Dell S2719DGF 155Hz Gaming Monitor Review: Speedy QHD

Grayscale, Gamma and Color

Grayscale & Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests are described in detail here.

The S2719DGF’s Standard mode delivers excellent grayscale and gamma accuracy. If you wish to calibrate, the Custom Color mode offers gain and bias sliders, as well as a color management system to adjust hue and saturation.

We could easily have stopped after measuring the Standard mode and called it a day. In this mode, only 100 percent brightness had an error over 1dE. And that’s still invisible to the naked eye (it’s generally accepted that errors less than 3dE are not visible). Many monitors can’t boast this level of accuracy even after calibration, so Dell definitely hit a homerun here. Gamma tracking is near-perfect, except for a small dip at 10 percent. This has the benefit of improving shadow detail but can make the deepest blacks look slightly washed-out.

To be thorough, we calibrated the Custom Color mode. Using both the gain and bias sliders, we reduced the grayscale average error from .91dE to .35dE. That’s akin to going from awesome to awesomer and made no visual difference. You can also see a tiny shift in the gamma tracking (second graph above) at 80 and 90 percent. It represents a slight drop in luminance, but you won’t be able to see it. Toggling between Standard and Custom showed two identical picture modes.

Comparisons

The S2719DGF led both grayscale tests by a comfortable margin. We would also put the RG270 and the MPG27CQ on our No Calibration Needed list based on these results.

There are no complaints about the Dell’s gamma tracking either. It tracked super-close to 2.2 whether we calibrated or not, and the range of values was very tight. Both of these metrics promise excellent color gamut results, which we’ll show you now.

Color Gamut Accuracy

For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

There are a couple of interesting things to note here. The S2719DGF runs close to all the sRGB targets but is just a little off in red, which looks a tad undersaturated. We couldn’t fix that with the CMS, but we were able to improve the secondary colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) by manipulating the hue controls. We also used the saturation sliders to improve color luminance. The resulting numbers were a wash, but our calibration looked a tiny bit more saturated when making a back-and-forth comparison. It’s subtle, but some users may prefer to use our recommended values in the Custom Color mode.

Comparisons

The gap between a 1.89dE and 1.91dE average may seem insignificant, but we could tell a slight difference when switching between Standard and Custom Color modes. We suggest inputting the values shown on page two and trying it for yourself. Either way, the S2719DGF has superb color accuracy. And this kind of performance rarely comes cheap. Dell is delivering excellent performance for the money.

Gamut volume calculations were somewhat impacted by an oversaturated blue primary. Its inner points were on-target, but at the triangle’s perimeter, the 100-percent measurement is past where it should be. This pushes the volume number up to 106.66 percent of the sRGB gamut. But at 71.94 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut, it is definitely not in the realm of extended color (that honor belongs to the MSI in this group). But the Dell delivers a nicely saturated gamut of vivid hues that will rival any IPS or VA screen manufactured to similar specs.

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