[jbennett360]

Probably a bit early in the day to be asking questions, but what’s people’s thoughts on the Dell Alienware AW2724DM?

I’m still on the hunt for a 27″ monitor that has a good out of the box sRGB clamp.

Dell usually tend to nail these areas (3223Q)

Doesn’t seem too badly priced either?

Mod edit: have re-titled thread so I can share some thoughts on the value proposition offered here. It is indeed too early to discuss any technical aspects of performance.

[PCM2]

The AW2724DM is an interesting option (if you can forgive Dell’s horrendously misleading bezel marketing), but it is indeed too early to say much more about it aside from what’s known or specified. Whether you consider it well-priced depends on the market and what you’re comparing it to. Based on currently available US pricing information ($400 USD price tag) and the pricing of other recently released models there, I can’t help feeling it’s a bit on the steep side. Not horrifically overpriced, but a touch high. This assessment isn’t really valid in the UK given model pricing and availability is different, but it’s an angle I like to hit given the vast majority of our users come from the US.

– The ViewSonic VX2728J retails for ~$230. The Dell offers higher brightness and a somewhat wider colour gamut plus VESA DisplayHDR 600 support. But I think it’s difficult justifying the price difference in that case.

– The MSI G274QPX with 240Hz refresh retails for ~$380. This has a wider gamut but lacks VESA DisplayHDR 600 support.

– The Gigabyte M27U with ‘4K’ UHD resolution, 160Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 and also featuring VESA DisplayHDR 600 retails for ~$530. You get a lot more monitor for your money in other words.

Of course none of this is to say that the AW2724DM is a bad monitor and I doubt it is. Plus the styling and feature set (which hopefully includes good tuning for its sRGB emulation mode) may make it an ideal choice, above the others mentioned – which I appreciate aren’t actually currently available in the UK market. But I still don’t consider it “good value” at the current price. Dell has a habit of starting relatively high and reducing pricing by a reasonable amount not long after launch, though, so if we’re looking at a ~$350 or so monitor or equivalent price in other regions it becomes more attractive in my view. As an aside it’s also a pet hate of mine when monitors use different panels interchangeably (as is the case here) as they can have somewhat different performance characteristics. And users won’t really know exactly what they’re getting, making it a bit of a lottery.

[jbennett360]

Yeah its difficult.

Ideally I’d love a good out of the box sRGB monitor and there’s so few options here in the UK, or you think you find one only to find out the brightness is locked

The Dell is available to buy here in the UK and it’s priced at £419. Seems a little on the steep side, but I suppose you’re paying for Alienware!

Be interesting to see this reviewed and feedback from users though. Given Dells good warranty and pixel policy, that little bit extra might just be worth it?

[PCM2]

Yes, would certainly like to see user feedback on this one. Hopefully the two panels they use offer similar enough performance that there aren’t any dramatic differences between them as well. I’m working on the assumption it will be difficult to get a sample from Dell as they’re very selective about the models available for review as well. Definitely a model to keep an eye on, either way. 🙂

[jbennett360]

Just noticed the G2724D too. Seems to be a non wide gamut monitor with all the usual gaming features included.

[PCM2]

I’m not sure if it’s actually “non wide gamut”, or at least not as close to sRGB as the specification might suggest. Dell has a habit of specifying “99% sRGB typical” even if a monitor extends quite a bit beyond sRGB in some regions. Anything ~90% DCI-P3 or slightly under might be classified by them in that way. The Dell S2722QC is one such example, there are a few ‘G’ series models where this also applies.

[savingstimes]

Just wondering if there is any information on panel type yet for the G2724D? Hoping they aren’t using LG Nano IPS (contrast).

[PCM2]

Not sure about the exact panel currently, but it won’t be Nano IPS or they would’ve specified 98% DCI-P3 for the G2724D.

[Vielo]

Hi, I’ve been lurking your forum for a week or so since I couldn’t decide what to pick as an upgrade to my current Dell S2522HG. In the end I decided to trust my luck (and hope that Alienware is a robust brand) and just ordered this monitor. Let me know if I can supply any details once I receive it (like anything that be dug out from the OSD, manual, or simple freeware diagnostics tools), just please keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about colour gamuts etc.

You’ve all been a tremendous help during my search for a new screen so I want to somehow at least repay the debt, even if only marginally 🙂

[PCM2]

Hi Vielo – glad you’ve found the forum helpful!

It will be a nice upgrade for you and I look forward to your thoughts. Simply your general impressions on the monitor and how it compares to your previous one would be great. A few other things I’m curious about:

– How many dimming zones does the monitor have? I believe you can only activate them under HDR on the AW2724DW (which makes sense for basic edge-lit local dimming really). If you enable HDR and observe this test (in HDR would be best, on Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge) you might be able to count the number of zones. They’re usually arranged as vertical bands running from left to right and they’ll usually light up when the bright object on the test covers one of the bands.

