Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

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ericl
Posts: 126
Joined: 09 Jan 2014, 14:50

Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by ericl » 12 Nov 2020, 22:30

My Alienware AW2521H 360hz monitor is scheduled to arrive tomorrow (replacing my PG259QN). Hopefully it makes it (and isn't delayed).

I'll be happy to answer any questions about the monitor! Ask away.

tuvok_
Posts: 6
Joined: 30 Apr 2020, 11:26

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by tuvok_ » 13 Nov 2020, 02:22

Nice, US Release NOW and Europe has no Realease Date..

One Point makes me a bit confused

"Response Time"
1ms (gray to gray) - Extreme Mode

Meowchan
Posts: 40
Joined: 17 Jun 2020, 02:06

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by Meowchan » 13 Nov 2020, 06:26

I wonder if companies know how silly they look when they label their monitors '1 ms response time'.

forii
Posts: 218
Joined: 29 Jan 2020, 18:23

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by forii » 13 Nov 2020, 15:28

Since I received my 3080 I think Its not longer worth to play on 1080p, even on 360hz, simply because there is no PC who can give you 360 FPS in new games ofc. Im waiting for good 1440p 240hz as a upgrade from 1080p/240hz

ericl
Posts: 126
Joined: 09 Jan 2014, 14:50

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by ericl » 13 Nov 2020, 22:13

It's here. And... it's considerably better than the PG259QN.

Pros:
- Right out the box, the colors are set properly.
- The stand is super sturdy (not that the PG259QN wasn't, but this is on another level)
- The presets... there are TONs and they are pretty good. Tweaking colors was considerably easier.
- It's just as fast / snappy with the 360hz, motion blur wise, it's about the same as the PG259QN.
- No dead pixels!

And this one has Nvidia Reflex analyser in the menu. Woo!

Cons:
- The dark mode boost works... but isn't very strong.
- There is no 'sharpness' mode like on my LG, that's a shame because it works really well on LG.
- The menu is good... but I still feel as if the interface can be improved.

And, both monitors have ULMB mode, albeit at 240hz (but I'm not using that since I'm running 360hz in normal mode).

Overall quite a nice experience. I'm VERY happy with this monitor, especially when compared to the PG259QN (I mean, it wasn't hard to beat seeing as the PG259QN had a dead pixel in the middle).

diakou
Posts: 83
Joined: 09 Aug 2020, 11:28

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by diakou » 14 Nov 2020, 00:13

ericl wrote:
13 Nov 2020, 22:13
It's here. And... it's considerably better than the PG259QN.

Pros:
- Right out the box, the colors are set properly.
- The stand is super sturdy (not that the PG259QN wasn't, but this is on another level)
- The presets... there are TONs and they are pretty good. Tweaking colors was considerably easier.
- It's just as fast / snappy with the 360hz, motion blur wise, it's about the same as the PG259QN.
- No dead pixels!

And this one has Nvidia Reflex analyser in the menu. Woo!

Cons:
- The dark mode boost works... but isn't very strong.
- There is no 'sharpness' mode like on my LG, that's a shame because it works really well on LG.
- The menu is good... but I still feel as if the interface can be improved.

And, both monitors have ULMB mode, albeit at 240hz (but I'm not using that since I'm running 360hz in normal mode).

Overall quite a nice experience. I'm VERY happy with this monitor, especially when compared to the PG259QN (I mean, it wasn't hard to beat seeing as the PG259QN had a dead pixel in the middle).
Yeah both of my friends who got theirs yesterday and today also said pretty much universally what you did.

Seems like a way better 360hz than the PG259QN even though they're all the same panel if I'm not mistaken.

izy
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 May 2020, 10:04

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by izy » 14 Nov 2020, 05:49

ericl wrote:
13 Nov 2020, 22:13
It's here. And... it's considerably better than the PG259QN.

Pros:
- Right out the box, the colors are set properly.
- The stand is super sturdy (not that the PG259QN wasn't, but this is on another level)
- The presets... there are TONs and they are pretty good. Tweaking colors was considerably easier.
- It's just as fast / snappy with the 360hz, motion blur wise, it's about the same as the PG259QN.
- No dead pixels!

And this one has Nvidia Reflex analyser in the menu. Woo!

Cons:
- The dark mode boost works... but isn't very strong.
- There is no 'sharpness' mode like on my LG, that's a shame because it works really well on LG.
- The menu is good... but I still feel as if the interface can be improved.

And, both monitors have ULMB mode, albeit at 240hz (but I'm not using that since I'm running 360hz in normal mode).

Overall quite a nice experience. I'm VERY happy with this monitor, especially when compared to the PG259QN (I mean, it wasn't hard to beat seeing as the PG259QN had a dead pixel in the middle).
Sounds great, does it do display scaling like PG259QN ? (setting in Nvidia control panel under "Adjust desktop size and position" tab)

ericl
Posts: 126
Joined: 09 Jan 2014, 14:50

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by ericl » 14 Nov 2020, 10:31

Yep, having used both, it now feels as if Asus really rushed to get to market first to be 'the first 360hz' monitor while Alienware (Dell) spent their time refining it and creating a proper product with the same panel.

I can tell it's the same panel but the way each company tuned it makes a huge difference. The colors & initial impression out of the box were just better on the Alienware.

I plugged it in... and could immediately start using it. With the Asus, I had to take a step back and then dive into the settings for a while before I felt comfortable gaming with it.

That said, I understand there is a difference in price. I paid $150 more for the Alienware AW2521H and it's the same panel. Is it worth it? I'd say yes. Quality control seems much better, the settings / presets / configuration is much better and the end result is my display looks better.

Is it perfect? No.

- The PG259QN had gamma control whereas the Alienware does NOT. (And if it does, I can't find it).
- The PG259QN had an advanced menu that let you super-fine-tune individual colors (the Alienware does let you fine tune colors, but not as in depth)
- My LG had a 'sharpness' mode which worked wonders, neither of these screens has anything like that.
- It does NOT do ULMB at 360hz.
- The dark boost isn't very good (it works but I'd say it's average at best)
- There is no dynamic colors / enhanced color saturation. (You can do this with nvidia drivers but some monitors have this built in)

Truth is... they could probably fix/enable ALL of this through firmware/software updates for the monitor. Will they? Doubtful. I really wish they would though. I'd honestly pay $20 for a premium software upgrade for the monitor if they had it.

Dell / Alienware, if you're listening, can you update monitor drivers like Nvidia updates their videocard drivers? Thanks!

effjaysea
Posts: 35
Joined: 31 Aug 2020, 12:47

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by effjaysea » 14 Nov 2020, 11:13

The alienware doesn't come calibrated like the Asus, so how exactly is it that ''the colors are set properly.''?

ericl
Posts: 126
Joined: 09 Jan 2014, 14:50

Re: Alienware AW2521H 360hz Arrives!

Post by ericl » 14 Nov 2020, 11:50

That's a great question, while I did have the calibration sheet with the Asus, colors still seemed off. Perhaps it was saturation, brightness or contrast related.

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