Dell’s UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor (also known as Dell UP2720Q) is designed specifically for professional photographers and graphic artists, who need a high-resolution 10-bit IPS display that produces accurate colors when editing images. This 27″ 4K monitor is world’s first to feature both built-in colorimeter and Thunderbolt 3 in this size and resolution, and it is the first Dell monitor that can directly compete with other high-end offerings from companies like EIZO. In this review, we will take a close look at the Dell UP2720Q monitor and see how it performs for photography needs.
The Dell UP2720Q is a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Dell UP2718Q, which does not have a built-in colorimeter or Thunderbolt 3 connection options. It also has slightly better color accuracy. However, the IPS panel’s backlighting on the UP2720Q is also quite different, only having a total of 250 nits of brightness. In comparison, the UP2718Q has 1000 nits of brightness, which allowed Dell to incorporate HDR10 support. As a result, Dell had to drop HDR10 from UP2720Q, making it a more specialized display for color critical photo work, and not a particularly appealing choice for viewing HDR content. Personally, I see no point of having HDR on my screens, since it is way too bright anyway. My BenQ monitors have HDR and I can’t remember the last time I used it.
First, let’s go over the specifications of this monitor.
Table of Contents
Dell UP2720Q Specifications
| Description | Specification |
|---|---|
| Screen Size | 27″ |
| Resolution | 3840×2160 |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.1554 |
| PPI | 163 |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
| Panel Type | IPS |
| Backlight Technology | White LED Edgelight System |
| Color Depth | 10-Bit |
| Viewing Angle (Vertical / Horizontal) | 178° / 178° |
| Response Time | 8 ms (normal mode); 6 ms (fast mode) |
| Refresh Rate | 60Hz |
| Color Gamut | CIE1931 Adobe RGB 100%, CIE1976 DCI P3 98%, CIE1976 BT.2020 80% |
| Delta E | ≤ 2 (average) for CIE 1976 DCI-P3 98%, ≤ 1 (average) for CIE 1931 Adobe 100% |
| Color Modes | DCI-P3 D65 G2.4 L100 / BT.709 D65 BT1886 L100 / BT.2020 D65 BT1886 L100 / sRGB D65 sRGB L250 / Adobe RGB D65 G2.2 L250 / Adobe RGB D50 G2.2 L250 / Native / Custom 1 / Custom 2 / Custom 3 / CAL1 / CAL2 |
| Uniformity Compensation | Yes |
| HDR | No |
| Gamma | 1.6 – 2.6 |
| HDCP | 2.2 |
| VESA Wall Mount | 100x100mm |
| Display Screen Coating | Anti-glare treatment of the front polarizer (3H) hard coating |
| Built-in Colorimeter | Yes |
| External Colorimeter Support | Yes |
| Color Calibration, Management Software | Yes, CalMAN® Ready for Dell (sold separately), Dell Color Management, Dell Calibration Assistant |
| Factory Calibration Report | Yes |
| Input Ports | 1 x DP 1.4 (HDCP 2.2), 2 x HDMI 2.0 (HDCP 2.2), 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (DP 1.4) |
| Other Ports | 1 x Thunderbolt 3 Downstream (DP 1.4), 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Downstream, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Downstream (1 x BC 1.2 charging capability at 2A max) |
| Power Consumption (On / Sleep) | 44W (typical), 230W (maximum) / |
| Dimensions (With Stand) | H: 433.4mm ~ 563.4mm, W: 611.9mm, D: 212.0mm |
| Net Weight (Panel Only) | 5.55 kg kg |
| Net Weight (With Stand) | 9.71 kg |
| Tilt | -5° / 21° |
| Swivel | -45° / 45° |
| Pivot | -90° / 90° |
| Height Adjustment | 130mm |
| Operating Temperature | 0°C – 40°C |
| Operating Humidity (non-condensing) | 10% – 90% |
| Manufacturer Warranty | 3 Years |
| OS Support | Windows 7 – 10, MacOS, Ubuntu |
| Price (MSRP) | $1,999 |
While a number of specifications of this monitor are very similar to those of other 4K IPS monitors, the ones that really stand out are: color accuracy, built-in colorimeter, uniformity compensation, as well as Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. With the monitor being able to reproduce 100% of Adobe RGB at Delta ≤ 1, 98% of DCI-P3 and 80% BT.2020, it matches or exceeds some of the best panels offered by HP, NEC and EIZO. The built-in colorimeter feature is the first of its kind for Dell monitors, and a very welcome addition, as it removes the expense and the hassle of hooking up an external colorimeter to calibrate the display (plus, you can set the monitor to periodically calibrate itself). In addition, Dell’s UltraSharp Color Calibration Software (DUCCS) has been historically buggy, unreliable and limited in features, so it is nice to be able to get away from that with the hardware colorimeter.
