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日本Dell S2421HS monitor – Specs, Pros / Cons: Insane Value For Money – It Can Game AND Create!
What monitor exactly can you get for $160 bucks? One option is the Dell S2421HS and today we’ll see what exactly it offers for its price. It’s a 23.8-inch monitor with a Full HD IPS panel that brings a 75Hz refresh rate, a 4ms response time, and FreeSync support, so you might also be able to do a bit of quality gaming.
More importantly though, today we’ll focus on the color reproduction as we take the monitor through our tests to see how well it can do as a Studio monitor, as well as how well our profiles can improve it. As always, we’ll also go through the setup of the monitor as well as other miscellaneous things that are still pretty important to know, in order to fully understand what the Dell S2421HS can and can’t do.
You can check the current price of the Dell S2421HS here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Contents
Specs sheet, What’s in the box?, Drivers, OSD, Design, Connectivity
| Screen size | 23.8 inch (60.45 cm) |
|---|---|
| Refresh rate | 75Hz |
| Response time | 4ms |
| Panel type | IPS |
| Backlight type | WLED |
| Screen finish | Matte |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 (FHD) |
| Technologies |
|
| I/O |
|
What’s in the box? Assembly
Drivers and Software
Dell has the monitor driver and the Dell Display Manager both on the monitor’s official Support Page. The app is straightforward, offering both settings adjustment as well as the option to create layouts for multitasking, which is still possible and encouraged, even if the diagonal on the S2421HS is on the smaller side.
OSD Menu
Design and Connectivity
As with most Dell monitors, they utilize the same design language. The Dell S2421HS has a bright white finish on the back, a silver stand, and black bezels on the front, which are pretty thin, like most Dell monitors. The stand is probably the most impressive thing about this monitor’s design, offering 4-way adjustability, with Tilt, Swivel, Pivot, and Height. On the back, you also get VESA mounting holes, in case you want to use a wall mount. This way you can save space on your desk and use it for other peripherals, like a soundbar USB Hub, or anything else. The buttons for the OSD menu are on the bottom instead of the back and are ultimately easier to access.
In terms of ports, you really don’t get a lot, as there’s just an audio jack, a DisplayPort, and an HDMI port.
Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict
The Dell S2421HS brings a 23.8-inch Full HD screen (1920 x 1080p), which calculates to a pixel density of 92.56 PPI, a pitch of 0.2744 x 0.2744 mm, and a Retina distance of 37.14 inches or 94.33 cm. From this distance, the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels.
The correlated color temperature on a white screen after a Factory Reset in sRGB mode is 6420 K (Luminance 150 cd/m2 at 20% Brightness). The average gamma value is 2.18.
Color coverage
Here’s an illustration (Fig. 1). The whole “sail-shaped” map below consists of all the colors we can see, while the black crooked line shows all the colors from real-world scenes and nature around us.
Then, we’ve drawn some of the most important and interesting color spaces, compared to the colors the panel of Dell S2421HS can show:
Standard/For Web: sRGB – widely used color space for most consumer devices, ideal for Web design and development
For Print: AdobeRGB – used in professional photo editing, graphic design, and print
For Photographers/Video Editors: DCI-P3 – used in high-end film production, post-production, and digital cinema
Premium HDR: Rec.2020 – the widest consumer ITU color standard, covering a massive 75.8% of the visible spectrum, a benchmark for premium HDR content
Dell S2421HS: the yellow dashed triangle (– – – – – –) represents the range of colors this monitor can display. In our tests, we calculated the total color coverage of the monitor at 96% of the sRGB color gamut and 81% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
(Fig.1) Dell S2421HS covers 96% of the Web colors (sRGB)
This means that if the Dell S2421HS tries to show any color outside of its triangle, it will show the closest color to it that’s inside the triangle.
Color accuracy
Now let’s see how big is the difference between the real colors and the one you’ll see on the Dell S2421HS. We measure that distance in DeltaE – the bigger the number, the more different they look.
For the next illustration, we’ve chosen 24 common colors like dark and light skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.
Values below 2.0 are considered suitable for color-sensitive work. Before our calibration of the Dell S2421HS, the Average color accuracy was 3.8 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Web Design and Office Work profile, it lowered to 1.2 dE (Fig. 3). Thanks to our profile, the monitor became more than 3X More Accurate, being totally ready for any type of color-sensitive tasks.
(Fig. 2) Dell S2421HS in its factory condition
(Fig. 3) Dell S2421HS with our display profilesComparison in the sRGB color space (primaries and D65 white point specified in ITU-R BT.709, sRGB encoding curve).
Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Design & Gaming Profile
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom-tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate (they may seem strange at first but after a few minutes our brain will start recognizing them as accurate ones – that’s how Health-Guard differs from alternatives like f.lux).
Pro Tip: As the Health-Guard profile simulates paper and has as accurate as possible colors, it could be a great tool for prepress designers!
Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Health-Guard Profile
Gaming and Movies
We also have a third Gaming and Movies profile, which regulates the black colors, making dark areas in games and movies appear more visible, thus giving you a better viewing experience. Shooting at your opponent first can be a make-or-break moment, so make sure you’re best prepared with our profile.
Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Design & Gaming Profile
BUY OUR DISPLAY PROFILES
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for the Dell S2421HS.
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].
Read more about the profiles HERE.
Here’s how to prepare thе monitor for our profiles:
1. Open the OSD menu (On-Screen Display)
2. Reset Settings: Go to Menu ➡️ Others ➡️ Factory Reset, and click ‘Yes’.
3. Brightness: Navigate to Brightness/Contrast ➡️ Brightness and set it to 85% for optimal viewing.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount
Verdict
The Dell S2421HS fills an interesting niche. It’s an affordable monitor with some gaming features that allow it to be a competent gaming machine, as well as very good color coverage and accuracy that many designers and content creators need. Starting from the design, the monitor is quite ergonomic, with plenty of adjustment from the stand, while the size and dimensions make it fit even for a smaller desk setup.
The port selection isn’t the largest, so if you have tons of peripherals, either get a USB hub or have a laptop with tons of I/O.
Now, onto the Creator features, the monitor shows deep sRGB color coverage, with 96%. This is excellent for those of you who mainly design digital content, as the sRGB gamut is the most widely used throughout the internet. However, covering all those colors isn’t everything, as they need to be displayed properly and accurately, so that there’s no difference between your screen, and what comes out on the webpage or on any surface if you work with printed media.
For that reason, our Web Design and Office Work profile makes the monitor more than 3 times more accurate, with an original dE value of 3.8, which goes down to 1.2 once our profile is applied.
For when you’re not creating content, but enjoying it, the Gaming and Movies profile is here for you. It stabilizes the black colors so you can always see what’s going on at the screen. It will come in handy when paired up with the higher refresh rate and FreeSync support, the combination of which gives you pretty smooth and tear-free gameplay. Lastly, the Health-Guard profile should be on for most of the time, keeping Blue Light and PWM (Flickering) to a minimum.
You can check the current price of the Dell S2421HS: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Pros
- Deep 96% sRGB coverage
- Three times more accurate with our profile (dE 3.8 => dE 1.2)
- Well-build and has a great stand
- FreeSync support + 75Hz refresh rate
Cons
- Not a lot of ports
