BIOS: Technology Means Business

Dell's latest flatscreen monitor is a joy to use. It also looks great, thanks to a slimline Midnight Grey enclosure and silver base. The UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor sports a decent range of specifications too, such as a brightness of 500cd/m², 1000:1 contrast ratio, and 16ms response time (12ms grey-to-grey), and we also liked its rubber half-tube attachment at the back of the neck which contains cables. The tube is split down the middle so that you can cram cords into it to keep them out of sight.

The UltraSharp 2405FPW (£777 ex. VAT) has a native resolution of 1920x1200 (WUXGA+), although you'll be hard pushed to find any games that support this high resolution. The UltraSharp 2405FPW is ideal for graphics professionals, computing enthusiasts and gamers. The native resolution of 1920x1200 helps to ensure detailed images are relatively crisp and clear and a typical response time of 12ms means fast-moving content is displayed with minimal distortion. Gamers should note that there are faster screens out there, but you'll probably have to give up a few inches of screen size to match the price.

The major benefit of a large display is that it makes it easier to multitask by viewing applications - such as spreadsheets and blueprints - in their full sizes and positioning multiple applications or Web pages next to each other without losing content. It also reduces the need to scroll within large documents and toggle between application windows. Once the working day is over, a large widescreen display also doubles perfectly for watching DVD movies and live TV fed from an external TV tuner. Gamers will struggle to find any games that support the monitor's high resolution, but the choice of scaling options ('1:1', 'Aspect' or 'Fill') let you get the best results regardless of resolution.

The 2405FPW includes a 9-in-1 memory card reader (CompactFlash I/II, Secure Digital, Mini SD, MultiMedia Card, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and IBM Microdrive) on the side of the panel for a convenient way to download files and photos. Four USB 2.0 ports also make it easy to attach devices such as keyboards, external hard disk drives and printers without having to crawl under a desk to search for inputs on a computer system. Also impressive is the inclusion of S-Video, composite and component inputs, allowing you to hook the 2405FPW up to a video camera, gaming console, DVD player or cable box. Each input is clearly labelled and numbered on the back too, and when you select an input the corresponding number (one through five) located on the front bezel lights up .

Picture-in-picture (PIP) and picture-by-picture (PBP) modes, which can be enabled with the touch of a button, allow you to watch content from a video input and view your PC simultaneously, on a single display. Not only can you choose from three sizes for the PIP window, you can also adjust the brightness, the contrast, and the hue. Unfortunately, there's only one DVI port and a single VGA port, but the height-adjustable stand allows the panel to swivel, tilt and pivot into portrait orientation with little effort. The optional sound bar, which attaches to the bottom of the panel and connects to the monitor's 12-Volt audio jack, is space-saving but its 14-Watts of audio output isn't really suited to loud music, games or movies.

The UltraSharp 2405FPW's native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels is relatively high, so you'll will need a powerful, state-of-the-art graphics card to get the best performance. In our tests the monitor produced sharp text and crisp, colourful images, although videos looked slightly fuzzy. Web pages looked good, producing easily legible text and subtle distinctions in shading, although at time graphics looked a little blurry.

True black was very dark, white looked pure and untinted, and the display was able to reproduce subtle gradations of light and dark grey - something many LCDs cannot do. The UltraSharp 2405FPW is a solid monitor for general computing and multimedia duties, but high-end imaging professionals and movie/gaming buffs may be disappointed with the screen's handling of colours and fast-moving images. [7.5]