The Dell U3223QE is a 32 inch 4k office monitor. Part of Dell's UltraSharp lineup, it sits alongside the Dell U2723Q and has a lot of features and connectivity options. It uses the new IPS Black panel technology that delivers a higher contrast compared to traditional IPS panels for deeper blacks. It has a USB hub with five USB-A ports and three USB-C ports, which you can use to connect your peripherals like a keyboard and mouse and control multiple sources with them, thanks to the KVM switch. It also has DisplayPort Alt Mode that allows you to display an image from a compatible device and charge it at the same time with 90W of power delivery. If you work with multiple monitors and want to keep your setup clean with minimal wires, it supports daisy-chaining via USB-C or DisplayPort. Lastly, it includes an Ethernet port that you can use to connect to the internet if your laptop doesn't have one.
Our Verdict
The Dell U3223QE is good for most uses. It's an impressive office monitor because it displays sharp text and provides enough screen space to open multiple windows side by side. It also has a big USB hub that makes it easy to connect multiple devices and be productive. It's excellent for content creators as it has fantastic out-of-the-box accuracy and incredible ergonomics if you need to share your screen with a coworker. It's great for media consumption, but blacks look gray in the dark. Sadly, it's just okay for gaming because it doesn't have variable refresh rate (VRR) support. It's not special for watching HDR either because colors don't look vivid, and highlights don't pop.
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High 4k resolution and large 32 inch screen.
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USB hub with a lot of features.
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Great SDR peak brightness.
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Fantastic ergonomics.
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Disappointing reflection handling.
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Slow response time.
The Dell U3223QE is an impressive office monitor. The 32 inch screen and 4k resolution are great for multitasking as you can open multiple windows side-by-side, and the text clarity is fantastic. It also has wide viewing angles and incredible ergonomics that make it easy to share your screen with someone else. It has a USB hub with a ton of inputs, including a DisplayPort output if you need to connect a secondary monitor.
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High 4k resolution and large 32 inch screen.
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USB hub with a lot of features.
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Great SDR peak brightness.
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Fantastic ergonomics.
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Disappointing reflection handling.
The Dell U3223QE is okay for gaming. The 4k resolution delivers crisp images, and the 32 inch screen is big enough for an immersive gaming experience. It also has a decent contrast ratio if you game in the dark, but it's not enough to deliver deep blacks. Sadly, it doesn't have any extra gaming features like VRR support or HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and it has a slow response time that results in motion blur.
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Low input lag for casual gaming.
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No VRR support or HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.
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Blacks look gray in the dark.
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Slow response time.
The Dell U3223QE is great for viewing multimedia content. The 4k resolution allows you to stream the latest 4k videos, and it has a 32 inch screen with wide viewing angles if you want to share the screen with someone else. It has incredible ergonomics that make it easy to place the screen in an ideal position. Sadly, it isn't the best for watching content in dark rooms because blacks look gray in the dark, and the local dimming performs terribly.
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High 4k resolution and large 32 inch screen.
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Fantastic ergonomics.
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Blacks look gray in the dark.
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Terrible HDR local dimming feature.
The Dell U3223QE is excellent for content creators. The high resolution offers fantastic text clarity and sharp images, and the screen is big enough to view a lot of your work at once. It also has fantastic out-of-the-box accuracy with a wide SDR color gamut, meaning it displays a wide range of colors as intended. It has incredible ergonomics if you want to adjust the screen to show your work to someone else, and the wide viewing angles mean that they'll see an accurate image from the sides.
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High 4k resolution and large 32 inch screen.
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USB hub with a lot of features.
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Fantastic ergonomics.
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Fantastic color accuracy.
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Disappointing reflection handling.
The Dell U3223QE is just okay for watching HDR content. Although it has a decent contrast ratio and decent black uniformity, blacks still look gray in the dark, and the local dimming is terrible. It displays a wide range of colors in HDR, but it undersaturates them, and combined with the low HDR peak brightness, colors aren't vivid and don't pop as they should in HDR.
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High 4k resolution and large 32 inch screen.
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Blacks look gray in the dark.
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Terrible HDR local dimming feature.
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Under-saturates colors in HDR.
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Not bright enough to make colors vivid.
- 7.7 Mixed Usage
- 8.4 Office
- 6.7 Gaming
- 8.0 Media Consumption
- 8.7 Media Creation
- 6.9 HDR
- Updated Mar 07, 2023: Retested the performance in HDR and updated the results in HDR Brightness, HDR Color Gamut, and HDR Color Volume. The biggest difference was with the Color Volume.
- Updated May 24, 2022: Expanded on new features, including the IPS Black technology, in the intro.
- Updated May 24, 2022: Review published.
