Dell - S2721HGF 27" Gaming - LED Curved FHD FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible Monitor (DisplayPort, HDMI) - Black

I've always thought curved TVs were gimmicks and a monitor was just as guilty. My opinion still holds for TVs, but I was wrong to think the same for gaming monitors. They weren't kidding when they advertised this monitor as an immersive experience and the curvature of the panel gives you that sense of being in the action. The fact is that you’ll be sitting pretty close to a monitor while gaming, and this fact alone makes considering a curved monitor like this a justification for ownership. The actual curvature of the monitor is not aggressive. The top and side bezels are very thin and add to the immersive effect, but the chin is a little on the big side. Gotta floss the logo, I guess. For the technicalities, the monitor supports 2xHDMI1.4 and a DP1.2, which is to be expected from a native 1920x1080p monitor. There are no extra USB ports and no built-in speakers. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack. This monitor is 144Hz and does not disappoint; the OS had no problems identifying it's higher refresh rate and Nvidia Control Panel allows for G-Sync. Higher frame rates seem to be the standard to look for in a monitor as you want to take advantage of all the frames your card can put out. I can’t speak to the FreeSync Premium/Premium Pro, but it supports those optimizations as well. You’ll have to turn on AMD FreeSync in the OSD settings to enable G-Sync. The On/Off button is situated on the right bottom side of the panel and all OSD controls are stacked vertically behind the right side of the panel. In the OSD menu, the Game menu allows preset modes (Standard, FPS, MOBA/RTS, Sports) as well as three customizable modes. These modes change the following: response time, gain, offset, hue, saturation and dark stabilizer. I’ve been flipping between Standard and FPS and overall like the Standard setting. All presets can be tweaked to your liking. For reference, My 1080p rig runs a GTX 1060 and with the S2721HGF, it breathes new life. I’m currently reliving my console days with Halo MCC and the 144Hz is very smooth with no noticeable frame judder. The VA panel has a 1ms MPRT (4ms GTG) but I think it’s more than sufficient for the casual gamer, like myself. Competitive folks probably go for the TN panels, but I digress…. For non-gaming use, the 27” is probably the limit for FHD viewing because text on the screen will start to look fuzzy with respect to the larger resolution monitors at the same size, but it isn’t a deal breaker to me. Movies in full screen mode are excellent and viewing angles remain excellent as well. But that curve?? It’s just for you, my friend. So have a seat front and center.

