Dell DELL_P2219H Dell P Series 21.5" Screen LED-Lit Mo (Open Box)

This review is going to be comprehensive (see also: long) so please bear with me. Plenty of real-world application stuff in here too, which would be either helpful or fluff. You be the judge, I guess. (Updated 05/10/20 and 07/06/20 to amend and remove some outdated/extra details) For a while, I have had an old 19" 1440x900 display on my desk as a second display and a primary for two old computers that currently reside on my desk. Since coming home from university and not having my TV set up to which to connect my consoles, I used that awhile (no HDMI, but I had an HDMI to DVI cable that worked) but I immediately recognized that an upgrade was in order because the colors were meh and the resolution was a bit odd. After some searching, I came across this monitor, and so far (a few months) it has worked well for me. (I have since set up the TV, but I will keep the detail about not immediately having it set up as it pertains to the background.) Let's start with what I like about this monitor. The 1920x1080 display is a quite common resolution, which is great for most modern consoles that work in 1080p. Also, the 22" screen size is good for medium desk space; it just fits on my desk. Well, the stand leaves lots of room for stuff around it (it's nice and small, only about 8 1/4" wide by 6 3/8" deep) but in terms of room on my desk, space is limited in both directions, so it's nice to have a large size that doesn't hang over the edge too much (the stand is well planted a few inches in either direction from the corner, so don't worry there. I'm talking more about the screen itself.) The bezels are very small (about 3/16") on top and to the sides too (bottom is about half an inch, which is still small), so that saves a bit more space in that way (especially coming from a display with larger bezels). There are plenty of display orientation features: 130mm height adjustment, -5 to 21-degree tilt, 45-degree CW and CCW swivel, and 90-degree CW and CCW pivot. These are extremely helpful to me. Because my desk space is limited, being able to have my stand in a manner that I can still fit things around it but be able to see the monitor by swiveling it somewhat is very helpful. I also play some games that are best played in portrait mode and occasionally use chat programs, so being able to pivot the display is helpful for the games so I can get the best experience and the chats so I can see a lot of chat history. Most pivoting monitors only do CW rotation, which is fine for most people, but because I have the monitor on the left side of my desk and the outlet is way off to the right, I need CCW rotation to make the most of my cable length and just have less hassle in my setup. The USB ports are a great addition. For the cost of one extra cable (a USB between your computer and your monitor), you get two extra USB 3.0 ports to the left side and, if you're willing to go behind your monitor, two USB 2.0 ports. That's great if you need an extra USB port or three. (Note: to take advantage of USB 3.0 speeds, you have to plug the cable into a USB 3.0 port, which is usually blue.) Of course, this monitor isn't perfect, but the complaints I have are significantly less. First, though this has HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA, it comes with a DP cable rather than HDMI. For a while, I didn't have a computer with DP, so I had to use my spare HDMI cable with it, but I recently built a PC with DP output, so I now have a use for the DP cable and can use my HDMI cable for other things. I can still understand why the lack of a bundled HDMI cable is an issue for some, though, but it isn't an issue for everyone, so I won't dock any stars. Also, this may be just me, but the colors seem a tad dull. This is an IPS LCD which provides good viewing angle capability, but the blacks seem a bit...not black, at least compared to my laptop's display, which I'm pretty sure is also IPS. It's still not bad, though, and the other colors are also tolerable, so I won't dock a star. Finally, it doesn't come with sound, so you would need external speakers if you don't already have some. This isn't a huge issue, but it is a bit of extra space taken up, which is not convenient for me given my aforementioned space issues. Not worth docking anything over, but worth noting. Overall, it's a solid monitor with a lot going for it and not a lot going against it, especially as an upgrade from an older monitor. When I got it, it was $130, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's different now. The list price is $210, but you can get it from the Dell Web site for $170 (I thought it was once $200/$150, though... Either I'm mistaken, or maybe COVID-19 increased the price a little). Enter "Dell P2219H" into your favorite search engine and the official Dell listing should be toward the top. It also comes in 23", 24", and 27" screens (P2319H, P2419H, and P2719H, respectively), so if you want something like this but a little larger, they exist, but they do cost a bit more. Definitely worth the list/Dell price, but even better if you were lucky like me and could get it for less.