Alienware 27 Inch 240Hz Gaming Monitor, 2560 x 1440p QHD (Quad High Definition), Fast IPS , VESA Display, HDR 600, NVIDIA G-SYNC Ultimate Certification, AW2721D, XW3CK - White

i bought this used for a huge discount off the original price and was pleasantly surprised when it came basically looking absolutely brand new and none of the defects that were listed on amazon were present. before this i tried a bunch of monitors and found that all of them have their pros and cons, and this monitor hits the sweet spot of the pros outweighing the cons. i tried the 27GN950 (4K 144HZ) and loved how sharp the monitor was with text and gaming, but what made the monitor so good (4k resolution) also ended up being its biggest downfall, since modern GPU technology just isnt capable of playing most games at a smooth refresh rate at 4K. and refresh rate ties into input lag, so a low refresh rate means high input lag which means a not so pleasant PC gaming experience i tried the LG CX48 which had the best picture quality ive ever seen (OLED, infinite contrast), but as a monitor it was impractical i tried the 240HZ 1080P XL2546 and realized 1080p has no place in 2021 all monitors suffer from poor picture quality in regards to content consumption because of contrast ratio in LCD technology, so if you're looking for a monitor for productivity, gaming and shows/movies you will be disappointed no matter how much money you spend in regards to the 3rd. get a TV + a monitor if you care about picture quality for shows/movies. i remember watching wandavision on my 27GN950 in HDR and couldnt believe it, it looked like someone was shining a flashlight on my screen, you could barely see anything. cheap black friday TV's have better pictures than that. so the AW2721D really shines out of all these options for monitors because a. 1440p is sharp enough to not impact performance in modern games, and modern GPU's are more than capable of playing games at 1440p at 144FPS especially with DLSS b. g-sync ultimate. 99% of monitors have software level g-sync, which just removes tearing at the cost of a slight hit to input lag. this monitor however has a hardware level g-sync module *built in*, which means you get the smoothest possible picture with 0 inconsistencies in frametimes + no screen tearing, and you actually get input lag so incredibly low you'd find it difficult going back to anything without it. c. this is kind of irrelevant to the monitor itself but dell has a whopping 3 year warranty on their monitors, so you know you're safe if anything ever happens to it. also the packaging is really nice compared to most monitors. the design and aesthetics are minimal and clean. ultimately, this monitor should be the endgame for a lot of people unless you have a preference for ultrawides. now it is expensive, and i think its overpriced but that's not a fault of the monitor but a fault of monitor technology still being years behind TV's. i think for 800+$ you should be able to have a good content consumption experience when it comes to TV shows/movies, which is why i wanted to save as much money as possible and bought a used version. anyone who complains about IPS glow/backlight bleed needs to realize these aren't meant for content consumption, and for the large majority of your usage with a monitor those things aren't noticable unless you spend most of your time staring at a black screen. for what this thing is intended for, like most monitors, which is the smoothest most responsive gaming experience, and a sharp productivity experience, it is the best on the market.

Of course it goes on sale a week after I purchase it! ugh. This is a short term review, as I've only had it for a week. Pretty much echoing what other people have said, the colors and brightness are fantastic compared to my other gaming monitors (I own a 240hz zowie, 240hz alienware, 144hz zowie, and a 1440p 165hz 27" asus), and for that reason I love it. I was afraid it'd ruin my other gaming monitors for me, and it definitely did, it'd be hard to go back to every day use of my other 1080p high refresh rate gaming oriented monitors after this bad boy. Aesthetically it's got a clean, gamer style look to it, I don't hate it, but this is subjective of course. I also never look at the back of my monitor anyway, plus I use desk mounts for them so I don't use the standard, out of the box stands. Oh it's also pretty heavy compared to other monitors I own. I have it on a standard vizio extra tall pole style monitor mount, but it seems to be ok so far. The OSD is fine, pretty much the same as my Alienware AH2518H, but a couple more things, and the joystick style controls it's a hell of a lot easier to navigate. It's 240hz which is nice, it's hard for me to use anything less than 240hz now, as I was a OG gamer that started out on CRTs back in the day, I'm sensitive to motion blur and lower refresh rate lcds. 1440p 240hz is going to be the new sweet spot for gaming monitors IMHO, with GPUs getting more powerful (if you can even find one to purchase at MSRP lel). The motion blur on this monitor in faster paced fps/Afps games isn't too bad, but I would have liked to have some sort of strobing/blur reduction option like the G7. The only downside to this monitor is the price IMHO, if it was constantly around the 700 mark (it's on sale as of 3/4/21 for 769) with price drops to 6-500 I think it'd be worth it for sure, but at full MSRP or even at the 800 mark it's up there in price for a gaming monitor. If you have the money, and want a 27" 1440p, 240hz monitor with great colors and brightness out of the box, this might be the one for you. I love it, and if it was cheaper I'd probably buy a second one. If you want a good monitor that's 1440p 240hz, but with lower motion blur, and don't mind the dumb curve it has (that's the deal breaker for me on that monitor) check out the Samsung odyssey G7. I might update this review at a later date if anything changes on it.

