Dell Alienware AW2724DM  Monitor Review

The Dell AW2724DM has a gamer-oriented design with an all-black plastic body and some branding with RGB lighting on the back. It also features a hexagonal-based stand that doesn't take up a lot of space.

The build quality is excellent. The plastic body feels solid and doesn't flex easily. The stand also holds the display very well, and there's minimal wobble.

The ergonomics are excellent. The stand offers any type of adjustment, and it keeps the display in place very well when you adjust it. The back also features vents on top, and the stand has a cutout for cable management.

The stand is robust and holds the screen very well, and it doesn't have a big footprint either.

There's a joystick underneath the center branding to control the on-screen display, and there's a power button on the right side.

• DisplayPort cable
• DisplayPort to USB-C cable
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• Power cable
• Alienware sticker
• User guides

The Dell AW2724DM has a disappointing contrast ratio. Blacks look gray next to bright highlights, and the local dimming feature, which is always on in HDR, actually makes the contrast ratio worse because most content requires all the dimming zones to remain on, making the entire image brighter.

The edge-lit local dimming feature is terrible, and it's always on in HDR, as you can't deactivate it. While most content requires all 16 dimming zones to turn on, dark scenes with small, bright highlights result in a ton of blooming as only certain zones turn on. It's especially noticeable with bigger subtitles, but some small subtitles don't always trigger any zones to turn on, which is good as there's less blooming. The algorithm keeps up with fast-moving objects better than other edge-lit monitors, but it's still visible when an object transitions between zones. Overall, the local dimming fails to improve the contrast, and it worsens the picture quality in HDR, especially in dark scenes.

The monitor has an issue where the local dimming feature doesn't turn on when using an AMD graphics card over HDMI. A user reported this, and we confirmed with our RX 6600 XT that local dimming doesn't turn on over HDMI. However, it still works over DisplayPort, or even when using an Xbox Series X|S, so it's unclear if it's an issue with the RX 6600 XT or all AMD graphics cards.

The SDR peak brightness is great. It easily gets bright enough to fight glare, and the brightness doesn't change across different content, which is great. These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom Color' Preset Mode with the Brightness at its max.

The HDR brightness is good. While it gets bright with most content, small highlights in dark scenes are muted because they aren't big enough to activate any of the dimming zones. Bigger highlights still get brighter but don't pop against the rest of the image.

These results are in the 'DisplayHDR 600' Smart HDR mode, and the local dimming is always on in HDR. The EOTF with these settings follows the target well until there's a sharp roll-off at the peak brightness, so it doesn't do any tone mapping. The EOTF is similar even in other Smart HDR modes, as you can see in 'Desktop' here. Over HDMI, you can enable Console Mode and Source Tone Map, which has a similar EOTF, but it has a sharper roll-off at the peak brightness.

As mentioned in Local Dimming, the local dimming feature doesn't turn on with AMD graphics cards over HDMI, which causes the HDR brightness to be dimmer.

The gray uniformity is good. While the edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, there's minimal dirty screen effect in the center, which is great.

The black uniformity is mediocre. In SDR, when the local dimming feature is off, the screen is blue, and there's backlight bleed throughout. You can only enable local dimming in HDR, and while the cross in our test picture isn't big enough to trigger any of the dimming zones, the uniformity is much worse when there are larger objects, as there's a ton of blooming. You can see an example of it with the Dell Alienware AW2723DF monitor here.

As mentioned in Local Dimming, the local dimming feature doesn't turn on with AMD graphics cards over HDMI, so there isn't be the same blooming in HDR in this scenario.

The Dell AW2724DM has excellent accuracy in the 'Color Space' Preset Mode, which is the sRGB mode. It locks colors well to the sRGB color space, and most colors and the white balance have minimal inaccuracies. Gamma follows the target sRGB curve fairly well, but dark scenes are too dark, and other scenes are too bright. The color temperature is slightly on the cold side, giving it a bit of a blue tint. Luckily, using the sRGB mode only locks the Hue and Saturation settings, so you can still adjust the brightness and use gaming settings. Other Preset Modes have oversaturated colors.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic, and you won't notice any issues.

The Dell AW2724DM has a fantastic SDR color gamut. It has perfect coverage of the common sRGB color space and great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in professional publishing. However, reds and magentas are oversaturated in that color space, and greens are undersaturated.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It has incredible coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space with good tone mapping, but it has disappointing coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. Although these results are in the 'DisplayHDR 600' Smart HDR mode, it performs similarly in any of the other HDR modes as well.

The Dell AW2724DM has decent HDR color volume. Its main downside is that it can't display bright and dark colors very well.

