Curved-screen monitors haven't quite taken the marketplace by storm, but they are beginning to trickle in. With the UltraSharp U3415W, Dell joins Samsung and LG in releasing a gargantuan, 34-inches, ultra-wide, curved display made to bring enhanced panoramic viewing to the desktop. This monitor uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel technology to deliver rich, accurate colors and solid gray-scale performance, with wide viewing angles. It really is equipped with numerous I/O ports and offers a USB daisy-chaining and hub capabilities, and it comes with a height-adaptable stand. The U3415W at Dell doesn't come inexpensive, but you get yourself a complete large amount of monitor and great performance for your cash. It's our top pick for ultra-wide monitors.
Design and Features
Dell's UltraSharp monitors have always maintained a pleasing aesthetic, however the U3415W takes it to some other known level with a slick, (mostly) bezel-free design which makes the gigantic 34-inch panel look even larger than it already is. The U3415W does sport a thin (3/4-inches), matte-black bottom level bezel that holds a Dell logo, four touch-sensitive function buttons, and a On / off switch, however the top and side bezels are microscopic practically.
The slightly curved 34-inch Wide Quad High Definition (WQHD) panel has a optimum resolution of 3,440-by-1,440, a 300-nit brightness level, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. It really is housed within an 18.6-pound, matte-dark cabinet measuring 32.5 by 14.7 by 3 in . (HWD), and it includes a non-reflective, anti-glare coating. A square supports The cabinet, silver stand with a mounting arm that gives you 4.5 inches of height, 60 examples of swivel, and 26 examples of tilt maneuverability. By method of evaluation, the LG 34UC97-S offers tilt adjustability, but lacks support for height and swivel adjustments. The U3415W has a pair of 9-watt speakers that are extremely loud and deliver robust, distortion-free audio. You do not obtain booming bass with these speakers, but they do provide enough bottom to avoid sounding tinny.
A boatload is got by you of ports with this monitor, including two full-size DisplayPort connectors (one in and one out) that allow you to daisy-chain multiple monitors, a mini-DisplayPort input, an HDMI 2.0 input, a separate Mobile High Definition (MHL) input allowing you to connect to and charging smartphones and tablets, an sound line-out for external speakers, and six USB 3.0 ports, two of which are upstream connectors that allow you to share a mouse and keyboard with two PCs. My just gripe here is that of the USB ports are in the rear of the cabinet; a few side-mounted ports would make it simpler to plug and unplug peripherals like thumb drives and MP3 players.
The U3415W offers lots of advanced and basic picture settings and a user-friendly menu system. In addition to Brightness, Comparison, and Gamma settings, there are seven picture presets (Standard, Multimedia, Movie, Video game, Paper, Color Temp, and Custom). If you choose the Custom made setting, you can tweak Offset and Gain levels for crimson, green, and blue colors, and also Hue and Saturation amounts for red, green, blue, cyan, yellowish, and magenta colors. Additional adjustments include Sharpness, Dynamic Comparison, Picture-in-Picture (PIP), and Picture-by-Picture (PBP) settings, as well as a calibrated Uniformity Compensation establishing that adjust all areas of the display screen to maintain uniform lighting and color with regards to the center of the display.
The U3415W comes with a 3-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Contained in the box certainly are a mini-DisplayPort cable, an HDMI cable, and an upstream USB wire. You also get a printed Quick Start Guidebook and a CD made up of a User Guide, motorists, and Dell's Display Supervisor software, which allows you to change picture presets utilizing a keyboard and mouse and apply presets to specific applications. It also contains an Easy Arrange utility that lets you use predefined or custom made window layouts.
Performance
The U3415W delivers very accurate colors from the box. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, reddish colored, green, and blue shades (represented by the shaded dots) are all very carefully aligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes). As is the case with quality IPS panels usually, colours appear saturated and abundant with tone evenly. Gray-scale performance is also top-notch; the panel had no problems reproducing every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Stage Gray-Scale test and displayed complex highlight and shadow detail on my check images.
As was the case with the LG 34UC97-S, the U3415W's curved display brings you a little nearer to the action even though gaming or watching movies. Playing Contact of Duty: Black Ops on the silver screen was exhilarating, as was watching Marvel's Captain America: THE WINTERTIME Soldier on Blu-ray. The 34-inch, wide-screen is ideal for users who typically work with several windows open, as well as those that work with large files or spreadsheets.
The panel's 5-millisecond pixel response keeps ghosting to a minimum, but doesn't get rid of it completely. I noticed minor ghosting while playing Burnout Paradise on the Sony PS3 console but only when the background was very dark. Insight lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command) is a nonissue, because of the U3415W's low 10.5-millisecond lag time.
Despite its size, the U3415W doesn't draw a whole lot of power. It averaged 55 watts during assessment while operating in Movie mode, which is just about based on the LG 34UC97-S (56 watts in Cinema mode). In Regular mode, the U3415W utilized 46 watts, which is a lot significantly less than the 32-in . Dell UP3214Q's in Amazon 88 watts.
Conclusion
Whether you're seeking to displace your dual-monitor set up with an enormous ultra-wide monitor or want to bring the curved-screen experience to your desktop, the Dell UltraSharp U3415W is an excellent choice. Granted, you'll pay out a premium for all of this screen property, but the U3415W is in fact less expensive than the LG 34UC97-S and will be offering better all-around performance and a height-changeable stand, which explains why it is our Editor's Choice ultra-wide monitor. If the Dell U3415W's price is too steep, however, browse the 29-inches Acer B296CL it isn't nearly as large as the U3415W, does not have a curved panel, and it's really not a WQHD monitor, but it is a reasonably priced ultra-wide monitor that provides good lots and performance of features.