DELL ULTRASHARP U2718Q £625/$550
Keenly priced, this Dell monitor goes large on features
colour accuracy is good, but not great, with little improvement after calibration
one of the least expensive monitors in out test group, the Dell Ultrasharp nevertheless still packs full 4K UHD resolution, 10-bit colour depth and some neat extras, all packed into a smart case with an ‘Infinityedge’ ultra-thin bezel. There’s no preset Adobe RGB mode, but the standard viewing mode is accompanied by game, movie, custom colour and other presets, including an HDR mode.
Video ports include HDMI, DP and Minidp, and there’s also a built-in USB 3 hub with two downstream connectors at the bottom left hand side of the case. The monitor stand gives good support to the screen throughout a generous range of tilt, swivel, height and pivot adjustments. Partly due to the thin design of the bezel, the control buttons have been positioned on the underside of the case, but have a tactile feel and work well with the intuitive menu system.
The maximum brightness level of 350cd/m2 is par for the course, but the Dell has a much higher maximum contrast ratio than most of the other monitors in our test, rated at 1300:1: a performance matched only by the Viewsonic VP3268-4K monitor.
Performance
Colour accuracy is good, but not what could be considered as great, with little improvement even after calibration. The overall gamut is also a little disappointing, especially when using Adobe RGB rather than SRGB colour space. Uniformity across the screen could arguably be slightly better. On the plus side, however, there’s very little bleed from the backlight, making for good, strong blacks, although some fine detail can be lost in very dark lowlights.