Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q 27-Inch 4K IPS Monitor

K.S.

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2019

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! It's 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. I'm 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 you'd think it would be. However, it's not just the darker colors, all the colors are much better. There's 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 I'm still using the default color configuration and settings from the factory (had no reason to change it) I don't notice any backlight bleed during regular use at all. The only time when it's 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. That's literally the only time I've noticed it. As I mentioned above, I run almost all my IDEs in dark theme. I don't 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 haven't 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 there's a lot of bright light coming from a window. I believe compared to many other monitors I've used in the past this one seems to glare a bit more, but this is not a problem for me. I definitely wouldn't 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 you'll 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 it's pretty good. I'd 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 I'm convinced I'll 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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Debug.Desperado

Great retina screen for your MacBook - make sure you upgrade firmware!

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2018

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

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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J

Excellent 4K monitor in a 27" panel size if you can use HDMI2.0

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2017

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

The good:

Excellent 4K monitor in a 27" panel size... for certain setups.

Text can be a bit small, but that's ok; you know what you're buying into. No really obvious defects in pixels. It's a few dim ones here and there but there are so many other pixels, the bad ones blend in.

Contrast is noticeably better than my 1000:1 AUO IPS panel and a good bit better than the U2313HM as long as full RGB range is selected. Limited range mode will lead to the 600:1 ratio that some sites measured.

Colors are great when using custom RGB mode at 100/100/100. Not I'm a a stickler on colors so don't hold me to an artists's standard.

Minor bleeding from the edges of the display, but otherwise good black uniformity. See photo.

The mediocre and bad:

At oblique angles, IPS glow is visible on the corners when the screen is dark as is expected of IPS panels. No points off since this is to be expected of all IPS panels.

HOWEVER, DisplayPort colors are messed up on the green channel, and it's not an individual monitor issue. Not sure how Dell missed this defect when qualifying this monitor.

If you want to use this panel, you need to use HDMI 2.0 at 8bpc and full color range. Not sure if a DP1.2 -> HDMI2.0 adapter will work. Theoretically it should, but I have not tried it.

Since I have a free HDMI2.0 port, I did not take any stars off, but for anyone that cannot, this monitor is a nonstarter.

Others:
The design looks like the panel was just slid into an open frame. Pressing gently on the edges will change the amount of backlight bleeding as there's no hard bezel from the front. Not a detraction, just an interesting observation.

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Anders

Update: image ghosting after only minutes

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2020

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

Update:
I can see ghosted images of what was being displayed only minutes after it being displayed. This is pretty noticeable as long as I am using a darker background interface. Also the blown out highlights at a brightness of 100% are pretty bad. I've now read from other reviews having it below 50% could improve this issue but no way I'm going to set it to 50%.

Old review:
The best part of this screen is the stand. It can be adjusted in many different ways and feels sturdy. Compared to a $200 4k monitor this is what honestly sets it apart.

4k scaled down to 1440p in Mac OSX looks way better for my uses - applications, organization, text, compared to the 1440p native version of this monitor which I tried first. It looks WAY closer to my 2016 macbook pro 15" retina screen in terms of the pixel density and sharpness. The 1440p version is also the same cost so I really didn't see any reason why I would have kept that version instead. I suppose if you were gaming you might prefer it if it performs faster... but the other monitor is only 60 hz too so again I don't see why anyone would buy it.

Of course even though the pixel density is pretty good the contrast and brightness are about 80% (completely subjective measurement there) of my macbook pro retina screen. There are also some shadows on the edges (mainly bottom, left, and right). It's really not worth taking off more than a star though for $400.

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Albedo

Well designed monitor (UPDATE 1)

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2017

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

The design is beautiful, sturdy, and well-constructed. The gunmetal grey color adds a nice pro touch.
Color accuracy is not great with display ports, green, cyan, and yellow are off. HDMI does not exhibit any color abnormalities. I will be getting my Spyder Color Calibrator soon to report exact values.

HDR is decent, although I don't have a way to measure the quality of HDR, Dell claims this monitor can display up to 550 nits. After checking native HRD video content, I was quite impressed. Colors were a bit over saturated, but nevertheless HDR like. If HDR is your main purpose, I suggest getting a HDR TV. HDR monitors are on the rise and very expensive at this point. It's still a great experience to see HDR content once in a while.

UPDATE:
My Spyder Color Calibrator has not arrived yet, but I just want to point out some discoveries after my second monitor arrived. Both monitors were manufactured on July 2017.

