In the age of digital photography, the display is as important as the camera or lens you use. However, as more and more high-end options are put on the market every year, the line between "worth" and "overkill" has become blurred. Dell's
, No matter which standard elite monitor is used, the line can be made clearer.
One of the most valuable "gears" that a professional photographer or video editor can buy is a color-accurate monitor. The vast majority of viewers will experience your work through pixels instead of printing, and editing on the a-foot monitor is like shooting through a color viewfinder: of course you can, but you must always be vigilant or the final product will look Not as you think.
When Dell asked to send it to me
With 2,000 independently controlled mini-LED dimming zones and a built-in colorimeter (AKA
) For review, I almost refused. When Apple...error...ignore responding to my request
So I can make side-by-side comparisons, almost certainly I won’t. Each comment begins with a related question, "Is this a good monitor?" Looks like a fool. Of course, this is great, it costs $5,000. Any behavior below "great" is an insult.
But then I found another better question, which is this question: What is the purpose of diminishing returns? In other words, does this display contain the right combination of functions to justify the cost of $5,000?
Without a direct comparison, I want to see if real-world experience using mini-LED display technology can convince me that it is worth spending thousands of dollars on features such as true HDR performance and 10-bit color.
First, I should clarify some of the terms that will be used throughout the comment, because the display terminology is a mess. Broadly speaking, there are currently two types of displays that dominate the modern display market: LCD and OLED. Liquid crystal displays use backlight to transmit liquid crystal (
D) layer, while OLED uses organic (
LED) Compounds that emit light by themselves.
This is where the confusion begins, because all top LCDs use one form of LED backlighting or another, so seeing the word "LED" doesn't mean you are dealing with OLED screens.
LED, mini-LED and QLED are all technologies used with LCD displays-they use backlight-while OLED, AMOLED and microLED are all emissive displays
Need backlight. Finally, TN (twisted nematic), VA (vertical alignment) and IPS (in-plane switching) are all LCD technologies, so even if you have an IPS panel on your monitor, even if there is "LED" in the name, know that you are dealing with LCD .
review:
I won’t cover you in more depth, but you can learn more about the pros and cons of each technology
,
with
.
In this review, we are dealing with a 4K IPS LCD display whose backlight consists of 2,000 independently controlled mini-LEDs, which are called "local dimming zones." When they are not in use, each mini-LED can be turned off individually to provide better contrast, because in fact you should turn off that part of the screen, otherwise it should be black.
Dell UltraSharp UP3221Q mainly competes with three LED-backlit IPS displays in its price range and size category: Apple's $5,000
($6,000 with stand), ASUS $4,500
And EIZO's $5,700
. All of these use LED backlight (mini-LED for Asus), provide a 32-inch screen with at least 4K resolution (6K for Apple), have real 10-bit color, and cover almost 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, and make It is bright enough to actually support HDR.
In the case of Apple, ASUS, and Dell monitors, they all obtained VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification by providing at least 1000 nits of peak brightness, impressive static contrast, and top color accuracy. In other words: these are real HDR monitors, if you want value for money, you can and should use them to edit HDR content.
Dell leads the way in both Apple and ASUS displays because they managed to fit 2,000 mini-LEDs into the backlight, more than any other product on the market at the time of writing. This is better than Pro Display XDR (using 576 regular LEDs) and ProArt displays (using 1,152 micro LEDs), and when you have clear and bright objects to resist, it should provide better dynamic contrast with obvious "blooming" Less dark background.
In addition, unlike Apple or ASUS monitors, Dell has a built-in Calman-powered colorimeter. In this way, regardless of whether the computer is actually connected, you can use a large number of calibration targets to calibrate the display as planned. You can even connect your own colorimeter to the dedicated USB port on the bottom of the monitor, although I should note that my DataColor SpyderX Elite is
Yes, so I still have to use a computer to verify Dell's claims about color accuracy.
