- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Design
- Picture Quality
- Motion
- Inputs
- Features
- Sizes and Variants
- Compared
- Conclusion
- Discussions
Dell U2718Q
MONITOR REVIEW
- 30% Office
- 30% Multimedia
- 25% Gaming
- 10% Media Creation
- 5% HDR Gaming
- 16% Resolution and Size
- 15% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 12% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 7% Ergonomics
- 7% Reflections
- 7% Gray Uniformity
- 6% Input Lag
- 5% SDR Color Gamut
- 5% SDR Color Volume
- 4% Black Uniformity
- 4% SDR Peak Brightness
- 4% Gradient
- 2% Motion Blur
- 2% Refresh Rate
- 2% Pre Calibration
- 1% Image Flicker
- 1% Curve radius
- 23% Input Lag
- 14% Resolution and Size
- 13% Motion Blur
- 12% Refresh Rate
- 9% Ergonomics
- 8% Image Flicker
- 6% Reflections
- 3% SDR Peak Brightness
- 2% Contrast
- 2% Gray Uniformity
- 2% Black Uniformity
- 2% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 1% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 1% Local Dimming
- 1% SDR Color Gamut
- 1% SDR Color Volume
- 17% Resolution and Size
- 10% Input Lag
- 8% Reflections
- 8% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 7% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 6% Gray Uniformity
- 5% Ergonomics
- 5% Black Uniformity
- 4% Motion Blur
- 4% Refresh Rate
- 4% SDR Color Gamut
- 4% SDR Color Volume
- 3% Gradient
- 3% SDR Peak Brightness
- 2% Contrast
- 2% Image Flicker
- 2% HDR Peak Brightness
- 2% HDR Color Gamut
- 2% HDR Color Volume
- 1% Local Dimming
- 1% Pre Calibration
- 21% Resolution and Size
- 8% Ergonomics
- 7% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 7% Input Lag
- 6% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 6% Motion Blur
- 6% Refresh Rate
- 5% Reflections
- 5% Gray Uniformity
- 5% Black Uniformity
- 3% Image Flicker
- 3% Gradient
- 3% SDR Color Gamut
- 3% SDR Color Volume
- 2% Contrast
- 2% SDR Peak Brightness
- 2% HDR Peak Brightness
- 2% HDR Color Gamut
- 2% HDR Color Volume
- 1% Pre Calibration
- 1% Local Dimming
- 14% Contrast
- 12% Input Lag
- 9% HDR Peak Brightness
- 9% Resolution and Size
- 8% Black Uniformity
- 7% Local Dimming
- 5% Ergonomics
- 5% Motion Blur
- 5% Refresh Rate
- 5% Gradient
- 5% HDR Color Gamut
- 5% HDR Color Volume
- 3% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 3% Image Flicker
- 3% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 2% Gray Uniformity
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q is a very good 27-inch IPS LCD monitor with HDR support, great ergonomics and a wide viewing angle. Its picture quality is decent, but although it supports HDR, there is not much advantage to using it. It has great low input lag for gaming. Dark room performance isn't the best as blacks appear gray and it has visible backlight bleed and poor black uniformity.
| Design | 7.5 |
| Picture Quality | 7.4 |
| Motion | 7.0 |
| Inputs | 9.0 |
- Wide viewing angles
- Easy to adjust stand with great ergonomics
- Poor HDR performance
- Mediocre black uniformity and visible backlight bleed
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Design
The design of the Dell U2718Q is very similar to the rest of Dell's Ultrasharp range, like the U2717D and U2715H. The monitor has a simple, but professional design that will fit well in any household or office, but lacks some of the flashier design elements that are often found on modern monitors.
- 46% Height Adjustment
- 18% Switch portrait/landscape
- 18% Swivel Range
- 18% Tilt Range
The Dell U2718Q can easily be adjusted to the perfect position thanks to the great ergonomic adjustments which are identical to the non-HDR model, the U2717D. The height and tilt can easily be adjusted, and it can be rotated to a portrait orientation if desired.
The back of the monitor is clean smooth, very similar to all other Dell monitors. There is a single hole in the bottom of the stand for cable management.
Picture Quality
- 10% Contrast
- 3% Local Dimming
- 9% SDR Peak Brightness
- 3% HDR Peak Brightness
- 10% Horizontal Viewing Angle
- 10% Vertical Viewing Angle
- 9% Gray Uniformity
- 7% Black Uniformity
- 7% Pre Calibration
- 2% Post Calibration
- 5% SDR Color Gamut
- 5% SDR Color Volume
- 2% HDR Color Gamut
- 2% HDR Color Volume
- 2% Image Retention
- 3% Gradient
- 2% Color Bleed
- 9% Reflections
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q has decent picture quality. It works best in a medium lit room, as blacks appear gray in a dark room and it isn't bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room and has only decent reflection handling. Although it supports HDR, there is not much advantage to using it as the HDR color gamut is limited, and it has disappointing HDR color volume. SDR color coverage is excellent, and it has excellent color volume, limited only by the contrast ratio.
