Review on 🖥️ Dell UltraSharp 34" LED Monitor with QHD Wide 3440x1440P, Curved Screen, and Swivel, Tilt, and Height Adjustment - PXF79, HD, 60Hz by Scott Mclean

I've been watching the new 34" widescreen monitor class for about 6 months. At first I was excited about LG, but after reading a lot of complaints about the backlight and other quality issues, I decided to wait. For reference, I use it as a home Office monitor connected to the latest 15" MacBook Pro via Thunderbolt -> Displayport with full resolution at 60Hz. Appearance: Both Winner Dell monitors look beautiful. Dell has a flatter, simpler bezel that wraps around the sides disappears when monitor is off. Samsung bezel is more pronounced but still looks good. I consider this a small win for Dell and very subjective. In addition to normal DP and HDMI, I really like Samsung's two HDMI inputs This allowed me to connect two different HDMI sources for PBP/PIP functionality, namely the Revain Firestick and the DirecTV box.I also prefer Sam's port layout solution with all ports on the back facing out and away from the back. Ports are significantly easier to reach and work better with a monitor arm (or other cable management device) as they tend to point both away from the monitor and toward its source, rather than down, which requires a sharp turn to get a straight view ensure outside the line. The sharp twisting of the tendons on my monitor arm for the Dell layout (ports down) actually put enough pressure on the arm pivot that I had to adjust it to avoid twisting unintentionally. And while Dell's ports are well labeled, it's still difficult to connect the stupid non-reversible connectors without being under a monitor. PIP/PBP: Samsung's Winner Both Dell and Samsung have generally similar PBP/PIP parameters. Dell offers a handy feature that allows you to map different USB upstream inputs (there are two) to different inputs (to control different computer peripherals, for example). However, Samsung is more capable in many ways. With Samsung you can characterize each input so that the resolution better matches the source, for example you can characterize the HDMI input as an AV source instead of a PC and get a better 1080P picture. Samsung also has much better sound options for PIP windows. A critical drawback from Dell is that while you can set the audio source to either the "main" or "secondary" window (i.e. PBP or PIP), there is no way to tell the monitor to default to one or the other is set, which activates the PBP window /PIP. This means that if you're using PBP/PIP for your TV, you'll have to drill down into the menu structure to turn the sound back on every time you turn it on. This is very annoying for a feature I intend to use frequently. I remember Samsung had me set this up so that whenever a PBP/PIP window was activated it would get audio priority. Menu structure and controls: Test winner Dell Samsung relies on a joystick on the back that you have to "click". to make a selection, while Dell has four buttons on the front that are activated by some kind of capacitive sensor or something. A nice feature from Dell is that you can set two of the four touch buttons as shortcuts to frequently used functions like volume level, PIP/PBP, input source, etc. Unfortunately, one of these cannot be assigned a name for the sound source, which would at least alleviate the problem discussed above. All in all, while I don't find either of them entirely comfortable to use (and there's no Dell monitor software for Mac), I prefer the buttons on the front of the Dell to the joystick on the back of the Samsung. The Dell layout works better on my arm with the monitor because on the Samsung I've always fumbled with my monitor's position on my arm by fumbling, not to mention it was harder to get on the Samsung. The menu structure of each is fine. , although I find Dell to be a bit simpler and more direct, although Samsung has more diverse features, especially AV-related features. Stands: a tie Both Samsung and Dell have decent stands. As mentioned above, I use a monitor arm that will easily hold anyone with a 100x100 VESA mount. Sound: Test winner Dell Both Samsung and Dell have an acceptable sound. Dell has slightly more powerful speakers (2 x 9 W) compared to Samsung (2 x 7 W). I found the Dell to sound slightly better in TV and music tests, but that's very subjective. Viewing Angles: Dell Winners I've read that the Samsung's VA panel probably has worse viewing angles compared to the Dell's IPS panel, but I wasn't expecting there to be as much of a difference as there was. With Samsung, you could even see a clear color change from one side to the other, especially in the test sample, without changing the viewing position. This was much more pronounced when changing the viewing position. When viewing a test sample, the whitish-gray letters were noticeably tinted pinkish-purple toward the edges. And if you have a picture, a TV, etc. Samsung was much more sensitive to changing viewing positions. While the Dell also suffers from some variation when changing position, it was much better in a fixed position, seeing edge-to-edge and also maintaining color uniformity much better when changing viewing position. Colors: tie. After calibration, both monitors can reproduce great colors in my opinion. However, Samsung doesn't come with factory calibration, and the original settings looked pretty terrible. Luckily I read about it before I bought it so I didn't just box it up and send it back. I don't have professional sizing equipment so my sizing was based on reviews I found online and my own preferences, but I think both work very well. The really nice thing about the Dell is that it comes with a factory calibration report and comes out of the box in very good condition. More adjustments may need to be made depending on taste (especially brightness) but I think both can achieve the same performance. Black Levels and Slight Bleeding: Winner's Samsung VA panels have an advantage over IPS panels (read: IPS Glow) when it comes to black levels, and it was obvious. The Samsung's black levels were significantly better than the Dell's with the same brightness. That being said, it seems like Samsung is showing a little more "black swarm" in dark scenes. When it comes to light distortion, Samsung outperforms Dell. There's almost no noticeable glare on the Samsung, while the Dell definitely has telltale flare in the corners. It seems better than LG's and not so bad that dark scenes become uncomfortable, but when you look at flat black backgrounds the Samsung is a lot better. Text clarity and sharpness: Dell winners. You may have noticed that I really liked Samsung and thought it was better than Dell in many ways, but this was an absolute deal killer for me. I couldn't get the Samsung to have plaintext no matter how much I tweaked it. It was either not sharp enough, causing text to appear blurry around the edges, or too sharp and had an artificial white halo, especially on small text. I think it might have something to do with Samsung's pixels being elongated while Dell's are more square. As I mentioned, Dell came out of the box as it should, while Samsung needed a lot of tweaking and I still couldn't get it right. Ultimately the text clarity on the Samsung bothered me so much I ordered a Dell and now I have a Dell and Samsung is back. I guess there's a chance my Mac is part of the problem, but I find it hard to believe my Mac looked good on so many other screens. Overall Winner: Dell. While I really liked the Samsung's functionality, port layout, and black levels, I was ultimately won over by the Dell's text clarity and much better viewing angles. I hope Dell will consider giving me a better sound control option, but I doubt it. I guess I'll have to live with that until a decent 34" 4K monitor comes along! Here's a link to the Flickr gallery with pictures: [.]. I've also attached photos here.