Further update:
With quite a few hours spent with the Dell 2408WPF and the HP LP2475w on my desk, I've definitely decided upon which one will be the keeper. In the end, it was an easy choice to make.
It might not be what you expect, though: I've decided that the HP meets my needs far better than the Dell. I can definitely soldier on with the HP, but I just couldn't set up the Dell to achieve what I want to see.
Oh, you bet, "all things equal," I definitely prefer the Dell's S-PVA screen over the "white glowing" HP H-IPS screen. But, "all things sure weren't equal."
I'll show you some more pictures of dubious value, but it boils down to how I have some specific needs, and a very substantial "pre-conceived notion" of what I want to see on my monitor screen. So, bear that in mind, and let's move on:
Mainly, I work in extremely low light. If you're familiar with Ikea's "JANSJÖ" light, I usually work with one of these on, pointing upwards, like a teensy little torchiere lamp. Here it is:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10128734
I've got a second one, which I'll turn on if I need a bit more light. But that's generally it.
I also have a very low tolerance for monitor brightness. Back in the days of Windows 3.1, I decided that there was no way on earth I could sit there staring into the usual white screen, and I've been using some light-to-medium shade of grey for my Windows background, ever since. Here is an example:
Windows Screen 1
As with all of the pictures I'll be posting, the Dell is on the left, and the HP is on the right.
And, it's really hard to tell what's really going on in these pictures, but the bottom line is that the overall brightness of the HP is considerably less than that of the Dell. And that's my "problem" with the Dell -- I just couldn't get what I thought was a decent image on the Dell without it being about twice as bright as the HP. I think you can say that the HP in these images will look a bit "reddish," and the colors perhaps a bit "overcooked," but it's really because it's just a significant step "less bright" than the Dell, in every picture.
Here's another screen shot:
Windows Screen 2
In my low light situation, the HP is far "easier on the eyes" compared to the much-brighter Dell. And I've got the Dell just about as well dialed-in as I could ever get -- going lower than this just produced a dingy, low-contrast screen that looked even worse when viewing pictures on-screen. And we'll get to "pictures," later.
Here's one more "normal program" shot:
Windows Screen 3
I can see many folks saying, "Heck, I like the way the Dell looks, much better." And I wouldn't really disagree. In typical office usage, or basically any situation where the ambient light is quite a bit more than what I use, I'm sure the Dell would work out just fine. Of course, the HP can work just as well in such situations, too.
Let's take a look at a couple of test screens, if anyone might be interested. Let's just take a static blue screen:
Blue Screen
And, might as well look at a black screen:
Black Screen
You can JUST BARELY see some of that "white glow" from the HP on the right. I considered bumping this up in post-processing to emphasize the difference, but then decided against doing so -- this is what the camera captured. Perhaps "not a whole lot to phone home about."
Finally, let's have a look at some pictures:
Picture 1
As with all of these, the HP is going to look darker and perhaps over-saturated and reddish. But, "in person," it actually looked quite correct. And usually, the Dell was a bit less so.
Here's another:
Picture 2
The car's color doesn't look right in either monitor, in this shot. "In person," the HP was fine, but the Dell really wasn't correct at all. Of course, that can all be calibrated, but it's all part of "how I just couldn't get the Dell to do what I want" -- it was either too bright, or I couldn't get the colors right, or I couldn't get the contrast right, and/or combinations of all of the above. And I rather expect that "calibration" could get the colors right, but not without an overall screen brightness that would be several times brighter than what I could handle in my darkened room.
Picture 3
Again, the HP just looks reddish and too saturated. "In person," though, it looked "richer" than the Dell, which was kind of "brighter and a bit washed-out" in comparison. Again, the real difference here has plenty to do with the overall screen brightness from both monitors.
Picture 4
I guess what's telling here is the sky in the background -- the Dell looks a bit "washed out" compared to the HP. Also, the Dell usually showed that "wide gamut too-strong colors" quite a bit more than the HP did, in my non-color-managed applications.
Picture 5
Here's the original image from one of my previous messages. Now with the camera pretty much "where your head would be" in relation to working on either monitor, you really don't see that "white glow" from the HP.
It's probably not too important to give you my exact settings for each monitor -- essentially, both boiled down to brightness around 20, contrast around 80, and the three colors dialed down to about 60% of the TFT Central calibrated settings. Turning the colors down was the only key to getting the screen brightness down to a tolerable level, but that strategy definitely worked far better with the HP than it did with the Dell. Once I dialed down the colors, I quickly and easily got exactly what I wanted with the HP, but I spent hour after hour with the Dell, going through one extreme to the other, without really finding anything that really worked for me. It's like the HP just had a better range of brightness and contrast compared to the Dell, which allowed me to dial something in that I really liked.
But, I think my results probably aren't meaningful to a lot of other people -- if you work in brighter light, if you can handle a brighter monitor, then you should be able to set up the Dell just fine. And the HP should be very easy to set up, too.
Finally, let me post one more picture:
Stand Height
In the previous pictures, the Dell was raised up to match the height of the HP, which was as low as it could go on its stand. Here, the Dell has been lowered to its lowest position, which is substantially lower than the HP. The Dell can go
VERY LOW on its stand -- its screen can be about two and a half inchesl lower than the HP will go on its stand. And, with these big 24-inch monitors, that extra two and a half inches might make a big difference on whether you can sit at a correct height in relation to the monitor. In every way, there's no doubt about it -- the Dell's stand is just world-class.
So, there you have my experiences. I really said it a few pages earlier, where I judged the HP as "competent." Though the pictures might not look quite like it, I'm really looking at a very natural screen image, with the overall brightness and contrast right where I want them, and with some very natural color. I'll never be happy with that "white glow," but at least the pictures in this message show that it really doesn't show up much at all in normal usage. So, I'll just relax about that, and enjoy the truly excellent image quality the HP can produce.