Dell S3225QC  Monitor Review

While the Dell S3225QC resembles other monitors in the Dell Plus Series lineup, the primary difference lies in the fabric-covered speakers that protrude below the bottom bezel.

The build quality is decent. While the plastic materials appear high-quality, they are easily scratched and marked. The back flexes easily, mainly because the components are in the center and there's nothing towards the sides.

The ergonomics are decent. You can adjust it in various ways, except for rotating it into portrait mode. It can rotate a bit in either direction, which can help if you have it on an unstable desk, but it doesn't stay in position. The stand has a cutout for basic cable management, and there's a cover for the inputs, too.

The base of the stand occupies little space, but the stand doesn't hold the monitor securely, as it wobbles easily. As the stand is tilted, the total thickness from the screen to the back of the stand depends on the height at which you set it. The measurement in the review is with the screen at its minimum height, but the total thickness at its max height is 6.5 inches (16.5 cm).

The housing height includes the speakers, which measure 2.2 inches (5.5 cm). The bezel measurement also includes 1 mm of extra screen space that the monitor uses for the pixel shift feature.

There's a joystick to control the on-screen display and a power button.

• USB-C cable
• Power cable
• Microfiber cleaning cloth
• User guides

The Dell S3225QC has a near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks against bright highlights in dark rooms. However, the black levels rise in bright rooms so you only get this near-infinite contrast in a dark room.

Settings

• Preset Mode: Custom Color (after calibration)
• Brightness: Max

The Dell S3225QC has okay SDR brightness. It doesn't get bright enough to fight intense glare in a well-lit room. On the plus side, it maintains brightness consistently across different content.

Settings

• Smart HDR: HDR Peak 1000
• Brightness: Locked to max

The HDR brightness is alright. Small highlights stand out, and it effectively reduces glare in bright rooms, but larger highlights appear dimmer. Using the 'HDR Peak 1000' Smart HDR mode also has a very slow roll-off with its PQ EOTF, so it doesn't let highlights get the brightest they can. Unlike Dell's Alienware monitors, there's no Console Mode setting with Source Tone Mapping to allow your source to tone map instead.

The 'Custom Color HDR' mode has much better PQ EOTF tracking with a sharp cut-off at its max brightness. It's much dimmer as it's similar to the 'DisplayHDR True Black' mode, so you may prefer using 'Custom Color HDR' if you prefer accuracy over brightness. You can see the results for 'Custom Color HDR' and 'DisplayHDR True Black' below:

The horizontal viewing angle is outstanding. Although it technically isn't perfect, you visually won't see any inconsistencies when viewing from the sides or if you sit close to the screen.

The Dell S3225QC has a remarkable vertical viewing angle. The screen looks the same, even if you're standing up and looking down at it.

The gray uniformity is superb. There aren't any obvious issues, and the dirty screen effect in the center is minimal. Unfortunately, the uniformity is worse in dark scenes, with thin, vertical lines. However, these are hard to see with most content.

The black uniformity is perfect as it maintains a uniform black level across the screen.

The accuracy before calibration is good. The dedicated 'sRGB' Preset Mode locks colors well to the sRGB color space, but there are still inaccuracies. The color temperature is on the warm side, giving the image a red tint, and gamma is off, as most content is darker than intended.

Unfortunately, the 'Custom Color' mode has worse accuracy, with oversaturated colors and worse white balance and color temperature. However, using the 'Custom Color' mode gives you access to settings that are locked out in the sRGB mode, like Hue, Saturation, Gain, and Offset.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic. Calibrating it fixes most issues, and any remaining inaccuracies are hard to see. The 'Custom Color' mode includes 2-point white balance and RGBCMY Hue and Saturation settings to fine-tune your calibration.

The SDR color gamut is incredible. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color space used in most web content. It also displays a wide range of colors in the wider Adobe RGB color space, but it oversaturates reds, magentas, yellows, and greens.

The HDR color gamut is remarkable. It covers most of the DCI-P3 color space with minimal inaccuracies and provides good coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, although it undersaturates primary colors.

The HDR color volume is amazing. Its QD-OLED panel displays dark and bright colors very well for a vivid HDR experience.

The Dell S3225QC has excellent text clarity. Although text looks sharp, the triangular subpixel layout results in more fringing around letters than LCD displays with the same pixel density, like the Dell S3225QS. It's hard to see unless you look for it or sit close, and how much it bothers you changes from person to person. On the plus side, the monitor's glossy coating makes image and text look clear.

