Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q 27-Inch 4K IPS Monitor

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**Please see update at bottom for revised purchasing advice.** This is a solid upgrade to the insanely popular Dell Ultra HD 4k Monitor P2715Q 27-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor UHD monitor from the last generation. That one was hands down the best of the blossoming midrange UHD/4K pack and a no brainer pick. Dell sold them by the ton for a reason. This generation, its not so simple. From a pure panel performance standpoint, I think the LG Electronics 27UD68P-B 27" Screen LED-Lit Monitor is the better choice, especially if youre a gamer as it has FreeSync. For many, thats the midrange UHD Id recommend. However, there are advantages to the Dell that ultimately pushed me in that direction (I still use the beloved P2715Q as well). 1. The Dell has 4 USB ports, including 2 fast charging ports for charging iPhones/iPads etc. The LG has NO USB ports. This is a drag as USB ports are very limited on most laptops and who wants to have to have an extra hub on the desk. 2. The Dell stand is much more flexible, even allowing for vertical orientation which is great when doing page layout work, especially posters. 3. The Dell has a slightly higher contrast ratio which is great for editing. Well, at least on paper it does. Ive yet to do my own calibration, so well see. What about HDR? "Dell HDR" is NOT a reason to get this monitor over the LG. Its HDR-lite at best and while it adds a bit of extra pop to a HDR enabled PS4 game, its a long way from the true HDR10 standard. Heck, the monitor brightness is only rated at 350 cd/m² and the HDR standard requires at least 1000. Dell is doing a software HDR emulation which is a very noticeable leap from the real deal. File it under "nice to have, but ultimately forgettable". Besides, you have to connect via HDMI 2.0 to use it and my MacBook Pro with HDMI 1.4b requires the use of the Mini Display Port connection for 60Hz at UHD/4K. If this is an important feature for you, be sure your PC has HDMI 2.0 port(s). Overall, if youre in the market for a midrange UHD/4K display, your best bet is either this one or the LG 27UD68P-B. If the features I listed above are important to you, go with the Dell. Its got excellent image quality at a nice price. If you want the best panel possible in this price range, and do a lot of gaming, go with the LG. Either way youll have a very nice monitor. UPDATE: So, I had a chance finally to run calibration using an i1 Display Pro. Im sorry, but this monitor is a let down in image quality compared to the venerable P2715Q. Im really disappointed. First the good, it does indeed have a 1300:1 contrast ratio. Im measuring it at around 1275:1 which is close enough to call this a pass. Now for the bad. Dell promises the display is calibrated from the factory with a Delta E of ≤ 2. That would be great as far as color accuracy goes if it were true. However, after several calibration attempts (native white, D65, 80/120/native luminance, etc.) the best Delta I can achieve is an average of 3.63 with a max of the lowest 90% of 9.12!! Thats terrible. By comparison, my P2715Q measures an average Delta E of 1.85 with a max of the lowest 90% of 2.10. If this if foreign language to you its simply a measure of how close the display comes to matching a set of color swatches. The lower the number, the better. The P2715Q is truly remarkable for a display in its price range. Worse is that this isnt a theoretical issue. The greens are particularly bad, and no amount of calibration will get them to look just right. The display wont match the calibrated retina MBP display right next to it, while the P2715Q matches it dead on. My advice? If color accuracy is important to you, grab the P2715Q while you still can. Its cheaper, is much more accurate, has the same resolution, and save the faux HDR and bezel-less frame, is greatly superior to the newer U2718Q.

