The Dell Alienware AW2523HF is a 25-inch, 1080p gaming monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate that's part of Dell's Alienware lineup. It replaces the Dell Alienware AW2521HF, which has a 240Hz refresh rate, and it's similar to the Dell Alienware AW2521H, which has native G-SYNC support. It has all the features you'd expect in a gaming monitor, like native FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support and G-SYNC compatibility, and it has a few extra gaming modes that allow you to add a virtual crosshair or use night vision that your system won't detect, giving you a competitive advantage in games. It also has some other perks, like an ergonomic stand and a USB hub with four USB-A ports.
The Dell AW2523HF is good for most uses. It's an impressive gaming monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate, VRR support, and fantastic motion handling. It's also good for office use and content creators, as it has good color accuracy, high peak brightness, and wide viewing angles, but the text clarity is just decent. However, with a 1080p resolution, it's just decent for media consumption as you can't watch the latest 4k videos, and its mediocre for HDR as it doesn't get bright enough to make colors look vivid.
The Dell AW2523HF is good for the office, although it isn't intended for this use. It's good to use if you don't mind a small screen, as the 25-inch size isn't big enough to multitask with multiple windows open. It has wide viewing angles that make the image remain consistent from the sides, and it's good for use in well-lit rooms because the reflection handling is great, and it gets bright enough to fight glare. The text clarity is decent, but it isn't very sharp, either.
The Dell AW2523HF is impressive for gaming. It has a fast 360Hz refresh rate that lets you play games at a high frame rate, and the 1080p resolution makes it lighter on your graphics card. It has FreeSync VRR support and G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing, and motion looks smooth thanks to its fantastic response time. Sadly, it's bad for dark room gaming as it has a low contrast that makes blacks look gray in the dark.
The Dell AW2523HF is decent for media consumption. It's fine if you're watching YouTube videos or streaming content, but it isn't designed for the latest 4k content as it's limited to a 1080p resolution. Also, it has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray in the dark. Still, it has wide viewing angles and great ergonomics if you want to share your screen with someone else.
The Dell AW2523HF is good for content creators but isn't optimal for this use. It has good accuracy before calibration, but without an sRGB mode, colors are over-saturated in the common sRGB color space. Also, with a 1080p resolution and 25-inch screen size, it's hard to multitask, and the image clarity is just decent. While it's good for use in bright rooms thanks to its high peak brightness, it's bad for use in dark rooms as blacks look gray.
The Dell AW2523HF is mediocre for HDR. Although it has decent HDR peak brightness, small highlights don't stand out against the rest of the screen because it lacks a local dimming feature. Also, blacks look gray in the dark as it has low contrast, and the black uniformity is disappointing. Lastly, it doesn't display a wide range of colors in HDR, but its gradient handling is fantastic, meaning you won't see much banding in HDR.
We tested the 25-inch Dell AW2523HF, which is the only size available for this monitor, so while there are a few similar 1080p monitors in Alienware's lineup, none of the same are the same. You can see a few of the differences below. It replaces the Dell Alienware AW2521HF, and it's different from the Dell Alienware AW2521H because that monitor has native G-SYNC support.
Model Code | Size | Resolution | Max Refresh Rate | Native VRR |
AW2523HF | 25" | 1080p | 360Hz | FreeSync |
AW2521HF | 25" | 1080p | 240Hz | FreeSync |
AW2521H | 25" | 1080p | 360Hz | G-SYNC |
AW2720HF | 27" | 1080p | 240Hz | FreeSync |
Our unit was manufactured in June 2022; you can see the label here.
The Dell AW2523HF is an impressive gaming monitor that's a great choice for esports gamers who are going to take full advantage of its 360Hz refresh rate. It has fantastic motion handling and low input lag for a responsive gaming experience. It's an upgrade over the Dell Alienware AW2521HF, and it's a good alternative to the Dell Alienware AW2521H if you have an AMD graphics card and don't need the native G-SYNC support. However, there are cheaper 240Hz monitors available that are also great for gaming, so only get this monitor if you're going to use the full refresh rate range.
See our recommendations for the best gaming monitors, the best 1080p monitors, and the best 24-25 inch monitors.
The Dell Alienware AW2523HF and the BenQ ZOWIE XL2566K deliver a very similar experience. The Dell has a much better viewing angle, delivering a more consistent visual experience when viewed at an angle. The Dell gets brighter in SDR to overcome more glare in a bright room. The BenQ has a more customizable gaming experience and more consistent motion handling than the Dell, especially at lower refresh rates.