Out of the box, the second monitor had a more green-ish hue while the first was more cyan. This is when both are connect on the same mini DP using Nvidia GTX 1070. (See image with text editor).

On cold boot the second monitor (left) had more light bleeds, and both of them had a rainbow haze, this could be a IPS anomaly before warm up, so if anyone know what that it is, please let me know. The discoloration is not visible with normal use. The only seems annoying in a dark room with a black screen, but not visible with normal use or when viewing head straight movies with black bars. (See picture of monitor with black background).

Color accuracy, brightness, and contrast is similar on both when connected with mini DP or DP. (See image with color test with similar black levels). When using HDMI, the brightness is contrast seem off, but the color accuracy is better (See image with a grayer right monitor). Not pictured, I've noticed that using the HDMI port of my Nvidia GTX 770, the colors accuracy is worse, especially when viewing a gray scale gradient, you'll see a lot of awful banding and inaccurate colors. I’ve tested both monitors using the same port and three different HDMI cables, the results were the same. I've concluded if there are any issues with colors, it's more likely due to your GPU and not the monitors. DP ports do not exhibit the problem.

I’m slightly disappointment regarding the light bleeds, rainbow uniformity, but again it's never noticeable during every day use or even when you try to look for it. The burn-ins are especially bad if you leave a bright window open, it does seem to disappear after a short while or after the pixels have been refreshed with new content.

Although the monitors vary slightly in color difference, I still like them. I'll update my review after I obtain the color values and post calibration.

As a personal note to DELL, the bottom bezel logo could have been one mm lower so that each bezel edge could have been the same width.

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DEN863

Great mid-range 4K monitor with HDR support

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2017

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

I'll 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).

I've 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 I've 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, I'm 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. Can't really hold that against the monitor given its price point. The only monitors that I'm aware currently supporting it cost well over $1,000.
--Lack of support for Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync.

In summary, I'm 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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Jonathan Jung

A Stupendously/Ginormous Monitor That'll Put a Smile On Your Face

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

When I first received this product, I thought "DAMN THIS IS HUGE!" When opening up the box I kept saying to myself "damn, Dell doesn't screw around at all" over and over due to how well the monitor was packaged. I have never seen how well a monitor has been sealed up and placed in a box before. When I was taking the monitor out, it had a shielded cover. I didn't think much until I pulled it out and noticed there was another cover covering the screen. I, again was saying "damn Dell doesn't screw around at ALL!"

So once setting it up I was stunned by how large these monitors are. One major feature I bought these monitors was the small bezels. They are INCREDIBLY SMALL! I'm literally stunned at how well this monitor is well made and how well thought out the design is. The buttons in the bottom right corner are really small, but a plus for me but not sure about others. The options it gives for custom screen settings is awesome. You get Standard, Comfort View, Movie, Game, Color Temp., and Custom Color. I prefer Comfort View due to it having a yellowish color and easy on the eyes at night. I also had to disable to "monitor auto sleep" within the settings. But other than that this monitor is just absolutely amazing.

In short, if anyone is looking for a 4K monitor with small bezels that offers many options, this monitor is for you. The item is pricey, I know and I too was a bit hesitant for I've never spent $500 on a monitor before. But trust me, this monitor will put a smile on your face the moment it's at your door.

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Charles Hughes

Great picture quality and features, but fragile bezel

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

I've had the U2718Q for about two years now and am very pleased with its picture quality, reliability and compatibility. It has a great configuration feature set that all works as expected, excellent picture quality, and no problems interfacing with the various video cards and other output devices that I have used it with. I have almost exclusively used it with a VESA mount, but if I were going to use a stand I have no complaints about the included one. Having three 4K capable inputs and a good size for close work makes it the centerpiece of my home office.

My single issue with it, which is not quite enough to make the overall rating 4 stars, is that the thin bezel which is one of the selling points of this unit is very fragile. Light bumps from adjusting other screens have cracked the plastic off of three of the four corners of my unit, and while it's easy to stick them back on with superglue I feel the clear implication is that the panel is not protected by the bezel very much as a result. You need to be gentle when adjusting or moving the U2718Q, but as long as that's not a concern it's great.

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KBeat

Not the clear cut winner the P2715Q was, but a very nice monitor nonetheless. - Maybe not (See Update)

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2017

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

**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, it's 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 you're a gamer as it has FreeSync. For many, that's the midrange UHD I'd 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. I've yet to do my own calibration, so we'll see.