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Ill start by saying I would give this monitor 4.5 stars if possible due to excessive backlight bleed with the first monitor I received. Also, note that this monitor is currently available for significantly less than on Amazon, selling for $550 from Dell and $500 from Microcenter (as of late Aug 2017). Ive had the monitor for a few weeks now and use it primarily as an external display for a 2017 Macbook Pro but also with a PS4 Pro and with a secondary PC. Pros: --Works well out of the box with my 2017 Macbook pro using a USB-C to DisplayPort cable. HiDPI scaling in OSX works well and offers a noticeable improvement in sharpness/ picture quality over my previous Dell 1440p monitor. --The U2718Q is one of the first "affordable" monitors to offer HDR10 support. HDR automatically kicks in when connected to a PS4 Pro and offers a very noticeable improvement in both color depth as well as contrast. The monitor also displayed HDR from my Samsung 4K Bluray player without any issues. --Every monitor is factory color calibrated. The U2718Q supports 99.9% sRGB coverage making it a great choice for photo/ video editing. --The monitor offers many connectivity options including: HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, mini DisplayPort, 4 x USB 3.0 ports and an audio out. --The stand is height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustable --The monitor is really beautifully designed with ultra thin bezels and a premium fit/ finish --Comes with a 3 year warranty/ advance exchange service/ premium panel guarantee (substantially better than most other manufacturers at this price point) Cons: --Quality control issues. My first monitor had some of the worst back light bleed that Ive ever seen. My second monitor is substantially better, although still has a bit of bleed along the bottom of the panel. This is not really noticeable unless viewing dark material at night. --Many people would not call this a "true" HDR monitor as the panel tops out at around 350 nits of brightness (reference HDR requires around 1000 nits). Truth be told, Im still really impressed with the HDR performance of the U2718Q connected to a PS4 Pro: Uncharted Lost Legacy looks absolutely spectacular in 4K HDR on this monitor. --Lack of support of full DCI-P3 wide color gamut for Apple users or professionals. Cant really hold that against the monitor given its price point. The only monitors that Im aware currently supporting it cost well over $1,000. --Lack of support for Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync. In summary, Im really pleased with the monitor so far. At the $500-600 price range, I feel that it represents an exceptional value and is a great choice for photo/ video editing, mac users, and people looking for a 4K HDR monitor for a PS4 Pro or other 4K content. first attached picture shows 4K HDR material from a PS4 Pro

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Fantastic Monitor. Was really plug and play, with 4k supported natively by Windows 10 and the older graphics card Im still using via displayport (GTX660...a GTX 1070 is on its way, though). I am a wedding photographer and filmmaker and upgraded from a 22" 1080p monitor for two main reasons: 1. More real estate (especially for Adobe Premiere & Photoshop) 2. For a color-calibrated and accurate screen to work off. Sure, there are more accurate monitors out there, but for a hefty premium with diminishing returns. I am okay with 99% sRGB (what I work in. I wouldnt even bother with Adobe RGB for many reasons) and the colors on this screen look very nice. 4k Resolution has made working in Adobe programs so much easier. What surprised me most was how good my 1080p content looks on this screen. The up-scaling is fantastic. Overall the screen is incredibly crisp with accurate colors & contrast - just what I wanted. Things of possible importance: The "Smart HDR" feature is greyed out in the menu if you dont connect via HDMI. Im curious to see how that is/looks, considering this does not meet the specs to be considered a true HDR monitor. - I have windows scaling set to 125%. Windows does recommend 150%, which honestly did look better at first, but it didnt take me longer to get use to the 125% - after all, I upgraded because I wanted more real estate. - Windows 10 scaling is fantastic. No issues with it - Ill still scale up Chrome for some of the website I commonly visit, e.g. Facebook, gmail, etc. - Stand and build quality is really great. Super easy to adjust. Screen didnt have a single dead pixel or issue. Id highly recommend this for any working professional!

