Curved-screen monitors haven't quite taken the market by storm, however 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 provide rich, accurate shades and solid gray-scale functionality, 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-variable stand. The U3415W at Dell doesn't come inexpensive, but you get a lot of monitor and great performance for your money. It's our best pick for ultra-wide monitors.
Design and Features
Dell's UltraSharp monitors possess always maintained a nice aesthetic, however the U3415W takes it to another 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-inch), matte-black bottom level bezel that holds a Dell logo design, four touch-sensitive function buttons, and a Power switch, but the top and side bezels are microscopic practically.
The slightly curved 34-inch Wide Quad HI-DEF (WQHD) panel has a maximum resolution of 3,440-by-1,440, a 300-nit lighting level, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. It really is housed in an 18.6-pound, matte-dark cabinet measuring 32.5 by 14.7 by 3 inches (HWD), and it includes a non-reflective, anti-glare coating. The cabinet is backed by a square, silver stand with a mounting arm that provides you 4.5 inches of height, 60 examples of swivel, and 26 degrees of tilt maneuverability. By way of assessment, the LG 34UC97-S presents tilt adjustability, but lacks support for elevation and swivel adjustments. The U3415W has a pair of 9-watt speakers that are extremely loud and deliver robust, distortion-free audio. You don't obtain booming bass with these loudspeakers, however they do provide plenty of 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 away) that enable you to daisy-chain multiple monitors, a mini-DisplayPort input, an HDMI 2.0 input, another Mobile HI-DEF (MHL) input allowing you to connect to and charging smartphones and tablets, an audio line-out for external audio speakers, and six USB 3.0 ports, two of which are upstream connectors that allow you to share a keyboard and mouse with two PCs. My only 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 plenty of basic and advanced picture settings and a user-friendly menu system. In addition to Brightness, Contrast, and Gamma settings, there are seven picture presets (Standard, Multimedia, Film, Game, Paper, Color Temp, and Custom). In the event that you choose the Custom made establishing, you can tweak Offset and Gain amounts for crimson, green, and blue colors, and also Hue and Saturation levels for red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magenta colors. Various other changes include Sharpness, Dynamic Comparison, Picture-in-Picture (PIP), and Picture-by-Picture (PBP) settings, in addition to a calibrated Uniformity Compensation setting that adjust every area of the screen to maintain uniform lighting and color with regards to the center of the display.
The U3415W includes a 3-year guarantee on parts, labor, and backlight. Included in the box certainly are a mini-DisplayPort cable, an HDMI cable, and an USB cable upstream. You also get a printed Quick Start Guide and a CD containing 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 enables you to use predefined or custom window layouts.
Performance
The U3415W delivers very accurate colors from the box. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red, green, and blue colors (represented by the shaded dots) are very closely aligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes). As is the case with quality IPS panels usually, colors appear evenly saturated and rich in tone. Gray-scale performance can be top-notch; the panel acquired no problems reproducing every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test and displayed complex highlight and shadow details on my check images.
As was the entire case with the LG 34UC97-S, the U3415W's curved display screen brings you a little closer to the action even though gaming or watching movies. Playing Call of Duty: Dark Ops on the big screen was exhilarating, as was viewing Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Blu-ray. The 34-inch, wide-screen is perfect for users who work with several windows open typically, as well as those that use large spreadsheets or records.
The panel's 5-millisecond pixel response keeps ghosting to the very least, but doesn't remove it completely. I observed small ghosting while playing Burnout Paradise on the Sony PS3 gaming console but only when the background was very dark. Input lag (enough time it requires for the monitor to react to a controller control) is a non-issue, because of the U3415W's low 10.5-millisecond lag time.
Despite its size, the U3415W doesn't draw a lot of power. It averaged 55 watts during screening 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 used 46 watts, which is much significantly less than the 32-inch Dell UP3214Q's in Amazon 88 watts.
Conclusion
Whether you're looking to displace your dual-monitor set up with a massive ultra-wide monitor or want to provide the curved-screen experience to your desktop, the Dell UltraSharp U3415W is an excellent choice. Granted, you'll pay out a premium for all this screen property, but the U3415W is actually less expensive compared to the LG 34UC97-S and will be offering better all-around overall performance and a height-variable stand, which explains why it really is our Editor's Choice ultra-wide monitor. If the Dell U3415W's price is too steep, however, browse the 29-in . Acer B296CL it isn't nearly as large as the U3415W, doesn't have a curved panel, and it's really not really a WQHD monitor, but it is a reasonably priced ultra-wide monitor that provides good performance and lots of features.