And you're appropriately connected via USB?Thanks! Camera still doesn't work.
Bummer. Hopefully Dell will make it right. Contact them before too long; maybe they can send a new one out while you return yours.
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Dell 6K U3224KB Monitor
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Bummer. Hopefully Dell will make it right. Contact them before too long; maybe they can send a new one out while you return yours.
Well, I connected the cable and the camera is still not functional. I rebooted everything also.
Unless you're connected via Thunderbolt or USB-C, the camera will need some kind of interface to the computer. It won't operate over HDMI or DisplayPort.
I have it connected via thunderbolt. Dell is replacing the monitor, I should receive the new monitor on Thursday.
Monitor has arrived and camera w/cover works fine with my Mac Studio.... apart from when it doesn't open at all! If it won't open, opening the Dell application in the menu bar makes it open (and shut, then open) according to the number of times I've attempted to use the button on the bezel.
Actually... do I have to have the app open for the shutter button to function?
Speakers aren't as good as on the Apple Studio Display - they sound much more weedy. But, it's only taken a few conference calls for me to get used to how they sound. They're good enough for calls but significantly poorer for music for example.
I genuinely don't notice the big speaker bar at the top - it's very jarring in pictures of the screen, but your natural eyeline is the top of the screen itself. The black speaker grille just kind of fades in to the background as do the rest of the bezels.
Screen is nice and bright - again, nowhere near as bright as the ASD, but the semi-matte screen is obviously less reflective. Text and pictures are nice and crisp, its a lovely panel.
Default res is 3072x1728 @ 60Hz. The two scaled resolutions really don't offer much more screen space at all.
I need to look at the link posted earlier to get the volume control working via the keyboard.
Initial reaction is that its very nice - all the ports are a great addition and I need to try connecting a Windows laptop to it next to see if I can easily switch between the two inputs as that's a big selling point for me due to the work I have on at the moment.
Actually... do I have to have the app open for the shutter button to function?
Speakers aren't as good as on the Apple Studio Display - they sound much more weedy. But, it's only taken a few conference calls for me to get used to how they sound. They're good enough for calls but significantly poorer for music for example.
I genuinely don't notice the big speaker bar at the top - it's very jarring in pictures of the screen, but your natural eyeline is the top of the screen itself. The black speaker grille just kind of fades in to the background as do the rest of the bezels.
Screen is nice and bright - again, nowhere near as bright as the ASD, but the semi-matte screen is obviously less reflective. Text and pictures are nice and crisp, its a lovely panel.
Default res is 3072x1728 @ 60Hz. The two scaled resolutions really don't offer much more screen space at all.
I need to look at the link posted earlier to get the volume control working via the keyboard.
Initial reaction is that its very nice - all the ports are a great addition and I need to try connecting a Windows laptop to it next to see if I can easily switch between the two inputs as that's a big selling point for me due to the work I have on at the moment.
Actually, the camera seems a bit funny/buggy - if I start a Zoom call it's MEGA zoomed-in on my face. I have to go to the Dell app, open webcam setting which seems to synch the settings with Zoom and it's all good.
Just stopping and starting the video on a Zoom call also screws this up. Which isn't good or workable. Will do some searching about it to see if its a known bug...
Just stopping and starting the video on a Zoom call also screws this up. Which isn't good or workable. Will do some searching about it to see if its a known bug...
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On mine, the camera shutter opens and closes as needed without the Dell app. For the zoom level, check the camera section in the Dell app — it has settings for that. The settings don't seem to stick when I switch the monitor over to my Intel mac without the Dell app though. No issues with the volume buttons either, though they seem to duplicate keyboard volume controls so I don't really use them.
As a side note, last night I plugged it into my M1 iPad and it's a bit funny seeing an iPad driving a very desktoppy 6k monitor better than an iMac Pro can, even with the age gap between the two devices. This also shows how many iPad apps make assumptions about screen dimensions.
