Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34-Inch QHD Ultra Wide 1440p Curved LED-Lit Monitor

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2015

I had not been able to find this monitor in the local stores so I was hesitant to buy it. In addition, the reviews about backlight bleed were scary. However, I decided to pull the trigger and all I can say is I am extremely satisfied with the purchase. I had two 1920x1080 monitors side by side and wasn't sure if having a single monitor would make things better or worse. From the moment I first used the ultrawide, it felt much better than having two monitors and freed up some space on my desk. I usually have at least 5-10 windows open and with the dual monitor setup for my main apps I would have something like a PDF or web page (for technical reference) open on one monitor and an IDE on the other with a web page for testing with a bunch of console windows and other apps open behind those. However, having both the IDE and web page on the same monitor had me clicking back and forth between the two because it wasn't big enough to have both up at the same time comfortably. With the ultrawide, it is taller and wider (in terms of pixels) so I can have technical reference on the left, IDE in the middle, and test web page on the right hand side all at the same time without any physical breaks like you get with a dual monitor setup. Since it's taller, I can have console windows open as well at the bottom or top without being hidden behind other windows. Also, since the monitor is all one piece, there is less physical distance edge to edge so I do not have to turn my head or sometimes whole body to stare at one monitor or the other. I can sit straightforward and only need to move my head very slightly with mainly my eyes doing the moving. In terms of fatigue, this helped much more than I thought it would. The display is crisp and easy to read with great color. The pixel density isn't as good as a Macbook Pro retina display so it doesn't look quite as smooth, but it looks pretty darn good. Much better than the two Samsung LED monitors that this replaced. I also switch between a couple different laptops a lot and do not like typing on the laptop keyboards at my desk. So the other great thing about this monitor is the built in USB hub that allows you to use a single keyboard and mouse for both. Whichever input you're viewing, the USB devices will be directed to. The only thing that I wish the monitor had is a quicker way to change the screen, kind of like a previous channel button on a remote, so that I don't have to scroll through the options in the menu to select the desired input. If you do happen to watch movies on this monitor, they are great. Not having any black borders and the picture taking up the entire screen is breathtaking. My wife saw a movie on it and wishes we had a curved TV with 21:9 aspect ratio. Backlight bleed in the four corners isn't as bad as the pictures I've seen, but when watching movies with dark scenes or putting a completely dark background up, it is definitely there, but I wouldn't say it is a reason to not buy the monitor unless it's crucial for what you do that it is pure black in the corners. I use it mainly for work as an IT consultant and developer and do not notice the backlight bleed whatsoever during my day to day use. I have one VM with a completely black background and don't see the backlight bleed in the corners unless I look for it and it's really dark in the room. One last thing, it comes with most of the cables you'd need. I bought a separate DisplayPort to DisplayPort and miniDisplayPort to DisplayPort cable, both of which I didn't need because the monitor came with them already. It also comes with one USB cable for the uplink from one computer, so you'd need to buy a second if you want to use the same USB components through both computers. Also, when the monitor is off, the USB hub is off, so you have to turn the monitor on if you want to use the USB devices to wake up your computers. Not a big deal, but something that I sometimes forget to do.

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mde8965

Awesome monitor and a bargain

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2017

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

Reading the reviews on Amazon and other places with regards to this, and other IPS panel monitors really gets you nervous. Its like a crap shoot as to whether you will get one with horrible backlight bleed or other issues. I wanted a large, ultrawide 1440p monitor for both business and gaming, but did not want to shell out $1,200 clams for a 1440p, 144Hz G-Sync IPS panel. So For a little over $600, and based on most of the reviews, this one looked like a good compromise.

Love the way everything is packaged in the Dell box, well laid out and the screen is well protected. All the cables you could need are included (albeit a bit short). Loved the way the screen was so easy to attach to the base with no tools. Fired this baby up using a Display port to Display port cable (not the one that came in the box) and...nothing. Please note that DSP 1.2 is disabled by default in this monitor. So if your computer's GPU has DSP 1.2, you need to enable that in the monitor's on screen menus. I found that out after I switched to the Dell supplied Display port to miniDisplay port cable (which works out of the box). One minor complaint is that you have to stand on your head and have real good eyesight to get the cables all connected to the back of the monitor. But to be fair, all monitors these days seem to be like this.

