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Dell UP2414Q review: A stunning monitor - but 4K still isn't ready for prime time

Dell's UP2414Q is one of the first 24-inch 4K LCDs to skirt the $1000 mark, but upgrading at this point isn't for the faint of heart.
By Joel Hruska
Dell UP2414Q 4K monitor

When most people think of Dell, they think of low-end, cheap computer hardware -- the sorts of systems that are often ubiquitous in offices or college campuses, but rarely deliver a good user experience. Dell's high-end monitors have always enjoyed a solid reputation, but it wasn't until I sat down to play with the recently released 4K (3840x2160) UP2414Q that I realized just how stark the difference was between a truly high-end display and the other monitors I've used.

The UP2414Q can rotate up to 90 degrees (giving you a stretched desktop of 2160x3840). Unlike some panels in this class, which feature 10-bit color, the Dell is an 8-bit panel -- but it's such a step up compared to mainstream TN displays, it feels like it displays far more colors than its bit-depth would indicate.

At launch, the UP2414Q was selling for $1300, but it's come down significantly since then, hovering around the $1000 mark. The rapid price drops make it attractive, but buyers should pay careful attention to the pros and cons.

UP2414Q UltraSharp Monitor

Ports, capabilities, OSD

The Dell UP2414Q supports HDMI, DisplayPort, and mini-DisplayPort, and ships with a DP-to-mini-DP connector. Unfortunately, the HDMI support is limited to 1.4, which means a maximum refresh rate of 30Hz at the default resolution of 3840x2160. After experimenting with the display in that operating mode I'm going to flatly state no one will want to use it in anything but an emergency -- the flicker-induced eyestrain is phenomenal.

UP2414Q UltraSharp Monitor - Detail

If you want to use DisplayPort 1.2 and its 60Hz refresh rate, you'll need a compatible video card and DP cable. Neither of the two DisplayPort 1.1 cables I own could step up to the task. The monitor also provides a port multiplier for three USB 3.0 ports -- a nifty feature if you tend to run short. There's also an SD card reader on the edge of the monitor. The On Screen Display (OSD) is easy to navigate and offers a variety of preset modes for various color environments as well as the option to manually select a color temperature or gamut. It supports Adobe RGB (99% coverage), SRGB at 100%, as well as two other user-calibrated modes (CAL1 and CAL2).

There's also a "Zonal Color Space" feature which allows the user to display two different color modes, one on each "tile" of the display. Enable ZCS, and you can display SRGB vs. ARGB or compare SRGB to a given color temperature to see how the two compare.

Dell OSD 2

The UP2414Q allows the end user to increase the monitor's sharpness (useful for reading 4K text) as well as noise reduction features that kick in for video content. There's also a Uniformity Compensation option that adjusts the display's backlight and color balance to ensure that colors and text look the same over the entire panel. The UP2414Q's PBP (Picture By Picture) can display input from two different machines on the same monitor, in a side-by-side format.

Next page: Color balance, contrast, and uniformity

Color balance, contrast, and uniformity

When it comes to testing the various facets of a monitor's technology, I've yet to find a better (free) software solution than the Lagom LCD tests. Each page focuses on a different aspect of the panel, including contrast, gamma settings, display lag, and color uniformity.

Most consumer LCDs are based on TN (twisted nematic) panel technology and don't fare all that well on these tests. For example, in the contrast tests(Opens in a new window), low-quality TN panels will blur the color bars from 26-32. Even high-quality TN panels, like those used in the Asus VG278HE will blur beginning at 28-32 or 30-32. It's also not uncommon for TN panels to be over-bright with a high amount of backlight bleedthrough around the edges of the screen.

Lagom LCD bands

The UP2414Q passes these tests with flying colors. Against the TN panel, it's no contest -- but even my lower-end NEC IPS is noticeably inferior to the color reproduction and overall quality of the display. That may be partly thanks to the UP2414Q's backlight, which uses an LG-built GB-R LED. Instead of typical white LED diodes, the GB-R design uses a combination of blue and green diodes covered with a red phosphor. This ensures an even color distribution between all three peaks.

The graph above shows the relative intensity of light at different wavelengths for a typical WLED panel. Note the blue bias; typical WLED panels use blue LEDs that pass through a yellow phosphor.

WLED-spectrum

Here's the same graph for a typical GB-R panel.

