This is exactly what the Dell Alienware AW2521HF delivered. This worked exactly as its designed to, removing tearing and stuttering by ensuring the refresh rate stuck to a multiple of the frame rate. But this is due more to uniformity on our sample than viewing angle behaviour. Some game engines will also show stuttering (or hitching) for various other reasons which wont be eliminated by the technology. The experience wasnt as cinematic as on models with much stronger static contrast, particularly in a dimly lit room. In the example of white text against a shaded backdrop, this only occurred at certain grey levels for the background, so not all dark shades would trigger it. When a monitor is used in this way, it is something which Nvidia refers to as G-SYNC Compatible. The greyscale gradient appeared smooth without obvious banding or dithering. Negatives With some more noticeable halo trailing by about 80fps (80Hz). Youll also notice G-SYNC Compatible listed under Monitor Technology in this section, as shown below. The Alienware AW2521HF has a great contrast ratio that reaches 1190:1 at around 30% to 40% brightness. Anti-Aliasing - Set AA to TSAA since disabling it doesn't induce massive FPS increase unless you have to. You should ensure the GPU driver is setup correctly to use FreeSync, so open AMD Radeon Software, click Settings (cog icon towards top right) and click on Display. The luminance of each quadrant was measured and compared to the brightest measured quadrant. IPS glow eats away at detail, particularly near bottom corners. Some would prefer a wider gamut for extra vibrancy Either way, where the frame rate drops below the floor of operation a frame to refresh multiplication technology (what AMD refers to as LFC) kicked in to keep tearing and stuttering at bay. This is shown in the image below, but remember that individual units vary when it comes to uniformity issues such as this. Gamma consistency was good, ensuring detail levels were largely appropriate (IPS glow affected regions aside) throughout the screen. IPS glow eats away at detail, particularly near bottom corners. The Response Time setting or Adaptive-Sync status didnt affect these observations. The backlight hits 400 cd/m2, while the contrast ratio is rated at 1000:1 like most IPS panels. Panel Technology: In-Plane Switching (IPS), Connectivity: DisplayPort 1.2 x 1, HDMI 2.0 x 2, USB 3.0 x 4, 3.5mm Jack x 1, Dimensions with Stand(WxHxD): 21.90 x 16.58 x 9.92. The greyscale gradient appeared smooth without obvious banding or dithering. Whilst both elements are important, eye movement is usually the dominant factor on modern monitors. As such shades appear much as the developers intend, with a bit of extra saturation in places and a bit of extra vibrancy for some shades. This resulted in a more noticeable powdery trailing with a greater effect on perceived blur. Colour reproduction The article also covers a technique called pursuit photography, using a moving rather than stationary camera to capture motion in a way that reflects both elements of perceived blur. And slight gamma corrections, assuming the unit behaves like our sample in that respect. Our RX 580 is far from a powerhouse of a graphics card, so maintaining 240fps was very tricky. The monitor also includes a Low Blue Light (LBL) setting called ComfortView. Medium orange (3), Persian pink (6) and looked slightly undersaturated in person, but they appear much less saturated and overly bright in the image compared to how they actually looked on the monitor. //. Now, we have fast IPS, which brings back good viewing angles and better color saturation. With VRR off the Super Fast and moreover Extreme settings show strong overshoot in the form of bright halo trailing. A slight reduction in powdery trailing at the expense of a bit of overshoot being introduced was the trade-off when stepping up the level, but the differences were not too profound. A DeltaE >3 represents significant deviation that most users could readily notice by eye. The first couple of blocks blended into the background well, which is usual for a monitor tracking the 2.2 gamma curve correctly. It cant compensate for other interruptions to smooth game play, for example network latency or insufficient system memory. VRR off did not significantly affect the pixel response behaviour at this refresh rate. Vibrant elements such as roaring flames and brightly painted objects looked quite rich and far from washed out, but not as eye-catching as theyd appear with a significantly increased gamut. There were no clear flashes of saturated red, orange or green or shifts between these with a bit of head movement. I had a blast playing Wild Hearts on this setup. Experience a fuller view with more space to take in all the action. It was free from alternation between deeper purple and a very strong pink hue that youd see on VA and moreover VA models. Contrast Dips below this were common. The purple block appeared a violet shade throughout, with a bit more of a pink hue towards the bottom and extreme side edges. Both our responsiveness article and the G-SYNC article linked to explore the importance of these two elements being synchronised. The segments