At least on paper, Dell has performed very well among its main competitors. Assuming its performance is the same as advertised (spoiler: it does), it looks like it is stealing compared to Apple and EIZO monitors, and it offers many other features, enough to justify the extra $500 above Asus .
It's beautiful, but...big. Any 10-bit IPS LCD with this backlight will become more and more bulky, and Dell is no exception-the laws of physics and heat dissipation will not be ignored.
The edge of the display is about 1.5 inches thick, with vents on both sides, the bottom frame is a bit thick, and the built-in colorimeter is foldable. The rest of the frame is very thin, making the "full screen" look minimalist. The back of the display is covered with thick plastic and has a platinum silver surface. The plastic case saves some weight, but it won't be as strong (or impressive) as the aluminum Apple uses in the Pro Display XDR. Whether this really matters is up to you to decide.
In terms of ports, you have a powerful Thunderbolt 3 connection that can provide 90W power output, two HDMI 2.0 ports, one Display Port 1.4, two USB Type-A 3.1 ports, and one audio output
It supports headsets, and an additional Thunderbolt 3 port with a power limit of 15W. The "creator" monitor of this feature obviously lacks real audio delivery and an SD card slot. This is really disappointing when you consider that my $600 BenQ monitor has both.
Finally, the only input mechanism built into the display is the embedded power button and a single joystick. There is nothing to say here, except that such a joystick is my favorite way to display menu navigation, it is better than multiple dedicated buttons, and
Better than the touch-based "buttons" you find on some displays. I hope everyone can use this system, even if it is more fragile than other systems.
From a technical point of view, UP3221Q actually outperforms its spec sheet. Our measurement shows a full 100% coverage of DCI-P3 color space and 94% coverage of AdobeRGB-Dell only claims 99.8% DCI-P3 And 93% AdobeRGB. We can't test the brightness statement, but when I say that the maximum brightness (with HDR on) is enough to burn the retina, please don't believe me.
Needless to say, from mine
-Admittedly, it is showing its age-like a revelation. In terms of design, resolution, brightness, color reproduction and color accuracy (DCI-P3), this $5,000 monitor makes my $600 old panel look like garbage.
I know... you are rolling your eyes, but if I don't say this explicitly, then someone will say that you can get a monitor with "better" AdobeRGB color accuracy, "10-bit" panel, and "HDR support". $600. What you actually get is a darker LCD, no local dimming, incomplete DCI-P3 coverage, "10-bit processing" (
) And a marketing department, they decided to print HDR on the box even if the monitor can't even approach the real HDR performance.
In actual use, it is absolutely impossible to compare a real HDR display with a 10-bit panel with a cheap "HDR" display with a conventional LED backlight, without DisplayHDR certification, and an 8-bit panel with 10-bit color. . You can immediately see the real difference, which is why all real 10-bit displays cost thousands of dollars.
However, when I turned on HDR on the monitor and computer at the same time, I really used this monitor-Dell supports HDR10 (ST 2084) and Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG).
The problem is that I can't
You act. Screen recordings, external videos, screenshots... unless you actually view them on an HDR monitor, none of them can correctly convey the difference. Suffice it to say that I spent 45 minutes switching back and forth, and I was shocked by the color and dynamic range that the monitor might produce when displaying HDR content.
This is completely different from the ugly "HDR look" that most photographers are familiar with. This is the result of compressing the wide dynamic range into a limited set of values that can be produced by a conventional monitor or printer. In this case, the monitor can actually display the entire range without compressing any content, displaying more details at both ends of the histogram, and the colors from the brightest to the darkest have more gray levels, and produce difficult Return experience.
So, what are the disadvantages? Well, you need to make or use content for HDR. When viewing SDR content in HDR mode (including most of the content you use daily or view on the monitor), it looks like it has been washed out, just like the unprocessed RAW file.