The PROS: Mine arrived in perfect condition, double boxed from Amazon. The Alienware packaging is actually very nice, well packaged to ensure the monitor arrives in perfect condition. I have no dead pixels, no hot or stuck pixels, no back light bleed, with minimal IPS glow that is on all IPS monitors. Amazing colors, great viewing angles, and blazing fast pixel response times. G-Sync works flawlessly as expected, and yes this monitor has REAL G-Sync, not that compatible crap that flickers or has issues like on the Samsung G7. This is the real deal, and worth the extra. I got mine at $733, so definitely buy it on Amazon and not at the $1099 Dell's website is charging. The monitor has a fan, but you can't hear it. I would not know this has a fan if I had not read that in a review, so don't let that deter you. I've held my head to the back of the monitor and cannot hear anything at all. Dead silent. Zero bezels on this display make for an excellent viewing experience, and the monitor is very clean looking from the front with no crazy gamer in your face appearance. I like the minimalistic look that is presented here. Really premium look overall. There is minimal RGB lighting that can be fully disabled in the OSD or software, even the power button light can be turned off. The monitor itself has really good build quality, doesn't feel cheap or feel like it would break easily. I'm not a fan of the Alienware stand, so I opted to mount this via the VESA mounting on my Amazon Basics stand. I wish it had the stand like an older Dell S2716DG that I previously owned. Dell, please take note. The CONS: The monitor doesn't have ULMB or any type of anti motion blur strobing technology. At this price point and with real G-Sync this is not acceptable. This is a HUGE miss and should be included or provided via a firmware update. Even a cheap AOC $180 monitor I had included a backlight strobing feature. Dell needs to provide a firmware update to fix this as I see no reason this monitor can't do it. 10-bit color cannot be used at 240Hz, then why advertise the monitor as 10 bit? This is also a huge mess up, and again something that needs to be fixed via a firmware update. I'm not a console gamer, but apparently the monitor cannot output a proper 4K signal over HDMI for next gen consoles which is also a nasty oversight for anyone hoping to use this monitor for that purpose. Hopefully these issues can be addressed with firmware updates soon. Overall: I love the monitor, will be keeping it as it checks most of my boxes and really is a phenomenal monitor even with some of the CONS listed above and I got it for a reasonable price. But I really wish some of the cons I listed could be addressed.

So I wanted to wait at least a month before posting my review of this monitor. My current setup is as follows: CPU: Intel Core i9 10900K/360MM EK AiO Mobo: Asrock Z490 Taichi GPU: EVGA 3090 Ultra FTW Gaming RAM: 32G 3200MHZ Samsung B-Die 4x8 PSU: BeQuiet! 1200w Platinum Modular Case: Phantek Enthoo Pro II Primarily Play Warzone, DayZ, Dying Light, World Of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 4, etc. Simply put, this monitor is by Far, my absolute Most Favorite monitor I have Ever Owned. The picture quality is Stunningly crisp, Warzone @2k Res, at 240hz, with the best Nvidia Filters tweaked. Looks and Runs Flawlessly with No stutters/tears/visual defects At All. In such a fast paced game, that’s Critical to be able to whip around and suffer No visual blur, No Lag, instant response. I was gaming on An Alienware AW3418DW, 120hz Max refresh and 5ms. It was great, but this 27” 240hz 1ms, Crushes my old monitor hands down. To my surprise, Extremely Minimal backlight bleed, No dead pixels, very well packaged. If you’re an avid FPS/BR fan, wait until this monitor goes on sale and try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed with your purchase. Solid build quality, Nothing feels cheap, looks Great, incredibly easy to VESA Mount, the fan that cools the Nvidia Ultimate Chips whisper quiet. Side note, always make sure to turn your monitor off (Not Sleep Mode) or the fan for the monitor continues to spin.

