‘The ultrawide Mac display I’ve been waiting for’: here's my honest verdict on the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K monitor after a month of testing

Who needs two monitors when you can get an ultrawide, 40-inch beast that makes your space look tidy? The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide, as its name suggests, is a 40-inch monster featuring a gorgeous 5K panel, and it’s one of the best monitors for Mac users. Boasting excellent color coverage and accuracy, the Edge 5K is great for creatives, photo and video editors, and everyone in between. There’s a plethora of USB ports, too, which eliminates the mess of cables and additional docks.

But the Edge 5K isn’t perfect. It’s heavy and unwieldy, and it doesn’t feature the strongest hinges, making the screen wobble when it’s touched. Oh, and there’s the small matter of that price tag — it’ll set you back nearly $1,500!

For the complete breakdown, read my full Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review.

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Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review: Specs

Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 40-inch ultrawide Mac-first monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio
• Who is it for? Photographers, video editors, creative professionals, and anyone and everyone in between
• How much does it cost? It ain’t cheap as it retails for $1,499 / £1,399!
• What do we like? The excellent color coverage and accuracy, 5K panel, array of USB ports, and Mac-first design
• What don’t we like? The unwieldy design, loose hinges, and premium price

Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review: The ups

The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide’s panel is gorgeous, and its color coverage and accuracy will give you little to complain about. There’s a plethora of USB ports, too, and the monitor’s Mac-friendly design makes it fit right into existing setups.

Huge 40-inch 5K panel

Who needs two or three monitors when you can have one massive display instead? The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide, as its name suggests, features a 40-inch 5K IPS panel with a resolution of 5120 x 2160. I’m more accustomed to using 27-inch screens, and my office desk consists of two of these. If you don’t fancy two separate monitors, the Edge 5K is the perfect monitor for you.

I’ve found the 40-inch panel to be extremely handy for navigating multiple browsers and windows at the same time. It also makes quick work of trawling through massive spreadsheets and Slack threads. 5K monitors are becoming increasingly popular amongst creatives, and the Edge 5K’s panel is stunning. Colors are bright and vivid (more on that shortly), and the monitor gets quite bright too.

I lab-tested the Edge 5K’s brightness and was very impressed with the results in SDR mode. As you can see in the table above, the Edge 5K reached a peak brightness of 417 nits (Alogic advertises 400 nits), which is better than the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S ($1,199) and the Dell UltraSharp 40 ($2,399), both of which are also 5K monitors. The Apple Studio Display XDR ($3,299) gets a tad brighter, but most users won’t be able to tell the difference.

However, the Edge 5K disappoints when it comes to HDR brightness. In my lab testing, the monitor achieved a peak HDR brightness of 168 nits only (100% window size), which pales in comparison to all the other monitors on the list. If that’s an issue for you, it’s worth considering other displays — the PD2730S is my top pick, as long as you don’t mind stepping down to 27 inches.

Excellent color coverage

The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide is a beautiful monitor for creatives and photo editors, and that’s because it boasts excellent color coverage and accuracy. Alogic claims that the monitor covers 100% of the sRGB color space and 99% of the wider DCI P3 gamut. Manufacturer claims are usually conservative, as I’ve seen with other monitors, so I had to lab-test the monitor to see for myself.

In my lab tests, the Edge 5K covered 104.5% of the sRGB and 99.8% of the DCI P3 color spaces, surpassing Alogic’s aforementioned claims, which is superb. The monitor performs slightly better than the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S in the DCI P3 space, but only by a small margin. It also blows the Apple Studio Display XDR and the Apple Pro Display XDR out of the water.

So, the Edge 5K performs formidably on paper, but what about in practice? In real-world usage, this monitor lives up to those numbers. All shades appeared vivid and bright. Reds and purples appeared rich while greens and blues looked lushious. I watched a few 4K videos on YouTube and I noticed there was plenty of detail in the shadows, and highlights never appeared blown out or oversharpened.

I even edited some photos I’d captured on the best cameras and best drones, and I appreciated being able to see the different shades and hues. Thanks to 5K resolution, editing 4K videos was a walk in the park as I could accurately make extreme crops without losing detail.

Accurate colors

Alongside wide color coverage, the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide boasts great color accuracy too. When I measured color coverage, I measured the accuracy as well, known as Delta-E, which is a numerical representation of how much two colors differ. Delta-E gives you an idea of how close the color relayed on screen (i.e. the monitor) is to the color output from the source (i.e. the computer). You want the score to be as close as possible to zero.

The Edge 5K achieved a Delta-E score of 0.08 in my lab tests, which is outstanding and better than every other monitor in the table above. A score of 0.08 means the colors displayed on the monitor are extremely accurate. When I was editing photos, this gave me reassurance that the colors on the monitor were appearing as intended, and I could confidently continue editing.

A range of creative features

As you’d expect from a creativity-focused monitor, the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide packs a range of creative features. Naturally, you get access to color modes like sRGB and Display P3. There’s also a dedicated Adobe RGB color mode for photographers who print, and this gives the Edge 5K a leg-up over the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S, which surprisingly doesn’t feature it.

