Dell UltraSharp U2711: Quality has a Price
by Jarred Walton on January 22, 2010 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Resolution Support and OSD
While the ideal solution is to run your LCD at the native resolution, there are times when you might want to use something lower. With the fine 0.233mm dot pitch and 2560x1440 native resolution, running at something lower becomes even more likely. We tested the VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI connections to see how the U2711 would handle non-native resolutions (note that we didn't test component or composite video). The OSD provides three aspect ratio options: Fill (use the entire LCD, with stretching), Aspect (fill as much of the LCD as possible but avoid stretching), or 1:1 (no stretching at all).
The vast majority of resolutions work exactly as you would expect. 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, and 2560x1440 showed no problems at all. Also, when using a VGA connection, every resolution we tried worked properly. Shift to the digital connections and we did encounter a few minor issues.
Starting with DVI, both 720p and 1080p filled the whole LCD regardless of the aspect ratio setting. This isn't terrible, since the image will still maintain the correct aspect ratio, but it does mean that the 1:1 setting failed to work in this instance. We also encountered some oddities with 720p and 1080p using an HDMI cable at times, but those problems appear to be more of a laptop driver issue than something in the U2711. On one laptop, 720p output always looked blurry, and the 1:1 setting didn't actually map to 1280x720 pixels as far as we could tell. In general, though, these common widescreen resolutions still worked well.
The resolutions where we had the most problems are all less common resolutions. On DVI, 1280x768 didn't have the correct aspect ratio, with black bars on all sides. 1360x768 stretched horizontally but not vertically on "Fill", making for a very skewed result, "Aspect" left borders on all four sides, but "1:1" worked properly. 1792x1344, 1800x1440, 1856x1392, and 1920x1440 all did an "aspect" stretch, regardless of OSD setting.
HDMI didn't show as many resolutions, probably because we had to use a different computer as the source (a laptop). Again, "odd" resolutions caused some incorrect behavior, but we don't really fault Dell. 1152x648 and 1776x1000 (underscanned 720p and 1080p, respectively) have a black border at all times, and like the DVI connection 1360x768 was squashed vertically unless you use the "1:1" setting. DisplayPort behavior was the same as HDMI. Note also that the HDMI connection didn't allow us to select resolutions above 2048x1152 (a 16:9 resolution). 2048x1152 was also the maximum resolution we could use on a VGA connection. We're not sure if the limitation was with our test laptop or if it's inherent with the U2711, as we don't have any HDMI connections that we're sure will properly handle 2560x1440.
In general, all but a few uncommon resolutions worked well. Something else we really liked was the "Sharpness" setting when we were using something other than the native resolution. The default setting of "50" appears to pass the signal on without molesting it, but as you move towards 0 the display becomes a bit blurrier and increasing towards 100 will apply a mild to moderate sharpening filter. Running at 1680x1050 with sharpness set at 70, you have to look very closely to notice that the LCD isn't running at its native resolution. Other LCDs have a similar feature, but on many displays the sharpness setting is only active if you use an analog connection (i.e. VGA).
The OSD
For the sake of completeness, here's a gallery of all the OSD settings. Yes, there are a ton of options. We like that Dell allows you to customize the "quick jump" buttons, but we wish they had allowed us to make one of the settings "Aspect Ratio" rather than limiting the choices to "Preset Modes", "Brightness/Contrast", "Input Source", or "Mode". There's really not much to say about the OSD: it works as expected.
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blyndy - Friday, January 22, 2010 - link
I've been keen on this monitor since it was announced.However it may use the same panel as the 27" apple imac, which has gotten alot of complaints of yellow tinging on the bottom half.
A few user reviews with multiple units are in order.
JarredWalton - Friday, January 22, 2010 - link
Remember that the Apple version uses a completely different backlight, so even if the glass substrate is the same the two displays can't be directly compared. Yellow tinging on the bottom half is a backlight problem (and possibly a design issue).gadgetdan - Sunday, August 8, 2010 - link
Hi,Just got this monitor on order now, for use with my new computer I am yet to buy (chose monitor first). I have not seen any comments regarding video cards to drive this one. I have read about this monitor and seen recommendations to run this with 2 DVI-D cables to get full use of the resolution. I am considering the ATI 5770 card, which should handle this resolution according to the specs. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has any experience on this card/monitor combination or any other input to a suitable videocard to make justice to this monitor.
Thanks!
