Dell U3014 LCD Review
by Chris Heinonen on April 15, 2013 2:00 PM ESTAnother reason that we changed calibration packages is that we can now target AdobeRGB correctly, as CalMAN supports it and almost any other color space out there. Here we used the U3014 AdobeRGB preset and measured with the same targets as before. We didn’t do the 80 cd/m2 pass as AdobeRGB doesn’t use an sRGB gamma curve in the specification, and we saw how the Dell U3014 handles the change in luminance levels already. We are mostly looking to see how the monitor handles the larger gamut of AdobeRGB and if it gets the color points correct.
Once again, the Grayscale has a green bias to it by default. The overall average CCT looks good at 6568K, but that’s why you have to look at the individual RGB components as you can easily have an accurate CCT but have a color shift that is clearly visible.
The gamma is once again very good up until 85-90% where we see a steep drop-off that seems to be crushing highlights a bit. This issue pushes the average gamma down to 2.1 from our 2.2 target. I checked the contrast with a pattern before setting it and taking the measurements so all white samples are visible, but it seems to push them too close together at the top. I’d recommend taking the contrast down 3-4 levels from the maximum available to help with this highlight clipping, but that also will reduce the contrast ratio a bit as we saw with the sRGB calibration.
The grayscale starts out good, but you get errors above a dE2000 of 5 from 35% on, except for at 85%. Given the green tint that we saw in the RGB balance this isn’t surprising at all, since dE2000 is really a combination of gamma and RGB balance, and if both of those are perfect your dE2000 should be perfect as well. Conversely, when there are errors (as seen above), they'll show up here as well.
Colors again are very good by default, with errors being made much worse by the presence of white in the average. You can see the much larger gamut of AdobeRGB here, as those color points are in different locations than they are with sRGB. The color dE2000 errors are on top, and on bottom is the AdobeRGB CIE chart with the sRGB CIE chart overlaid on it to show the difference in gamut size.
The Gretag chart fares worst in the default AdobeRGB mode, with the grayscale being a very high error and skin tones being bad as well. Most other colors manage to get to a dE2000 of 3.0 or below, but the average for the whole chart is 3.22, which is still good for no calibration but not excellent. Luminance levels for the colors are all still fantastic, which is the most important thing to get right, but other aspects of the colors don’t fare as well.
Finally our saturations show that we have errors that get larger the closer we get to being unsaturated. Despite the higher errors there, our eyes are really more sensitive to errors with 100% saturation, so it’s better that the errors happen this way than the opposite way. Of course, this should improve after calibration, and then we hopefully won’t have to make any sacrifices at all.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
84 Comments
View All Comments
Filiprino - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
Your source of lag must be the use of HDMI.cheinonen - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
HDMI and DisplayPort were virtually identical in this regard.red5un - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
How does the new dell stack up against the NEC PA30 color wise? Love your new testing methodology but I wish there was a way to see a direct comparison. Is there a possibility of you guys retesting some of the higher end monitors? Are LED monitors finally ready to do color critical work? We do print and commercial VFX work and the NEC's are great but recalibrating every week plus knowing the CFL's are slowly dying I'm wondering if LED will be the answer.cheinonen - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I have no idea how the NEC 30" would fare, as I only tested the 27", and that was with the older test format. Getting in an older monitor is less likely to happen, if only because manufacturers often don't have review samples of displays that are older laying around anymore. I'll see what possibility exists, though it would more likely just be a quick review with only the test data, and not the in-depth commentary, since that has been covered before.soerenL - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Thanks for enlightening article!New to wide gamut and display profiling, have been reading a bit about it around the net, but would like know if my workflow makes any sense. Asked this in Dell forums also, apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to ask!
My primary objective is to have accurate colors in Maya and Photoshop. Secondary objective is to have accurate colors in games.
I should use sRGB emulation in Maya, and other non color managed applications, and adobeRGB in photoshop and firefox ?
I should profile the display with the provided Dell UltraSharp Color Calibration software, and store a sRGB calibration profile for example in CAL1, and a adobeRGB calibration profile in CAL2. And have the Dell Display Manager switch to CAL2 when using photoshop, and to CAL1 for all applications that aren't color managed ?
i1Profiler (the software that came with the i1Display Pro) can monitor ambient light, and automaticly reprofile based on changes in ambient light. The Dell UltraSharp Color Calibration software doesn't mention measuring ambient light at all, so I don't think the software have that capability ? Is there a way of using the hardware calibration in U3014 and ambient light measurements at the same time ? Would it be ok to install both i1Profiler and the Dell UltraSharp Color Calibration software, at the same time, do first the hardware calibration with the dell software, and then have the i1Profiler build a (software?) profile, that would mostly just reflect changes in ambient light ?
For accurate colors in games (if at all possible) I should use the games preset (to reduce lag) and then use i1Profiler to create a profile ?
sherlockwing - Friday, April 19, 2013 - link
For $1400 Dell should at least consider going up to 2880X1800 for a 16:10 monitor.Zibri - Friday, April 19, 2013 - link
I still think 2010 HP ZR30W is better than this.Oxford Guy - Sunday, April 21, 2013 - link
The u2412m has higher contrast because it's e-IPS. e-IPS has a simpler pixel structure that allows more light to be transmitted. However, e-IPS monitors always come with just 6-bit color and the thin paper used in the u2412m leads to mediocre uniformity.Also, there isn't a single A-MVA panel in your chart which makes your black level/contrast ratio comparison lack adequate perspective. You should include the best and the poorest in your charts, to provide perspective -- especially the best. The best contrast ratio would be from A-MVA.
ZoeAnderson24 - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
Henry. true that Jean`s comment is terrific... on saturday I got themselves a Mazda after earning $4127 this last four weeks and-a little over, ten-k lass month. without a doubt its the most-financialy rewarding I've had. I started this 6 months ago and right away began to bring home more than $75... p/h. I use this here great link,, All29.comCHECK IT OUTBig Anonymouse - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
Great article!Btw, how come the lag numbers are diametrically opposite to the ones in http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u3014.htm review, where it scored with the lowest lag compared to all tested monitors (some of them tested in this article too)? Could you have perhaps resetted the "Game Mode" setting by accident, or something similar?