If you’re looking for a smaller, cheaper monitor to extend your desktop or use as a simple secondary display, there are lots of budget options available. Dell makes some really nice high-end monitors, but are they the ones to go for if you’ve only got $250 in your pocket? It seems to me that the 1909W makes too many sacrifices: at 1440×900 it’s barely high-res enough for 720p content, and although 5ms is a decent response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio isn’t really cream of the crop.

I’m reviewing a Westinghouse right now that has better specs and costs $50 less; I’d go with that over this one in a heartbeat, although the Dell certainly has the Westinghouse beat on design.