I was also disappointed to find that despite the impressive mini-LED backlight, it still blooms (
) Is still obvious in some cases. The 2,000 individually controlled local dimming zones are many-more than any other LCD on the market-but a 4K display like this has a total of nearly 8.3 million pixels, each of which converts to ~64×64 pixels. If you have a very bright hard-edged object on a black background, when the edge must be reduced from a maximum of 1000 nits to 0 nits, it is not enough to create a sharp enough edge.
The good news is that only when I use special
A video designed to solve the problem to the greatest extent-when watching HDR content in the real world, it will not attract people's attention, because you will rarely see a small white square moving slowly on a perfect black background. The bad news is that it exists, and you can't escape...at least not yet. The limitation of LCD technology is that no one, not even Dell, which has a record-breaking 2K mini-LED backlight, cannot completely overcome this problem. Only OLED can be turned off pixel by pixel, and there are other problems.
The last major feature included in the Dell UP3221Q is calibration driven by Calman, which is the first feature of a monitor of this size. Not verified by Calman, but Calman
, No need to insert an external computer or colorimeter, you can perform professional-level calibration and verification.
In general, I would criticize the built-in colorimeter as a mm head. The reason is simple: according to the backlight, the brightness uniformity of many LCDs makes the built-in colorimeter doubtful. Since all the built-in colorimeters are embedded on the edge of the display, this means that they will calibrate the display at the edge of the screen instead of the center of the screen. For LCD monitors with uneven edge lighting or backlighting, this is a fatal blow, because it is difficult to produce uniform brightness, which may make the part of the screen you actually use cannot be calibrated.
Of course, Dell does not have this problem. Because it uses the latest and largest backlight and the largest number of micro LEDs, each 64×64 pixel screen block is individually illuminated and controlled at a precise level.
I highly recommend that you put your personal colorimeter in its box and rely on the built-in options. But if you
To use your own hard drive, Dell provides a separate USB port for this purpose. If you have a Calman (Calman) driven colorimeter, you do not need an external PC. Simply connect the calibration sensor to the dedicated USB port at the bottom of the monitor, and use the monitor's built-in menu for verification or calibration. It's very simple.
Finally, UP3221Q also has some other functions that I have to admit, most of which I have not used.
A monitor cover is included, but I chose to keep it in the box because my apartment doesn't have much lighting anyway. The included stand is strong and very flexible, but I chose to attach the monitor to the floating arm. Finally, there is a feature called Dell Display Manager that allows you to "tile" multiple applications to certain parts of the screen, but it is redundant to me. Windows 10 has a built-in slicing function, and I used an application called Magnet on the Mac to achieve the same function.
The only miscellaneous feature of Dell that I actually use is called "Picture in Picture": a side-by-side view that allows you to compare two different color spaces while you work. This function is useful if you want to see how the image looks in sRGB when editing in a wider color space (such as DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB). Unfortunately, the feature cannot be used in HDR mode, nor can HDR be compared with non-HDR, but it is a convenient choice because most other "creator" displays only allow you to change the output of the entire screen. Switch color space.
I started this review by asking a question: Is there some combination of features that can justify spending $5,000 on a photo editing monitor?
Now seems to be a good time to review the pros and cons:
Draw your own conclusions, but in my opinion, it is definitely worth it.
The price will definitely limit the audience here-enthusiasts don't need true 10-bit color or DisplayHDR 1000 support. But for professionals who really need these things, at this price, Dell has a product that has more features than any other product. If you are looking for a monitor of this level for studio use, it is a Very attractive choice. At least on paper, it can keep up with or surpass the main competitors of Apple, Asus and EIZO at the same or less price, and 2,000 mini-LED backlights mean its local dimming performance Is the best you can find as of the beginning of this article
Think of it this way: Most professional photographers will not hesitate to spend 5 pounds on a high-end lens, you might see it every minute
Use than your main editor's display. We can’t say long-term reliability and lack some good features, but if you are looking for a sophisticated color-critical editing monitor and want the highest value at the highest price, you will find it hard to find a good reason to ignore excellent products
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