Dell Marketing USA LP Ultra Sharp 49" Screen Led-Lit Monitor

So I bought this thing back in December 2019. I wanted to wait to give a review because I thought there would be a lot of little nuances that come with owning such a unique and large monitor. And there is.First off, it's heavy. Wherever you get this mailed to, bring a buddy. The box was literally bigger than me and weighed a ton. Even if you are a bigger guy, good luck getting your arms around this thing in a way that isn't awkward.Unboxing was easy though. Dell put instructions on the box and on the packaging inside the box to guide you through doing it safely and without damaging the monitor. (Dell always does a good job at this to be honest). You don't really appreciate how awesome this thing is until you see it in person though. I watched YouTube videos of people putting it together and turning it on but man, seeing it in real life is totally different.So I plug it in, power it on, and there is my desktop. I could not help but smile. It was just so outrageous and over the top and beautiful. Colors out of the box were clear, crisp, and balanced. I did still tweak it though. I turned up the brightness from 50% to 75% because I work in a very bright room with windows and it looks fantastic! Also calibrated the colors a just a little because I work with color sensitive projects and Pantones.Been using it for almost 8 months now and have not had any technical issues at all. Looks and works just as good as day 1.So was this really worth it though? Short answer. No. This is an over the top monitor for people who want an awesome experience. This is by no means an economically sound choice in my opinion. If you are someone who needs a lot of screen real-estate. you would get far better value just buying 3 or 4 monitors. BUT, if you want a clean, attractive, minimal and feature rich experience and can afford the premium, yes, this thing is awesome. The built in USB-C KVM switch is perfect for when I need to work from home off of my laptop and want to switch between work and home PC's during lunch/breaks/slacking off time. Having all the cables routed to a single monitor keeps my desk clutter free and attractive. The Dell software for organizing your screen real-estate works great. And the experience of playing video games that can support this resolution is a truly one of a kind. Sailing in Sea of Thieves or raiding in Destiny 2 is a next level experience on this thing.Cons:- Stand was big and heavy and took up a lot of room. Buying the Amazon Basics Premium mounting arm fixed that though! but you still will want to get one which is why it's a con.- Expensive!- probably too big for most desks- Too much screen for me honestly- Gives off a lot of heatPros:+ Gorgeous, color accurate, crisp display+ No technical issues+ Dell window management software is good+ Clean and minimal+ Great packagingOpinion piece:Here's the thing though, don't be sold on the idea that you will be a multitasking master on this thing. Or on any multiple monitor set up for that matter. More monitors does not mean you will get more done faster. If anything, it could potentially make it worse. I've been using this thing for 8 months now and I really do love it but I constantly wonder if I would be happier and more productive on something smaller like a 32" ultrawide or even just go back to a flat 27". I don't use all the space for anything useful and for my professional work, IT/programming/Design, it doesn't help me much. If I have multiple windows up I just get distracted. If I only have one window up like Photoshop or my IDE, then I have 2 large bezels of wallpaper on my left and right. Which is fine but a waste.+ If you are someone who wants to edit videos and see a huge timeline, this IS the monitor for you.+ If you are someone who wants to consume media like music, YouTube, twitch, and Netflix at an alarming rate, this IS the monitor for you.+ If you are someone who wants to play games at a gorgeous 1440x5120 resolution and don't mind that it's 60hz, this IS the monitor for you.+ If you are some one who wants to have multiple File Explorer windows open while you organize thousands of photos, songs, videos, ect, this IS the monitor for youIf you are someone that really needs a monitor for professional reason, please watch as many reviews as possible before considering something this over the top. I think you will find that there are more efficient ways to get work done. Too much screen real-estate just isn't that good for being productive. And honestly I am considering selling this and downgrading for those reasons. I am going to go back to my 27" and 32" for a while to see if I miss it first though before making any rash decisions.It's an absolutely wonderful monitor and it gives you everything it promises. Dell made a fantastic product here. I just don't think everyone who can afford it should get it. Figure out what your needs are first.Update 8/31/2020:So I went back to my 27" for awhile and even used an ultrawide that I borrowed... It didn't last very long. I went right back to this thing after 2 weeks. It really is a joy to use and the benefits that it actually adds in the way of features is greatly appreciated. I was very skeptical about the benefits in productivity and still am but I would chalk that up to personal preference. I have found ways to optimize productivity for the work that I do that minimizes distractions and, like I said before, I simply can't go back to the 27" like I thought I would. If you are in a position to get one of these monitors I would say go for it.

