Dell Ultrasharp U3011......Simple introduction

 Video Review from cnet.com:

• Good: Great screen real estate • Adobe RGB and sRGB modes • 10-bit panel • Reduced screen wake/input switch time • HDMI PBP with DVI or DisplayPort • Six-axial colour adjustments • 24p support
• Bad: Input lag may disturb some competitive gamers • Slight judder in Blu-ray panning scenes • Colour calibration can be extremely time consuming due to menu layout • Significantly pricier than U2711

Specifications:

Connectivity

• Video input type VGA, DVI, Component, HDMI, DisplayPort

Display

• Brightness 370 cd/m2
• Claimed viewing angle (horizontal) 178 degrees
• Claimed viewing angle (vertical) 178 degrees
• Contrast ratio 1000 :1
• Display colour support 1007 million
• Dot pitch 252 mm
• Max resolution (pixels) 2560 x 1600 pixels
• Monitor size (diagonal) 30 inch
• Pixel response time 7 ms

General

• Dimensions (H x W x D) 571.3 x 694.5 x 211.3 mm
• Weight 12.6 kg

  

Simple view:

Dell's stand design is now pretty much uniform, the only difference being that larger models like the U2711 and U3011 don't have the capability to pivot 90° into portrait mode. It's still a great stand though, with rack and pinion style height adjustment, tilt and swivel, and a hole through the neck for cable management. As with the U2711 though, you won't be able to remove the panel from the stand unless you have a torx driver. While we do wish that it was easily removable like the U2410, we'd imagine for a panel of this size the extra support the screws provide are needed.

The Dell stand is great, but the sheer size of the monitor means the 90° pivot function has been removed. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)

Connections

Some legacy inputs are now gone. From left to right: power, 3.5mm 5.1 sound, DisplayPort, two DVI ports, VGA, two HDMI ports, component, USB upstream and two USB ports. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)

Two more USB ports, and an xD/SD/MMC/MS card reader. Those hoping for CF to make a return will be disappointed. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)

Buttons and on-screen display (OSD)

The U3011 features a lit mechanical power button at the bottom right, and a proximity sensitive strip above this. Bring the hand near and the bottom button lights up, giving you a perfect in-the-dark interface without having distracting lights all the time. Once you touch this button, the OSD appears on screen, the other buttons light up and are labelled in a context sensitive fashion on screen.
Annoyingly by default all these buttons emit a beeping sound when pressed, which can thankfully be turned off.

Only the power button stays permanently lit. The bottom button only lights up when a hand is near, and touching it will bring up a menu, lighting the other buttons and giving contextually relevant options. It also makes it an excellent interface to use in the dark. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)

Like the chassis design, Dell has very much settled on the OSD design. This isn't a bad thing — it's still the best consumer OSD we've seen. (Credit: Craig Simms/CBS Interactive)

Dell's cavalcade of options is carried over to the U3011, offering the usual RGB/YPbPr colour space; brightness and contrast; hue, gain, saturation and offset controls. The "Video" and "Graphics" modes have been removed, with all the presets now available under the one mode menu. Dell offers Standard, Multimedia (which has a red cast), Game (green cast), Movie, Warm, Cool, Adobe RGB, sRGB, xv Mode and Custom Color as preset options.
Scaling options are complete too, offering fill, 16:9, 4:3, aspect and 1:1 scaling modes. Sharpness is available on digital inputs, and picture by picture is there too. Here behaviour has changed a bit — for your source you can only choose HDMI 1, HDMI 2 or component, the secondary picture being provided off any of the other inputs. It's nice to finally be able to have HDMI and DVI side by side, but those hoping for DVI side by side with another DVI connection will be disappointed.
The U3011 like the U2711 before it has support for six-axial colour calibration (RGBCMY) under the hue and saturation settings, which combined with the gain and offset controls should allow people to screw down their colour calibrations even further than the usual.
While we were unable to find a service menu, even if one exists it is likely it won't be needed — all the options most will require are already exposed in the OSD.

Read More:

• Dell Ultrasharp U3011......Professional review