Similar to some high-end monitors, the Dell UP2720Q comes with uniformity compensation feature, which allows the screen to maintain even brightness across the screen. I tested the monitor’s uniformity using DisplayCAL software, and you can see the results by scrolling down below.
Lastly, being able to connect the monitor via Thunderbolt 3 is a pretty big deal, because it allows communication of both video and data, as well as simultaneous charging! That’s right – if you hook up this monitor to your laptop, it will be able to charge it with up to 90W of power. With Thunderbolt 3 being the standard on many Mac and PC devices now, all you have to do is hook up the power and one cable, and you have everything working, including the USB hub that hosts 4x USB 3.2 ports, and the extra Thunderbolt 3 downstream port. Further down below, I go through my experience using this monitor with my iMac Pro. If you want to connect the monitor via DisplayPort, you can do that too – the monitor supports HDCP 2.2 standard for both DP and HDMI input ports.
Does the Dell UP2720Q live up to expectations, and can it truly be a competitor to professional-grade EIZO, HP and NEC monitors? Let’s take a look at the monitor in more detail and see.
Monitor Setup, Overview and Build Quality
Setting up the monitor is easy – once you unpack it from the large box, first assemble the stand (which comes in two pieces), then attach the monitor to the back of the stand. Connect the power cable and put it through the cable management hole on the vertical arm of the stand. If you are going to be using the Thunderbolt 3 port, connect the cable to the 90W upstream port – this activates all downstream ports. If you connect via HDMI or DisplayPort, make sure to use the provided USB Type-C to USB Type-B cable to connect the upstream port to your computer to enable the USB hub.
I connected the monitor to my iMac Pro using the Thunderbolt 3 cable. Once attached, the monitor immediately recognized the connection and turned on. It is nice that the built-in hub provides another Thunderbolt 3 downstream port. This way, the monitor is not eating up another port on the iMac, and I can still connect other Thunderbolt 3 or USB devices to it.
If you have overhead or side lights in the room, it is a good idea to attach the provided monitor shading hood. The shading hood comes in a single piece with rubber dividers, making it very easy to attach to the sides of the monitor via magnets. Unlike some of the flexible plastic hoods on other monitors, this one will only work in horizontal orientation.
Build quality of the monitor is excellent. Dell engineers did a great job designing the screen, the navigation buttons and the on-screen display (OSD), which is very intuitive to use. The buttons are standard push-style buttons, not touch-sensitive ones that you can find on some of Dell’s monitors. The screen has a nice matte coating that does a good job at reducing reflections and glare.
The bezel is very thin, but the screen does not extend all the way to the bezel (about 3mm black area from left, top and right sides, and about 6mm from the bottom). That does not bother me personally, but it is something to keep in mind when using a dual screen setup. The stand is very strong and sturdy, allowing the monitor to be raised up to 130mm. You can set the monitor to either vertical or horizontal orientation. The screen tilts -5° to 21°, swivels -45° to 45° and pivots -90° to 90°.
Initial Impressions
I have been running the BenQ SW271 alongside my iMac Pro for a while now, so I already knew what to expect from a similar 4K monitor. I changed the Display options on the iMac Pro to “Scaled” and picked option #2 from the left, which made the fonts about the same size as on the primary display. Pressing the Info button revealed 3840×2160 resolution at 60 Hz, which is the native refresh rate of the monitor.
After I set everything up, I opened up a white document on the screen to see if there are any dead pixels – there weren’t any. With uniformity compensation turned on, brightness of the monitor looked pretty even, and I did not see any green / magenta tint issues that I have previously seen on other monitors, including the BenQ SW271. Using the OSD, I navigated to Uniformity Compensation and turned it off, then again inspected the screen. I honestly could not see much difference between the two, which is why it was more meaningful to run a DisplayCAL uniformity test to really see how even the brightness of the monitor is (further down below).
