Display Profiles for Dell S2721HN – Doing Wonders for This Monitor’s Accuracy

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis Display Profiles for Dell S2721HN - Doing Wonders for This Monitor's Accuracy Page 2

From: Severin Kolakov 10 December 2023 / 08:54 1

2. Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

1. Intro, Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box Previous page Next page

Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

The Dell S2721HN brings a Full HD IPS panel with a 75Hz refresh rate, which feels a bit different than the 60Hz that most people are used to. It contributes to smoother scrolling and moving around when using your PC, while not taxing the hardware that much. Usually, high-end creator monitors also offer higher refresh rates, so to see a budget office monitor offer it too gives us a good sign that Dell is looking to offer something for the creators who are just starting out. The response time is advertised at 4ms, which is pretty good actually for a non-gaming monitor.

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 S2721HN 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 graphic design and print
For Photographers/Video Editors: DCI-P3 – used in high-end film production, digital cinema, and photo editing
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 S2721HN: 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 93.9% of the sRGB gamut. It exceeds the sRGB gamut in the blues while coming a bit short in the reds, which is where the less than 100% coverage comes from.

(Fig.1)Dell S2721HN covers 93.9% of the Web colors (sRGB)

This means that if the Dell S2721HN 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 the difference is between the real colors and the one you’ll see on the Dell S2721HN. 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 Dell S2721HN, the Average color accuracy was 4.9 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Web Design and Office Work profile, it lowers to 1.3 dE (Fig. 3), which is a sizable jump! The increase in accuracy is substantial, nearly a quadruple-fold jump (3.8x to be exact). Values below 1.0 are generally indistinguishable to the human eye, we’re well off into the green zone to use this monitor for all types of Design and Color Work where an accurate sRGB color gamut is needed.

(Fig. 2) Dell S2721HN in its factory condition

(Fig. 3) Dell S2721HN 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

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.

$9.99 BUY NOW

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.

$9.99 BUY NOW

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.

$9.99 BUY NOW

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount

$19.99 BUY NOW

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for the Dell S2721HN.

*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].

Verdict

The Dell S2721HN is a versatile and affordable 1080p monitor. The IPS panel it comes with is excellent for handling Color-related workloads and Office tasks. The display comes with a slightly higher refresh rate at 75Hz, so moving around and doing work will feel smoother than the regular 60Hz monitors. While not a gaming offering, if you’re more into single-player titles, which generally don’t need anything more than 60 fps to be played properly, you can use the device for playing many games. If you want a dedicated gaming monitor with the same design capabilities, you’ll need to spend a bit more money. If you’re ready to do that, the MSI G27CQ4 E2 is a good option, with a higher Quad HD resolution, a 170Hz refresh rate as well as great color coverage and accuracy.

The color coverage comes at just near 100%, and thanks to our display profiles, we manage to make the colors almost 4 times more accurate. This makes a world of difference when it comes to Graphic Design or Photo Editing. The other two profiles improve the monitor too, as our Gaming and Movies profile regulates the black colors so dark scenes are more visible, while the Health-Guard profile limits the blue light exposure and fixes any flickering that there might be, so your eyes don’t tire as quickly.

All in all, for this price, the Dell S2721HN is a hidden gem that not many people might know about. That’s why we’re here: to showcase the best and most valuable tech available on the market.

You can check the current price of the Dell S2721HN here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)