The next stage in the development of resolution has long been in the plans of manufacturers of displays and TVs. So even before 4K or UHD became the standard for video (demonstrations and pilots can be seen on satellite), 8K generation equipment is already available, with four times the resolution of 4K.
Dell 32″ UP3218K — the first monitor with an 8K panel to be at the heart of Chip’s testing. More than 33 million pixels are so small (0.09 × 0.09 mm) that they are indistinguishable even at point-blank range, if you put your nose into the screen. This is especially true, of course, of color subpixels, which occupy one third of the area. The Dell UP3218K is by far the most affordable 8K monitor on the market. A 32-inch device can be bought for 3,000 euros (about 240,000 rubles).
Tiny pixel test
The extremely high resolution, of course, guarantees unparalleled image clarity, which is the highlight of a Dell monitor. If a high quality image or video is being displayed on the screen, at a normal distance from the viewer, it is hardly different from a good 4K display.
In fact, 32 inches is very small for watching movies, but if you lean closer while sitting at a table to get a better view of the fragment, a difference from ordinary monitors is revealed: not individual points, but finer details of the image become visible. It seems that the displayed object is under the glass. Far-sighted people, of course, will have difficulties: the 8K monitor will remind you of the need to once again meet with the optometrist.
The program menu, start menu, icons, and especially the dialog box at the standard 100% scale are almost impossible to see. You need to scale Windows up to 300% to make everything look normal.
How an 8K monitor works
At full 60 FPS, an 8K signal overwhelms both HDMI and DisplayPort, so the UP3218K needs two DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. 3D acceleration or even video acceleration only works with the most powerful graphics cards on the market. Streaming is possible, but popular platforms such as YouTube require bandwidth above 40 Mbps to stream 8K, which is several times higher than 4K (often below 10 Mbps).
Processing 33.2M pixels requires incredible performance, as revealed when testing the Alienware Aurora with a GeForce 1080 GTX graphics card. When displaying Google Earth in perspective High end class graphics reach their limits. The image is uneven and clearly falls short of the specified 60 frames per second. Building textures look blurry: Google Earth can’t do anything with high resolution.
With 3D games same. Just because some games can be tuned to 8K doesn’t mean fine details will be visible. For comfortable work with 8K monitors, it’s definitely better to wait another two or three generations of video cards for the situation to change.
While watching a video we first got the same result. YouTube videos in 8K played unevenly on the Chip’s home network because the stream was not transmitted at a bandwidth higher than 40 Mbps. It also failed to play downloaded 4K videos, with extremely high definition footage not displaying smoothly in either VLC Media Player or Windows Media Player. The graphics load in the control panel was almost always 100%.
Browser as video player
During testing, we can say that we accidentally found a simple solution to the problem with playback delays. The built-in video player in Google Chrome seems to be perfectly optimized for video acceleration in modern graphics. The browser plays WebM and MP4 files with H.265 compression quite smoothly.
Unfortunately, when it comes to watching a movie, the game is not worth the candle: in direct comparison with a 4K monitor, the difference in resolution is noticeable only if you move very close to the display. However, in terms of dynamic range, the Dell monitor is clearly inferior to modern UHD and HDR TVs: a brightness of 400 cd / m² and a checkerboard contrast ratio of 238:1 for a monitor are objectively good indicators, but not the most brilliant.
As an office device, the Dell UP3218K has a serious problem: the display cover is very reflective. If you do not use dimming, glare interferes so much that resolution fades into the background.
Who might be interested in an 8K monitor?
The answer to this question was very quickly found in our editorial office: colleagues from the design department, who work with anti-glare in a slightly darkened corner of a large office space, immediately fell in love with him and would keep him if their Macs could work with 8K.
Find a detailed test and specifications of the Dell monitor here.
Read also:
- The best Android TVs from 15,000 rubles
- Russia launches production of the world’s first 8K QLED TVs
