Dell UltraSharp Monitor (U2722D) Review

This is my review of the monitor that I am using now. Four months ago, I got a new monitor, as I wanted something new. Amongst many options, I bought the Dell UltraSharp U2722D Monitor, as it fit my needs perfectly. My needs are:

• minimalistic design
• A good fit between my computer and my peripherals
• A 27 inch display with at least a Quad HD resolution and at least 60Hz
• Compatible drivers with macOS Monterey
• A USB-C Compatible model

From those requirements, this monitor fit 4.5 out of them. Why did I say that? Well, the only cons about this monitor are, there is a bit of false advertising and misleading information on Dell’s website, which can lead to confusion.

Minuses

The monitor was classified as “USB-C compatible”, when the additional ports only worked with USB-C, which meant that there was no support for USB-C video output. I was panicking, as I had paid around $400 for a monitor that didn’t have a compatible USB-C video port. I thought that the monitor was not working, but then I realized what was wrong. The monitor needed a DisplayPort Connection to transmit USB accessories outputs and video.

I have a Mac mini (M1, 2020), which doesn’t have a DisplayPort, but has USB-C (Thunderbolt), which to my understanding is a small version of DisplayPort. That meant that I needed a DisplayPort to USB-C cable to use the one cable function. The other option was to use a USB-A to USB-C cable and an HDMI cable to get the same functionality. At that time, I couldn’t get one, and still cannot.

I may get one cable soon, but I am quite shocked at the prices. I’d expect that type of cable to cost around $10, but it costs around $20, which is quite a lot for a cable, at least for me. The monitor works now, and does things quite well.

The second con is quite different. The drivers are decent, but can’t run properly. What do I mean by that? Well, the program cannot open, but automatically sets things up. It detects that there is something wrong, but I can’t see what it is. This is the icon that appears as the only things that makes me sure that it is indeed working.

The second icon is the program that is recommended to be installed by Dell. It only shows that and nothing else. When I right-click on it and click “Open Dell Display Manager”, it crashes and closes. None of the other buttons do anything. I am still wondering how to fix this. It is doing something, but I cannot tell what. Sometimes, it calibrates itself, sometimes, it does software updates, so it is clearly doing something.

It also does not have a built in speaker.

Plusses

Let’s get to the good things of this monitor.

• It matches with silver Apple devices. The stand has a similar color to my Mac, which is very nice. I like matching things, so it makes my desk look good.

• The second pro is the picture quality. The pre-installed calibration profile was not the best, but was certainly better than the Mac default one. I additionally adjusted it a bit, but I just changed 2 or 3 settings from the 10 that there are, so Dell did a decent job on that part. The thing is, that I actually enjoy the pre-installed calibration better. The one that I made was just slightly different in the white and black colors, but you can barely see a difference.

• The third pro is the adjustability. The monitor can be turned vertically, horizontally, left and right in both positions and up and down in horizontal mode. That is a very important thing for me, as I am not the tallest person, and I need to have my legs touching the ground while I am sitting, it is very good that I can adjust the monitor’s position.

• The instructions were clear and showed the important things a person needs to know when setting the monitor up. It also showed the possible problems that can happen and helped you solve them, or told you to go to Dell’s website.

• The fifth pro is the easy installation of the stand to the screen. It clipped in very easily, and fit with the design on the back. All of the tools needed were already built in the actual resources that you need, like the screw of the base. It already had a handle to screw it into the other part, or the clip on the screen part for the stand. I didn’t need anything while I was mounting it.

• The box had everything needed, like a DisplayPort cable and a USB-A to USB-C cable. It has a cool design, and used recycled carton. There was a lot that was thought into the box, like putting a protector on the screen while you are mounting the stand etc. Everything had a place for it. It even had a color calibration report, for the ones who need it. it was a graph that I think was the vividness of the colors on the screen.

• The screen has a variable, but stable frame rate. It is a 60Hz screen, but I saw that it could display from 59Hz to 68Hz, but that was in rare occasions, like when I am playing games. It stays at 60-62Hz most of the times.

• The software in the monitor is very good and can control the picture in many ways, and is easy to use. There is a first-time setup, which asks you which port you will be using, your language and other things.

• The screen’s brightness is even everywhere, which is a big improvement from my previous monitor. The brightness is dimmer in the corners than in the center.

• It has a USB Hub on it, and it has one USB 3.0 and a standard USB-C port on the bottom and 2 more USB 3.1 ports on the back, as well as another USB-C port. 3 out of the 5 ports can deliver 15W of charging speed, which is not the best, but it is better than some other monitors.

• It is a frameless display and has a thin bezel, and a logo on the stand. it looks pretty good with it.

• You can plug in an additional soundbar at the bottom of the monitor, but I do not advise you to, as it doesn’t sound that good. You can plug in headphones in the monitor, but the Mac controls for it are scuffed, so please do that if you are on Windows, not on Mac.

• It has a good design on the back.

These were all the pros of the monitor. Here are the scores:

Scores

Quality: 9/10

Picture quality: 10/10

Compatibility: 8.5/10

Experience: 9.5/10

Latency: 10/10 (for the advertised amount)

Ease of Use: 8.5/10

Overall:

9.5 out of 10