The Dell S2721HGF is a 27” 1080p VA curved high variable refresh rate monitor offering MPRT support. There’s a lot packed into that sentence, but the essence of what sets the S2721 apart is that nervana of technologies and features and not much else. Dell has consistently put out monitors that cater to the gaming crowd with solid core feature sets, and the S2721 doesn’t sway from that lineage. Physically the monitor is wrapped in matte plastic. The back has a subtle design that makes me think of 80’s car window louvers. No RGB or lights other than the white on LED. It’s a subtle and handsome design. Obviously it’s curved at a 1500R (1.5M radius if you tried to make a circle). There are a plethora of buttons on the back, but all functions are controlled through a simple joystick/button. Bezels are thin at 7mm, and the stand offers a generous height adjustment (5”) and tilt (-5 to 21 degrees). As with most midrange and higher Dell monitors, the stand is excellent. VESA 100x100 is also available with screws preinstalled. Port selection is really good too, with DisplayPort, and dual HDMI. You could easily use a console or two and a PC with this monitor. Power is a standard AC cable, so no annoying power brick! So what sets the S2721HGF apart from Dell’s other offerings? Well, Dell’s curved monitor selection (other than ultrawides) is generally pretty sparse, making this a pretty unique offering. Curved monitors are more comfortable because the eye itself is curved. The image is less straining on our eyes, and as a result feels more immersive. There are downsides, mostly in image distortion and geometry that affect some professional work. The truth is, I’ve been using curved monitors for years now, and I have a hard time going back to a flat screen when the panel is larger than 24”. I was a skeptic, but having used a 32” 16:9 4K curved, as well as a few ultrawides, I’m convinced. The importance of a curve becomes less as the size decreases, but even on a 27” 16:9 panel it’s noticeable. But the curve is just one aspect of the monitor. Another selling feature that will attract a crowd is the 144Hz refresh rate. If you’re an aspiring gamer, or even a casual FPS player, then I’d recommend checking out why the pros go for high refresh rates. Arguments of perceived screens per second still exist, but there have been many tests proving that the higher the refresh rate, the lower the perceived lag from mouse to game, which results in better and more consistent playing. Again, I was a skeptic for a long time, having grown up on 60Hz monitors and playing relatively competitive shooters. While the brain adjusts and adapts to 60Hz, 120, 144, or 240Hz do make measurable differences. The 144Hz that this monitor supports is a great place to be, as anyone will tell you the night and day difference between a 60 and 120+ refresh rate with diminishing appreciation after 120Hz. So why is it 144Hz? Well, while 60Hz has been the norm for a long time on PCs, movies and cinematics run at 24 FPS. If your refresh rate is a multiple of 24 then you don’t get the judder associated with the mismatch of frames. Let’s keep breaking down the topics in that first sentence: What is MPRT? LCDs struggle with blur. Blur occurs on monitors due to the way our brains/eyes work vs how LCDs and OLEDs work. MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time) attempts to correct this visual phenomenon by strobing the backlight to reduce the perceived blur. This is enabled through the settings menu, specifically on the response time. So does it work? While the MPRT setting does make a very visible difference on the famous UFO test (google it), the results for me were mixed. First of all enabling MPRT does affect brightness output (on a monitor that’s already not that bright). Secondly, the perception at higher motions is that it feels like a ghost or trail image (different from ghosting from overdrive). I noticed this playing CS:GO, and honestly I preferred the extreme overdrive setting to MPRT. Your mileage may vary, as the science behind how MPRT works is interesting. However, this setting isn’t enabled by default, and it will disable VRR support (Freesync Premium), so I would suspect many purchasers of this monitor won’t enable it. Moving on to VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support, the S2721 shines here with Freesync Premium support and being G-Sync compatible. If you haven’t had a variable refresh rate experience yet, this monitor does a great job and supports essentially every graphics card on the market. The G-Sync pendulum demo is a great testing tool for this (even on AMD cards) and even simulating 40-60 frames per second, the motion of the pendum was natural. Without VRR the frames being rendered by your graphics card won’t meet up perfectly with the monitor. You can fix this with VSync, but that causes its own issues. VRR fixes this by syncing the monitor to a multiple of the frame. This is especially important if you have games that can’t hold the native refresh rate of your monitor (144hz), as it maintains a consistent experience all the way down to the 40 FPS range (lower than that and you’ll probably start to notice the lower FPS more intensely). Through experimentation, the freesync range appears to be 55-144Hz, with frame doubling occurring below 55Hz. Given the tradeoff, I would choose VRR over MPRT any day. Overall, this is a great G-sync compatible monitor. Now, the VA referenced stands for Vertical Alignment, which is the LCD panel tech. TN is one of the oldest, and fastest tech, while IPS is renowned for colors, viewing angle and image quality. VA is the middle ground, offering some of the colors advantages, viewing angles, while also bringing superior contrast. VA’s do have downsides, including black smearing caused by a natural sluggishness between swapping between grays (this is where MPRT stood out for me, as it removes much of this). Overall, the contrast ratio mates well to gaming, and the screen uniformity is pretty good on this display. Unlike IPS panels, the VA might have a bit of glow in dark scenarios, but it doesn’t have bright spots around the edges. The curve doesn’t have any impact on the uniformity which is showing how mature the tech has become. So some other details about this monitor. The OSD (on screen display) is super helpful and awesome. The Game menu has lots of presets, including 3 fully customizable game modes which let you tweak color. There’s an Game Enhanced Mode with a timer, frame rate, and display alignment settings - of which Timer is about the only useful thing. You can turn on and off FreeSync. The MPRT is hidden under the response time, but there are 3 other overdrive settings: Fast, Super Fast, and Extreme. Obviously Extreme is the best because it’s extreme… also it appeared to have the least ghosting or inverse ghosting. Dark stabilizer lets you adjust the gamma to see better in dark scenes in a game (don’t use it). The other menus are pretty basic, but when you get to ‘Personalize’ you see one of Dell’s most famous features. They really like giving the user the ability to adjust settings quickly on the display by mapping buttons to whatever setting you want, and it's amazing. It’s a huge reason to get a Dell monitor, as if you want to adjust between presets, it’s simply a button push. Colors seem accurate enough for the VA panel, and the standard gamma seemed on point. I don’t have a colorimeter to calibrate the display, but considering this is for gaming, dialing in the settings that look the best to you is probably the right answer. The panel itself is 8-bit, but I observed no banding issues - that said it’s no 10bit panel. Again, out of the box, the image was pretty well tuned neutral so most will be happy without further tweaking. If you want to tweak, the built in Game color profiles added to the custom profile mean you get 4 fully customizable color profiles - not bad for a budget gamer. So what downsides are there? First and foremost 1080p FHD. 1080p is a fine resolution, but at 27” it starts to get a very coarse feeling. This is especially apparently in productivity where the VA panel’s subpixel arrangement does it no favors with text exacerbating the situation. If you do a lot of school or work this display is tolerable, but not ideal. VA panels do have response time issues, and while this is an excellent example, it’s no TN. Even with MPRT there are issues. Nothing that I personally notice in gaming, but some might. HDR is absent, but at this price point that’s actually fine and even preferred (as even expensive monitors don’t do HDR well yet). No USB hub or speakers, but at least there is audio passthrough via a 3.5mm jack (hook speakers to that and PC/Xbox/PS would all route audio when their input was selected). Alternatively Dell’s S2721DGF model sports IPS, 165Hz, and 1440p - which while costing more is a better investment for those going more multi-function. However if all you’re doing is gaming on this monitor, 1080p is a great sweet spot for PC and obviously consoles, as it’s easier to drive than 1440p. Plus this model is curved, and the D is not. At it’s given price, it’s a value. While there are other 1080p curved monitors, not many sport the high refresh rate, VRR support, customizability and general feature set. Most of those alternatives hit in the 23-24” range, and 27” is more comfortable for gaming in my opinion. Overall this is an amazing monitor for gaming on a budget.

