New Dell U2725QE

[glitch44]

Aside from the dangers of burn-in, what ELSE is the problem with OLED for a general-purpose home display?

Cost (OLED is more expensive).

And the colors of OLED certainly pop, but in terms of graphic design where color accuracy is important, professionals still might prefer an IPS monitor with better color calibration.

Also, they've made huge strides in burn-in, but it's still a danger and some people don't want to deal with the stress of accidentally ruining a $1000 monitor.

 

[DaveOP]

Thanks for the comments, Dave.

The Alienware/Dell AW2725Q mentioned above is claimed to have anti-burn-in technology:

The New Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED

Alienware continues to lead in gaming monitor technology with QD-OLED advancements with the new Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED Gaming Monitor

dell.alienwarearena.com

Aside from the dangers of burn-in, what ELSE is the problem with OLED for a general-purpose home display?

I was thinking of something like this to go along with an m4 Mini...

You might check out the Monitors Unboxed video about trying to burn in their MSI monitor (actually the same one I have for gaming). After a year, he is starting to see some burn. His methodology is intentionally far beyond real world usage, but even with "anti-burn-in" technology, it can still happen. Text is also still better on IPS, though my MSI OLED is getting very, very close.

 

[Populus]

Aside from the dangers of burn-in, what ELSE is the problem with OLED for a general-purpose home display?

Aside from the burn-in, there’s the fact that some people like myself find the OLED screens uncomfortable to watch for prolonged periods of time. Sometimes just a short time exposed to one is enough to bother our eyes. I guess it is related to PWM.

I tend to keep monitors for 15+ years, so honestly I want something comfortable for my eyes to stare at for the next decade and a half.

 

[timmah339]

I purchased three U2725QE on launch day, and they're excellent.

My setup is:

1. Monitor A > (Thunderbolt) > Monitor B > (thunderbolt) > TB4 KVM switch > MacBook Pro 16" (M3 Pro)
2. Monitor C > StarTech USB3-to-DP DisplayLink adapter > TB4 KVM switch (same as above)

All three are running at 4K (scaled to 1440p) @ 120Hz and are crystal clear. Display C has a tiny bit of lag due to the DisplayLink adapter, so I use it for mostly static content. Also, I can't get the USB ports on monitor A to work while daisy-chained; I guess that's just a limitation of macOS + Thunderbolt Display chaining...all ports on monitor B do work.

As with the U2723QE, it seems the best picture (SDR) is attained by setting the displays to 6500K and using the "Display P3" profile in macOS Display settings. I haven't played with HDR yet.

 

[Populus]

I purchased three U2725QE on launch day, and they're excellent.

My setup is:

1. Monitor A > (Thunderbolt) > Monitor B > (thunderbolt) > TB4 KVM switch > MacBook Pro 16" (M3 Pro)
2. Monitor C > StarTech USB3-to-DP DisplayLink adapter > TB4 KVM switch (same as above)

All three are running at 4K (scaled to 1440p) @ 120Hz and are crystal clear. Display C has a tiny bit of lag due to the DisplayLink adapter, so I use it for mostly static content. Also, I can't get the USB ports on monitor A to work while daisy-chained; I guess that's just a limitation of macOS + Thunderbolt Display chaining...all ports on monitor B do work.

As with the U2723QE, it seems the best picture (SDR) is attained by setting the displays to 6500K and using the "Display P3" profile in macOS Display settings. I haven't played with HDR yet.

I know it isn’t a gaming monitor, but: Did you attempt any kind of gaming on them?

Also, some say that, on dark/black images, IPS glow is more noticeable. How’s watching a movie on that monitor?

 

[timmah339]

I know it isn’t a gaming monitor, but: Did you attempt any kind of gaming on them?

Also, some say that, on dark/black images, IPS glow is more noticeable. How’s watching a movie on that monitor?

Gaming (Rocket League)​

This display sports an HDMI 2.1 port. My PS5 was able to do 4K HDR@120Hz with full VRR support.

I'm no HDR snob by any means, but I think it looked very good. Maybe every-so-slightly washed out at times (to my eyes), which I'm sure was some combination of:

1. In my head and everything was fine
2. Some setting I didn't have tuned correctly
3. My preference for slightly more color saturation in general.

Overall I think it looked excellent. Dell specs say response times are 5-8 ms on the Fast setting (which I had enabled) and that seems accurate. It's not a 1 ms gaming display, but it's very good.