What about HDR? "Dell HDR" is NOT a reason to get this monitor over the LG. It's HDR-lite at best and while it adds a bit of extra pop to a HDR enabled PS4 game, it's 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 you're 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. It's 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 you'll have a very nice monitor.

UPDATE: So, I had a chance finally to run calibration using an i1 Display Pro. I'm sorry, but this monitor is a let down in image quality compared to the venerable P2715Q. I'm really disappointed.

First the good, it does indeed have a 1300:1 contrast ratio. I'm 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!! That's 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 it's 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 isn't a theoretical issue. The greens are particularly bad, and no amount of calibration will get them to look just right. The display won't 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. It's 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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tony d.

Extremely great monitor due to 4K pixel density, but some gripes

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2017

Style: SingleVerified Purchase

4.75 stars due to a minor gripe.

Note that I am a power user with few software and gaming requirements at the moment. I haven't tested this monitor with Linux nor MacOS despite running Ubuntu 16.04 via Desktop PC and MacOS Sierra via Macbook 12'' 2015.

Having used my new Dell U2718Q 4K monitor for the past 2 days as well as the Dell U2717D for 2 days, I can say that the 4K produces greater text clarity at 2560x1440 (150% scaling) than the U2717D at its native resolution of 2560x1440.

Windows 7 scaling at 150% is not very good, but it is decent enough for my needs which predominantly revolves around text editors and shell emulators. Remote Desktop connections might be an issue if you cannot modify the scaling options within the Remote connection.. Native resolution is too small to use at a distance of 24-28 inches. Moving the monitor any closer would just be fatiguing.. I mostly prefer my web browsers to be at 110% magnification since 100% magnification of web browsers tend to be fatiguing after ~30 minutes (at least on Amazon's website).

My DP-to-mDP cable was defective, but a long and pleasant call with Dell customer service has yielded a replacement cable in the next few days. Therefore, I am currently running at 30Hz using a DP-to-DP cable from my Dell 24'' monitor.. My basic usage seems just fine so far; moving windows around isn't smooth, but isn't annoying either.

I was also considering the UP3216Q for a very long time, but am very glad to be using the 27'' instead. Occasionally, I like to have the monitor touching my desk for neck relief; a 32'' monitor would be too large for me..

I typically do not watch movies on my old 27'' Samsung T260HD florescent-back-light monitor, but I threw on a 60-minute netflix tv show and found 4K to be amazing even though Netflix did not send a 4K signal. The 32'' UP3216Q would have performed admirably in this scenario, but I intend to mostly work from this monitor. I wonder if the pixel density of the 32'' would be good enough though..

CONS:
I __do__ wish that there was an option to disable the "preview" mode for color presets. While I love seeing the "preview" of color/brightness differences via presets, this will be annoying after 6-12 months of ownership since my color/brightness/contrast customization will have been finalized by then. My 1-month-old Dell S2417DG monitor can switch through color presets swiftly. Depending on what I am doing or the time of day, I could be switching color presets several times a day between my 4 favorite presets.

I highly recommend this monitor, but caution windows users if advanced software is required.

UPDATE on 9/5/2017:
Here are some notes for Remote Desktop Connection (RDC). Be aware that scaling issues are restricted to Windows operating system since less regulation is enforced on software manufacturers. Apple has enforced scaling requirements since its Retina displays were introduced.

RDC connection to a Windows 2012 terminal server allows adjustment of windows scaling to 150% which makes it usable. Fonts/text on Windows 2012 RDC is pretty nice, but isn't as nice as a Windows 7 host.

On the other hand, RDC connection to a Windows 7 virtual machine (vm) did not allow scaling changes. However, scaling changes via "local" login are retained with RDC, but software do not detect this scaling configuration.. Fonts within both chrome and firebox browsers are not pretty when using RDC. Internet Explorer (IE) is moderately better, but IE is only used unless absolutely necessary. Note that RDC scaling will only work after an initial "local" login..

UPDATE on 9/5/2017:
Dropped rating from 4.75 stars to 3 stars...

I have problems when only this monitor is connected via DP or mDP. Adding HDMI connection to the same laptop, then connecting to the same monitor restores the DP screen... I do not encounter this issue with my Dell S2417DG monitor when connected to the very same laptop. Unfortunately, my 24'' monitor is temporarily connected to my Desktop/Server PC during a re-image/reconfiguration. My temporary workaround might not be suitable for gaming-efficiency if I decide to build a gaming Desktop PC.

I would love to hear from anyone else with the same issue. Otherwise, I may need to work with Amazon to initiate an exchange very soon..

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