– If you’re able to take any pursuit photos or videos with Test UFO that would also be great. Using a smartphone to take a video whilst tracking the UFOs and then taking a capture from that is usually easiest. 🙂

[jbennett360]

Yeah any information you could provide Vielo would be handy. Shots of the monitor itself are always nice to see too

It does look like the G2724D is a sRGB only monitor, judging by the official specs on the Dell site?

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-27-gaming-monitor-g2724d/apd/210-bhtk/monitors-monitor-accessories

[PCM2]

Not necessarily, re-read my post here. Them specifying 99% sRGB coverage is pretty meaningless I’m afraid and doesn’t confirm that it’s a standard gamut monitor.

[jbennett360]

Suppose it wouldn’t need an sRGB mode would it, if it was only sRGB.

Saying that, price doesn’t look too bad

[PCM2]

True, they do mention the ‘sRGB mode’ specifically so that implies it’s wider than that natively.

[Vielo]

Hi guys,

I’ve got the new screen yesterday and today had a bit of time to do the UFO tests. Please let me know if the quality of the pictures is enough, I did my best but as mentioned I know nothing about monitor tests 🙂 I cannot do the dimming tests since it’s 11:00 here in Germany right now and it’s very bright. I will try to perform them in the night and update this post once I have data.

Fast monitor response time.

Super fast monitor response time.

Extreme monitor response time.

[PCM2]

Thanks for providing an update. It’s best if you track the camera when taking the shots as described by Blur Busters (pursuit instructions). The easiest way is simply to use a smartphone camera to take a video (even with its ‘automatic’ settings) as I suggested in my previous post. You simply need to ‘wave’ the camera across the screen from left to right at the same speed as the UFOs are moving – you can do several passes if you take a video and you can take stills from that, some should be pretty good and usable as pursuit photos.

[Vielo]

One thing I found in the monitor OSD: supported input color formats: RGB and YCbCr

Regarding the UFO test, sorry for not providing quality results. I will repeat it in the evening and post new pictures along with the ones from the dimming test, hopefully they will be more helpful 🙂

BTW, I cannot post more pictures since the forum says my message seems to be spam :/

[PCM2]

No problem. 🙂 Regarding images, just post them as a plain unformatted link and they shouldn’t be marked as spam.

[jbennett360]

What’s your initial thoughts so far? Build, display quality, etc

[Vielo]

My initial impressions are OK. Switching from 1080p to 1440p is a bigger change than I anticipated. It will take some time getting used to.

I would consider the build quality good, the monitor sits on its stand in a stable way, doesn’t wobble when I change the height of my adjustable desk. Turning it around, pivoting, adjusting the height are all very smooth. But to be honest my Dell S2522HG was quite similar in this regard – very robust and had this high-quality look. So I wouldn’t say there’s much of an improvement here.

I am also happy that it does not use a power brick – I did not know whether it would need one or not (this of course could have been checked in the online manual…).

I can’t say much about the “gamer” RGB lights feature at its back – I turned it off since the monitor almost touches the wall, so I wouldn’t see it anyway. But there’s a lot of customization options for those that like such things.

The smart HDR is either busted on my panel or requires some tweaking/research to use properly – I had it set to “desktop” mode (switched off in Windows display settings) and when I checked out a Netflix film, darker scenes caused the screen to dim and brighten itself as if in response to what was going on in the movie. Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable experience and if this is how it was intended to work, it is pretty useless. When I switched it completely off in the OSD, it was fine. I will look into this and check if setting the HDR mode to “movie” will produce different results, but I don’t have the time to do it today.

I do not have any comparison to other 1440p screens, but so far aside from the bigger resolution it doesn’t seem noticeably better than my “old” 1080p Dell. I will give it some time, since especially the built-in blue light filter was important to me as I will use it for work, but to be honest I am not entirely sure spending almost 500 EUR on it was justfified. Maybe gaming will convince me otherwise, since my Netflix plan only covers 1080p so I won’t see any improvement here. But videos on Youtube in 1440p look pretty nice.

Here is a shared google album with video from the tests I tried to perform:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/97LJEHJhUH5uDjGB6

UFO tests – 1x 165 hz “super fast” mode, 2x 144hz “fast” mode – I did not have the time to check out the “extreme” mode yet (I can do it tomorrow if you find these results helpful in any way). I have taken many more tries but found it quite hard to record it so that the results would be “proper” according to the instructions. So I thought just sharing the videos I consider the closest might be best, maybe you can use them somehow.

And the dimming one (600HDR mode from the OSD) – I was staring at that video for 10 minutes at least and could not see anything “lighting up”. Maybe the video, even though recording in a dark room produced a poor result, will tell you something – I am toally clueless here.

I also took some pictures of the monitor but the forum still doesn’t let me post them even as plain unformatted links.

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