Dell 34 Plus USB-C Curved Monitor - S3425DW - 34-inch (3440 x 1440) up to 120 Hz 21:9 Display, VA Panel, AMD FreeSync Premium, 99% sRGB, 95% DCI-P3, Integrated Speakers, 3000:1 Contrast Ratio

After upgrading to a 360hz 1440p OLED and giving away my old 144hz 1440p IPS, I needed another monitor primarily productivity and programming as a CS student. But after trying other 27 inch 4k monitors with 60hz refresh rates, it didn’t feel like home. it just made everything feel slower and made me feel less productive. But this monitor ticks all my boxes, it reaches 350 nits brightness which is on par with my old monitor but with noticeably better contrast. You wouldn’t think 1000:1 to 1500:1 makes a difference if you own an OLED that can literally reach infinite:1 but yes, it makes a big difference. Colors look good to me when just eyeballing it next to my 2019 MacBook at a comparable brightness. The resolution at this size is fantastic text and every part of the UI is ultra crisp like my MacBook (honestly even more so, I think ClearType makes a big difference). Viewing angles are great. The matte coating does produce some grain which is noticable if you are in a dark room viewing full white screen within a foot away but it’s by far not the worse i’ve seen and with dark mode I legitimately cannot notice it and the reflection handling is pretty great.Now the refresh rate… wow. 4k on 27 inches with 120hz is just, stunning. Just feels like the way navigating a desktop is meant to feel. It honestly feels like a crime we use 60hz for literally anything, it makes everything just feel way more responsive. Response times are okay, absolutely fantastic for a productivity however for gaming with a mouse it wouldn’t be my first pick. It’s not my use case but I feel I should mention it. There is quite some noticable ghosting in games but I am coming from an OLED so I am probably particularly sensitive to noticing it. It’s FreeSync compatible which is just great but I would spend a bit more to get faster pixel response personally if you are going to ever play FPS games with keyboard and mouse on it. But if you are getting it for playing on a controller or console then you’ll probably be pretty happy and I would choose it over a another gaming focused monitor with 1000:1 contrast even with it’s relatively slower response time (it’ll be lightning fast compared to any LCD TV). People recommend getting and gaming on much slower VA MiniLED panels all the time so that’s worth mentioning.My only true complaint for my use case is there is a slight amount of vignetting on the right side of the panel which is only noticeable if I purposely move a light mode window to the edge and back again, watching it closely. I literally never notice it during actual work since I use dark mode but even if I used light mode I doubt it would bother me much if at all. No noticable flicker, IPS glow is very minimal with no noticable hotspots. Overall pretty great panel for the price and I couldn’t imagine wanting much more out of a productivity monitor.

It looks amazing, I have it next to my PC27UCDM (OLED), and it think it almost looks better, at 30% of the cost. The refresh rate is stable, the controls are nice, it looks wonderful, the HDR appears to be slightly washed out, but I haven't adjusted anything, so I am not taking off for that, (I always seem to think HDR is a little bright).

This monitor is impressive, let alone 'for its price' - I would put this in the top 3 monitors of bang/buck ratio, for a basic, no-frills, but just straight up delivers well. 4K resolution with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR, and has 2 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort input; and you can use a small menu to swap inputs, or an app to set hotkeys. Oh, and so far, I haven't seen it flicker with HDR on web browsing while scrolling, unlike my Dell gaming monitor (G3223Q) which does it enough that I end up turning off HDR most of the time.I bought this one, and an Ultrasharp with nearly the same model number. The U came with all sorts of credentials and certifications, and in the end, my wife, who is a graphics designer, said the S2725QS one felt more-right and the U, and at i2.5x cost, the U is headed back for a refund.In the end, this monitor has just the right size, functions to be a solid all-purpose monitor and does it at a price point I'm seriously thinking of 'standardizing' on it.

As another reviewer noted, the cardboard used in the box has a terrible smell. They should obviously address that. The monitor itself I also agree with reviews regarding color shift. To me it's not terribly significant side to side, however you can see the screen get noticeably washed out when moving up/away from the screen. Viewing angles aren't the best but honestly this is a common occurrence. I don't know about the quality of this particular VA monitor, just that IPS monitors in general tend to and SHOULD have better viewing angles. I'm pleased with it overall but it's still something to consider. I think it gets bright enough, I was more concerned before I changed the color settings because next to an IPS monitor the white was more yellow. They're different panels though and the IPS monitor is smaller and lower resolution. I think the colors look good - great and the monitor itself gets bright enough unless you have a very bright environment where I could see 'potential' for issues. What really surprised me was the bump in clarity. I understand some monitors are sharper but having nothing similar to compare it to, I'm satisfied with the resolution and it absolutely blows away a 1080 monitor. The speakers are excellent. They're not a replacement for dedicated speakers but they can certainly be used as such. It's not necessarily the quality but the loudness. They get LOUD. The quality is also very good. They're approaching the sound quality of a good, large TV. The interface is operated via button on the back and slightly annoying but easy to use and functional. A prompt came up on the screen to download additional software to customize the display. I honestly didn't know a monitor does this, I'm assuming through Windows update. I haven't done that yet and I'm satisfied with the quality enough that I might not get around to it. Setup was easy enough although I found it odd that there was no instruction manual whatsoever in the box. Not mine at least. Light bleed around the edges is practically non existent (on this panel) and the colors and resolution are good. I haven't noticed any flickering or dead pixels. BTW the monitor is flipped in the manufacturer box and Amazon placed it front of the box side up, which is logical and they probably don't know it's upside down in the box, but so that means it constantly got dropped directly on the screen whenever it was set down. They also shipped it inside another box for whatever reason so the package was massive. I'll update this review if anything odd starts happening but as of now I'm satisfied with it and would recommend it.Pros:ResolutionSpeakersDisplay colorsDesignSizeCons/not the best:Huge Amazon box 🤔BrightnessColor shiftNoxious packagingNo instructionsPrice