Dell P2422H 24" Black 2021

The Dell P2422H is an office monitor that prioritizes ergonomics and connectivity over raw display quality. Its stand is fantastic and the built-in USB hub is a game-changer for laptop users, but the 250-nit screen is dim and the 75Hz refresh rate is nothing special. At a good sale price under $150 it's a great buy for a work-from-home setup. Just don't expect to enjoy gaming on it.

Let's be real about the numbers. A 75Hz refresh rate and an 8ms response time put this panel in the 8th percentile for overall performance. That sounds brutal, and for gaming it is. But for scrolling through documents and web pages, it's perfectly adequate. The 75Hz bump over the standard 60Hz is a subtle but welcome improvement, making cursor movements and window dragging feel just a touch smoother. You won't notice it until you go back to a 60Hz panel, and then you'll miss it.

The 250-nit brightness is another spec that's just okay. In a typical office with controlled lighting, it's fine. Park it next to a sunny window and you'll be squinting and reaching for the brightness setting that's already maxed out. The 99% sRGB coverage is actually a pleasant surprise, putting it right around the middle of the pack for color. Colors look accurate enough out of the box for general use, but don't expect the kind of wide gamut coverage you'd need for photo editing. It's a work monitor, and it performs like one.

The Dell P2422H's biggest competition comes from the budget gaming crowd, which is a little unfair but unavoidable. Take the Acer Nitro XV272U W2bmiiprx. For a similar price when the Dell is at its higher end, the Acer gives you a 27-inch 1440p screen with a 240Hz refresh rate. The image sharpness and motion clarity are in a completely different league. You lose the Dell's phenomenal stand and USB hub, but you gain a monitor that's actually fun to use for anything beyond spreadsheets. The ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQL5A is another 1440p high-refresh-rate alternative that makes the Dell look like a relic for media consumption.

On the office side, the HP OMEN 27qs G2 is an interesting crossover. It's a gaming monitor at heart, but its 1440p resolution and large screen size make it a productivity beast too. You'd be trading the Dell's ergonomic chops and USB hub for a much more immersive and sharper display. If your work involves looking at detailed designs, large spreadsheets, or multiple windows at once, the extra screen real estate of a 27-inch 1440p monitor is a genuine quality-of-life upgrade. The Dell's 24-inch 1080p screen feels cramped by comparison. The KOORUI 34E6UC and Gigabyte GS G34WQC2 ultrawides are in a different universe entirely, offering a massive horizontal workspace that the Dell simply can't match, though they demand a lot more desk space.

Pricing on this monitor is all over the map. We've seen it listed anywhere from $90 for a refurbished unit to $460 brand new, which is a massive $370 spread. At the low end, especially for a refurb, this is a steal. You're getting a top-tier stand and a fantastic USB hub for less than a hundred bucks. At the high end, you're getting fleeced. For $460, you're in the territory of a high-refresh-rate 1440p monitor that will run circles around this Dell in every performance metric.

If you're buying new, shop around aggressively. The sweet spot for this monitor is probably in the $150 to $200 range. Any more than that and you're paying a premium for the Dell badge and the stand, which are nice, but not that nice. The value proposition hinges entirely on how much you care about that integrated USB hub and the ergonomic stand. If those are must-haves, it's worth a slight premium. If not, there are cheaper 24-inch 1080p panels that will show you the same picture.

The Dell P2422H is the office monitor equivalent of a reliable sedan. It's not flashy, it won't win any drag races, but it gets you where you need to go comfortably every single day. This 24-inch 1080p IPS panel is built for spreadsheets, emails, and the occasional YouTube break, and it nails that brief. The real star of the show isn't the screen itself, it's the connectivity and ergonomics. With a USB hub that puts many pricier monitors to shame and a stand that lets you twist it into practically any position, this thing is designed to make a desk setup just work.

We're looking at a display that sits in a weird spot in our database. Its raw performance and display quality scores are frankly pretty low, landing in the bottom quarter of all monitors we've tested. But it absolutely dominates in connectivity and ergonomics, scoring in the 99th and 92nd percentiles respectively. That tells you everything you need to know. Dell didn't build this for gamers or creative pros who need perfect color accuracy. They built it for IT departments and home office warriors who need a no-fuss screen that plays nice with their laptop and doesn't wreck their neck.

Who's it for? If you're outfitting a home office and your company is footing the bill, this is a top contender. It's also a solid pick if you constantly plug and unplug peripherals, since that built-in USB hub is a lifesaver. But if you're looking for a monitor to game on after hours or do any color-sensitive work, you'll want to keep scrolling. The 75Hz refresh rate and 8ms response time are fine for desktop use, but they're a far cry from what even a budget gaming monitor offers these days.

Gamers should skip this without a second thought. The 8ms response time and 75Hz cap will make any fast-moving game feel like a smeary mess. You can get a dedicated 144Hz or 165Hz gaming monitor for around the same price as a new P2422H, and the difference is night and day. Look at something from Acer's Nitro line or ASUS's TUF Gaming series instead.

Creative professionals should also steer clear. While the 99% sRGB coverage is decent, the 250-nit brightness and lack of a wider color gamut like DCI-P3 make it unsuitable for photo or video editing where color accuracy and screen uniformity are critical. You'd be better served by a factory-calibrated monitor from Dell's own UltraSharp line or a BenQ PD series display. This is a monitor for text and interfaces, not for pixels you're getting paid to perfect.

For a pure office workhorse, the Dell P2422H is a solid buy at the right price. If you can snag it for under $150, you're getting a monitor with a stand that puts most competitors to shame and a USB hub that will clean up your desk cable situation. It's a monitor you can plug a laptop into with a single USB-C cable and instantly have a full desktop setup with keyboard, mouse, and ethernet all connected. That convenience is hard to overstate for a daily driver. The 75Hz refresh rate and decent color accuracy are just icing on the cake.

But if your desk does double duty for gaming or any creative work, you should absolutely look elsewhere. The slow response time and low brightness are dealbreakers for those use cases. A budget gaming monitor like the Acer Nitro XV272U will give you a much better experience for not much more money. And if you're just looking for the cheapest possible second screen to throw a chat window onto, you can find basic 24-inch 1080p panels for less. The Dell is a premium office tool, and you should only pay for it if you'll actually use its premium features.