Factory Calibration Accuracy
Every Dell UP2720Q comes with a color calibration factory report, which shows calibration data for sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, Gray-Scale Tracking, Gamma, Brightness Uniformity and Color Uniformity. My report showed excellent results for both sRGB and Adobe RGB (less than 1 Delta) and DCI-P3 was also good (less than 2 Delta). Brightness uniformity showed 98-100% uniformity in 25 measured areas, while color uniformity ranged from 0.22 to 1.27, with the extreme left corner being the worst (all other areas were less than 0.9 Delta).
Still, I decided it was a good idea to test the accuracy of the factory calibration using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter. I fired up DisplayCAL and measured Adobe RGB. Below are the results:
This is an excellent result from factory calibration. As promised, average Delta was less than 1 and Maximum Delta was less than 1.5. I tested the accuracy of sRGB and DCI-P3, which were also within the norms.
Hardware Calibration via Built-in Colorimeter
From there, it was time to fire up hardware calibration using the built-in colorimeter and see how it does when compared to the i1Display Pro. This is the part I was a bit worried about, since differences in colorimeters can sometimes create issues when assessing colors.
Starting up hardware calibration was a breeze – you can do it directly from the OSD without having to run any software tools. Once you bring up the menu, simply go to Calibration, select Calibration Target (I picked CAL1 as the target for DCI-P3, D65, G2.4, L120 and Uniformity Compensation turned on), set Calibration Speed to Comprehensive for better accuracy, then select Calibrate Now to start the process (make sure the monitor is turned on for at least 20 minutes before you start). The monitor turns off the feed from your computer, enters calibration mode, and a round circle drops to the bottom of the screen. From there, the door on the bottom opens up, and the colorimeter rises vertically to calibrate the screen:
With the Extended Calibration turned on, the colorimeter spends quite a bit of time with gray colors, then towards the end runs all the colors. Once done and the circle gets to 100%, the colorimeter goes back in and you are presented with a message on the monitor, asking if you want to review the calibration results. That’s it, the monitor is now hardware-calibrated! The process is very simple and straightforward, and best of all – it works like a charm!
After hardware calibration was done, I decided to fire up DisplayCAL and verify DCI-P3 D65 calibration with the i1Display Pro colorimeter. Here are the results:
Wow! It looks like Dell’s hardware colorimeter is excellent – look at how well it measures with the i1Display Pro. I was skeptical about the hardware colorimeter on this monitor, but it looks like Dell did a great job with it, and it matches the best consumer-grade colorimeter on the market today!
After this was done, I decided to calibrate the second CAL2 target to sRGB, D65, G2.2, L120, with Uniformity Compensation turned on. I followed the same process, which worked out really well, according to DisplayCAL.
For the first time with Dell, I was actually happy to be able to do all this without having to download and run DUCCS. Having seen how often DUCCS crashed and presented problems before, I would rather not deal with extra software if I don’t have to. Still, I went ahead and downloaded the Dell Calibration Assistant, which worked fairly well on macOS Catalina 10.15.3. This software tool is not meant to calibrate anything – it is there to assist with setting up hardware calibration and verification. For example, you can click on which color space you want to calibrate and how often:
I set up mine to calibrate every 200 hours, but you can schedule calibration to be run as often as every day.
DisplayCAL Software Calibration
To make my display look even better and more consistent with the iMac Pro, I decided to software-calibrate it using DisplayCAL. The goal was to create two color profiles for the monitor: DCI-P3 for CAL1, and sRGB for CAL2. As long as I don’t forget to switch between these via System Preferences -> Display when toggling between CAL1 and CAL2, it was going to work great. For editing photos, my goal was to default to DCI-P3 color space for both hardware and software calibration.
As always, calibrating with DisplayCAL was a breeze. I picked the same 6500K target whitepoint, 2.4 gamma and medium calibration speed in the calibration tab, while leaving white and black levels “As measured”:
In the Profiling tab, I selected Single curve + matrix and Extended testchart for LUT profiles that resulted in 175 color patterns, which was good enough for my recalibration process. I went ahead and clicked “Calibrate & profile” to start the process. Dell’s hardware calibration did a pretty decent job with adjusting RGB channels and target luminance:
I went ahead and clicked “Continue on to calibration”. The calibration process took about 25 minutes. Below is the profile information, showing the DCI-P3 color gamut:
And a visual representation of DCI-P3 vs sRGB gamut coverage:
Here is the final measurement report after software calibration:
That’s a little better compared to hardware calibration earlier. It seems like this step is not necessary for most photographers out there – hardware calibration by itself should be sufficient.
