Dell Alienware AW2721D Monitor Review

The Dell AW2721D has a sleek, gamer-oriented design, similar to previous Alienware monitors. It's mostly white with black accents and has thin borders. It also has four RGB lighting zones, including the downlight beneath the panel, the power button, the Alienware logo on the back, and the stand. It's heftier than similar-looking models like the Dell Alienware AW2720HF due to the more premium materials used in the stand.

The stand supports the monitor well, with very little wobble. It's capped in plastic, but most of the structure is metal, so it feels heavier and sturdier than previous Alienware monitors.

The Dell AW2721D has great ergonomics. The swivel range is a bit limited, but it allows for a lot of height and tilt adjustments. It can also rotate into portrait mode in both directions.

The back of the monitor is made of plastic with an Alienware logo in the top right corner that lights up. There's a cutout in the stand for cable management.

The bezels are very thin and shouldn't be distracting, which is great for a dual-monitor setup.

The monitor itself is of average thickness, but with the stand, it's much thicker and requires a fair amount of desk space.

The Dell AW2721D feels remarkably well-built. It's sturdy, with more heft than other similarly-built Alienware monitors. There's very little flex in the plastic, and the monitor feels stable no matter how you adjust it.

The Dell AW2721D has a passable contrast ratio, which is typical for an IPS panel. Blacks look more like gray when viewed in the dark. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between units.

The Dell AW2721D includes an edge-lit local dimming feature, but it's not especially effective. There are quite a few dimming zones, so there's not as much blooming as other edge-lit monitors, but there's still blooming along the whole height of the screen, and transitions between zones are fairly noticeable. There are also noticeable differences in uniformity when the vertical zones are lit up. That said, these issues are less noticeable with real content.

Note: While we've received reports that some people experience better local dimming on Mode 0, we chose to test local dimming using Mode 1 because it was the brightest and offered the best compromise between increased contrast and transition visibility. That said, we don't expect using a different local dimming mode to significantly affect the score.

The Dell Alienware AW2721D has excellent SDR peak brightness, higher than the advertised 450 cd/m2, so you shouldn't have issues using the monitor in well-lit rooms. With local dimming disabled, the brightness is more consistent, and it gets up to 575 cd/m2 in the sustained 100% window, which is significantly brighter than what you get with local dimming enabled.

We measured the SDR brightness after calibration in the 'Custom' Picture Mode, with Brightness set to max, and local dimming (Variable Backlight) set to 'Mode 1'.

The HDR peak brightness is good. Small highlights are significantly brighter than in SDR, reaching well above the advertised 600 cd/m2.

We measured HDR brightness in the 'Gamer 1' Picture Mode with Smart HDR enabled, Brightness set to max, and local dimming (Variable Backlight) set to 'Mode 1'.

The Dell AW2721D has good horizontal viewing angles. The image remains mostly accurate when viewed from the sides, so it should be fine for sharing content or co-op gaming.

The Dell AW2721D has impressive vertical viewing angles, which is great if you're sitting up close or have the monitor raised. There's some slight color washout at extreme angles, but for the most part, colors and black levels remain accurate.

The Dell AW2721D has excellent gray uniformity, although this can vary between units. The sides and bottom are slightly darker, but there's almost no dirty screen effect, and dark scenes look even more uniform.

Black uniformity on the Dell AW2721D is bad, although this can vary between units. There's noticeable backlight bleed in the corners and edges of the screen. Local dimming makes clouding look more prominent in sections that are lit up.

The Dell AW2721D has great out-of-the-box color accuracy. There are slight inaccuracies in most colors and shades of gray, but they're hard to notice. For the most part, gamma doesn't follow the curve, so most scenes appear brighter than they should. The color temperature is a bit cooler than our 6500k target, giving the image a blue-ish tint. Note that accuracy may vary between units.

After calibration, accuracy is incredible. Any remaining accuracies shouldn't be noticeable without the help of a colorimeter. Gamma follows the curve closely for the most part, and the color temperature is much closer to the target.

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

The Dell AW2721D has a remarkable SDR color gamut. It has nearly perfect coverage of the commonly used sRGB color space and great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used by professional content creators.

SDR color volume is exceptional. Thanks to its remarkable color gamut and high peak brightness, it displays colors in a wide range of luminance levels. Unfortunately, its mediocre contrast ratio means it struggles to display dark, saturated colors.

The Dell AW2721D has a great HDR color gamut. It has amazing coverage of the more common DCI P3 color space, but its coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 is only decent.

Note that the DCI P3 coverage is lower than the advertised 98%. This is normal and is due to the way we measure DCI P3. We measure DCI P3 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 great. It displays bright colors well thanks to its good HDR peak brightness, but it can't display darker colors due to its low contrast ratio.

The Dell AW2721D shows no signs of temporary image retention, but this may vary between units.

Gradient handling is fantastic. There's some very fine banding in darker shades, but it's hardly noticeable.

There's no visible color bleed on the Dell AW2721D.

The Dell AW2721D has mediocre reflection handling. It uses a semi-gloss coating that doesn't adequately diffuse indirect light, so reflections may be distracting in bright rooms.

Text clarity is good. With ClearType enabled (top photo), diagonal lines look sharper, as seen in the R and the N, but straight lines aren't as bold, like in the T or I.

The Dell Alienware AW2721D has an exceptional response time at its max refresh rate of 240Hz. The recommended overdrive setting is 'Fast' because it gives you the best performance, with minimal overshoot.

We also tested the response time with G-SYNC enabled and the results were virtually identical. You can see those results below.

The response time at 60Hz is excellent, although not as fast as at the max refresh rate. The best overdrive setting with the least amount of overshoot is the 'Fast' setting.

We also tested the response time with G-SYNC enabled and the results were nearly identical. You can see those results below.

The Dell AW2721D uses a flicker-free backlight, which can help reduce eye strain.

This monitor doesn't have a Black Frame Insertion feature.

The Dell AW2721D has an exceptional 240Hz refresh rate with a wide VRR range. It has native G-SYNC support and is FreeSync compatible, but FreeSync only works over a DisplayPort connection. Unfortunately, you can only get up to 144Hz with 10-bit color at native resolution. You can get higher frame rates in 10-bit if you lower your resolution or by going down to chroma 4:2:2.