The Dell Alienware AW2723DF is a 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor. Part of Dell's Alienware gaming lineup, it replaces the Dell Alienware AW2721D but with a few differences. It now has an overclockable refresh rate that can go up to 280Hz, but instead of having native G-SYNC support like on the AW2721D, it has native FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support with G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing. It has a few extra features to improve your gaming experience, like the ability to add a virtual crosshair that your system won't detect, giving you a competitive advantage. It also has a Console Mode that downscales a 4k image if you want to use it for console gaming.
Our Verdict
The Dell AW2723DF is a very good overall monitor. It's excellent for gaming thanks to its quick response time, ensuring smooth motion and VRR support to reduce screen tearing. It's also good for office and media creation as it has impressive ergonomics and great peak brightness if you want to use it in an office with a few lights around. However, its reflection handling is mediocre, so glare is a bit distracting in bright rooms. It's just okay for watching content in SDR or HDR in dark rooms because it has a low native contrast that makes blacks look gray in the dark, and its local dimming feature is terrible.
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27-inch, 1440p screen.
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Impressive ergonomics.
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Bright enough to fight glare from moderately-lit sources.
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Excellent response time at any frame rate.
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Excellent accuracy before calibration.
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Mediocre reflection handling.
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Low native contrast ratio.
The Dell AW2723DF is good for the office. It has a big 27-inch screen with a 1440p resolution, resulting in good text clarity. Although it struggles to reduce reflections from strong light sources, it still gets bright enough to fight glare if you have a few lights around in your work environment. It also has wide viewing angles and impressive ergonomics, making it ideal to share your screen with someone else.
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27-inch, 1440p screen.
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Impressive ergonomics.
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Bright enough to fight glare from moderately-lit sources.
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Mediocre reflection handling.
The Dell AW2723DF is excellent for gaming. It has a fast 240Hz native refresh rate that you can overclock to 280Hz, and it has both FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing. Motion looks excellent as it has a fast response time across its entire refresh rate range and has low input lag for a responsive feel. Sadly, it's bad for dark room gaming because it has a low native contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray in the dark.
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Overclockable 280Hz refresh rate.
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Native FreeSync support and G-SYNC compatibility.
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Excellent response time at any frame rate.
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Low input lag.
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Low native contrast ratio.
The Dell AW2723DF is decent for media consumption. The 27-inch, 1440p screen is big enough for an immersive viewing experience, but you can't stream the latest content in 4k. It's good if you need to share your screen with someone else as it has wide viewing angles and impressive ergonomics that make it easily adjustable. While it performs well in bright rooms, blacks look gray if you want to use it in a dark room.
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27-inch, 1440p screen.
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Impressive ergonomics.
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Bright enough to fight glare from moderately-lit sources.
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Excellent accuracy before calibration.
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Mediocre reflection handling.
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Low native contrast ratio.
The Dell AW2723DF is great for content creators. It has good image clarity thanks to its 1440p resolution and good pixel density, and its 27-inch screen is big enough to open two windows next to each other. It also has impressive ergonomics if you need to share your screen with a client. It displays a wide range of colors, and the accuracy before calibration is excellent, so you don't have to worry about paying extra to have it calibrated.
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27-inch, 1440p screen.
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Impressive ergonomics.
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Bright enough to fight glare from moderately-lit sources.
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Excellent accuracy before calibration.
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Mediocre reflection handling.
The Dell AW2723DF is reasonable for HDR. It has decent HDR peak brightness that makes most highlights pop, but not very small ones, and it displays a wide range of colors in HDR. Sadly though, it has a low native contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray, and while it has a local dimming feature, it performs terribly and causes blooming around bright objects.
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Displays wide range of colors.
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Decent HDR peak brightness.
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Low native contrast ratio.
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Terrible edge-lit local dimming feature.
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Small highlights are dim.
- 7.9 Mixed Usage
- 7.8 Office
- 8.6 Gaming
- 7.4 Media Consumption
- 8.1 Media Creation
- 6.6 HDR
- Updated Mar 17, 2023: Added that the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN is an alternative with native G-SYNC support in Variable Refresh Rate.
- Updated Jan 09, 2023: We retested the accuracy before calibration using the sRGB emulation mode. The color accuracy is much better with this mode, and colors are no longer oversaturated.