Amazing curved screen really puts you in the action with this Dell gaming monitor. It gives you a different viewpoint that makes gaming more intense and more realistic. Easy to use Joystick on the rear panel allows you to control the way you want to set up this Curved Monitor. The Joystick and Curved monitor, set this Dell apart from the rest. • Setup – Once I unboxed the Curved Monitor, there were 2 additional solid pieces for connecting. These 2 pieces were the base and stand riser. The Base attaches to the Riser with a handle screw. Once that was put on, the Curved Monitor back slid into the Riser. The Curved Monitor was base heavy. The plastic pieces with metal reinforcements made this Curved Monitor so firm, it would take more than a bump to knock it over! SOLID! After the easy assembly, the box contained a HDMI cable and a power cord. • Connections – The connections for the Curved Monitor are located near the middle of the back facing downwards. There you can connect your power cord, two locks (security, stand), 2 HMDI ports, 1 display port and a headphone 3.5mm jack. I connected the power cord and plugged the Curved Monitor. Then I plugged the HDMI cable from the Laptop to HDMI input on the back of the Curved Monitor. It was plug n play after turning on the power. The Curved Monitor brightened up the room when I pressed the power lit button on the bottom right front. It was simple to set up and looked great even before I made adjustments. The only issue I have run into is the headphone jack. I have plugged wired headphones and I get no sound. I have looked thru the menus, but had no success. There is no sound at all coming from the monitor. I consider this a minor detail when you look at the whole package that is the Dell 27in Curved Gaming Monitor. • Joystick – A feature that really makes this Curved monitor a game changer is the Joystick. It makes moving the Joystick to the either side, up and down to navigate options to change menus and monitor options a breeze. It’s also easy to get to! On the back right side as you face the Curved Monitor, there are 4 buttons and the Joystick. I activated the OSD (on screen display) by pressing in the Joystick. The main options are Game, Brightness/Contrast, Input source, Display, Audio, Menu, Personalize and other. From this menu I am able to operate changes for how I would like the Curved Monitor to look. I made these adjustments (options) to get the screen effects that personalized the Curved Monitor for me. First, I kept the Standard Preset Mode, turned on the AMD FreeSync, made the Response Time fast and left the Dark Stablizer at 0 (my room is darker). Secondly, I set the Brightness at 75 and the Contrast at 88, I chose the input #1 which I had plugged the HMDI Cable into the back of the Curved Monitor and adjusted the sharpness at 70. Now, you can adjust the options however you like, but these helped make the Curved Monitor setup great for me. Next I was able to see the saved personalized short cut buttons. The 4 buttons are located just under the Joystick. Each one has a special function. It helped me navigate the Curved Monitor options without going through the OSD. They are as follows: Preset Mode, Dark Stabilizer and Brightness/Contrast with menus. The Joystick and shortcut buttons really made my personalized options extremely easy to access. • Curved Monitor Features – The 27in Curved Gaming Monitor from Dell is outstanding for gaming. The screen displays 1920x1080 at 144 MHz so action packed games run smooth and graphics are Full HD. Another feature is the Moving Picture Respose Time (MPRT) which is set at 1 ms that keeps the action going without monitor fatigued or getting smeared. The anti-glare 16x9 widescreen is rich with 16.7 million colors that make it brilliant to watch. I found the experience outstanding! Playing Bulletstorm and Serious Sam BFE never looked better. Whether I am shooting or running in the games, detailed graphics are the normal. The active Matrix thin-film transistor (TFT) with its LED screen, light up to the very edge with a thin bezel. The backlighting LED with 3000:1 contrast will make the difference for you in gaming. The Curved Monitor is treated for anti-glare reflection and decreases the level of blue light that is put out from the screen. This means your eyes will be able to keep up in comfort with the Curved Monitor’s smooth graphics, accurate coloration, and no lag time for hours of intense game play. Another feature that really makes a difference in this Curved Monitor is the Sync. AMD FreeSync Premium works with your graphics card to keep the screen clean in great action scenes from looking fuzzy and blurred. It made the difference for the on screen graphics from looking good to looking great! Not to be overlooked, the screen tilt is -5 degrees to 21 degrees meaning you can find a comfortable position when viewing the Curved Monitor. The Curved Monitor Screen is flat out amazing. Whether you are playing games, working on Microsoft Office or browsing the net, you will notice the difference a Curved Monitor makes. To me, images seem to surround you and envelope you in whatever you are doing with the computer. This Curved Monitor takes gaming to another level.

