It feels like yesterday that the first 144Hz gaming monitors took the world of PC gaming into a new era of high refresh rates. That quickly became the norm, forcing monitor makers to push the limits to 240Hz, then 360Hz. They were successful, but high refresh rates came with high pricing.
The Dell S2522HG changes the game. This 24.5-inch 1080p gaming monitor has a 240Hz refresh rate, yet it’s commonly sold for $249.99. That’s just tens of dollars more than an average 1080p 144Hz gaming monitor. The S2522HG cuts a few corners in its pursuit of pricing, but it’s a great choice for competitive gamers on a budget.
Dell 2522HG – Design
The Dell S2522HG, like the company’s other entry-level gaming monitors, boasts a simple yet confident style. The matte black chassis has thin bezels and can, at first glance, be mistaken for an office monitor.
Take a closer look, though, and you’ll appreciate the monitor’s rear vents, which remind me of the window louvers on an old muscle car, and the angular, stealthy stand. There’s no RGB-LED lights to add flair, but that’s typical for a budget gaming display. Build quality is above average, too. The monitor feels sturdy when handled and the matte plastics don’t show excessive flex.
The monitor’s stand is a highlight. It keeps the monitor planted and has a wide variety of ergonomic adjustments including height, tilt, swivel, and pivot. It’s very nearly the same stand as Dell’s more expensive office displays, though its range of height adjustment is slightly more limited (130mm instead of 150mm). A cutout is included for cable management. It’s an excellent stand for a budget display.
If you do want to replace the stand, the monitor has a standard 100mm x 100mm VESA mount. This is compatible with the vast majority of monitor arms and stands.
Dell 2522HG – Features & Menu
This monitor’s connectivity once again exceeds expectations for a budget gaming display. It has two HDMI 2.0 ports and one DisplayPort 1.2 ports, which is typical for a 1080p gaming monitor.
It has a total of four USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports with 5Gbps of bandwidth. That’s excellent for a gaming monitor at any price point, nevermind $249.99, and it turns the monitor into a useful USB hub. You can plug in a wired keyboard, mouse, and webcam, and still have a port left over for a hard drive.
Dell’s menu system is easy to navigate. The controls, found along the monitor’s right flank, are easy to use thanks to large buttons your fingers will easily find. Once open, the menu is easy to understand and clearly labeled.
Menu options are typical for a gaming monitor. You’ll have access to brightness, contrast, and some color settings. Color temperature can be adjusted, though only among vague presets rather than finely calibrated settings, and precise gamma presets aren’t available. The monitor has a dark stabilizer feature to brighten shadowy areas and can also display a timer or the current game framerate, but a built-in crosshair is absent.
Features are otherwise limited. The monitor doesn’t include speakers, doesn’t have a black frame insertion feature, and doesn’t support HDR. Still, none of this is unusual given the monitor’s very low price.
Dell 2522HG – Gaming Performance
The Dell 2522HG looks good straight out of the box. It has an IPS panel with a sustained brightness of about 330 nits. That’s good for a budget monitor and high enough that you’ll want to turn down the brightness setting in a dark room.
Color performance is respectable, as well. The monitor is not extremely color accurate, though good enough for gaming, and the accuracy of its color pairs well with reasonably on-target results for color temperature and gamma. The S2522HG clearly falls behind more expensive monitors like, say, the Alienware 2521HF, but it’s good value.
This is an sRGB monitor and doesn’t target a wide color gamut such as DCI-P3. This, again, is common for a budget gaming monitor. The monitor achieved 100% of sRGB in my testing and displayed 90% of DCI-P3. While this is not a stellar result, it actually beats more expensive 1080p, 240Hz and 360Hz monitors from 2021 (like the Alienware 2521H and Asus PG259QN). The Dell S2522HG punches above its weight here.
The monitor’s brightness and colors stand out best in bright, vivid games. It’s a good fit for the visual style of competitive titles like Valorant, Halo Infinite, and Apex Legends.