- Updated May 18, 2022: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 32 inch Dell U3223QE, which is part of the UltraSharp Series lineup that includes the Dell U2723QE. Our test results are only valid for the 32 inch variant. You can see the difference between the monitors below.
| Model | Size | Resolution | Aspect Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| U2723QE | 27" | 3840x2160 | 16:9 |
| U3023E | 30" | 2560x1600 | 16:10 |
| U3223QE | 32" | 3840x2160 | 16:9 |
If you come across a U3223QE with a different panel type, or if it doesn't correspond to our review, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review. Note that some tests, like gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
Our unit of the Dell UltraSharp U3223QE was manufactured in February 2022; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other Monitors
The Dell U3223QE is an impressive office monitor that has a ton of features to help your workflow, like its daisy-chaining, KVM switch, and USB-C inputs. The 32 inch screen and 4k resolution are great for multitasking, and the incredible ergonomics make it easy to place in an ideal position. However, it's an expensive monitor, and if you aren't going to take advantage of all the extra features, go for something cheaper like the Dell S2722QC that still has a USB-C input and excellent ergonomics.
See our recommendations for the best 4k monitors, the best office monitors, and the best computer monitors.
The Dell U3223QE is a newer version of the Dell U3219Q with similar overall performance. There isn't too much difference in terms of picture quality, except the U3223QE displays a wider range of colors in HDR and has better out-of-the-box accuracy. The U3223QE also has an extra USB port compared to the U3219Q, and it has a KVM switch that allows you to control two devices with the same keyboard and mouse.
The Dell U2723QE is essentially a smaller version of the Dell U3223QE, but there are a few differences. The U2723QE has a wider swivel range, making it easier to share your screen with someone. The U2723QE also looks better in HDR as it doesn't undersaturate colors like on the U3223QE. Both have disappointing reflection handling, but reflections on the U3223QE result in a pink tint that the U2723QE doesn't have. Also, the U3223QE has better out-of-the-box accuracy because the white balance is better.
The Dell U3223QE and the Dell G3223Q are different types of 4k, 32 inch monitors. The G3223Q is a gaming monitor with a much higher refresh rate, VRR support, and quick response times, while the U3223QE is an office monitor with much better ergonomics and a bigger selection of inputs. Besides the different features, they have similar picture quality, but the G3223Q has much better reflection handling.
The Samsung Smart Monitor M8 S32BM80 and the Dell U3223QE are different types of 4k displays. The Samsung has a built-in smart interface meant to make it easy to stream your favorite content without a PC. It also performs better in dark rooms thanks to its higher contrast. However, the Dell is an office monitor with a bunch more inputs, including USB-A ports, making it easy to connect multiple devices and your mouse and keyboard. It also has much better out-of-the-box accuracy, and it displays a wider range of colors, making it a better choice for content creators.
The Dell U3223QE and the Gigabyte M32U are different types of 4k monitors. The Dell is focused on office use with a USB hub with more inputs than the Gigabyte, although the Gigabyte offers the same features, like DisplayPort Alt Mode and a KVM switch. The Dell also has much better ergonomics as you can rotate it into portrait mode. However, the Gigabyte is focused on gaming as it has a 144Hz refresh rate with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support, allowing you to play games at high framerates from PCs and consoles without issue.
The Dell S2722QC and the Dell U3223QE are both good overall 4k monitors with a few differences. The U3223QE has a better selection of inputs as it has a USB hub with a KVM switch, and it supports daisy chaining, allowing you to easily connect a second display. It also has better ergonomics as it allows for greater height adjustment. However, the S2722QC has much better reflection handling, and it's a bit more versatile for gaming because it has VRR support.
The Dell P3223DE and the Dell U3223QE are different types of 32 inch office monitors. The U3223QE has a much higher 4k resolution that delivers sharper text. While both have similar USB hubs, the U3223QE has two more USB-C ports and a KVM switch, allowing you to connect a keyboard and mouse and control two devices with them. The U3223QE also supports HDR, which the P3223DE doesn't, but the HDR experience isn't the best anyways. On the other hand, the P3223DE has much better reflection handling if you want to use it in a bright room.
Test Results
The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE has a simple design that looks nice in any office environment. It's mainly silver, except for the black bezels, and while there's nothing that stands out about it, it's a nice-looking monitor.
The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE has great build quality. It feels well-built, and there aren't any glaring issues. The back panel flexes under pressure, and the screen wobbles if you shake the table, but this isn't a problem if you put it on a sturdy desk. The screen remains in position when you adjust the tilt, swivel, or height, and like the Dell P3223DE, it locks in place when you adjust it to the max height, which helps keep it stable but also makes it a bit harder to put back down.
The Dell U3223QE has fantastic ergonomics. You won't have any issues placing the screen in an ideal position. When you adjust the screen to its max height, it locks in place, meaning it's stable, but it's also hard to put back down. There's a cutout in the stand for cable management.
