The 4 Best Ultrawide Monitors of 2026

Top pick

The U3425WE has excellent contrast and lots of ports, and you can easily change settings or inputs with Dell’s software.

The Dell UltraSharp U3425WE is an easy top pick for this guide: It offers a sharp and accurate picture, sturdy build quality, and a sleek, unobtrusive design. The U3425WE is a 34-inch monitor with a 3440×1440 resolution, and its IPS Black display panel has better contrast than a typical IPS monitor. We also like that it has a 120 Hz refresh rate, which makes any animation and on-screen motion seem a bit smoother but also is nice for some casual gaming if you have the graphics card for that. The U3425WE is well-equipped with a range of HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB ports, and it supports charging a laptop or other USB-C device with up to 90 W of power. It’s a modern, well-rounded monitor that would fit on almost any professional desk.

It displays crisp text and even color across the screen. Some ultrawide monitors have issues with uneven backlighting or inconsistencies in their larger display surface, but in our tests the Dell U3425WE showed an evenly lit image with consistent color and sharpness. The 34-inch screen has a 1900R curve that’s slightly gentler than what you get with most other curved ultrawides, as it pulls the corners of the monitor a bit closer to you without making you feel as if you’re in a spaceship cockpit. (If you’re into that, check out the LG UltraGear 34GS95QE, another ultrawide worth considering.)

It has accurate colors and gets bright enough for typical office work. The U3425WE fared well in our color-accuracy tests, posting a DeltaE score of 2.0 or below in all the categories we tested. DeltaE is a measure of how far a monitor’s color is from the correct color in a multidimensional color space, and lower is better; with a monitor scoring 2.0 or below, most people would need a color-accurate reference image to notice the difference between the colors. We also tested the maximum brightness of the monitor at 319 nits, slightly higher than the advertised 300 nits. This is enough for all but the sunniest rooms, especially since the larger size of the display gives it more area to output light. Turning the U3425WE up all the way results in a lot of light blasting your face. However, we also noticed that the maximum contrast ratio was only around 1900:1, slightly off the 2000:1 advertised contrast of IPS Black. We didn’t notice that outside our data-driven tests, but it’s worth noting.

It has USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 speeds and up to 90 W of charging. The U3425WE’s Thunderbolt 4 port offers 90 W of power delivery via USB-C, along with DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI ports. Aside from those, it has three USB-C ports with 15 W of power, five USB-A ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. It also has a USB-C port for passing video through to another monitor without your having to connect the second monitor directly to your computer, a feature called daisy-chaining.

It has some neat tricks, such as the ability to split your screen between two computers. When using the U3425WE with two computers, such as a desktop and a laptop, you can assign one half of your screen to the desktop and the other half to the laptop. And when you need to switch between computers or inputs, the monitor’s KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switch allows you to move your connected peripherals to the computer currently being shown.

It can automatically adjust its brightness and color temperature. The U3425WE has a light sensor to change its settings based on ambient light, just as modern smartphones and laptops do.

It has easy-to-use software. With the free Dell Display Manager software, you can control the monitor through your computer, without needing to fiddle with the display’s external controls. You can adjust the brightness, contrast, picture settings, and input settings, set up and manage the KVM switch to control multiple computers, and assign keyboard shortcuts to launch display settings.

Dell’s warranty covers dead pixels for three years. The warranty, which is one of the longest policies in the industry, covers dead or bright pixels and other on-screen errors for three years from when you purchase the monitor.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Its HDMI port can’t handle its full resolution and refresh rate. Only the U3425WE’s USB-C and DisplayPort connections are capable of transmitting enough data to take advantage of the monitor’s resolution at a full 120 Hz refresh rate, so if your computer has only an HDMI port, you’ll be a bit limited or in need of an adapter.

Its curve isn’t the best for creative work. A curved monitor can skew lines and alter perspective a bit when you’re working with visual media. We typically recommend flat monitors for photo or video editing, but there are certainly some creative professionals who aren’t hindered by a curved display.