Anyway, either I got lucky, or this is a very very nice monitor. I do use this monitor is a fairly well lit room. But I noticed virtually NO backlight bleed on my monitor. I turned the lights down and started playing the movie, Alien, which has a lot of dark scenes, and barely, and I mean barely, could see slight light from the corners. Not enough at all to be distracting. And I will never notice it in my normal usage (which is not watching movies in the dark on a computer screen. I put up several solid color screens (from white all the way to red and navy blue) to check for evenness, and noticed no banding, blotchiness or other faults. No stuck pixels. The color calibration out of the box looks superb. The monitor comes pre-calibrated. I initially turned down the brightness a slight bit, but made no further adjustments. One issue I did have with the Dell Display software is figuring out how to add pre-sets for software. The dell comes with pre-sets (standard, multi-media, movie, game, and so forth with different brightness, contrast, etc.) for popular software based on type of application. It says to add a software program to the list to drag the application to the list. I don't know if I am dense, but I could not get that to work at all. Minor annoyance, not worth knocking down the rating.

Anyway, I love this monitor so much. The colors are so rich with the ISP panel and the images are so sharp (1440p). Text even without zooming is small but very clear. It is so great to be able to open up three browser tabs and line them all up side by side, or have three business applications or windows open at once and be able to read them all very clearly. Like I said earlier, movies pop and there is a depth to them that I never have seen on my 1080p plasma TV. Gaming, especially using 3440x1440 is so awesome. I play a golf game regularly on steam. I was completely awestruck playing this game using the ultra wide screen. Note not all games support this 3440x1440 resolution, but newer games likely will. for super competitive FPS gamers, especially depending on your graphics card, you may be limited by the monitor's 60Hz refresh rate or the 5mps response time and the fact that there is no G-Sync/FreeSync. While there are some folks online claiming you can overclock this monitor to 80Hz, don't bother. While it will display at 80Hz, you will get dropped frames. This monitor was intended for 60Hz maximum refresh rate. But at $600-$700, only the most hardcore gamers will be disappointed. For the other 90% of gamers, 60Hz is plenty as long as you have a decent GPU. I am not a competitive online FPS gamer, so I am perfectly happy. And with a 5mps refresh rate, I certainly cannot detect any lag using my PS4 controller connected to the PC via Bluetooth.

The curve is something that I was leery of, but now that I have it, there is no way I want to use flat screens any more. Heck there is no way that I want to use any monitor that is not an ultra-wide any more.

In closing, I would say that if you have a decent computer CPU/GPU, and are not a super hardcore FPS gamer, and just want a stunning, immersive display for business, normal gaming, and even for movie watching, for $600-$700 you will feel like you made a smart buy, and saved $300-$600 over those "bleeding edge" ultrawides at the same time.

So for business apps, A+, movies, A+, games B+

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T. Gaydos

Outstandingly accurate and clear ultra widescreen monitor

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

This review is for the 34-inch curved model. This monitor is absolutely bonkers. I was in the market for a new monitor after my trusty 1920 x 1200 Samsung finally bit the dust after many years of service. I had been using the Samsung side-by-side with the screen on my Macbook Air.

THE CONTENDERS
Initially, I was considering the Apple Cinema display or one of the bevy of 4k monitors on the market. The 4k resolution is great, but text and icons are too small and would become an issue to the point where I'd need to scale them. The cinema display used to be the gold standard, but didn't seem any clearer than the modern iterations from Dell or LG, especially given the unnecessary price premium. I decided on the ultra-wide format after seeing one in action at one of my client's offices by a graphic developer working on a multi-channel campaign design. One monitor effectively replaced two and, other than some color uniformity issues (it was a Samsung VA-panel display), it was a stunning monitor with a very useful form factor.

NARROWING THE FIELD
Comparing the major contenders was first a matter of panel tech, VA (higher contrast, blacker blacks, motion blur, color uniformity issues) and IPS (better color uniformity, less motion blur, lower contrast ratio). I personally prefer IPS on something this wide because of the color uniformity and the fact that some of my job involves design work. I then zeroed in on this Dell and offerings from Acer and LG. All were curved IPS panels. The Dell ended up winning due to having less "IPS glow" than the LG and, not needing the gaming features (adaptive sync) that inflates the Acer's price, the Dell won my shootout.

IMPRESSIONS
The Dell Ultrawide is gorgeous. The glass covers all but the very edge of the bezel to the point that, when off, it looks like there is no bezel, just glass. When on, you can see the bezel, but it is very thin. The curve is not as pronounced as the Samsung or Acer models, which may help with the color uniformity. You want a curve help with visibility, but if the curve is evident when you're sitting in front of it, it's probably too pronounced and may affect aspect ratio and color uniformity. The stand is useful in that it adjusts up and down, side to side, and tilts. I do wish it rose about 4-inches; higher, but I'm nit picking with that comment.