are now quite distinct. This could be reduced by turning up the Response Time setting, but as explored earlier with Test UFO youd need Adaptive-Sync enabled and suitably high frame rates to avoid strong overshoot if doing that. You'll find two HDMI 2.0 ports on the back, as well as one DisplayPort 1.4 port, a headphone jack, and four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports two on the back, two along the bottom of the panel for easy access. The AW2521H also includes Nvidias Reflex performance analyzer that shows real time information on screen with input lag and frame rates and is said to help reduce input latency (for more see Nvidia Reflex tested). The strong colour consistency ensured shades maintained appropriate richness throughout the screen, without the saturation shifts youd see on VA or TN models. Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H at Dell for $679.99. Use the code 'SAVE350' to get $350 more off. IPS glow also came with the territory. The IPS-type panel of the Dell Alienware certainly provided a key contrast advantage over VA and TN models, though. Such an option does usually exist it may be called sync every frame or something along those lines rather than simply VSync. The screen surface imparted a bit of graininess to lighter content, so it wasnt as smooth as it couldve been. Its something were sensitive to, as long-time readers of our website will be well aware. Contrast - 69. The Lagom text appeared a blended grey throughout, with a slight red hue to the striping of the text. You can set different colors and effects for particular games or just to your liking. A sensitive camera and a utility called SMTT 2.0 was used assess the latency of the Dell Alienware AW2521HF. A very slight shadowy trail behind the UFO, but overall rather similar to the Fast setting in appearance. It was free an obvious pink hue or saturation shifts that youd observe on models with weaker colour consistency. by Bobo 21 Sep 2020, 10:53. Ill try these settings, and right after gonna ask for the refund and return the product. Brighter elements stood out well against darker surroundings, complete with a bit of graininess from the screen surface but nothing extreme. Contrast Any issues identified with FreeSync that were isolated to a specific title would indicate an issue with the game or GPU driver rather than the monitor as well. The pastel shades of this movie were suitably varied and muted, whilst vibrant shades such as neon reds and greens appeared fairly eye-catching. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made using the below link. This is a good practical speed to take such photographs at, highlighting both elements of perceived blur nicely. Note that 120Hz is listed as a PC resolution, rather than in the Ultra HD, HD, SD list. A futuristic sci-fi prop look which some will find quite endearing. In the image above you can see that the monitor is validated as G-SYNC Compatible (or you could, if Nvidia Control Panel displayed the entire text instead of cutting it off). At 60Hz, above, the UFO appears soft without sharp focus or clear internal detailing. The table below shows these values as well as the percentage deviation between each quadrant and the brightest point measured. You can download our ICC profile for this model, which was created using our Test Settings as a base. On TN models you have things looking far too masked higher up the screen due to high perceived gamma. The colour gamut of the AW2521HF (red triangle) was compared with the sRGB reference colour space (green triangle), as shown in the image below. The Alienware AW2521HFL is the latest version of Dell's 240Hz gaming . Instead, this model has a smooth gunmetal finish which keeps up with the brands premium lineage and reputation. Alienware's AW2521H not to be confused with Alienware's way-too-similarly-named Alienware AW2521HF, a cheaper 240Hz monitor mostly sets itself apart from Asus' 360Hz model in design. Youd therefore select either the third or fourth option in the list, shown in the image below. I've tried changing the response time from Extreme to Fast or Super Fast, but when I do that the blur get's even worse. This title offered suitable graphics options to test the full gamut of refresh rates supported by the monitor. This gave an unbalanced image with clear green tint, without achieving its key goal. The purple block appeared a violet shade throughout, with a bit more of a pink hue towards the bottom and extreme side edges. Given the intended uses for monitor, inter-unit variation and decent performance following OSD tweaking alone we will not be using any. Even on this title where there are lots of high contrast transitions, with bright objects against much darker backgrounds, there was nothing that really caught the eye as a clear weakness. The IPS panel is capable of excellent image quality, but it requires calibration first which can be a dealbreaker for some users. This title offered suitable graphics options to test the full gamut of refresh rates supported by the monitor. The following observations were made from a normal viewing position, eyes ~70cm from the screen. With VSync off the frame rate is free