The stand doesn't take up much space, and because the base is flat, you can still put stuff on top of it. Unlike the Dell S3221QS, the base has a straight edge in front, meaning you can put your keyboard flush against it.
There's a single joystick to navigate the on-screen menu and a power button to turn the display on and off.
- DisplayPort cable
- USB-C to USB-A cable
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- Power cable
- User guides and manuals
The Dell U3223QE has a decent contrast ratio. It uses a new IPS Black technology that improves the contrast compared to traditional IPS panels, so while it delivers deeper blacks, blacks still look gray in the dark. The local dimming doesn't improve the contrast much with the checkerboard pattern because it turns on all the dimming zones.
The Dell U3223QE has a local dimming that performs terribly. It only turns on in HDR; the video above is in the 'DisplayHDR 400' Smart HDR setting. It's edge-lit with eight vertical dimming zones, which are all on most of the time with real content, so it doesn't do much to improve the picture quality in dark scenes. It's slow at turning zones on and off to help reduce blooming and make it look less aggressive, but this also defeats the purpose of the local dimming as it reduces the contrast. Subtitles turn on six of the height zones, so it's not that useful. Luckily, the local dimming keeps details in dark scenes as there's no black crush.
The Dell U3223QE has great SDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to fight glare and maintains consistent brightness across different content. These results are from the 'Custom Color' Preset Mode after calibration with the Brightness at its max.
Update 03/07/2023: While this monitor didn't receive an official firmware update to fix some issues with HDR like with the Dell U2723QE, we still retested it to see if HDR performs differently. Although it uses the same firmware, M3T101, the HDR brightness is slightly lower than originally tested, and there's a smoother roll-off with the EOTF.
The Dell U3223QE has alright HDR peak brightness. It doesn't make small highlights pop at all and doesn't deliver a satisfying HDR experience. The EOTF doesn't follow the target PQ curve well either, as there's a slow roll-off until it reaches its peak brightness, but fortunately, that means it preserves details well in bright scenes. These results are from setting the Smart HDR mode to 'DisplayHDR 400'.
You can see an example here of what the U3223QE looks like in HDR compared to the Samsung QN90B QLED (left) and the LG G2 OLED (right). The monitor doesn't bring out highlights, and colors look under-saturated. The test content uses a Murideo 'The Seven Generator' device.
The Dell U3223QE has a great horizontal viewing angle. The image remains accurate from the sides, making it a good choice if you need to share the screen with someone next to you as everyone sees an accurate image.
The vertical viewing angle is decent on the Dell U3223QE. Although it loses image accuracy quicker than viewing from the sides, it's still fine if you're standing up and looking down at the monitor.
The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE has great gray uniformity. There's only a bit of vignetting towards the corners and edges. The screen is otherwise uniform, meaning you won't have any issues displaying webpages or documents.
The Dell U3223QE has decent black uniformity. It displays deeper blacks than most IPS panels thanks to its IPS Black technology, but blacks still look gray, and there's some backlight bleed. The local dimming helps improve the contrast with the test pattern, but it also causes more blooming. However, all the dimming zones turn on with most real content, so blooming isn't as noticeable.
The Dell U3223QE has fantastic out-of-the-box accuracy. The sRGB mode limits colors to the sRGB color space very well, and they're accurate. The white balance is fantastic, and while the color temperature is slightly on the cold side, the difference isn't noticeable. Gamma follows the sRGB target well, but some darker scenes are slightly too bright. Luckily, the sRGB mode only locks the RGB settings, so you can still adjust other settings like the brightness. Other modes are less accurate, with over-saturated colors.
The Dell U3223QE's accuracy after calibration is incredible. The color temperature is closer to the 6500K target, and any remaining inaccuracies aren't visible to the human eye.
The Dell U3223QE has a remarkable SDR color gamut. It covers the entire sRGB color space, which most web content uses. It has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing, but like many monitors, it doesn't display greens and reds properly, which isn't ideal if you need to edit photos with these colors.
The Dell U3223QE has an exceptional SDR color volume. It displays colors as bright as pure white, and it displays a wide range of colors. It struggles to display really dark colors due to its low contrast, but it's better than most IPS panels thanks to its IPS Black technology.
Update 03/07/2023: While this monitor didn't receive an official firmware update to fix some issues with HDR like with the Dell U2723QE, we still retested it to see if HDR performs differently. Although it uses the same firmware, M3T101, the HDR color gamut is more limited than originally tested, but it isn't a significant difference.
The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE has an excellent overall HDR color gamut. It has near-perfect coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space but has bad tone mapping and undersaturates colors. You can see an example of how undersaturated the colors are here. They don't look as vivid compared to the Samsung QN90B QLED (left) and the LG G2 OLED (right). The test content uses a Murideo 'The Seven Generator' device. Sadly, it's not future-proof because it has limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, which more content will start to use.