- Updated Nov 23, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Nov 18, 2022: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 27-inch Dell Alienware AW2723DF, which is the only size available for this monitor. It's part of Dell's Alienware gaming lineup, and it replaces the Dell Alienware AW2721D, but there are a few differences between them, which you can see below.
| Model Code | Size | Resolution | Max Refresh Rate | Native VRR |
| AW2720HF | 27" | 1080p | 240Hz | FreeSync |
| AW2721D | 27" | 1440p | 240Hz | G-SYNC |
| AW2723DF | 27" | 1440p | 280Hz | FreeSync |
Our unit was manufactured in July 2022 and you can see the label here.
Compared To Other Monitors
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF is an excellent 1440p gaming monitor thanks to its overclockable 280Hz refresh rate and excellent motion handling across its entire refresh rate range. It's a nice upgrade from the Dell Alienware AW2721D, and if you want a 1440p, 240Hz monitor, you can't go wrong with it. It has better motion handling than similarly-priced models like the Gigabyte M27Q X. However, if you want something with native G-SYNC support, the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM is still a great alternative, and the Samsung Odyssey G7 C32G75T is a good option if you care about dark room performance.
Also see our recommendations for the best 1440p gaming monitors, the best 240Hz gaming monitors, and the best 27-inch gaming monitors.
The Gigabyte M27Q X and the Dell Alienware AW2723DF are both excellent gaming monitors. While they each have a 1440p resolution and 240Hz native refresh rate, the Dell has an overclock feature up to 280Hz. Although the Gigabyte has a quicker response time at its max refresh rate, the Dell is better with lower frame rate signals, which is good if you can't consistently hit its max refresh rate. The Gigabyte also has a few extra features that make it slightly more versatile for other uses, like a USB-C input and a KVM switch, and it also has much better reflection handling.
The Samsung Odyssey G7 C32G75T and the Dell Alienware AW2723DF are both excellent 1440p, 240Hz gaming monitors. There are a few differences between them, though, mainly with the picture quality. The Samsung is better for dark room gaming because it has a higher native contrast for deeper blacks, while the Dell is better for co-op gaming as it has wider viewing angles. The Samsung also has better reflection handling if you want to use it in a bright room. In terms of gaming, the Dell has an overclockable 280Hz refresh rate, and while motion handling looks the same between each, the Samsung has an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF is the replacement for the Dell Alienware AW2721D, and there are a few differences. The main difference is that the AW2723DF has native FreeSync support and G-SYNC compatibility instead of the native G-SYNC support on the AW2721D. This doesn't make much of a difference unless you have an NVIDIA graphics card, in which case, the AW2721D can take full advantage of it. Other than that, the AW2723DF has an overclockable 280Hz refresh rate and better motion handling, especially at lower refresh rates.
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF and the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM are both 1440p, 240Hz gaming monitors with a few differences. The Dell has an overclockable refresh rate of up to 280Hz, which the ASUS doesn't have, and it has also lower input lag. The main difference between the two is that the ASUS has native G-SYNC support, which lets you take full advantage of your NVIDIA graphics card, as you can also use its Reflex Latency Analyzer feature to measure the input lag of your entire setup.
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF is slightly better for gaming than the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD. The main difference is that the Dell has a much higher 280Hz max refresh rate compared to 165Hz on the MSI, allowing you to play games at a higher frame rate. The Dell also has lower input lag and better motion handling with lower frame rate signals. On the other hand, the MSI is better if you game in a bright room because it has much better reflection handling.
The LG 27GR95QE-B and the Dell Alienware AW2723DF are both 1440p gaming monitors with a native 240Hz refresh, although you can overclock the Dell to 280Hz. Their differences come down to their different panels, as the LG has a higher contrast, better black uniformity, and improved motion handling thanks to its OLED panel. However, the Dell gets brighter if you want to use it in a well-lit room, and it doesn't have the risk of burn-in if you want it for other uses like work.
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF and the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN are both excellent gaming monitors, but they have a few differences. The ASUS has a higher 360Hz refresh rate, which is great if you like gaming at a high frame rate. They also have different types of VRR support as the ASUS has native G-SYNC support, while the Dell has native FreeSync support instead. The motion handling is excellent on each, but the ASUS is even better with high-frame-rate signals. If you want a monitor for console gaming, the Dell can downscale 4k @ 60Hz signals from the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, which the ASUS can't do.
