- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Our Verdict
- Test Results
- Differences
- Compared to others
- Discussions
The Dell S3220DGF is a good 1440p curved gaming monitor. It has decent picture quality, a fast response time, and exceptionally low input lag for a responsive gaming experience. It displays deep blacks in a dark room, and thanks to its wide color gamut and decent HDR peak brightness it can display HDR content with vivid colors and highlights that pop. It has a very fast refresh rate and supports FreeSync for nearly tear-free gaming. It can get decently bright, and thanks to its good reflection handling you can place it in a fairly bright room without issues. Unfortunately, the viewing angles are poor, just like most VA panel monitors.
Our Verdict
This is a good monitor for mixed usage. It has a large resolution and size and can display much of your gaming arena or your work on the screen. It feels very responsive thanks to its low input lag, and the curved profile immerses you in the game. Unfortunately, the viewing angles are poor and won't allow you to work well in groups.
See our Mixed Usage recommendationsThe Dell S3220DGF is a decent monitor for office use. It has a large resolution and size that allows you to display more of your work, minimizing the need to scroll. Unfortunately, viewing angles are poor and the monitor doesn't favor collaborative work. It's suitable for a fairly bright office, as it'll fight glare and handle reflections well. The stand allows you to adjust it comfortably with ease.
See our Office recommendationsThis is an impressive monitor for gaming. It has a very low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, and a lot of real estate to display more of your game. Fast-moving content is crisp thanks to the fast response time, and motion looks smooth thanks to the fast refresh rate. Finally, It supports FreeSync VRR for nearly tear-free gaming.
See our Gaming recommendationsThe D3220DGF is a good monitor for consuming multimedia. It has a large size and an excellent resolution that allows it to display most content at native resolution. It's very responsive thanks to its low input lag and has excellent gray uniformity, but the viewing angles are poor, just like most VA panel monitors.
See our Multimedia recommendationsThe Dell is a good monitor for those who want to use it for media creation. It has a large resolution and good amount of real estate, so you can display most of your work's details. The good ergonomics allow you to adjust it to a comfortable working position, and the low input lag ensures a responsive experience. Unfortunately, the viewing angles are bad and the image degrades when viewed from the side.
See our Media Creation recommendationsThis is a decent monitor for HDR gaming. It has good dark room performance, can get decently bright in HDR, and can display your HDR games with vivid colors thanks to its wide color gamut. It has a curved profile, a very low input lag, and a fast response time ensuring an immersive and responsive HDR gaming experience.
See our HDR Gaming recommendations- 7.7 Mixed Usage
- 7.5 Office
- 8.0 Gaming
- 7.6 Multimedia
- 7.8 Media Creation
- 7.1 HDR Gaming
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Very low input lag.
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Excellent gray uniformity.
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Image degrades when viewed from the side.
- Update 2/13/2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
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Test Results
The Dell S3220DGF's stand looks like most typical Dell stands and won't get in the way. It supports the monitor well and prevents most wobble.
Decent ergonomics for the Dell S3220DGF. You can easily place it in a comfortable position. Unfortunately, you can't turn it to portrait mode, although it's unlikely that you'll want to do so given that this is a large curved monitor.
The back of the monitor is plain. There's an opening at the back where all the ports are. Cable management is serviced through a hole in the pole of the stand.
The borders are a little thick and do not favor multi-monitor setup. However, it's unlikely that they'll bother you in normal use.
The overall thickness of the monitor doesn't vary much despite the slightly tilted stand. However, as with most curved monitors, if you wall-mount it, it'll stick out a little.
The S3220DGF has a good build quality. The entire construction is heavy and feels sturdy with no gaps or loose ends. The stand provides good support and prevents most wobble.
The S3220DGF has a good contrast ratio. Thanks to its VA panel, blacks look deep in a dark room.
The S3220DGF doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.
The Dell S3220DGF has decent brightness. You shouldn't have issues placing this monitor in a fairly bright room, although you should avoid placing it in a very bright one. If you need a brighter screen, increasing the contrast results in a noticeably brighter, but less accurate image.
Decent HDR peak brightness for the Dell S3220DGF. When in HDR, the monitor displays bright highlights, offering you a good HDR gaming experience.
Poor horizontal viewing angles on the Dell S3220DGF. This isn't a good monitor to share your work with a colleague or for co-op gaming. Those who view the monitor from the side won't have as accurate an image as those sitting straight in front.
This monitor's vertical viewing angles are poor, as expected from most VA panel monitors. Even at eye-level, you might notice inaccuracies at the top and bottom of the screen depending on how far you are from the monitor. This might be an issue at workplaces if you want to show your work to someone standing next to you.
Excellent gray uniformity, among the best we've ever measured and in the same ballpark as the Samsung CF398. There are almost no signs of dirty screen effect in either the bright or in the darker shades.
The Dell S3220DGF has decent black uniformity. There's some slight blooming at the corners and around the edges, but it's almost impossible to notice in real content.
The pre-calibration color accuracy of the S3220DGF is decent. Most enthusiasts will spot some inaccuracies in both the grays and the colors. Gamma doesn't follow the curve closely and as a result, dark scenes are crushed while bright scenes are even brighter than they should be.
The Dell S3220DGF has remarkable accuracy after calibration. Most inaccuracies are corrected, and even enthusiasts won't be able to spot any remaining ones, except maybe in the blues. Gamma follows the target curve well, and the color temperature is very close to the target of 6500K.