Update 03/07/2023: While this monitor didn't receive an official firmware update to fix some issues with HDR like with the Dell U2723QE, we still retested it to see if HDR performs differently. Although it uses the same firmware, M3T101, the HDR color volume is a lot worse than when originally tested, and it struggles to display bright colors well, meaning colors don't look vivid.
The Dell U3223QE has disappointing HDR color volume. It's limited by the incomplete color space, and it doesn't display really bright or really dark colors all that well. It really struggles to display colors at different luminance levels in the DCI-P3 color space.
The Dell U3223QE's reflection handling is disappointing. Glare from strong light sources is distracting, and even though it gets bright in SDR, it still isn't the best choice if you want to place it opposite a window. It also has a pink tint that's noticeable when comparing it to other monitors like the Dell U2723QE, but it's not distracting during regular use.
The Dell U3223QE has fantastic text clarity thanks to its high pixel density. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) makes the letters bolder and easier to read.
The Dell U3223QE has incredible gradient handling, meaning you won't notice any banding with shades of similar colors.
The max refresh rate with 10-bit signals and chroma 4:4:4 over HDMI is lower due to bandwidth limitations of HDMI 2.0. If you want to keep the 60Hz refresh rate with a 4k resolution, you need to send a 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 signal, but that worsens text clarity.
The Dell U3223QE doesn't support variable refresh rate technology.
| Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Normal | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Dell U3223QE has a poor response time at its max refresh rate of 60Hz. There's noticeable motion blur with fast-moving objects, like when scrolling through long documents. You can adjust the Response Time setting to 'Fast', but that results in way too much overshoot, causing inverse ghosting.
The Dell U3223QE doesn't support a 120Hz signal.
The Dell U3223QE doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.
The Dell U3223QE uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight below max brightness. However, the flicker frequency is so high that you won't notice it.
The Dell U3223QE has low enough input lag that you won't notice any delay during desktop use.
As the Dell U3223QE only has HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, it has limited compatibility with the PS5 and its advanced features. You can only play 4k games up to 60 fps.
Like with the PS5, you can only play games up to 60 fps on the Xbox Series X, and you can't take full advantage of the console's features. You can force a custom 1080p resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, and the monitor accepts the signal, but it's frame skipping and not displaying a true 120Hz signal. This happened with the Xbox and not the PS5.
The Dell U3223QE's standout feature is its massive USB hub. Most of the inputs are on the back, but there are two on the left underside, which are easier to access if you need to connect a mouse and keyboard. The right USB-C port on the back is an upstream port, which you need to use if you want to use the KVM switch.
The DisplayPort Out port is on the right if you want to daisy chain a second monitor. It sends a 4k @ 60Hz signal with 10-bit color depth without any problems to a second display if your graphics card supports Display Stream Compression (DSC). The Dell U3223QE also has an RJ45 Ethernet port, allowing you to connect directly to the monitor if your laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port, and it works without issues.
The middle USB-C port on the back supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, allowing you to display an image from a compatible device and charge it at the same time. It's the only port that supports 90W power delivery, while the one underneath the left side is only 15W, and the other is an upstream port needed for the KVM switch to work. If you want to charge a power-hungry device like a work laptop, connect it to the USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode.
If you use the USB-C ports for daisy-chaining, you need to make sure you set USB-C Prioritization to 'High Resolution' so that you can get two monitors at 4k @ 60Hz with 8-bit color depth, but once you set it to 10-bit color depth the signal is unstable. If you set USB-C Prioritization to 'High Data', both displays will run at 30Hz.
The Dell U3223QE works without any issue with recent MacBooks. The USB hub and Ethernet port work as intended, and windows return to their proper screens when waking up from sleep. If you try to daisy chain a second display, it will just mirror the first display with a MacBook connected.
The Dell U3223QE has a bunch of extra features to increase your productivity while working, including:
- ComfortView Plus: Removes blue light to help reduce eye strain.
- KVM Switch: Allows you to connect a keyboard and mouse to the monitor and control two sources with them.
- Multi-Monitor Sync: Synchronizes multiple monitor's settings when daisy chaining via DisplayPort.
- Multi-Stream Transport: Allows you to daisy chain via DisplayPort or USB-C.
- Power Sync: Automatically turns the display on and off when connected to a Dell PC via USB-C.
- USB-C Prioritization: Lets you change the setting between 'High Data Speed' for DisplayPort 1.2 bandwidth and USB 3.2 Gen 2 speed or 'High Resolution' for DisplayPort 1.4 bandwidth and USB 2.0 speed. Both settings work with 4k @ 60Hz signals if you have one monitor connected, but you need to set it to 'High Resolution' for daisy chaining if you want both to run at 60Hz.
