Right after using this for a couple of weeks now I thought I'd add my... thoughts on the monitor.
This is a wonderful monitor for productivity purposes, not so much for gaming, but I'll come on to that shortly.
When I use the word screen, I mean a vertical window, resized to fit across - until now two monitors that I've always had. I like to work across 3 or 4 "screens" usually, a couple of coding windows, when doing code reviews and such I need a minimum of 3 screens, with a calendar floating around somewhere visible so that I can keep track of meetings as I'm often in meetings that need a proper bit of preparation. The text clarity is brilliant, I use vscode mostly these days and I have not noticed any issues at all, out of the box to be honest, I haven't had to calibrate anything. I am involved in a lot more architecture meetings these days working with lots of process diagrams and this really helps me see more.
I also work in the azure portal a lot and since that ui was designed by satan himself and adds scrolling panels sideways I'm just able to see more in one go.
As for gaming, well this screen is just too big - thats not a fault of the screen persay, simply a case that my graphics card can't run it properly. That is ok, I knew my card wouldn't be able to push this properly, and until 5090 prices aren't with the fairies and the cards rarer than unicorns I won't be getting one anyway. Heck probably have to wait for a 6 series (assuming nvidia sort pricing and supply) or UDNA4 card to actually be able to run anything fullscreen - that said its also actually just a little large for some games I play - RTS games I'm find I can't see the entire map and minimap in one easy view, so when playing something like AOE2, I actually enable PIP and cut the screen down to two thirds which works perfectly. Not something everyone would want to do I understand but it works for me, and this is predominantly a work monitor, I love it. In some mythical future where my wife lets me buy another monitor as well as this one ("that ones massive why do you need another??") I could see me getting a smaller/oled screen purely for gaming, but I'd need to solve the desk/space issue as well because with this screen I can't comfortably fit another monitor anywhere (
in my house
).
The on screen display is a bit naff, and a pain to use if I'm being honest. Due to the size of the screen, its sat as far back as I can put it on my desk, so I have to reach quite far to do anything on the menu, which is a necessity with the PIP mode which I use all the time. Not having a remote for a screen like this, and at this premium price tag, is frankly, terrible. It also doesn't have a true, or easy to use, kvm. You can do something that I haven't bothered to investigate because I just use Mouse without Borders (brilliant multiple computer software if you need one) and it works just fine for how I run my setup (dev desktop and laptop). No USB-C power hub, which again, on a screen this expensive I feel should be included. Yes I knew this before purchasing and its not a problem, its a nice to have - rather than having a thunderbolt dock under my desk I'd much rather just run a single cable from my laptop to the screen. Thats partly aesthetics, its partly wanting to not spend a few hundred on an expensive dock, its partly expecting that sort of functionality from a premium priced product. Maybe the next iteration will have these things, but then I'd dread the cost!
tl;dr
+ Great text clarity and picture quality ootb
+ Amount of screen real estate
+ Productivity wise as a developer and soon to be software architect this screen can't be beaten
+ The PIP mode is really good, I haven't been disappointed or found any issues using a laptop on the hdmi and desktop on the display port connections.
- The OSD is pants, and using it is a pain.
- Too big for gaming, or not great for the few games I play
- Needs a unicorn graphics card for gaming
- No remote
- Only a single DP
- No USB-C pd.
- Cost
- You need a big, strong desk
Do I regret this purchase? Not at all. I genuinely feel like this has been a fantastic purchase. It has some downsides, which at this sort of cost some will consider simply not worth the compromise which I get, but for my main purpose, this has been a game changer.