Dell UltraSharp U3011 30″ Monitor
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- IPS (in-plane switching) technology for minimal color deviation across a wide viewing angle
- 30″ (76cm) display with 2560×1600 resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio for clear images and exceptional multitasking
- Easy, versatile adjustability and some of the latest connectivity options, including HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-D, USB ports and a 7-in-1 media card reader
Dell UltraSharp U3011 30-inch Widescreen Monitor with PremierColor – Max Resolution 2560 x 1600- 16:10 Aspect Ratio – Contrast Ratio 1000:1 – Response Time 7 ms – Supports Digital DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, Composite Video – Built-in Scaler for Multiple Resolutions Product Description From the Manufacturer Dell UltraSharp U3011 30″ Monitor
Dell Monitor
Dell UltraSharp U3011 30″ Monitor
List Price: $ 1,299.99
Price:
Works great with Macbook Pro,
Looked at many monitors with reasonable color gamut in the 27-30 inch size which would be compatible with my late 2008 15 inch Macbook Pro (5,1). Main uses are photography, web design and general office productivity (office, writing papers, electronic medical records). I looked at the NEC 3090 series and the NEC and Dell 27 inch monitors as well. I have experience with the Barco and Eizo monitors at work in the radiology department (where the is also the occasional Dell). Here are the things that eventually sold me on this monitor.
1. Comes with displayport. This is huge on a Mac. It was simple to use a mini-displayport to displayport cable (about $15) to get the monitor working with my Macbook Pro. Full resolution off the bat with no sleep/wake issues, no software to install. There are some serious issues using DVI-D with the 2560×1600 screen resolutions on both the portable and desktop macs. Not the fault of the monitors, but the fault of Apple and their implementation of video cards. You could spend hours online reading about the problems with cables and adapters. Nobody seems to be able to get them to work reliably. Check the NEC site for the latest as they have posted technical bulletins on this issue and things may have changed. Price of the monitor was not an issue for me, but the potential time trouble shooting problems was. I hate computer maintenance and trouble shooting (which is why I’m on a Mac and wish I could ditch all the PC’s in the office).
2. Good color gamut, comes reasonably well calibrated, easy to calibrate further with an x-Rite eye-one display 2. That IPS technology is heads and shoulders above TN screens for any serious photography work goes without saying. Covers a good part of the Adobe RGB spectrum (and all of the S-RGB spectrum). As of early 2011, the mac OS is not capable of 12 bit color from end-to-end (OS, software, hardware, output) and therefore to a certain extent, you can’t use all the capabilities of the hardware calibration of the NEC Spectraview system at this point in time. People get pretty obsessed about this kind of stuff, but the bottom line is that most pictures are seen on computer screens which have never been calibrated and will not be as good as this Dell (or the NEC) nor can you control the lighting conditions under which someone will view one of your prints. Aside from the most demanding color-accurate uses (you’re making commercials for coke, printing fine art for sale), this monitor will get you 99% of the way to where you need to be. No one will ever notice the last 1% (unless they’re a geek on a photog forum with lots of spare time). If you really need the best in color management and have the hardware that can take advantage of this, go with the NEC, Eizo or other high end screen.
3. Lots of connection options. USB, speakers, HDMI/DVI-D (I don’t use), etc. Some might consider it sacrilege to have these sorts of connections on a professional monitor. I consider it convenient. Less cable clutter.
4. Price. Not cheap, but it is about $1000 less than the NEC which uses the same panel, but different hardware (in fact all the high end 30 inch IPS panels come from the same manufacturer). Usually can be found for between $1150-1300.
5. Screen is NOT too big. I sit with my face about 2-3 feet from the screen. No neck problems so far. I do like the added screen hight that 1600 pixels gives you. Works well with the traditional 3:2 slr format. Also, by the time you add the menu bar and some of the control panels in Lightroom or Photoshop, you tend to loose a lot of working space on the widescreen (16:9) type monitors. I didn’t like the feeling that I was working on a panorama the whole time. I worried that I would need to sit miles back, but this is not the case. No real drop off in brightness and the viewing angle is very good.