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This review is from the perspective of a software engineer and programmer in hope that it may help others coming from a similar position. For perspective, I was previously using two 1080p TN panel displays at 27 inches each (one landscape and one in portrait). This monitor is a dramatic improvement for me in multiple aspects: 1.) First and most obvious is the upgrade in resolution from 1080p to 4k. The text/image clarity is amazing compared to 1080p! Its a night and day difference...especially when I still have 1 of my old 27 inch 1080p panels in portrait right next to this 4k monitor. All of the code in my IDEs look beautiful and crisp with perfect clarify. Im on Windows 10 and applied 175% scaling. While 1080p is perfectly acceptable at 27 inches, the 4k display is a very noticeable difference and has made my coding experience more enjoyable. 2.) Next was the transition from a TN panel to an IPS panel. This is also a major difference in the colors displayed. Since I use most of my IDEs in a dark theme I can really see the difference comparing to my old TN panel where the darker colors seemed washed out and on the IPS panel they seem more "true" to what youd think it would be. However, its not just the darker colors, all the colors are much better. Theres a clear improvement on the IPS panel. 3.) Lastly, the physical design of this monitor is nice. This has very sleek bezels and while this is subjective I think the monitor has a beautiful style that is clean and professional. The stand is also very sturdy. The monitor allows for tilt and swivel to find your desired angle and position. Eventually I might vesa mount it and it is compatible. My concerns prior to buying: Some people complained about backlight bleed on this monitor. Although Im still using the default color configuration and settings from the factory (had no reason to change it) I dont notice any backlight bleed during regular use at all. The only time when its slightly noticeable is when the monitor is going to sleep after I turn off my PC, basically when the entire screen is black, I can see a little light from the corners. Thats literally the only time Ive noticed it. As I mentioned above, I run almost all my IDEs in dark theme. I dont notice any backlight bleed against my dark background environments at all. Some people also mentioned problems with green colors on this display when using display port. This was apparently an issue earlier in the monitors life which has been resolved by a firmware update. The firmware on my monitor is M2B103, which I havent yet verified is the very newest, but I have absolutely no problems with any weird colors using display port for my connection. Other thoughts: While this monitor has an anti-reflective coating I do notice a little light glare when theres a lot of bright light coming from a window. I believe compared to many other monitors Ive used in the past this one seems to glare a bit more, but this is not a problem for me. I definitely wouldnt remove a star for it. But this may be something to keep in mind if you plan to use this around of ton of windows during the day. Lastly, a small side note about gaming. Although I bought this for work purposes I have gamed on it a bit. It looks great but of course youll need a beefy graphics card to run games at 4k. I have needed to bump a few games down to 1440p to run smoothly on this display and they still looked good. This monitor is only 60hz but for a little casual gaming its pretty good. Id definitely recommend turning on the "fast" response time which I do believe made a difference for me. Conclusion: For programming I think this is a great monitor. Coming from a 1080p TN panel display, the image clarity and colors displayed on this 4k IPS panel are truly a night and day difference. After using this monitor side by side with one of my old 1080p displays for about a week now Im convinced Ill eventually need to purchase a second one as my 1080p display is so lacking next to this one. Overall, this has made my programming experience much more enjoyable which makes it a winner in my book.

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This monitor could otherwise be great but it has serious flaws, first the one I purchased new from amazon has serious backlit bleed, then secondly it developed red color bleeding at the corners back in July, turns out many people have this red bleed issue, check the photos. I tried contacting dell support they refused to replace the unit, they states that it might fade away if a few days and that its within normal operation, how is that normal its months now issues still very much present. Then I contacted amazon back in July the agent I chatted with told me that I should give amazon 3 days and I would get response on what to do next but to this very day September 19th 2018 amazon has never gotten back to me regarding this monitor issues. Could have been a very good monitor but the flaws are too grave to over look. My conclusion is DO NOT BUY THIS DELL U2718Q you will be riddled with bad experience from bothe Dell and amazon, you will be on your own, with loss of money that otherwise you could have bought something else with. I DO NOT RECOMMEND, BAD Product from DEll, Poor Support from DELL and Amazon.

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I got two of these monitors about a year ago, there is some bleeding like other customers, I have heavy backlight bleeding on these, but the other issue that is more annoying is the image burn in that I get. I RMAed on of of the two monitors I got, and dell sent me back a refurbished one which is now showing the same signs of burning that the brand new one that I got from amazon. Now the second monitor is also having image burn in. It was a huge hassle to get the one monitor RMAed and to get a refurbished monitor back from dell when I sent them a almost new monitor like 1 month old was adding insult to injury. At this point I am living with the burn in and backlight leaking (where the screen is black but you can see bloom. The reason I went with this monitor was because of the 4 star review. DO Not Get this monitor. go with another brand.

