Dell Alienware AW2521H Monitor Review

The Dell Alienware AW2521H looks exactly like the Dell Alienware AW2521HF. It has a black body with thin bezels on three sides and a thicker bottom bezel. It has a gamer-oriented design with RGB lighting on the back.

This monitor has a wide V-shaped stand that takes up a good amount of space. Luckily, there's still room between the legs to place stuff. It supports the screen well and there's minimal wobble.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has great ergonomics. Its swivel range is a bit narrow, but you can switch it into portrait mode in either direction.

The back of this monitor has a gamer-oriented design with RGB lighting on the stand and the Alienware logo at the top right. There's a hole in the stand for cable management and there's a quick-release button to remove the stand.

The bezels are thin and aren't distracting, great for a multi-monitor setup.

The screen itself is fairly thick, and it gets much thicker with the stand attached.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an excellent build quality. It's made entirely out of plastic, and it feels solid throughout. It's well-built, it doesn't wobble, and there aren't any obvious loose parts.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an okay contrast ratio, and it's actually better than most IPS panels. However, blacks still appear closer to gray when viewed in the dark, and this may vary between units.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has impressive peak brightness. It easily gets bright enough to combat glare, and it maintains its brightness very consistent across different content. We measured peak brightness after calibration in the 'Custom Color' Picture Mode with Brightness set to max.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has decent HDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to make some highlights stand out in HDR games, but it may not be enough for a satisfying HDR movie experience. Like with its SDR brightness, it's very consistent across different content. We measured peak brightness in the 'Custom Color' Picture Mode, and the Brightness setting automatically locks to '100' when in HDR.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has a great horizontal viewing angle, which is expected from an IPS panel. The image remains accurate when viewing from the side, so it's ideal for co-op gaming.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has a decent vertical viewing angle. However, you may notice a loss in image accuracy if you mount it above eye-level.

The gray uniformity is excellent, but this may vary between units. The edges are a bit darker, but there's minimal dirty screen effect in the center. Uniformity is much better in near-dark scenes.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has poor black uniformity, but this may vary between units. There's severe backlight bleed in the corners and clouding throughout. This can get distracting in dark scenes.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has outstanding out-of-the-box accuracy, but this may vary between units. There are hardly any inaccuracies with white balance and most colors. Gamma follows the target curve well, but some scenes may be too dark. The color temperature is on the cold side, giving the image a blueish tint.

The accuracy after calibration is exceptional. Any remaining inaccuracies can't be spotted without the aid of a colorimeter, and the color temperature is almost spot-on with our 6500K target. The gamma is a bit worse than before calibration, as some scenes are over-brightened, but most people won't notice a difference.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

Update 01/12/2022: We remeasured the SDR color gamut with the refresh rate at 60Hz to see if there was a difference with 360Hz. We measured the Adobe RGB color space before calibration and noticed that the 60Hz refresh rate results in a wider color gamut with 77.9% coverage as opposed to 72.5%. However, we're leaving the results as-is because we don't expect people to use the monitor at 60Hz.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an excellent SDR color gamut, almost exactly like the Dell Alienware AW2521HF. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color space used in most content and decent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing.

Update 01/12/2022: We remeasured the SDR color volume with the refresh rate at 60Hz to see if there was a difference. We measured the Adobe RGB color volume before calibration, and noticed that the 60Hz refresh rate results in a better color volume. However, we're leaving the results as-is because we don't expect people to use the monitor at 60Hz.

This monitor has an excellent color volume. It displays bright colors well but struggles with dark colors due to its low contrast ratio.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an okay HDR color gamut, but it's not considered a wide color gamut for HDR content. It has good coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space, but very limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.

Due to the way we measure the DCI P3 coverage, our measurement is likely lower than most other reviewers. We measure it by sending a Rec. 2020 signal, but unlike most reviewers, we limit the colors to the DCI P3 primaries. This results in a lower but arguably more accurate measurement.

The HDR color volume is okay. It's mainly limited by the monitor's low contrast ratio and lack of a wide color gamut.

There are no signs of image retention after displaying a high-contrast static image, but this may vary between units.

The gradient handling is exceptional. There's minimal banding throughout and you shouldn't notice any banding with real content. It's advertised to have an 8-bit panel, but we can achieve 10-bit in the EDID of the monitor, so it may be 8-bit with FRC, but we don't know for sure. The max refresh rate with a 10-bit source over a DisplayPort connection is 300Hz, and 144Hz over an HDMI connection.

There's some very minor color bleed when displaying vertical bands of color, but this shouldn't be noticeable with real content.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H 's reflection handling is good, but it's not as good as the Dell Alienware AW2521HF. It still performs well in most well-lit environments; however, it may be best to avoid placing it opposite a window.

The text clarity is decent. Enabling ClearType (top photo) helps improve the appearance of diagonal lines, as seen on the R, N, G, and S, but makes straight lines less bold, as seen on the T and I.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an incredible response time at its max refresh rate of 360Hz. Motion looks exceptionally smooth and you shouldn't notice any motion artifacts. The recommended overdrive setting is 'Fast' as the other settings have too much overshoot. It performs about the same as the other 360Hz monitors we've tested, but is slightly faster than the MSI Oculux NXG253R.

The response time at 60Hz is outstanding, and once again, you shouldn't notice any motion artifacts with fast-moving content. The recommended overdrive setting is 'Fast'; it has a bit of overshoot in lighter transitions, but it's significantly less than the other settings.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has a flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye strain.

This monitor has a Black Frame Insertion to help reduce motion blur. However, it has a narrow flicker range, and you can't use it with VRR enabled.

Update 01/07/2022: We checked to see if FreeSync works with a newer AMD GPU, and it still doesn't. The Radeon Control Panel reports that it has a FreeSync range between 1-255Hz, but when enabled, there's constant screen tearing, and the refresh rate of the monitor doesn't change. If you're looking for a similar monitor with FreeSync support for your AMD graphics card, check out the Acer Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an incredible refresh rate. Along with the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN, it's one of the few monitors with a 360Hz refresh rate. You can reach a maximum of 360Hz over a DisplayPort connection and 240Hz over an HDMI connection. It has native G-SYNC support, but FreeSync doesn't work on it all and the screen flashes.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has an exceptionally low input lag. It stays low with VRR enabled, which is great for competitive gaming. We measured BFI input lag at its max flicker frequency of 240Hz. We didn't measure the 10-bit HDR input lag because its max 10-bit refresh rate of 300Hz is only achievable over a DisplayPort connection, and we lack the tools to measure HDR input lag over DisplayPort. However, we don't expect the input lag to be a significant increase from the input lag at its native resolution.

Update 08/20/2021: We corrected a mistake in the measured diagonal of the screen.

Dell Alienware AW2521H has a decent size and resolution. The 24.5" inch screen size and 1080p resolution may be too limiting for multitasking, but it's great for gaming as the lower resolution helps achieve higher frame rates.

One of the USB inputs can be used for power delivery, so you can charge your mobile devices, but it doesn't work when the monitor is off.

The Dell Alienware AW2521H has a few extra features to help improve the user experience.

• Alien FX RGB Control: Interface used to customize the RGB lighting on the back.
• NVIDIA Reflex: Helps measure the input lag and reduce it.
• Timer: Displays a time on the screen.
• FPS Counter: Displays the current frame rate.
• Display Alignment: Helps with alignment when setting up multiple monitors.

There's a joystick and four buttons on the back of the monitor to control the on-screen display.

• Power cable
• DisplayPort cable
• Mini DisplayPort cable
• USB to USB-B upstream cable
• User guide