Being a MacBook Pro user over the last 15 years (17, 15, 16 inches) and preferring to 'work on a couch' (full stack web development) with a laptop, I am finally moving to a table with a large screen. Firstly decided to go 'cheaper' to get 38 inch Dell Ultrawide, but because of unsatisfied resolution had also to order the larger 40 inch. Both having IPS Black panels. Here I will post firstly a feedback and later a comparison between the two (once the 40 inch hopefully is delivered). Meanwhile while I still use the U3824DW, you can ask me questions to check/test something before I hopefully return it.
Construction
- Good size indeed - positioned on a 160x80cm table (70cm depth table would work very well as well), covers horizontal peripheral vision, not sure if want bigger - the 1600p vertical resolution matches nicely with 16inch MacBook Pro scaling
- Not that wobbly as I thought it could be, rather sturdy
- Curviness surprised at first, now got used to it after a day, but you definitely notice it and I would not do architectural photography on it, even 3D modeling might be questionable tbh (did not expect curviness would affect that much).
- The 38" (and apparently 40") would better be mounted right on the table without additional monitor shelf/stand. I thought initially that I would be comfortable to put it on an additional table monitor stand to have shelves below, but considering that I have positioned it almost in the lowest position, anything higher might be not comfortable.
- The same reason the large 40+" 16:9 monitors with the same width (approx. 1m) but much larger height (60cm vs 40cm here) might be less comfortable because they would be positioned vertically much higher than your head while sitting, thus creating that extra strain on your eyes/head (needing to constantly look up), similar to what you have on the front rows of the cinema seats. But the ultrawides and especially these 38-40" seem to have potential maximum comfortable height, going from the level of your head down to about 5cm from the tabletop, which basically seem to totally cover your default vision area in relaxed state, when sitting at the distance of about 60-80cm from the monitor.
Screen
- Resolution could be better. I thought it would not bother me as my vision starts to degrade after more than 1m, but having the monitor in front of me on the distance of approx. 80cm I can definitely see the text pixelated. Probably because I got used to retina screens, the 109PPI here is a noticeable downgrade, to the point that I am ready to pay almost twice for the monitor just to have it improved (considering I spend lots of time in front of the screen, the screen must be good).
- Now, big text is rather good, for example code editor looks great. The problem appears with smaller text. Which is noticeable in Apple Mail for example. If not working with small text, can be ok (for example when opening Logic Pro X, the pixelation is almost unnoticeable, both in general UI and instruments graphics). Btw, this seem to be the same reason why having TV or extra large (but apparently low PPI) monitor is not a good idea when dealing with text, but can be just fine when dealing with movies, games
- Reducing or increasing sharpness in the menu does not help, it either get things blurry or even more pixelated (the setting of 50% sharpness seem to be the best picture you can get)
- Brightness is okay, using 100% during day (no direct sunlight in the room though) and about 40% in the evening with a standing lamp in a corner of the room
- Had to reduce contrast a bit
because of the resolution the pixelization was too prominent on the very contrasty areas (so apparently IPS-Black is a thing)
- I was actually mostly worried about light bleeding and uniformity. But in reality it seem to be okay. There is very slight light bleeding in the right bottom and top corners but before you notice it at all, you will mostly notice the uniform IPS backlight artifacts first of how they change dynamically while you look to the monitor under different angles (and the corners are most noticeable because of the furthest angle of view). But, because the artifacts are uniform, then it is ok. So this looks like the best we could get before similar Mini/Micro LED and/or OLED screens become available. But overall uniformity in different colors is good.
- Colors are good.
- Responsiveness is good. White text on black background during smooth scrolling is not smearing. But quick switch between spaces, thus quickly scrolling screens horizontally, shows a jelly effect a bit (similar to MacbookPro screen though).
Productivity
- For web development - as expected, I can fit 3 app windows on it - browser, editor and terminal (btw, opening more would be questionable). So this solves my problem needing to switch between spaces on the smaller screen.