As a side note, last night I plugged it into my M1 iPad and it's a bit funny seeing an iPad driving a very desktoppy 6k monitor better than an iMac Pro can, even with the age gap between the two devices. This also shows how many iPad apps make assumptions about screen dimensions.
It looks like when I start and stop the video in Zoom, or start a new Zoom session, it loses the settings from the Dell app.
Ascender - are you running it as a single monitor or along side your ASD(s)?
Curious about how the Studio is handling sleep/wake re: window locations/sizing. Also your general comparison vs. the ASD. Is it worth "upgrading" one ASD in a multiple monitor set-up to the Dell? (Asking for a friend. . .)
Curious about how the Studio is handling sleep/wake re: window locations/sizing. Also your general comparison vs. the ASD. Is it worth "upgrading" one ASD in a multiple monitor set-up to the Dell? (Asking for a friend. . .)
Assuming you're using the Zoom desktop app, I think that might have to do with some quirk with how it specifically initializes the camera. On my work mac, the Dell app settings apply as expected every time with Photo Booth, new video recordings in Quicktime Player, and with meetings in Google Meet via Chrome.
If my suspicion is correct, the Zoom web app won't have this problem.
Same, no issues for me here with my Mac Mini M2 Pro. Speakers are a bit 'tinny' but apart from that all good.
Hello folks, greetings from germany.
Today my Dell 6K Monitor arrives here.
I have take some pictures with my handy in a dark room. Unfortunately I cannot see a big difference between my LG 40WP95XP-W (UWUHD)... The IPS-Glow is a little bit more visible for me. Do not understand me wrong: The 6K panel is very nice and I can use it without any scaling right now - so more place here
But all in all, the expected difference between my 40 inch LG Ultrawide is not so big.
But take a look by yourself (and sorry for my bad english):
PS:
Access is now for all
Today my Dell 6K Monitor arrives here.
I have take some pictures with my handy in a dark room. Unfortunately I cannot see a big difference between my LG 40WP95XP-W (UWUHD)... The IPS-Glow is a little bit more visible for me. Do not understand me wrong: The 6K panel is very nice and I can use it without any scaling right now - so more place here
But all in all, the expected difference between my 40 inch LG Ultrawide is not so big.
But take a look by yourself (and sorry for my bad english):
Google Drive: Sign-in
Access Google Drive with a Google account (for personal use) or Google Workspace account (for business use).
drive.google.com
PS:
Access is now for all
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I've been using it as a single monitor but am going to add an ASD back alongside it tomorrow as a "scratch space" so will let you know how it goes with the window locations, sizing etc.
The Dell is reliably waking from sleep which is good, not quite as fast as the ASD though.
Dell U3224KB First Impressions
I’ve had my U3224KB for the better part of a day. In a nutshell, it’s just okay, and there are lots of great capabilities, but I’m underwhelmed in a number of areas.
The image uniformity is not great for dark images and there’s a dim strip near the bottom of the screen that almost looks like a defect. The matte coating gives a subtle texture to the image that I’m not fond of. And the camera can be okay but needs tweaking with Dell’s software to make it usable.
More features and quirks follow. I currently have an LG UltraFine 5K and an Apple Studio Display, so I’ll make comparisons to those.
Display and Resolution
Setup and Controls
Peripherals and Ports
Speakers and Camera
Software and Compatibility
Stand and Mounting
Summary and Conclusion
This monitor is the cheapest (but still expensive) way to get a massive amount of screen real-estate at a resolution that is actually suitable for Macs, making this an extremely rare breed of monitor. It has a lot of nice, thoughtful features but at the same time offers merely okay image quality considering the high price. The speakers should blow you away considering how much space they add to the top bezel but they are barely adequate for office use.