to climb as high as the GPU will output (potentially >240fps). Slight deviation from preferred 2.2 gamma, without gamma settings in OSD. Given the pleasing responsiveness and colour performance, nice overall build and (subjectively speaking) styling we feel this is an excellent 240Hz Full HD model overall. The front-face of this is matte black plastic, with a satin-finish Dark Side of the Moon (dark grey) plastic upper surface that continues at the rear of the stand. Note that we have no way to accurately measure input lag with Adaptive-Sync active in a variable refresh rate and frame rate environment. The luminance uniformity was quite good. But this is due more to uniformity on our sample than viewing angle behaviour. This is exactly what the Dell Alienware AW2521HF delivered. This provides effective blue light reduction and can easily be assigned to a numbered Game preset for easy activation and deactivation. The monitor provided a reasonable contrast performance on. The video below shows the monitor in action. The stand has a robust sculpted appearance, designed to look stylish without sacrificing ergonomics; tilt (5 forwards, 21 backwards), swivel (20 left, 20 right), height (130mm or 5.12 inches) and pivot (90 clockwise or anti-clockwise rotation into portrait) adjustment is included. We again consider Fast or Super Fast to be optimal Fast becomes the clear winner with VRR off, though. The video below shows the monitor in action. Manuals and Documents. The better option is to raise the refresh rate and thats exactly what the Alienware AW2521H does. This contrasted starkly with competing TN models that would show an obvious gradient of saturation vertically and VA models which show shifts from centre to bottom and sides. A gamery but in our view tasteful aesthetic, good ergonomics, competitive pricing and a relatively easy to drive resolution The greatest deviation from this occurred at quadrant 6, to the right of this (151.5 cd/m, which is 10% dimmer). They click like a high-end monitor should and make short work of menu navigation and control. ASUS TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A; LG UltraGear 27GN850; Alienware AW2521HF; Samsung Odyssey G7 Series 27" BenQ Zowie XL2411K; Best HDMI 2.1 Monitor For Warzone - ASUS TUF Gaming . In saturation I lowered Red to 48% and Yellow to 34% and left the others at 50%. It still helps demonstrate some of the relative differences between the original intended sRGB shade and what the monitor outputs, however. There was no noticeable dithering. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, As such shades appear much as the developers intend, with a bit of extra saturation in places and a bit of extra vibrancy for some shades. Plus a bit of overextension, in the green to red region. Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: 1080p, 1920 x 1080, 1ms, 240Hz, 25 Inches, Alienware, DisplayHDR 400, FHD, freesync, Full HD, G-Sync compatible, HD, hdr, HDR 400, IPS, Your email address will not be published. This is a good practical speed to take such photographs at, highlighting both elements of perceived blur nicely. There is also a 3.5mm jack for analog audio, but there are no speakers with this model. This is an alternative to VSync which allows the frame rate to rise above the refresh rate (no VSync latency penalty) whilst potentially keeping the experience free from tearing or juddering. Lagoms viewing angle tests help explore the idea of colour consistency and viewing angle performance. You should ensure the GPU driver is setup correctly to use FreeSync, so open AMD Radeon Software, click Settings (cog icon towards top right) and click on Display. But some users dont find such issues as noticeable and wont benefit as much from FreeSync. Best Displays Ideal for Triple Monitor Surround Setups Buying Guide, Triple Monitor setups became popular in the early 2010s when Nvidia released its Surround Technology that spans your computers output, LG 27UL500 Review Affordable 4K IPS Monitor for Mixed Use, The LG 27UL500 is the next budget variant of the Korean brands extensive 4K IPS monitor portfolio which provides excellent, Asus VG27AQ Review G-Sync Compatible 165Hz IPS Monitor with ELMB and FreeSync Editors Choice, Check Latest Price on Amazon The Asus VG27AQ is a midrange gaming monitor that focuses on the essential aspects such. Negatives Brightness= 38% (according to preferences and lighting). The luminance uniformity was quite good. This figure is influenced both by the element of input lag you see (pixel responsiveness) and the element you feel (signal delay). That means that if the game is running between 48fps and 240fps, the monitor will adjust its refresh rate to match. Heres how it works. Our RX 580 is far from a powerhouse of a graphics card, so maintaining 240fps was very tricky. The green block appeared a consistent saturated chartreuse shade throughout. As noted earlier, AMD FreeSync makes use of Adaptive-Sync technology on a compatible monitor. Greater flexibility offered in the OSD than the Standard setting. The responsiveness of the monitor was also quite impressive which is a good thing given that its a key focus of 240Hz models like this.