Not terribly punchy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
We’d all love to have a thousand bucks burning a hole in our back pockets to blow on a new\u00a0gaming monitor. But back in the real world, the\u00a0Dell S3222DGM\u00a0wants a crack at the kind of budget most of us actually have.<\/p>\n
It’s a 32-inch beast with a VA panel running at up to 165Hz and delivering 2560 by 1440 pixels. Yup, the tried and tested 1440p resolution, the sweetspot for real-world gaming according to many, the perfect balance between performance and visual detail. The catch is all that normally applies to 27-inch models. 32 inches? That makes for a pretty big panel for 1440p in terms of pixel density.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Where the low pixel density hurts most is actually in Windows. If you like crisp fonts and lots of desktop real estate, this isn\u2019t the monitor for you. For everyone else, well, it comes down to the value proposition. There are faster monitors. There are monitors with superior IPS-powered image quality. There are monitors with all kinds of HDR support not found here. And others with far more pixels or more dramatic aspect ratios.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, how does it actually perform? Initial impressions are middling to mediocre. This isn’t the brightest or punchiest panel we’ve ever seen, even accounting for expectations set by the modest spec list. On the other hand, there’s nothing actually wrong, there’s no banding, no sign of compression. It’s just not immediately exciting in terms of colours and inherent visual pop.<\/p>\n
Inject some motion into proceedings and the picture, pun intended, gets a little clearer. I find the ‘extreme’ overdrive setting is arguably a little overcooked, with some overshoot actually visible in-game rather than merely detectable in test images. The ‘MPRT’ setting is, for me, a non-starter since it crushes brightness so comprehensively. ‘Super fast’ it is, then, and the result is good but not absolutely great response with no overshoot. Pretty much what you\u2019d expect given the 4ms rating for ‘super fast’.<\/p>\n
But add in the 165Hz refresh and you have a pretty convincing monitor for response-critical online shooters. To be sure, if that is your number one priority, you\u2019d be better off with a higher-refresh 1080p IPS monitor with faster response. But if you want something for a broader remit, the Dell S3222DGM does a decent job at the low latency stuff.<\/p>\n
But it’s worth remembering that pricing for this class of display\u2014a 32-inch 165Hz 1440p panel\u2014extends all the way up to $800 in the\u00a0Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165<\/a>. So, while the Dell S3222DGM isn’t all that exciting from a technical point of view, for the money, it’s pretty convincing.<\/p>\nRead our full Dell S3222DGM review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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