UHD is dead. Not really, but it would seem that displays bigger than UHD/4K will soon be coming to market. The ability of being able to stitch two regular sized outputs into the same panel is now being exploited even more as Dell has announced during its Modern Workforce livestream about the new ‘5K’ Ultrasharp 27-inch display.  The ‘5K’ name comes from the 5120 pixels horizontally, but this panel screams as being two lots of 2560x2880 in a tiled display.

5120x2880 at 27 inches comes out at 218 PPI for a total of 14.7 million pixels. At that number of pixels per inch, we are essentially looking at a larger 15.4-inch Retina MBP or double a WQHD ASUS Zenbook UX301, and seems right for users wanting to upgrade their 13 year old IBM T220 for something a bit more modern.

Displays Sorted by PPI
Product Size / in Resolution PPI Pixels
LG G3 5.5 2560x1440 534 3,686,400
Samsung Galaxy S5 5.1 1920x1080 432 2,073,600
HTC One Max 5.9 1920x1080 373 2,073,600
Apple iPhone 5S 4 640x1136 326 727,040
Apple iPad mini Retina 7.9 2048x1536 324 2,777,088
Google Nexus 4 4.7 1280x768 318 983,040
Google Nexus 10 10 2560x1600 300 4,096,000
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro 13.3 3200x1800 276 5,760,000
ASUS Zenbook UX301A 13.3 2560x1440 221 3,686,400
Apple Retina MBP 15" 15.4 2880x1800 221 5,184,000
Dell Ultrasharp 27" 5K 27 5120x2880 218 14,745,600
Nokia Lumia 820 4.3 800x480 217 384,000
IBM T220/T221 22.2 3840x2400 204 9,216,000
Dell UP2414Q 24 3840x2160 184 8,294,400
Dell P2815Q 28 3840x2160 157 8,294,400
Samsung U28D590D 28 3840x2160 157 8,294,400
ASUS PQ321Q 31.5 3840x2160 140 8,294,400
Apple 11.6" MacBook Air 11.6 1366x768 135 1,049,088
LG 34UM95 34 3440x1440 110 4,953,600
Korean 27" WQHD 27 2560x1440 109 3,686,400
Sharp 8K Prototype 85 7680x4320 104 33,177,600

Dell has been pretty quiet on the specifications, such as HDMI or DisplayPort support, though PC Perspective is reporting 16W integrated speakers. If the display is using tiling to divide up the transport workload over two outputs, that puts the emphasis squarely on two DP 1.2 connections. There is no mention of frame rates as of yet, nor intended color goals.

Clearly this panel is aimed more at workflow than gaming.  This is almost double 4K resolution in terms of pixels, and 4K can already bring down the majority of graphics cards to their knees, but we would imagine that the content producer and prosumer would be the intended market. Word is that this monitor will hit the shelves by Christmas, with a $2500 price tag.

Source: Dell

Comments Locked

75 Comments

View All Comments

  • jmunjr - Saturday, September 6, 2014 - link

    Once again another LCD churned out that is a less productive design than it could have been. 16:9 is generally best for movie watchers.
  • Johnmcl7 - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link

    I find 16:9 better for a lot of uses, I rarely use it for video - when processing video it means I can have more of my timeline on the screen at once and when developing 3:2 photos it means I can have them full size in the middle with room for toolboxes down the side. I'd love the 34in 21:9 display from LG to give more room at the sides although after 4K issues with my graphics card, it's too much money and hassle to find it won't work properly.
  • rajeshk4u - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link

    I have three PC hooked up to my 4k monitor. One is a Win XP, VISTA and Windows 7. For two computers I use a Radeon R7 240. One the graphics card is fan-less....
  • Roland00Address - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link

    Give me a windows is that will allow me to usuch a monitor by changing the default DPI the OS uses and software see so I get a sharper text at normal size and software that looks correctly and with the correct scaling
  • Rdmkr - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link

    I saw the total pixel number for ipad retina and realized it can't be correct since 2000x1500 is already 3 million pixels. Correct number for 2048x1536 is 3,145,728.
  • cmdrdredd - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link

    Might be me but I feel this resolution is wasted in a 27" panel. Needs to be larger.
  • AnnonymousCoward - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link

    A 4K 40" would be much better.
  • rajeshk4u - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link

    I have a SEIKI 4K 39" monitor. It is too big for PC work. As you have to move your head left to right. A bit like a game of tennis.... 32" or 28" make more sense.... But hte SEIKI at 39" was cheaper then the 28" / 32" from others...
  • pen-helm - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link

    Can it be made to work with a Mac?
  • cyburzaki - Friday, October 17, 2014 - link

    Who would buy this for $2500, when they can apparently get the same display in an entire iMac 5k for the same price? There's no way Dell is going to be able to sell this for $2500.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now