Computer Shopper – September 2019

34 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

WHILETHEREAREmore expensivemonitors

than the UltraSharpU2719DC,£454 fora27in,

2,560x1,440 displayisthe kind of premium

that Dell will have to work hard to justify.One

major benefit it offers over the cheaper

competitionis aUSB Type-C connection.

This hugely simplifiesadesk setup,asyou

can power the monitor via the single power

cable (there’s no external power brick) and

then use USB Type-C to transmitdata and

charge laptops that need amaximumof 65W.

Youcan even hook up asecond 1440p

monitor via the DisplayPort connector,which

is neat. Dell appearsto have put the effort

intostreamliningthe UltraSharpU2719DC’s

design, too. The first sign of this is the tiny

rectangularfootprint,which is roughlythe size

of an A5 sheet of paper.That means you can

squeezeit on to the narrowestof desks and

still have plenty of work space.

FAITHFULREPRESENTATION

Note, too, the narrowbezels. These aren’t only

forcosmeticbenefit: you could happilyplace

two of these monitors side by side,perhaps in

portraitmode,for an enlargedworkspace.

Anotheradvantage of this monitor over lesser

rivals is its colour accuracy.Instandardmode,

our review unit achieved afantasticallylow

delta-Eof 0.43 with amaximumof 1.36.

These are figures we would expect from a

monitor designedforcreative professionals,

not astraightforwardoffice monitor.

Every panel will be slightlydifferent,but

Dell promisesan average delta-Eof less than

two in all cases, helpfully printingoff a

Color CalibrationFactory Report so

you can check your particular

panel’s performance.

Not all of this screen’s test

results were so excellent,however.

We measuredits contrastratio at

961:1 –Dell claims 1,000:1 –which

will mean lost detail in dark movie

scenes.Gammatrackingis also

loose at the extremes,which again

is bad news forextra-darkand

extra-lightscenes.To massively

simplifywhat this means,colours

will displaytoo dimly.Don’t expect

perfectly even brightnessacross

the screen,either,asour sample

displayed an 18% variation at the

farleft and 13% at the right.

DELLUltraSharp

U2719DC

★★★★★

£454•From http://www.dell.com

VERDICT

Sleekdesign,USBType-Cconnectivityand

superbcolouraccuracyhelpjustifythis

monitor’shighprice

QUAD HD MONITOR

There’s also no easy waytoflick between

colour profiles such as Adobe RGB and

DCI-P3.Your choicesare the more basic

Movie,Game and ComfortViewmodes.

The latter promisesreducedblue light

emissions,which some people find helpful

if using amonitor forlong periods.Dell’s

onscreendisplay(OSD), while basic, makes it

easy to switch betweensettings:simply press

one of the four physicalbuttons sitting at the

bottom right of the bezel and follow the

context-sensitivemenu choices.

Youcan also downloadthe Dell Display

Manager.This offers anumber of custom

windowlayouts –for instance,you might want

abig windowon the leftfor your main work,

with two small windowsatop one anotheron

theright–intowhichyoucandragapplications.

It’s like asuperpoweredversionof Windows

Snap ,and genuinelysaves time once

you get used to the wayitworks.

FALL FLAT

Ther eare othernice features, too, such

as applyingdifferentmodes to specific

programs;so if you want Windows

Media Player to open in Movie mode,it

can. In truth, however,the Movie mode

doesn ’t make much differenceother

than adding an orange tinge to the

screen.We had hoped that activating it

might increasethe coverage of the

DCI-P3 colour space,but in fact it only

covered 68% on testing.

We got better results when we

tweakedthe colour balanceourselves

–the OSD again makes this simple –

and hit 78%. That’s still below the 85%

that Dell claims.

The panel’s gamingperformance

is fine,with no obvious tears or

ghosting,but naturallythis is

a60Hz screen,not 144Hz or

higher.Ifgaming is your priority,the

affordabilityof gaming-tuned screens

with higher refresh rates makes them a

much better bet.

The Dell UltraSharpU2719DCalso doesn’t

includespeakers.There is a3.5mm jack, but

this is foroutputtingaudio,not inputting.

There are also two easy-to-accessUSB3 ports

on the left-hand side of the monitor,which

will come in handy if your USB Type-C-toting

laptop doesn’t have any of its own.

PORTAND PAID FOR

Ultimately this is amonitorwith alot of

individualqualities:guaranteed colour

accuracy,compactdesign and that USB

Type-C connectivityamong them.

While the first two elementson that list

are welcome,however,they’re not enoughto

make the UltraSharpU2719DCworth its price

by themselves–the panel’s limited contrast

ratio and other weaknessesensure that.

The real killer feature is USB Type-C support,

which effectivelymeans this screen can turn

intoadocking station at your desk: connect

one cable and you’re done.Ifthat appeals,

the UltraSharpU2719DCis agood choice.

TimDanton

SCREENSIZE27in•RESOLUTION2,560x1,440•

SCREENTECHNOLOGYIPS•REFRESHRATE60Hz•

VIDEOINPUTSHDMI,DisplayPort,USBType-C•

WARRANTYOneyearrepairandreplace•

DETAILSwww.dell.com•PARTCODEU2719DC

SPECIFICATIONS

CONNECTIONPORTS

HDMI DisplayPortx2 USB3x4

USBType-C 3.5mmheadphone