Verdict

The Dell P2319H has good everyday image quality, a solid slate of connectivity and movement features and a top-notch price, so it's a great option if you need an unfussy and small monitor for everyday office or home use. However, it's not good enough to handle tougher colour-sensitive tasks or any kind of serious gaming.

Pros

• Decent everyday image quality
• Good adjustment options
• Solid connectivity
• Very affordable

Cons

• Some missing features
• Can't handle colour-sensitive tasks
• Not fast enough for gaming

The Dell P2319H is one of the most affordable monitors you can buy right now, and it manages to combine its low price with solid image quality and a reasonable selection of features.

Those key attributes mean the P2319H is attractive if you’re searching for a home/office monitor that will get the job done without breaking the bank.

Naturally though, I’m questioning if the Dell is too cheap to be worthwhile – and if it can lift itself above some strong, affordable competition.

Dell P2319H Price and availability

The Dell P2319H costs just £156/$214/€179. With versatility a key tenet of this Dell range, it means that plenty of other sizes are also available.

If you want something smaller, the Dell P2219H costs £144/$198/€166 and has a 22in diagonal. As the name suggests, the Dell P2419H is a 24in panel at £157/$216/€181, and the range includes the 27in P2719H, which costs £183/$251/€210. These displays all have the same design and features – the only things that changes are their weight and dimensions.

The 23in display I’ve reviewed here squares up against the Acer ET241Y, which is a little larger and a little cheaper than the Dell: it currently costs £126. There’s also the AOC 24P2C, which is bigger and more expensive, with its price sitting at £170/€230.

Dell P2319H Design and features – A solid slate of office-friendly options

• Loads of adjustment options improve versatility
• Reasonable connectivity, including side-mounted USB ports
• The IPS panel is solid, although its specification is basic

The Dell P2319H concentrates on practicality and sensible features. On the outside, Dell’s display has tiny bezels, so it’s suitable for multi-monitor setups. It has excellent adjustment options, including 130mm of height adjustment and swivel, tilt and portrait mode movement. It’s also compatible with 100mm VESA mounts.

The slim bezels and ample movement allow the Dell to work in a wide variety of configurations, and its modest 4.78kg weight makes it easy for me to carry from desk to desk. Build quality is reasonable throughout, and the P2319H is easily strong enough for the office.

The 23in diagonal means small dimensions too: it’s 520mm wide and only 166mm deep, so it was easy for me to position this panel in smaller spaces.

Physically, the Dell is impressive, and the P2319H is decent elsewhere. The left-hand edge has two USB 3.0 ports, and the base is small and flat, so it’s handy for storing pens and peripherals. DisplayPort, HDMI, and an archaic VGA socket handle image input, and the tool-free stand and base deliver easy building.

It’s got a large cutaway for cable management, and the matte coating means I didn’t have to suffer any reflections. The final piece of the puzzle is a solid on-screen display: it’s not got an overwhelming number of options, but it’s well-organised and fast.

At this price, though, it’s understandable that the Dell doesn’t stack up in some areas. The extra USB ports around the rear use the slower USB 2.0 protocol, and the Dell has no USB-C, no audio jack, and no speakers. The Dell’s movement is a little stiff, and the grey plastic looks underwhelming.

On the inside, the P2319H has a 1080p, 23in IPS panel with 8-bit colour, an 8ms response time, and a refresh rate of 60Hz. For everyday workloads and web-browsing, that’s fine, but this panel doesn’t have the accuracy for colour-sensitive work. The Dell isn’t fast enough for anything beyond slower games, either.

Many of these omissions and compromises are unsurprising at this price, and they place the Dell between its rivals. The cheaper Acer ET241Y has fewer ports and less adjustment options alongside the same basic screen technology. The AOC 24P2C has more adjustment, a KVM switch, and a USB-C port alongside a 75Hz refresh rate, but it’s more expensive.

Dell P2319H Image quality – Good everyday ability, but no more

• The Dell serves up great contrast for an IPS panel
• Colour accuracy is good, but not enough for demanding workloads
• Uniformity and viewing angles are both great

Out of the box, the Dell is good enough to handle most everyday computing tasks. By using a colorimeter, I measured the the brightness level to be 206 nits which is ample for an office or living room. The black level of 0.15 nits is better than many IPS displays manage, too.

They deliver a contrast ratio of 1373:1, which is a good result for an IPS panel, and high enough to serve up loads of punch, depth, and nuance in media. For viewing photos, YouTube videos, and browser windows that’s a boon, and it’ll make games and movies pop.

The contrast ratio was maintained with the brightness ramped up to its maximum level of 268 nits, and the figures remained stable at a more conventional 150-nit brightness level.

The colour temperature of 6411K is great, and the Delta E of 2.7 is reasonable. It’s not the sub-2.0 result I expect to see from more expensive photo-editing and design panels, and it means that this monitor isn’t suitable for workloads where colour accuracy is required. However, it’s still good enough to handle mainstream and casual photo-editing.

The colour gamut levels tell a similar story. Dell’s display handles a reasonable 88.5% of the sRGB gamut at 98% volume, so the P2319H provides vibrant colours even if it won’t quite display every shade in the sRGB space. That, again, means that the Dell can handle mainstream and casual colour-based work, but nothing more.

Unsurprisingly, it returned sub-70% coverage figures in the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 colour spaces, so don’t expect to get any challenging colour-based work done on this display.

The IPS technology and matte coating ensure impressive viewing angles, and uniformity levels are good – in most segments, Dell’s backlight strength and colour accuracy levels barely varied.

These results are good enough for everyday work, with bold colours, great contrast, impressive black levels, and solid uniformity. Dell’s panel is better than the Acer, and it offered more balance than the AOC.

Dell P2319H conclusion

The Dell P2319H is not fussy or particularly impressive, but it concentrates on providing key features and acceptable quality levels at a great price. It’s got solid connectivity and loads of adjustment options, and it has the contrast and colour accuracy to handle everyday scenarios.

It’s not good enough to tackle colour-sensitive tasks or faster games, though, and more demanding workloads demand higher resolutions. It’s consistently better than the rival Acer, and the pricier AOC has more features alongside poorer image quality.

That leaves the Dell P2319H in a well-balanced spot, and it means that this is an affordable and capable display for everyday use.

You should buy the Dell P2319H if…

• You want a capable monitor for everyday use
  The Dell’s contrast and reasonable colour accuracy mean it’s ideal for everyday workloads, from Office tasks and video calls to web-browsing. It’s got good connectivity and adjustability, too.

• You don’t have much space on your desk
  The P2319H’s 23in diagonal is small, and the modest stand and bezels keep things compact. It’s ideal if you don’t have much room.

• You’re looking for a monitor that doesn’t cost the earth
  The Dell is one of the most affordable IPS monitors around, so it’s perfect if you want a high-quality display on a relatively small budget.

You shouldn’t buy the Dell P2319H if…

• You want to tackle colour-sensitive tasks
  While the Dell produces reasonable colours, it doesn’t have the accuracy or gamut ability to take on photo-editing and design work. You’ll have to spend more for that.

• You want to play games
  This screen has slow refresh rate and response times, so it’s only suitable for more casual gameplay. Keen gamers should look elsewhere.

• You need a large, expansive desktop environment
  While a 1080p resolution and 23in diagonal are fine for everyday use, they’re hardly overwhelming – look elsewhere if you want more pixels or a physically larger screen.

Trusted Score