Test Results
The Dell AW2723DF has a gamer-oriented design with typical Alienware branding throughout. It has a white body in the back with two RGB lighting zones, and there are black accents in front.
The build quality is excellent. The stand supports the screen very well, as there's minimal wobble, and it stays in place when you adjust it. The plastic materials feel good as they're sturdy and don't flex much.
The ergonomics are impressive. You can adjust it in all common ways, which makes it easy to place in an ideal position. The back of the monitor features two RGB lighting zones. You can pass the cables through the stand for cable management, and it has a panel cover too.
The V-shaped stand takes up a lot of space, but at least it holds the display well, and there's minimal wobble.
The housing width and height measurements include the headphone rack that sticks out slightly (0.161", 4.1 mm) and also the joystick that sticks out a bit at the bottom (0.149", 3.8 mm). The headphone rack measures 3.69" (9.36 cm) when you pull it out completely.
There's a joystick underneath the center branding to control the on-screen display, and there's a power button on the right side.
- Power cable
- HDMI cable
- DisplayPort cable
- DisplayPort to Mini-DisplayPort cable
- USB-A to USB-B upstream cable
- User guides
The Dell AW2723DF has a mediocre contrast ratio. It means that blacks look gray next to bright highlights, and it isn't ideal for dark room viewing. Although it has a local dimming feature, it doesn't do much to improve the contrast.
This monitor has an edge-lit local dimming feature that performs terribly. Blacks look gray, and when there are bright highlights, an entire zone lights up, resulting in distracting blooming. It isn't so much of an issue with smaller highlights because small objects don't light up zones, and the local dimming remains ineffective. The algorithm is slow to turn the zones on and off, and it's distracting when they do.
It only has 16 dimming zones, which is half of what the Dell Alienware AW2721D has, so it performs worse, and it doesn't do much to improve the picture quality in dark scenes. The local dimming is also only on in the DisplayHDR 600, and you can't disable it. Other HDR modes don't use local dimming, but they aren't as bright.
The SDR peak brightness is great. It gets bright enough to fight glare, and while smaller highlights are dimmer than the rest, the difference isn't noticeable. It doesn't get as bright as the Dell Alienware AW2721D mainly because you can't enable the local dimming feature in SDR, which you can with the AW2721D.
These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom Color' Picture Mode with the Brightness at its max.
The HDR peak brightness is decent. For the most part, it gets bright enough for highlights to stand out. However, small highlights are dimmer because all the dimming zones remain off with small highlights. The EOTF also follows the target well, except some shadows and midtones are a bit too bright. Luckily, there's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, meaning it preserves details in bright scenes. These results are in the DisplayHDR 600 mode, which automatically locks the brightness and enables local dimming. There are other HDR modes you can use that don't use local dimming, but that means that highlights aren't as bright.
The Dell AW2723DF has a good horizontal viewing angle. The image remains consistent when viewing off-angle, but there's still some color washout and brightness loss at wide angles.
The vertical viewing angle is very good. Once again, the image remains consistent if you're looking down at it, but it isn't perfect.
The gray uniformity is great. The edges are a bit darker than the rest and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it's minor and not distracting while you're browsing the web or playing games.
The black uniformity is poor. There's noticeable backlight bleed throughout and the image looks bad in dark rooms. The center cross doesn't activate any of the dimming zones, so you can see the same uniformity pictures with a rectangle instead:
The accuracy before calibration is excellent. The built-in 'sRGB' emulation mode does a great job limiting colors to the sRGB color space, so they don't appear oversaturated, and there are no noticeable issues with any color. The white balance is great, but bright shades of gray are a bit off. Gamma follows the sRGB target curve well, ensuring everything is displayed at the correct brightness levels.
The accuracy after calibration to the 6500K white point is fantastic. You won't notice any inaccuracies in the image.
The Dell AW2723DF has an incredible SDR color gamut. It has full coverage of the commonly-used sRGB color space used in most web content, and it also has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in some photo editing.
The SDR color volume is fantastic. It displays bright colors well, but due to its low contrast, it doesn't display dark colors well.
The HDR color gamut is excellent. It has amazing coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, and its tone mapping is also good, meaning you don't lose details with saturated colors. However, it isn't as future-proof because it has limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, which more content will start to use, and the tone mapping is bad, resulting in a loss of details with colors outside of its gamut coverage.
The HDR color volume is good. While it displays most colors well, it's limited by its incomplete color gamut and low contrast.
