Dell G2724D Monitor Review

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor G2724D has a gamer-oriented design with an all-black plastic body, and it has some horizontal lines on the back. It also features a hexagonal-based stand, but unlike some Alienware monitors, it doesn't have any RGB lighting.

The build quality is decent. It's made with basic plastic materials that show some flex on the back panel, but that isn't a big concern unless you're pressing the back. The biggest downside is that the section where the stand attaches to the monitor isn't flush with the rest of the back when you tilt it to its max. You can see what it looks like normally here versus what it looks like when you tilt it here. While it feels and looks like it would fall off if you pull too hard, it's still securely attached to the stand.

The ergonomics are fantastic, and it's very easy to adjust the monitor to an ideal position. While Dell advertises the swivel range to be -20° to 20°, we confirmed it supports a wider swivel range.

The majority of the back panel features a matte plastic, and there's a cutout in the stand for cable management.

The monitor wobbles a bit on an unstable table, but otherwise, the stand holds the screen well, and it doesn't take up much space, either.

There are four buttons and a joystick to control the on-screen menu, and the power button is underneath the right corner.

• DisplayPort cable
• DisplayPort to USB-C cable
• Power cable
• User guides

The Dell G2724D has an okay contrast ratio. While blacks look gray next to bright highlights, it's at least better than most IPS monitors. Unfortunately, the local dimming feature brightens the entire image with most content, which results in a slightly worse contrast.

The edge-lit local dimming feature is terrible, and it's always on in HDR, as you can't disable it. While most content requires all eight dimming zones to turn on, dark scenes with small, bright highlights result in a ton of blooming as only certain zones turn on. This is distracting, and the algorithm doesn't keep up with fast-moving objects well, so it's clear when they transition between zones. Overall, the local dimming fails to improve the contrast, and it worsens the picture quality in HDR, especially in dark scenes.

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 decent. It doesn't get much brighter than in HDR, and the local dimming feature fails to make small highlights stand out against the rest of the image. It also tone maps too aggressively as there's a slow roll-off towards its peak brightness, meaning it doesn't let highlights get the brightest they can. It performs the same even in Console Mode.

These results are in the 'DisplayHDR 400' Smart HDR mode, which automatically enables local dimming.

The Dell G2724D has a great 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 vertical viewing angle is okay. While the image gets darker at wide angles, this isn't an issue unless you stand directly above the monitor and look down on it.

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 Dell 27 Gaming Monitor G2724D has alright black uniformity. The local dimming feature is automatically disabled in SDR, and while the black uniformity is okay like that, there's still backlight bleed towards the top left corner. Local dimming is always on in HDR, but it causes more blooming around bright objects in dark scenes, and there's still the same backlight bleed.

The accuracy before calibration is fantastic. The dedicated sRGB mode has minimal color and white balance inaccuracies, and even gamma follows the target curve very well. The color temperature is a bit on the cold side, giving the image a blue tint, but it isn't very noticeable. Luckily, the sRGB mode only locks the color calibration settings, so you can still adjust other settings like the brightness and gaming settings. Other modes have oversaturated colors, so using the sRGB mode results in the best accuracy.

The accuracy after calibration is remarkable, and you won't notice any problems.

The Dell G2724D has an incredible 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, greens are undersaturated, and while reds and magentas are slightly oversaturated, it isn't as bad as other monitors like the Dell Alienware AW2724DM.

The SDR color volume is incredible. It displays colors at a wide range of luminance levels very well, but it doesn't display dark colors well.

This monitor has a decent HDR color gamut. This is one of the bigger differences with the Dell Alienware AW2724DM, which has a much better color gamut. As for this monitor, its coverage of the common DCI-P3 color space is good, but it has tone mapping issues, as most colors are off, and it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The HDR color volume is decent. However, it's limited by its incomplete color gamut, and it can't display bright and dark colors well.

The Dell G2724D has good reflection handling. While some strong light sources cause distracting glare, it also gets bright enough to fight glare in most well-lit office spaces.

The text clarity is good. It's actually better than the Dell Alienware AW2724DM for this, as text is clearer with Windows ClearType (top photo) enabled, and it's what you'd expect for a 27-inch, 1440p monitor. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

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

Due to bandwidth limitations, the max refresh rate is limited over HDMI, but you won't have issues reaching that max refresh rate over DisplayPort.

The Dell G2724D supports any type of VRR format over HDMI and DisplayPort, including HDMI Forum VRR. VRR works across a wide refresh rate range, so your PC can use Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) for VRR to continue working even with lower frame rates.

The Dell G2724D has an incredible response time at its max refresh rate of 165Hz. Motion looks smooth with minimal blur or overshoot. While the recommended Response Time setting is 'Extreme' as it has the fastest response time, all three settings perform similarly with VRR enabled. That's not the case with VRR disabled, though, as 'Super Fast' and 'Extreme' have more overshoot, which you can see below. So if you have VRR disabled, it's better to use the 'Fast' Response Time, and it performs similarly to when VRR is on.

The response time at 120Hz is fantastic. It performs similarly to its max refresh rate, as there's minimal blur trail or inverse ghosting behind fast-moving objects. However, the recommended Response Time setting is 'Super Fast' because it's faster and has less overshoot than 'Extreme', so you may have to change the overdrive setting if the frame rate of your game drops. The response time is slightly slower with VRR disabled, but each of the overdrive settings perform similarly to having VRR enabled.

The response time at 60Hz is excellent, and like at higher refresh rates, there's minimal motion blur with fast-moving objects. The recommended Response Time setting is 'Fast' because it has a faster total response time and less overshoot than 'Super Fast' and 'Extreme'. That means the overdrive settings aren't consistent across the entire refresh rate range, so if you want a set-and-forget mode, 'Fast' is the best option. The overdrive settings also perform similarly with VRR disabled as with it on, which you can see below.

The Dell G2724D doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.

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

This monitor 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, except for the fact that it doesn't support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for 4k @ 120Hz signals. 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.

Besides the lack of HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, there aren't any compatibility issues with the Xbox Series X|S. With Console Mode enabled, it can downscale 4k images, which are more detailed than native 1440p. You can only enable HDR with 4k signals on the Xbox Series X|S, and because the monitor doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz, you have to choose between high refresh rates at a lower resolution or 4k HDR at 60Hz.

The Dell G2724D doesn't have an audio jack, and it doesn't have speakers either, so you'll have to connect your speakers or headphones to your computer instead.

As this monitor doesn't have any USB ports, you aren't able to update its firmware. If you want a budget monitor with a USB hub, check out the Gigabyte M27Q (rev. 2.0).

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor G2724D works well with macOS with a USB-C to DisplayPort cable. There aren't any issues with VRR, but HDR looks washed out and dim. If you're using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when waking the laptop up from sleep, but some of them don't return to their position after reopening the lid of the laptop.

The Dell G2724D comes with a few extra features, including:

• 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.
• Vision Engine: 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.