Evaluation of Uniformity
Unfortunately, the built-in colorimeter of the Dell UP2720Q only scans the bottom part of the display and it is unable to measure brightness uniformity, so we have to rely on other tools to do the job. Thankfully, DisplayCAL is a wonderful tool to do this in combination with an external colorimeter like the i1Display Pro.
I selected a 5×5 grid and measured each part of the square, placing the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter in the middle of each one. Below is the result, showing DeltaC deviations:
As you can see, Dell did an amazing job at keeping the screen of the UP2720Q uniformly bright – the DisplayCAL uniformity test passed every square with recommended tolerance, something I have not yet seen from a Dell monitor. This is in line with results from high-end EIZO and NEC monitors!
Summary
As you can see from this review, the UP2720Q is Dell’s first true professional monitor that delivers superb results. The monitor came with very accurate factory calibration (which I was able to verify using DisplayCAL), and the built-in hardware colorimeter worked as well as X-Rite’s i1Display Pro for calibrating the screen, which was rather surprising to see. The built-in colorimeter is a game-changer for Dell, and the first of its kind for the company’s professional line of monitors. Although the provided color spaces worked out quite well out of the box for photo editing, I was able to accurately calibrate the monitor for DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces without any issues. Once fully calibrated, it was a pleasure to see that the colors and tones of images looked identical between my iMac Pro and the Dell UP2720Q, something I had a hard time achieving with other monitors in the past. The Uniformity Compensation feature also worked very well, keeping the whole screen equally bright.
Combined with 4K resolution, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and a myriad of different input and output ports, the Dell UP2720Q is arguably one of the most feature-rich monitors on the market today. I applaud Dell for making such a fine tool for professionals. It is finally nice to see a worthy competitor to EIZO, HP and NEC.
For more information about this monitor, please see the Dell UP2720Q page on Dell.com.
Where to Buy
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Dell UP2720Q
- Features
- Build Quality
- Resolution
- Color Uniformity
- Brightness Uniformity
- Connectivity Options
- Ergonomics
- Power Consumption
- Factory Calibration
- Calibration Potential
- Value
Photography Life Overall Rating
Hi Nasim,
Widegamut LEDs with almost full AdobeRGB and p3 coverage are likely to use newer WLED PFS backlight, not old GB-LED (94% P3). For measuring with an i1displaypro this correction is HP Z24x correction, bundled with default set of spectral corrections for DisplayCAL and labeled “99% AdobeRGB & 98% P3” or something close to that.
With newer versions of DisplayCAL you can plot the spectral power distribution of each correction, so you can see where they are different (huge in red).
A “peasant” i1displaypro may not show huge differences corrected with RG_phosphor or with a more accurate one for these backlights, but that accuracy or lack of accuracy depends on each colorimeter sensivity curves in firmware.
Regarding HW cal, software cal or factory cal there is a important thing aside from deltaE… it’s the a*b* range. Individual greys can be at less than 1dC to their reference grey, but between them one could be a little red than reference and another a little green, so actual color distance between those 2 greys (without brightness) can exceed 2.
For example in you factory calibration AdobeRGB report we see a not good 1.8 range, or P3-D65 HW calibration gets a 1.5 range which “could” be easy spoted by eye on a grey gradient. I’ve seen U2413 and U2717H with 1.5x range after DUCCS and greys show slight but visible gren/red tint on gradients. We discussed this issue with DUCCS and Xrite guys, when I requested those improvements in v1.5.x that were partially solved in v1.6.x.
I mean while HW CAL range 1.5x is not so good (need to check visually on a gradient to confirm that), factory calibrated AdobeRGB a*b* range seems “no good” for working with B&W photography.
All your DisplayCAL captures show a*b* range summary, which is very good and a very usefull information, that’s ho I spotted that issue, but maybe unexperienced users need a litte clarification when this value is past 1.5 : make a visual check, if it is bad and your graphics card does not cause banding, calibrate with DisplayCAL on top of HW calibration to fix it.
