This is a standard size cat, and this is that same cat next to my new 43 inch computer monitor. Yes, you heard right, 43". It's basically the same size
as a lot of TVs out there, but this one is actually
designed to be used on your desk. This is the U 4323 QE from Dell and it combines all of the
pros of a computer monitor with the dimensions of a larger TV. It's 4K, connects and charges your laptop with a single USBC cable,
has a built-in USB hub. Yes, that is an ethernet port on a monitor and can connect up to four
different computers at once, all using the same mouse and keyboard. Now you'd be right in thinking that this does kind of sound familiar. It's essentially a bigger version of what I'm calling one of
the most popular monitors out there right now, the Dell U2723 QE. But a 43 inch computer monitor
sounds pretty insane, right? I mean, why would anyone want to use such a large monitor at their desk? Is bigger always better? Or is how you use it
more important instead? Well, let's take a look. Now using a huge screen at
a desk isn't a new concept. In fact, it's been gaining
popularity over the years, particularly with OLED TV screens as OLED technology was unavailable in smaller computer monitors
until very recently. Now the problem with using a TV screen as a computer monitor is pretty obvious. TVs are usually designed for watching movies in a living room not sitting close and
writing emails on it. You don't get any adjustability. There's usually limited ports. Color accuracy isn't great. And features like a KVM
switch or USBC functionality simply don't exist. So this begs the question, why? Why do some manufacturers out there think that there is a market
for a 43 inch computer monitor? The answer is actually kind
of straightforward, really. There are some people out there with some pretty extreme
multi-monitor setups. Stock market traders or
analysts, hardcore multi-taskers with 10 different Excel
spreadsheets open at once, or simply running multiple
computers simultaneously. A large screen that allows you to break up its screen real estate into four separate quadrants
kind of eliminates the need for a multi-monitor setup, but I'll touch more on
this a little bit later on. Alternatively, maybe you just love having a ton of screen space, especially if you set
the scaling to native 4K. Maybe your desk setup is in your bedroom and you also watch movies on the monitor when laying in bed and
like the biggest size. Basically, there's a lot of reasons why someone would go out and
buy a 43 inch computer monitor. So I went out and purchased
my own one to test it out and so I could give you
my honest opinion on it after using it for 30 days. And by the way, I purchased
this monitor with my own money. This review is not sponsored. Dell had no input on the script at all. Now, if you've been watching
my other monitor review videos, I reviewed the smaller
siblings of this monitor, the 27-inch U2723 QE and a slightly larger 32-inch U 3223 QE. Functionally, this 43 inch version is almost identical to those monitors. You get an impressive port selection with 90 watts of USBC
power delivery for laptops as well as an ethernet port. Although, this larger 43 inch version has a front pop out quick access port. You also get built in eight
watts stereo speakers. And the screen is, again,
almost identical, just bigger. So if you want the
traditional review content like color accuracy and build quality, I'll link that video down
in the description below. In this video, I want to
focus on what's different with the 43 inch version. And more importantly, what it's like to actually
use a 43 inch monitor at your desk and some of the
associated pros and cons. But before that, a quick
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hands on the Soundcore X600 from Anker today. Okay, let's talk pros and cons and let's start with the
most obvious thing first. As you might expect, 43
inches is really, really big. And while you don't necessarily
have to wrap this monitor around your waist to move
it, in some situations, it can be really tricky. Like mounting it on a monitor arm. Now conveniently, it does
come with standoffs in the box to attach it to a standard basal mount, but this beast weighs just over 13 kilos or close to 30 pounds without the stand. That either exceeds or comes very close to exceeding the weight
limit of most monitor arms. That being said, you can avoid
the monitor arm altogether by using the stand it comes with. It's sturdy, provides a cutout at the back to organize cables, and allows for a decent
amount of adjustability, which is something you
wouldn't get with a TV. The biggest issue I found with the size was simply just trying
to adjust my desk set up around the monitor. I found I needed to push it towards the very back of my desk, furthest away from my eyes so I could actually take advantage of the larger screen size. So if you have a really shallow desk, I don't think this monitor