The Dell Alienware AW2523HF and the Dell Alienware AW2521H are both great 360Hz gaming monitors with a few differences. The AW2521H has native G-SYNC support, while the AW2523HF has native FreeSync support. It gives you a few extra features if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, like NVIDIA's Reflex Latency Analyzer to measure the latency of your entire setup, and the FreeSync support on the AW2523HF is beneficial if you have an AMD graphics card. On the other hand, the AW2523HF is better for console gaming because it has a Console Mode that downscales 4k images, which the AW2521H doesn't have.
The ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN and the Dell Alienware AW2523HF are both 25-inch, 1080p gaming monitors with a 360Hz refresh rate. Because of their similar specs, they also have similar performance, but there are a few differences. The main difference is that the ASUS has native G-SYNC support while the Dell has native FreeSync support. It doesn't make much difference while gaming, except the native G-SYNC support on the ASUS monitor allows you to take full advantage of your NVIDIA graphics card. The Dell has better motion handling because there's a lot less overshoot, but the ASUS has a backlight strobing feature to further reduce persistence blur.
The Dell Alienware AW2523HF is the replacement for the Dell Alienware AW2521HF and improves on it in a few ways. Firstly, the AW2523HF has a higher 360Hz refresh rate and better motion handling with 120Hz and 60Hz signals. The AW2523HF is also better for console gaming because it has a Console Mode that downscales 4k images, which the AW2521HF doesn't have. Lastly, the AW2523HF supports HDR, which the AW2521HF doesn't, but because of its low peak brightness and low contrast, it doesn't deliver a satisfying HDR experience.
The Dell Alienware AW2524H and the Dell Alienware AW2523HF are impressive gaming monitors with many similarities, but there are a few differences in features. The AW2524H has a higher 500Hz max refresh rate than the AW2523HF, and it's better to use with NVIDIA graphics cards thanks to its native G-SYNC support. Other than that, they both offer impressive gaming performance, but the AW2523HF is more versatile with consoles as it can downscale a 4k image.
The Dell Alienware AW2720HF and the Dell Alienware AW2523HF are both great gaming monitors with a few differences. The AW2523HF has a higher 360Hz refresh rate compared to 240Hz on the AW2720HF, allowing you to play higher frame rate games. The AW2523HF also supports HDR, which the AW2720HF doesn't, but it doesn't make much of a difference as it doesn't deliver an impactful HDR experience.
The Dell AW2523HF features a gamer-oriented design with a hexagonal-shaped stand and a black and silver body. It also has a pull-out headphone rack on the left side.
The Dell AW2523HF has excellent build quality. It's solid throughout, and the stand holds the display well as there's minimal wobble, and the screen stays in place when you adjust it. The plastic materials also feel good and don't flex that much.
The Dell AW2523HF has impressive ergonomics as you can easily adjust it, and it swivels at the bottom of the stand. The back of the monitor features plastic with a metallic chrome finish and a cylindrical stand without any RGB lighting. There's cable management through the stand to help keep your setup clean.
The housing width and height measurements include the headphone rack that sticks out slightly (0.146", 3.7 mm) and also the joystick that sticks out a bit at the bottom (0.071", 1.8 mm). The headphone rack measures 3.67" (9.3 cm) when you pull it out completely.
The Dell AW2523HF features a joystick underneath the center of the monitor to control the on-screen display. There's also a power button on the right side.
This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.
The Dell AW2523HF has great SDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to combat glare, and it maintains its brightness between different scenes. These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom Color' Picture Mode with the Brightness at its max of '100'.
The HDR brightness is decent. It gets bright enough to make some highlights look bright, but without a local dimming feature, small objects don't stand out against a dark image. The EOTF is decent at following the target PQ curve, but most scenes are darker than they should be. There's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, so it doesn't lose too many details in bright scenes in content like movies.
These results are in the 'Desktop' Smart HDR mode, which locks the brightness to its max.
The Dell AW2523HF has a great horizontal viewing angle. For the most part, the image remains consistent when viewing off-center, but it looks darker when viewing from a really wide angle. Still, it's good enough if you need to share your screen with someone else.
The Dell AW2523HF has an okay vertical viewing angle. Colors washout if you're looking at it from above or below, but as long as you have the monitor set to the right height, you won't have issues using it.
