Strong pixel responsiveness overall, low input lag and Adaptive-Sync working well with both our AMD and Nvidia GPU So, if you’re wondering whether you should save your money and get the Dell AW2521HF or invest in one of the more expensive models, this review will cover everything you need to know! Image Quality

The Alienware AW2521HF has an exceptionally low input lag of only ~2ms, which guarantees that you won’t be able to notice or feel any delays between your actions and the result on the screen.The variable refresh rate range is 48-240Hz, but LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) is supported meaning that below 48FPS, the refresh rate will be multiplied (for instance, 47FPS x 5 -> 235Hz) for smoother performance. We created out own LBL setting as described below. This provides effective blue light reduction and can easily be assigned to a numbered ‘Game’ preset for easy activation and deactivation.

Input lag is where the Alienware 25 really shines, as it should in a gaming monitor. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured a 4.1-millisecond input lag on a 60Hz signal, which means an input lag of just over 1ms at 240Hz. That makes the Alienware 25 the fastest gaming monitor we’ve tested to date. This is also why TN monitors were almost exclusively used by competitive gamers and tournament organizers alike, as these panels are known to display the least amount of input lag, and have some of the fastest response times when compared to their early IPS or VA counterparts. However, as monitor technology has advanced, these shortcomings have been expiated to a considerable degree with the release of fast IPS, SS IPS, and SVA panels.Unlike some of the other 240Hz IPS models, the Dell AW2521HF does not support HDR (High Dynamic Range). Note that there is always some disparity between how emissive objects (monitor) and non-emissive objects (printed sheet) appear. The representation of shades in this image depends on the camera and your own screen, it’s not designed to show exactly how the shades appear in person. It still helps demonstrate some of the relative differences between the original intended sRGB shade and what the monitor outputs, however. Full profiling and appropriate colour management on the application would provide a tighter match, our intention here is to show what can be expected in a non colour-managed environment.

In some rare cases, dark pixels may not quite change into brighter shades in time with the refresh rate, which can result in visible ghosting behind fast-moving objects when dark pixels are predominant in the picture (dark scenes). Other panel-related specifications include a strong 400-nit peak brightness and a static contrast ratio of 1,000:1. There’s also the Dell Alienware AW2521HFL model with a different color scheme (‘L’ stands for ‘Lunar Light’ whereas the AW2521HF model has the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ theme).The monitor includes a range of ‘Preset Modes’; ‘Standard’, ‘FPS’, ‘MOBA/RTS’, ‘RPG’, ‘SPORTS’, ‘Game 1’, ‘Game 2’, ‘Game 3’, ‘ComfortView’, ‘Warm’, ‘Cool’ and ‘Custom Color’. The numbered ‘Game’ presets and ‘Custom Color’ are most flexible as they allow you to adjust the colour channels and saturation levels. The remaining presets make specific adjustments to those and can’t be manually altered. The numbered ‘Game’ presets can have unique ‘Brightness’ and ‘Contrast’ levels assigned to them as well, whereas this is set universally for the remaining presets. Many of the presets make further adjustments, such as ‘FPS’, ‘MOBA/RTS’, ‘RPG’ and ‘SPORTS’ adding a sharpness filter which can’t be disabled or counteracted effectively in the OSD aside from by selecting a different preset. These were briefly explored in the OSD video, but for the purposes of this table we’ll be looking at manual adjustments and settings we feel have more utility.