Dell UltraSharp 27 powers on for 4K, wide gamut and HDR
The wide-gamut, high-resolution version of Dell's popular monitor isn't the first to be announced, but it sounds pretty good if you care about color quality.
At CES 2017, Acer and Asus were the first to win gaming buzzword bingo with admittedly terrific-sounding products: the Acer Predator XB272-HDR and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ both offer 144MHz vertical refresh, Nvidia G-Sync compatibility with HDR support and 4K UHD resolution. What distinguishes the HDR implementation is that it hits the requisite 1000 nits peak brightness in a world where most that claim they do HDR peak at about 350 nits. Neither is available yet, though they're both scheduled to ship this spring.
Dell's not going after the gamers with its entrant, instead targeting content creators. Its HDR10-standard UP2718Q supports 76.9 percent of the UHD-spec Rec 2020 color space -- that's over 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space used for editing cinema content -- as well as the 1000 nits required for HDR content. And it has essential features for color-critical work, including the ability to store calibration profiles in the display and perform color space transformations in hardware.
It's a little thicker than consumer displays, but color quality is way more important.
It hits its brightness goals by incorporating a full-screen LED backlight rather than edge lit; the others use Quantum Dots, which allow them to provide game-rate pixel response times.
Dell plans to ship the display in May 2017, so it might even beat the other two to market. At $2,000, it's not cheap, but its in line with what its class of monitors usually cost. (I don't have pricing or availability for other regions, but that directly converts to roughly £1,560 and AU$2,665.) Start clearing space on your desk now.