Dell UP2718Q 27” 4K HDR Monitor Is Impressive with a Price to Match

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My current home computing setup includes a 13” MacBook Pro connected to two 27” monitors. They look great and get the job done. But there is little that compares to the Dell UP2718Q 27” 4K HDR Monitor. With amazing resolution and remarkable color accuracy, it is a monitor built for professionals. It’s truly impressive with a price to match.

The Dell UP2718Q is designed for professionals. That’s clear from the marketing approach the company takes:

Create your masterpiece: Design and edit your best work yet with incredible visuals on Dell’s first 27″ 4K HDR monitor that meets HDR10 standards. View lifelike colors, exceptional clarity and striking details. Plus, with Dell PremierColor, your visuals are enhanced with superior color performance.

The positioning of this as a professional’s monitor is also clear from the $2000 MSRP. That’s right; this monitor has a two thousand dollar price tag. (Although it is currently “just” $1500 on Dell’s site.)

Before going further into the monitor, let me get this out of the way. The monitor may have bleeding edge technology but, to be honest, it looks like a throwback to monitors from the days of old. I don’t mean the days of old as in the huge CRT monitors many of us used to have, but I do mean the first flat panel monitors.

From the boxy rectangular base…

…to the substantial plastic bezel, its design lacks any aesthetic interest. The word that comes to mind is… “boring.”

This simple throwback design belies the monitor’s tech prowess. It has a full battery of connectivity options that include two HDMI ports, a DP connector, an mDP connector, an audio line out connection, USB up and downstream ports, and a USB 3.0 downstream port with charging capabilities. There is also an AC port connection and a stand lock slot.

Inside the box, you find the Dell UP2718Q monitor, a power cable, a USB 3.0 cable, a DP-mDP cable and an HDMI cable.

At this point, this sounds like pretty much any and every monitor that is currently available. It’s when you turn the monitor on that the monitor comes to life. After all, while Full HD monitors are more than enough for most of us, this monitor delivers four times the resolution. The 3840 by 2160 Ultra HD 4K resolution and HDR will surprise and delight you.

That, however, is just the beginning. I’ll let Dell’s marketing rattle of why this is, “The video editor’s choice.”

  • Visuals that inspire: Realism like never before: An incredible peak brightness of 1,000 nits (at least three times brighter than today’s standard SDR displays) means you’ll see the deepest blacks and brightest whites for impressive, true-to-life visuals.
  • Details even in the dark: Whether you are working in the shadows or the light, you’ll still see small details that would otherwise be lost without a high contrast ratio of 20,000:1 and 384 local dimming zones.
  • A broad, brilliant spectrum: Dell PremierColor offers wide color coverage that meets major industry standards—100% AdobeRGB, 100% sRGB, 100% Rec. 709, 97.7% DCI-P3 and 76.9% Rec. 2020—for immaculate, unwavering colors.
  • Extraordinary color depth: Enjoy a tremendous level of detail that only the depth of 1.07 billion colors (that’s 64 times more color depth than standard monitors) can provide. Even in dark areas, you’ll see better color gradation and precision in more shades.
  • Fine-tune with precision: Customize color parameters to your preference using the Custom Color mode, the SDKi or the optional X-rite Display Pro colorimeter.
  • Accurate color, out of the box: Your monitor is calibrated on AdobeRGB and sRGB. An included factory calibration report gives you the confidence that colors will be impressively accurate right from the start.

All this combines with the connectivity options to give you a monitor that’s ready for business.

The Dell UP2718Q also offers some additional functionality that can help with your work.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.