The AW2521H is unashamedly a premium product. With a price tag over $700, it will appeal to those who have large budgets and are willing to spend a lot to have the very best. While there are gaming screens with higher resolution or more color, there are no screens faster than the Alienware AW2521H and the Asus ROG Swift PG259QN, which is about the same price. The two monitors are equal in every way that matters for gaming, but the Alienware’s inclusion of the Nvidia Reflex latency analyzer may be a tipping point for a small group of users.
If you look solely at the input lag score, the obvious conclusion is that you can have nearly the same performance with a 240 Hz monitor. But that 3ms screen draw time is something that should not be dismissed. The reduction in motion blur is plain to see when you have enough system power to drive frame rates above 300 fps. And the AW2521H is one of the very few monitors that makes ULMB a compelling choice. Since there are virtually no visible frame tears at 240 Hz, ULMB might be a good choice if you want absolutely no motion blur.
The AW2521H doesn’t skimp on features. It delivers excellent HDR with a measured HDR contrast ratio of nearly 8,000:1, putting it close to some VA monitors. In SDR mode, though, contrast is merely average among other IPS displays.
We also enjoyed the lighting feature which lets users choose from a myriad of effects and colors. When coordinated with an Alienware gaming PC, the light show is a lot of fun. And tweakers will appreciate the Nvidia Performance Analyzer. Though it requires some extra hardware to use, there is nothing like it on any other display (other 360Hz monitors are supposed to include this, but they aren’t out yet).
The big question you might still be asking is one we’ve answered before: do you need more than FHD resolution for satisfying gameplay? In our experience, if video processing and image fidelity are solid, the answer is no. The AW2521H runs at 1920 x 1080 pixels and delivers the best gaming we’ve experienced outside its direct competitor, the Asus ROG Swift PG259QN. Is it worth paying over $700 for? If ultimate gaming performance is your goal, then most definitely yes.