The Dell 2718Q has a decent native contrast ratio, very good for an IPS monitor but blacks still appear gray in a dark room. For better dark room performance a VA panel like the Samsung CHG70 is preferred.
The Dell U2718Q does not support local dimming. The video is provided for reference only.
Good peak brightness levels with negligible variation depending on content. The monitor is bright enough for most rooms, but it can't overcome direct glare.
Mediocre HDR peak brightness. Real scene performance is slightly brighter than in SDR and the U2718Q performs well in most rooms. The brightness varied greatly during our testing, as the monitor appeared to boost the brightness of certain windows but then drop off the brightness after some time (see here). The posted results represent the most consistent results we could achieve (see here).
HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
The Dell U2718Q has decent horizontal viewing angles. If you are sitting close to the monitor the edges will be a bit darker than the rest of the screen, but there is very little shift in contrast. Colors lose accuracy but this shouldn't be an issue.
Great vertical viewing angles, almost as good as the Dell U3417W. There is no shift in contrast, but colors and overall brightness drop off. This is a good monitor if you are planning on wall mounting it above eye level.
- 40% 50% Std. Dev.
- 40% 50% DSE
- 10% 5% Std. Dev.
- 10% 5% DSE
Excellent gray uniformity, with very little dirty screen effect, but the edges of the screen are noticeably darker than the rest. Sports fans shouldn't notice any issues when streaming games online, and there won't be any darker areas when browsing websites with large white areas.
- 75% Native Std. Dev.
- 25% Std. Dev. w/ L.D.
Mediocre black uniformity, but better than most monitors we have tested. There is clouding across the entire screen, and the LED back lights bleed along the bottom edge, which can be distracting in a dark room.
- 50% White Balance dE
- 50% Color dE
Out of the box, the Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q has decent color and white balance accuracy. Dell calibrates each U2718Q at the factory, but they target a color temperature of 6000K. The most accurate results out of the box are with the 'Standard' picture mode, but the 'Multimedia' and 'Custom Color' pictures modes are almost as accurate.
The color temperature is warmer than our target of 6500K and the white balance dE is too high. Gamma follows the target curve well, but darker scenes were over-brightened.
- 50% White Balance dE
- 50% Color dE
After calibration the color and white balance accuracy is excellent. The most accurate picture mode is 'Custom Color'. The color temperature is almost perfect, and color and white dE are too low for most people to notice. The gamma curve follows our target input almost perfectly.
You can download our ICC profile calibration here.
- 50% s.RGB xy
- 50% Adobe RGB xy
s.RGB Picture Mode: Custom Color (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Custom Color
Excellent coverage of the standard SDR s.RGB color space. Limited coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space which may be disappointing to professional users for editing graphics or print media.
- 50% s.RGB in ICtCp
- 50% Adobe RGB in ICtCp
s.RGB Picture Mode: Custom Color
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Custom Color
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q has excellent color volume in SDR. Better coverage of dark colors than the U2717D due to the deeper native contrast ratio. Adobe RGB coverage is limited by the poor color space coverage and is not as good as other HDR monitors we have tested, like the Samsung CHG70.
- 50% DCI P3 xy
- 50% Rec. 2020 xy
Decent HDR color gamut, but worse than the other HDR monitors we have reviewed, including the Samsung CHG70. Coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is very limited and saturated colors in HDR are not well represented. The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q does not support a wide color gamut.
HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
- 50% DCI-P3 in ICtCp
- 50% Rec. 2020 in ICtCp
Disappointing HDR color volume. The Dell U2718Q is severely limited by the limited color gamut. It isn't very good at reproducing deep, dark colors.
HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q has no temporary image retention, even immediately after our 10-minute test image there is no retention.
The Dell U2718Q has perfect gradient reproduction, better than any other monitor we have reviewed.
- 50% Pixel row error
- 50% Pixel column error
The Dell U2718Q is free of color bleed. This is great for graphics artists that use large areas of uniform color.
Decent reflection handling, but worse than most similar models that we have tested. Reflections aren't diffused as much as the U2717D and they may be distracting.
Motion
Decent motion performance on the Dell U2718Q. The monitor has a fast pixel response time and there is little motion blur. The PWM backlight causes some visible flicker that may bother some people, although it is at a very high frequency. Unfortunately, there are very few options to improve motion handling, as the monitor is limited by a 60 Hz refresh rate and does not support black frame insertion. It does not support AMD's FreeSync or NVIDIA's G-Sync variable refresh rate technologies.
- 50% 80% Response Time
- 50% 100% Response Time
Response Time Normal
Response Time Fast
Excellent native response time, great for gaming or watching fast paced motion. There is very little motion trail behind fast moving objects. Most of the blur in the photo is due to 60 fps persistence.
The 'Normal' Response Time produced the best results. If you want a faster response time, you can set the response time to 'Fast', but this will introduce overdrive artifacts.
