Dell UltraSharp U2520D Monitor Review

The UltaSharp U2520D has a simple office-oriented design that's in line with other Dell UltraSharp monitors. Its body is black and grey and it has a square-based stand.

This monitor has the same stand as other Dell monitors. It's smaller than the Dell U2518D and doesn't take up a lot of space. It supports the monitor well but there's still some wobble.

Impressive ergonomics. The UltraSharp U2520D has a very wide swivel range and you can rotate it into portrait mode either clockwise or counterclockwise.

The back of this monitor is very simple. It can be VESA-mounted and it has a quick-release button to take it off from the stand too. The stand has a hole used for cable management.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

The screen itself is thin and won't stick out much if VESA-mounted. With the stand attached, the entire monitor gets thicker but it's still thinner than the Dell U2518D and Dell UltraSharp U2720Q.

The UltraSharp U2520D has a good build quality. It's made out of plastic that doesn't give any sort of premium feel to it but there aren't any obvious build quality issues.

Mediocre contrast ratio, which is expected from an IPS panel. Blacks appear gray when viewed in the dark.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is for reference only.

The UltraSharp U2520D has very good peak brightness. It gets bright enough to combat glare and the screen's brightness remains consistent with different content. The UltraSharp U2520D doesn't get as bright as the Dell U2518D, but it's brighter than the Dell UltraSharp U2720Q.

The peak brightness in HDR is just okay. It gets bright enough to bring out some highlights but it still doesn't give you a true HDR experience.

Like most IPS panels, the UltraSharp U2520D has a great horizontal viewing angle. The image remains accurate from the side, which is ideal for sharing your screen with others.

The vertical viewing angle is alright but it's nothing special for an IPS panel. You lose some image accuracy if you mount the monitor too much above eye level.

The UltraSharp U2520D has excellent gray uniformity. There's minimal dirty screen effect, and solid colors across the screen such as on a web page or document are uniform. The screen is extremely uniform in near-dark scenes.

Mediocre black uniformity. There's visible clouding throughout and a lot of backlight bleed in the corners. This gets distracting when watching dark scenes in dark rooms.

The Dell UltraSharp U2520D has great out-of-the-box color accuracy. Most colors only have slight inaccuracies to them and the color temperature is slightly warmer than the 6500K target, giving the image a red/yellow tint. Unfortunately, gamma doesn't follow the curve well so most scenes are darker than they should be.

The color accuracy is near-perfect after calibration. The color temperature is much closer to the target and the gamma follows the curve well, but some bright scenes are still over-brightened.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

The UltraSharp U2520D has an outstanding SDR color gamut. It has near-perfect coverage of the sRGB color space and it has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing. This is an improvement from the Dell U2518D.

The UltraSharp U2520D has remarkable color volume. It displays most colors at different brightness levels but due to its low contrast ratio, it can't display dark colors well.

Decent HDR color gamut. It displays a wide color gamut for HDR content but it's a bit limited. It has decent coverage of both the commonly-used DCI P3 color space and the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The HDR color volume on the UltraSharp U2520D is just okay. It's limited by its color gamut and low contrast ratio, as it can't display deep, saturated colors well.

The UltraSharp U2520D shows no sign of image retention after displaying a high contrast static image for 10 minutes.

Update 09/23/2020: We incorrectly listed it as 10-bit, when it's in fact an 8-bit monitor. The review has been updated.

Impressive gradient handling. There's noticeable banding in dark grays and greens, and some more in blues and reds.

The UltraSharp U2520D displays no signs of color bleed, which is ideal for photo editing.

Okay reflection handling on the UltraSharp U2520D. It handles a moderate amount of light well but struggles in bright rooms. This is good for most office environments, but you shouldn't place it in direct sunlight.

Good text clarity, similar to most 1440p monitors. You can make text more clear by enabling ClearType (top photo).

The UltraSharp U2520D has an impressive response time, especially for a 60Hz monitor, which is ideal for console gaming. The recommended Overdrive setting is 'Normal' since there's a lot less overshoot than the 'Fast' setting.

Since this is a 60Hz monitor, the results are the same as the 'Response Time @ Max Refresh Rate' results.

The UltraSharp U2520D has a flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye strain.

The UltraSharp U2520D doesn't have a black frame insertion feature.

The Dell UltraSharp U2520D is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. It doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology either. If you're looking for a gaming monitor with a high refresh rate and VRR support, check out the Dell Alienware AW2521HF.

The UltraSharp U2520D has an extremely low input lag for a 60Hz monitor, similar to the Dell UltraSharp U2721DE.

Note: the monitor only supports 10-bit HDR over DisplayPort and not HDMI. However, we can't test HDR input lag over DisplayPort.