Dell 24 S2421HGF Review

The Dell 27 S2721HGF holds a PCMag Editors’ Choice award among gaming monitors and was only $229.99 the last time we checked Dell’s site. You wouldn’t think you could find an even better bargain, but the Dell 24 S2421HGF pulls it off: This $199.99 display, though obviously smaller (23.8 inches diagonal) and not curved, deftly balances many of the elements that gamers are looking for in a single, sturdy package. Wearing AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible badges, the 144Hz monitor puts up stellar gaming performance for the price and showed very little ghosting or screen tearing during our testing. Its content creation bona fides are close to nil, but outside of that usage scenario, we found a lot to love for the cash-strapped gaming set. The S2421HGF earns its own Editors’ Choice award as a low-cost, small-measure gaming panel.

Designed to Get the Job Done

Based on TN (twisted nematic) technology, the Dell 24 S2421HGF combines full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate. The monitor cabinet is mounted on a stand that is impressively well-designed and sturdy considering the monitor’s low price, and it allows for just under 4 inches of height adjustment and tilting through a range of -5 to 21 degrees. The monitor is also compatible with VESA mounts and light in weight (7.44 pounds without the stand).

If you’re looking for RGB mood lighting, you’ll have to turn to Dell’s more premium offerings under the Alienware brand. The front and back of this panel are strictly utilitarian.

Well, almost strictly: The Dell logos on the bezel and back of the unit are rainbow fluorescent, so if you shine a light on them at just the right angle, it’s basically the same thing…right?

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At right rear are the screen controls, led by a five-way joystick for navigating the onscreen display (OSD) menu, with four programmable settings buttons lined up vertically underneath. We found the OSD menu offered most of the basics, including a few gaming-specific options such as changing the level of your response overdrive and choosing among prebuilt gaming profiles (such as FPS, RTS, and Racing).

As for ports, just the basics are onboard here: two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4b, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for use with the HDMI audio pass-through.

Testing the Dell 24 S2421HGF: Solid Budget Cred

As mentioned, this 1080p display comes with a TN panel with a refresh rate of 144Hz (and no refresh-rate overclocking supported). The monitor comes with a basic integrated Adaptive Sync feature.

We put the S2421HGF through our standard gaming monitor test regimen using a Datacolor SpyderX Elit(Opens in a new window)e(Opens in a new window) colorimeter. Here’s what we saw:

Testing the display in the default picture mode with an SDR signal, the Dell showed a peak brightness of 364.5 nits and a black level of 0.29 nit, resulting in a contrast ratio of 1,260:1. The display is rated for 350 nits and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, so clearing those markers on the first try is always a good sign.

As this is a budget display, we weren’t expecting a whole lot from the Dell 24 in the color gamut department, and that is what we got. Its 95% coverage of the sRGB gamut fell short of its rated 100%, while its Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 coverage came in under professional content creators’ requirements at 74% and 77% respectively.

Coming off those so-so gamut results, the screen’s high Delta E (dE) values in color accuracy testing, an average result of 5.39, track within expectations.

Media and Gaming Performance

With quantitative testing out of the way, we moved on to our gaming and content viewing evaluation. In SDR, our 4K Costa Rica test footage(Opens in a new window) (output at 1080p to match the monitor’s native resolution) looked quite good considering the panel price. Colors, contrast, and black levels were all excellent for a budget display. The S2421HGF certainly isn’t the most gorgeous panel we’ve ever laid eyes on, but it’s one of the most impressive TN entries of late.

Next, I booted up the popular AAA title Red Dead Redemption 2 in SDR to see how the monitor handled it. I was pleased to see that the same rich contrast carried over from video viewing to gaming.

For testing traditional input lag (the amount of time between when a monitor receives a signal and the screen updates), we use an HDFury 4K Diva(Opens in a new window) HDMI matrix. Given a 60Hz test signal, the S2421HGF returned a reading of 1.3 milliseconds, a result that makes it one of the fastest budget displays we’ve tested, 1080p or otherwise.

To see how that low input lag felt in action, I tried a few rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valorant, and Overwatch. Thanks to its G-Sync and FreeSync Premium certifications, combined with low input lag, the Dell 24 felt considerably more responsive and showed much less tearing than the $209.99 ViewSonic VX2418.

Verdict: Keeping Fragging Frugal

The Dell 24 S2421HGF is a well-priced, sturdy, and responsive display that’s just as comfortable in a fast-paced match of Valorant as it is for general content consumption.

Rather than including an HDR10 badge or tricking out the chassis with a bunch of RGB lights, Dell sticks to the basics and wraps a stellar panel in a no-frills package. Versus other budget 1080p gaming monitors we’ve tried this year, the S2421HGF ticks every box they did and then some. Mind you, it’s not perfect (see its uninspiring color-gamut and Delta E test values), but its performance for gaming and content-watching was superb for the money. It’s tough to name another gaming monitor this good at $200, earning the Dell 24 a top spot in our archives.