Connectivity is ridiculous, with more options than I've ever seen on a monitor. You can read about all of the ports in the specs, but know that I connected a 2013 Macbook Air via MiniDisplayPort to MiniDisplayPort and it didn't work at all. When I connected the MDP to the full Displayport via the included cable, it worked perfectly. The Macbook Air has no problems pushing this resolution.

The display has replaced the need for dual monitors. I often have two applications open side-by-side along with a music playlist, twitter feed, etc. comfortably running alongside. The color accuracy out of the box without any tuning is astounding. I've calibrated it twice and it actually got LESS accurate. Resetting to factory tuning is like 99.8% accurate, I've never seen anything like it. Also, a benefit to the curved screen that I didn't fully consider...no glare.

CONCLUSION
So far I've ben using this monitor for a few weeks and I'm blown away. I use it about 6-9 hours per day in my home office (I'm a consultant) and it is without a doubt the best monitor I have ever used. Highly recommended.

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Nic G.

The Dell U3415W is one of the most amazing, and feature packed monitors I have ever seen

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2016

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

When first getting into PC gaming one of the last things I considered was a monitor, why would I? I already have a couple 1080p 60hz 24" monitors sitting around, right?

Then I ordered a monitor that cost more than my TV. The Dell U3415W is one of the most amazing, and feature packed monitors I have ever seen. when Amazon said my order had shipped, it said the weight of the box was 45 pounds. FORTY FIVE, I thought there could be no way. When it arrived and the box took up my whole kitchen table I knew right then and there I had made a fantastic decision. The box is clean and simple yet very very efficient at protecting the behemoth inside. when opening the box there are special instructions on how to remove the panel from the box safely. You have to take the base arm out of the box and latch it in to the back of the panel and then lift it out, which struck me as strange, but meh. Watching online reviews set the bar quite high for me in regards to this monitor and it managed to surpass it by a mile. The monitor comes with a mini displayport as well as an HDMI, it takes a traditional power cable for any computer or monitor, which is a nice perk. the base is really a high point in my opinion as it has up down, tilt up and down, and can rotate I believe up to 30-45 degrees in either direction.

Onto the picture and monitor itself. The monitor has some of the most crisp imagery I've ever seen, before owning this the closest I've seen to 2/4k content was the sub par 1080p streams they run at best buy on 4k tv's, so you can imagine my surprise when viewing a video in 1440p for the first time. I was blown away and can never look back. This monitor is known to be feature packed and Dell certainly didn't skimp there. It has 2 USB 3 upstream as well as I believe 2 USB outputs as well essentially giving you a USB 3.0 hub perfect for a webcam on top of the monitor or even a phone cable to charge a device while using your computer. The curve is also a first for me. It is extremely subtle, but also extremely noticeable in the immersion factor it grants you. The internal software that the monitor comes with is extremely easy to navigate as well as customizable in that you can set 'hot keys' to switch between sources as well as even being able to do multiple forms of screen splitting including PIP, split while maintaining aspect ratio, or taking advantage of the full screen real estate which often distorts images unless for some reason you're running two 4:3 sources into this beast, which well, if that's you... yay for you! Many people have tried to analyze and improve the display quality through adjusting settings on the monitor, and if you're not a tinkerer or a display savvy, this is the monitor for you simply due to the fact that no one has been able to optimize it better than Dell has it from the factory.

All in all this has been one of the best panels I have ever owned and will happily update in the future if I run across any issues.

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Vaughn

Wonderful monitor with one caveat.

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

I've been torn between the Dell u3415w and the Samsung S34E790C. The LG was automatically off the table because I have never liked an LG product and the dell is fundamentally the same screen for much less capital. Researching reviews for over a week I finally settled on the Dell. The Samsung reviews were too much of a mixed bag with a negative bias. Being unable to compare the Dell and Samsung side by side I am unable to comment further on the Samsung. Ultimately I went with the Dell based on my UltraSharp purchase history and the stellar monitor warranty. I use almost exclusively Dell with the occasional Acer or ASUS.

My screen arrived, very well packaged, no damage, no dead pixels (as I've come to expect from the UltraSharp series of monitors). I'm not going to repeat praise from the "Digital Trends" or "PC Mag" reviews, they are spot on. The monitor is gorgeous, blah blah blah. It is truly amazing EXCEPT The backlight bleed is cripplingly noticeable. I cannot stress this enough, you WILL notice the bleed and it's up to each individual on what they will find acceptable.