GB-LED spectrum

This kind of design is necessary for working in the Adobe RGB color space. Dell guarantees a Delta E value of less than 2 for the UP2414Q. The term "Delta E" (short for Delta Empfindung) refers to the difference between two colors that are not adjacent to each other. A Delta E value of two is considered barely perceptible to a human viewer comparing the two images. A Delta E value between 3-6 is reportedly "good enough" for color reproduction commercially.

According to TrustedReviews(Opens in a new window), the measured Delta E value on the Up2414Q is 0.77. Tom's Hardware reports a higher value(Opens in a new window); but in both cases the Dell UP2414Q is good enough that you won't see the differences without a colorimeter.

Next page: Built-in scaling and power consumption

Built-in scaling

Given the limited support for 4K in many applications and games, there are two ways to deal with the problem. You can run your 4K monitor below 4K for most applications (thereby ruining the point of buying it) or you can use the built-in software scaler in Windows 8.1.

Neither solution is ideal. When using DisplayPort 1.1 or HDMI, 4K is only available at 30Hz refresh rates, and the flicker from that mode is visible on the desktop. Switch to DP 1.2, however, and the only resolution available is 3840x2160 -- you can't use DP 1.2 at 1080p.

That's problematic because the monitor doesn't always shift cleanly from DP 1.1 to DP 1.2 or vice versa. Oftentimes, turning off DP 1.2 results in a failure to reaquire the video signal from the GPU. The system can still be logged into via TightVNC, but the monitor refuses to initialize the display.

This highlights the one significant bug in the 2414Q's design. If the monitor reports no signal from the video card, the only OSD option is to change between HDMI, DP, and mini-DP. You can't switch the input signal from DP 1.1 back to DP 1.2 -- which means the only way to reset the monitor is reboot the entire computer.

Obviously, then, it makes more sense to switch to the Windows 8.1 scaler. But software support is still erratic. Moral of the story? No matter which solution you choose, you'll probably be swapping out and between resolutions if you're using this monitor for a primary display.

Power consumption: Does 4K consume more than 1080p?

The obvious answer to this question is "yes" -- 4K is always going to burn more power than 1080p, if all else is equal. But given some of the advances in LCD technology over the past few years, it make good sense to take a look at just how much additional power you spend to jump for 4K.

It's difficult to say what an apples-to-apples comparison looks like when you're leaping technology standards, so we compared against a high-end gaming LCD -- the Asus VG27HE, a 27-inch panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. We measured monitor power consumption sitting at the desktop at 50% brightness on both displays.

Monitor power consumption

Once you consider that the Dell has 4x the pixels of the Asus display, the fact that it draws 2x the power is actually impressive. Larger panels would draw more power as well, however, so it's not impossible that a 32-inch 4K display might be in 80W territory.

Also, don't forget -- trying to game at 4K means your current GPU almost certainly isn't fast enough, no matter what you own. Unless you've bought in within the past 12-18 months and have multiple GPUs, gaming at 4K resolutions isn't going to be possible without turning detail levels into the basement.

Next page: Should you buy the UP2414Q?

Verdict: Stuck between two worlds

The problem with the Dell UP2414Q is that while it's easily the most gorgeous, capable monitor I've ever tested, most of these features aren't explicitly tied to its 4K resolution. You can buy displays just as sexy as this one with resolutions that won't leave you squinting uselessly at poorly scaled programs or improper resolutions.

Dell can probably clean up the issues with the panel losing track of the video card after a switch between DisplayPort modes, but such changes won't turn the panel into one of the new SST (single stream transport) capable monitors that are coming down the pipe. Those displays won't need to use the dual panel approach that characterizes the current crop of 4K displays, which should simplify the entire compatibility question. dell-ultrasharp-up2414q-sides-750px

If you have a specific use for 4K and you know that a 24-inch panel won't be too small for you, then the Dell UP2414Q is absolutely recommended. If Dell's other high-end panels are designed to the same specifications as this one, I'm sold on its display hardware in general -- but the general state of 4K support is still too low (and a 24-inch panel is still too small) for me to recommend the technology to anyone with $1200 burning a hole in their pocket. Wait 8-12 months until 32-inch prices have fallen and SST is a regular feature.

24-inch Dell UP2414Q UltraSharp 3840x2160 IPS Monitor for $854.99 with free shipping(Opens in a new window) (normally $1,299.99 - use coupon code: VZ9FXQVT70N0TF).

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