Dell S2722DGM monitor – Specs, Pros / Cons: See How You Can Get a dE of 0.9

Wow, just wow. Did you know that the Dell S2722DGM retails on Dell’s Website for just $249.99? For that price, you really get some serious gaming prowess, as well as one of the most accurate monitors that we’ve come across, with a dE value of just 0.9 after our Display Profiles take to action.

To give you a quick rundown of the specs, you get a curved 27-inch Quad HD VA panel, which means a detailed canvas with high contrast and decent brightness. The panel is backed up by a 165Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response time, as well as AMD FreeSync Premium. Today we’re putting the Dell S2722DGM through our lab, to see just how well it can be a Creator monitor, as by the looks of it it’s already a great gaming machine, for both Esports titles, as well as single-player adventures, providing an immersive experience.

You can check the current price of the Dell S2722DGM here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents

Specs sheet, Assembly, OSD, Drivers, Design, Connectivity

What’s in the box? Assembly

OSD Menu

Drivers and Software

All the manuals, Drivers, and additional software can be found on Dell’s Support Page. You can download the drivers, as well as the Dell Display Manager, an app that gives you total OSD control from the OS, as well as the option to divide the screen into layouts.

Design and Connectivity

In terms of design, Dell does a very good job at offering a unique aesthetic that’s suitable for gamers, however, it’s not super outlandish or have any crazy shapes, as well as any RGB, however, it’s modern and a bit similar to Alienware’s products, showing the relationship between the two brands. You get a wide base and a thicker stand, with a cable channel in the middle. It offers Tilt and Height adjustment, as Pivot and Swivel are a bit useless for a curved screen. On the back, there’s a joystick, as well as plenty of other buttons for controlling the OSD menu. The bezels on the front are thin, except for the chin, but that’s standard practice with monitors.

The port selection is simple, with two HDMI 2.0 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2, and a line-out audio jack.

Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

The Dell S2722DGM brings a 27-inch Full HD screen (2560 x 1440), which calculates to a pixel density of 108.79 PPI, a pitch of 0.2335 x 0.2335 mm, and a Retina distance of 31.60 inches or 80.26 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 6740 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 S2722DGM 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 S2722DGM: 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 91% of the sRGB color gamut.

(Fig.1) Dell S2722DGM covers 91% of the Web colors (sRGB) 

This means that if the Dell S2722DGM 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 ones you’ll see on the Dell S2722DGM. 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 S2722DGM, the Average color accuracy was 2.5 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Web Design and Office Work profile, it lowered to 0.9 dE (Fig. 3). The profile provides a 2.7X Increase in accuracy, making the monitor perfect for Creator work. You should also know that dE values below 1.0 are indistinguishable by the human eye, so you’re getting the best possible accuracy.

(Fig. 2) Dell S2722DGM in its factory condition

(Fig. 3) Dell S2722DGM with our display profiles

Comparison 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 S2722DGM.

*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 55% 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.

• $9.90 BUY NOW

Buy Now Checkout Added to cart

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.

• $9.90 BUY NOW

Buy Now Checkout Added to cart

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.

• $9.90 BUY NOW

Buy Now Checkout Added to cart

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount

• $19.90 BUY NOW

Buy Now Checkout Added to cart

Verdict

The Dell S2722DGM prides itself on being a capable gaming monitor, bringing the specs and the flair to your gaming setup. Seriously, the design is a modern continuation of the classic Gaming formula. Now we have a more fluid approach that’s still drastically different from most office monitors and feels like its own thing. The screen on this monitor offers plenty of detail, as the higher resolution looks great at 27 inches.

With the combination of a 165Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response time, and the AMD FreeSync Premium support, everything you do on the monitor feels incredibly smooth, while the Gaming and Movies profile makes content much more visible, especially when there are dark scenes. This gives you the edge during tense moments, as better visibility means finding and dealing with enemies a much easier job.

Now, the color reproduction and how it’s affected thanks to our profiles is really interesting. The Dell S2722DGM covers 91% of the sRGB color gamut, which is a decent chunk of colors, but such a percentage is rather standard for most modern monitors and even most laptop screens. The color accuracy with the stock settings calculates to a dE of 2.5, which is good, but not ready for professional work. For that you need our Web Design and Office Work profile, which offers a 2.7X more accurate colors, with a dE of 0.9.

Lastly, we can’t forget about the Health Guard, which helps with both Blue Light emissions and PWM (Flickering). Both are leading reasons of eye strain and protection from them should be of upmost importance.

You can check the current price of the Dell S2722DGM: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

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