HP isn’t just a little proud of its w2408h. According to them,  the screen is elegant, reactive, has a high contrast ratio and amazing colors.  The elegance is indeed there and, even if the design is a question of taste, we cannot say that the w2408h doesn’t have a very original look.  The OSD and startup buttons, ambient brightness sensor, or even the USB hub are all perfectly integrated to the bezel.  There is a glossy finish, but here again another nice surprise; it’s not too subject to finger smudges as can often be the case.

The ambient brightness sensor	Startup button
2 port USB hub	OSD options

With default settings, colors are indeed vivid, but this is more due to the glossiness of the panel than the work of technicians.   Glossy panels have this advantage of artificially reinforcing the saturation and radiance of colors although there are two inconveniences:  we can sometimes see reflections in the panel and, unless we make the effort to work in the dark, colors are never perfect.  And this is if we don’t even include the fact that HP engineers opted for entirely inaccurate settings.  To put things simply: the image has a strong blue dominance, blacks are washed out, there is a lack of contrast and brightness is too high.  In more technical terms and ''numbers'', this means a color temperature of 7600 K, an average dE of 5.1 (when it should be closer to 1), black at 0.5 and a final contrast of 320:1.

If you haven’t understood any of this, it’s not dramatic.  Just know that all of this should be corrected and luckily it’s possible for the HP w2408h.

In the OSD (the screen’s menu), go into photo mode and lower brightness to 31. The difference between ideal colors and those displayed on the screen (deltaE) then falls to 3.8 and black gains in depth (0.30 cd/m²).  After this adjustment is made, the screen goes from 2 to 3 stars in color fidelity. Another even better solution is with default settings you can also download its calibration profile we provide (free of charge).  Ideally, colors will then correct themselves.

The so called ''fast'' response time is contradicted by the screen’s own characteristics.  In fact, 5 ms is currently what is the slowest in terms of reactivity with the fastest LCDs being at 2 ms.  Once again, there is no mystery here and we have reactivity that is a bit weak and gamers will not be overly delighted.  For other uses, it is nevertheless amply enough.


Small pluses that can make a difference

HP included rescaling options to attract owners of consoles equipped with an HDMI output like the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360.  We also find other nice little bonuses in the OSD like the option of deactivating the power indicator, sleep planner, and deactivation of the ambient brightness sensor.

Rescaling options	Sleep options
Activation/Deactvation of Power button	Activation/Deactivation of light sensor