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After spending about a month with this monitor I can say that I absolutely love it. This monitor is 100% used for console gaming so if youre here for work, school or anything else, I cant help you. Im sure it makes PowerPoint look great though. Anyway, I bought this monitor after returning a Samsung 4k display for a few reasons. 1) Its the only (affordable) monitor with HDR support. Its not full HDR10 which you can read about but its also not $1,600 like Dells super ultrasharp HDR10 monitor. Since I have a PS4 pro and Xbox One X on the way, I wanted to achieve some level of HDR gaming BUT its very hard to find monitors right now with HDR. At the time of purchase, it was really the only other option. 2) Its got a 5ms response time in gaming mode. This is crucial for competitive games. While many 4k TVs come HDR ready, if you dig deep and look at response times, youll find that a lot are in the 30-40ms range. I opted for a monitor over a TV for this reason. That and many full HDR10 TVs are in the $1,000+ range and HDR only seems to come on displays 45" and up. 3) HDCP 2.2: what the heck is that? yeah thats what I originally said. HDCP in the easiest sense is the license to display 4k content. The original Samsung 4k monitor I bought was only HDCP1.4 (not HDCP 2.2) and that means that in the future, it may not have the license to display all 4k content. This causes a black screen and effectively breaks your expensive tv or monitor. Mostly an issue with streaming content like Netflix and Amazon but its possible it makes its way into video games. 4) IPS panel. IPS panels display much nicer than older TN style panels BUT at the cost of speed. Many TN panels feature 1ms response times but IPS delivers better color and allows for a wider viewing angle before distorting the image. Since 5ms was enough for me, and I was purchasing a monitor for 4k and HDR, I opted for the IPS panel. Overall, Im extremely happy with this monitor. I would have loved for it to come fully HDR10 ready with super high brightness and contrast ratios but I understand that functionality is not achievable at this price point. To me, I feel that this monitor is the best balance between speed, quality and price and havent found something to replace it with. For those wondering, its a 60hz display but unless youre running dual GTX 1080s and pumping out 4k@120, you wont need anything faster for a long time.

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To enable HDR10 you need to use the Display Port instead of HDMI. There is a known issue with the brightest green/ cyan colours which cannot be properly distinguished when using DP with RGB. The fix is to select YCbCr444 as output format. Once properly set up, image is crystal sharp and the colour is vibrant and accurate

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I bought this as an external monitor for my MacBook because I can’t stand Mac OS’s font rendering on lower resolution screens. Dell’s U2718Q fit my needs perfectly. Initially I hooked this monitor up to my MacBook Pro 2015 and enjoyed the retina fonts, but I soon noticed something was amiss: the greens were way too limey. It turns out that the DisplayPort and mini-DisplayPort connections default to having HDR enabled even when receiving an SDR signal. This causes a mismapping of colors. Thankfully, Dell has recently released a firmware that corrects this issue, version M2B102. You will need a Windows PC to install the fix, so hopefully you have a buddy or a separate machine lying around. I also encountered another issue with Mac OS: my laptop didn’t like to wake from sleep after I locked it and left it alone for a few minutes (OS is El Capitan). My machine required a reboot every time this happened. I disabled the power save option that puts the Mac to sleep when the monitor goes to sleep and the problem disappeared, so no biggy. Overall I’m really satisfied with this purchase. I couldn’t find any dead pixels, and there’s only minor backlight bleed along the bottom, left, and right edges (for thin monitors like this one, a little bleeding is pretty much unavoidable). After I did the firmware update, the colors seem great and are very pleasing to my programmer eyes. Pros: +Very thin profile +Adjust height, tilt, and rotation +Excellent cable management +Crisp text +Pleasing colors +Partial HDR support Cons: -Needs firmware update to look good over DisplayPort connections -Said firmware update requires a PC (or virtual machine) to install -Peak brightness means the HDR support is half-baked

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Wow! the only way to describe this monitor. For the price point, there truly is no better 4K monitor out there. You can spend thousands more, but when compared to this one, there will be very little difference. I bought this for my office, but decided to bring it home first to compare to my much more expensive 4K monitor. In all honesty, they were so close, there was no justification in paying $2,500 more than this for the same quality and features. Dell has always built outstanding products, but when I bought this on a tight budget, I never thought that the quality would be so good. Everything looks spectacular. I use my home monitor for video and photo editing, so I bought a very nice monitor a few years ago. This new Dell looks equal to it in every way. For the money, you cannot go wrong with this monitor.

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