Dell Pro 34 Plus P3425WE monitor review: Ultra wide, ultra sensible

Dell makes some bold promises for the Pro 34 Plus P3425WE. It claims that the 34-inch, 3,440 x 1,440 resolution will enable you to "focus like never before" – something that will no doubt appeal strongly to the easily distracted – and that the IPS panel will make your work look better than ever. Unless your work happens to be solely spreadsheets or text documents, in which case they'll probably just look, well, wider.

Bold claims then, but the specifications for this business-focused ultrawide monitor do seem to pack in all the essentials. You get an adjustable stand and USB hub alongside 90 watts of USB-C power delivery and a handy KVM switch, and the display specifications look quietly promising. The whole package retails for a reassuringly expensive £440 at Dell UK, so the big question here is whether it justifies the relatively high price.

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Dell P3425WE monitor: Design & Features

Turn the P3425WE on, and it's refreshing to find an on-screen display that immediately attempts to be helpful. It checks whether you want to enable always-on USB charging (and warns about the increase in power consumption), and also offers to guide you through the process of connecting two machines and setting up the KVM switch. Even if you don't want to do it right away, you can hop into the menus by pressing the four-way joystick at the rear and selecting the Show KVM Setup Guide option.

As usual, the menus are all fairly self-explanatory. If you need to adjust settings, then the controls are simple, and menu layout is logical. As usual, a quick click of the joystick in any direction brings up a handy quick menu which gives rapid access to the main features. Click upwards again, and you can delve into the menus proper.

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One other option, however, is to install the Dell Display Manager (DDM) software, which is available for both Windows and macOS. This provides a useful added level of control and makes it much easier to both set up and use the KVM and various Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture features. It also adds a variety of quality-of-life and management features for good measure. It provides more flexibility in how you snap applications across the ultrawide panel, allows you to select specific color modes for specific applications, and you can set keyboard shortcuts to adjust monitor settings. Remote management is another plus point for IT teams, too, as it makes it easier to manage a fleet of compatible Dell monitors across the network.

In terms of looks, the P3425WE is classic Dell. That is to say, if you've seen any Dell Pro or UltraSharp monitor in recent years, you know what to expect here. The silver stand contrasts smartly against a black (or perhaps dark charcoal grey, depending on the lighting) rear panel, and the bezelless design looks clean and crisp, too. The Dell branding is subtle – there's a small logo on the bottom bezel and a slightly more prominent silver one on the rear of the panel. Build feels fine for the money, too. The rear panel feels a little rattlier than I'd like for a £400 monitor, but it's nothing serious.

The adjustable stand works well. There's 150mm of height adjustment, ample amounts of side-to-side swivel and fore and aft tilt, and the only obvious omission is a pivot mode for portrait operation – something which just isn't very likely for a 34in ultrawide panel. The stand moves fairly smoothly throughout its range of motion, and you'll only need one hand to make adjustments as the wide, flared base keeps the monitor safely planted even at full extension.

Connectivity covers all the essentials. All the ports are downward-facing, and you get HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and an upstream USB-C port that carries DisplayPort Alt video inputs, data, and 90 watts of power to compatible devices. There's also a USB-B upstream port for connecting a second machine, and both upstream ports are able to share the four downstream USB ports. You'll find a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports at the rear, and a single USB-C and USB-A port are hidden in the little drop-down panel underneath the monitor's lower bezel. Click it, and the panel drops down into view.

Dell's stand includes some basic cable management. All of the P3425WE's connectivity can be routed through the oval cutout in the stand, and as this is angled downwards to the rear, it does a good job of allowing the various cables to slide through without getting pinched when you adjust the stand. The only slight moan here is that you may struggle to fit all the cables through – and if you need to swap the mains cable, you'll need to remove the other cables to slide the IEC plug through.

Dell P3425WE monitor: Display quality

One key difference worth noting here is that the P3425WE's panel opts for a noticeably shallower curve than some rivals. The 3800R curve is very gentle and gives a far less pronounced wraparound effect than monitors with more aggressive 1500R and 1800R curves. This makes the P3425WE a little more flexible when it comes to positioning. Where more aggressive curves work well for sub-1-metre viewing distances and deliver greater immersion in games, you may – like me – prefer a shallower curve for everyday work. With the P3425WE mounted at my usual 1.2 metre viewing distance, the P3425WE does feel a tad more at home.

The P3425WE is aimed purely at a work audience, so it's no surprise to find a fairly modest set of specifications. The IPS panel promises a sensible 99% of sRGB coverage, a contrast ratio of 1,500:1, and a maximum brightness of 350cd/m2. The 100Hz refresh rate is a pleasant upgrade over the standard 60Hz, though – it's not going to excite gamers, but the extra fluidity is noticeable even when scrolling up and down documents. Set side by side with older 60Hz displays, it's also easier on the eye for all-day work, too. And the same goes for the matte anti-glare coating, which, in my very bright office with two skylights (and some unseasonably summery UK weather), did a great job of minimising reflections.

As ever, it's reassuring to find that image quality looks 'right' straight out of the box. Brightness is set to 75% by default, which equates to around 200cd/m2, and this is a little bright for office lighting, but about right for brighter rooms. Crank it to maximum, and it reaches just shy of its claimed 350cd/m2. Contrast is clearly a cut above basic IPS panels – measurements put it at around 1,400:1 in my tests – and colors look natural to the naked eye.

In our tests, the panel covered around 94% of the sRGB color gamut, but the panel is actually capable of reproducing a range of greens, yellows, and reds that are outside of the usual sRGB palette – and that means that the color reproduction isn't strictly accurate. It doesn't put in a bad performance overall, though. Greyscales look clean, and the measured white point of 6,412k is so close to the ideal 6,500k that whites look nice and pure, too. The issue is that a wider color palette means that some tones are a little brighter than they should be, and this makes for a slightly underwhelming average Delta E of 2.3. It looks good in everyday use, but perfect it is not.

This might not be a gaming display, but the P3425WE handles movies and games with aplomb. Crank the overdrive settings up from the default Normal to Fast, and the result is much cleaner detail on fast-moving objects. That does also adds a little inverse ghosting in some conditions, but it's nowhere near as intrusive as we've found on some other models. If it's the odd lunchtime game of Arc Raiders you're after, then the P3425WE will multitask with ease.

Dell P3425WE monitor: Is it worth it?

Value is the only major issue for the P3425WE. With prices varying between £410 and £450 at the time of writing, the P3425WE is substantially pricier than less fully featured 34-inch ultrawide monitors. The USB-C connectivity and KVM switch adds a hefty premium. If you have a tight IT budget to manage, you'd be advised to spend substantially less on a model from any of the big brands.

For users and desks that will benefit from the P3425WE's talents, however, it's a much more attractive prospect. The combination of an ultrawide format with a softer curve is a natural fit for work, and the image quality is more than good enough for all but the most colour critical desks. It even manages to put in a good performance outside of work hours, if that's a consideration. If that sounds like the position you're hiring for, then the Pro 34 Plus P3425WE is a safe pair of hands.

Dell P3425WE monitor specifications