Although uniformity is excellent (as you named, unseen in previous Dells) I would like that in a $2000 display there were no such issues with range… which is at 99% certain caused by software (factory cal or HW autocal). If you do not have a neutral grey panel from start like those Eizos because of quality/price constraints you have to take more measurements on uncalibrated grey ramp… otherwise you’ll end with this issues.
Do you mind to tell us how many black to red (or black to green/blue/white) measurement takes integrated calibration system? Old 1.5.x DUCCS measured 11 (4×11) and it went to 20 (4×20) on DUCCS 1.6.x solving partially this issue. Raising this issue may lead to Dell releasing an update (software/firmware) fixing the range we see in you HW cal P3 report.
Also thinking about video,
-would you mind to tell us contrast ratio with Uniformity Compensation ON and OFF? For example default factory sRGB mode UC ON and OFF.
-did you made uniformity report with UC ON or OFF?
-did HW calibration software/firmware system lower contrast beyond expected value like DUCCS did? This is important for video users. For example if you use Davinci Resolve you may get better contrast (less black level at 100cd/m2 white) on old Dells if you go to custom color, fix whitepoint with the RGB gains, and make a LUT3D to Rec709 with DisplayCAL rather than go through DUCCS.
As always, thanks for the review!
Hello, I’m using two up2716d. Before was u2713h setup. Now thinking about 4K display.
Can you tell if this newer WLED PFS backlight safe for eyes with no PWM as the older Gb-r-led ?! Thank you.
To use or do not use PWM in a LED backlight does not depend on phosphor technology applied to a led (AFAIK).
You can have 20KHz PWM in a GB-LED, or DC, or DC with X KHz additional ripple. All of them cause no PWM related issues to our sight. PWM issues are related to full ON/OFF PWM under a few KHz (typical 200-400Hz PWM)
If you wish to know if UP2720Q uses PWM, the amount of it (full or DC+ripple) and frencuency a review needs to measure it. There are “home ways” to try to detect it with a camera, but specialized HW is required for an actual test.
Whoa, the OP is a bit intense and way over my head, but what I picked up is that “reference grey, but between them one could be a little red than reference and another a little green, so actual color distance between those 2 greys (without brightness) can exceed 2”
This exact issue on my HP Zbook Dreamcolor is driving me nuts, especially when doing occasional BW photos. It’s like there is a moiré of subtle pinks and greens. No amount of “peasant” laboring with my i1displaypro was able to solve the issue, nor calling HP support.
Does this Dell use the same technology?
What do think about this Dell monitor versus the BenQ SW 271
Olav, you can read my thoughts in the BenQ SW271 review. In short, it is an inferior panel that has color and uniformity inconsistencies. If you are OK with that, and you are willing to go through some samples to find one that is decent, then you can give it a try. This Dell is a whole different level, in line with the likes of EIZO, HP and NEC.
Hello
Thanks for the review. I am an enthusiast photographer looking for a monitor in same range(now DELL is 1450$ in my country), what about the ASUS ProArt PA329C which has Maximum Brightness 600 cd/m2 for HDR, in comparison with this one?
Thanks in advance.
sounds tempting…. specially it has it’s own calibrator and a good uniformity and color spaces coverage! I wonder which calman sofwear is the correct: store.portrait.com/all-access.html . I have bought myself a budger friendly cs2420 which is great monitor only for example small text ( like text on grey background of fb with white text get a little fuzzy to be precise, black text on white is much sharper…. ) Anyway I am little sorry that I didnt get the 27 inch monitor as eizo is really nice. Maybee I will upgrade t this dell next year wehn I have a right budget ;)!
Looking for a monitor for photo editing and looking at this Dell and the HP DreamColor Z31x that is on a great deal – just $599 – at B&H right now. What are your thoughts?
Was is really just $600 bucks? It’s normally way over $2000, so there must have been a mix up. Anyway I would take a comparably priced Dell screen over HP any day.
Hi. A great report!
