Dell’s S2419HGF gaming monitor affords up a 24-inch, 1080p show with a 120Hz refresh fee out of the field and simple overclocking to 144Hz. It does all that at a middling discount worth of $319 or £364 (about AU$430) for a monitor with these specs.
However, you’ll be able to slap the best CPU and the best graphics card into your pc, and your gameplay expertise continues to be solely going to look pretty much as good as your monitor permits. Hardcore avid gamers could sacrifice some visuals for increased body charges, and funds buyers sacrifice high quality for worth. However, the steadiness feels off with the S2419HGF gaming monitor.
Pricing and availability
Although Dell’s monitor hits a tolerably funds $319 or £364 (about AU$430) worth level for a 1080p 120/144Hz monitor, it’s readily proven up by the choices of considerably costlier fashions. For instance the $350 (£429, AU$649) Acer XG270HU monitor affords a better 1440p decision, native 144Hz refresh fee, 1ms response time, and the identical AMD FreeSync function.
Design
The perfect of the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor reveals within the design division. It’s fast and simple to place collectively, and the stand affords a lot flexibility for positioning, we’ve no hassle discovering the right angle for the display. If something helps this monitor beat the competitors, it’s the design.
The stand permits us to simply elevate and decrease the peak of the display, tilt it up and down, swivel it, and pivot it. If we need to orient the display vertically, it solely takes seconds. The bottom of the stand doesn’t hog a ton of desk area, but nonetheless feels prefer it’s maintaining the monitor firmly planted. Plus, a round opening within the stand is nicely positioned for feeding cables from the varied ports via to the monitor for a a lot tidier desk.
On the again of the monitor, there’s a delightful quantity and number of ports. Two HDMI 1.four ports, one DisplayPort 1.2 port, USB three.zero pass-through for 2 units, a three.5mm headphone out jack, and a three.5mm audio line-out jack all make it a flexible monitor. And, that USB pass-through is a stunning technique to join a keyboard and mouse, particularly if we’re utilizing the monitor with a laptop computer that gained’t at all times be plugged into its peripherals. Plus, all of the ports face down, so the cables gained’t get mashed up in opposition to the wall behind the monitor.
A plastic bezel is a few half inch thick runs across the perimeter of the display, leaving a small hole between the monitor edge and the lively portion of the display. We don’t discover it obnoxious, however it gained’t look good in a multi-monitor setup. Plus, the 27-inch model trims the highest and measurement bezels by greater than 50% whereas providing extra display, plus a better decision and 155Hz refresh fee.
Bezels-aside, the stand is stellar and the recon blue metallic end appears slick. So, issues are fairly optimistic for the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor till we get the display on and get into gaming, the place it impresses a lot much less.
Efficiency
With the pleasing construct of the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor, we nearly hoped that Dell had discovered a technique to make Full HD at 24 inches look good on a TN panel, however that was asking an excessive amount of.
There’s good to this monitor. For one factor, the 120Hz affords loads easy recreation visuals, and FreeSync might help keep away from stuttering frames and tearing when you join it to an both cell or desktop AMD graphics card or Xbox One X. Plus, it solely takes a number of clicks of the easy-to-navigate menus to overclock to 144Hz.
Even higher, our pc’s show adapter robotically notices the change from 120Hz to 144Hz, so we don’t should fiddle with Home windows settings once we change between the 2.
In eSports titles the place body charges trump nearly every thing and a lot of the on-screen parts aren’t too tiny, the 1080p decision is satisfactory. Overwatch appears good, enemies are simple sufficient to identify, and visual pixelation across the edges of characters is simple to disregard at 120+ FPS.
However, elsewhere it’s more durable to provide the display a thumbs up. In video games with sprawling ranges the place enemies could be so distant that they’re just some pixels, the low decision and pixel density are extra obvious. Outdoors of gaming, black textual content on white backgrounds is difficult on the eyes even with Home windows’ ClearType calibrated for the monitor. The decision doesn’t harm when watching reveals or motion pictures, however that brings us to the subsequent concern.
TN panels aren’t identified for his or her nice viewing angles, and that is no exception. Colours on the display shift with solely slightly side-to-side motion, and viewing the display from even barely above ruins the image.
The viewing angle from under doesn’t undergo as a lot, however the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor is barely going to look good positioned instantly in entrance and heart of you. The poor viewing angles mar the vertical orientation. Whereas this isn’t an enormous downside in single-player video games, it is a matter for shared viewing expertise.
Shifting into Dell’s gaming modes, issues get dicier. This monitor boasts 1ms (GTG) response instances, however comes set to a slower 4ms response time by default. Leaping into the menus and enabling the ‘Tremendous Quick’ response time setting brings it to 1ms, however introduces shiny white ghosting to any fast paced parts on the display. We discover video games mainly unplayable with this setting, and should take care of the slower response time.
We additionally don’t suppose the varied recreation modes, which tweak the lighting and colour, enhance the expertise. The FPS mode makes the display uncomfortably shiny, and butchers the distinction. We choose the usual mode, however that brings us to our large query: if the gaming options don’t assist, what good do they do for this gaming monitor?
Ultimate verdict
The good development and stand make it an actual disgrace that the show itself doesn’t meet the identical requirements. It leaves us wishing we may take our most popular monitor and connect it to this stand.
Whereas the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor is nice for eSports titles, it fails to be nice. There are different screens just like the Acer XG270HU that may hit 144Hz with out overclocking, and that may ship 1ms response instances with out trippy ghosting.
If in case you have the funds, there are many screens which are a step up from the Dell 24 Gaming monitor with persistently quicker response instances, increased resolutions, or quicker refresh charges. Or, even for much less, the $299 (£239, AU$449) Asus’s MG248Q affords a comparable expertise to Dell’s monitor.
So, the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor is left in an ungainly place the place it has cheaper screens beating it within the eSports scene, whereas additionally not having the ability to stay as much as barely costlier screens for high-FPS gaming at increased resolutions.