<chuckle>
I can't comment on print calibration, I have a mono laser and only print invoices.
Why not spend $800? Because the picture quality often doesn't compare, at least not in my (fairly limited) experience. I've never for one moment regretted any of the other mega-expensive screens I've bought over the years - the 21 inch Hitachi CRT ($1400), the 22-inch Mitsubishi CRT ($1600ish) or the two 21-inch Samsungs ($1500ish each). In their day, they were all equivalent to maybe a $3200 screen today, so the
Dell is just a cheapie. (Does that sound like a glib rationalisation? Sure it does. Don't knock rationalisations. Rationalisations are more important that sex.*)
Probably I'd be fairly happy with about half of the $800ish IPS screens around, but which half? Damned if I want to buy one in hope and then discover that I hate it.
But I didn't actually want to spend the best part of two grand - I had about half that in mind to start with. Then I was seduced by the resolution of the
Dell. I can't use anything higher (unless I spend two or three thousand on a new Thinkpad - can you even get one these days with three internal hard drives? Doubt it) and I'm certainly not going to downgrade to a 1080p screen, which leaves me with only the 1440 and 1600 height models. I'm not sure how many of the 1440s would go OK on my laptop - they come in a motley variety of shapes and horizontal resolutions, some of which probably won't be compatible, and (so far as I know) none of then have the superior aspect ratio of the
Dell. (16 x 10 = 4 x 2.5 which is quite a bit closer to the ideal 4: 3 than 16 x 9 = 4 x 2.25.) **
But you are right Hamster: I don't need all that fancy colour stuff in the monitor itself, I quite possibly won't even install the software for it. But I do need the biggest, best quality, highest res screen I can fit onto my system, which seems to be the
Dell. It's a bit like wanting the factory sunroof and discovering that the only way you can get it is to pay an extra $15,000 for the alloy wheels, the sat-nav, the V8 engine and the leather seats.
* Yes, honestly. Ever tried to go a week without a rationalisation?
** See *^