Dell S2721DGF  Monitor Review

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF has a slightly different design from most Dell monitors we've tested, with a redesigned stand and a gaming-inspired design on the back. It has thin bezels on three sides, outstanding ergonomics, and a great stand. Like most Dell monitors, it's well-built, and it fits into any decor.

Like most Dell monitors, the Dell S2721DGF has great build quality, much better than the HP X27q. Although it's mainly made of plastic, the panels are sturdy and appear well-built. The hinge on the stand is solid and easy to use.

Typical for a Dell monitor, the stand has excellent ergonomics, making it a very versatile choice. The back has a different design than other Dell S-series monitors we've tested, like the Dell S3220DGF. Although there is a bias lighting feature, you can only turn it on or off, and it's a fixed color (blue). There's a hole in the stand for cable management, and although it's pretty basic, it works well and helps to keep your cables neat.

The stand is very different from other Dells we've tested. It's very sturdy overall, and it supports the monitor well. Although it's a bit bulkier overall than most Dell monitors, you can still place small objects in front of it.

Unlike the Dell S2719DGF, the controls are on the back of the display. The buttons are larger, though, and menu navigation is done via a joystick, making it a bit easier to use.

• Power cable
• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• Manual

As expected for an IPS monitor, the Dell S2721DGF has sub-par contrast, so blacks look gray in a dark room. Contrast varies between individual units, and these results are at the low end of what we expect for an IPS monitor, meaning some units might look a bit better than this. The local dimming feature is only available in HDR, so unlike most monitors, the results here for contrast with local dimming were taken in HDR with the brightness at max.

Although not advertised to support it, the Dell S2721DGF has a local dimming feature. It's automatically enabled with HDR and can't be turned off. Unfortunately, due to the limited number of zones, it's terrible. Zone changes can be clearly seen, and there's significant blooming around bright objects in dark scenes due to the large area of each dimming zone.

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF has great peak brightness in SDR, with very little variation in peak brightness with different scenes. It can easily overcome glare in a bright room.

We tested the peak brightness after calibration in the 'Custom Color' Picture Mode with Brightness at its max.

Unfortunately, the Dell S2721DGF has just okay peak brightness in HDR. It's bright enough that small highlights in some games stand out a bit, but it's not bright enough for a true cinematic HDR experience. There's very little variation in brightness with different content, though, which is great.

We measured the HDR peak brightness with the Smart HDR setting set to 'DisplayHDR'.

The Dell S2721DGF has an amazing horizontal viewing angle, thanks to its IPS panel. The image remains accurate even at a wide angle, making it a great choice for co-op gaming or if you often share your screen with someone else.

Strangely, the vertical viewing angle is mediocre, and it degrades much faster than the horizontal viewing angle. This is much worse than most IPS monitors we've tested, but we don't expect it to be noticeable to most users.

The Dell S2721DGF has excellent gray uniformity. The sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, but this isn't very noticeable. There's very little dirty screen effect (DSE) in the center, which is especially important for sports games or browsing the web. In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is even better, with almost no noticeable issues. Uniformity can vary between individual units, but it's rarely an issue with recent monitors.

Oddly, the gray uniformity varies depending on the refresh rate. When running this monitor at 60Hz, the overall uniformity is a bit worse, and there's a row of pixels near the bottom of the screen that is noticeably darker than the rest. Unfortunately, this issue isn't isolated to our unit, as multiple owners of this monitor have reported the same issue in the same spot.

Unfortunately, our Dell S2721DGF 27 has bad black uniformity, but this can vary between individual units. There's significant clouding throughout the screen, and some light bleeds in the corners (commonly called IPS glow). Local dimming makes it worse, due to the limited number of zones, causing significant clouding around the test cross.

Unfortunately, the Dell S2721DGF has disappointing accuracy out of the box, much worse than the HP X27q. There are noticeable inaccuracies in brighter shades of gray, and most colors are terribly oversaturated and aren't displayed accurately. On the other hand, gamma follows the sRGB target curve very closely, but some darker scenes are displayed a bit darker than they should be. Note that the exact out-of-the-box calibration can vary between units. If color accuracy is important to you, check out the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q.