(My scale: unnoticeable - minor - moderate(acceptable to me) - significant - unacceptable)

From my normal viewing distance of 50-80cm.
Unacceptable yellow bleed in the bottom left. (This is the corner I have difficulty living with.)
Moderate/Significant yellow in the top left. (More noticeable if you focus on the corner)
Minor white in the top right. (Barely noticeable what I would consider normal for a monitor)
Moderate white in the bottom right. Typical (Noticeable also what I would consider normal for a monitor)

1. I never have nor will I ever watch movies in the dark on this screen. If movie watching was my main purchase point I would return this monitor because of the bleed, It is glaringly noticeable with dark images, while sitting in the dark.

2. While working I am primarily using the center of the screen with peripherals on the sides of the screen, the bleed doesn't affect me as much as having a bezel interrupt my workspace as with a dual monitor setup. Having a well lit work space reduces the obviousness of the bleed.

3. While gaming I am either using a windowed mode in the center of the screen or if the game supports the resolution I am focused on the center of the screen. I can live with the bleed during a cut scene or loading screen.

In summary I can live with the bleed because it is better than having a bezel interrupt my screen space. The available screen real estate is just wonderful. The text and images are crisp and clean. The price was just right for me at slightly over 900, If I paid a cent over 1000 I would have sent it back and waited for the rumored Acer XR341CK. If you can afford it, get it. This one isn't worth breaking the bank over.

8 people found this helpful

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Dan

As good as people say, revolutionizes the desktop computing (and gaming) experience

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2016

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

I saw a lot of gushing reviews and some negative experiences for the 3415 34" Dell monitor. Well now that I have it I have to say fortunately the people describing how amazing it is weren't wrong. It is indeed bigger than you probably imagine it will be, and it's also absolutely stunning in terms of design. The curve is very noticeable and functional as it provides a remarkably even image that subtly surrounds your field of view. It fits perfectly on my desk between my speakers which I doubt I could've done with two separate monitors.

Upon turning it on it blows me away with it's broad expanse of vision. It's like the computer equivalent between viewing the world through binoculars (typical monitor) and taking a step back and seeing in full panoramic field of view. It really changes the experience. Also I have to say that I have not yet noticed significant backlight bleeding, which is something almost all IPS monitors have and I'm usually sensitive to. I have the A02 revision built in October of last year. I might look closer for it and update the review if I find anything worth mentioning in that regard.

In terms of amenities, the stand is pretty solid (and attractive rather than garish) and has a very wide range of swivel. It also surprised me with how much the height can be adjusted; it can be placed very low to the desk and very high, with smooth adjustment in between. This allows for perfect angle of viewing without craning the neck. Finally, it has touch-button controls, attractive power light, and more connections than I need (I used mini DP). I did not test the speakers because I use external ones.

It feels like a massive upgrade from the typical 16:9 BenQ 24" monitor I was using for years. It was a great monitor and actually had higher contrast ratio (VA panel), but the colors and clarity of the Dell blows it away.. not to mention a perfect resolution. 4K resolution is too high for most monitors in that it makes text difficult to read and tends to be overkill, while requiring the highest-end GPUs to run smoothly. 21:9 1440p is great on my 970 GTX, though graphics in modern games have to be paired back a little bit for a smooth framerate, so a GPU upgrade will be necessary in the future. One major thing to note with this monitor is that it can be easily overclocked to 75hz for smoother movement vs. factory 60hz; from what I heard this is not possible on the (more expensive) LG and some other brands of this panel.

