Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review
Our Verdict
The Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H has an incredibly high refresh rate — and a toll to match.
For
- Impressive refresh rate
- Solid colors and brightness
- Elegant, straightforward design
Against
- Very high price
- Some inconvenient features
- Optimized for a niche audience
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H has an incredibly high refresh rate — and a price to lucifer.
Pros
- +
Impressive refresh charge per unit
- +
Solid colors and brightness
- +
Elegant, straightforward design
Cons
- -
Very high price
- -
Some inconvenient features
- -
Optimized for a niche audience
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H: Specs
Dimensions: 21.nine 10 20.7 10 nine.9 inches
Screen Size: 25 inches
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Refresh Rate: 360 Hz
Inputs: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-A, 3.5 mm audio
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Alienware AW2521H won a "highly recommended" honor for best gaming monitor in the Tom'due south Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.
You lot have to admire what the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H sets out to do. Here's a premium gaming monitor that has 1 goal, and one goal only: To requite gamers with powerful machines the fastest possible frame charge per unit, with the simplest possible design. This elegant 25-inch monitor looks great, and makes some of your favorite games look even better. If you're an esports addict who needs the fastest refresh rates on the market, yous the AW2521H might be just the ticket.
If you lot have $725 to spend on a 1080p monitor, that is.
While the AW2521H's 360 Hz screen is legitimately impressive, the flip side is that you lot'll have to settle for 1080p resolution. If you're a competitive multiplayer addict, this is arguably worth the price of access. If you gravitate more toward single-player adventures, you might be improve off with a QHD or UHD monitor — specially since whatsoever PC that tin can run a 1080p game at more than than 300 frames per 2d would probably also do a respectable job with high-res content at somewhat lower frame rates.
In any instance, resolution vs. frame rate is something that every gamer volition take to weigh for him or herself. But at the very to the lowest degree, we can say that the AW2521H is a specialized device with a steep price — and if you're OK with that, information technology may be ane of the best gaming monitors for your setup. Read on for our full Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review.
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Cost and availability
The Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H is available directly from Dell, and costs $725.
(You may see that Dell pegs its "estimated value" at $970, but the monitor has never retailed for that amount. Dell'due south "estimated value" is based on what the company thinks a product is worth, not how much it costs.)
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Design
The Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H's concrete design is, at a glance, remarkably straightforward. At that place's a plain, sparse blackness bezel effectually a 25-inch screen, with a muted "Alienware" logo at the bottom. From the forepart, I adore how the AW2521H looks, equally it's but a unproblematic monitor that puts its excellent screen front and middle.
It's when you kickoff examining the base and the back that questions arise. There's a power push button on the bottom-correct of the monitor; fine. But there are also five carte du jour manipulation buttons on the back, which I had a very tough time finding.
Dissimilar most "back-of-the-monitor" buttons, these are not right upwardly against the bezel; you accept to extend your fingers nearly half-an-inch past the dorsum-right of the screen to reach them. Most competing monitors put buttons right about the edge of the bezel. Furthermore, 4 of them feel nearly identical. Navigating monitor menus is a chore at the best of times, but the disruptive button layout makes this experience fifty-fifty more than inconvenient than usual.
The base could have been a little more streamlined, too. Its dual-pronged, triangular design looks absurd, merely it also takes up much more infinite than it has to. That feels at-odds with the AW2521H's by and large space-conscious design. If your desk-bound doesn't extend very far back, the AW2521H may live a lot closer to your face than you'd like.
On the dorsum of the monitor is a lighted, oval panel, similar to what you'd detect on the front of an Alienware PC. Yous can customize this LED panel with full RGB colors. The lights don't take annihilation away from the AW2521H, only since they don't have any pregnant benefit for the user, information technology'south a feature that this already-expensive monitor probably could accept dropped.
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Display
A gaming monitor lives or dies by its screen, and the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H has one of the most ambitious I've seen. While the monitor caps out at 1080p, it has a refresh rate of 360 Hz. If you lot've e'er dreamed about what your favorite games might expect like with frame rates in backlog of 300 frames per 2d, this is your take a chance to see them come up to life. And believe me, for certain games, it makes a huge departure.
The screen is too brilliant, colorful and accurate. In terms of brightness, the AW2521H outputs an average of 397 nits, with an sRGB colour pct of 105 and a Delta-Due east color accuracy of 0.32 (closer to zero is better; this is very good).
