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amazon Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor (UP2720Q) reviews
True to its name, the $1,999 Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor (UP2720Q) is a 27-inch 4K monitor that’s all about color accuracy and picture quality. Unlike most monitors and even most geared towards creative professionals, the UP2720Q has a built-in colorimeter that you can use to measure your monitor’s color accuracy in various color modes and calibrate the display itself. So it integrates seamlessly with Portrait Displays’ CalMAN screen calibration software. You can also schedule regular calibrations from the monitor’s settings to ensure that the monitor maintains excellent color accuracy. This powerful tool, plus conveniences like two Thunderbolt 3 ports, make this UltraSharp model choice among professional monitors. Dell isn’t the first to integrate the calibration tool into a monitor of this type. Eizo has integrated a similar tool into some of its high-end professional monitors. However, with the UP2720Q, Dell made it easier to calibrate for a wider audience. Sure, you’ll pay more than you would for a monitor without this feature, but for many photographers and photo editors, graphic artists, and film editors, its presence can be worth more price.
Built for creators
The 27-inch IPS panel has a 3,840 x 2,160 pixels resolution, a UHD (aka 4K) resolution, and a 16: 9 widescreen ratio. The pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (PPI) is very good, same as ViewSonic VP2785-4K, another monitor for creative professionals, offering the same screen size and resolution as Dell. All else being equal, the higher the pixel density, the sharper the text and other small details in the image will appear.
The panel is housed in a black front and gray rear case. It has a quarter-inch bezel at the top and edges, and at the bottom is a one-inch thick bezel, the bottom third is chamfered and houses the controls and a cavity for the colorimeter to pop in when needed. The UP2720Q also includes a visor attached to block stray light, although it can only be used when the display is in landscape mode.
Impressive Ergonomic Stand
With the stand extended to its full height, the UP2720Q measures 22.2 x 24.1 x 8.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 14 kg. The screen feels solid on a rectangular base, measuring 10.2 x 8.2 inches. The shaft that connects the base to the cabinet has a round hole about 4 inches from the bottom through which you can thread cables.
Dell has a strong ergonomic cue, with a 5.1-inch height adjustment range, a tilt range of 5 degrees down to 21 degrees or more, the ability to pan up to 45 degrees left or right, and rotate 90 degrees from landscape to portrait (and back) in either direction.
All ports are at the back, facing down. This arrangement is common, although often problematic on the screen, but with the UP2720Q, you don’t need to worry about the difficult placement of the ports as you rotate the screen, so the ports are facing you for easy access to them.
These include one DisplayPort 1.4 connector, two HDMI 2.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports (one up, one down), a hub that includes four USB 3 ports, and an audio jack. Thunderbolt 3 connectivity provides up to 40Gbps throughput and supports up to 90 watts of power delivery to charge an attached laptop.
Calibration screen, simplified
The UP2720Q’s OSD display, controlled by six small physical buttons on the slanted edge of the bottom bezel, is very intuitive. When identified as the up, down, right, left, back, and enter keys, the buttons make it easy to navigate through the OSD. You can change the color space, brightness, input source, and a host of other common parameters, and you can also launch or schedule a calibration (at a certain time, daily, weekly, or monthly). That is a great feature for a design or video editing studio that regularly calibrates its monitors without staff intervention or even being present during the process.
Instead, the tools we test brightness, color, and contrast include the Klein K10-A colorimeter, the Murideo SIX-G test pattern generator, and the X-Rite i1Basic Pro color compiler. 2 and Portrait Displays CalMAN 5 software. I used all of them in the UP2720Q test, but I also ran CalMAN’s AutoCAD process using only Dell’s built-in calibration tool, a sensor on a small bar that rotates up from the bottom of the screen to the vertical when activated. Once CalMAN identifies the monitor and meter (in this case, the internal meter), I choose the color space to read and calibrate, set the software to save the results, press a button, and run the process Its AutoCAD.
It took some troubleshooting to get to that point (combined with the quick-start button in CalMAN doesn’t respond when pressed). Several times the meter failed to deploy, or I accidentally checked the box to save the results. (Along with saving the raw data, you can save a PDF report with before and after graphs of grayscale accuracy and screen accuracy in the original defaults.) But when I was over Through these obstacles, the process has become the procedure.
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Let’s compare true colors.
Color accuracy measurement, Delta E, expressed numerically, representing the difference between the displayed color and the input received by the monitor. (The most recent standard is Delta E 2000 or dE2000, which I will refer to as dE from now on.) The dE figure in monitor specifications is the average value of many numbers of individual color readings across the spectrum; The lower the value, the more accurate the color. Many professional monitors tout dE below 2; special plates produce numbers less than 1.5.
Before calibration, the dE values using the Dell colorimeter were 0.8, 2.3, and 2.4 for sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3, respectively. Below is the pre-calibration report for sRGB.
After running the calibration procedure in CalMAN for each of those color spaces, they convert to 0.5, 0.4, and 0.6 values. Below is the report after the sRGB calibration.
I also tested the post-calibration dE using a combination of a Klein meter, X-Rite compiler, Murideo signal generator, and CalMAN’s ColorChecker. I measured dE for sRGB at 1.27, Adobe RGB at 0.98, and DCI-P3 at 1.31. While they’re not quite the lowest as measured by CalMAN with a Dell colorimeter, they’re still great numbers.
Both Dell’s calibration and our normal routine with Klein, Murideo, and X-Rite produce gamut reports in CalMAN. Below is our standard report, sRGB in this case, measured after calibration with the Klein combiner. The color gamut coverage of 98.3 percent is close to the 99 percent shown in the gamut histogram of the post-calibration report. Our test results also yield 97.9% Adobe RGB and 92.6% DCI-P3 coverage.
Brightness and contrast ratios are rated at 250 nits (candelas per meter squared) and 1,300:1, respectively. Brightness (which the UP2720Q achieves or reaches within 10 nits in all three color spaces tested) is low for a professional monitor; The ViewSonic VP2785-4K is rated at 350 nits. The UP2720Q doesn’t come close to its rated contrast ratio, at best recording only at 840:1 in Adobe RGB mode.
In addition to our quantitative and color quality testing, I did some special testing on photos, videos, and other content. When viewing and editing photos from our usual selection, colors appear realistic, with good contrast and dynamic range. When viewing samples from our test video clips, colors looked rich, and some of the artifacts I’d normally see when testing other monitors were barely visible.
Outstanding color quality
Very few monitors have a built-in colorimeter, and the Dell UP2720Q is the first such panel we’ve tested, but this 27-inch 4K professional panel makes a good case for itself even when without it. Its main downside is the price, and you’ll still have to buy CalMAN Ready for Dell or the more comprehensive CalMAN version if you don’t already have one.
If you have your colorimeter and software, you can buy a cheaper monitor like the ViewSonic VP2785-4K and calibrate it yourself. But the UP2720Q embodies simplicity. The calibration process is not only automatic and easy to master, but through the display’s OSD, you can schedule automatic calibrations at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. Because of this convenience, the UP2720Q is well worth the premium you pay for it and becomes the latest professional monitor.