I’m certainly not a gaming expert but my son is and he is absolutely in love with his new monitor. I shopped around and settled on this because of the good reviews (didn’t let me down) and Best Buy always takes care of us if issues arise. My son has had this for almost a month and we haven’t had 1 issue. I read another reviewer mentioning something about the settings needing to be tweaked but it was perfect out of the box. The only issue I have, my daughter wants 1 now!

This monitor is so great, I had to buy a second one! It has an awesome response time. It is currently hooked up to my Mac, PC and Apple TV.

Scroll to the bottom for quick Pros and Cons for this review. These dell monitors are great for the price. I had mine price matched through dell for $209 a piece and ended up going with 3 of them to replace a defective Samsung Odyssey G7. Compared to higher end gaming monitors such as the g7, this model does not have as rich of color, crisp resolution, or the extreme refresh rates. What it does offer is a great performing option for a great price. For those that have a little bit larger budget but not looking to spend over $1000 for an ultrawide monitor, having three of these using nvidia surround is almost as immersive as VR and due to being 1080p will not over tax a decent video card. I would highly recommend these to anyone looking for a solid monitor at a great price. Pros: -No ghosting in high motion scenes -Deeper contrast than IPS panels -No artifacts (rainbow effects) on the fastest response setting -Minimal Input Lag Cons: -Black light bleed is present on black/dark scenes -Color is not bad but far from vibrant -1080p at 27" is a little blurry for some games

Overall a nice monitor for the price. The one negative I will say is that the blacks are more of a dark Grey. I use this monitor with a 60hz 24" on each side for games that do not require 144hz and the difference in the black is substantial. It's not as noticible when using the single monitor in games but I think this is the trade off for a 27" 144hz, curved monitor at this price point. If, like me, your budget prevents you from buying a $500 monitor then I think this is a good compromise and I would buy it again.

If you’re building your first rig or a new rig on a budget, this monitor is excellent value for money. It gives you exactly what you need to game, without a bunch of bells and whistles like lights, built in speakers, etc. This monitor is easy to set up and has been reliable thus far. Here are the things I really like about this monitor: - Price - Made by a reputable company - Really nice size at 27” - Curved monitor makes for easy viewing (entire screen is about the same distance from your eyes) - Plastic housing (keeps weight down) - 1ms response time - AMD Freesync compatible - 144 Hz refresh rate (sweet spot in my opinion) makes for smooth movements, especially in FPSs like Warzone where it’s critical And the things that aren’t quite as great: - Plastic housing (long-term durability concerns) - No G-Sync (a real bummer if you use a Nvidea GPU) - Unsure if this is just my monitor, but I am only able to use it with HDMI - Displayport input doesn’t seem to work for some reason - 1080p resolution looks fine, but there are plenty of 2K monitors out there with 144 Hz refresh rates