The camera is acceptable but requires a ludicrous amount of tweaking to get a good image out of it. Given how huge it is, it should be the best webcam ever but it’s not; it isn’t as good as a (dialed-in) Opal C1 or Continuity Camera on a late-model iPhone Pro but, if configured correctly, it can be better in most ways than the smeary, grainy camera in the Studio Display and offers a similar feature to Center Stage. A dealbreaker for the whole monitor might end up being that the webcam will *click* on and off randomly without any intention to use it. It’s creepy and distracting.
If you’re after a huge monitor that works great with a Mac, this monitor fits the bill, but I just expected more given the asking price. I will use it for a couple of weeks and decide if I’m going to hang on to this monitor or go back to using the Studio Display as my main display which is nicer overall, even if it isn’t as big and lacks the handy ports.
I’ve had my U3224KB for the better part of a day. In a nutshell, it’s just okay, and there are lots of great capabilities, but I’m underwhelmed in a number of areas.
The image uniformity is not great for dark images and there’s a dim strip near the bottom of the screen that almost looks like a defect. The matte coating gives a subtle texture to the image that I’m not fond of. And the camera can be okay but needs tweaking with Dell’s software to make it usable.
More features and quirks follow. I currently have an LG UltraFine 5K and an Apple Studio Display, so I’ll make comparisons to those.
Display and Resolution
- The monitor's resolution (DPI) is higher than Apple's 5K and 6K displays, making things on screen look slightly smaller than on the Studio Display.
- You get an ungodly amount of screen real-estate and a very sharp image on this screen.
- The brightness does not get as high as Apple's Studio Display, but it's sufficiently bright. By default it comes set to a ridiculously low brightness.
- There's a dim strip at the bottom of the display, which is a disappointing deficiency.
- The matte antiglare coating adds a noticeable texture to uniform areas of the screen, making it less clear compared to the glossy LG UltraFine and Apple Studio displays. I’d much rather have a glossy option to avoid this texture.
- When displaying very dark images, there is an orange glow on the bottom corners. I’m spoiled by the mini-LED display in the MacBook Pro, but this is significantly worse than the corner bleed on the Studio Display.
- The display has thinner side bezels than the Studio Display, but the bottom bezel is bigger and the top bezel is humongous. Overall I think it’s a pretty nice looking display in person with a clean design. People complain it looks silly but this doesn't bother you when you're looking at the huge display.
- It’s got a bit of a creaky plastic housing, but this isn’t a big deal. The joystick for controlling the OSD has a mighty loud plasticky *click* when pressing it in. It’s not as nice an industrial design as the Studio Display (obviously).
Setup and Controls
- The monitor has a brief setup process. It also warns about high energy usage when brightness is increased the first time.
- An info display (OSD) pops up when the monitor wakes up. This can be disabled by disabling Auto Select in Input Source settings, but there’s a “No Thunderbolt Signal from your device” notice after several seconds when you put the display to sleep.
- There are ‘video conferencing’ related controls at the bottom left of the monitor which are invisible until your hand approaches it. Here there are controls for the computer's volume (not necessarily the monitor’s), and the mic and speakers can be disabled.
- The small power LED can be disabled when the screen is on, which is a nice option.
Peripherals and Ports
- There are quite a few ports including a 2.5Gb ethernet port, which is nice, eliminating the need for a dock. Just make sure you don’t plug a device into the USB upstream port - this is useful for the KVM functionality but it initially confused me because a device wouldn’t work in it.
- The pop-down USB ports in the front are convenient for plugging in temporary devices like USB flash drives, but they didn’t smoothly slide down at first. It seems to improve as I use it. It takes a good amount of force to get them to pop down.
- The monitor claims to support 140W charging, but I only get 94W on my MacBook Pro. I suspect the 140W capability is proprietary and only works on certain high-end Dell laptops.
Speakers and Camera
- The speakers are underwhelming with no low-end, fine for calls and video but not music. The Studio Display’s speakers destroy the Dell’s.
- The camera can be angled down to ensure your face is properly contained in the frame.
