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Alienware AW2521HFA 24.5 Inch Full HD (1920x1080) Gaming Monitor, 240Hz, IPS, 1ms, AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible, DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, 5x USB 3.0, 3 Year Warranty

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The video below shows the monitor in action. The camera, processing done and your own screen all affect the output – so it doesn’t accurately represent what you’d see when viewing the monitor in person. It still provides useful visual demonstrations and explanations which help reinforce some of the key points raised in the written piece. Gamers have always known that a good monitor can make the difference between life and death, and especially those who indulge in competitive online gaming. It’s these folk that the Alienware 25 AW2521HF is primarily aimed at, but it’s also good for a bit of sneaky work on the side – which, given the recent move towards home working, is a definite bonus. For AMD cards, FreeSync works over both HDMI and DisplayPort whereas with NVIDIA cards, you’ll need to use DisplayPort and have a GTX 10-series or newer GPU. On Battlefield V the monitor provided a very fluid experience, where the frame rate kept pace with the 240Hz refresh rate. Compared to at 60Hz, or indeed a 60Hz monitor, you’re getting up to 4 times as much visual information pumped out every second. And twice as much when compared to 120Hz or 1.67 times as much compared to 144Hz. This gives an excellent ‘connected feel’, which describes the precision and fluidity felt when interacting with your character and the game world. The very low signal delay of this model also aided the ‘connected feel’, but the very high frame and refresh rate combination also helped. The perceived blur due to eye movement was also greatly reduced, much as demonstrated with the pursuit photos earlier on. The improvement in ‘connected feel’ and reduction in perceived blur was still noticeable to us and would be to sensitive users going up from 144Hz to 240Hz. Although not nearly as pronounced or obvious as stepping up from 60Hz to 144Hz (or even 120Hz).

For more information, be sure to visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide. Conclusion The Dell AW2521HF is an excellent gaming monitor for the price. Thanks to its 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync, it ensures buttery-smooth performance while its IPS panel offers vibrant colors and wide viewing angles. An obvious cool (blue) almost icy-looking tint due to very high colour temperature. Some shades brightened up just slightly due to gamma handling, but not by a huge amount. Strong consistency due to IPS-type panel, without the perceived gamma and saturation shifts associated with TN or VA panels. The answer is almost certainly no -- it's not repairable. Dell doesn't repair monitors. If they fail, they're replaced. But not for a fall, that is not part of the Dell monitor warranty. And very few if any repair shops will undertake a monitor repair. Beyond the unavailability of screens, monitors are generally not designed to be disassembled for repair purposes - it's very common for screens to be fixed in place with adhesive. Further, the screen is a majority of the cost of the monitor -- it's not an economic proposition to repair these, even if parts are available.Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. See how we test. Similar to above, as with ‘Game 2’ and ‘Game 3’. Greater flexibility offered in the OSD than the ‘Standard’ setting. To test the performance of monitors, I run a DisplayCal verification using an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter, alongside a few by-eye tests using Lagom's LCD test patterns. The AW2521H is not an HDR or wide gamut monitor, instead hitting about 450 nits of maximum brightness and covering 92.8% of the sRGB color space. It is, however, extremely accurate within that sRGB space. In terms of design and build, the Alienware 25 is unmistakably a gaming monitor, with its dramatically splayed legs, customisable RGB lighting and Alienware logo at the rear. You can even change the colour of the power button on the bottom right edge if you wish. This is also why TN monitors were almost exclusively used by competitive gamers and tournament organizers alike, as these panels are known to display the least amount of input lag, and have some of the fastest response times when compared to their early IPS or VA counterparts. However, as monitor technology has advanced, these shortcomings have been expiated to a considerable degree with the release of fast IPS, SS IPS, and SVA panels.