Defects
- One stuck red pixel - will see if there is a chance for it to unstuck
- Imperfect alignment of the plastic frame around the screen in the right side, both in top and bottom corners (up to 1mm deviation/bending).
Overall
- Feeling is awesome, having much of screen estate is great, it does not necessarily mean you need to cramp it with all the content, you still can have a single small window opened in the center, but when you actually need to put something to the left and to the right you have that space, which is wonderful.
- Sound is so-so or rather meh. Bass is nonexistent. Overall much more worse than MacBook Pro (despite being able to put there larger speakers). Will have to get a speaker for the table, maybe Bose SoundLink..
- Charges 2019 MacBook Pro 16 nicely, funny feeling to connect with one cable and no worries
- It is better to keep laptop closed, there is enough screen space to position everything, looks much more cleaner
- When watching the 16:9 content on this Ultrawide, the vertical sidebars do not seem to be a big deal (at least for me), as well as edges of the bars and the content are not visible. But I would not like to watch movies on it, because of IPS.. and because of the need to sit in the chair (couch is the way).
- Also, sometimes grabbing the laptop and working on the couch is still convenient despite smaller screen
- Full screen content - videos or games look like 2D VR (I do have HP Reverb VR set, so can compare). The Ultrawide 21:9 format seem to affect your mind by showing reasonable limits vertically (so not overwhelming your brain in comparison to 16:9 when having the same width), but 99% covering peripheral vision horizontally, thus making much better immersion than 16:9. I would say that for games and videos this is the best format.
- On this screen I can much more see imperfections in videos, so 4K videos are preferable (was not the case with smaller MacBook Pro 16 screens despite high resolutions)
- The 16" MacBook Pro screen looks like 13" afterwards
Verdict
- If I would work only with music or only backend web development, or playing games, the resolution and the screen size would be just fine. But frontend web development and dealing with small/crisp text require higher PPI.
Offtopic
- The market of mice and keyboards is stagnating, last time I had to use a mouse and a keyboard was 10+ years ago, I would assume there would be better quality products since then, but the selection is very limited and the quality is questionable.. Except maybe will need to try the new trendy mechanical keyboards.
- MacOS support for universal keyboards and mice is still bad over so many years
Impressions on U3824DW
Construction
- Good size indeed - positioned on a 160x80cm table (70cm depth table would work very well as well), covers horizontal peripheral vision, not sure if want bigger - the 1600p vertical resolution matches nicely with 16inch MacBook Pro scaling
- Not that wobbly as I thought it could be, rather sturdy
- Curviness surprised at first, now got used to it after a day, but you definitely notice it and I would not do architectural photography on it, even 3D modeling might be questionable tbh (did not expect curviness would affect that much).
- The 38" (and apparently 40") would better be mounted right on the table without additional monitor shelf/stand. I thought initially that I would be comfortable to put it on an additional table monitor stand to have shelves below, but considering that I have positioned it almost in the lowest position, anything higher might be not comfortable.
- The same reason the large 40+" 16:9 monitors with the same width (approx. 1m) but much larger height (60cm vs 40cm here) might be less comfortable because they would be positioned vertically much higher than your head while sitting, thus creating that extra strain on your eyes/head (needing to constantly look up), similar to what you have on the front rows of the cinema seats. But the ultrawides and especially these 38-40" seem to have potential maximum comfortable height, going from the level of your head down to about 5cm from the tabletop, which basically seem to totally cover your default vision area in relaxed state, when sitting at the distance of about 60-80cm from the monitor.
Screen
- Resolution could be better. I thought it would not bother me as my vision starts to degrade after more than 1m, but having the monitor in front of me on the distance of approx. 80cm I can definitely see the text pixelated. Probably because I got used to retina screens, the 109PPI here is a noticeable downgrade, to the point that I am ready to pay almost twice for the monitor just to have it improved (considering I spend lots of time in front of the screen, the screen must be good).