4 people found this helpful

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GumbyR1

Glad I bought it, here is why

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

I had a few questions before I bought this monitor so I will try and pass along what I found out. First I will tell you that I am glad I made the purchase. I went from a Samsung SyncMaster T260 (26" 16:9 screen) to this Dell 34" 21:9. My old monitor was excellent and is still a good work horse. Everyone uses their monitor for different things. I am one of those people that uses it for all things. I use it for work. I look at paperwork in PDF format and excel sheets, I edit photos and videos, I play games, I surf the web, etc. Your screen is your eyeball to the world when you spend any length of time in front of a computer. The first question I had was "would my old video card that did not put out a resolution of 3440 x 1440 work with this monitor?" I was running a Radeon HD 6990 series card. I ordered a new card that arrived after the monitor. So running this (reviewed) monitor off the older card that had a max res of 2560x1600 was no problem. All of the features on the monitor showed flawless and it looked great. The difference with the new card (GTX 970) is really only noticeable in game play and not in every day use. So if you have an older card with a display port video out, you should be able to run this monitor in the ultra widescreen format at your cards max res. Windows will adjust for the 21:9 widescreen. The Dell Monitor software is awesome. You can read about these monitors having little joysticks or buttons for menus but beyond initial setup for your preference of brightness or any color adjustments (all of which I made zero changes out of the box), you can change screen formats with the click of a mouse. (see attached photo) there is a menu for the monitor in the system tray that allows you to chose the layout that you can "snap" programs or browsers in to any number or layout of windows. If you click full screen on the program or browser it will go full screen. Otherwise you can snap it into whatever format you prefer. I have added a photo of 3 web browsers side by side. It is great to compare or multi task. Also, the height and swivel adjustments are the best out of any of it's competitors. You can easily raise, tilt, turn, the monitor with two fingers. Excellent adjustability.

The last thing I will address is light bleeding. This seems to be an issue for some reviewers. I edit photos and video, watch movies, and I am picky. None of this has been a problem for me. If the computer is in shutdown a can see very minimal light bleed in the upper corners. I don't see it at all any other time. If this is the one thing holding you back, don't let it. It is so minimal and this monitor is the best in class.

18 people found this helpful

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David

horrible hud buttons and terrible refresh rate

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2020

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

I have multiple machines and I switch between monitor inputs multiple times per day.

The buttons for interacting with the hud are awful. Terrible. They make me want to use a hammer to activate them.

there is no physical feedback at all when they are pressed, they are stupid touch buttons. You can turn on an audio feedback... of sorts.

Here is the procedure for choosing an input in the morning.

Hit any button on the row of buttons except power - it doesn't matter it won't work. wait about 5 to 10 seconds for the monitor to wake up, hit the button a few more times till it makes a beep, wait 2 seconds hit the right button this time - it will finally open.... basically you have to just poke at the buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds till they open.

Now what's my major gripe here? NO PHYSICAL FEEDBACK. if i press a button i expect an INSTANT indicator that it was indeed activated.

Additionally, if you shut down your laptop the monitor INSTANTLY enters sleep mode. then it takes nearly 10 or 20 seconds to cycle fully before you can activate the source menu.

someone might ask: Why don't I do this while the laptop is still on?
Elementary, Watson! That makes my computer remember a different monitor layout and puts my windows on the wrong screen and then shuts down the laptop with all my windows saved in the wrong place.

not to mention the additional time it takes to re-adjust my monitors on their vesa mounts after manhandling these useless touch controls every time i need to switch an input.

15-20 mins out of my day roughly as i switch back and forth at least a few times. All because of these crappy touch controls. Seriously please cheap out and put physical buttons next time. less is more. For real. Check out how asus does it. simple, physical, clickable buttons that don't require you to manhandle your monitor and move it all around on the vesa mount cuz you have no clue how much force it actually takes to activate the passive touch sensor.

Dell your panels are some of the best but you have a lot to learn about what makes a GOOD monitor.

If you have the money for this monitor, then you have the money for a better one. Any other one.

2 years later review: i cannot describe the burning hatred i have for these buttons. I cannot wait for this thing to break so i can smash it.

3 years now. I still hate the buttons. Dell your monitor sucks. I daily curse the engineer who designed this. I will post the picture here when i finally smash it when it fails. Its starting to have glitches with the back light.

another year has gone by. i still hate it. I hate it so much i'm going to come back and write some more. It hurts my eyes and I just noticed that it has a 29.99 refresh rate. that's why my eyes hurt so bad. I always guess i just assumed that a DELL with IPS would have a great refresh rate. My doctor says i need to get rid of this piece of trash.

Finally, i can buy anything else. You should too.

One person found this helpful

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JWINK

Cumbersome menus with some features quirky and easier to use than others but beautiful high resolution screen

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2016

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

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This review is for the 34-inch monitor.

Included with the monitor is the stand, an HDMI cable, cable cover, power cord, a DP cable (mini DP to DP), USB 3.0 upstream cable, CD with drivers, and a quick setup guide. There are no detailed printed instructions as you either have to refer online or look at the guide on the CD. I also think the power cord is a little short and do wish that it is a bit longer than it is.