The Edge 5K also features Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes which can be accessed via the on-screen display settings by using the joystick. These modes, essentially, enable windows from different sources to be simultaneously displayed on the monitor. In Picture-in-Picture, you can adjust the window size and position to suit your needs, while Picture-by-Picture splits the monitor into two, giving you essentially two different screens. I’m certain many creatives will find these useful.

Designed for MacBook owners

Though the Alogic 40-inch 5K Ultrawide is compatible with Chromebooks and Windows machines, it is advertised as a Mac-first monitor. That’s due in part to its ports (more on those shortly) and its design. You can buy the Edge 5K in either Silver or Space Gray colors. Sound familiar? Those are the colors used by MacBooks, of course, so this monitor will fit your setup effortlessly and is ideal for those chasing visual aesthetics.

Plenty of USB ports

The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide doubles as a USB dock thanks to its extensive array of ports, designed with macOS users in mind. As a productivity-oriented monitor, it packs all the ports that would be needed by creatives, photographers and videographers. Around the back, you’ll find an HDMI 2.0 port and a DisplayPort 1.4 port for connecting your laptop or PC to the monitor.

Located next to these is a USB-C 3.0 Gen 1 port with 90W of power delivery and display capabilities, so you can plug in, say, your MacBook Air M2 and charge it simultaneously. You also get two USB-C downstream ports (although Alogic doesn’t specify the data transfer speeds), an Ethernet port, as well as a 3.5mm jack for headphones or computer speakers. There are no USB-A ports, unfortunately, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing — you may want to pick up a USB-C to USB-A adapter for around $12.

Throughout my testing period, I haven’t felt the need for more ports, as the one’s on the Edge 5K are more than enough for hooking up my laptop and other peripherals.

Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review: The downs

The Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide is an excellent monitor, but it’s important to note that it’s heavy and unwieldy, and it doesn’t come with the strongest of hinges. Oh, and it’s a little expensive too.

Heavy and unwieldy

As is the nature of ultrawide monitors, the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K is heavy and large, weighing 18.36lbs and measuring 37.04 x 27.32 x 9.64 inches (with stand). I’m used to using heavy monitors — the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S, which I tested most recently, weighs 18.12lbs. However, because the PD2730S is a 27-inch monitor, I didn’t have any issues lifting it or moving it around.

The Edge 5K is a different story, as I found it quite difficult to move around and reposition it. It’s unwieldy and is best suited to staying in one place, so if you like to rejig your setup every now and then, you may want to start hitting the gym.

Not the sturdiest hinges

One of the things I’m most disappointed by is the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide’s hinges — yes, the ones that keep the screen attached to the stand, and enable you to swivel and extensively adjust the viewing angle. When I first assembled the monitor, I immediately noticed that the hinge felt loose, and the screen moved a lot if I lightly pressed it with my finger.

After setting it up on a desk, I sat in my chair, pulled it forward and in the process of doing so, banged the chair’s arms against the table. When that happened, I saw the Edge 5K’s screen wobbling. Now, I’m not saying that this monitor won’t stand the test of time, but seeing it jiggle and wobble like that doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence. I haven’t had this issue with any of the (many) other monitors I’ve used and reviewed.

Expensive

This is more of a pre-purchase consideration than an outright flaw: the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide doesn’t come cheap. But this is the nature of 5K monitors, especially ones with huge displays. The Edge 5K retails for $1,499 at B&H Photo / £1,399 at Park Cameras, so it costs almost the same as the base Apple Studio Display ($1,599). The Edge 5K is worth the investment if you want a Mac-compatible monitor that isn’t made by Apple but at this price, why wouldn’t you just buy the first-party monitor? Obviously, if you need a 40-inch screen, the Edge 5K is the way to go.

The Edge 5K is pricer than other 5K monitors I’ve tested, like the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S ($1,199) but again, the latter features a smaller 27-inch screen. Luckily, Alogic’s offering is cheaper than the Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub which starts at a whopping $2,399. There’s also the LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B ($1,999), but it’s a gaming monitor rather than a productivity-first display, so that might not be everyone’s bag.

Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide review: Verdict

For productivity power users and creatives, the Alogic Edge 40-inch 5K Ultrawide is an excellent choice. It delivers on its core promise of replacing a multi-monitor setup with one expansive 40-inch screen, as well as features like Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture. Its 5K display offers excellent brightness and sharp detail, and exceptional color coverage and accuracy make it perfect for photo and video editors.

That said, the monitor isn’t without its faults. Its sheer size makes it tricky to reposition, and the wobbly hinge design undermines confidence in an otherwise premium package. Given that this monitor costs nearly $1,500, I honestly expected better.

But if these are compromises you’re okay with, nothing is stopping you from getting the Edge 5K. At the end of the day, it’s a color-accurate productivity monitor that gives you very little to complain about.