Dell UltraSharp U3011 30-inch LCD Discussion

[-Sk3tChY-]

Received the monitor today and just hooked it all up now.

First impressions: Wow, this thing is big! Dauntingly big!

This is going to take a while to get used to, I'm moving up from a 2408WFP, so the sheer size difference is a dramatic change, much like when I moved up from a 19" CRT to my 24" - Although this time I think it's going to take a little longer to adjust.

The difference in pixel pitch between between my older 2408WFP (0.27) and the new U3011 (0.2505) is definitely noticeable, things are smaller - but still readable/visible. I personally preferred the slightly bigger pixels, these smaller ones seem to be messing with my head/eyes a little but hopefully this is something I'll adjust to over time.

I've been using the monitor for about half an hour now and am definitely feeling a strain on my eyes.

Brightness is turned all the way down to zero, but it still feels as if the screen is a little too bright for my liking, again - hopefully something I'll adjust to.

The colours in general seem a bit weird right now, I can't exactly put my finger on it but they seem a little crystally/shiney, which is possibly what is straining my eyes the most right now!

Colours overall seem fine, however appear to be somewhat un-uniformed when viewing webpages like google at full-screen, I'm thinking this is perhaps because the monitor is just huge, so colours to the left and right are on a slightly different angle. This also makes the crystally/shiney look of the pixels more evident and causes a strain on the eyes.

Greens and Blues I've noticed thus far seem a little more 'fluorescent' than on my 2408WFP - Which I'll confirm when I set them both up for comparison.

Having anything full-screen that has a predominantly white/bright background is quite straining and the un-uniformity becomes quite noticeable - I think this sort of thing is normal across all LCD's, just it's more noticeable on such a large panel - I'll be comparing with my 2408WFP soon.

I tested the panel for dead pixels using Dead Pixel Buddy and am happy to report the panel is in perfect condition, I'll probably double check tomorrow, it's quite straining on the eyes. (Which on a side not, could also possibly be why my eyes are feeling a little strained atm)

The OSD and buttons are pretty cool, the power button however I think would've looked much better if it was done in the same material as the bezel, it's a slightly different colour black and a smooth texture, so it stands out a little, I'd have much preferred it to have been less noticeable.

I put on a 1080p rip of Avatar and it looked good, although pretty comparable to my 2408WFP. I wasn't expecting any dramatic differences really, but the increased size of the picture is very nice.

I'm going to setup the U3011 and my 2408WFP in dual monitor and properly examine the differences between the two soon.

Hard to make a judgment at the moment as I feel I need to adjust a little more to the monitor first.

[NSanity]

Opening thoughts - like -Sk3tChY- i'm coming from a Dell 2408WFP.

* Holy shit. 30in is fucking huge. I have a U2711 and a 2408WFP in the same room, and they aren't even comparable.
* Thats a whole lot of browser. Currently rethinking the way I actually browse the web, maybe two browsers - side by side? I usually have a IM list up the right handside and permanent bookmark sidebar - Right now I have Bookmark sidebar + Browser + Browser + IM list.
* Colours are fantastic - even at Standard (I only ever ran my 2408WFP in standard with slightly adjusted brightness contrast). Need to play with colours across the board i think - see if the dell calibrated ones are any good.
* Missing the old rotate feature from the 2408WFP stand - understandable why its not there.

Will post more as I think about it.

[bennyling]

Originally Posted by NSanity

Opening thoughts - like -Sk3tChY- i'm coming from a Dell 2408WFP.

* Holy shit. 30in is fucking huge. I have a U2711 and a 2408WFP in the same room, and they aren't even comparable.

I require pics of the U2711 and the U3011 if you could

Still tossing up between this or the U2711. I do love my 16:10, but it's pretty much double the cash

[-Sk3tChY-]

Originally Posted by bennyling

Still tossing up between this or the U2711. I do love my 16:10, but it's pretty much double the cash

Just be aware the U2711 has the smallest pixel pitch of the entire dell range at 0.233mm, so text gets very small and fine.

