Artist Review: Dell U2722DE USB-C Monitor with Ethernet

Big thanks to Dell Singapore for providing this loan unit for review.

My review as usual will be from the perspective of a visual content creator, one who creates graphic design, digital art, edits photos and videos.

Price of the Dell U2722DE at the time of this review is US $679 or SGD 879.

Bottomline

The main selling point of this monitor is the RJ45 1000Mbps Ethernet port included that features MAC address pass-through, PXE Boot, and Wake-on-LAN.

Other Dell monitors that include Ethernet at the time of this review are U2421HE, U3421WE, U2721DE. Monitors that do not include Ethernet are too many for me to list. I recommend U or UP series monitors for graphic design work. See all the Dell monitors I've reviewed in the past.

If you don't need Ethernet built into the monitor, you can go with other monitors which obviously are going to be cheaper, eg. Dell U2722D (US $579, SGD 749). I would actually go with the Dell U2520D (US $349, SGD 619) which has 100% sRGB and 90W USB-C port.

Other notable features include

• KVM Switch
• Multi-Monitor Sync (for Window OS only), daisy-chain monitors with DisplayPort
• Colour support for 100% sRGB, 100% Rec.709 and 95% DCI-P3 and 1.07 billion color depth.
• Dell Power Button Sync (Windows OS only)
• Full adjustment for height, tilt, rotate, swivel

Things included

The cables are

• USB-C to USB-C
• USB-A to USB-C
• Full-sized DisplayPort to Full-sized DisplayPort
• Power cable

No HDMI cable is included.

This is a nice looking stand with silver-coloured matte textured plastic exterior and metal support within.

Build quality of the stand is solid and it's actually quite heavy.

Hole there is for cable management.

Back of the display also uses the same silver-coloured matte textured plastic.

Power button and directional toggle OSD button is located at the right side (when viewing the display from the front).

VESA mount dimensions are 10 by 10cm.

The ports from left to right are:

• HDMI 1.4
• DisplayPort 1.4 (HDCP 1.4)
• USB-C with 90W Power Delivery
• DisplayPort 1.4 (out) - This is for daisy-chaining
• USB-C - This is just for data transfer, no charging, no video
• 3x USB Type A (USB 3.2 Gen 2 speed, 10Gbps)
• 3.5mm audio line-out
• RJ45 1000Mbps Ethernet port

And there are USB Type A and USB-C ports at the bottom left (when viewing the display from the front).

All the seven USB ports are USB 3.2 with Gen 2 speeds. File transfer speeds are incredibly fast.

For some reason, the 3.5mm audio out does not support wired headphones/earphones. When I connected my wired earphones, I can't control the volume with MacOS but works fine with Windows.That audio port is probably for Dell's own soundbar which is sold separately.

My recommendation for connecting video input is to connect in such a way that the 90W USB port is free.

If you use a laptop with USB-C for charging, obviously just connect to the 90W port.

If you use a desktop with USB-C, don't use USB-C and instead connect with HDMI or DisplayPort, and use USB-A to C cable for data. This will free up the 90W USB-C port for another video input or for charging.

Back of the monitor looks good. The stand does not take up much space on the table. And I like the flat base.

Design of the Dell U2722DE looks beautiful.

The Dell logo is glossy and located on the stand. It's quite difficult to spot the logo.

Bezels are 7mm thick and uniform on all sides. The LCD is flush to the bezel which is flushed to the exterior housing. This display just looks really nice, very minimalist.

The colours look great out of the box. The monitor is actually already colour calibrated at the factory and the calibration report is provided. However, you should always do your own colour calibration if you're into visual content creation.

I calibrated the display with a Spyder5Pro colour calibrator and measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 94% P3, 86% AdobeRGB and 84% NTSC.

There's no mention on Dell's website whether this is a 8-bit, 8-bit with FRC or 10-bit monitor. Anyway, colour accuracy is quite good. I'm actually quite impressed with the 86% AdobeRGB coverage. AdobeRGB coverage for 100% sRGB 8-bit monitors is usually under 80%.

MacOS system info mentions 30-Bit Colour (ARGB2101010).

So yes, I'm very satisfied with the colours I see on this monitor. Maximum brightness is measured at 299 nits. I usually have the brightness at 60%.

This monitor is definitely more than capable for working with visual content.

