Dell C2422HE

The Dell C2422HE monitor impresses with a webcam that works well alongside Microsoft Teams and Skype, plus good physical connectivity, plenty of movement and slick design. It’s expensive, though, and image quality is only sufficient to cope with conventional office tasks – this isn’t the screen to buy for creative work.

Introduction

Business monitors wouldn’t usually be described as exciting or interesting, but Dell has used the growth of remote working to design the C2422HE – and it’s one of the most innovative work displays I’ve seen for some time.

The innovation isn’t with the screen itself. Instead, the Dell C2422HE includes a webcam, specific buttons and features for Microsoft Teams, and more security options than you’ll find accompanying most screens.

This is impressive, but on office panels often skimp when it comes to image quality, concentrating on features elsewhere – and the C2422HE isn’t cheap, with global pricing at £435 / $435 / €496.

Dell’s display also faces strong competition. If you want a more stylish office option, there’s the Huawei MateView, which has a 3:2 panel and costs £499 / €639.

Design and Features

• A great webcam and generous physical connectivity
• Slick, robust design with plenty of movement
• An unsurprising everyday screen specification

The Dell C2422HE includes a 5-megapixel webcam in its top bezel, which delivers crisp and smooth imagery. The camera supports Windows Hello for biometric sign-in, it’s augmented by dual noise-cancelling microphones, and it can slide into the bezel for increased privacy.

There are more video-conferencing features in the bottom bezel. There’s a dedicated button for Microsoft Teams that answers calls and notifications, and there are buttons to raise/lower the volume and mute the microphones. There’s also a hookswitch key to connect your wireless headset.

Those buttons all have dedicated LEDs. The Teams light is solid when the app runs and it blinks when you receive a notification; pressing the button opens the tool. The Hookswitch LED blinks when you have a call in Teams or Skype, and different presses can answer, end or reject calls.

The bottom bezel is coated with a grey fabric that looks stylish – indeed, combine that with the Dell’s metallic base and you have a display that looks far better than the average office monitor. It’s sturdy, too, with the Dell’s movement consistently smooth.

The C2422HE impresses in other areas, too. Beneath the buttons and LEDs you’ll find accessible USB 3.2 Gen 1 and headphone ports alongside a USB-C downstream port with 15W of charging ability, and around the rear there’s another USB-C connector that supports DisplayPort, 90W of power delivery, and a daisy-chained second display.

The back serves up two more full-size USB sockets, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, and a Kensington lock slot. There’s a DisplayPort output for adding a second screen, and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. There’s a USB upstream port for attaching the Dell to your host PC or laptop – you need to connect that to use the Dell’s full range of features and conceivably run all of your desktop peripherals through the C2422HE. Handily, the stand has a cable-routing cavity to keep cables neat.

The Dell C2422HE even includes a KVM, so you can use one set of peripherals to control two connected PCs or laptops. And in that bottom bezel you’ll find a pair of 5W speakers. They’re a bit muddy, with overwhelming bass and a lack of high-end definition, but they’re fine for making video calls and listening to background music.

The Dell offers 140mm of height adjustment, 25 degrees of tilt, 90 degrees of swivel and 180 degrees of rotation. Combine that with a 100mm VESA support and this monitor delivers ample physical versatility. And while the on-screen display isn’t exciting, it’s well organised and easily navigable thanks to a joystick positioned at the rear. The Dell can be built without tools, too.

There’s an awful lot to like about the Dell C2422HE’s features, but its internal specification is entirely ordinary. It’s an IPS display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and 8-bit colour. It has a 60Hz refresh rate and 8ms response time. That’s fine for everyday office work, but it’s unlikely to be good enough for creative tasks, nor is it suitable for after-hours gaming.

If you do require better image quality, the Huawei MateView could be a suitable alternative. It’s a 3:2 display with a huge resolution of 3840 x 2560. It doesn’t come with the webcam or the physical connectivity of the Dell, but it does offer better wireless and Bluetooth abilities as well as far more style.

Another choice for physical connectivity and a webcam is the HP E27d G4. You’ll have to find it second-hand, but it offers generous connectivity, including Ethernet and USB ports with power delivery, and a KVM switch, too. It’s larger than the Dell and offers a higher resolution, plus it’s cheaper. Note that it doesn’t have Microsoft Teams features, speakers, or great build quality, though.

Also bear in mind that Dell produces versions of the C2422HE in larger sizes. The C2722DE pairs a 27in diagonal and 2560 x 1440 resolution for £580 / $575 / €660, and the C3422WE is a curved 34in display at 3440 x 1440 for £827 / $785 / €941.

Image Quality

• Sufficient colour accuracy and gamut coverage for everyday tasks
• Underwhelming brightness and contrast performance proves restrictive
• An acceptable display for everyday work, but nothing more

The Dell C2422HE’s uninspired internal specification translated to underwhelming image quality. The display’s factory brightness level of 153 nits is fine for most offices, but it will look dim if you’re beneath bright lights or next to a large window. The 0.5-nit black point is high, for a contrast ratio of 306:1.

That contrast ratio is poor, and is evident on the display. There’s little depth, black areas look grey, and colours crush together. The mediocre brightness and contrast mean there’s no high-end punch, either. The low contrast ratio doesn’t make the Dell unusable; it’s still good enough for browser-based work, Office apps and video calls – indeed, any situation where you don’t require lots of depth or nuance. But, if those attributes are of importance then look elsewhere.

The panel’s maximum brightness level of 223 nits is better and will suit most office situations. That said, a stronger backlight would make the Dell better in a wider variety of scenarios, and increasing the brightness didn’t improve contrast.

The Dell delivers middling colour performance, too. It rendered 91.6% of the sRGB colour gamut with a volume of 98.3% and a reasonable Delta E of 2.65. Those mid-range results mean that the Dell can produce most of the shades required for everyday tasks, and with reasonable accuracy. But the panel can’t render anything beyond sRGB, and it isn’t accurate enough to cope with colour-sensitive workloads in creative applications.

The Dell doesn’t have the backlight consistency to tackle those scenarios, either – its strength dimmed by 20% in the bottom corners, which is poor on a 24in panel.

I’m not surprised that the Dell C2422HE doesn’t deliver good image quality, though, since that is arguably the least-important aspect of this product. And while it doesn’t have the contrast, brightness, or colours to tackle creative tasks, it’s good enough to handle everyday workloads and office sites – it will only struggle in particularly bright environments. If you do need something brighter and more accurate, the Huawei is far better, and the older HP beats the Dell too.

Indeed, the Dell C2422HE excels elsewhere. It offers one of the best feature sets you’ll find on any office monitor, with great communication and connectivity. It’s far better than the Huawei in this regard, and the HP has fewer physical features but better wireless ability. The Dell’s build quality is also robust, it delivers a good range of adjustment options, and serviceable speakers, too.

This monitor is undoubtedly expensive, but few displays function in the way of the Dell C2422HE. If video-conferencing is a big part of what you do – especially in Microsoft Teams – then this monitor is impressive.

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