/Dan
krotchy - Monday, August 9, 2010 - link
Dan,You need a Dual-Link DVI cable, not 2 DVI-D cables to run this monitor, basically it is a single DVI-D cable containing both channels. A Dual Link DVI cable is included with the monitor, but if you want more information I recommend you check the wikipedia article on DVI...
However, at work we have ordered/installed about 20 of these so far and I am finding that DisplayPort is a much more convenient connection mechanism than DVI since a lot of the computers we are finding actually contain only single-link DVI outputs or other issues such as underpowered cards which max our at 1600x1200 over DVI. It does seem though that any card we find with displayport can do 2560x1440 despite some of them being relatively underpowered compared to other cards that dont seem to reach 2560x1440.
gadgetdan - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
krotchy,Thanks for your comments, this is very useful for me.
/Dan
S8 - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
I have a problem using the Dell U27 as a second monitor for an iMac 27. The Dell U27 doesn't let me choose its max resolution 2560 x 1440. I am using a DVI display adapter from Apple.Thanks for any help.
chiadog - Monday, October 25, 2010 - link
"I am using a DVI display adapter from Apple"You need the active dual link DVI adapter, not the cheap single link one. Just get mini DP to DP dongle and call it a day.
sarangiman - Saturday, January 1, 2011 - link
I have the Dell U2711 & have read a number of reviews where people keep mentioning the AdobeRGB & sRGB modes. Yet none of these articles state what monitor profile to set in the operating system when using these modes!Is it so obvious that it doesn't need to be mentioned? What am I missing?
I spoke to a # of people at Dell Tech Support & they had no idea what I was talking about. We started debating it over here: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1511987. Don't think we reached a consensus.
I can personally state that when I set the monitor to AdobeRGB mode, & then set the monitor profile in the OS to AdobeRGB (HERESY in the world of color management; that is, to assign a device independent profile to a, um, device), I get the same colors as when I set the monitor to sRGB while setting the monitor profile in the OS to sRGB. These leads some credence to the belieft that one should set the monitor profile to the emulation mode being chosen. What I'm trying to get at here is that maybe Dell created these modes not only to limit the gamut of the monitor, but also to make a mode where the monitor's color response can be reasonably described by the sRGB or AdobeRGB profiles... This would make it easy for people to have somewhat accurate colors without profiling their monitors (so would a good profile in 'standard' mode, or what have you).
I realize that the best option when using the emulation modes is still to profile the monitor & use that profile. But I'm wondering if one can get away with using the emulation mode as long as you select the proper corresponding profile in the OS.
Does anyone know the answer to this?
Many thanks in advance!
Rishi
sarangiman - Saturday, January 1, 2011 - link
I have the Dell U2711 & have read a number of reviews where people keep mentioning the AdobeRGB & sRGB modes. Yet none of these articles state what monitor profile to set in the operating system when using these modes!Is it so obvious that it doesn't need to be mentioned? What am I missing?
I spoke to a # of people at Dell Tech Support & they had no idea what I was talking about. We started debating it over here: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1511987. Don't think we reached a consensus.
I can personally state that when I set the monitor to AdobeRGB mode, & then set the monitor profile in the OS to AdobeRGB (HERESY in the world of color management; that is, to assign a device independent profile to a, um, device), I get the same colors as when I set the monitor to sRGB while setting the monitor profile in the OS to sRGB. These leads some credence to the belieft that one should set the monitor profile to the emulation mode being chosen. What I'm trying to get at here is that maybe Dell created these modes not only to limit the gamut of the monitor, but also to make a mode where the monitor's color response can be reasonably described by the sRGB or AdobeRGB profiles... This would make it easy for people to have somewhat accurate colors without profiling their monitors (so would a good profile in 'standard' mode, or what have you).
I realize that the best option when using the emulation modes is still to profile the monitor & use that profile. But I'm wondering if one can get away with using the emulation mode as long as you select the proper corresponding profile in the OS.
Does anyone know the answer to this?
Many thanks in advance!
Rishi
Robincm86 - Friday, June 17, 2011 - link
Good:Superb quality for photo, games and videos, plenty of port connectivity options, attractive looks.
Thumbs Down:
Outcome:
Dell UltraSharp U2711 is a bit costly but looking at the performance, quality and the ports we will definitely recommend you this panel. Get this panel if you have enough money and if you don’t, then start saving! It is worth every bit of your hard earned money.
http://www.technicalnavigator.com/dell-ultrasharp-...