When responding to an input, the AW2518HF was measured (by Tom’s Hardware) to have an absolute (end-to-end) input lag of just 19 ms, which is incredibly low. Similarly low were the tests carried out for the AW2521HF (by Rtings.com) that was found to have 2.7 ms of input lag (not absolute) at its native resolution and refresh rate, increasing to 3.1 ms with VRR enabled, 9.7 ms at 60 Hz, and 12.7 ms at 60 Hz with VRR enabled. The Super Fast and Extreme modes are too aggressive; they push the pixel response time too much, which results in inverse ghosting or pixel overshoot. Intended as a Low Blue Light (LBL) setting, but very ineffective. The colour temperature is warmer by default but the blue channel remained strong on our unit and green channel very strong. This gave an unbalanced image with clear green tint, without achieving its key goal.Another inherent advantage of IPS monitors is their superior color saturation and larger color gamut, which becomes apparent when they are compared to TN panels. This commonality proves to be true in this comparison as well, as we see the Dell AW2521HF outperform the AW2518HF in the Adobe RGB 1998 color gamut by a significant margin. That being said, the latter model does hold its own in regard to the sRGB color space, with Tom’s Hardware claiming it was able to reproduce 99.78% of the sRGB color spectrum, but only 68.42% of the Adobe RGB color space. On the other hand, when measuring the Dell AW2521HF, Rtings.com found it to be able to reproduce 97.7% of the sRGB xy color space (on CIE 1931 xy), and 75.21% of the Adobe RGB xy color spectrum (80.4% in lCtCp). Though its advantage is not of the magnitude one would expect for the typical panel properties, it still does give itself the edge over the Dell AW2518HF. Full HD resolution is quite limiting in some respects, stand reasonably deep which could be an issue if you have a shallow desk (VESA mounting is an option) The Alienware AW2521HF has an exceptionally low input lag of only ~2ms, which guarantees that you won’t be able to notice or feel any delays between your actions and the result on the screen.

Also similar are their power demands, with the AW2518HF consuming 26 W on average (73 W maximum), while the AW2521HF fares slightly better at a 24 W average power consumption (72 W maximum); meaning an estimated 55.52 kWh of annual energy expenditure. Next, in the Nvidia control panel, under the "Display" option on the left, in "Adjust desktop color settings", I set the color channel to "All Channels", increased the Brightness to 72%, lowered the contrast to 25%, and lowered the Gamma to .96. Digital vibrance and Hue were left alone. I've been reading that the best Gamma options are between 1.8 and 2.2 for computer monitors but I couldn't raise the Gamma in the nvidia control panel that high because the entire monitor would appear insanely washed out and no other combo of settings could get rid of that effect. I also used the windows color management tool and the below linked tool while tweaking the settings. Other panel-related specifications include a strong 400-nit peak brightness and a static contrast ratio of 1,000:1. In terms of features, we have VRR, in the form of native AMD FreeSync support and Nvidia G-Sync certified compatibility, an on-screen timer, and fps counter, and display alignment (which helps when setting up a multi-monitor setup) for both options. Input lag is where the Alienware 25 really shines, as it should in a gaming monitor. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured a 4.1-millisecond input lag on a 60Hz signal, which means an input lag of just over 1ms at 240Hz. That makes the Alienware 25 the fastest gaming monitor we’ve tested to date.Strong pixel responsiveness overall, low input lag and Adaptive-Sync working well with both our AMD and Nvidia GPU The image appears ‘rich and natural’ overall, with good variety. The gamma is slightly below target, brightening up some shades just a little, but the overall image balance is very respectable.

However, since you’d need a wider color gamut and a much higher contrast ratio and brightness for a noteworthy HDR picture quality (none of which is offered by the other 1080p 240Hz IPS models), you’re not losing anything important here. As it’s the case with most Alienware gaming monitors, the design has a sci-fi vibe with a premium build quality and the AlienFX RGB lighting technology with plenty of customization. Decided to post this here since I struggled with how flat the colors and contrast looked. Hopefully anyone else experiencing this issue can use these settings and achieve similar results. Let me know if you try these and if you love or hate them.The price should be the same for both models, though it can vary depending on your region. Price & Similar Monitors Slight deviation from preferred ‘2.2’ gamma, without gamma settings in OSD. Some would prefer a wider gamut for extra vibrancy So, if you’re wondering whether you should save your money and get the Dell AW2521HF or invest in one of the more expensive models, this review will cover everything you need to know! Image Quality

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