In the end, it's one of those monitors that does better in isolation than in comparison. Viewed by itself, it's a pretty pleasant looking display that might just fool you -- at a glance -- into thinking it was a mediocre IPS panel. Placed side by side with a good VA or IPS screen, however, its short comings are obvious.

That said, there are two areas where it falls short by any standard. Worst of all is the backlight bleed around the top and bottom edges of the panel. It's the sort of basic image quality faux pas that does much to cheapen the overall feel of the monitor.

Then there's the vertical viewing angle problem. Some recent panels have recently made significant strides in improving the notoriously restricted vertical viewing angles of TN technology. But not the S2209W.

Finally, there's the question of value for money. Again, it comes down to the old absolute versus relative conundrum. At first, a sticker price of just under £150 certainly feels like a good deal for a fairly stylish, high resolution display. But then you have to consider the fact that you can snag Dell's own new 23-inch 1080p panel (which is actually a full 1.5 inches bigger) for about £40 more. That extra inch and a half is certainly tempting.