I also want the Dell to display the colours like my two MacBooks and an LG Ultrafine 4K. Before I bought the Dell, I used Datacolor Spyder X Elite and set all monitors to the same setting. But now I wonder if the Dell wouldn’t have to be the master and the MacBooks DCI_P3, AdobeRGB or sRGB would have to display the colours in the same way as the hardware calibrated and therefore better Dell? Sure, on my Apple devices the pictures and videos I edited on the iMac Pro look great. But they should look good everywhere. Whether it depends on the print or a cheap sRGB screen. Who specifies which colours? The computer or the Dell?
Do you edit your photos in the DCI colour space and then switch the profile on your MacBook to sRGB to see what others look like, or do you stay with DCI until you save?
And the two colour spaces you calibrated: did you calibrate the software or hardware?
I would be very happy if you would answer me.
Many greetings,
Micha
-SpyderX is a bad choice, return it and get an i1Displaypro
-MacOS is color managed in dekstop (but in a extremely poor & faulty way) so you do not need to match colorspaces, you just need to use the extremely limited set of “simpler” profilers that macOS supports as display profile. This is “matrix” profile in Xrite naming or “matrix+single curve + BPC” in Displaycal. Other types may make apple apps go weird.
Just match whitepoints and brightness. You’ll need proper colorimeter corrections and a good colorimeter (not that spyder), otherwise visually they won’t match because measured color coodinates won’t be real.
Poor uniformity may play a role here too buy Nasim’s UP2720Q and Apple screens have usually a good dC uniformity (color tint across screen)
-P3 (P3 D65) as default colorspace for mac screens is another extremely useless decision from Apple (they are implicitly saying you they don’t and won’t care about photographers, maybe instragramers & influencers but not photographers). Photo widegamuts from cheap ones like older U2410 from ten years ago to newer high end CG from eizo have covered & cover a huge 9x% of both worlds (AdobeRGB+P3) also huge % of eciRGBv2. Limiting yourself to P3 is useless as you loose some actually printable colors in cyan-green even with a home photo printer and photo paper.
-if you wish to publish something that most people are going to more or less see OK, just export to sRGB and make sure you exported image has embebed sRGB profile. All color managed display are going to render it properly (since more or less they cover 9% sRGB or more), non color managed app in sRGB-like display will render “something close” to what it should be… and other non color managed devices… are going to show wrong colors no matter what you do (unless you encode image for them ,but usually 99.9999% you do not want to do it), so you should not care about the latest ones.
“since more or less they cover 9% sRGB or more)”
=> 9x%
Der Nasim,
thank you for the useful review.
I edited my photos for years on a 19 inch Eizo monitor and plan buying the Dell UP2720Q to improve my work and to use it to watch high resolution blue-ray videos.
Up to date I have edited my images with a 19” Eizo monitor connected to a HP Z240 work station, using an Intel HD Graphics 630 card.
If I buy the 27 inch 4k monitor, would I run into problems with the provided graphics card? And furthermore, are there still problems with scaling Lightroom fonts on a Windows 10 computer (somebody told me that the letters in Lightroom on a 4K monitor may be hardly readable).
I was browsing the internet and found no clear answer to this problems, only some work arounds that I tend to avoid.
Very grateful for a response,
Klaus-Henning Hansen
You need to be more specific in your HW, or contact HP for display support.
-DisplayPort 1.2 should be able to run UHD@60Hz, but check if it does it in MST/SST (computer sees display as 2 displays or 1), same for UP2720Q which IDNK, @Nasim may check it on monitor side. It may be tricky and display go blank.
-With HDMI 1.4 you won’t be able to run UHD@60Hz 8bit 4:4:4… so do not even try
Contact HP, it’s important… they usually label iGPU as Intel UHD instead of HD if there were no such limitations.
HD 630 over DP should be able to drive a QHD@60Hz display like Eizo CS2731.
Some low cost integrated computer packages pack DVI output as single link. You won’t be able to drive QHD@60Hz this way, just 1920×1200@60Hz. Check this too. IDNK which specific model-cpu-year you have.
Upgrading computer if possible with a dedicated GPU may solve a lot of issues. IDNK if it is possible. If not, for future computers consider this upgradeability as mandatory.
Even if you can run a UHD@60Hz display with that iGPU… performance in UHD videos may be be very bad.
TL;DR:
-Contact HP for specific display output resolutions AND Hz at each one
-Consider upgrade GPU
-Consider a 27″ QHD realiable display instead of UHD.
Hello ColorConsultant,
thank you for the detailed and very helpful information!
