Incoming Gadget – Dell U3415W Ultrasharp Curved 34 Inch Monitor

A little while back when I wrote about upgrading the CPU in my desktop I alluded to another upgrade involving my monitor.

I’ve had my fantastic 30 inch Apple Cinema HD monitor for six years. It did cost a pretty penny as well given that 30 inch high resolution monitors were a niche market back in 2009 and was more than I had originally planned to spend. However, my wife was very supportive of the purchase so who was I to decline? 🙂

Anyway, fast forward to 2015 and the Apple Cinema HD monitor is still going strong aside from an intermittent issue with the monitor staying stuck on or off but pulling the plug sets that straight. However, given the limited real estate on my desk, I can’t put two 30 inch monitors on it without severely obstructing my view of the rest of the room. The other option would be to go for two smaller monitors but that would feel like taking a step back, right?

So, I arrived at the conclusion that a new single monitor was the best solution but a 16:9 or 16:10 monitor wasn’t going to cut it.

It was time to go 21:9 – ultrawide, baby!

Long story short, I had considered the LG 34UM97 34 inch curved monitor but was concerned with what I had heard in terms of their support quality. I was also pondering if I should wait for the Acer Predator XR341CK 34 inch curved monitor as it would also include G-Sync at up to a whopping 144Hz but nothing more has been heard about it since January and February this year. Whilst Acer have been improving their quality product offerings I did feel more comfortable going with Dell. Besides, I can’t buy the Acer monitor because it hasn’t been released.

What tipped the Dell monitor purchase over the edge was the 20% off sale on eBay for electronics which was better than the 15% discount I could obtain through work. If I added the proceeds from some gadget sales earlier in the year it brought the cost of the Dell monitor down to about half of the AU$1359 price tag (which is less than what I paid for the Apple monitor back in the day).

Speaking of which, I won’t be selling the Apple monitoras it will find ongoing use at work as my primary monitor for development work flanked by two smaller 24 inch screens for reference materials, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.

To wrap things up, I am keenly awaiting the delivery of the Dell monitor and will of course do my unboxing and review videos so stay tuned!