Physical Design

Prior to this review, I was using the ASUS PQ321Q. Unboxing the Seiki Pro SM40UNP, I placed them beside each other, making for an interesting comparison photo:

That’s a 31.5” display that is just being dwarfed by the behemoth 40” Seiki Pro panel. Lets get this thing on a desk and see what it looks like:

I immediately noticed that Seiki is using a less aggressive anti-glare method on their glass as compared to other desktop displays we have recently reviewed. It is not a gloss finish, as the above photo was focused on my reflection and still appears blurred, but you can definitely see yourself when that portion of the display is showing a black scene. In practice this is quickly obscured by using a lighter background image, displaying more content on the screen, and/or use in a more dimly lit environment.

The rear layout is good, with a very solid stand (which weighs nearly 10 lbs on its own). The stand offers some angle support as well as rotation, pivoting at the pedestal base.

At the bottom left we find a standard C14 power cord connector and a power switch. The switch is of little use as there is a front panel power button which performs ‘soft-off’ functionality.

At the bottom right we find an impressive array of inputs. DVI-D (Dual link), Two HDMI (1.4), Two DisplayPort (1.2), one VGA, and one USB 3.0 Type-B connector. Some further detail on the input capabilities as well as two corner case issues we noted using these inputs in various configurations:

  • DisplayPort defaults out of the box to DP 1.1. Must change to DP 1.2 in OSD.
  • Dual Link DVI supports up to 2880×1600 @ 60 Hz, 3840×2160 @ 30 Hz.
  • DVI 2560×1440 is incorrectly recognized as 2560×1600 and is letterboxed (should be full screen). *
  • DVI 2560×1600 is correctly recognized but is incorrectly sized to full screen (should be pillarboxed). All other aspects functioned properly. *
  • * We've fed this back to Seiki.

At center right (left when viewing from the front), we get a 4-port USB 3.0 hub, capable of 0.9A (4.5W) on each port. The PC Audio line-in port is also found here, but seems out of place as you would expect it to be located at the bottom right with the other inputs. We also find a headphone jack, which appears to be driven by an amplifier internal to the Seiki panel. This is a handy addition and it allows quiet usage with headphones simply connected directly to the display. The headphone jack can also be connected to desktop amplified speakers, and the display OSD can be used to select between the connected video port (HDMI or DP) and the PC Audio port. It does not MUX these together simultaneously.

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