Dell's UltraSharp monitors have been wowing us since 2005, starting with the 2405FPW, right up to and including the recently reviewed U2711. The latest addition to this elite family of displays, the UltraSharp U3011 ($1,499 direct), continues the trend, combining outstanding performance with a generous selection of ports and features. You'll need deep pockets to afford this beauty, and while its dark grayscale performance is good, it could be better. That said, the U3011 easily wins our Editors' Choice award for big screen monitors.

Design
Design-wise, the U3011 is identical to the U2711, the only difference being screen size. The cabinet is matte black with thin (0.8 inch) bezels and a silver band around its edges. A polished chrome Dell logo adorns the bottom bezel, and there's a blue backlit power switch in the lower right-hand corner. A row of five touch sensitive function buttons are positioned along the lower right bezel, but they remain unlit (and unseen) until you press the one that lights up when your finger gets close. Each button corresponds to a menu command that pops up on the screen when the buttons are illuminated, making it easy to navigate through the various settings.

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The 20 pound cabinet is attached to a stand that offers height, tilt, and swivel adjustability, but as with the U2711, you can't pivot the screen. The stand matches the cabinet's black and silver color scheme and is very sturdy, and it has a square cable organizer cut into the mounting arm that helps keep cable clutter to a minimum.

Features
Like the U2711, the U3011 uses IPS (In Plane Switching) technology, which is known for its excellent color fidelity and wide viewing angle performance. IPS panels are also more expensive to manufacture than the more common TN+ (twisted nematic) panels. The U3011 has a maximum resolution of 2560 by 1600 and is a wide gamut panel, allowing it to display deep, rich colors. To ensure color accuracy, Dell calibrates the panel at the factory and ships a calibration report with each monitor that charts sRGB, Adobe RGB, Grayscale, and Gamma level measurement.

The U3011 provides a variety of image settings. There are eight picture modes (Standard, Mulitmedia, Game, Movie, Warm, Cool, Adobe RGB, and sRGB), each of which loads preset color, brightness, and contrast settings that are optimized for specific applications. Standard is the best mode for everyday use, while the Adobe and sRGB modes emulate their respective color spaces. There's also a Custom setting that allows you create a custom color profile by adjusting Gain, Offset, Hue, and Saturation levels. Brightness and Contrast settings are accessible from the main menu, and the Display menu provides Sharpness, Noise Reduction, Clock, Phase, and Dynamic Contrast settings. This model also offers a Picture By Picture mode that allows you to view two images from two different sources, at the same time.

Connectivity options abound. The left side of the cabinet holds two USB ports and a flash card slot that reads SD, xD, Memory Stick/Pro, and MMC media. At the rear of the cabinet you'll find just about every type of A/V input you'll need, including two HDMI and two DVI (dual link) ports, a DisplayPort jack, a VGA port, three USB ports (one up, two down), component video inputs, and audio jacks that can be used to connect an optional Dell SoundBar ($34.99 list) or to connect to an external speaker system. Dell covers the U3011 with a three year parts, labor, and backlighting warranty. The warranty includes Dell's Advanced Exchange Service, which means Dell will send out a replacement unit (after a phone diagnosis) in advance of receiving the defective unit back. The monitor ships with a dual link DVI cable as well as DisplayPort and VGA cables, but HDMI cables are not included.

In addition to a well rounded feature set, the U3011 is a brilliant performer. It had no trouble displaying every progression of light gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test and delivered very good highlight detail on my test images. Dark grayscale performance was generally good but the panel was unable to distinguish between black and the very darkest shade of gray. Swatches on the Color Scales test ramped evenly from dark to light without any trace of tinting and no color tracking errors. Screen uniformity was also quite good as there were no noticeable hot spots or blotches, and small text was sharp and well defined. Off angle viewing on the IPS panel was outstanding; I was unable to detect any color shifting or darkening when viewing from an extreme side angle. The picture softened slightly when viewed from above and below, but the colors remained intact.

The U3011 has a 7-ms (g-g) pixel response, which may sound slow compared to 2-ms (g-g) models such as the Asus MT276HE ($349.99 list, 3.5 stars), but it delivered impressive motion performance nonetheless. I experienced no noticeable lag while playing several rounds of Assassin's Creed II on my PC, and the action was equally as smooth while burning up the road playing Midnight Club: Los Angeles, on the PS3, and while watching the movie 2012 in full HD. Even though the U3011 has Movie and Game presets, the Standard mode delivered the best color quality for both applications.

When it comes to energy efficiency, the U3011 can't compete with the latest LED backlit models. On my tests it used around 97-watts while operating in Standard mode, while the HP 2711x needed just 24-watts. Based on the nation average cost of 11.55 cents per kWh (for a five hour day), the U3011 will add approximately $1.80 to your monthly electric bill.

Not everyone has the need for a 30-inch display, especially one that'll likely cost more than the desktop PC it will be connected to. However, if you have the finances and the desktop real estate to support a feature-rich big screen monitor, put the Dell UltraSharp U3011 at the top of your list. It may struggle a bit at the darkest end of the grayscale, but that's a relatively minor flaw for an otherwise stellar performer.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Dell UltraSharp U3011 with several other monitors side by side.

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