My work recently upgraded our laptops to a smaller lightweight 13-inch model which is great for travel and fine for use at the office in a docking station but since I do a lot with spreadsheets, various documents and power point presentations, the small screen is an annoyance for working on at my home office. Since I have both a work laptop and a personal one, instead of getting a second monitor for a dual monitor setup, I decided to go (bought direct from Amazon) for this larger 34-inch model that has picture in picture capability along with the ability to switch between different input sources. So in my case, my setup is using two laptops on the monitor in both PIP mode and separately as a single source.

The monitor is easy to connect to the stand but the quick setup instructions and the instructions on the CD could be better written and in some instances not particularly clear especially when it comes to a dual PC setup and setting up a USB keyboard and mouse to be used on both computers.

The monitor has plenty of inputs, especially with the USB ports but unfortunately, the monitor only has one HDMI port making the dual computer setup a bit more complicated than it needs to be. In this case, my new work PC has a DP mini-port and so I used that connection for that. My personal laptop did not have mini-port as an option and so I used the HDMI port for that one. Both laptops are running windows 10. The monitor was recognized by the computers right away without using the included drivers but I installed the drivers and the Dell configuration software anyways, just in case it had any specific setup features that I would need for my setup. I really couldn’t tell any difference though with the windows drivers and the dell ones.

The initial setup of the video ports is a bit quirky, especially with the mini-port. Sometimes during the initial setup, the screen would go blank and I would have to restart the computer and play around with the settings on the monitor and in the windows display to get it going again.

The monitor has four touch buttons at the bottom of the screen to access the menus along with the power button. The buttons don’t light up until you touch them which makes them a bit harder to see which button to push and use than they should be. The button function display on the monitor screen itself and change depending on what menu you are in. The setup menus are ok in terms of how they are arranged but I do think that there is some clutter and awkwardness in how some of the functions are accessed.

For example, the way you have to switch between video sources such as when I want to switch between my two laptops takes several button pushes instead of just one and unfortunately the monitor doesn’t automatically switch video sources when a device (such as my laptop) it turned on. A monitor in this price range should have an auto detect feature.

The picture in picture setup is also a bit of a pain to deal with switching that feature on and off. To access that feature also takes several button pushes and wading through the menus to turn on and off. I also had some initial issues at getting that feature to work properly especially when dealing with the mini-dp source as I kept losing the video signal. The picture in picture side by side feature has three options on how you want to make each side look like. For my purposes, a full side by side is what I use but this does make each page look a bit stretched out. The monitor doesn’t seem to automatically adjust the display resolution as nicely or as smoothly as it should.

Because I am using two laptops, I wanted to save some desk space by connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse for both. The monitor has the ability to do just that but this requires a USB 3.0 A to B cable connected to each PC and only one cable is included in the box, so I had to get a second cable.

Unfortunately, the single source USB feature was a bit quirky as well. The manual included on the CD do not document the setup of the feature very well and the instructions tend to jump around a bit on the setup of this feature making it a bit more complicated than it needs to be for setting this up. The feature does not seem to work well with my older Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse. I could get each laptop to recognize the wireless keyboard/mouse and they would work on each but once I used the switching feature which is also more button pushes on the monitor setup screen than it should be, the set would stop working.

Strangely, a Logitech wireless mouse that is as old as the Microsoft set worked fine with the switching feature through the monitor on both laptops with no issues. In that case, after connection the USB 3 cables to each laptop, I just plugged the USB wireless dongle into the monitor and hit the switching button on the menu and it switched. Maybe the Microsoft keyboard and mouse is too old and just won’t play nice with this or there is some other issue, I am not sure, but I plan to get a newer wireless set to see if this will work or whether this works only with a wired USB keyboard/mouse. I will update my review once I try a newer wireless USB keyboard/mouse. Regardless, I wish was a dedicated switching button or more streamlined menu controls for those switching features (i.e. the video source, pip and single source USB) to make it less awkward and time consuming to get through the menus to switch what device you want to use. The feature is a nice one but just doesn’t work as smoothly as it should and the cluttered menus make it more work than it should be to use. I do think a small remote control with larger on screen menus that allows easy switching of the PIP, video source, and USB switching would be a possible solution to the menu awkwardness, especially for those features.

Once I got past the initial menu awkwardness of getting the monitor set up and getting the source switching and PIP to work like it was supposed to, the screen resolution is beautiful, especially on a single source at maximum resolution. I changed the screen size to 200 percent normal for this monitor. The screen display on full resolution is sharp and clear with great color and although there is a slight curvature in the screen, it isn’t noticeable when I am sitting in front of it but it definitely makes the edges of the screen easier to see. I am not noticing too much backlight bleed. There is some but it is no worse than any other monitor I have ever had, from Asus to Samsung. In this case, I don’t use the laptops or monitor for gaming and I mainly use this for work or being on the net but with the right graphics card, this should beautifully show most games. With my laptops and the built in graphics cards that are in them, they are no way pressing the full capabilities of this monitor. With a high end graphics card, this monitor would outdo most, except for the latest 4K capable ones.

