI?
Thanks!
Yes. It will work just fine and look absolutely amazing. Just don’t try playing Call of Duty 4 or some other graphics intensive game at max settings.
Hi, im going to get one of these to play my 360 on but was wondering what the best options for sound are seeing as it doesnt have built in speakers. I mean can i just plug the speakers straight into the back of the monitor.
Thanks for any help
That is correct. Using a normal HDMI to HDMI cable, the audio from the HDMI cable plugged into the monitor will be properly routed to the audio out jack of the monitor. I hooked up my Xbox 360 a couple of times this way.
Hey! I just bought this monitor and I love it, but I can’t get the webcam to work. I’m trying to use Skype, and there is no video options available. I’ve connected the monitor using the DVI cable to a Mac Pro 8-core Tower.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I’m glad you love it! Did you use the included USB cable to hook up the USB part of the monitor to your desktop? The monitor itself includes a USB hub, to which the webcam and mics are all hooked up to. To hook up the USB part of the monitor to your computer, simply use the included USB cable and plug the type B end (the more squarish looking end) of the cable into the monitor, and the other end into your normal looking USB port on your desktop computer. Let me know if that helps.
Thanks so much, Ricky! Worked like a charm!
Also one last question (sorry if I’ve being a pain!). When I view dark web pages (pages with dark blue, black, etc., backgrounds), I get a lot of noise, or random pixel noise, on the screen. I’m sure this has to do with my settings, but I’m not quite sure how to adjust them. I tried resetting all the settings, but that didn’t work. Any ideas?
Hmm. I haven’t encountered that issue, even with the darker colors. I would hate to say that you received a defective display. I would double check and make sure that the DVI connections are secured tightly (make sure you tighten the two knobs on both ends). If your tower has more than one DVI port, I would also try plugging into one of those instead. The display should work perfectly out of the box otherwise. If that doesn’t help then definitely give Dell a call.
Turns out the random pixel noise issue was the result of the DVI cable that came in the box with the SX2210. It wasn’t a true DVI-D cable – it was a sort of hybrid between a DVI-D and a DVI-A cable. I bought a much better DVI-D cable, and it cleared up the issue just fine. The monitor looks ten times better overall, too – so I would definitely recommend making sure you have good cables for this and don’t rely on the ones that come in the box necessarily.
Thanks again for the help!
Brightness/crispness of the Whites? I just bought myself a 15″ MacBook Pro, Late 2008, from the Apple Refurbished Store online. Love it, and I love how bright and crisp the whites are on the MacBook Pro’s LED screen. I currently have it connected to my 1.5 year old Dell E228WFP 22″ wide screen monitor, and I am not happy with how much browner/duller the whites are. So I’m wanting to upgrade my desktop monitor. Would love one of the Refurb 24″ Apple Displays but that won’t connect with my Dell PC, so that’s out. I spotted this monitor on Dell’s website and love the look and the glossy screen, and the HD resolution packed in the 21.5″ size… just like the size of the new iMac’s… this will kind of keep with the Apple look. But I’m most interested in the brightness of the whites compared to the MacBook Pro monitor. I’m hoping this monitor will be just as white and crisp. How does this monitor look side by side with your MacBook Pro? Thanks…
Brian
I can’t tell you how it compares to the Macbook’s screen from memory (I am currently taking a term off from school, and left the display in storage and haven’t used in three months). I don’t recall having an issue with the difference in brightness of the whites in comparison to my MBP’s glossy screen, but it’ll definitely be better than your 1.5 year WFP. It’s a pretty darn good display for the money, and from what I can recall everything was super bright and crisp, especially with the display being HD and LED-backlit (I don’t think you will find the dull whites to be an issue with this display). I would have to take another look at both displays side by side before I could give you anything more definitive. If anybody else who has commented on this post can help Brian, by all means please do so. Sorry I couldn’t be of much help Brian, you caught me at a bad time.
Hi Ricky,
I was wondering if you could help me with some questios regarding this monitor. With the idea of upgrading to HD resolution before year’s end, I’ve been doing research on 21.5″ and 23″ models lately. Looking at them in stores has significantly helped too, but I haven’t found a single one from Dell.
With a price tag of $299 currently, the SX2210 is more expensive than similar spec models from other brands, so I want to find out if it’s justified. My concerns are:
1) 1920×1080 may be uncomfortable for some folks because of the size everything is displayed at. How have you found your text applications and Internet browsing to work on the SX2210?
2) How does it respond when hooked up to other hardware, like the Xbox360, PS3, standalone Blu-ray / dvd player? According to Dell the SX2210 has no support for 1:1 pixel mapping, leaving the task of scaling to the hardware on the other end. Please comment on scaling issues you’ve had.
3) How sensitive is the monitor’s picture when viewing it off from center ? Cheap models have a rather low tolerance that will distort the colors if you move just a few inches in any direction, but particularly up or down. It can be worse when watching movies.
4) Can the brightness be lowered enough to work comfortably at night? I have a 75W desk lamp that provides enough light to read/write at night. Unfortunately, my current 19″ LCD screen is unbearable even after lowering the brightness to zero. I am forced to turn on the ceiling lights or use my notebook instead, which presents no problem at all.
That sums it up. Most of the reviews I’ve come by focus on the monitor’s features so I have that covered. After seeing how helpful you’ve been to other people I thought I could use your help as well.
Thank you for your time !
$299?! I only paid $219 for it from Dell when it first came out. With the current pricing, I probably would have been more indecisive about buying this display as well.
1. This is a very good point. The DPI (dots per inch) is a bit higher then most displays in order to accommodate the 1920×1080 resolution. This might be a matter of preference, but I did not find the high resolution to be a problem at all. I found everything to be pretty legible in general. There might have been a few cases where I might have had to make the text bigger on some sites, but rarely did I have to do that (more dependent on the website itself than the monitor).
2. Do be quite honest, my Xbox 360 didn’t look so great when hooked up to the monitor. This is most likely due to the lack of 1:1 pixel mapping like you mentioned. It doesn’t look terribly bad so it’s something you could probably live with, but it definitely won’t look as sharp or crisp as some people might expect.
3. I don’t recall color degradation being a problem when viewing the monitor at an angle, and my friends never complained, and we definitely watched a ton of movies on that monitor.
4. This one might be a matter of preference as well, but I found the lowest brightness setting on the monitor to be manageable. I would still recommend having some lighting background in general, a lamp pointed at the wall for example, to reduce eye strain.
Hope that helps!