I'm still having a play around with my U3011, amazingly colour seems to be better on my 2408WFP (at least to me), I've got them setup in clone mode at the moment and whites especially on the U3011 look terrible compared to my 2408WFP.

When comparing the two, the whites look almost blue/grey on the U3011 compared to my older 2408.

Going to have a fiddle around with some more stuff, I noticed putting the monitor into Game mode seems to produce slightly better looking colours, but then it gets very bright.

[TOX]

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

Just be aware the U2711 has the smallest pixel pitch of the entire dell range at 0.233mm, so text gets very small and fine.

I find that really sharp pixel pitch means we have less need for AA, though, that's why I'm such a big fan of the U2711

[SpeedRacer]

Mine arrived early this morning... 2 days delivery to Sydney, pretty happy with that.

I only got 30mins of play time as I was already late for work. Basically like everyone else says OMFG this is an awesome screen. I came from an ageing Dell 2405wfp, such a massive difference.

One thing a lot of people seem to say to me is they think it would be too big... what I tended to find was that because of the resolution you still use and look at the same kind of area as any other monitor, but you just have more space to put other things that you can glance over at. Like a tidier dual screen setup I guess.

Love it so far though

[VTi-RT]

i believe the 3011 come pre calibrated from Dell, which might make a big difference when comparing against your older screens (unless you have calibrated your screen ).

[-Sk3tChY-]

Originally Posted by TOX

I find that really sharp pixel pitch means we have less need for AA, though, that's why I'm such a big fan of the U2711

Makes sense, AA would be less noticeable with the smaller pixel pitch, on the other hand though, I'm not sure if I could put up with the minuscule text and icons all the time, again though - something you perhaps adjust to.

Originally Posted by SpeedRacer

Mine arrived early this morning... 2 days delivery to Sydney, pretty happy with that.

Love it so far though

Just wondering what you've changed, if anything? Brightness? Contrast? Are you running in Standard or aRGB?

How do you find the whites? Mine really look like they have a blueish/grey hue to them, when comparing directly with my 2408WFP it's especially noticeable, the 2408's whites make the u3011's whites look a light blue.

It makes thing look fairly washed out in general.

Originally Posted by VTi-RT

i believe the 3011 come pre calibrated from Dell, which might make a big difference when comparing against your older screens (unless you have calibrated your screen ).

Indeed, this is why I was hoping it would look better than my 2408WFP, unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case.

It could possibly just be me and the way I like a monitor to look, and being used to my 2408 for so long, but that being said - White is white, it isn't hard to determine when white on one screen is better than another, especially when you have the two screen directly next to each other.

I've tried taking a photo to show the difference, but it doesn't show up too well, I'll try taking a couple more.

Is there anyone in Sydney area with a calibrator I could use?

[SpeedRacer]

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

Just wondering what you've changed, if anything? Brightness? Contrast? Are you running in Standard or aRGB?

I changed it to the sRGB colour preset. It looks pretty good to my eye.

I ran my old 2405 on a cooler colour temperature, whereas this sRGB preset seems a little warmer.

[Menthu_Rae]

Just got mine, OH MY! this thing is huuuuge. Going to have to find myself some new wallpapers, haha.

The speckle effect from the Anti-Glare coating is really noticeable to me, but not a deal breaker.

I've chucked mine on the Adobe RGB preset as it offered better gradients at the blacker ends of the Green spectrum. A good site to grab some images to test is:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Here's the gradients I used to help choose a preset I preferred:

[Kookooburra]

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

Quoted from the TFT Central review.

Furthermore, wouldn't this just mean that a TV can give blacker blacks? What about all the rest of the colours?

If just grabbing a TV meant better colours and bigger savings, I'm sure everyone would be buying them, especially graphic designers which these types of monitors are mainly targeted at.

I'm far from an expert, but I'd say these sort of monitors are better than a TV monitor in more ways than just more res.

No question that you're far from an expert on these matters, but black levels are one of the most important factors to image quality, ie, the deeper the black, the higher the detail, so whilst the monitor has a higher res than a 1080p HDTV, it has an appalling black level by HDTV standards.