The Dell AW2723DF has mediocre reflection handling. It struggles to reduce glare when there are bright light sources, and even if it has great SDR peak brightness, it's best to avoid placing it opposite a bright window.
The text clarity is good. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) also helps make the diagonal lines easier to read. These pictures are with Windows 10, and you can see what it looks like with Windows 11:
The gradient handling is fantastic. You won't have issues with banding when sending a 10-bit signal, and the monitor can accept a 10-bit signal up to its max refresh rate, but only over DisplayPort.
The Dell AW2723DF has an overclockable 280Hz refresh rate which you can reach even with a 10-bit signal over a DisplayPort connection as long as your graphics card supports Display Stream Compression (DSC). However, due to bandwidth limitations, the max refresh rate is limited over HDMI.
The native FreeSync VRR support works over its entire refresh rate range with DisplayPort and HDMI connections. It's also G-SYNC compatible, but that only works over DisplayPort. Unfortunately, it doesn't support HDMI Forum VRR like the Dell Alienware AW2721D because it doesn't have the G-SYNC module. If you do want something with native G-SYNC support, the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN is a native G-SYNC monitor with a 1440p resolution and 360Hz refresh rate.
| 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 AW2723DF has an excellent response time at its max refresh rate of 280Hz. There's hardly any visible motion blur, and none of the Response Time settings have any overshoot, while 'Extreme' has the fastest response time. This motion handling is excellent with VRR enabled, but it performs differently when you disable VRR. There's overshoot with the 'Super Fast' and 'Extreme' Response Time settings, so it's recommended to use the 'Fast' overdrive setting if you disable VRR. You can see the results with VRR disabled below.
| Overdrive Setting - VRR Disabled | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
| 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 excellent. Unlike at its max refresh rate, the recommended Response Time setting is actually 'Fast' because it has the quickest response time and the least amount of overshoot, but all three modes are very similar. This means that you might need to change the setting if the frame rate of your game drops or if you switch from PC to console gaming. If you want a set-and-forget mode, leave it on 'Fast' because it still performs very well at its max refresh rate.
Like at the max refresh rate, there's more overshoot with VRR disabled, but it isn't as big of a difference. Still, it's best to use the 'Fast' Response Time if you disable VRR. You can see the results below.
| Overdrive Setting - VRR Disabled | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
| 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 is also excellent at 60Hz. Like at 120Hz, 'Fast' is the best overdrive setting because it has the quickest response time and the least amount of overshoot. While it performs slightly differently with VRR disabled, there isn't a visual difference in the motion handling.
| Overdrive Setting - VRR Disabled | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Super Fast | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Dell AW2723DF doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.
This monitor is completely flicker-free, which helps reduce eye strain.
The Dell AW2723DF has low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming.
This monitor works well with the PS5. Due to its HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, you can't use it to play 4k @ 120Hz games, but it can still downscale a 4k image when you enable Console Mode.
There aren't any issues using this monitor with the Xbox Series X. Like with the PS5, you need to enable Console Mode for 4k signals and to enable HDR because the Xbox only supports HDR in 4k, and you'll be limited to a 60Hz refresh rate.
You need to connect the USB-B cable to your computer for the USB ports to work.
The Dell AW2723DF works well with recent M1 MacBooks, and there aren't any obvious issues with its HDR or VRR support. Windows return to their original position when waking up from sleep or closing the lid.
The Dell Alienware AW2723DF comes with a few extra features, including:
- AlienVision: Provides a virtual crosshair and 'Night', 'Clear', and 'Chroma' vision modes that adjust the picture to see opponents better. Your system won't detect this, giving you a competitive advantage.
- Console Mode: Optimizes the monitor for use with the PS5 and Xbox Series X as it downscales a 4k image. This results in a sharper image than a native 1440p signal.
- Dark Stabilizer: Adjusts the gamma in dark scenes so that you see opponents better.
- Display Alignment: Displays a virtual grid so that it's easier to line it up with a second monitor.
- Frame Rate Counter: Displays an overlay showing the current frame rate.
- Timer: Displays a virtual timer on the screen.
You can download the AlienFX software to control the RGB lighting, and there are a few options for it directly through the on-screen display. However, there are some issues with the RGB lighting, as it would turn on when we turned the monitor on and off again, even if we had it disabled before. We had to go back into the OSD to turn it off again.