Compare and contrast to other 1080p monitors we've reviewed, such as the MSI Optix MAG272C, which had a brightness of merely 224 nits, but an sRGB percentage of 134 and a Delta-Due east of 0.24. Too, the Acer XFA240 had 352 nits of brightness, 106% of the sRGB spectrum and a Delta-E of 0.26.
In exercise, the AW2521H looks not bad for both productivity and gaming, but at that place'south no denying that other systems do a picayune bit better in terms of raw specs — fifty-fifty systems that price a fraction of the price.
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Gaming performance
While the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H's size and design make information technology perfectly suitable for function work, you're probably not going to drop more than $700 on a 25-inch monitor unless it does something really special for gaming. Thankfully, the AW2521H does just that, largely thanks to its refresh rate.
I tested the AW2521H alongside an extremely powerful Alienware Aurora R11 desktop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPU. As such, I was able to creepo games like Doom Eternal, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, Baldur's Gate Three and Final Fantasy XIV as high equally they would go, at to the lowest degree at 1080p settings. (Historic period of Empires Iii doesn't really get that high, but it was still a lot of fun, and felt fluid and vibrant at 144 fps.)
Doom Eternal is probably where the high framerate fabricated the biggest difference. Fans of this start-person shooter know that you alive or dice based on twitchy, divide-2d movements, and that fifty-fifty a moment'due south hesitation can cost you a firefight. Doom Eternal's speed and accuracy at more 300 fps made a tangible difference in gameplay, in improver to being just gorgeous to picket, cheers to the AW2521H's deep, brilliant reds, oranges and dejection.
Still, a higher framerate as well helped out in situations that I didn't look, such as walking through the city of Ul'dah in Final Fantasy XIV, or navigating a dungeon in Baldur'southward Gate Three. Existence able to maintain a stable framerate in crowded areas, or seeing small environmental particular that some animator probably slaved over, can be merely as rewarding every bit dashing around a cluttered battleground.
As for whether this merits buying a 1080p screen when near modern hardware prioritizes QHD and UHD displays, that's harder to say. The AW2521H has some benefits for esports players, or more casual fans who live and dice by competitive multiplayer titles. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd rather put a GPU like the 3090 toward higher resolutions and (maybe) bigger screens, fifty-fifty if the frame charge per unit had to take a dip. Every gamer will have to make this decision for him- or herself, just if yous want to spend $725 on a 1080p brandish, you should be dead sure that you'll be happy with it for the next few years, at least.
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Interface
As mentioned above, navigating the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H's interface is a bit complicated, due to inconvenient button placement and an unclear sense of what each button does. But in that location'south a command nub that you can employ to navigate the menus more effectively, fifty-fifty if it'south a footling slower. This gives you options for screen presets, effulgence, contrast, Nvidia M-Sync modes, LED strip lighting and speaker volume.
One time you figure out where every pick is located, the AW2521H interface works well plenty, and some of the presets are handy — especially since at that place'southward one that prioritizes esports functioning. It may likewise be fun to tinker with optional settings similar Variable Backlight and Dark Stabilizer. But once yous detect a baseline you similar, you shouldn't accept to dive into the menus too often.
Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review: Verdict
Before you buy the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H, you demand to inquire yourself only one question: Am I willing to spend $725 on a 1080p, 360 Hz gaming monitor? If the answer is yes, the AW2521H is arguably the all-time execution of that thought on the market place right now. Information technology has a bright, colorful screen, a straightforward pattern and the verbal level of performance that information technology promises.
Withal, consider that that the AW2521H's competitors, like the XFA240 or the MAG272C, cost $300 or less, and still offer the same 1080p resolution. They max out at 144 Hz and 165 Hz, respectively, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparing. But you can become somewhat similar models for less than half the price, and that's worth considering for gamers with less powerful machines.
If y'all're unsure about prioritizing frame rate over resolution, though, the AW2521H is a tougher sell. It's a highly specialized device, and information technology costs a lot of money, to boot. Still, whatever else you can say virtually the AW2521H, there's goose egg else quite like information technology out there.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/alienware-25-gaming-monitor-aw2521h
Posted by: crumpleryouscinfecto.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H review"
Post a Comment