This is a much better choice if you were considering an Apple 27 inch display – Apple has a much, much inferior color gamut, reflective screen which can be an issue in bright rooms, similar price and lack of other connection options make the Apple somewhat limited. The Dell really was plug and play for me.
Hope this review helps and saves you some time (esp. if you have a Macbook Pro). Hard to go wrong with the Dell or NEC.
PS – No difficulties with Mid-2008 13 inch Macbook Pro. Somewhat of a surprise because of the integrated graphics, but no glitches. Full resolution w/ the minidisplayport to displayport adapter.
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Nearly perfect monitor…,
An excellent monitor. The colors are perfect, the resolution is the highest you can buy currently at the 30 inch size (I certainly wish someone would break through the 2560×1600 resolution barrier at this size). The monitor is much lighter and produces very little heat in comparison to the Apple 30 inch LCD I’ve had for about 5 years. The image quality is only a small improvement over the now very old Apple 30 inch. So it isn’t a worthwhile upgrade if you already have the Apple monitor. About the only thing I can think of that could be improved (without changing the basic specs of the device) is the startup time, which is about 15 seconds. The monitor is calibrated before shipping and a calibration report is delivered with the monitor. One small complaint is that the monitor’s bezel is rather lightweight plastic and the look of the monitor aside from the actual panel isn’t that impressive. I haven’t tried the built in scaler so far, so I can’t comment on that, but testing labs have said it is quite nice. Also, my nVidia GTX 470 has no displayport, so I haven’t tested that either. The refresh rate isn’t blazing fast, but so far it has handled gaming as well or better than any other monitor I’ve used (but I haven’t tested the gaming specific panels). The blacks are about as good as they could be and the very fine matte surface is a good balance of sharpness while suppressing annoying reflections. I have a window behind me which can lead to unpleasant reflections in the early afternoon, but this monitor handles those about as well as I think is possible. I guess the biggest negative is the price. This monitor costs as much now as I paid for my one-of-a-kind Apple when it was first released. This is now 5 to 6 years later and every other size of monitor available (including some very good 27 inchers) have dropped off a cliff, but not this monitor. It should be priced maybe 30 % less than it is at current.
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expensive but worth it,
Out of stock here? I bought mine direct from Dell, 3 year exchange warranty and the same price with seasonal discount, delivered free within a week.
I’ll let others go on about the technical details, but I’ve never been happier with a monitor. When shopping, I had trouble figuring out why this one was more than the HP version. They sell the same screen with inferior electronics (which won’t scale images, don’t have RGB and VGA inputs, etc) for a slightly lower price. Without monitor scaling, as this one DOES have, you may not be able to see the computer’s boot sequence without a separate monitor. Check out the array of inputs and you’ll understand the price difference. It comes with a dual-link DVI cable that worked using my existing EVGA/NVidia 9500GT video card. Vista automagically went to full res when I plugged it in. For watching movies in another room, I bought a 50′ VGA extension cable ($29 at Frys), which is plugged into the video card’s other output. Same screen, different input port, still more pixels than HD using VGA and a 50′ cable! It’s light enough to carry easily from room to room. The tilt/swivel/elevate stand feels a bit bouncy but it doesn’t tip over.
By the way.. It’s BIG! I went from a 21″ CRT running 1600×1280 to this one with twice the pixels and more than twice the viewable area. High res on that old monitor was sometimes a problem because fixed-pixel icons could be too small, but this ratio of size to resolution seems “right”. That old monitor was state of the art Sony Trinitron unix workstation stuff when it was new. This monitor’s colors are far more vivid, blacks are far more black, everything as you would expect. Except maybe the viewing angle: when I stand up there’s a pretty bad change in image and I can notice the difference across the screen when I line my head up with one edge and look over toward the other edge from 2′ away. I think the brightness is great, others think it’s too much. I suppose it depends if you sit next to a large sliding glass door like I do!
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