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.
s.RGB Picture Mode: custom color (calibrated)Adobe RGB Picture Mode: custom color
Exceptional SDR color gamut for this monitor, very similar to the MSI Optix G27C. The standard sRGB color space is almost entirely covered, but the wider Adobe RGB color gamut, used mainly in professional applications, isn't covered as well.
s.RGB Picture Mode: custom colorAdobe RGB Picture Mode: custom color
Excellent SDR color volume. The monitor's good contrast ratio helps it display its excellent s.RGB gamut at a large range of brightnesses. Its Adobe RGB volume is still excellent, but limited by the coverage of the Adobe RGB color gamut.
DCI P3 Picture Mode: HDR Standerd Rec. 2020 Picture Mode: HDR standard
Decent HDR color gamut. It has good coverage of the DCI P3 color space, which is used by most current HDR content. Unfortunately, the coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is mediocre. It's worth noting, though, that only a few monitors have good coverage of Rec. 2020.
DCI P3 Picture Mode: HDR Standard Rec. 2020 Picture Mode: HDR standard
Disappointing HDR color volume. Limited by its color gamut, the S3220DGF can't display the full range of colors. The saturated colors, in particular, aren't as bright as pure white.
There are no signs of temporary image retention on the Dell S3220DGF, even immediately after displaying our high-contrast, static test image for 10 minutes.
This monitor has excellent gradient handling. There are very faint signs of banding in the darker colors, but this isn't noticeable in real content.
There are no signs of color bleed on this monitor.
The Dell S3220DGF has impressive reflection handling. Just like the Samsung CHG70 or the HP 27Q, you can easily place it in a bright room without worrying about getting distracted by reflections. Just like most curved monitors, reflections are smeared across the screen, and although this decreases their intensity, it can be distracting in certain cases.
| Response Tim Setting | Response Time Chart | Motion Blur Photo |
| Fast | Chart | Photo |
| Super Fast | Chart | Photo |
| Extreme | Chart | Photo |
The Dell S3220DGF has a very fast response time, although not as fast as other 144Hz monitors. Fast-moving content is displayed with only minimal blur trail. We suggest that you set the Response Time to 'Super Fast', as it's the option that combines fast response time and little overshoot as you can see in the graphs. We measured the response time at the native refresh rate of 144Hz.
The Dell S3220DGF is flicker-free at all brightness levels, which is great. Unfortunately, there's no black frame insertion option to help make motion appear clearer.
The monitor has a native refresh rate of 144Hz that can be easily overclocked, and supports FreeSync for a wide range of frequencies.
This monitor has an extremely low input lag and delivers a very responsive gaming experience that will please even competitive gamers.
If input lag is important to you and you want the best gaming experience possible, check out our recommendations for the best gaming mice.
This a fairly large monitor with good native resolution. You can display a lot of your work on the screen, avoiding having to scroll too often.
Update 10/30/2019: The original text incorrectly listed a crosshair feature - this has been updated, as it is instead a display alignment feature.
There are a few additional features apart from the support of HDR10. Through the monitor's menu, you can enable a grid on the screen to help align multiple displays or a 'frame per second' counter to test your graphics card. You can also display a timer on the screen, which can be handy.
Differences Between Sizes and Variants
We tested the 32" Dell S3220DGF, which is the only size available.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their S3220DGF doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we'll update the review. Note that some tests, such as gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
The Dell S3220DGF we reviewed was manufactured in August 2019.
Compared to other monitors
The Dell S3220DGF is a curved gaming monitor with a great gaming performance. It has a low input lag, supports FreeSync, and delivers a good performance in most uses, just like many other gaming monitors. See also our recommendations for the best gaming monitors, the best curved monitors, and the best 1440p monitors. See also our recommendations for the best gaming mice and the best gaming keyboards.
The Samsung CHG70 is slightly better than the Dell S3220DGF. The Samsung has an optional black frame insertion feature to help the appearance of motion, and a better ergonomic stand that allows you to place the monitor in a comfortable position with ease. The Dell, on the other hand, displays more uniform blacks, which is important when working in a dark room.
The Dell S3220DGF is better than the LG 32GK650F-B. The Dell has a much better build quality, significantly better reflection handling, and much better gradient performance. Also, the Dell has better gray uniformity and supports HDR, but the LG has better ergonomics, much better color accuracy, and has an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce the appearance of motion blur.
The Dell Alienware AW3418DW and the Dell S3220DGF have different panel types, each with advantages and disadvantages. The Alienware has an IPS panel with wider viewing angles, which is great for co-op gaming, while the S3220DGF has better dark room performance thanks to its VA panel. The Alienware offers you more space to work on thanks to its larger screen size and better resolution, but the S3220DGF supports HDR, so you can enjoy the latest HDR games.
The Dell S3220DGF is much better than the Dell S3219D. The S3220DGF has a much faster refresh rate and a lower input lag, which is great for gaming. The D3220 also supports HDR, and its more versatile stand allows you to place it in a comfortable position with ease.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q and the Dell S3220DGF have different panel types, each with advantages and disadvantages. The Asus has an IPS panel and maintains an accurate image for wider viewing angles, which is great if you do collaborative work. The Dell, on the other hand, has a VA panel that delivers deeper and more uniform blacks, which is great if you often game in a dark room. The Dell has a much faster refresh rate and supports HDR, whereas the ASUS is larger with a higher resolution that displays more of your work, minimizing scrolling.