I was not aware that using a 4K monitor requires a critical review of the whole hardware chain. It sems that a QHD display like the EIZO CS2731 could be the best choice for me. However, I will contact HP and try to find out whether the HP Z240 Workstation conforms with DisplayPort 1.2 and MST/SST.
When I manage the hardware requirements, can I use Adobe Photoshop and Lighroom CC directly on my Microsoft Windows 10 PC? I heard about scaling problems that make text characters almost unreadable with these Adobe programs. Excuse me if this question is trivial as the problem has already been solved.
Again, thank you very much
Klaus-Henning Hansen
LR has its own UI scalling enabled by default, I can see it in a 13″ FullHD IPS/WVA laptop display.
In Photoshop you need to enable it, I do not remember location, maybe in preferences, user interface. There should be a check box for UI scalling. All menus go 2x. Not very usable in a 13″ FullHD, but in a 27″ would be helpful.
Check this befor ebuying,
PS: MST/SST thing needs to be checked on monitor side too. Think of it as a handshake, both parts must agree on communication channel. IDNK if UP2720Q accepts only MST (PC sees UHD display as 2 lower res displays, older), SST (seen as 1 single UHD, newer) or both.
Dear Nasim,
Thank you for sharing this detailed review.
I am about to go buy a new monitor and doubting between the Dell UP2720q and the BenQ PD2720u. Main usage of the monitor will be for photo editing besides some MS Office work and watching (Youtube) video’s.
I like that the Dell comes with the shading hood and calibration tool, just wonder if the lack of HDR support will be a big miss (something the BenQ offers)? Other then that do they seem to look similar including in price. I have a little concern about the build-in calibrator tool of the Dell, whether it will keep functioning well over time, anything you can say on the build quality of it?
Hope to hear from you soon, thank you in advance,
EJ
All Benq widegamuts have color uniformity issues or destroyed contrast.. with few VA “just p3″exceptions. Also PD2720u is SDR.
People usually misunderstand “accept HDR content” and “translate that HDR input to SDR panel” as HDR monitor, but it is not. It’s an SDR monitor. All monitor con do the same (and better that HW unmodificable translation in OSD) with proper software.
It lacks of HW calibration too. It’s a waste of 700 euro.
For thjose task you may want sRGB monitors from Benq PD line instead of UP2720Q or that PD2720u.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it.
Choice been made to go for the Dell UP2720q
I hope yor unit’s uniformity is as good as Nasim’s.
Consider using DUCCS as follows:
CAL1: sRGB (or sRGB gamut, D65 white but 2.2 gamma instead os sRGB, I like this option) for general use.
CAL2: native gamut, your desired white for photo printing.
REMEMBER that if you change for one OSD mode to another you have to switch associated ICC profile to display in OS settings.
Thanks for your suggestions/help, I will follow your instructions and look forward to start editing photos and video’s on this monitor
Hi Nasim,
I just purchased the Dell’s UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor to go along with my MacBook Pro. I’m a designer and want the display to be consistent with what I see on my MacBook Pro. My display is looking super bright, even after adjusting the Luminance on the display panel. If I follow the DisplayCAL Software Calibration as you stated in the article, do you think color consistency will be achieved between the two? I’m not the best with trouble shooting this sort of thing. Thanks!
Since a Dell U/UP has RGB gains or HW cal and macs don’t, get 1st your mac to your desired target (hint: macos color management engine is faulty and native whitepoint is not white). Keep in mind that if you have an i1d3 colorimeter you’ll need proper spectral correction, two families: old macs (sRGB WLED) and new macs (P3 WLED PFS). Also keep in mind severe profile limitation in mac due to their faulty OS or OS embeded color management engine: you need to use the extremely simplifies profile types, not the detailed ones. DisplayCAL for macOS is configured this way by default.
Once you have macbook calibrated to your target, check what you get: wp coordinates and luminance. This will be your target for your Dell.
