Mark Walton









Specs: Dell UltraSharp UP3218K Size 32 inches Resolution 8K 7680×4320 at 60Hz Response time 6ms (grey to grey) Brightness 400 cd/m² Contrast 1300:1 Colour depth True 10-bit Colour spaces 100 percent Adobe RGB colour gamut, sRGB, and Rec 709. 98 percent DCI-P3 Dimensions 72cm x 21.5cm x 61.7cm with stand, 72cm x 5.3cm x 42cm without stand Inputs 2x DisplayPort 1.4 Ports 4x USB 3.0, 3.5mm line out Warranty 3 years Price $5,000 (UK price TBC)

While Acer's 4K, HDR-ready, 144Hz Predator X27 gaming monitor is pretty hot, Dell has something even better: the 8K Dell UltraSharp UP3218K (buy here). This, if you're unfamiliar, is a display that sports a whopping 7680×4320 pixels spread over a 32-inch 10-bit IPS panel. It can display a 33-megapixel image, pixel-for-pixel, at a density of 280ppi and at 100 percent of the Adobe RGB colour space. It requires the bandwidth of two DisplayPort 1.4 ports to function, and, predictably, it costs just shy of $5,000 (UK release and price still TBC, but don't expect much change from £5,000).

But then, this is a display that is so far ahead of the curve that $5,000 seems almost reasonable. In addition to all those pixels running at 60Hz, the 10-bit IPS panel also covers 100 percent of the sRGB colour space, 100 percent of Rec 709, and 98 percent of DCI-P3. Whatever creative field you're in—photography, cinematography, graphic design, publishing, game development—Dell's 8K monitor has you covered. It's even factory calibrated to a Delta E of less than two.

From an industrial design standpoint, the display is something of a looker, too. The aluminium housing is beautifully made, as is the reassuringly solid stand, which sports height, tilt, and even pivot adjustments. Dell's now-ubiquitous "Infinity Edge" bezel pushes pixels perilously close to the edge of the monitor, and there's a shiny sheet of solid glass splayed over the top. Thankfully, the glass has a decent anti-reflective coating applied. There's a built-in power supply (hooray!), along with a USB 3.0 hub. All that's missing are some built-in speakers—but let's face it, those always sound terrible in displays anyway.

Aside from creative fields, Dell is also pitching its 8K display towards medicine, where the extra detail could prove invaluable when examining medical imagery.

That's all great and everything, but let's face it, I think we all know what an 8K monitor is best used for: video games.

If you really, really want to head up the PC master race, this is the display to get. Indeed, outside of still photography, video games are really the only place you can find native 8K content. YouTube does have some 8K demo videos, but even on an insanely powerful system, they don't play smoothly.

Games aren't exactly a walk in the park either: Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti, the current consumer gaming card champ, only just manages to play 4K games at 60FPS at high settings. An 8K display has four times as many pixels as a 4K display and twice as many as a 5K display (as used in the Apple iMac).

Of the games I was able to try—Rise of the Tomb Raider, Metro: Last Light, and GTA V—all of them ran at 8K on a single GTX 1080 Ti, but they also crashed. A lot. That's not to mention the frame rate, which hit towering highs of 18FPS and shocking lows of 8FPS in Rise of the Tomb Raider, 13FPS/2FPS in Metro: Last Light, and 50FPS/15FPS in GTA V. Suffice it to say, even an SLI setup with the sharpest of drivers would struggle.

But oh, the image quality. Say what you will about the visible benefits of 4K versus 1080p at a distance, but when you're as close to a display as you are with PC gaming, those extra pixels make a difference. Dell's 8K display is, without a doubt, the sharpest and clearest I've ever seen. Combined with the exceptional colour reproduction, viewing angles, and surprising 400 nits of brightness (albeit, not enough for HDR compatibility), there's no doubt that it's the absolute peak of current display technology. Only LG's OLED screens can top it—and even then, only really for content consumption, not creation.

As you'd expect for an 8K display, resolution scaling is a necessity when using the Windows desktop or using productivity software. Around 220 percent seems to be the sweet spot, but for the lolz I tried using the monitor at a 1:1 resolution—and yes, it's pretty much unusable. Everything is far too small to read.

On the other hand, putting a window in each corner is effectively like running four 4K displays at once, and if you're so inclined you can run four full-length Chrome instances for the ultimate in nigh-unreadable super-multitasking. Chrome clearly needs an update or two before it handles 8K smoothly, though: it crashed several times during testing and often showed a black wall of nothingness instead of text.

Technical hiccups, along with $5,000, is the price you pay for being this far ahead of the curve. With 4K and high-DPI displays only now hitting the mainstream outside of laptops, Dell's 8K display is a glimpse of where technology will be, rather than a reflection of where it is today.

Still, for those with deep pockets or extremely generous IT departments, the Dell UltraSharp UP3218K (buy here) is a chance to jump the queue and be on the absolute bleeding edge of display tech. If you're one of the lucky ones, get ready to be wowed.

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Listing image by Mark Walton