After calibration, there are no noticeable issues with any color, or with the white balance. Gamma follows the sRGB target curve almost perfectly, and the color temperature is very close to our target of 6500K.

The Dell S2721DGF has a superb SDR color gamut, with complete coverage of the sRGB color space used by most current desktop and web content, including games. It also has good coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space.

The Dell S2721DGF has fantastic color volume in SDR. It can display most colors at a wide range of luminance levels. Due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark saturated colors very well.

The Dell S2721DGF has a decent HDR color gamut. It can display a wide color gamut, and coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content is satisfactory.

The Dell S2721DGF 27 has just okay HDR color volume. It can't display dark saturated colors very well and can't fill out its gamut, especially in bright scenes.

The Dell S2721DGF has great reflection handling. Combined with its great peak brightness, it can easily overcome glare in a bright room.

Update 11/25/2021: We increased the text clarity score from 7.0 to 7.5 for consistency with other similar displays.

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF has good text clarity, but it's recommended to enable ClearType for the best results. This is especially noticeable in diagonal or curved lines, as seen in the top photo. When using the monitor at 60Hz, a row of pixels near the bottom dim, as you can see in this photo.

The Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF has outstanding gradient handling, with almost no noticeable banding in most shades.

The Dell S2721DGF has a very high refresh rate, great for gaming. It supports AMD's FreeSync variable refresh rate technology, and it's also certified by NVIDIA to work with their G-SYNC Compatible technology. Although FreeSync works over both HDMI and DisplayPort, G-SYNC mode only works over DisplayPort. Over HDMI, the maximum refresh rate is 144Hz.

The Dell S2721DGF has a fantastic response time at its max refresh rate of 165Hz. Motion looks smooth and the recommended overdrive setting is 'Extreme'. It has a quicker response time than 'Super Fast' and 'Fast', but there's a bit more overshoot, so if that bothers you, use 'Super Fast' instead. These results are with VRR enabled, as there's a big difference in motion handling with the VRR disabled. You can see the results below, and if you aren't using VRR, the recommended overdrive setting is 'Fast'.

The response time at 120Hz is excellent. Unlike at the max refresh rate, the recommended overdrive setting is 'Super Fast' because it has both a quicker response time and less overshoot than 'Extreme'. This means you might have to change the overdrive setting if the frame rate of your game drops or if you change sources. Once again, the motion handling is different with VRR disabled, and 'Fast' remains the best setting if you aren't using VRR.

The Dell S2721DGF has a great response time at 60Hz. There's very little overshoot and only a very short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The 'Fast' overdrive setting is the recommended one, as the higher settings are slower overall, with more noticeable overshoot. Unlike with faster refresh rates, the motion handling is similar even with VRR disabled, as you can see below, and 'Fast' is the best overdrive setting. However, if you want something that has an even faster response time at 60Hz, you can also consider the Dell G2724D.

Unfortunately, the Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion.

The backlight doesn't use pulse width modulation to dim the backlight, but there's a very high-frequency flicker. This is extremely unusual; we rechecked it with different equipment and confirmed that it's flickering at about 20kHz. This isn't at all noticeable in person.

The Dell 27 S2721DGF has fantastic low input lag, which is important for a responsive gaming experience. The 60Hz input lag is slightly higher than the Dell S2719DGF, but this isn't a noticeable difference.

Note: Due to limitations with our testing equipment, the HDR input lag was measured over HDMI at 60Hz.

The 27 inch, 1440p screen is great for multitasking and delivers a sharper image for gaming, so you can see more fine details in your games.

The Dell S2721DGF only supports 1440p and 1080p gaming from the Xbox Series X. It can't display a downscaled 4k resolution, which also means it doesn't support HDR from the Xbox Series X, as the Xbox only supports HDR with a 4k resolution.

If you want something for the office that has a USB-C port, then look into the Dell P3223DE.

This monitor works well with MacBooks. There are no issues with sleep mode or closing the lid; it responds quickly, and windows are restored to their original position. VRR and HDR don't work very consistently, as you often have to change settings on and off again or disconnect the cable briefly for these modes to work properly.

There are a few additional features on the Dell S2721DGF, including the ability to display a frame counter or timer. Unlike many recent gaming monitors, there's no option to add crosshairs, which might be a bit disappointing.