The deeper the black, the better the colours can be as well{typically}, and even though you mention that these 1600p LCD would be better for graphic design{I agree in most cases}, the fact is, most people are wanting to game on them.

I'd be very surprised if a 1600p 30in with 0.23-0.30 blacks could compete for image quality against a good quality 32in 1080p HDTV, just as long as the HDTV has a proper game mode to minimize lag.

I have a large LCD computer screen, and recently plonked a HDTV next to it, needless to say the HDTV is vastly superior, granted it's bigger.
The value of hi-res 30in is if you have limited space, as you could view the 30 from probably the same distance one views a 27in.

[-Sk3tChY-]

Originally Posted by SpeedRacer

I changed it to the sRGB colour preset. It looks pretty good to my eye.

I've tried sRGB, aRGB looks better in this regard - Still, it's vastly different from my 2408WFP.

In both modes things on the U3011 look to have a bluer hue to them as opposed to the 2408, colours look vastly different.

Originally Posted by SpeedRacer

I ran my old 2405 on a cooler colour temperature, whereas this sRGB preset seems a little warmer.

Hmm.. I've found it to be cold.. Very drained and bluey.

Originally Posted by Menthu_Rae

The speckle effect from the Anti-Glare coating is really noticeable to me, but not a deal breaker.

Possibly what I was seeing when I was referring to the crystally/shiney look, I've since adjusted to it a little, a bit less noticeable.

Originally Posted by Menthu_Rae

I've chucked mine on the Adobe RGB preset as it offered better gradients at the blacker ends of the Green spectrum. A good site to grab some images to test is:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

I'll take a look at that site and see how things go for me.

What monitor you were moving up from? Have you compared the two side by side yet?

How do you find the whites/greys? Mine seem to have a blueish hue to them, which isn't very noticeable until I compare it side by side with my 2408WFP, then it get's really noticeable!

EDIT: I've noticed colour doesn't seem to be uniform on my panel. When I drag a white box from the left to the right of the monitor, I can see the white changing before my eyes, the left side it gets darker and bluer.

This could possibly be why it looks weird, when I have the energy I'll swap my 2408 to the other side of the monitor and compare from there.

[Menthu_Rae]

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

Possibly what I was seeing when I was referring to the crystally/shiney look, I've since adjusted to it a little, a bit less noticeable.

Yeah it's not too bad now I'm kind of used to it. Only really notice it on solid colours (websites, etc) - for images/movies it's a non issue.

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

What monitor you were moving up from? Have you compared the two side by side yet?

Moved up from a BenQ FP241W which was widely regarded as the best 24" monitor for some time (until the late model HPs and Dells).

I haven't compared them side by side as I sold it to my mate tonight after I checked the 30" for any major issues.

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

How do you find the whites/greys? Mine seem to have a blueish hue to them, which isn't very noticeable until I compare it side by side with my 2408WFP, then it get's really noticeable!

EDIT: Upping my brightness back to 50 (was on 0) removed any blue/purpley tinge. Looks fine now.

Mine are OK but I just checked the white, it has a light (in strength) blue/purpley tinge up on the very top left of the monitor, probably a triangle area about 15cm wide by 5cm high. A bit the same on the top right but much less noticeable.

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

I've noticed colour doesn't seem to be uniform on my panel. When I drag a white box from the left to the right of the monitor, I can see the white changing before my eyes, the left side it gets darker and bluer.

This could possibly be why it looks weird.[/QUOTE]

EDIT: Upping my brightness back to 50 (was on 0) removed any blue/purpley tinge. Looks fine now.

My colour is uniform except as mentioned above. I don't notice any difference dragging white boxes around, etc.

Have a go playing with the contrast as I noticed just in my white testing that it had a significant effect on the bluey tinge in the corners that I observed.

[berrycola]

i just recieved my 3x 30" and 4x 23" dell u2311 pretty nice monitors. when i finally get them setup ill see if i can get a pic of some eyefinity action.

[Menthu_Rae]

Originally Posted by berrycola

i just recieved my 3x 30" and 4x 23" dell u2311 pretty nice monitors. when i finally get them setup ill see if i can get a pic of some eyefinity action.

Are you a day trader or something?