Dell UltraSharp U2711

Following up on the U2410 and 2209WA, Dell's updated its 27-inch screen, leaving the 3008WFP as the last of its premium range yet to receive a makeover.

Its predecessor, the 2709W is still on sale under Dell Australia's business section for AU$999 — although we imagine this won't last too long, as it's currently limited to two units per customer, and the higher spec U2410 is only AU$200 more. The 2709W was a 1920x1200 screen like its 24-inch brethren, but with a larger pixel pitch; something that would perhaps help those who found that 24-inch screens were difficult to read. It was a VA-based screen that started Dell's current design ethos of the black bezel and proximity/touch-sensitive buttons.

The U2711 goes the other way. At a resolution of 2560x1440, it's second only to 30-inch monitors (excluding some freak occurrences), by virtue of opting for a 16:9 ratio over the usual 16:10. Think iMac 27, but without the Mac or the gloss bit. It's also dual-link DVI territory, so you'll need a graphics card that can handle the output.

As a consequence of the resolution and screen size, text and icons at default look tiny. Windows 7's DPI scaling handles this minor hurdle perfectly, allowing elements to be scaled to comfort, but Windows XP's messy implementation leaves a lot to be desired, and in some instances may leave you squinting.

What else is new? The U2711 steps up from its VA roots to be H-IPS based, meaning theoretically better viewing angles and colours, and features 12-bit internal processing for smoother greyscale gradients. There's also a few colour management surprises under the hood... so let's get cracking and see what this super resolution monster has to offer.

Specs at a glance

Size	27 inches
Resolution	2560x1440
Aspect ratio	16:9
Pixel pitch	0.233
Panel technology	H-IPS
Viewing angles (10:1 contrast)	H: 178° V: 178°
Response time	6ms G2G
Max vertical refresh	60Hz
Connections	2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, component, composite, soundbar power, 3x 3.5mm line out for surround sound, 4x USB, xD/SD/MS/MMC card reader
Accessories	DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, USB upstream, power cables

Stand and ergonomics

We've long loved Dell's stand, with its rack and pinion height adjustment, swivel adjustment through the neck rather than the base, and tilt adjustment and cable management through the neck. Sadly, the U2711 (unlike its smaller cousin, the U2410) doesn't pivot, meaning no portrait mode. Mind you, the height of the stand would have to be significantly increased to even attempt this, and we're not too fussed by its omission. One thing we do miss, however, is the button release to separate the panel from the stand — in this case you'll need to get funky with a torx driver in order to get it off.

Connections

Buttons and on-screen display (OSD)

Things have shifted minutely since the 2709W. While the buttons remain capacitive, the power button is now mechanical, preventing accidental turn-offs. The rest of the buttons are still proximity sensitive: they stay unlit until a hand comes near them, then the bottom button lights up. Press this, and the menu appears, along with context-sensitive options described next to each button. It's a powerful and well-designed UI that's served Dell well.

The menu contains Dell's usual vastness of options including picture by picture; RGB/YPbPr colour space setting; PC or Mac Gamma modes; Graphics and Video modes, each containing their own presets; fill, aspect and 1:1 scaling; sharpness settings on digital inputs; and AdobeRGB and sRGB modes.

What caught our attention though, was the claim that the U2711 supported six-axial colour calibration (RGBCMY), as well as hue, gain, saturation and offset controls. It took us a little while to discover, but you have to put the U2711 into Video mode to turn these on, and then select the "Custom Color" preset mode. For this sort of control you usually need to shell out for a hideously expensive professional monitor — Dell is continuing its tradition of bringing these features to the grasp of the ordinary consumer.

The other profiles under the "Graphics" setting are "Standard", "Multimedia", "Game", "Warm", "Cool", "Adobe RGB", "sRGB" and "Custom Color", while under "Video" you get "Movie", "Game", "Nature", "Custom Color" and if you have an xvYCC compliant source, "xv Mode". While the PlayStation 3 supports this, we had no source material available to test.

A side note — while we were unable to discover the service menu, turning the monitor off, then holding the bottom two buttons down and turning it on again would load a display showing the backlight time and power consumption. Unfortunately, this also disables the menu, and the only way to get things back to normal is to turn the monitor on and off again.

Performance

Lagom.nl LCD tests
After calibrating to a target brightness of 140cd/m² with an X-Rite i1Display 2, Eye-One Match 3 and tweaking with HCFR, the U2711 was run through the Lagom.nl LCD tests.

Greyscale gradients were flawless, with only test 4a in the pixel walk tests flickering.

Image tests
Contrast	Sharpness	Gamma	Black level	White saturation	Gradient
Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Inversion pixel walk tests
Test 1	Test 2a	Test 2b	Test 3	Test 4a	Test 4b	Test 5	Test 6a	Test 6b	Test 7a	Test 7b
Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Flicker	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass

Input lag
Measured against a Samsung SyncMaster 975p CRT, and using a Canon 40D set to a shutter speed of 1/320, an average of over 60 photographs were taken using Virtual Stopwatch Pro. Things weren't so great for the U2711, clocking in at 33ms on average, which equates to about 2 frames. Unlike the U2410, switching to game mode did not reduce this in any way.

