Dell has unveiled some impressive new monitors for the new year. The 2017 lineup includes new Infinity Edge displays, HDR displays, a new touchscreen display, and even the world’s first 32-inch, 8K monitor.
The new lineup hits on every major category, offering up professional-grade monitors at premium prices, affordable HDR monitors, and a pair of business-oriented monitors designed to fit into a multi-monitor workflow. Each one features a slick, understated design, and increasingly narrow bezels. According to Dell, these monitors are just another example of why it’s been the No. 1 monitor manufacturer for three years running.
That’s right, not 4K — 8K. Don’t get your hopes up though, as this isn’t exactly a budget-friendly monitor. It’s designed for professional use, and it shows. It’ll run you $5,000, but the Dell UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD 8K monitor is designed from the ground up to provide an unparalleled viewing experience. With pixel density of 280 pixels-per-inch, the new UltraSharp 8K isn’t just big — it’s razor sharp.
Offering 1.07 billion colors, precise factory color calibration, and an all-aluminum build, the UltraSharp 8K is a high-end luxury monitor through and through. It’s not exactly the kind of display you’d use to type up expense reports and work on spreadsheets — but if you did, they’d look great.
The UltraSharp 8K’s enormous display provides over 33.2 million pixels of resolution, and more than 16 times more content than full HD, and wide color coverage based on professional industry standards.
Dell claims the UltraSharp 8K will hit 100 percent of the Adobe RGB and sRGB gamuts right out of the box, and feature a 7680 x 4320 resolution, dwarfing even the largest 4K monitor in its existing lineup.
It’s big, sharp, and very bright. With a reported contrast ratio of 1,300-to-1, and a max brightness of 400 lux, the UP3218K has the makings of an incredibly impressive monitor, and it should for that price.
Additionally, the UP3218K features a standard array of connections and ports, offering four USB 3.0 ports, two DisplayPort 1.3 ports, and an audio line out, but no HDMI support.
Dell also unveiled a new slate of S Series monitors, which are much more affordable than the UltraSharp 8K, starting at just $200.
The new S Series monitors feature flicker-free displays, ultra-thin bezels, and the larger models support AMD’s FreeSync and Dell’s InfinityEdge technology, further minimizing the already razor-thin bezels.
There are four new monitors in the S series, but they fall into two categories, the first two are smaller, less expensive and less fully-featured, while the larger pair support HDR and a host of premium features. All four, feature a stylish new stand design with a glossy back-cover.
First up, the smaller models — the 22-inch S2218H, and 23-inch S2318HX. These are fairly standard 1080p monitors, featuring ultra-thin bezels but not quite the bezel-free experience you’ll get from an Infinity Edge display.
Next up, the larger models — the 24-inch S2418HX and 27-inch S2718HX — which will hit the upper end of the price spectrum at $290, and $380. These two support HDR10 content, feature full Infinity Edge panels, for that all-around bezel-free look.
Even though they’re only 1080p, they do have some features that will be appreciated by gaming enthusiasts. Namely, they support AMD’s FreeSync technology, which ensures that frames rendered by your PC show up without any screen-tearing in compatible games.
Last but not least, Dell has also unveiled a pair of 24-inch monitors designed primarily for business and office use. The first of which is a monitor designed for desktop video conferencing.
Featuring a built in full HD IR camera with a privacy shutter and noise canceling microphone, the P2318HZ will support Windows Hello right out of the box. Additionally, it will feature a 1080p display and narrow bezels, designed for a multiple-monitor desk space, and two 5W speakers.
It will also support HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA connections, with one port for each, and six USB 3.0 ports.
The 24-inch P2418HT is another monitor designed for business use, but this touch-sensitive monitor echoes the Microsoft Surface Studio, with a custom-designed armature stand that will allow the monitor to pivot down into a drawing or slate mode.
With a VESA compatible articulating stand, and support for 10 points of simultaneous multi-touch, the P418HT stands to benefit significantly from the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update — which was designed with creative professionals in mind.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.