Most big-screen monitors are constructed with two or more LCD controllers. The monitor people put a lot of effort to make them seamless and invisible. You can get a hint of it sometimes when your PC boots up, or when the driver circuits for one panel fail and you end up with a half screen.
But, there are several occasions and situations where it would be really great if you could share your big screen 4k monitor with two PCs, maybe they are both yours or maybe one is a visitor’s.
And what if you could window the other PC? How cool would that be?
Well Dell agrees and so they brought out a new, and very affordable 31.5-inch, VESA-certified DisplayHDR 400, IPS 4k monitor, the U3223QE. The monitor has a 4K, 60 Hz panel 400 nits brightness, a 2000:1 contrast ratio, and an 8-ms response time. Some might argue that 400 nits aren’t enough to meaningfully display HDR content but that just isn’t the case. The color reproduction of the U3223QE is excellent and plenty bright. In fact, I had to turn on Windows night light feature to dampen the light. The monitor is specified at 98% of the DCI-P3 color space, and 100% Rec 709.
Also, the U3223QE is the world’s first 31.5-inch 4K monitor which allows daisy-chaining of an additional 4K monitor at full resolution via USB-C—enabled by the VESA standard Display Stream Compression (DSC).
Connectivity and other options
The U3223QE has two DisplayPort 2.0 and an HDMI 2.1a port, plus five USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, one standard USB-C port, and two additional USB-C ports for upstream and downstream connections, respectively.
And it also offers limited tilt, swivel, height, and pivot adjustments.
The U3223QE is a studio-quality monitor with the blackest of black screens and full HDR color range at a commercial monitor price of $1,150.
If you are doing content creation including video, photography, or even just watching video an IPS monitor is ideal. Dell has added IPS black to give viewers an even better view. (Source: Dell)
The screen also has what Dell calls ComfortView—a low blue light screen that delivers vivid blues without fatiguing your eyes or causing insomnia.
And Dell’s Display Manager lets you slice and dice your screen in 16 different ways.
Screen sharing choices with Dell’s Display Manager.
In addition to screen segmentation choices, Display Manager (DM) gives you two long-missed but now returned controls—brightness and contrast slider controls. I run three super high-res monitors on my system and the DM allows selection of each one for segmentation and brightness/contrast selection.
Possible multi-monitor configuration in use at JPR HQ: The U3223QE in split-screen mode, workstation driving left half, notebook driving right side. Notice how black the screen is on the right.
The notebook in the above image is a 17-inch 4k Dell Precision mobile workstation, FYI. The connection was via a USB-C to HDMI dongle, and then HDMI into the U3223QE.
Setting up the monitor was a breeze. Put the base plate on the desk, snap the vertical mast into it, and then snap the monitor into the mounting plat at the top of the mast—done <1 minute.
What do we think?
The Dell U3223QE has outstanding image quality with the kind of desirable features that make this a terrific choice for an all-around useful monitor for any professional or enthusiast. Whether it’s video editing, engineering, or page layout, this monitor can do it all and more.
Dell also has a 27-inch version of the monitor, the U2723QE for $800.