I am actually quite surprised that the monitor has speakers built in as most monitors these days don’t. The speakers are pretty good considering the size. They won’t blow you away by any means but they are decent speakers considering they are built in. Although for better bass and sound, if that is important, I would go with separate speakers. The volume adjust is also a bit hidden in the menu on the monitor though and takes several button presses to get to.

I do wish that the multiple ports on the back of the monitor were better positioned as they are facing down as opposed to facing out and can be a bit of a pain to get the cables inserted as opposed to ports that face the back. There is one USB separate from the rest of the ports that is easy to access but unfortunately there are no USB ports on the side of the monitor.

The stand has tint, height and angle adjustments and is solid, stable and holds the monitor well but the monitor is also wall mountable if you prefer to use a different stand.

I like fact that this has a good three-year warranty and Dell will replace the monitor even if one pixel goes bad. I have had no issues so far with any problems with bad pixels.

At a current price of 700 bucks, I do think this is a bit pricy but this monitor was also much higher in price a few months ago. So although I think it is a bit high, it is a bit more reasonable in price than before and is a beautiful screen combine with a lot of useful features, although some of the features are a bit quirkier than others and some of the menu options are in awkward locations and a bit more time consuming to access and use than they should be. At this price, a second HDMI should have been included on the monitor though. This works fine for the home/office, especially if you deal with a lot of spreadsheets and eye straining things like that. This allows me to have a dual monitor setup with the split screen (PIP feature) without using a desk clogging two monitors. Even with the clumsy setup and menu features, this is a good quality monitor that serves the purpose well and, so far, I am satisfied with it.

4 stars

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Nick T

Dell U3415W edges Samsung S34E790C

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2015

Style: One MonitorVerified Purchase

I have been looking at the new 34" widescreen class of monitors for about 6 months. I was initially excited about the LG, but after reading many complaints about its light bleed and other quality issues, I decided to wait. For reference, I am using this as a home office monitor hooked up to a recent MacBook Pro 15" via Thunderbolt -> Displayport running at full resolution at 60hz.

Appearance: Winner Dell
Both monitors are nice looking. Dell has a flatter, simpler bezel that disappears on the sides when the monitor is off. The Samsung bezel is more pronounced, though still nice looking. I consider this a marginal win for Dell and highly subjective at that.

Ports: Winner Samsung
While Dell has a greater variety of ports, including two upstream USB3, MHL (which I have no idea what to use with), and miniDP in, in addition to regular DP, and HDMI, I really appreciated the Samsung's two HDMI inputs. This allowed me to run two different HDMI sources in for the PBP/PIP function, namely an Amazon Firestick and a DirecTV box. I also prefer the port arrangement of the Samsung, which has every port on the back and facing out and away from the back. The ports are substantially easier to get at and they work better with a monitor arm (or any cable management device) because they tend to point out and away from the monitor and towards their source rather than down, which requires a sharp turn to stay out of line of sight. The sharp turn of the chords on my monitor arm for the Dell arrangement (down facing ports) actually puts enough pressure on the arm joint that I had to adjust it to avoid inadvertent swivel. And even though the Dell ports are well labeled, it still hard to get stupid non-reversible plugs in without being underneath the monitor.

PIP/PBP: Winner Samsung
Both the Dell and the Samsung have similar PBP/PIP options in general. The Dell offers a neat feature wherein you can tie different upstream USB inputs (two are provided) to different inputs (e.g. to control different computers peripherals). However, the Samsung is more functional in a variety of ways. For the Samsung, you can characterize each input so that the resolution is a better match for the source, e.g. you can characterize the HDMI input as an AV source rather than PC, and get a better formed 1080P picture. The Samsung also has much better sound options for the PIP windows. A critical flaw in the Dell is that while you can set the sound source to either the "main" window or the "sub" (i.e. PBP or PIP), there is no way to tell the monitor to default to one or the other when turning on the PBP/PIP window. What this means is that if you use the PBP/PIP for TV, every time you turn it on, you then have to go deep into the menu structure to turn sound back on. This is very annoying for a feature I want to otherwise use frequently. My recollection is that the Samsung allowed me to set this up such that any time the PBP/PIP window was on, it had sound priority.

