Dell U4025QW  Monitor Review

The Dell U4025QW has a straightforward, office-oriented aesthetic. While the front of the monitor's bezels are black, the square-based stand and the back of the monitor are silver.

The build quality is great. While the back of the monitor does flex under pressure, there's no issue with bezel uniformity.

The ergonomics are good. It has fantastic height adjustment, so you can position it in your preferred position while working. It also has a good swivel range, so you can effectively share your screen with colleagues. The stand features a cutout for cable management.

The stand allows the monitor to wobble quite a bit, though it recovers reasonably quickly.

If you're looking for a smaller monitor with many of the same extra features, check out the 32-inch Dell U3225QE.

The monitor has a joystick at the rear of the monitor to control the on-screen display, as well as a power button.

• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• Power cable
• Documentation

The Dell U4025QW has a decent contrast ratio. When the monitor displays HDR content or you use the SDR 'Movie' Preset Mode, local dimming turns on, and the contrast improves slightly. These results are with Contrast at its default setting of '75'. Note that if you lower the Contrast setting, the monitor's contrast ratio decreases.

The Dell U4025QW has terrible local dimming. It's edge-lit with eight vertical dimming zones, all of which are on most of the time with real content. Since the zones are very large, when there's a dimming zone on and the others are off, it's more distracting than when all the zones are on. However, the local dimming does maintain details in dark scenes. The video above is in the 'DisplayHDR 600' Smart HDR setting.

Local dimming is always on when in HDR. Additionally, the monitor turns local dimming on when using the 'Movie' Preset Mode in SDR. You can see an example here.

The SDR brightness is good. It gets bright enough to overcome glare in most environments, though content is harder to see in extremely bright environments. These results are from the 'Custom Color' Preset Modes after calibration with the Brightness at max. You can make the display brighter by increasing the 'Offset' value to 100 from the default 50. If you do this, the monitor reaches 430 cd/m² in a 2% window and 330 cd/m² in an 18% window. However, colors also become very washed out. You can see how this affects color accuracy here.

The Dell U4025QW has very good HDR brightness. While small highlights don't pop very much, the entire screen can get quite bright at the same time, so you won't notice the screen getting darker if there's a large flash of light on the screen, even if it's sustained for some time. It follows the PQ EOTF curve well until it gets close to maximum brightness, so content is displayed at the correct brightness level most of the time. However, it has a slow roll-off near peak brightness, so highlights don't get the brightest they could. These results are in the 'DisplayHDR 600' Smart HDR setting with the brightness locked.

The horizontal viewing angle is good. The image remains consistent from the sides, and you can easily share your screen with someone else.

The vertical viewing angle is fair. It looks fine if you're standing up and looking down at the monitor unless you're sharing photo or video editing work.

The monitor has decent gray uniformity. While the display darkens noticeably at the edges and has a bit of dirty screen effect, this won't be too distracting during everyday use.

This Dell U4025QW has fair black uniformity. There's a bit of backlight bleed along the edges of the monitor. However, black uniformity is far worse when local dimming is on, though this only occurs with HDR content and the SDR 'Movie' mode.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is fantastic. Colors aren't oversaturated, and the overall color accuracy is fantastic. The white balance is also accurate, and the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target. Gamma follows the target curve fairly well, though most scenes are slightly too bright.

However, using the sRGB mode locks some settings like Gain and Offset. You have to use another mode to unlock those settings, though other picture modes are considerably less accurate before calibration, as you can see here.

The accuracy after calibration is superb, and you won't notice any inaccuracies. Additionally, you can use any of the settings that are locked out in sRGB mode.

The SDR color gamut is outstanding. It displays all colors in the sRGB space and has superb coverage of the Adobe RGB space. However, red and white are displayed inaccurately in Adobe RGB, which isn't ideal if you edit content with those colors.

The HDR color gamut is incredible. It displays nearly all colors in DCI-P3 and a wide range of colors in Rec. 2020.

The Dell U4025QW has great HDR color volume. Colors look vivid, and the monitor displays bright colors well. However, it doesn't display darker colors well because of the monitor's limited contrast ratio and terrible local dimming.