is going to work for you because you're basically
just going to be like this the entire time. Also note that the most ergonomic way to position a monitor
is to have the top bezel about level with your eye line. So if you are particularly
short or particularly tall, you might have some issues. If you can deal with the
shortcomings I've listed so far, the trade-off and indeed
the main selling point of this monitor is a vastly
increased workspace area. There's just so much
room for productivity. And there are advantages to
having all of your windows right in front of you and not split between separate monitors. For one, you eliminate that
bezel right in the middle and can arrange your secondary windows nearly around the center of your gaze. Meaning, you don't have
to move your head as much. Or I can easily fit four
almost full sized windows on the screen at once. And unlike other smaller sized monitors like a 32 inch for, example,
they didn't feel too small. And I never found myself temporarily resizing certain
windows to make them larger while I was actively working within them. And you can quickly resize or
snap these windows yourself within macOS or Windows using tools like magnet or fancy zones. Alternatively, you can use internal multistream
transport technology or IMST to turn your single monitor into effectively four separate monitors when using a Windows pc. No external software or
display port split are needed. And yes, this is only possible on Windows at the time of recording
this video, not macOS. There's also an auto KVM switch built in, which means you can use the same mouse and keyboard to connect up
to four different computers, as long as they're all
connected to the monitor. Now, four computers at once
is probably pretty overkill for most people other than, for example, corporate IT workers. But it does allow you to run dual Mac and Windows systems at the
same time like I frequently do, which leads me to my next point. Just like these smaller
versions of this monitor, there is a picture in picture
or picture by picture mode and also a screen partition mode. Now, I found these
modes incredibly useful. You can essentially turn this monitor into two stacked widescreen monitors. For example, as the saying goes, "Business up top and
party down the bottom." Perfect for those long and
boring virtual work meetings. Plug in your work MacBook to
watch yet another slideshow about HR policy updates and grind COD on your
gaming PC at the same time. The possibilities are endless, but this is just one
of the usage scenarios. Like I mentioned previously, I run both macOS and
Windows systems side by side and it works perfectly here. There's just so much flexibility. And unlike a 27 inch or a 32 inch screen, 43 inches gives you plenty
of screen real estate to play around with multiple computers. Anyway, getting back to the sheer amount of screen real estate you get, once you get past the initial wow factor, some cracks do begin to show. Just like this Dell monitor, most TVs these days have a 4K resolution. And when you're sitting on
a couch several meters away, it looks great, but if you get up and stand an arm's
length away, not so much. You can really start to see
those individual pixels. There's a term called
pixels per inch or PPI. And it's essentially just a number that tells you how many pixels there are within one square inch on a screen. Here are some popular monitor sizes. 27 inch monitors with a 4K resolution have a fairly good PPI of around 163. Text is nice and crisp. Operating system UI elements look sharp and images just look so much
better compared to, say, a lower resolution like 1440p. If you bump that size up to
32 inches and then 43 inches at the same 4K resolution,
you can see a huge change. The larger sizes have
the same amount of pixels as the smaller 27 inch monitor, but they're just way more spread out with more distance between
each individual pixel. And this results in a
fairly noticeable decrease in image quality,
especially if you're used to a really high PPI
like the retina screen on your MacBook, for example. If you've got both at your desk
and switch between the two, you can really notice the difference. On lower PPI screens, font
sharpness takes a big hit. Sometimes, it might even
look slightly blurry due to the amount of pixelation. And this is particularly
noticeable on macOS because macOS scales best on monitors that use a native macOS resolution, like the 5K studio
display or 6K pro display. 4K still works fine and looks pretty good. It's just not quite as sharp
as a native resolution. And bear in mind, Windows
does not have this issue and scales perfectly on 4K. And it's not just text
that is impacted here. It's images and videos, too. Activities like watching movies or YouTube videos are totally fine. Although, if sitting close, you'll still want to
