MONITORS
76 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
WHENHPDESCRIBESthe EliteDisplay
E243d as adocking monitor,itisn’t joking.
It has packed this displaywith everything
you would normally associatewith adocking
station, with the idea being that all you
need to do is plug in your laptop using the
supplied USB Type-C cable and start working.
It’s largely intended forbusinesses that use
hotdesking environments, but the breadth
of connectivity could be abig help to
individual home users as well.
It goes further than the Dell UltraSharp
U2719DC by providing not just adisplay
connection via USB Type-C, but catering for
other cables and peripherals, too. While HP
has its own EliteBook range in mind to partner
its EliteDisplaymonitors –there’s even a
power adaptor in the box that lets you
directly power older HP laptops that can’t
charge via USB Type-C –wechose to hook up
aMicrosoftSurface Book 2and use it as a
day-to-daysetup.Our wired mouse and wired
keyboard could be plugged intothe two USB2
ports at the EliteDisplayE243d’s rear,next to
the wired Ethernet port, while the supplied
(and very long) USB Type-C cable carried
both power to the Surface Book 2and the
displaysignal to the monitor.The end result
was afully networked system with no need
to plug in aseparatepower cord to keep
the laptop going.
GANGING UP
Forthe monitor itself,HPsupplies ahefty
external power brick, which means the
displaycan deliver up to 65W of power.
That’s enough formost laptops that use
USB Type-C power inputs.
If you set up in asimilar manner,however,
you’ll quickly notice one issue: wires run
everywhere.Wecould cut out two by
switching to awireless mouse and
keyboard, and athird by relying on
Wi-Fi instead of an Ethernet
connection, but even if you use the
monitor stand’s built-in cable
management loop,the USB Type-C
and power cable remain visible.
If you’re the kind of person who uses
cable tidies, you can employthem to
minimise clutter,but it requires effort.
It didn’t help matters when we
connected asecond monitor via the
E243d’s DisplayPort output.
The annoyance of this extra cable
is more than compensated forbythe extra
screen space,however,because alone 23.8in
HP EliteDisplay
E243d
★★★★★
£380•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Aconnectivity-richcompanionforlaptops,
butbepreparedforitssmallerpanel
screen feels small by today’s standards. As is
a1,920x1,080 resolution, which never feels
quiteenough forworking on documents side
by side.Ituses an IPS panel, however,and it’s
well suited to office environments.
Don’t wastetime hunting forabuilt-in
speaker,because there isn’t one,but you can
connect headphones via the 3.5mm jack on
the left-hand side,which keeps two more
USB3 ports company.
TIMETO ADJUST
HP doesn’t make any promises about colour
accuracy,but the E243d returned an average
delta-E of 1.54: ahighly credible result. It’s not
tuned forDCI-P3 or Adobe RGB colour spaces,
covering only 70% of both, but with 90%
sRGB gamut coverage,you can be confident
in the colours you see on the screen.
It’s also bright enough forgeneral office
use,hitting apeak of 264cd/mσ in our tests;
higher than the officially stated maximum
brightness of 250cd/mσ. Naturally,there’s an
anti-glare filter so you won’t be troubled by
reflections from overhead lighting. While the
stand has plenty of tilt options, and the ability
to swivel 45ȑ in either direction, one feature
notably lacking is height adjustment.
Youcould theoretically place two of these
screens side by side in portrait mode,asit
rotates 90ȑ in either direction and has aslim
3mm bezel. Youcan do this to createa
3,840x1,080 display, which acts as amore
effective workspace,although we don’t really
recommend it. Windows gets confused by
this layout, forone,and when the EliteDisplay
E243d costs £380 apop,it’s cheaper to just
get asingle 4K monitor.
Youalso get abuilt-in webcam, which pops
up from arecess when you need it. This isn’t
automatic –you need to press down to
activatethe pop-up mechanism –but has
obvious privacy benefits.
Image quality is decent forvideo calls, but
with a720p resolution and tendency to
oversaturatecolours, it’s hardly areplacement
foradedicated webcam. At least audio quality
is good, with adual-arraymicrophone helping
to cancel background sounds.
Considering HP’s docking stations tend to
cost over £100, the seemingly high price
makes alot more sense; it’s also cheaper than
the Dell UltraSharp U2719DC, although this
has more screen space,ahigher resolution
and slightly better displayperformance.
BASE OF OPERATIONS
At the same time,Dell’s monitor lacks an
Ethernet port, so it’s not quiteasgood as
an all-in-one connectivity hub as the
EliteDisplayE243d. Making the choice
even more difficult is that both have
three-year exchange warranties, so if a
part breaks you can get areplacement
in short order.
Perhaps the UltraSharp U2719DC
would be better when permanently
connected to astatic desktop PC; this
would make up forits lack of Ethernet
port, and provide abigger,sharper
workspace formore hardware-intensive
tasks. The EliteDisplayE243d,
conversely,could be the better pick fora
laptop.Its extensive connectivity would
help to make port-starved ultrabooks
more practical, and its smaller size would still
be an upgrade on any laptop display.