It is a sad day when you have to notch one star off a review of one of the best gaming monitors I've ever owned because it forces you to install something that has nothing to do with image quality. What could have been a perfect, 5 star review turned into just a good one just because of the monstrosity the infamous ACC -Alienware Control Center- is On the good side, or better said on the wonderful side, the image on this monitor is really impressive, everything looks sharp, in beautiful real colors. Games look way better that the way they looked on my old Dell monitor, which was not HDR even if it was G-SYNC. Response time is also impressive, when paired with my Nvidia RTX 3080 it is just a complete different experience, for the better. I'm connected via DP, not sure how it will look via HDMI but I wouldn't expect something different Craftsmanship is also incredible, well built, solid good quality with a very 2001 Space Odyssey futuristic look. Dell really put an effort into this monitor, and it shows. Couldn't be happier with image and quality, and even if the price is a bit high, I think it's more than justified for the superior product you get Assembly and installation is a walk in the park. It took me less than 15 minutes to take it out of the box, attach it to the base and connect it to my Falcon NW PC. The back joystick menu feature for the options takes a bit of an effort to manage but after a few tries it becomes very intuitive and easy to use. I turned off all the lights so I cannot comment on the way they can be customized, but for the brief time they were on they looked great. Sadly, this is where things took a turn for the worst After playing for a few hours and testing the image on different settings and games, I turned off my PC for the day. Next day, after starting, the Audio for my PC was gone. Restarted the PC again and nothing. Tried all sort of stuff, nothing. A quick check to the W11 reliability monitor showed the ACC kept crashing at restarting, so I uninstalled the ACC and nothing. Really painful. After a few hours trying everything, I decided to disconnect all the audio sources form the PC, remove the Realtek and W11 audio drivers and basically reinstall everything audio related. After that it worked, but it is clear the ACC was to blame and messed up with the audio drivers The ACC should be optional, for those wanting to control the monitor lights or to manage their games under an Alienware environment, not forced into every PC as soon as you connect the monitor to a USB port, no asking for permission, no option to decline installation. I have owned several Dell monitors in the past and this have never happened before. Maybe is an Alienware thing but not a good one

Coming from a 1080p 240 hz aw2521hf. This monitor AW2721D is much more fun to look at. The 1440p really is the perfect fit for this sized screen. The fast ips has more depth and a bit richer than the tn display but comes off a bit cooler (bluer) at the same time. Once you get used to the cooler colour you'll really like it. I've had a few hiccups were the screen will go black when fiddling with settings sometimes but only like 4 times in the first 5 weeks i've had it. The brightness is a bit insane, this baby can get bright af. Especially when you turn on HDR. The one thing that is a bit unsettling is that when HDR is on and you are playing a dark game, all the bright lights tend to cause some pretty extreme (in my opinion) ips glow. You'll see when you have a torch for example in a game and you're traversing a dark area. The bottom of the monitor will really light up. You can mitigate this effect by using variable backlight options in the settings or adjusting the brightness in nvidia control panel. But this is something i've gotten used to and its not very bothersome. The HDR during well lit games is amazing though. The only other minor complaint I have is that the panel I got has 2 very minorly effected pixels that are ~10-15% dimmer than the other pixels, they are not dead pixels but seemed to be maybe underpowered? Its impossible to see on photos but they're there. They are imperceivably unless you have a monocolor bright background and look real close for them. This may be rng also. Overall i would rate this monitor 94/100