Colour accuracy
ΔE is the measurement of how far a measured colour deviates from its expected value, allowing us to determine the colour accuracy of a monitor. While a ΔE value of 1 is considered perceivable, as long as it's less than 3 the shift shouldn't be too obvious. HCFR was used to determine ΔE for the monitor.

Sadly, we didn't have long enough to see how close to the wire we could properly calibrate the U2711 — we did, however, manage to compare its built in sRGB and AdobeRGB modes to reference.

Measured levels (sRGB mode)
Contrast ratio	724:1
Black level (cd/m²)	0.23
White level (cd/m²)	166.48
Gamma	2.19

Greyscale ΔE
0%	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	100%
45.5	10.7	4.1	4.8	5	4.2	4.6	4.5	3.9	3.9	5.1

Colour ΔE (compared to sRGB)
Red	Green	Blue	Yellow	Cyan	Magenta
4.6	10.6	6.1	4.8	6.6	14.0

Measured levels (Adobe RGB Mode)
Contrast ratio	731:1
Black level (cd/m²)	0.19
White level (cd/m²)	138.95
Gamma (target 2.2)	2.19

Greyscale ΔE
0%	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	100%
47.4	9.3	3.5	0.7	2.7	3.3	3.5	2.6	4.7	3.3	4.0

Colour ΔE (compared to Adobe RGB)
Red	Green	Blue	Yellow	Cyan	Magenta
5.5	9.7	8	4.5	3.7	14.4

We did have some time to play with offset, gain, saturation and hue settings — unfortunately, calibrating with HCFR at this level is a long and drawn-out process and we ran out of time. One thing we noted was that offset settings were limited to increments of 10; we'd have liked a little more control here.

HDMI performance
While a monitor might have an HDMI port that's no guarantee it'll display images as expected. We hooked up a PlayStation 3 and checked for 24p capability, as well as judder and ran the HQV Blu-ray test to see how well it coped with an interlaced source and noise.

24p capable	Understands YUV	Mission Impossible III Scene 11 judder test	Mission Impossible III Scene 14 judder test
Yes	Yes	Very slight judder	Very slight judder

HQV noise reduction score	HQV video resolution loss score	HQV jaggies score	HQV film resolution loss score	HQV film resolution loss - stadium score	Total score (out of 100)
10 (no noise reduction, 25 with adaptive noise reduction)	20	20	25	0	75 (90 with adaptive noise reduction)

Video performance is excellent for a computer monitor — there was still ever-so-slight judder present during the MI:III scenes, but nothing too disturbing.

Viewing angles
Viewing angles were taken with a Canon 40D in spot metering mode, with only shutter time adjusted to obtain a good exposure.

Backlight uniformity
Backlight uniformity was measured by placing HCFR into free measure mode, displaying a completely white image and recording the brightness along a 5x3 grid on the screen. This should be considered a guide only, as backlight uniformity is likely to change from unit to unit.

Light bleed
While no light bleed was present, the U2711 suffers from the IPS "white glow" effect on a dark screen, as it does not come with an ATW polariser. Dell informed us this is because the company it used for polarisers stopped production, as they "no longer made economic sense".

It's important to note that the effects of light bleed will likely change from monitor to monitor, regardless of make.

Other issues
The panel itself is quite deeply inset, and the bezel is piano black, meaning that during bright scenes you may notice the screen's reflection on the bezel, which will be distracting for some.

Power consumption
We measured power consumption using a Jaycar mains digital power meter. It's important to note here that due to limitations of the meter, measurements are limited to values 1W and greater, and are reported in 1W increments.

All measurements, screen brightness and contrast were set to 100 per cent, and a test image displayed.

Juice Box
Maximum power draw	110W
Power-saving mode	<1W
Off	<1W

Wow, that's quite a hit at max draw. Impressively though power usage drops to less than 1W in power-saving mode.

Warranty

Dell offers a three-year warranty that can be upgraded to a four-year warranty for AU$26.40, or five years for AU$46.20. This includes next-business-day exchange.

Dell's dead pixel policy alters depending on what monitor you have bought. For the U2711, you'll only need one bright subpixel to get a swap out; but if you have a dark pixel, you'll have to wait for another five to be eligible for a swap over. You are able to return any monitor within 15 days of the invoice date to Dell; however, the user pays shipping in this instance.

Conclusion

With a huge resolution, excellent performance in both colour and movies, and a huge amount of inputs, the U2711 excels in almost every area it puts its mark to. Hardcore gamers may be a little wary of the input lag, and others of the cost — but if you can afford one, you'll likely be very, very pleased.

Specifications

Connectivity
Video input type	VGA, DVI, Composite, Component, HDMI, DisplayPort
Display
Monitor size (diagonal)	27 inch
Max resolution (pixels)	2560 x 1440 pixels
Dot pitch	0.233 mm
Claimed viewing angle (vertical)	178 degrees
Claimed viewing angle (horizontal)	178 degrees
Brightness	350 cd/m2
Contrast ratio	1000 :1
Pixel response time	6 ms
General
Dimensions (H x W x D)	427.83 x 646.71 x 199.95 mm
Weight	7.72 kg
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