I’ve not had the best of luck with computer monitors lately - as detailed in my short
“Monitor Roulette” series.
In 2017 I invested in a big LG 31MU97 panel so I could start producing more professional
video courses with great color accuracy, and then in fall of 2018 I wanted a second similarly-high-quality
panel to match with it.
This resulted in a huge mess, a monitor that wasn’t the right fit, that LG monitor outright
dying, and ultimately me landing on the Dell UP2718Q.
This was the monitor I originally wanted to upgrade to, but decided not to for some…
reason… and thanks to Dell I now have two.
After a few months working with these bad boys, it’s time for a review.
Spoiler alert: This was the first professional HDR-10 certified 4K monitor and it’s still
the best.
Seriously.
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Full disclosure time: I purchased my main display and first UP2718Q from Dell’s website
after the whole ordeal in my Monitor Roulette series for myself.
Following a month of using this monitor and realizing there was no real hope for reviving
my other production panel that I was supposed to pair with it, I reached out to Dell and
arranged a review sample for a second one so I could have matching sets for color grading,
dual-monitor editing, and review.
No one is seeing this review before it’s being posted, telling me what to say, paying
for this review, anything like that.
This is the Dell UltraSharp UP2718Q - a 27 inch, 3840x2160 4K UHD 10-bit HDR monitor.
This thing is a beast.
Physically, it’s quite large - these are thicc boi monitors, not paper-thin bezel-less
ornaments.
I truly don’t mind even monitor bezels like this, they look nice and keep things framed
properly.
They are thick and put out a lot of heat, and they are quite heavy on my dual monitor
arm on my desk here at 13.18 pounds each.
They put a lot of strain on my monitor arms which makes it hard to keep them evenly flush
for those OCD folk out there.
They also put out a LOT of heat compared to more consumer-oriented monitors.
Like a LOT.
The monitor features two HDMI 2.0 ports with MHL support - so you can get 4K 60hz and HDR
over HDMI, which I’ve been using for my Xbox One X and PS4 Pro gaming.
There’s also a full-size and mini DisplayPort input.
The cool extra option here is that this monitor features TWO USB 3.0 hub connections.
Now, I don’t actually end up using this for this feature in my current setup, though
I could see myself doing so in a future desk re-build - but this monitor can act as a KVM,
where you map one of the specific hubs to a specific input, and the second hub to the
second input, or multiple inputs, and as you switch inputs, your USB devices are also switched
to the PC that input goes to.
Pretty neat.
However, two of the USB ports are on the side of the monitor - which is handy when accessible
for sure, but means if you have two paired together, the right-most monitor’s ports
will always be blocked off.
I would have also loved to see an integrated USB 3 card reader on the side for us video
people, too.
The panel itself is IPS, which is generally great for video production, photo editing,
color grading, etc. and again is at 4K 60hz.
It has a typical brightness of 400 nits, with a peak brightness of 1000 nits, which makes
it perfect for HDR use.
Admittedly I don’t have much means of testing HDR ‘quality’ nor do I use it a ton other
than some casual movie or HDR video viewing or gaming - but the implementation here is
quite nice, if not incredibly bright.
This was actually one of the first (if not THE first) HDR monitor that Linus reviewed
a year or two ago and was perhaps the first monitor to meet HDR10 standards, according
to Dell’s site and based on my experience with a few monitors and watching countless
reviews of others - it might still be the best..
One thing has greatly improved since their review, however - Windows 10’s HDR implementation.
It’s still not great, by default the Windows UI still dims down and doesn’t have an adaptation
to the HDR color space BUT this specific monitor has a “Smart HDR” option in the settings
which allows it to keep SDR content at what you would consider “normal” brightness
and let HDR have full-range, which keeps Windows usable with HDR enabled.
Admittedly there’s a little extra gamma compared to just running the monitor in SDR
mode, but it makes a HUGE difference.
This feature - along with virtually no “halo effect” in high contrast scenarios - completely
sealed the deal on me switching to this monitor from the ASUS PA32UC I originally wanted to
try.
Dell lists a 6ms gray to gray response time for the UP2718Q, Using both the Leo Bodnar
monitor latency tester and the Time Sleuth, I measured a 1.3 to 1.4ms black-white latency,
which is pretty dang fast.
Nothing noticeable when gaming for sure.
In the menus, the monitor has a “Response Time” option of “Normal” or “Fast.”
I typically keep it on “Normal” - but using my latency tester, neither option seemed
to impact the result, oddly enough.
The big selling point about monitors like these is their super sharp color accuracy,
color and bit depth support, as well as color space support - and being accurately color
calibrated with a Delta-E of less than 2 for AdobeRGB and sRGB right out of the box.
This monitor supports full 10-bit color - and yes, that even works on some GeForce cards,
despite common belief, including the 1080, 1080ti, newer Titans, 2080, 2080ti, etc.
Supports 100% coverage of AdobeRGB, sRGB, Rec. 709, 97.7% of the DCI-P3 color space
and 76.9% of Rec. 2020.
This means that the monitor is ready to go for even high end color-accurate needs for
video production and photo editing, and for people like myself who rarely get good results
when color calibrating - it’s ready to go out of the box.
Though just about anyone will recommend you manually calibrate every few months anyway.
The Dell UP2718Q also features Picture in Picture (PiP) and Picture By Picture (PBP)
modes so you can view a small window of another input while showing your main input full screen
OR setting up side-by-side inputs, which actually shows to your PC that the monitor is half-width
for some portrait mode window organization.
I’m not a fan of this, but I know some people who are.
I just use Aero Snap controls in Windows to organize my windows.
Overall these monitors are very high quality, super color accurate and have allowed me to
really work on improving my color grading for my photos and videos - and realizing how
horrible some of my older videos look, heh.
They’re heavy and hot, and don’t support high refresh rates or anything, but they have
been great for my video production setup.
I was also impressed at just how many issues I had w/ the ASUS PA32UC aren’t present
on these panels.
None of that weird over-sharpening I couldn’t get rid of on the ASUS, no halo-ing from poor
local dimming support, no vignetting from being too large.
Since my desk is only 2 feet deep, I’m always less than 2 feet from my monitors and the
32-inch was just too large to see light from all corners of it at once, 27-inch is more
of the perfect size for 4K panels for me.
Plus, the Smart HDR functionality is incredibly cool.
I’m still finding my way through the monitor space, but I’m happy to be done with the
hassle of that mess at the beginning of the year, and I’m incredibly grateful to Dell
for hooking me up to let me have the first matched pair of monitors I’ve ever owned.
I only reached out after I was confident with my purchase in the first one, and I’m definitely
confident recommending them to other prosumers and enthusiasts looking to step up their monitor
game for their video production needs.
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Or something.