UPDATE (1/222021): My new unit has no dead pixels, barely any IPS glow. Absolutely in love. It's perfect. The monitor is incredible and, if it hadn't been for the two stuck/dead pixels (stuck at green), then this would have been easily 5 stars. Pros: - It's incredibly crisp and smooth, with a clarity almost indistinguishable from 4K - Playing anything on it is butter, assuming you have a PC that can push 240 frames at 1440p; I would choose this over 1080p/360Hz any day of the week. - The physical design of this monitor is stunning; thinnest bezels and chin I have ever seen on any monitor. The bottom chin is so thin that it doesn't even have any branding or logo. If you mount this on a monitor arm, you'd have to look behind the monitor in order to figure out what brand it is. I love it. - Gets bright as hell for a monitor. - IPS glow is not bad, but I don't typically operate on all-black screens. - All the I/O you could ever want; bunch of USB passthrough and audio passthrough. Cons: - If you're not using a mount, the stand on this thing (though stylish) will take up a lot of desk space AND push the monitor closer to your face than you would probably want. - No built-in speakers...if you care about that sort of thing. There's a reason why the chin is so thin. If you can afford to buy this monitor, then you can afford to spend $15 on some USB speakers. - It came with one dead pixel. - It came with another dead pixel. - An $1100 monitor came with two stuck/dead pixels. Review will be updated if the replacement is acceptable.

I received three AW2721D monitors brand new and all of them have severe QC issues out of the box: Monitor 1: Extreme IPS glow and backlight bleed on the corners of the display that was visible even in bright rooms. I’ve never owned a monitor with this much glow and bleed in my life. Monitor 2: Entire bottom right corner of the display had an orange hue, like the display was damaged or burnt during assembly Monitor 3 (from Dell direct): Dead pixel on the bottom right and similar orange hue/damage on the bottom left corner. Monitor 1 and 3 were manufactured in June 2021. Monitor 2 was manufactured in May 2021. Still horrible QC even though this monitor has been on market for nearly a year. It’s a shame because the monitor is quite good if these insane defects didn’t pass QC. Avoid this monitor!

Amazing monitor. Ultra smooth; response time even on fast mode is lightning quick. Bought on a warehouse deal with “cosmetic damage” and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Have it in a naturally lit room and glare is not an issue. I’d recommend this monitor to anyone; especially if you can find a warehouse deal like mine!

When you say money well spent .. this is the case. Switch my Asus 144hz for this monitor. I couldn't believe it. I played Sea of thieves at first and wow !! I'm so happy Color and graphics are just perfect now. I don't regret it even if it was expensive a little bit. It worth every penny. Alienware !!

I had the monitor over a week now and get over the Quality of this monitor the colours are very vivid a little bit expensive but worth every penny!

It is a nice upgrade for me. I have been wanting this for a long time now. There was no backlight leaks or anything like some reviewer has been mentioning. I got mine on a perfect condition ans also tried and played FPS games like Apex and Warzone to try it out. no problems at all! It's a good buy and would definitely recommend. I am just hoping that this monitor will stay like this for the longest time. Perfect match for my 3080 Ti indeed.

THIS is a really good screen for 1. BRIGHT images (peak nit) 2. Color (calibration) (use rtings) 3. Smoothness(240hz( 4. Design (base + backate) 5. Gsync 6. HDR 600 7. Dell warranty on dead pixels It’s a bad sceen for only 1 thing after 1 month of use. 1. The blacks are ATROCIOUS in HDR. Why ? Because of the zones. If you have dark colors in the way of bright spots in an image, they’ll over contrast and will make ips glow very vad. It’s a poor design. Not enough zones is OBVIOUSLY the culprit here. 1000 zones (even then it’s noticeable) would be much better but $$. If you’re not using HDR you can always change the black options in the panel config and that fixes it. It’s a shame once you use HDR you can’t do it. But mind you, i’m STILL playing my games in HDR because my god the colors and brightness over compensate for the poor blacks. It’s worth. I paid 900$CDN and i’m very happy with my purchase. I’m even contemplating buying another one so my monitors are the same.