The accuracy before calibration is good. There are minor inaccuracies throughout, but they aren't big enough to be noticeable to most people. The white balance and most colors are only slightly off, but because it doesn't have an sRGB mode to clamp the colors to the sRGB color space, colors are over-saturated. The color temperature is on the cold side, giving the image a slightly blue tint, and gamma seems to follow a 2.2 target instead of sRGB, meaning dark scenes are too dark and bright scenes are too bright.
The Dell AW2523HF has remarkable accuracy after calibration. Any remaining inaccuracies aren't visible to the naked eye, and both the color temperature and gamma are nearly spot-on with their targets.
The Dell AW2523HF has a fantastic SDR color gamut. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color space used in most web content, but it has limited coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, which is used in professional publishing.
The Dell AW2523HF has an alright HDR color gamut. It has limited coverage of both the commonly-used DCI-P3 and wider Rec. 2020 color spaces, and it has tone mapping issues in Rec. 2020, leading to a loss of fine details with bright colors.
The reflection handling is great. The matte finish helps reduce the intensity of glare from strong light sources, and combined with its great peak brightness, you won't have issues using it in a bright room.
The Dell AW2523HF has a high max refresh rate that you can only achieve with a DisplayPort connection and limiting the color depth to 8-bit. It means you'll see more banding, but it allows you to take full advantage of the monitor. However, due to bandwidth limitations, the refresh rate is limited if you use a 10-bit signal or an HDMI connection.
The FreeSync VRR support works over both DisplayPort and HDMI connections, but you can only use the G-SYNC compatibility with a DisplayPort connection. It also supports Low Framerate Compensation for the VRR to continue working when the frame rate drops too low. If you have an NVIDIA graphics card and prefer something with native G-SYNC support, consider the Dell Alienware AW2524H.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Dell AW2523HF has an incredible response time at its max refresh rate of 360Hz. Motion looks smooth with minimal blur behind fast-moving objects. The overdrive settings all perform very similarly to each other as none result in any overshoot, and 'Extreme' produces the fastest response time. However, because they perform differently with lower refresh rates, it might be best to leave it on 'Fast' if you want a set-and-forget setting. The overall response time performance isn't quite as good as the BenQ ZOWIE XL2566K, which offers a customizable overdrive feature.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The response time at 120Hz is once again fantastic. Unlike at its max refresh rate, the Response Time overdrive settings perform a little differently, as 'Fast' results in the fastest response time and least overshoot. It means you might have to change the setting if you set it to 'Extreme' at its max refresh rate and the frame rate of your game drops.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Dell AW2523HF has a great response time at 60Hz, leading to smooth motion with low-frame-rate games. The overdrive setting is similar to 120Hz, so the recommended setting is 'Fast' as it has the quickest total response time and the least amount of overshoot.
The Dell AW2523HF doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.
The Dell AW2523HF has low input lag for a quick and responsive gaming experience.
Despite the lower resolution, the pixel density is still decent, thanks to the smaller screen size, but you'll still need to get a higher-resolution display if you want sharper images, like the Dell Alienware AW2723DF.
The Dell AW2523HF works well with the PS5, as it even downscales a 4k image, resulting in a sharper image than a 1080p signal. You need to enable Console Mode for that to work; otherwise, you can just play 1080p games at 60Hz or 120Hz. However, there are some limitations, as it can't downscale a 1440p signal and doesn't support the PS5's VRR format.
The monitor works well with the Xbox Series X as it downscales a 4k image, and once again, you need to enable Console Mode for it to work. As the Xbox only supports HDR with 4k signals, you also need to enable this for HDR. 4k signals are limited to 60Hz because it lacks HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so you have to lower the resolution to 1080 for a 120Hz signal. Unlike with the PS5, VRR works with the Xbox because the console supports FreeSync.
You need to connect the USB-B to USB-A cable to your computer for the USB ports to work.
The Dell AW2523HF works well with recent M1 MacBooks. VRR works without issue, and there isn't any flickering in games or on the desktop, but the MacBook doesn't support any refresh rate higher than 240Hz. It's a bit slow to connect to the laptop, but once it works, it's fine. Windows return to their original position when waking the laptop up from sleep, but not all the time when you close the lid, which is a common problem among monitors. Unfortunately, the one downside is that HDR looks washed out and dim, which is a limitation of the monitor's performance.
The Dell AW2523HF comes with a few extra features, including: