Dell’s UltraSharp monitors have long been one of the de facto choices for those seeking a stylish and feature-rich display with good image quality – and the Dell UltraSharp U2417H shows just why that reputation is justified. I spent more than 14 years on staff, most recently as the director of operations for PC Labs, before hitting the freelance circuit as a contributing editor.

The bottom portion of the bezel in particular is among the most slender I’ve seen, something which is made possible by the monitor’s controls being situated on the underside of the frame rather than the front.The panel can also be removed from the stand and its 100 x 100mm VESA mount used in conjunction with any other compatible stand. In the last few years Dell has done its bit for the environment by transitioning to using cardboard almost exclusively for packaging its products, saving us from yet another source of expanded polystyrene and other plastics. The panel's ability to display very dark blacks helped punch up colors on my test images, and colors appeared rich and well saturated while displaying scenes from Marvel's Ant-Man on Blu-ray. It uses the (almost) bezel-free InfinityEdge design featured on Dell's XPS 13 Touch laptop, making it ideal for side-by-side, multi-monitor applications. As such, the Dell UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor U2417H is our top pick for midsize, mainstream monitors.

The “IPS-type” panel – it’s actually Samsung’s PLS technology – runs at 60Hz and has a reasonable 6ms response time, while the 1080p resolution is entirely typical for a display of this size.As shown on the chromaticity chart below, the factory calibrated IPS panel delivered very accurate colors out of the box.

A stylish slim-bezelled panel, fully adjustable stand, plenty of connectivity and a 99% sRGB IPS panel combine to make it ideal for those seeking quality without verging into pro territory. Red, green, and blue colors, which are represented by the colored dots, are all aligned with their ideal CIE coordinates, which are represented by the boxes. Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. The components are still wrapped in a thin sleeve of cushioning plastic, but this still makes for far less plastic overall.You don’t, though, get automatic image rotation when the screen is pivoted into a portrait orientation.

There’s also an audio output so you can plug in speakers or headphones to listen to the audio being piped over the digital display connections – there are no built-in speakers. The black-and-gray cabinet weighs 7 pounds and is supported by an ergonomic stand that offers tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustments.Pivot the display around into portrait mode and its easy to find all the sockets you need and get all your cables plugged in. Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year. There are five buttons (including the Power button) located under the lower bezel, off to the right. along the bottom – and even most of that is hidden below the top surface of the LCD, so the bezel almost completely disappears when the display is off. The 1,920-by-1,080 panel has a non-reflective coating, a peak brightness of 250 cd/m2, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 16:9 aspect ratio.