2560 x 1440 resolution

The 1440P or QHD resolution on a 27-inch monitor is still a good combination. Yes there's noticeable pixelation, but 1440P resolution is very usable and significantly cheaper than 4K monitors. 1440P 27-inch monitors also work well with either Windows and MacOS.

For MacOS, 27-inch works well with 1440P and 5K.

Backlight bleed and uniformity

As with any IPS panel, there will be the typical IPS glow.

Uniformity is alright, definitely not the best, but acceptable.

There is magenta cast at the top two corners, and cyan cast at the bottom two corners. How much colour cast will depend on where you view the monitor from. When you're low looking up, the magenta cast take up a larger portion of the display.

I noticed backlight bleed at the bottom left and right where the glow is more obvious.

While watching movies, the bottom backlight glow is still slightly noticeable. Note that different units may have different levels of backlight glow, and location of the glow will vary.

Daisy-chain monitors

Daisy-chaining monitors is possible only with DisplayPort.

On MacOS
With two external monitors (Dell U2722DE and BenQ SW2700PT) connected to my Macbook Pro using DisplayPort, the two displays could only mirror each other. Desktop will be extended on the the external monitors, but the two monitors will show the same content.

Windows
This daisy-chain feature works well with Windows. I was able to extend the desktop to both external displays.

Dell Display Manager

This is a Windows software that can manage a group of monitors. There are settings to change the brightness, contrast, inputs, etc.

And then there's the Multi-Monitor Sync which allows Dell Display Manager to have some control over other daisy chained (DisplayPort only) monitors. For example, when you change the brightness of your main display, that brightness will sync to the 2nd connected display. This only works with selected compatible monitors.

USB Switch for KVM

KVM Switch only works with Picture in Picture (PIP) and Picture by Picture (PBP).

Using the OSD shortcut, you can switch control of your keyboard and mouse to either display. The KVM feature will really help users who use mouse and keyboard that don't allow multiple connections, e.g. a typical wired keyboard.

I'm actually using Logitech K780 wireless keyboard and Logitech M720 wireless mouse, both of which are capable of connecting and switching between three devices. I prefer to use the dedicated keys on the keyboard and mouse to switch between devices rather than using OSD button on the monitor (which is actually quite easy to switch too).

Using one keyboard and mouse with two computers

In this scenario we are not using PIP or PBP.

Here's an example.

First computer is a desktop connected with HDMI/DisplayPort and USB-A to C cable (to the USB-C data port, not the 90W USB-C port).

Second computer can be one that's connected with one single USB-C cable to the 90W USB-C port (for video and data). OR you can create another HDMI/DisplayPort + USB connection like the first computer.

Mouse and keyboards are connected to the USB-A and USB-C ports at the front.

In this case, the keyboard and mouse will work with whichever computer that is powered on. And if two computers are powered on, you can use PIP or PBP and use the KVM Switch controls for the keyboard and mouse.

Ethernet

This is the selling point of the Dell U2722DE. If you don't need Ethernet, you can just go with the cheaper Dell U2722D.

The Ethernet speed is rated at 1000Mbps. The speed above was recorded from fast.com which is Netflix's website for testing bandwidth.

Ethernet speed is blazing fast (depending on your ISP of course). Come to think of it, 300MBps is actually the internet plan I have from my ISP, and this speed is significantly faster than my router's WiFi.

The main ethernet features are MAC address pass-through, PXE Boot, and Wake-on-LAN.

The monitor has a permanent MAC address and it's labeled on the back of the monitor.

To get internet to your computer via Ethernet that's connected to the Dell monitor, you simply connect a USB cable to the monitor.

So the big question is whether you need Ethernet or is WiFi sufficient?

Conclusion

The Dell U2722DE is a nice looking monitor with reasonably good colour accuracy. It's definitely more than capable for visual content work.

The monitor also comes with many useful features such as having an Ethernet port, KVM Switch, daisy-chain capability, and has a good selection of ports.

Downsides would be the blacklight glow and panel uniformity. These would be noticeable when you're watching movies in a dark room but under normal conditions, e.g. working in a lit room, you won't see those issues. Another downside is somehow the 3.5mm audio jack is not said to support earphones so there could be some issues when using them.

The pricing of US $679 or SGD 879 is quite reasonable for the performance and features.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Availability

You can find the Dell U2722DE at Dell Singapore, or other Dell branches and Amazon