Though this is a bit pricey for a monitor, the productivity boost with being able to have 4 sizable windows open for multitasking is huge. When viewing videos you’ll appreciate the high resolution. I don’t use this for gaming so I can’t speak to whether it is good for that. I saw in several YT reviews that people would knock this monitor for not having the ability to rotate the monitor from side-to-side. They obviously didn’t do their homework. The lowest portion of the base that rests on your desk is a round swivel base (underneath) allowing the monitor to be rotated if necessary. I’m using a 2022 13” MacBook Pro (in a TwelveSouth stand) with an Apple Keyboard and Touchpad. I can use the fingerprint button on the keyboard to fire up both the computer and the monitor. Works great and keeps my desktop relatively clear. This is an awesome monitor!

I've had this monitor for about a year, and I love it!I'm rating it 4 stars overall, but if all you are doing is serious business productivity, this is a 5 star device.Productivity:The display resolution is fantastic; loads of space to spread out your work on screen and to avoid context switching.Dell has the best built-in KVM functionality of the various monitors that I've tried; the execution is good but not great. This monitor has 2 USB type B upstream connectors to connect to two different computers, and a pair of USB type A downstream connectors to its built-in USB hub (where you'd connect keyboard/mouse). It has two HDMI inputs and a Display Port input. It has a USB type C connector that serves as both a display input and a USB upstream connector. The monitor allows you to map a display input to one of the USB type B upstreams so that the hub switches to that upstream when you activate that display input. You cannot select an upstream when the USB type C is active; it switches the upstream to the USB type C automatically. The effect of all this is that you can connect up to three computers to the monitor and share the same display, keyboard and mouse without needing to plug/unplug cables to switch between them.This works well but is let down a little by the OSD on the monitor; the OSD is slow to respond (taking a couple of seconds to pop up!) and the buttons are typical Dell style--5 buttons spaced out under the bottom of the screen with no labels and a counter intuitive layout/function that requires a lot of button pressing to switch the input. It does allow assigning shortcuts for two inputs; double pressing one of the two assignable buttons will do a "quick switch" to the assigned channel but it has a number of caveats: if the current channel has no signal the shortcut won't work. If the destination channel has no signal the monitor might auto switch to a different channel. If you have three devices then you'll have to suck it up and use the full OSD about a third of the time. None of this is a deal breaker but it is the least appealing part of working with this monitor. A joystick style OSD menu would be a very welcome change, and making the menu much faster to appear would make this almost perfect.Picture By Picture:You can configure the monitor to act as though it was two 27" monitors side by side. I personally didn't get on with this feature; I'd rather just switch the channel and see the other input at the full resolution of the display. On the couple of occasions where I wanted side by side, I found that I had to change the resolution on both screens to match the new aspect ratio to eliminate the top and bottom letterboxing black bars.Gaming:This monitor is not designed for gaming. You need a reasonably strong graphics card to drive it at its maximum 60Hz refresh rate. That's not a fantastic refresh rate for modern games, and the lack of some kind of GPU sync functionality means that you will notice screen tearing.It was however perfectly adequate for and a great immersive experience playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey.Casual first person games also play OK, but if you are pro/elite you'll want something with a higher refresh rate and faster response time.Some games don't know how to cope with the 32:9 aspect ratio and either shrink the vertical height, or place things like cutscenes off center. It's also common for 3D games to stretch the visuals at periphery of the monitor; you'll want to tweak the FOV (field of view) setting if available to compensate and make it look right.Mounting:For about a year I've been using the included stand but resented the desk footprint; the stand has a reasonable amount of vertical travel but not enough to raise it to my preferred height above the desk surface, so I've been using a riser to gain the extra height. That cost me about 1 square foot of desk space.The monitor is VESA mount compatible but has a recessed VESA mount which means that you will need to use spacers to mount it. I recently installed https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GFRP5HT (VIVO STAND-V155C) to mount this monitor and reclaimed my lost desk space. It makes my desk feel open again! Note that if you want to repeat this configuration you will need to purchase 4x Steel Pan Head Machine Screw M4 25 mm (eg: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F32E91G) to work with the recessed VESA mount.Future:I have my eyes on the Samsung Odyssey G9 which, at the time of writing, isn't yet available to purchase. The G9 is tuned a bit more for gaming; it has better refresh rates, Gsync and HDR but doesn't have the KVM functionality of the Dell. The G9 definitely requires a top end graphics card to drive it.