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 decent. Its glossy coating absorbs light well, but there are still mirror-like reflections.

The black levels rise in bright rooms, making them look purple. This is typical of QD-OLEDs as they lack a polarizer, and you need to use the monitor in a dark room to get perfect black levels.

Reflections are minimal on this monitor, as it absorbs light well and doesn't spread it out across the screen. That said, reflections from strong light sources can get distracting, like if you place it opposite a sunny window.

The DisplayPort results are with a DisplayPort to USB-C cable. Your graphics card needs to use Display Stream Compression (DSC) to reach its max refresh rate with 4k signals over DisplayPort.

The monitor also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Dell S3225QC has incredible motion handling across its VRR range. Thanks to its near-instantaneous response time, motion looks sharp, but there's normal persistence blur at low refresh rates.

The refresh rate compliance is superb. Its response time is fast enough to make full-color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame at almost any frame rate.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 120Hz is incredible. Motion looks sharp without any noticeable inverse ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

The CAD at 120Hz is incredible. Motion looks sharp without any noticeable inverse ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

The CAD at 60Hz is fantastic. It has a near-instantaneous response time, and any blur you see is persistence blur, which is normal at 60Hz.

The Dell S3225QC doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur.

This monitor has less VRR flicker than other QD-OLEDs, mainly because it has a lower refresh rate. It looks better in person than in the video, but it still has flicker in dark scenes or dark areas of bright scenes.

The backlight isn't technically flicker-free because it has a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the monitor's refresh rate.

The Dell S3225QC has low input lag for a responsive feel at any refresh rate.

This monitor supports all signals with a PS5 without any additional settings that you need to enable.

The Dell S3225QC works well with an Xbox Series X|S, and it supports Dolby Vision. However, it has problems supporting 1440p signals, as you need to enable the console's HDMI override setting for 1440p @ 60Hz, which disables VRR. Since the Xbox only supports HDR with 4k, this isn't a limitation of the monitor.

Only one USB-C port on the back supports DisplayPort Alt Mode with 90W of power delivery. The two other USB-C ports are downstream only and provide 15W of power.

Tested with: M2 MacBook Pro (Sequoia 15.6.1)

The Dell S3225QC works well with macOS, without any obvious issues. If you're using a MacBook, the 'Desktop,' 'Custom Color HDR,' and 'DisplayHDR True Black' Smart HDR modes look the most accurate compared to the MacBook display. That said, with a USB-C connection, HDR looks undersaturated and SDR looks closer to the laptop's screen. This isn't the case over HDMI, as HDR and SDR content appear as intended.

If you have the laptop connected over USB-C, you can close the lid and continue working on the screen. It's the same case with an HDMI connection, as long as you also have the laptop plugged into power. Without the laptop plugged into power with an HDMI connection, it goes to sleep when you close the lid. When reopening the lid or waking it up from sleep, windows return to their original positions.

The built-in five speaker system sounds fine for monitor speakers, but aren't anything special, as they sound similar to the two speakers on the Dell S2725QS. The speakers are useful for video calls, but don't produce the same sound as dedicated speakers or soundbars. It has different Audio Profiles, including 'Custom Audio' for EQ tuning.

The Spatial Audio feature tracks you well if you're at a distance, but it stops working when you're sitting 45 degrees away from the center of the screen. There's an Audio Notification setting that notifies you when you're out of range of the sensor, but it pops up often if you move around a lot, so you may prefer turning it off.

Other features include:

• Aspect Ratio: You can choose between 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios.
• Dark Stabilizer: Adjusts the black levels so that it's easier seeing opponents in dark scenes.
• PIP/PBP Mode: Allows you to view images from two sources at once, and you can customize the placement and size of each.
• OLED Panel Maintenance: Includes a setting to run a pixel refresh cycle. It also runs the cycle when you turn the monitor off after every four hours of usage since it last ran the cycle.
  • The monitor automatically shifts the image by a few pixels at a time so that the same pixels aren't always displaying the same thing. However, there's no setting to control this.
• USB-C Prioritization: Allows you to choose between 'High Resolution' and 'High Data Speed' to prioritize higher video bandwidth or USB transfer speeds.

You can learn more about the OSD in the user manual.