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

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  • locutus self - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link

    At $2500, I think this monitor says the iMac 27 Retina is a bargain.
  • cohenfive - Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - link

    One thing I don't understand is pricing...if Apple just announced its imac with 27 inch 5k screen for $2500, how can dell come anywhere close to selling just the screen for the same price? I think this screen has to be below $2k to have any chance, regardless of how good it is. The apple screen that comes with the new imac sounds amazing.
  • rajeshk4u - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link

    I am using a SEIKI 39" 4k monitor. I am pleased with it. Although I would say a 39" monitor is 'too big'. But I can get 4k 3840 x 2160 on Windows XP, Windows VISTA and Windows 7. I can use a medium graphics card such as the Radeon R7. On XP, I got lucky and it worked a on MSI Radeon 5000 series Graphics (even though the spec says it would not). (The same card will not support 4k on VISTA or Win7)

    On Windows, there are still some annoyances in terms of supporting large monitor. When you open a File Open dialog may be in the wrong place. So you have many more mouse movement.

    However, the fantastic thing, is that I can have lots of windows or browsers open at the same. Great when you when you want to compare web site or copy information from one window and paste onto another.

    However, I can't see myself moving to 5K, there is little benefit from moving over from 4K. You need a Graphics card with two display port, so it means specialist graphics card, which pushes up the price.

    My 4K (TV Monitor) is good enough. It uses HDMI and limited to 30Hz. So they need to resolve industry standards on HDMI.

    The Dell have made a huge mistake, by not adding several HDMI port, so people like me who already have 4k enabled graphics card, can use them at 4k standard (even if limited 30Hz). At the moment with my SEIKI, I have hooked up 3 PC on HDMI and a fourth via VGA. It saves on having a KVM box. I just use the TV remote to switch from one PC to another. A bit like chaging a channel on a TV.

    PLus with HDMI it carries the audio. So II can get sound on my SEIKI via HDMI. Only my main PC is hooked up the real audio speakers 7.1 speakers.

    I have used the SEIKI for almost a years. I have not had any complaints regarding the 30Hz issue (which for some reason a lot of first complain. I don't see the fuss. I watch TV and watch YouTube. So no issues on it. Some gamers may have issues...)

    Most laptops and tablet do not support 4k output to a monitor. They are lagging behind.

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