The text clarity is superb thanks to the monitor's high pixel density. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) improves the boldness of letters. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

The direct reflection handling is okay. Although it doesn't have strong mirror-like reflections, it really spreads light out across the screen. Images are also slightly warped due to the screen's curvature.

The black levels don't rise much in bright rooms. However, because of its relatively low contrast ratio, blacks still look gray even in bright rooms.

There's a ton of distracting light reflected off the screen. It spreads light out across the screen, and glare from strong light sources is distracting. It doesn't have diffraction artifacts though, as it spreads light out with any rainbow-like effects or banding.

The Dell U4025QW has outstanding gradient handling, and you won't see any banding in scenes with shades of a similar color.

In addition to FreeSync and G-SYNC compatibility, this monitor also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Dell U4025QW has disappointing motion handling across its VRR range. Motion is blurry no matter the refresh rate with the recommended 'Normal' Response Time setting, and the 'Fast' setting has worse motion handling.

The CAD with the 'Fast' Response Time setting passes the limits of the chart. You can see an alternative chart that displays the CAD for both Response Time settings here.

The refresh rate compliance is terrible. It has a slow response time and can't make full color transitions between frames, leading to blurry motion.

The CAD at the maximum refresh rate of 120Hz is poor. The 'Normal' Response Time setting with VRR enabled has the lowest CAD, with no overshoot, though fast-moving objects look blurry. The overdrive settings perform differently when VRR is disabled, as you can see in the table above.

The CAD at 120Hz is poor. The 'Normal' Response Time setting with VRR enabled has the lowest CAD, with no overshoot, though fast-moving objects look blurry. The overdrive settings perform differently when VRR is disabled, as you can see in the table above.

The CAD at 60Hz is poor. Unlike at higher refresh rates, the 'Normal' Response Time with VRR turned off has the lowest CAD because 'Fast' has more overshoot, leading to inverse ghosting. The overdrive settings perform differently when VRR is enabled, as you can see in the table above.

The monitor doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur further.

The Dell U4025QW has minimal VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is fantastic for gaming.

The backlight is flicker-free, which helps reduce eye strain if you're sensitive to it.

This monitor has excellent low input lag, providing a responsive desktop and gaming experience.

If you're looking for a smaller monitor with a 4k resolution and very similar features, check out the Dell U2725QE.

This monitor works well with the PS5, though it doesn't display a 120Hz signal from the PS5. However, the PS5 doesn't display an ultrawide image, so you'll have black bars on either side of your games on this monitor.

This monitor works well with the Xbox Series X|S, though it doesn't display a 120Hz signal from the Xbox. However, the Xbox doesn't display an ultrawide image, so you'll have black bars on either side of your games on this monitor.

This display supports daisy chaining. When you connect your computer to this monitor, you'll also connect to the second monitor in the chain. The daisy chaining capability works without issue. Dell has a good breakdown of the monitor's ports on page 16 of the manual, and a description of how to setup daisy chaining on page 57.

This monitor has a large number of USB ports. The primary USB-C port supports DisplayPort Alt Mode and Thunderbolt 4, so you can connect to the monitor and charge your laptop with a single cable. The three other USB-C ports you can connect peripherals to each provide 13W of power.

The Dell U4025QW works well with macOS. HDR works properly, and text looks as clear as it does on Windows. When using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when you wake the laptop up from sleep. Dell has a dedicated guide on using features like the KVM switch and PIP/PBP with macOS.

The Dell U4025QW has several extra features to improve the user experience. This includes a KVM switch that makes it easy to switch between sources and use the same keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor. It has several other features, including:

• Dell Power Button Sync: If you have a compatible Dell computer, you can turn both the computer and the monitor on and off by pressing the power button on the monitor.
• Ambient Light Sensor: Adjusts the monitor's brightness depending on ambient light levels.
• Dell ComfortView Plus: Certified with TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort 3.0 to reduce blue light emissions.
• Internal MST (Multi Stream Transport): Subdivides the screen into multiple virtual monitors for easier window management.