Dell UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor (U4323QE)

With the Dell UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor (U4323QE), Dell has taken its largest business monitor and made it better than ever. Building on the U4320Q's strengths, the U4323QE (A$1,450.90) beefs up an already impressive port selection with Ethernet and several additional USB ports. It also adds a mini-joystick controller, an improvement over the tiny control buttons found on the U4320Q. It's enough to earn the U4323QE our Editors' Choice award for large-screen productivity panels.

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A Standard Widescreen Panel, Supersized

The U4323QE sports a 42.5-inch screen (measured diagonally) with in-plane switching (IPS) technology. It has a UHD (4K) native resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels at a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Its pixel density of 103 pixels per inch (ppi) is fine for typical office use and casual photo or video editing, but you will want to get a display with a higher pixel density (likely at a smaller screen size) for editing detailed graphics or photos.

With the silver-hued stand extended to its full height, the monitor measures 25.8 by 38.1 by 9.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 38.8 pounds. The stand has some modest ergonomic features: You can raise the screen by up to 2.4 inches, swivel 20 degrees in either direction, and tilt 5 degrees toward you or 10 degrees away. If you prefer to wall-mount the Dell U4323QE, a square array of holes in back can take a VESA bracket (not included).

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Plenty of Ports to Go With All the Pixels

For its sheer abundance of connectivity choices, the U4323QE is hard to beat. It has one upstream USB-C port that supports DisplayPort over USB-C alternate mode and can provide up to 90 watts of USB power delivery, letting you power and/or charge a laptop that's connected to it. That's joined by three additional data-only USB-C upstream ports, and a downstream USB-C port that can supply up to 15 watts for charging small devices. Finally, you'll find four rectangular USB Type-A ports for connecting a mouse, keyboard, external hard drive, or other peripherals.

Rounding out the connectivity picture are HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 inputs (two of each), a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an RJ-45 Ethernet jack, which lets you connect to a local area network if your Wi-Fi is spotty or nonexistent. The Ethernet jack, three USB-C data ports, and one of the USB-A ports are new to this model, and weren't found on the Dell U4320Q.

Nearly all of the ports face downward in back, which isn't ideal for a large and unwieldy monitor that lacks the ability to pivot. They're relatively high up on the monitor's frame, though, so you may be able to add cables by peering around the side of the monitor and pushing the cables into their ports by touch if necessary. The downstream USB-C port and one USB-A port reside in a movable bay underneath the monitor; when the bay is lowered, these ports face forward for easy access.

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Big-Screen Wizardry: Configuring the Display Panel

The U4323QE's enormous screen area, generous port selection, and Dell Display Manager software give you exceptional leeway in configuring the screen. You can tile applications in any of 46 preset partitions, and personalize up to five windows. You can split the screen into quadrants, too, with each quadrant in essence its own virtual FHD (1080p) screen, and feed them from up to four different input sources, controlling each from the same keyboard and mouse.

To access and navigate the monitor's onscreen display (OSD), the U4323QE uses a mini-joystick controller, located in back of the monitor on the right-hand side, next to the power button. This is a much easier way to navigate than the tiny control buttons found on the U4320Q and many other monitors.

Dell backs the U4323QE with a three-year warranty, a common duration for productivity-monitor support. Other Dell monitors such as the U4320Q, as well as the HP Z32k G3, also have three-year warranties, while Philips covers its monitors, such as the 329P1H, for a generous four years.

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Testing the Dell U4323QE: Spot-On sRGB Color Coverage

I tested the U4323QE's brightness, contrast ratio, and color coverage using a Klein K-10A colorimeter and Portrait Displays' Calman 5 calibration software.

Dell rates the monitor's luminance at 350 nits (candelas per square meter), and it fell just short of that—333 nits—in my testing. That's bright enough for most any business use—including photo and video editing—provided that you're not using the U4323QE in a room that's flooded with ambient light. The display also did better than its rated 1,000:1 contrast ratio, with a measured score of 1,102:1.

According to Dell, the U4323QE covers 95% of the sRGB color space used for web-based art and many other applications. In my tests using the default Standard mode, it outdid that, covering 99% of sRGB (see the chart below). The panel also covered 76.5% of DCI-P3, a color space geared to digital video, as well as 75.5% of the wider Adobe RGB gamut popular for preparing photos for printing. These numbers reinforce the U4323QE's place as a productivity model that can handle digital art, but not as a professional monitor for photographers or videographers.

In the subjective, ad-hoc portion of our testing, we view a select group of test-standard photos and video clips. The still images showed accurate colors and good contrast. Video looked realistic, with good retention of detail in both bright and dark scenes.

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Verdict: A New Benchmark for Jumbo Productivity Panels

Many productivity displays with extra-large screens use ultrawide panels, like the LG 49WL95C-W, the Philips Brilliance 499P9H, and the Dell UltraSharp 49 Curved Monitor (U4919DW)—all 49-inch curved panels, the first two being PCMag Editors' Choice picks. They are good for tasks such as working with massively multi-column horizontal spreadsheets, or opening up a series of windows side by side. The Dell UltraSharp U4323QE instead takes a more conventional tack, like the U4320Q before it, hewing to the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio that is commonplace among productivity monitors, only boosting its screen size to 43 inches on a diagonal.

The U4323QE adds Ethernet and several more USB ports to the U4320Q's already-generous host of connectors. It also upgrades the OSD controls by replacing the buttons with a mini-joystick controller. These additions earn the U4323QE our Editors' Choice award as a top recommendation among large-screen productivity monitors.

Whether you opt for the U4323QE or one of the ultrawide monitors mentioned above is largely a matter of personal preference, but in the realm of jumbo non-gaming monitors with a standard widescreen aspect ratio, the U4323E rules the roost.