What They Say
Dell announced some new monitors along with new PCs. It also published a blog post about the new devices.
The U4021QW is in the UltraSharp range and is a 40″ (well, 39.7″) ‘5K’ 21:9 monitor with 5120 x 2160 resolution. The curve has a 2500mm radius and an IPS panel with 300 cd/m² and 1,000:1 static contrast. Colour coverage is 100% of sRGB and 98% of DCI-P3. Response time is 5ms (8ms GtG). It has a Thunderbolt connection that can supply 90W of power for charging and includes an RJ45 ethernet connection as well as a 10Gbps Superspeed USB connection. It also has USB Type-C ports in the base to support charging of mobile devices and an integrated KVM. There are dual HDMI2.0 and a DisplayPort 1.4 as well as the Thunderbolt port. It will cost $2,099 from Jan 28th in the US.
There are also 24″ FullHD (C2422HE), 27″ QHD (C2722DE) and 34″ WQHD Curved (C3422WE) video conferencing monitors available for $520, $720 and $1,150, respectively. They each have 5MP pop-up cameras and noise-cancelling microphones. All three are certified for Microsoft teams (the 34″ is said to be the first of that size to win certification). The integrated infrared cameras support Windows Hello. The 34″ and 27″ each have KVMs, LAN ports and USB Type-C with 90W of charging.
Dell also announced 55″ (C5522QT) and 65″ (C6522QT) touch monitors with 20-point InGlass Touch with a new palm rejection feature. There is also a new ‘screen drop’ feature to support improved accessibility for those that cannot easily reach the top of the display.
What We Think
If you have space for it, the 40″ Ultrawide format display looks like a great solution for productivity applications. The format is, effectively a 21:9 version of the 32″ 16:9 format. It is the same height as a 32″ 16:9 format display. That’s important as for productivity, anything larger than 32″ in 16:9 has a bit too much height for most users. As I have talked about over many years, it is really bad visual ergonomics to be looking upward at the kind of typical close viewing distance in most office applications.
A while ago, LG’s PR company sent me a 38″ 21:9 that I was really looking forward to reviewing, but when it arrived it had been poorly packed and was broken. Sadly, they didn’t seem to get another review model. I feel a call to Dell’s PR company coming on. Certainly, this monitor would work well in tidying up my desk by getting rid of my docking station! However, it might be hard to return after a review!
I haven’t been particularly positive about video conferencing monitors in the past, and have been looking at them for more than 30 years. Nokia, when it was in the monitor business, was one that made good attempts. One reason was that most people didn’t use the conferencing, so would have to pay an extra cost. Makers kept the cost increment small to minimise this penalty, so cameras were the cheapest. That meant that anyone that really cared ended up adding a better camera, so the cameras were, largely, wasted. However, the world has changed in the last few years and everyone knows and at the same time cameras have got a lot better and cheaper. Interfacing has got faster and better. Now, I can see the attraction of an integrated solution, especially when combined with Type-C charging. (BR)
The C3422WE
