Hands-On With Dell's Massive 49-Inch 5K Ultrawide Display

[MacRumors]

Dell recently unveiled the first 49-inch ultrawide 5K monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio, the result of which is a wide, immersive display with an impressive resolution.

In our latest YouTube video, we were able to go hands-on with Dell's U4919DW display, putting it through its paces to see if it's worth the $1250 asking price.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

The U4919DW might look impractical at first glance, but it's essentially designed for people who like to use two 27-inch monitors side by side. It's a dual QHD display with a total resolution of 5120 x 1440 pixels and a curve that makes it a bit easier to see everything at once.

There are, of course, other ultrawide monitors with this same aspect ratio on the market, but Dell is the first company to introduce a higher resolution.

Design wise, the U4919DW looks similar to other Dell monitors, just on a larger scale. It's made from plastic, but with a clean, minimal look. Expect it to take up a ton of room on a desk, and on shallower tables, it's going to be tough to see everything at once without turning your head because the curvature is so slight.

The display is equipped with multiple ports, including two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, five USB-A ports, and 2 USB-A upstream ports. There's also a USB-C cable that allows the display to be used with Macs that support USB-C.

If you're using it with a device like a MacBook Pro, the display can provide up to 90W of power for charging purposes, cutting down on the number of cables you need on your desk. There's just the one USB-C port, though, so you're out of luck if you have multiple USB-C accessories.

There's a built-in KVM feature that lets you connect a keyboard and a mouse, a handy feature for switching between multiple computers connected to the display. You can connect a PC and a Mac or two Macs at the same time.

Having 49 inches of display on your desk means you can see everything all at once, which is amazing for multitasking purposes. It's excellent for everything from writing to video editing. You're not going to want to use it for serious gaming, though, because it maxes out at 60Hz and doesn't support G-Sync or Freesync.

Dell's monitor is designed to be used in landscape mode, of course, but we couldn't end this video without testing macOS's ability to take advantage of a display in portrait mode. Portrait mode isn't intended for a monitor this massive, but it's fun seeing websites like MacRumors on a display that's 48 inches tall.

All in all, if you regularly use two standard sized monitors side by side, Dell's 49-inch U4919DW display is a useful but pricey replacement. Portrait mode probably isn't the best use for it, but with the proper mounting, it's possible. Originally priced at $1,700, the display is now available from Dell for $1,250.

Article Link: Hands-On With Dell's Massive 49-Inch 5K Ultrawide Display

 

[SSD-GUY]

I can finally see a full size portrait photo of myself.

 

[routine_analyst]

Man... does this look ridiculous now. The apple and left menu items are like a yard away from the plugin and time.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I’ve seen a few people here posting about the ultrawide monitors and some have said it’s like having multiple screens, but the window management is a little more difficult as it’s all on one screen and it’s somewhat disconcerting.

Can anybody confirm if it’s easier or harder for their workflows?

 

[frozen220]

Double the dpi and then take my money!

 

[bladerunner2000]

Better be an IPS panel. Is it? Why did Macrumors miss the most critical aspect of the specs?

 

[Internet Enzyme]

Dell recently unveiled the first 49-inch ultrawide 5K monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio, the result of which is a wide, immersive display with an impressive resolution.

In our latest YouTube video, we were able to go hands-on with Dell's U4919DW display, putting it through its paces to see if it's worth the $1250 asking price.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

The U4919DW might look impractical at first glance, but it's essentially designed for people who like to use two 27-inch monitors side by side. It's a dual QHD display with a total resolution of 5120 x 1440 pixels and a curve that makes it a bit easier to see everything at once.

There are, of course, other ultrawide monitors with this same aspect ratio on the market, but Dell is the first company to introduce a higher resolution.

Design wise, the U4919DW looks similar to other Dell monitors, just on a larger scale. It's made from plastic, but with a clean, minimal look. Expect it to take up a ton of room on a desk, and on shallower tables, it's going to be tough to see everything at once without turning your head because the curvature is so slight.

The display is equipped with multiple ports, including two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, five USB-A ports, and 2 USB-A upstream ports. There's also a USB-C cable that allows the display to be used with Macs that support USB-C.

If you're using it with a device like a MacBook Pro, the display can provide up to 90W of power for charging purposes, cutting down on the number of cables you need on your desk. There's just the one USB-C port, though, so you're out of luck if you have multiple USB-C accessories.

There's a built-in KVM feature that lets you connect a keyboard and a mouse, a handy feature for switching between multiple computers connected to the display. You can connect a PC and a Mac or two Macs at the same time.

Having 49 inches of display on your desk means you can see everything all at once, which is amazing for multitasking purposes. It's excellent for everything from writing to video editing. You're not going to want to use it for serious gaming, though, because it maxes out at 60Hz and doesn't support G-Sync or Freesync.

Dell's monitor is designed to be used in landscape mode, of course, but we couldn't end this video without testing macOS's ability to take advantage of a display in portrait mode. Portrait mode isn't intended for a monitor this massive, but it's fun seeing websites like MacRumors on a display that's 48 inches tall.

All in all, if you regularly use two standard sized monitors side by side, Dell's 49-inch U4919DW display is a useful but pricey replacement. Portrait mode probably isn't the best use for it, but with the proper mounting, it's possible. Originally priced at $1,700, the display is now available from Dell for $1,250.

