Results: Color Gamut And Performance
Color gamut is measured using a saturation sweep that samples the six main colors (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow) at five saturation levels (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%), providing a more realistic view of color accuracy.
There are three practical modes you can use for the best color accuracy: sRGB, Adobe RGB, and Custom. First up is the sRGB mode.
Our first chart truly deserves to be called astounding. Check out the luminance. Those are microscopic errors not even worth mentioning! Combined with a nearly dead-on CIE chart, you end up with vanishingly low color errors. All of the Delta E values are well below three.
In the Custom mode, you can create any gamut you wish, though there’s a caveat. The starting point is Adobe RGB 1998, and as you shrink the gamut towards sRGB, greater luminance errors result. If you use the Custom mode, it’s best to aim for Adobe RGB where you can achieve the high level of accuracy shown below. In other words, you can create a custom sRGB gamut, but it won’t be as close as the preset one.
We are particularly proud of and impressed by this result. It does require a fair bit of back and forth to tweak the Hue and Saturation controls. Even though Dell doesn’t include luminance sliders for each color, they aren’t missed if you’re going for an Adobe RGB gamut. When you shoot for sRGB, the luminance errors increase and you can’t fix them. Again, it’s better to use the preset for sRGB.
You can have very accurate color without calibration by simply choosing the Adobe RGB mode from the Color Space menu. However, if you want perfection, employ the CMS and grayscale controls as we did.
Now let’s see how Dell stacks up against the competition.
We’ve included the results from the preset sRGB and Custom Adobe RGB modes. Both numbers are excellent, but the Custom one is particularly noteworthy. Dell's UP3214Q is the first monitor we’ve ever tested that cracks the one Delta E mark. Even Samsung’s super-accurate S27B971D only manages 1.03! It really doesn’t get much better that this.
Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998
There are basically two categories of displays in use today: those that conform to the sRGB/Rec. 709 standard like HDTVs, and wide-gamut panels that show as much as 100 percent of the Adobe RGB 1998 spec. We use Gamutvision to calculate the gamut volume, based on an ICC profile created from actual measurements. The chart shows the percentage of both sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998 gamuts.
The UP3214Q scores another top result in the gamut volume test. It's only the second display we’ve tested that can render both gamuts, and Dell covers them to near perfection. Photographers will principally use the wider Adobe RGB 1998 color space, but there are times when sRGB is more apropos. Anyone using this monitor for entertainment will want the smaller color space to better match gaming and video content.