- There's an automatic physical shutter on the camera for privacy. It clicks loudly when the camera is used or turned off.
- The camera seems to randomly turn on for a second now and then even when I’m not using the camera or any video apps. Odd and annoying.
- The camera resolution seemed lower than expected without any additional software installed. In dark environments the image also is *extremely* washed out — I look completely white and you can't see my face or body except for my hair, just from the light the screen shines on me. Color rendition is also quite poor out of the box, leaving me looking very purple or red. This can somewhat be improved by using Dell’s DDPM application which offers configuration settings for the camera. It seems that this camera is much happier when you’re in a well-lit environment. This is disappointing because I think this camera has potential with some tuning. If you want to use the webcam for anything important you’ll definitely want to install DDPM and fiddle with all the settings.
- There’s an odd feature that causes the Mac to wake up when you come near the computer. I’m not sure how much I like this so far and I’m not sure how to disable this without also disabling the camera.
Software and Compatibility
- Dell's "Display and Peripheral Manager" software can control various monitor settings, including input labelling and color profiles.
- Keyboard shortcuts to adjust brightness via the default Mac UI work fine with certain third-party apps. I use Lunar and it’s great.
- At this time there’s a DDPM v1.1.1.0028 available but I couldn’t ever get it to work, so I remain on v1.1.1.0017.
Stand and Mounting
- I use a VESA arm so I haven’t tried the built-in stand, bit it certainly has some heft to it. The stand can be detached without tools and VESA screws are conveniently already in once you remove the stand.
Summary and Conclusion
This monitor is the cheapest (but still expensive) way to get a massive amount of screen real-estate at a resolution that is actually suitable for Macs, making this an extremely rare breed of monitor. It has a lot of nice, thoughtful features but at the same time offers merely okay image quality considering the high price. The speakers should blow you away considering how much space they add to the top bezel but they are barely adequate for office use.
The camera is acceptable but requires a ludicrous amount of tweaking to get a good image out of it. Given how huge it is, it should be the best webcam ever but it’s not; it isn’t as good as a (dialed-in) Opal C1 or Continuity Camera on a late-model iPhone Pro but, if configured correctly, it can be better in most ways than the smeary, grainy camera in the Studio Display and offers a similar feature to Center Stage. A dealbreaker for the whole monitor might end up being that the webcam will *click* on and off randomly without any intention to use it. It’s creepy and distracting.
If you’re after a huge monitor that works great with a Mac, this monitor fits the bill, but I just expected more given the asking price. I will use it for a couple of weeks and decide if I’m going to hang on to this monitor or go back to using the Studio Display as my main display which is nicer overall, even if it isn’t as big and lacks the handy ports.
Hi Anyone,
I just got mine last week and connected to my Mac Mini M2 with TB4, everything works very well compare to my iMac 27 5K except for the document viewing part, the texts fonts display on the iMac 5K looks like bold and bigger compare to the Dell. As I'm sitting next to a windows, I have to turn the brightness to Max to avoid the refection when I using the iMac, but now I only have to turn 70% of the brightness and is much better already. For the matte screen part, I have another dell monitor and the U3224KB looks different from it, the finishing of the screen is something between the old matte screen and the iMac 5k glossy screen, I like glossy screen too and this one is acceptable to me.
You will notice purple grow at the bottom corner when displaying a dark image but after a week of using is much better now, when displaying white color image, the screen is very clean and bright not like my old iMac 5K pink tint around the whole edge of screen.
One thing is very strange to me is the U3224KB will auto power on for a few second and a message will show up on the screen "Searching for signal", even my Mac Mini is in sleep status.
Overall, I'm very satisfied for my new monitor!!!!