- Now, big text is rather good, for example code editor looks great. The problem appears with smaller text. Which is noticeable in Apple Mail for example. If not working with small text, can be ok (for example when opening Logic Pro X, the pixelation is almost unnoticeable, both in general UI and instruments graphics). Btw, this seem to be the same reason why having TV or extra large (but apparently low PPI) monitor is not a good idea when dealing with text, but can be just fine when dealing with movies, games
- Reducing or increasing sharpness in the menu does not help, it either get things blurry or even more pixelated (the setting of 50% sharpness seem to be the best picture you can get)
- Brightness is okay, using 100% during day (no direct sunlight in the room though) and about 40% in the evening with a standing lamp in a corner of the room
- Had to reduce contrast a bit
because of the resolution the pixelization was too prominent on the very contrasty areas (so apparently IPS-Black is a thing)- I was actually mostly worried about light bleeding and uniformity. But in reality it seem to be okay. There is very slight light bleeding in the right bottom and top corners but before you notice it at all, you will mostly notice the uniform IPS backlight artifacts first of how they change dynamically while you look to the monitor under different angles (and the corners are most noticeable because of the furthest angle of view). But, because the artifacts are uniform, then it is ok. So this looks like the best we could get before similar Mini/Micro LED and/or OLED screens become available. But overall uniformity in different colors is good.
- Colors are good.
- Responsiveness is good. White text on black background during smooth scrolling is not smearing. But quick switch between spaces, thus quickly scrolling screens horizontally, shows a jelly effect a bit (similar to MacbookPro screen though).
Productivity
- For web development - as expected, I can fit 3 app windows on it - browser, editor and terminal (btw, opening more would be questionable). So this solves my problem needing to switch between spaces on the smaller screen.
Defects
- One stuck red pixel - will see if there is a chance for it to unstuck
- Imperfect alignment of the plastic frame around the screen in the right side, both in top and bottom corners (up to 1mm deviation/bending).
Overall
- Feeling is awesome, having much of screen estate is great, it does not necessarily mean you need to cramp it with all the content, you still can have a single small window opened in the center, but when you actually need to put something to the left and to the right you have that space, which is wonderful.
- Sound is so-so or rather meh. Bass is nonexistent. Overall much more worse than MacBook Pro (despite being able to put there larger speakers). Will have to get a speaker for the table, maybe Bose SoundLink..
- Charges 2019 MacBook Pro 16 nicely, funny feeling to connect with one cable and no worries
- It is better to keep laptop closed, there is enough screen space to position everything, looks much more cleaner
- When watching the 16:9 content on this Ultrawide, the vertical sidebars do not seem to be a big deal (at least for me), as well as edges of the bars and the content are not visible. But I would not like to watch movies on it, because of IPS.. and because of the need to sit in the chair (couch is the way).
- Also, sometimes grabbing the laptop and working on the couch is still convenient despite smaller screen
- Full screen content - videos or games look like 2D VR (I do have HP Reverb VR set, so can compare). The Ultrawide 21:9 format seem to affect your mind by showing reasonable limits vertically (so not overwhelming your brain in comparison to 16:9 when having the same width), but 99% covering peripheral vision horizontally, thus making much better immersion than 16:9. I would say that for games and videos this is the best format.
- On this screen I can much more see imperfections in videos, so 4K videos are preferable (was not the case with smaller MacBook Pro 16 screens despite high resolutions)
- The 16" MacBook Pro screen looks like 13" afterwards
Verdict
- If I would work only with music or only backend web development, or playing games, the resolution and the screen size would be just fine. But frontend web development and dealing with small/crisp text require higher PPI.
Offtopic
- The market of mice and keyboards is stagnating, last time I had to use a mouse and a keyboard was 10+ years ago, I would assume there would be better quality products since then, but the selection is very limited and the quality is questionable.. Except maybe will need to try the new trendy mechanical keyboards.
- MacOS support for universal keyboards and mice is still bad over so many years
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