The Dell U2718Q uses a dual PWM flicker to dim the backlight. There is a 10 kHz flicker that is always present, but this flicker is not visible at all. There is a secondary flicker at 650 Hz, but due to the secondary wave the backlight does not completely shut off and the flicker is not noticeable under most conditions. The monitor does not support black frame insertion.
- 50% Native
- 13% Factory Overclock
- 6% Variable Refresh Rate
- 13% VRR Maximum
- 6% VRR Minimum
- 12% VRR Maximum With OC
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q has a decent native refresh rate of 60Hz that is common for 4k monitors. Most people won't have any issue with this, but gamers will be disappointed by the low refresh rate and lack of gaming-oriented features like Freesync or G-sync.
Inputs
The Dell U2718Q has a large 4k 27" panel, which is great for almost any usage. The monitor always upscales to its native resolution of 4k, and always has excellent low input lag. It does not support daisy chaining multiple monitors with DisplayPort, but can be used as a USB hub and has 2 USB BC1.2 fast charging ports.
Lowest input lag possible at the center of the screen, when the monitor is displaying an alternative resolution at its native refresh rate. The non-native resolution tested depends on the native resolution of the monitor, following this pattern unless otherwise specified in the Input Lag text:
| Native Resolution | Non-Native Resolution Tested |
| 4k UHD | QHD |
| QHD | FHD |
| FHD | 1600x900 |
| 3440x1440 | 2560x1080 |
| 2560x1080 | 1920x1080 |
The HDR input lag was tested over HDMI, whereas the other results were measured over DisplayPort. This should not have any impact on the results.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q is always upscaling to native 4k resolution. Excellent low input lag, even for the most demanding gamers.
HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
- 71% Megapixels
- 29% Screen Area
This monitor has a very sharp 4k UHD resolution, which is great for almost any usage.
Two of the USB ports support USB 1.2 BC fast charging, and there is an option to power the USB ports even when the monitor is in standby. HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
Features
The Dell U2718Q has a decent set of additional features. The display uses Dell's well organized on-screen display to control most settings, and has some extra features like USB always on. It doesn't support DisplayPort daisy chaining, and unlike the majority of monitors out there, it doesn't have built-in speakers. Thankfully it does have a 3.5mm speaker out port, so you can connect a single set of speakers that will be used by each device connected to the monitor.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q can be used as a USB hub. The USB ports can be left powered when the monitor is off, and two of the ports support BC1.2 fast charging, with a maximum capacity of 2A.
HDR is only supported when connected via HDMI. DisplayPort is not supported for HDR.
Differences between Sizes and Variants
We've tested the 27" U2718Q The monitor is also available in a 25" size (Dell U2518D).
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Dell U2718Q doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
| Size | Model |
| 25" | U2518D |
| 27" | U2718Q |
The U2718Q we reviewed was manufactured in May 2018 (Revision A03).
Compared to other Monitors
The Dell U2718Q is a very good IPS monitor, but there are better alternatives out there, especially if you want decent HDR performance.
The Dell U2718Q and the LG 27UK650 both have very similar performance. They are both very good monitors for gaming. The Dell U2718Q has slightly better ergonomics which makes it easier to place the monitor comfortably while gaming, whereas the LG 27UK650 has marginally better refresh rate since it includes the Freesync implementation of the variable refresh rate to eliminate tearing and is also flicker-free.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q is better than the Dell Ultrasharp U2717D. The Dell U2718Q has a higher native contrast ratio, and supports HDR, as well as having a higher resolution screen that allows you to see more details or get more done. The U2718Q has much lower input lag regardless of input resolution, great for gamers. The Dell U2717D has no visible flicker and better reflection handling.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q is better than the LG 27UD68-P. The Dell U2718Q has better black uniformity and does not suffer from temporary image retention. The U2718Q also supports HDR, although this doesn't add much due to the poor color volume and insufficient peak brightness. The LG 27UD68-P is flicker-free and has better motion handling overall thanks to AMD FreeSync support.
The Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q is better than the Samsung CHG70, unless your main usage is for gaming or for dark room viewing. The Dell U2718Q has wider viewing angles and a higher native resolution, so you can see every detail. The CHG70 has a higher native contrast ratio, so it performs better in a dark room. The Samsung also has much better motion handling thanks to the much higher 144 Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q is a bit better than the Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q. The PG279Q has much better motion handling. The high refresh rate delivers a nearly perfect response time with almost no motion blur, as well as being flicker free. The ROG PG279Q also has an optional black frame insertion feature that can help clear up motion, and supports NVIDIA's G-Sync technology. The Dell U2718Q has a higher resolution 4k screen, and supports HDR, even though HDR doesn't add much due to the U2718's limited color volume and low peak brightness.
The Acer Predator X27 is slightly better than the Dell U2718Q. The X27 is brighter and offers a much better HDR experience, as it is brighter and can produce brighter highlights, as well as the added full array local dimming feature. The X27 has a much wider color gamut, suitable for professional use for print and marketing. The Dell U2718Q has more ergonomic options and is easier to adjust to an optimal viewing position.