Movies​

I didn't spend the time to get macOS to play nice with the display's HDR modes, so I only tested a movie in SDR. Playing a copy of 1917 (4K HDR, likely converted to SDR by Infuse), everything looked fantastic (Infuse generally does a great job of both HDR/DV playback and SDR tone mapping).

1917 is ultra-widescreen w/ black bars top+bottom. The little bit of IPS glow I could see in the corners of the display was acceptable (IMO) from the 2-3 ft away I was sitting and much better than the U2723QE. It's hardly noticeable from farther away. You'll probably be a little disappointed if you're expecting pure black everywhere a-la OLED or Mini-LED with tons of dimming zones...but that's not really a fair comparison.

Keep in mind the above is with tone-mapped SDR content; HDR would likely look better. I think it performed excellently for an IPS display.

 

[Jacquesass]

Edited below.

 

[Jacquesass]

I purchased three U2725QE on launch day, and they're excellent.

I have a specific setup that I’m planning on, but I’m not sure if it will work. Any chance you could test a couple of things?

1) How well does an AppleTV work via HDMI? Is the sound then able to be routed out the headphone jack?

2) If hooked up to a MBP (via TB) and an ATV (via HDMI), are the USB ports and Ethernet still usable by the MBP when watching the ATV?

 

[Sinjon]

Did anybody try the HDR mode with the U2725QE? from what I've read you need OLED or VA Panel to have decent HDR (HDR600 or HDR1000), so I'm expecting the colour of the UI to be too washed out in HDR.

 

[timmah339]

I have a specific setup that I’m planning on, but I’m not sure if it will work. Any chance you could test a couple of things?

1) How well does an AppleTV work via HDMI? Is the sound then able to be routed out the headphone jack?

2) If hooked up to a MBP (via TB) and an ATV (via HDMI), are the USB ports and Ethernet still usable by the MBP when watching the ATV?

1) I don't have an TV, but I suspect it would work well as the monitor has an HDMI 2.1 port. I believe the sound coming out of the headphone jack switches with the current input, so you wouldn't be able to switch to your MBP but still listen to content playing on the TV.

2) I don't believe this is supported. The KVM functionality allows you to route the TB and downstream USB-C port to either the DP-in or HDMI ports. The ethernet, 3.5mm headphone, and USB-A ports all switch with the current input (AFAIK).

See this excerpt from the user manual (full pdf attached):

 

[timmah339]

Did anybody try the HDR mode with the U2725QE? from what I've read you need OLED or VA Panel to have decent HDR (HDR600 or HDR1000), so I'm expecting the colour of the UI to be too washed out in HDR.

I did try the HDR600 setting and the macOS UI was washed out no matter what I tried.

 

[beardownchicago]

I'm curious what people think of the difference in quality between the QHD (1440) vs the 4k version if you are using a M3 MBA?

Mostly basic use, but do watch some streaming content and such.

 

[Citizen45]

What color space are people using for this monitor with their Macs?

The "Standard" preset seems overly saturated.

The "sRGB" preset seems washed out.

On the MacOS display settings, I have DELL U2725QE as the selected color profile.

 

[Sinjon]

I use custom - RGB offset R-48, G-49 and B-52
and my Brightness is 100% and Contrast 75%
auto brightness and colour temp off.
that seam the closest to my macbook pro 14 (M2) screen

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest trying BetterDisplay with a new Dell.
Works very well with my UltraSharp (about a year+ old).
(even the free version, which I'm using)

 

[Citizen45]

I use custom - RGB offset R-48, G-49 and B-52
and my Brightness is 100% and Contrast 75%
auto brightness and colour temp off.
that seam the closest to my macbook pro 14 (M2) screen

I'm currently using 7500k.

I find the monitor extremely warm compared to MacBook colors. 7500k helps with that a bit.

 

[BLtheP]

I've been working off of two U2722DE's for several years, and finally decided to purchase one U2725QE as a test to see how I like it. I find the color very good, the refresh rate is nice for sure, and speakers work perfectly fine plugged into monitor #1, where previously I had to plug them into monitor #2 and run a DisplayPort cable from Monitor #1 to #2 to activate the DP Audio. Nice to no longer need to do that. The pop down USBs are great to have also.

Overall, I think it's a nice package in a monitor, and I plan on buying a second soon.

I have no complaints with uniformity or anything like that, I think it looks great. Maybe I got lucky.