Review: Dell UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor

Can you imagine a Dell product without the iconic DELL logo blaring back at your face? Well, change is afoot as the PC company continues its journey to make the perfect office monitor. The UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3225Q) is another excellent entry in Dell’s elite computer monitor line, and I’ll happily celebrate the subtler branding.

But is this the best monitor you can buy? Well, it doesn’t employ OLED, which is a hot trend right now. But with its “enhanced” IPS (in-plane switching) Black panel, over-the-top connectivity, and classy look, you won’t find a better flagship office monitor.

An ‘Enhanced’ Dell Monitor

If you’ve seen a high-end Dell monitor, you’ve seen this one. It’s a 32-inch, 16:9 monitor with a silver back, stand, and base. There are a few things I can appreciate about this one though.

First is its relatively thin, black bezels. Most Dell (even UltraSharp) monitors have a strip of plastic as a bottom bezel to house the Dell logo, always staring you in the face. That’s absent here, making for a much cleaner look. It has all the other helpful bits you’d expect, such as a wide range of adjustments, including tilting it to go into a vertical orientation, straightforward cable management built into the stand, and VESA support.

But image quality is what makes it distinct. Dell has been championing “IPS Black” for many years, an LG technology that improves the contrast of IPS panels, a way of competing as an alternative to OLED, which is often more expensive and can cause issues like screen burn-in. For a while, Dell was alone in its IPS Black implementation, but now other companies like BenQ and HP have come along.

The U3225Q, however, comes with the next-generation IPS Black, which cranks up the contrast even more. How much? Well, from 2,000:1 to 3,000:1. That’s not OLED levels of contrast, but it sure is a massive improvement to the IPS of yesteryear. You won’t be able to hit that contrast ratio at 100 percent brightness, but the U3225Q still manages to get some record-setting contrast for an IPS panel. I didn’t have last year’s U3223QE model on hand to compare side-by-side, but the numbers speak for themselves. This is simply the best IPS panel I’ve ever seen, at least in terms of increasing contrast. The benefit of this is darker, richer looking blacks that don’t just look grey. Colors also look a bit more vibrant too.

As for brightness, the U3225Q manages to crank out up to 417 nits. Anything over 300 nits is considered bright enough for office work, but that extra 150 nits ensures it’ll be bright enough even if your desk gets drowned out by sunlight every afternoon.

Photograph: Luke Larsen