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AFTER two weeks of testing the Dell S2721HGF, we reckon it’s great value for money.

Read our full review below to find out why.

• Dell S2721HGF monitor, £199 on Amazon – buy here

Pros

• Bright colours
• Easy installation
• Large screen size
• High refresh rate and solid response time are great for fast-paced, online games

Cons

• Can’t be rotated, only tilted
• Relatively low resolution for 27 inches (full-HD instead of quad-HD or 4K)

Quick Summary

The Dell S2721HGF is a solid budget option for players looking for a monitor with all the necessary specs for gaming, and a little more.

If you play quick-paced, online games like Call of Duty Warzone, the S2721HGF will be perfect for you, as its high refresh rate and fast response time allow for blazing fast reactions.

If your main goal is to enjoy story-driven games with an extremely high level of detail and exquisite graphics, however, you may want to look for a bigger monitor (or TV), with a higher resolution.

The S2721HGF resolution is more than enough to use the monitor for work, however, so unless you’re editing high-resolution videos, you’ll be able to make good use of it in your work-from-home setup.

And if you intend to watch movies on it, the S2721HGF offers a variety of colour settings to make the most out of your clips, and its gaming specs particularly shine with action movies.

Of course, full-HD is not 4K, and if you are spoiled for ultra HD resolution, you may want to look for something with more advanced features like the Dell S3220DGF or the Razer Raptor 27.

And if you think these are a little expensive, you could look at some cheaper gaming monitors like the Asus VP228HE or the LG UltraGear 24GL600F.

Design and Ergonomics

• Dell S2721HGF monitor, £199 on Amazon – buy here

The Dell S2721HGF is a 27-inch curved monitor with a 16:9 ratio and dimensions of 60.84 x 9.63 x 36.41 cm.

At 4.06 kg, this is a fairly heavy screen, but it goes to show its build quality.

In fact, the S2721HGF feels sturdy. We have been moving it quite a bit to test it with both PS4 and PC, and it never felt like it was about to fall apart.

That being said, the S2721HGF’s minimalistic design is mostly matte black plastic. The monitor clip-on base is hexagonal in shape, and measures only 9-inches, leaving plenty of space on your desk for other elements of your gaming setup.

It is also very easy to assemble, and it took us only a couple of minutes to snap the two parts together.

On the back, the monitor has a handy cutout in the stand for cable management.

In terms of ergonomics, the S2721HGF allows for a height adjustment of up to 5 inches (12.8,8).

It cannot switch between portrait and landscape and has no swivel function, but it does offer a tilt range feature allowing the screen to be tilted upward by 21 degrees and downward by -5 degrees.

We found this to be enough to satisfy our personal gaming needs, but we can see how some players may want to have more flexibility in this regard.

Connectivity

• Dell S2721HGF monitor, £199 on Amazon – buy here

As far as connectivity is concerned, the Dell S2721HGF offers two HDMI 1.4 ports, one DisplayPort 1.2, and an audio line-out jack for your headphones.

Unfortunately, the ports are located underneath the vent, on the monitor’s right side, making them a little tricky to access.

As in most monitors in this category, there are no USB ports in Dell’s S2721HGF, but this goes to show how Dell cut several potential features to keep the price of this monitor under £200.

The S2721HGF comes with an HMDI cable in the box, so you won’t have to worry about buying one separately.

Performance and Settings

A gaming monitor through and through, the Dell S2721HGF offers a 144 Hz refresh rate and a fast 1 ms response time, which is perfect for online competitive games like Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and Rocket League, but also for graphics-heavy offline games like CyberPunk.

For context, the minimum for modern, casual gaming is 60 Hz, but most gaming monitors today offer at least 120 Hz.

The S2721HGF’s 144 Hz refresh rate, combined with a fast response time and a great colour accuracy will enable you to enjoy fast-action games to the fullest, eliminating motion blur and creating a truly immersive experience.

This monitor also offers a multitude of settings. We recommend the Standard preset for most games, as the others may result in somehow unnatural colours.

Feel free to experiment, however, as the S2721HGF really packs in a lot of options when it comes to colour presets.

This flexibility is certainly a plus, and it shows particularly in bright games like Fortnite, or ones where a particular colour is preponderant on screen, like FIFA.

From the settings, you can also turn AMD FreeSync Premium on and off, and regulate Response Time. Generally speaking, it’s good to turn these settings on whenever you are playing, but you most likely won’t need them when using the monitor for work.

But it’s time to address the elephant in the room. The S2721HGF is a 27-inch monitor with a 1080p resolution. Does that detract from the gaming experience? The answer is both yes and no.

Keeping the resolution at 1080p is necessary for the S2721HGF to achieve its high refresh rate and quick response time, while also keeping the price of the monitor in check.

You can get monitors with better specs and resolution, but you’ll have to spend substantially more.

A full-HD resolution is not top-notch in 2021, as many of them today are quad-HD or 4K, but it still delivers solid and clear graphics, thanks to the S2721HGF’s performant specs.

The Verdict

• Dell S2721HGF monitor, £199 on Amazon – buy here

All in all, the Dell S2721HGF offers a good compromise between price and performance, and for most gamers that will be enough.

This minimalistic monitor packs in a lot of tech, and shines particularly for its multitude of settings, high refresh rate, and sturdy built.

It is perfect for online competitive gaming, but also for single-player, story-driven ones, if you don’t mind the full-HD resolution (as opposed to quad-HD or 4K).

If you do, however, and have the budget for a more ergonomic monitor, or one with a better resolution, you should definitely check out the Dell S3220DGF and the Razer Raptor 27.

And if you are on a tighter budget, you may want to have a look at cheaper options like the Asus VP228HE and the LG UltraGear 24GL600F..

Still, all in all, the Dell S2721HGF represents one of the best gaming screens currently available on the market under the £200 mark.

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Did you enjoy our review of the Dell S2721HGF monitor? Then you should have a look at our pick of the best gaming chairs available right now.

We’ve also selected the best TVs to get the most out of your Xbox series X and PS5.

For more tech and gaming recommendations, you can head to the main page of Sun Selects Tech.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk

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