The Dell AW2724DM has a good horizontal viewing angle. It's good enough to share your screen with someone next to you as the image remains consistent from the sides, but it gets darker at really wide angles.

The text clarity is decent. The main downside is that there's color fringing around text, mainly when you use Windows ClearType (top photo). While it's noticeable on the micro-level, it's harder to notice on the macro level, but the text clarity still isn't as good as other 27-inch, 1440p monitors. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

The direct reflection handling is okay. Although its matte coating spreads light out, it still has some distinct reflections from bright objects.

This monitor has minimal black level raise in bright rooms. Although it has a low native contrast ratio and blacks look gray, it at least retains nearly the same black levels in bright rooms.

There's a lot of reflected light in bright rooms. It spreads light out, and glare from strong light sources is distracting, making the screen hard to see.

The gradient handling is outstanding; you won't notice banding with most content.

The Dell AW2724DM has an overclock setting to bring the refresh rate up to 170Hz or 180Hz over DisplayPort, but due to bandwidth limitations, the refresh rate is limited over HDMI.

On top of supporting FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, it also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Dell AW2724DM has great motion handling across its VRR range. The 'Super Fast' Response Time overdrive setting provides the best motion at most refresh rates, but it introduces overshoot at lower refresh rates. If that bothers you, 'Fast' is more consistent across the entire refresh rate range.

The refresh rate compliance is good. All three overdrive settings perform similarly, and while its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions at its max refresh rates, it's better at lower refresh rates.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 180Hz is great. With VRR enabled, the 'Extreme' overdrive setting provides the best motion thanks to its fast response time. However, the overdrive settings perform differently with VRR disabled, as 'Extreme' has a ton of overshoot, causing inverse ghosting. If you game with VRR off, it's better to use the 'Fast' overdrive setting, as even 'Super Fast' has inverse ghosting.

Table for Response Time @ max

The CAD at 120Hz is great. Unlike at the max refresh rate, the recommended overdrive setting with VRR on is 'Super Fast' as motion looks sharp, and 'Extreme' has noticeable inverse ghosting. The overdrive settings perform similarly even with VRR disabled, and 'Super Fast' is also a good choice, although it has more overshoot than 'Fast'.

The CAD at 60Hz is good. There's a bit of blur, but it isn't too distracting, and the overdrive settings perform the same whether you have VRR on or off. 'Fast' is the recommended setting because 'Super Fast' and 'Extreme' have too much inverse ghosting.

The Dell AW2724DM doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.

The Dell AW2724DM has a bit of VRR flicker with changing frame rates. Unlike many monitors, it's more visible in dark areas of bright scenes than in dark scenes, but it's also hard to tell. That said, having a consistent frame rate reduces the chances of experiencing this flicker.

The backlight remains flicker-free at all brightness levels, which helps reduce eye strain if you're sensitive to flicker.

The Dell AW2724DM has low input lag for a responsive feel and doesn't significantly increase at low refresh rates either.

There aren't any compatibility issues with the PS5. With Console Mode enabled, it can downscale 4k images, which are more detailed than native 1440p. The monitor also works with HDMI Forum VRR, which is the VRR format that the console supports. As we tested it with firmware M2B102, there aren't any issues enabling VRR with HDR at 120Hz on the PS5, which was an issue that some people reported while using older firmware, as you can read more about here.

There aren't any compatibility issues with the Xbox Series X|S. With Console Mode enabled, it can downscale 4k images, which allows you to enable HDR as the console only supports HDR with 4k signals.

Although Dell advertises it as supporting HDMI 2.1, it doesn't actually support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and it's limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, as you can see here.

The Dell AW2724DM works well with macOS using a DisplayPort to USB-C cable. You can use both VRR and HDR, and there aren't any compatibility issues. If you're using a MacBook and put the laptop to sleep or close the lid, windows return to their position when opening it again. If you enable Auto Select in the monitor's Input Source settings and put the MacBook to sleep or close the lid, the input automatically switches to another source, if there is one. However, it doesn't go back to the MacBook when you open the lid or wake it up.

The Dell AW2724DM comes with a few extra features, including:

• AlienFX Lighting: Controls the RGB lighting on the back.
• AlienVision: Provides different crosshairs and vision modes, including 'Night', 'Clear', and 'Chroma', to see opponents better. Your game's anti-cheat tool won't detect this, giving you a competitive advantage.
• Console Mode: Optimizes the monitor for use with the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as it downscales a 4k image.
• Dark Stabilizer: Adjusts the gamma in dark scenes so that you see opponents better.
• Game Enhance Mode: Settings page that includes the Frame Rate, Timer, and Display Alignment options.