Your Desktop Gone 4K: Dell UltraSharp 32 UP3214Q Review

[Julio Franco]

Read the full article at:
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Please leave your feedback here.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

To me, 4K is for big screen TVs. 1080p goes a long way on a 24" monitor. I prefer my eyefinity setup with 3x1080p over a single 4K display for my gaming. The hands-on experience of gaming on triple screen far exceeds the experience of a single 4K display, and triplescreen 4K seems like a ridiculous idea. I doubt it's even possible right now, and that's not even considering the amount of horsepower your computer would need to pull it off. I think the most exciting new monitor technology right now is Nvidia's G-Sync. Having said that, I wouldn't mind having a 4K TV for watching 4K movies. I'm just hoping the 4K formats will have more than 24 FPS (like Blu-Ray). I'd rather have 1080p movies running at 60 FPS than 4K movies running at 24 FPS.

 

[Steve]

Wow I want!!! Dell hook me up

 

[Blue Falcon]

What an excellent review! Rick, I really appreciate that you focused on the real world experience with the display and all of the issues/quirks which you encountered. It is not often that we get to read such an honest review of new technology. Looks like 4K is still ways off from being worthwhile. I will likely wait 2-3 years until Volta level 14/16nm GPUs are around and for non-tiled 4K TVs to come out and drop to $1K for 30-32 inch size before jumping on board.

 

[RH00D]

I'm really considering picking one of these up, rather the 24" $1300 one. The tiling issues aren't overly an issue for me as I'm not an avid gamer and I never run my monitor at non native resolutions anyway. It's just hard to say when the next iteration of this monitor will come out. I don't really want to wait.

 

[TitoBXNY]

What a beauty, boy would I love to be in a relationship with her. Sadly I can't afford her.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Good thing I've never been crazy enough to be an early adopter. Although this screen seems nice, I'm very patient and will wait until prices plummet drastically and the tech gets even better. There's always a better deal to be had. Patience is the key.

 

[treeski]

Hey Techspot... we haven't had a giveaway in a while

 

[dikbozo]

F00l\$=UHD

Some people gotta geddit. Newer, better, faster, bigger has been around since before caves and this is just the next iteration. Seems to me to be another thing like 720P/1080i/1080P and the teething problems associated with them, many and years worth of teeth grinding. Premature in several ways, just like with your first girl/boy friend, all over the place with it and nothing in the sweet spot. Hardware implementation is kind of rushed looking with more appropriate standards over the hills and far way in the future. The utter lack of software and content that would utilize this resolution will continue much like the dearth of 1080P did and does, especially in the new streaming paradigm (Netflix, Hulu, etc) and that will continue for some time yet.

In short, not for me.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the detailed review! Glad to see some progress coming for desktop power users. I was pretty happy with my monitors until I tried the MacBook Retinas. With proper software support it's a day and night difference and I'm looking to upgrade in the coming year.

 

[AnilD]

The Dell UP3214Q appears to be a pretty amazing monitor, pushing the envelope and hopefully bringing much needed software support for High DPI, especially in Windows applications. In that regard Mac software is much better prepared.

As for the UP3214Q's own shortcomings, I mostly take issue with connectivity since a new DisplayPort version is bound to be released soon. Otherwise, all those software quirks should be fixed in time and the $3k should pay for itself if you are a professional and want the fidelity this panel offers.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I mostly take issue with connectivity since a new DisplayPort version is bound to be released soon.

I was thinking the same thing, seeing as just one 4K monitor saturates the potential of a Displayport. A single 4K monitor kills the concept of daisy-chaining monitors on a single Displayport.

​

Even DisplayPort V1.3 only allows for two 4K (single 3D 4K) streams.

 

[Gopal Bhat]

Sorry, I must have missed something.

Why do these 4K monitors have to be tiled? Why can't there just be one 4K panel?

 

[amstech]

The OSD looks very similar to my U3011's OSD, which is not a bad thing; the pre-programmed Dell RGB mode is damn accurate for a stock setting.
And maybe I am just being my average critical doushbag self but with my U3011 I can easily open and fully view two browsers with room to spare in each browser (I can get a screenshot, I run Chrome/Waterfox side by side) and I guess I was expecting this to trounce that and atleast fit in three? Maybe my calculations & expectations are inaccurate?

 

[Darth Shiv]

Great review. Thanks... loving high res IPS panels atm and the attention to detail re input lag and response for gaming is great.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Wow $3500. What a luxury monitor!

 

[tonylukac]

Think I'd rather have a 4k hi def tv. Visio and Polaroid offer 40" for $1000.

 

[Julio Franco]

Pricing Update: It was brought to our attention that Newegg is selling the monitor with a hefty discount, down to $2,500: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260146

 

[Steve]

Pricing Update: It was brought to our attention that Newegg is selling the monitor with a hefty discount, down to $2,500: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260146

Damn we need a Newegg down under, they are $3500 in Australia.

 

[captaincranky]

The UP3214Q is kind of the full-size SUV of displays, at least where guzzling power is concerned. According to some quick Kill-A-Watt readings, Dell’s 4K flagship sucks anywhere between 55 (lowest brightness) to 103 watts (maximum brightness). By comparison, a 27-inch UltraSharp U2713HM (2560 x 1440p IPS) at maximum brightness hits a paltry 50 watts.

I'm not sure I'd consider 103 watts, "power hungry". All things considered my 40" Proscan TV (1080p), is stickered @ 200 watts. (CCFL backlight). It is gloriously bright though, likely better than 400 nits.

All the new LED issues use a lot less power than that though. However, the new LED displays flat out aren't as good as the "ancient tech" of CCFL. (IMHO, of course. But that's based on a new 46" LED I bought myself for Christmas).

And as far as Dell's everyday product goes, I have a 23" IPS (CCFL) (*) , that's pretty pitiful next to my HP 24" IPS (CCFL also), which lights up @ better than 350 nits.

(*) these may bit an LG 6 bit IPS panel. They're claiming 270 nits and it looks dull to me.

 

[Guest]

Can someone please explain to me what the difference between a 4K monitor and a 4K TV of similar screen size is? The TV is much cheaper, so why should I buy a monitor which costs 3x more?

 

[Darth Shiv]

Can someone please explain to me what the difference between a 4K monitor and a 4K TV of similar screen size is? The TV is much cheaper, so why should I buy a monitor which costs 3x more?

Response time, input lag, colour quality, resolution support typically. The monitor won't have a TV tuner built-in though usually.

Comes down to what you want to do with it...

 

[theBest11778]

Can someone please explain to me what the difference between a 4K monitor and a 4K TV of similar screen size is? The TV is much cheaper, so why should I buy a monitor which costs 3x more?

Easy answer... all 4k/UHD TVs, that I'm aware of, only run at 30hz. Only Dell, and ASUS, have monitors running UHD at 60hz at the moment (or at least as of a few weeks ago.)

 

[Darth Shiv]

Easy answer... all 4k/UHD TVs, that I'm aware of, only run at 30hz. Only Dell, and ASUS, have monitors running UHD at 60hz at the moment (or at least as of a few weeks ago.)

Yes good point. HDMI 1.4 seems to be the limitation. Need HDMI 2.0 for 60Hz support on the TVs whereas monitors, manufacturers can go to DisplayPort etc.

 

[VitalyT]

I found it most practical for software development to use 24" monitors with resolution on them set to either 1080P or 1200P. That's why I would love to get 4 times as many pixels while keeping the same proportions in screen size and resolution, just more dense.

Waiting for DELL UP2414Q.