Menu Structure and Control: Winner Dell
The Samsung uses a joystick on the back that you have to "click" in to make selections on, while the Dell has four buttons on the front that are some sort of capacitive sensor activated or the like. A nice feature of the Dell is that you can set two of the four soft-touch buttons as shortcuts to frequently used features, such as sound level, PIP/PBP, input source, etc. Unfortunately, you cannot set one to a shortcut to sound source, which would at least mitigate the problem discussed above. Overall, while I find neither totally awesome to use (and there is no Dell monitor software for Mac), I preferred the buttons on the front of the Dell to the joystick on the back of the Samsung. The Dell arrangement works better on my monitor arm because with the Samsung I would always upset the arrangement of my monitor on the arm while fiddling with it, not to mention that it was harder to reach on the Samsung.

The menu structures of each are fine, though I find the Dell to be slightly simpler and more straight forward, though the Samsung has a greater variety of features, in particular AV related features.

Stand: Tie
Both the Samsung and the Dell come with decent stands. As mentioned above, I use a monitor arm that was able to hold each easily with a VESA 100x100 attachment.

Sound: Winner Dell
Both the Samsung and the Dell have adequate sound. The Dell has slightly more powerful speakers (2 x 9W) versus Samsung (2 x 7W). I think the Dell sounded slightly better in a TV and music test, but this is highly subjective.

Viewing Angle: Winner Dell
I had read that the VA panel on the Samsung would probably have worse viewing angle as compared to the IPS panel on the Dell, but I did not expect it to be as severe a difference as it was. With the Samsung, especially with a test pattern, you could see major color shift even just from one side to the other without changing view position. When changing view position, it was much more pronounced. When looking at one test pattern, whitish grey lettering became noticeably tinged with pinkish purple towards the edges. And when viewing any sort of picture, tv, etc., the Samsung was much more sensitive to viewing position changes. While the Dell also suffers from a bit of change when changing position, it was much better from a fixed position looking from edge to edge and also held its color uniformity much better when changing viewing position.

Colors: Tie ... once calibrated
I think both monitors can produce great colors. However, the Samsung does not come calibrated from the factory and the original settings looked pretty terrible. Luckily I had read about that before I bought it so that I did not immediately package it up and send it back. I do not have professional calibration equipment, so my calibration was based on reviews I have found online and my own preference, but I think both perform really nicely. A really nice thing about the Dell is that it comes with a calibration report from the factory and comes out of the box in very good shape. There are still adjustments to be made based on taste (particularly with respect to brightness), but I think both can achieve similar performance.

Black Level and Light Bleed: Winner Samsung
VA panels have an advantage over IPS panels (read: IPS glow) in terms of black levels, and this was apparent. The black level on the Samsung was significantly better than that on the Dell when calibrated for similar brightnesses. With that said, it does seem like the Samsung exhibits a bit more "black crush" in dark scenes.

As for light bleed, the Samsung blows away the Dell. There is almost no discernible light bleed on the Samsung while the Dell definitely has the tell-tale corner bleed. It appears to be better than the LG, and it is not so bad as to make dark scenes unenjoyable, but when looking at a flat black background, the Samsung is far better.

Text Clarity and Sharpness: Winner Dell
You may have noticed that I liked a lot about the Samsung and thought it better than the Dell in many ways, but this was an absolute deal killer for me. I could not, no matter how much tweaking I did, get the Samsung to have crisp text. It was either not sharp enough, such that the text appeared fuzzy on the edges, or it was too sharp and looked to have the artificial white halo--particularly on smaller text. I think this may have something to do with the fact that the pixels on the Samsung are in an elongated orientation, whereas the Dell is more typical squarish orientation. As I mentioned before, the Dell came out of the box just right, while the Samsung took lots of tweaking, and I still couldn't get it right. Ultimately, the text clarity bothered me so much on the Samsung that I ordered the Dell, and now I have the Dell and the Samsung is on its way back. I suppose there is some possibility that it is my Mac that is a part of the issue, but I have a hard time believing that given my Mac has looked great on many other screens.

Overall Winner: Dell
Though I really liked the functionality, port arrangement, and black level of the Samsung, ultimately the text clarity and much better viewing angles of the Dell won me over. I hope that Dell will consider giving me a better sound control option, but I doubt it. I will just have to live with it until a reasonable 34" 4K monitor comes around!

Here is a link to a flickr gallery with pictures: [...]. I have also attached the photos here.