Question Help - Black isn't black on new LED monitor

Nov 15, 2023
22
0
10
Got my new dell S2421HS the other day, didn't change nothing but the brightness - from 75% to 100% .
Took me till now to realize it, but blacks aren't really blacks and colors aren't the most vibrant.

I know its a pretty cheap monitor but from what I understood blacks are meant to be pretty black with LED.

Compared it with the display of a laptop I have, which is pretty decent but I see no reason for its display to be better than the monitor. ( Dell latitude 7490 )
Maybe it is tho for some reason, meaning the monitor is fine.

Any advice please?
 
LED refers to the type of backlight, not the panel type which in your case is IPS LCD. IPS are known for a subtle, non uniform "glow" in areas of the image that should be the darkest. The amount of this effect really seems to vary but the lower cost IPS panels tend to suffer greatly while on the higher end panels it is barely noticeable (but still there when compared to VA or OLED). If you want the blackest blacks on an LCD you want a VA panel, which do have nice deep blacks but can suffer a smearing effect during motion or panning. As for your laptop, the Latitude series tend to have very high quality IPS displays (I have one, great little machines). So in short you're comparing a budget IPS panel (S2421HS) to a high end IPS panel (Latitude 7490). There will be a visble difference.
 
Nov 15, 2023
22
0
10
LED refers to the type of backlight, not the panel type which in your case is IPS LCD. IPS are known for a subtle, non uniform "glow" in areas of the image that should be the darkest. The amount of this effect really seems to vary but the lower cost IPS panels tend to suffer greatly while on the higher end panels it is barely noticeable (but still there when compared to VA or OLED). If you want the blackest blacks on an LCD you want a VA panel, which do have nice deep blacks but can suffer a smearing effect during motion or panning. As for your laptop, the Latitude series tend to have very high quality IPS displays (I have one, great little machines). So in short you're comparing a budget IPS panel (S2421HS) to a high end IPS panel (Latitude 7490). There will be a visble difference.
Got it thanks.
Is there anything that could be done in the settings of the monitor / PC to just slightly improve that? Or atleast the vibrance of colors and all? Things feel a bit flat sometimes
 

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Got it thanks.
Is there anything that could be done in the settings of the monitor / PC to just slightly improve that? Or atleast the vibrance of colors and all? Things feel a bit flat sometimes

People have very difference perceptions and quality priorities, so the only way to tell for sure is for you to experiment with setting changes yourself. The basic issues remain: the benefits of IPS are accurate colors and good viewing angles and this is a cheap IPS panel. There no type without its own set of drawbacks.
 
Nov 15, 2023
22
0
10
People have very difference perceptions and quality priorities, so the only way to tell for sure is for you to experiment with setting changes yourself. The basic issues remain: the benefits of IPS are accurate colors and good viewing angles and this is a cheap IPS panel. There no type without its own set of drawbacks.
Alright. And which settings do you recommend I play with?
The only things I can play with in the monitors settings are the contrast, brightness, saturation and a few other more complex stuff that I think aren't related much.
 
Is gamma worth messing around with? Seems to be in the right spot but lowering it down makes things a bit bolder
Gamma can be tricky as it's very much give and take. There's no way to make a low quality panel look as good as a high quality one but, as mentioned it's very much subjective. What you like I may not. As for colour, if you have an Nvidia GPU check the Nvidia Control Panel for Digital Vibrance, it's under Desktop Color Settings. This can make things pop quite a bit with the side effect of things getting some bleed and oversaturation. In extreme settings it looks very artificial. I do find that some games and media end up looking fairly OK with some dialed in even on a better quality IPS. Intel and AMD have their own settings for this though off hand I don't know what they are called.