More importantly, though, the colour accuracy of AW2521HFL's IPS panel also leaves a lot to be desired compared to its AOC rival. Whereas my X-Rite DisplayPro i1 colour calibrator showed the AOC C27G2ZU was already showing a near perfect 99% of the sRGB colour gamut straight out of the box on maximum brightness, the AW2521HFL only returned a rather sub-par coverage score of 90.9% when I tested it on its default Standard preset. I'd normally expect an IPS panel to hit around 96% of the sRGB colour gamut, but this was more in line with what I'd expect from a good TN panel. The best thing about the Alienware AW2521HFL is its strong performance in motion handling. The monitor offers excellent control over blurring and ghosting which makes it great for fast-paced competitive titles. This model also has three overdrive settings to further clean up its image output, but we recommend staying with the Fast level. 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.

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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. With a gaming monitor there are two key strands to image quality. Overall picture quality, which takes into account such elements as colour accuracy, contrast ratio, brightness and so on; and responsiveness, which is the chief concern of gamers. It's not just colour settings you get on the AW2521HFL, though. There are also specific Sharpness, Response Time and Dark Stabilizer settings, the latter of which artificially brightens the screen to help you spot things in the shadows. It's a feature often touted as a 'must-have' for competitive multiplayer games to give you that extra 'edge' online - especially when said games are often the ones that can make the most of the AW2521HFL's 240Hz refresh rate. However, I found that the screen's regular peak brightness and accompanying contrast ratio from the Gamer preset was more than enough to help me see everything that I needed to in-game.

Display and Performance

Intended as a Low Blue Light (LBL) setting, but very ineffective. The colour temperature is warmer by default but the blue channel remained strong on our unit and green channel very strong. This gave an unbalanced image with clear green tint, without achieving its key goal. The image below is a macro photograph taken on Notepad with ClearType disabled. The letters ‘PCM’ are typed out to help highlight any potential text rendering issues related to unusual subpixel structure, whilst the white space more clearly shows the actual subpixel layout alongside a rough indication of screen surface. This model uses a ‘regular’ (medium) matte anti-glare surface. Strong glare-handling is provided due to significant diffusion of ambient light. This diffusion also affects light emitted from the monitor, with a negative impact on the clarity and vibrancy potential of the screen. The screen surface has a bit of graininess to it when observing lighter shades, a very slightly ‘sandy’ look to it, if you like. It doesn’t show strong graininess or a heavily smeared appearance, however. The surface texture is quite similar if not a touch lighter than the surface texture used on most high refresh rate ~24” Full HD TN models. Slight deviation from preferred ‘2.2’ gamma, without gamma settings in OSD. Some would prefer a wider gamut for extra vibrancy

Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521HF - Dell Support for Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521HF - Dell

It can also only reach 81.1% of the cinema-focused DCI-P3 color space. This isn't particularly high, and can result in dull colors when watching movies. All that being said, if gaming is where your priorities lie, then the AW2521HF is a great choice. It’s fast and responsive, and is compatible with both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia’s G-Sync technologies for tear-free gaming, which is a sensible move if you own a card from one manufacturer and think you might switch allegiance sometime in the future. Reasonable contrast, in-line with expectation, strong gamma consistency and a pleasing luminance adjustment range The Alienware AW2521HFL is an excellent monitor overall with better imaging results over the dark gray-colored Alienware AW2521HF. It fares considerably better in color accuracy and brightness with minimal tweaking, but the calibrated results are identical. The monitor’s agile pixel response time and FreeSync/G-Sync compatibility make it a compelling choice for competitive gamers. Our suggestions regarding use of VSync also apply, but you’re using Nvidia Control Panel rather than AMD Radeon Software to control this. The setting is found in ‘Manage 3D settings’ under ‘Vertical sync’, where the final option (‘Fast’) is equivalent to AMD’s ‘Enhanced Sync’ setting. You’ll also notice ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ listed under ‘Monitor Technology’ in this section, as shown below. Make sure this is selected (it should be if you’ve set everything up correctly in ‘Set up G-SYNC’).

Thoughts on the Alienware AW2521HFL

It's definitely better than trying to fiddle with its Custom Colour preset, if only because each of its three Gamer profiles give you exactly the same level of control over its dozens of colour options. They're not particularly user-friendly, all told, and Alienware could probably do with chopping a lot of them to make the onboard menu settings easier to understand. Whereas most gaming monitors just give you easy RGB bars to adjust up and down, the AW2521HFL splits them into Gain, Offset, Hue and Saturation, and it's not immediately obvious which settings do what if you don't already know what those individual terms actually mean. Then again, my attempts at calibrating the Gamer preset to try and improve things further didn't actually yield the results I wanted (everything actually got a little worse), so they're probably best left alone anyway. The Alienware AW2521HFL has three main display outputs: two HDMI 2.0 ports and one DisplayPort 1.2 output. Calibrating the monitor will yield a very low deltaE average of only 0.54 which is very close to the result found on the Alienware AW2521HF. However, not all have access to a colorimeter, so we recommend using the custom color preset and tweaking the screen to your liking instead. The added cost of the gadget will make the total cost of your upgrade even higher, so it’s not worth it. An obvious cool (blue) almost icy-looking tint due to very high colour temperature. Some shades brightened up just slightly due to gamma handling, but not by a huge amount. Strong consistency due to IPS-type panel, without the perceived gamma and saturation shifts associated with TN or VA panels. Dell claims the Alienware 25 can hit up to 99% of the sRGB color space. It comes close in our tests, but in Standard mode, the monitor only reaches 96.8% of the gamut, as shown in the sRGB color-space diagram below...

Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521HFL - Dell Support for Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521HFL - Dell

The Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition graphical benchmark looks very nice on the Alienware 25, with natural-looking colors in the green fields and blue skies. The colors could be a bit more vibrant, though, and while the picture is quite bright, fine details in shadows and dark objects occasionally appear a little muddy. The action is nice and smooth, with no noticeable motion artifacts. Similar to above, as with ‘Game 2’ and ‘Game 3’. Greater flexibility offered in the OSD than the ‘Standard’ setting. The Alienware AW2521HFL is a FreeSync Premium gaming monitor, but its also compatible with Nvidia’s G-Sync Compatible mode. Its certification is delayed at this time, but it is pretty much guaranteed since the Alienware AW2521HF is already listed by Nvidia. Input lag sits at 3ms, so there is no need to worry about delays or de-synced instances. Thoughts on the Alienware AW2521HFL 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. IPS glow’ eats away at detail, particularly near bottom corners. Screen surface imparts a bit of graininess to lighter contentStrong pixel responsiveness overall, low input lag and Adaptive-Sync working well with both our AMD and Nvidia GPU Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. See how we test. The high refresh rate and frame rate combination can be particularly attractive for competitive gamers, but also appreciated by fans of less competitive fast-paced action. The Dell Alienware AW2521HF (now designated AW2521HFA in UK and EU) aims to find a nice balance between speed and image quality, combining a 240Hz refresh rate with the superior colour quality of an IPS-type panel. Adaptive-Sync support is included, allowing AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia’s ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’ to be used. We put this monitor through its paces, seeing how it compares to the more common TN options such as the impressively responsive Acer XN253Q X. The bottom line; strong responsiveness and colour performance from a stylish and well-priced monitor. Should you want to dispense with the stand and use your own (or wall mount it) that’s possible, too, since the screen has VESA standard 100mm mounting points but it would be a shame to miss out on such a stylish stand.