I just got mine last week and connected to my Mac Mini M2 with TB4, everything works very well compare to my iMac 27 5K except for the document viewing part, the texts fonts display on the iMac 5K looks like bold and bigger compare to the Dell. As I'm sitting next to a windows, I have to turn the brightness to Max to avoid the refection when I using the iMac, but now I only have to turn 70% of the brightness and is much better already. For the matte screen part, I have another dell monitor and the U3224KB looks different from it, the finishing of the screen is something between the old matte screen and the iMac 5k glossy screen, I like glossy screen too and this one is acceptable to me.
You will notice purple grow at the bottom corner when displaying a dark image but after a week of using is much better now, when displaying white color image, the screen is very clean and bright not like my old iMac 5K pink tint around the whole edge of screen.
One thing is very strange to me is the U3224KB will auto power on for a few second and a message will show up on the screen "Searching for signal", even my Mac Mini is in sleep status.
Overall, I'm very satisfied for my new monitor!!!!
Many thanks for this write-up. This is the comparison I have been looking for. Your final paragraph is important to me as I'd be buying the Dell to replace my center ASD. Please update after a few weeks.
That's a great write-up @Supacon - Pretty much mirrors my feelings & experience but you've taken the time to write a detailed and very articulated post!
1. Subjective opinions & preferences
2. Things you'll come to adjust-to if you are using one for a few days
At the moment, like when I've tried other 3rd party monitors, my main takeaway is that I really wish Apple would offer a few different displays of their own.
Even if they did an ASD in 27", 32" and maybe a 34" ultrawide - all 5K with built-in speakers and webcam, that would give Apple users so much more flexibility in their monitor choice
I've been using mine alongside an ASD today and this is where some of the little things are brought in to sharper focus (no pun intended). They're either...
1. Subjective opinions & preferences
2. Things you'll come to adjust-to if you are using one for a few days
- The brightness is ok on the Dell, but next to the ASD, the whites are brighter and text is crisper at a "lower" brightness. At an equivalent level, there's just no comparison. The ASD will make your eyes bleed if you whack it up full
- That one is maybe linked in-part to the anti-glare coating
- I don't do much graphics or photo work. So for me, a bright, crisp (retina-like) display is more of a priority than colour accuracy
- Design is absolutely fine - you really don't notice the bezels or the fact its not made of metal - I'm using a VESA arm with mine too
- 32" is a BIG space to fill, but depending on your workload (and if you use stage manager or spaces) it means you can get more windows side-by-side at a decent size
- It does make me wonder if anything over 27" for some people (mainly me) is a waste unless you go ultrawide - i.e. if what you need is more space to have windows side-by-side, are you wasting space and you'd be better off with a second screen or ultrawide
- The built-in ability to display images from two sources at once, with preset window arrangements works really well. But again, I'm not sure how much I will use it because the screen isn't wide enough for me to have my Mac and a Windows laptop side-by-side for example
- More use and I've noticed the same things as @Supacon regarding the image uniformity vs ASD
- I can't work out the camera quality. After some adjustment I've got an image which looks pretty similar to what I get on my ASD. The AI tracking seems a bit more hit and miss than Center Stage and I'm still getting weird behaviour from the buttons, shutter and the camera when switching between apps
- Again, this is subjective, but out the box, I think the ASD camera is more than fine for video calls. I don't understand why I have to do lots of tweaking with a higher-specced camera to get a similar result
- I'm also baffled by the speakers - they really are bad for music and although good enough for calls, when you switch audio from the Dell to the ASD, its night and day
At the moment, like when I've tried other 3rd party monitors, my main takeaway is that I really wish Apple would offer a few different displays of their own.
Even if they did an ASD in 27", 32" and maybe a 34" ultrawide - all 5K with built-in speakers and webcam, that would give Apple users so much more flexibility in their monitor choice
And we're here! This is a hell of a monitor, 18Kg delivered, which meant a flipping heavy box! It took about 10 minutes to assemble and lift on to the desk, moving the old Samsung monitor back towards the rear of the desk to accommodate it. The large desk comes in handy at times!