Article Link: Hands-On With Dell's Massive 49-Inch 5K Ultrawide Display

i enjoy the portrait mode

 

[AngerDanger]

If you like the idea of this display but prefer Apple's design choices, print out a picture of an Apple Cinema Display, cut out the bottom, and tape it in front of the actual stand.

 

[Scooz]

Click to expand.

 

[Laird Knox]

I can see using it in portrait mode for signage. I used a standard 1080p screen in portrait mode in my gallery. I could have some fun with something like this.

Also, there is currently a trend for slot machines that use extremely tall, curved displays in portrait mode.

But I expect neither of these are their target markets.

 

[xnu]

Seems good for a stock broker or word processing but it looks too short in height for some tasks like CAD. I broke down and replaced my 30" Cinema with a BENQ 32" last month. It has a bit more height. Of course you could see around corners in a 1st person shooter with the DELL.

 

[marcushe]

We bought two of them today for a neurologist physician at a major USA hospital I support - The neurologist will stack the two screens on top of each other and use them to keep all of his patient charts open simultaneously. Great use case for these, I think. (Dell sells the appropriate stacking stand - Model: Chief KTP230B - $160 education) Also, the monitors are only $1206 - education.

 

[chucker23n1]

Double the dpi and then take my money!

This, basically.

"5K" makes it sound like this is a high-DPI display, but it's not. It is literally more than five thousand pixels wide, and fits the moniker in that sense, but a 5K iMac has twice the pixels despite being half the width, because it has double the density in each dimension.

If you want a "Retina" display, this one isn't it.

 

[Wanted797]

I’ve seen a few people here posting about the ultrawide monitors and some have said it’s like having multiple screens, but the window management is a little more difficult as it’s all on one screen and it’s somewhat disconcerting.

Can anybody confirm if it’s easier or harder for their workflows?

I have 3 screens in my work plus the laptop screen, with the middle being a ultra wide dell and have to use windows 7.

The worst bit is most apps don’t know what to do on such a big screen and are mostly blank space with the content all to the left.

Win 7 also only puts the task bar on one screen and groups the icons to the left. I know win 10 you have multiple task bars but it will still group icons to the left.

I love the ultra wide but that’s because the main system we use works in the space. I use alt+tab as well as windows+ a arrow direction to snap windows.

If I didn’t use the main program we have I’d go back to just the two 24” side monitors I had originally.

 

[Naaaaak]

Man... does this look ridiculous now. The apple and left menu items are like a yard away from the plugin and time.

Screens this large highlight the problems with a universal menu bar. The Windows approach (menu atop a window) would seem to be better.

 

[alexandr]

i want to test this! looks like fun)

 

[T-R-S]

The Samsung QLED 49" Gaming monitor costs less and does more

 

[mamaway]

"5K" makes it sound like this is a high-DPI display, but it's not.

Completely agree. This is very misleading. Dell isn't calling this thing 5K, so why is Macrumors?

 

[Naaaaak]

"5K" makes it sound like this is a high-DPI display, but it's not. It is literally more than five thousand pixels wide, and fits the moniker in that sense, but a 5K iMac has twice the pixels despite being half the width, because it has double the density in each dimension.

If you want a "Retina" display, this one isn't it.

This is the biggest downside and something the review should have pointed out. I'm not going back to non-Retina or under 220 PPI display. The review should have commented on text quality as that's something that 10.14 users on non-Retina displays complain about (subpixel anti-aliasing removed in 10.14).

 

[chucker23n1]

Completely agree. This is very misleading. Dell isn't calling this thing 5K, so why is Macrumors?

Wikipedia's article even explicitly lists this resolution, but it's a stretch (pardon the pun), and probably shouldn't be in the headline, if anywhere at all.

 

[AngerDanger]

I’ve seen a few people here posting about the ultrawide monitors and some have said it’s like having multiple screens, but the window management is a little more difficult as it’s all on one screen and it’s somewhat disconcerting.

Can anybody confirm if it’s easier or harder for their workflows?

Can't speak from experience with an ultra wide monitor, but BetterTouchTool allows Mac users to enable window snapping in the same manner as Windows 7.

By default, it'd allow you to snap a window to each side, so it'd be like two 27 inch monitors, but you can create custom snap areas, so it can be divided up however the user wants.

 

[trekkie604]

Hold up, filling out my requisition request now!

 

[BigBoy2018]

I do like the ability to run two computers to it in side by side mode.

I haven't looked into ultra wide monitors much so I don't know if that's a common feature, but it's pretty cool imo.

 

[Martius]

Oh, I just wish Apple have upgraded their Thunderbolt Display to 5K (and kept the design). I hate those plastic ugly monitors which that are shaking everytime you just rest your hands on the table. It is 2019 and there is not a single monitor with the build quality of the 2011 Thunderbolt Display.

 

[nutmac]

Double the dpi and then take my money!

At 34", LG 34WK95U-W is smaller, but I think it's superior in almost all other aspects -- higher resolution (5120 by 2160, or 5K horizontal and 4K vertical) with HDR output (600 nits) and Thunderbolt 3 input (although I think there's a bug that requires the monitor to use USB-C for full resolution for now).