Unfortunately, the S2522HG does have an unsurprising image quality flaw: a poor contrast ratio. This is typical of IPS displays, of course, but remains a significant issue when playing games in a dark room.
Dark scenes never look truly dark but instead appear hazy and gray. The S2522HG is best in a room with some ambient light, as this makes the monitor’s lackluster contrast less noticeable. This will annoy gamers who like gritty action-RPGs such as Diablo II: Resurrected or horror games like Resident Evil: Village.
Resolution is a limitation, as well. This is a 1080p 24.5-inch display with a pixel density of about 90 pixels per inch. Aliasing can be a real distraction in games like Final Fantasy XIV and Forza Horizon 5, both of which have issues with jagged edges along fine details, like vegetation, when played at a modest resolution.
Image quality isn’t perfect, then, but it’s good for the price. The Dell S2522HG looks decently vivid and punchy, especially when viewed in a lit room, and is a good fit for esports titles.
Dell 2522HG – Motion Performance
Image quality is important, but it’s not what sets the Dell S2522HG apart from the crowd. That honor goes to the monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate. This was the latest-and-greatest just a couple years ago. Seeing it arrive in a budget display is an awesome surprise. The monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium and is G-Sync Compatible, as well.
The Dell S2522HG’s motion performance delivers no surprises. It looks fluid in games capable of delivering a framerate at or near 240 frames per second. The difference between 144Hz and 240Hz can be hard to tell, depending on the game, but in my opinion it can be felt – especially in first-person shooters.
Motion clarity is spectacular for the price. For just $50 more than a 1080p office monitor you end up with a gaming monitor that can display legible detail when an opponent darts across the screen. Motion blur is there, but it’s hugely reduced compared to most budget monitors.
Hardcore competitive gamers should remember this monitor doesn’t have black frame insertion, a feature that further reduces motion blur. That is a bit disappointing but excused by the price. Gamers aspiring to go pro should be looking at monitors in the next tier up, like Acer’s XB253Q GW or Asus’ ROG Strix PG258Q (and BenQ’s Zowie line, if you can put up with a TN panel).
The Dell S2522HG’s motion performance isn’t the best available, but it’s hard to dismiss for $249.99. It’s remarkable, really, that gamers can now expect good motion clarity and buttery-smooth gameplay for well under $300.
Dell S2522HG – Console Gaming Performance
The Dell S2522HG is not a great fit for the latest game consoles because it lacks 4K resolution. Console gamers on a budget should look for a good 4K 60Hz display like the Dell S2721QS, since most console games remain limited to 60 FPS gameplay at 4K resolution.
Dell S2522HG – Day-to-day performance
Gamers who need a monitor that can be used for productivity may not like the Dell S2522HG.
It’s fine for basic day-to-day productivity, such as internet browsing or editing documents in Word. The monitor’s high brightness, effective anti-glare coat, and ergonomic stand make for a comfortable experience.
Push beyond the basics, though, and it starts to fall apart. The monitor’s 1080p resolution can feel limiting if you edit photos or video. There’s no way to preview a 4K video and large images, such as those from a DSLR, will only be viewable at a sliver of their native resolution (unless you zoom in, of course).
The monitor’s one perk is its USB hub. The four USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports provide a lot of options for connecting hard drives, input devices, SD card adapters, and a variety of other extras. Two of the four ports are on the monitor’s lower front bezel providing easy access if you need to frequently swap out USB devices.
Dell 2522HG – The Competition
Dell’s S2522HG is not the only budget 1080p 240Hz gaming monitor available but, at the moment, it has an edge on the competition.
Most strong alternatives, like the BenQ Zowie XL2540K and Acer XG250Q, use a TN panel. This is preferred by competitive gamers but, because of image quality issues and tight viewing angles, not the best choice for most. They’re more expensive, too.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/ba3ZALR
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