Option 1) Try HW cal with DUCCS, set those settings (native gamut, same WP & luminance, g2.2). Check results. DUCCS has some flaws and may miss. In most models even after HW cal brightness is not locked so yo can tweak it. WP is locked so if you want to correct it it needs to be done in GPU, with DisplayCAL. You can try numeric approach or a visual match (displaycal visual whitepoint editor)
Option 2) GPU calibration for your Dell. DIsplayCAL, choose proper spectral correction for your UHD (sRGB: WLED; widegamut: GB-LED: U2413 correction or WLED PFS full AdobeRGB, HP Z24x correction). Go to “Custom Color” OSD mode and tweak gains. Try to keep 1 channel at 100, lower the other two. If after that there is no whietpint match visually, do a visual approach , displaycal’s whitepoint editor. Get a WP match in color & luminance, then continue with calibration & profiling.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!I will do some trouble shooting and test this out. Thanks again!
Thanks Nasim for the review! Stumbled onto your site and the depth of the reviews is really top notch! I’m a enthusiast photographer but had been out of the hobby for a while. I’ve started looking at monitor reviews (or forums like luminous landscape) and from time to time but never felt anything with good enough value to replace the 2407. Consumer review sites are just garbage or mostly fluff piece. Great job!
Want to pick your brain on this Dell and other choices. FYI I had been using my Dell 2407WFP for god knows how many years and it seems to just keep on going. Used to calibrate it with spyder2express but not invested again after it failed 8 or so years ago. While I’m not a pro, I see value of buying great monitors (the 2407WFP replaced an Eizo Flexscan) and keep it for a much long time than the PC itself. I’m also into home theaters and do calibrate my TV/monitor displays for content consumption. While HDR and WCG do wonders for HT/movies, I believed it is NOT relevant for hobbyists on PC/Mac. Or am I missing some benefit of HDR/WCG that may also apply for non-professional content creator use?
Given my very satisfied investment on the 2407, I am naturally inclined to get another Dell, but this UP2720Q is in the same price range as Eizo screens. With no critical use cases at all, would I be better off with the Dell or Eizo CS2731? Or even I intend to run them for 5-8 or more years these are still overkill and the sensible choice would be a Benq PD/SW or the Dell U models?
Much appreciated and so glad I find this site!
Current U dells and PD Benqs are sRGB monitors, OK for their price.
SW are widegamuts with poor QC and color uniformity issues. Avoid them. Even more caution with widegamuts Asus, LG,…
Nasim’s UP is good too. CS2731 is the cheapest quality entry level Adobergb monitor. It’s QHD instead of UHD (Nasim’s), 1000euro. My 1st choice. If you need UHD then Nasim’s or CS2740 or PA311D, but they are more expensive.
All of these monitors ARE NOT HDR, all of them are SDR (but some of them Widegamut Adobergb+p3), but some of them accept HDR10 signal. Once inside monitor witha lut3d/tone mapping translate to panel capabilities.
Windows users can do the same with a widegamut that does not accept HDR: use madVR+software LUT3D. AFAIK there is no equivalent to madVR in Macos, or it ot exists I do not know it.
Anyway so you can consume (Windows) HDR content as long as source can be processed by madVR compatible players (MPC-BE, MPC-HC, potplayer…)
Thanks CC for your insights. I am pretty sure I won’t need HDR on my monitor as I will not do any video editing or watching. Having given more thoughts to WCG, I think I’ll be doing less printing and even less color critical ones, so WCG is out too?
So it’s sorta down to 27QHD, 27UHD, and 32UHD, probably from the Dell U or Benq PD. For sRGB monitors, any other brand/series I should look at?
Seems ok choosing sRGB in your situation.
Regarding sRGB monitors Viewsonic have some sRGB equivalents to those ones but with HW calibration. Viewsonic app is close to/clone to DUCCS. Use it with retail i1displaypro, do not buy their i1d3.
NEC has EA series too, sRGB with HW cal (grey) and uniformity compensation, but NEC software is paid and their 27″ UHD model have a slighly larger gamut than sRGB, so for non color managed apps you may be forced to use built in factory sRGB mode. EA models are about +200-300euro than U/PD counterparts.
Thanks again CC! Just took a quick look at the Viewsonics and seems also worthwhile. NEC EAs might be a bit of a tweener neither here nor there as you pointed out. And I’m researching I’m also pretty bummed to learn 16:10 ihad gone away completely. I can only find Dell UP3017Q that is sorta still on the market, albeit at QHD only. A hypothetical U3020 at 4K sRGB 16:10 would have been perfect for me. Do let me know if there is some 16:10 candidates on the horizon!