Reading the reviews on Amazon and other places with regards to this, and other IPS panel monitors really gets you nervous. Its like a crap shoot as to whether you will get one with horrible backlight bleed or other issues. I wanted a large, ultrawide 1440p monitor for both business and gaming, but did not want to shell out $1,200 clams for a 1440p, 144Hz G-Sync IPS panel. So For a little over $600, and based on most of the reviews, this one looked like a good compromise.
Love the way everything is packaged in the Dell box, well laid out and the screen is well protected. All the cables you could need are included (albeit a bit short). Loved the way the screen was so easy to attach to the base with no tools. Fired this baby up using a Display port to Display port cable (not the one that came in the box) and...nothing. Please note that DSP 1.2 is disabled by default in this monitor. So if your computer's GPU has DSP 1.2, you need to enable that in the monitor's on screen menus. I found that out after I switched to the Dell supplied Display port to miniDisplay port cable (which works out of the box). One minor complaint is that you have to stand on your head and have real good eyesight to get the cables all connected to the back of the monitor. But to be fair, all monitors these days seem to be like this.
Anyway, either I got lucky, or this is a very very nice monitor. I do use this monitor is a fairly well lit room. But I noticed virtually NO backlight bleed on my monitor. I turned the lights down and started playing the movie, Alien, which has a lot of dark scenes, and barely, and I mean barely, could see slight light from the corners. Not enough at all to be distracting. And I will never notice it in my normal usage (which is not watching movies in the dark on a computer screen. I put up several solid color screens (from white all the way to red and navy blue) to check for evenness, and noticed no banding, blotchiness or other faults. No stuck pixels. The color calibration out of the box looks superb. The monitor comes pre-calibrated. I initially turned down the brightness a slight bit, but made no further adjustments. One issue I did have with the Dell Display software is figuring out how to add pre-sets for software. The dell comes with pre-sets (standard, multi-media, movie, game, and so forth with different brightness, contrast, etc.) for popular software based on type of application. It says to add a software program to the list to drag the application to the list. I don't know if I am dense, but I could not get that to work at all. Minor annoyance, not worth knocking down the rating.
Anyway, I love this monitor so much. The colors are so rich with the ISP panel and the images are so sharp (1440p). Text even without zooming is small but very clear. It is so great to be able to open up three browser tabs and line them all up side by side, or have three business applications or windows open at once and be able to read them all very clearly. Like I said earlier, movies pop and there is a depth to them that I never have seen on my 1080p plasma TV. Gaming, especially using 3440x1440 is so awesome. I play a golf game regularly on steam. I was completely awestruck playing this game using the ultra wide screen. Note not all games support this 3440x1440 resolution, but newer games likely will. for super competitive FPS gamers, especially depending on your graphics card, you may be limited by the monitor's 60Hz refresh rate or the 5mps response time and the fact that there is no G-Sync/FreeSync. While there are some folks online claiming you can overclock this monitor to 80Hz, don't bother. While it will display at 80Hz, you will get dropped frames. This monitor was intended for 60Hz maximum refresh rate. But at $600-$700, only the most hardcore gamers will be disappointed. For the other 90% of gamers, 60Hz is plenty as long as you have a decent GPU. I am not a competitive online FPS gamer, so I am perfectly happy. And with a 5mps refresh rate, I certainly cannot detect any lag using my PS4 controller connected to the PC via Bluetooth.
The curve is something that I was leery of, but now that I have it, there is no way I want to use flat screens any more. Heck there is no way that I want to use any monitor that is not an ultra-wide any more.
In closing, I would say that if you have a decent computer CPU/GPU, and are not a super hardcore FPS gamer, and just want a stunning, immersive display for business, normal gaming, and even for movie watching, for $600-$700 you will feel like you made a smart buy, and saved $300-$600 over those "bleeding edge" ultrawides at the same time.
So for business apps, A+, movies, A+, games B+
Conserves energy compared to similar products.
As certified by
EPEAT
EPEAT certifies electronic products based on sustainability impacts across their lifecycle including requirements for energy efficiency and end of life management. An EPEAT registered product can also meet optional more ambitious criteria including reduction of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-GHGs). Products meeting 50% - 74% optional criteria are "Silver" and those meeting 75% or more are “Gold".
Certification Level
GOLD