reduce the window size. But when it comes to other tasks, you may struggle a bit
depending what it is. For example, editing photos. I recently went on a trip to Japan and was able to take
some really cool shots. Now I was using a Sony A7C, which only has a 22 megapixel
sensor, which isn't huge, but still allows for
some moderate cropping or zooming before seeing
too much quality loss. Now editing photos, or for that matter, doing anything creative on
this monitor is incredible, simply due to the amount
of screen reel space you get access to. Not to mention the color
accuracy is extremely good, but see my previous
review on the Dell 2023 ultra sharp lineup for more on that. But when zooming into these photos when editing in Lightroom to
see if I was in focus or not, I sometimes struggled to distinguish between if I'd zoomed in too far and it was the actual
photo that was blurry or simply the pixelation
of a 4K resolution spread out over 43 inches. Now obviously, if you're doing
these tasks professionally, you'll have a more suitable monitor or potentially even just
use the retina screen on your MacBook, but
the point still stands. For certain tasks, there's
just not enough pixel density. And I just want to stress
that this whole low PPI and pixel-y thing isn't really a negative nor should it be a dealer breaker for you. It's kind of like buying a large car and not being able to park
it in a small car park. It's kind of par for the course, right? I just wanted to spend
some time discussing it because at least for me, personally, it was the biggest deciding factor of whether or not I liked
this monitor or not. Now moving on to gaming, I know that no one is going
to purchase this monitor with the express purpose of gaming. I mean, it only has a
60 Hertz refresh rate. It's 4K, so you'll likely need a beefy GPU to push all those frames. And the response time,
although actually really good for a monitor in this category, is still higher than I'd like it to be. But if you can sit back a bit and actually put a bit of distance between your eyes and the
monitor, it's kind of enjoyable. Competitive FPS shooters
like COD, CS Go, or Valorant, for example, are
definitely not recommended. But for more relaxed games, particularly single player games, didn't have any complaints. But Liam, what about pricing? Well, it currently retails
on the Dell U.S. website for about $1,300 U.S. However, there is currently
a sale making the price about $1,045 and these
sales are pretty frequent for Dell monitors. I mean, you'll get it not only
on the Dell website itself, but from resellers like
Amazon or Best Buy. So let's now take this price and stack it up against some competitors. Now the most obvious
competitor is the standard TV. They're quite affordable these days. Even the ones with fancy OLED technology like the LG C2, for example. It's 42 inches, has a
beautiful OLED screen with the accompanying deep
blacks, amazing picture quality. It also has cool features
like G-Sync and FreeSync and 120 Hertz refresh rate,
but it's primarily a TV. So you have to account for all the things like using a TV remote to adjust settings. The stand it comes with
has no adjustability. There's no USB hub or charging built in for laptop connectivity, and the color accuracy isn't as good. Basically, it just has very computer
monitor specific features. For some, hey, that's perfectly fine, but don't underestimate how appreciative these features can become if you're sitting at your desk, working for eight hours a day. Quick side note here, you
can get the previous version of the U4323 QE, the 2020 U4320 Q, I know these names are absolutely awful, for a few $100 less. But just know that there
are a few differences between the two models,
mainly color accuracy, port selection, and design. I go over these differences in my video on the smaller 27 and 32 inch
versions if you're interested. But yeah, overall, I think
this is a really solid monitor for someone wanting 43 inches of screen real estate on their desk. It's computer monitor specific features make it much more of an attractive choice over just buying a cheap 4K TV instead. But as I mentioned previously, you really need to decide if going bigger is worth the trade-offs, which are mainly the reduced
PPI or pixels per inch, which has a pretty big impact on things like text sharpness and just
the sheer size of the thing. Like are you actually going
to fill up all 43 inches with different windows and
content and Excel spreadsheets? Just something to think about. But apart from that, I think
it's a really solid monitor. Anyway, hopefully, you
enjoyed this review. If you are interested in picking up one of these monitors and
you have any questions, let me know down below. Apart from that, I will
catch you in the next one.