View attachment 2204230View attachment 2204231
Dell Drivers and Management software all loaded on the Mac and I'm connected via Thunderbolt 4. Initial thoughts:
View attachment 2204232
- The range of resolutions available:
At the moment I'm working in 3360 x 1890, not that much different I guess to the 34" UW which was 3340 x 1440, but a lot taller.
- Speakers - the speakers are way better than those in the Samsung, although not quite as good as my 20 year old Creative desk speakers, not not far off. I'll see how it goes and may well manage with those built into the monitor as it'll mean a much tidier desk.
- Flat screen - after using a curved screen for 8+ years it seems strange to be using a screen that 'curves away' at the edges. I am rapidly adjusting
- Crispness - The 6K screen does make a heck of a difference with display quality, text and images are so much crisper and easier to read.
- Wake up - The old Samsung monitor had to be connected to HDMI and took around 8-10 seconds to come to life, the U3224KB wakes in 1-2 seconds.
- OSD - The On Screen Display and UI for configuring the monitor are sweet and fast to use
- Head & Shoulders - I have to agree with a lot of other folks, the speakers in the top of the monitor do make the shoulders' look pretty large, but it only took maybe half an hour to get used to them. Web Cam - yep it does make for a large 'head' on the shoulders, but it's no larger than my old Logitech camera and much better quality.
View attachment 2204234View attachment 2204235
View attachment 2204237
So far I'm loving it!
I just received my Dell 6k monitor today and am trying to use it on a Mac Studio - connected with Thunderbolt 4 cable.
the picture is fine, pretty happy with that. the camera also seems to work.
However, the sound is a big problem. I cant control the volume - not with the Mac keyboard controls, and neither with the monitor volume buttons (on the front bottom left). I get a popup icon from the Mac showing no control of audio.
since you didnt mention this in your mini review, do I assume you do have control of the volume somehow? and if so, how did you accomplish it?
many thanks
-- Jez
let me know when you get the audio working, as I am having trouble controlling the volume control. I get audio (via thunderbolt 4) and video, fine. but I have no control over volume, from either the Mac or the monitor's own volume controls.
I returned my U3224KB. If I didn't already have an ASD I probably would have kept it, but I didn't feel that it was worth the asking price. The camera quality was horrible and always overexposed, which made it pointless to have such a huge bezel at the top of the screen if I couldn't get any use out of it, and the anti-glare coating really started to bother me the more time I spent with it. At first I thought I was going to get used to the AG, but in comparison to the ASD it just looked like a dirty screen and it reduced the sharpness.
It may depend on the DAC being used, but that is the case with mine as well. I use the volume knob on my powered speakers to adjust the volume.
I discovered a solution to the lack of controlling the volume on the dell monitor.
when you plug in the thunderbolt 4 cable, the Mac defaults to an audio device that is the Dell Monitor via DisplayPort. but there's a second Dell Monitor device, which says USB, and when I selected that one, I was then able to control the volume control.
but the sound quality from the Dell 6k Monitor is, as others have commented, lacking any low end.. so I will now investigate external speaker options.
when you plug in the thunderbolt 4 cable, the Mac defaults to an audio device that is the Dell Monitor via DisplayPort. but there's a second Dell Monitor device, which says USB, and when I selected that one, I was then able to control the volume control.
but the sound quality from the Dell 6k Monitor is, as others have commented, lacking any low end.. so I will now investigate external speaker options.
This morning my Mac showed the typical hand-slap you get for unplugging a drive without ejecting it. Concerning. the USB SSD I have plugged into the monitor had apparently disconnected.
Additionally, my USB audio interface wasn't working after a while and I ended up having to unplug it and plug it into another USB port. I tried rebooting the computer and that didn't work, but a different port in the monitor got it going.
Has anyone noticed such apparent reliability issues with the integrated USB hub? This is a major draw of this product so that's a huge knock against it if I can't trust the ports to work reliably!