The Dell S3220DGF is an impressive 1440p gaming monitor. It has a curved design and it doesn't take up much room, even with the support stand attached. Gaming feels responsive due to the fast refresh rate and low input lag. Also, the native FreeSync support should help reduce any screen tearing. It can display deep blacks in a dimly lit room thanks to its VA panel's high contrast ratio. That said, its viewing angles are inadequate, which means that images look washed out when viewed from the side. It has decent reflection handling and okay peak brightness, making it suitable for a moderately-lit room, but visibility can be an issue if there's direct light.
The Dell S3220DGF is a good monitor for mixed use. It has a large size and its 1440p resolution allows for a good amount of multi-tasking, but it doesn't offer as much real estate as a full 4k screen would. It has low input lag, and the fast response time ensures that motion blur is minimal in fast-moving scenes. Also, it has a good contrast ratio and black uniformity, which means content looks good in a dark room. That said, viewing angles are disappointing, which results in images looking washed out when viewed from the side.
The Dell S3220DGF is a good monitor for office use. It has a large screen size and high resolution, which allows you to have multiple windows open side-by-side. It has decent reflection handling and gets bright enough to overcome glare. The ergonomics are only okay, as it can't rotate into a portrait mode, and the picture quality suffers when looking at it from a side angle.
The Dell S3220DGF is an impressive gaming monitor. It has a very low input lag, which ensures a responsive gaming experience. It has FreeSync technology for reducing screen tearing and its fast response time ensures that motion blur is minimal in fast-moving scenes. While its response time isn't as good as other 165Hz monitors, it should still be good enough for most people.
The Dell S3220DGF is a good monitor for multimedia use. Its screen size is large and it has a high resolution, which allows for a more immersive experience. It's decent at handling reflections and overcoming glare. Also, its low input lag makes it very responsive. That said, its viewing angles are disappointing, resulting in the image looking washed out when viewed from the side.
The Dell S3220DGF is a very good monitor for content creators. It's pretty large with a high resolution, which is optimal for displaying multiple windows side-by-side. Ergonomics are only okay, as there's no portrait mode, but it's easy to adjust it into a comfortable position. Unfortunately, viewing angles are disappointing as the image quality degrades when viewed from the side.
The Dell S3220DGF is a decent choice for HDR gaming. The high contrast ratio makes blacks look deep in a dark room. It can display HDR games with bright, vivid colors due to its wide color gamut and decent HDR peak brightness, but lacks any local dimming feature. On the upside, it has outstandingly low input lag and a good response time overall.
The Dell S3220DGF's design is quite similar to most other Dell monitors, only that the logos on the front and back of the screen are blue. It's a fairly large screen, and while the stand is larger than some of the other Dell monitors on the market, it's still not very big.
The back of the monitor is plain. Cable management is serviced through the stand, and it has a quick-release button.
The Dell S3220DGF doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.
The Dell S3220DGF has decent peak brightness. It should be able to combat glare in most rooms, 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. If you want something that gets significantly brighter with real content, look into the ASUS TUF Gaming VG27WQ1B.
The Dell S3220DGF has decent HDR peak brightness. It can bring out highlights in HDR, but there's a slight variation in brightness with varied content.
As is the case with most VA panel monitors, the horizontal viewing angle is disappointing. You quickly lose image accuracy when viewed from the side, and since it has such a large screen, the sides of the screen appear darker if you sit too close. If you're interested in a VA panel with fairly wide viewing angles, check out the AOC CQ32G1.
The monitor has a disappointing vertical viewing angle. You lose image accuracy if it's mounted above or below eye level. Also, if you sit close to the screen, the top and bottom edges appear darker.
The Dell S3220DGF has excellent gray uniformity, better than most monitors we've seen, but this could vary from unit to unit. The sides of the screen appear darker mainly due to the viewing angles, but other than that, you shouldn't notice any uniformity issues.
The pre-calibration color accuracy is reasonable. Most colors are inaccurate and the color temperature is warmer than the target, so colors have a red/yellow tint. Gamma doesn't follow the curve well, so dark scenes appear darker than they should, and bright scenes are brighter. Pre-calibration can vary between individual units.
The Dell S3220DGF has outstanding accuracy after calibration. Most colors are accurate and any remaining inaccuracies aren't noticeable to the naked eye.
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.
The Dell S3220DGF has a decent HDR color gamut. It has very good coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most content but has mediocre coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.
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. Image retention can vary between individual units.
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 monitor has a very good overall response time at its max refresh rate, but it's a bit disappointing for a 165Hz monitor. The recommended Overdrive setting, called Response Time, is 'Super Fast'. There's a minimal amount of overshoot, but the response time is slow, resulting in some motion blur. If you want the quickest response time, 'Extreme' is faster, but there's visible ghosting behind fast-moving objects.
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 S3220DGF has an adequate response time at 60Hz. Unlike when playing at its max refresh rate, the recommended Overdrive is 'Fast'. Motion is still blurry but there's a minimal amount of overshoot.
This monitor doesn't have a black frame insertion feature.
Update 12/09/2020:There are reports of screen flickering issues below 60Hz when using VRR through G-SYNC compatibility. Unfortunately, our unit is broken and we can't retest it. However, we didn't experience this issue during testing.
Update 08/20/2020: We rechecked the refresh rate, and clarified our text.
The default refresh rate of the Dell S3220DGF varies depending on the connection used. Over DisplayPort, it defaults to a maximum 165Hz refresh rate, and the only other option is to decrease it to 60Hz. When connected over HDMI, the monitor defaults to 144Hz and instead offers an overclock to 165Hz. It also supports FreeSync VRR technology to reduce screen tearing, and although it's not officially certified, we were also able to use it with NVIDIA's G-SYNC Compatible mode, but this only works over DisplayPort.