Pros: Packaging: It was well packaged, and most of the important surfaces were protected with plastic film. The surface of the monitor was not protected with film, just the foam sleeve. The surface was not harmed, though, and in their defense, I've only ever seen Dell cover screen surfaces with plastic film. Cables: Conveniently came with a VGA cable and HDMI cable, as promised. The power cable separates in two parts like a laptop adapter, allowing plenty of slack. The HDMI cable is only around 5' long. It's not a problem for a desktop connection, but don't expect it to be convenient as a freebie HDMI cable to connect your laptop to a friend's TV from their couch. :) Picture quality: VGA display quality is excellent. Setting the temp to cool with 100 focus got the color and sharpness to match almost perfectly with my Alienware laptop's screen. Text is not at all blurry. Black actually looks black. Other: Not a single dead pixel or motion blur so far!

Cons: Picture quality: Connecting from my Alienware laptop to the screen by the included HDMI cable produced washed-out colors. Granted, I don't have another HDMI cable to test whether or not it's the cable, but tweaking the settings such as color temp, contrast, brightness, or trying the autoadjust or the presets, had no effect. Even though I purchased the monitor specifically for the HDMI, I can happily live with the VGA connection, both because I have the option to use VGA and the superb quality of it; however, I would hesitate to use the monitor with a strictly HDMI-based connection, such as a newer console gaming system or DVD/Blu-ray player.

Overall Review: If you need a VGA-based monitor, you will not be disappointed with this in the least. If you need an HDMI-based monitor, try another brand or be prepared to risk experimenting with cables and/or settings to see if you can do what I could not. Shipping note: Newegg promised shipping in three days, yet it arrived overnight, and I am able to enjoy my new monitor over the weekend instead of waiting until Monday. Lucky me! Thanks, NewEgg. :)