Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor (AW2521HFL) Review

Speed is key for gaming monitors, and the Alienware 25 is among the fastest we’ve seen yet, in terms of input lag and refresh rate. This 25-inch 1080p monitor boasts an input-lag measure of just a millisecond at its peak refresh, which helps justify its $509.99 list price. (It's often discounted a fair bit on Dell.com.) Plus, the panel's 240Hz refresh rate will please all but the most discriminating esports types, who will thrill to its fluidity for fast-twitch action games. Its color performance (notably, for movies) doesn’t impress, and its G-Sync Compatible adaptive-sync feature didn’t prove quite as silky-smooth as native G-Sync can be. But for the Alienware-loyal and the frame-rate-obsessed, it's got the goods.

A Design Beamed From the Future

The Alienware 25, in its so-called Lunar Light color scheme we tested (model AW2521HFL), is white and black, just like Alienware's recent Aurora desktops (as well as the Sony PlayStation 5). The 25-inch screen is flat and has barely any bezel, with only a thin black band running along three edges. A narrow black strip on the bottom edge features the Alienware logo.

On the back, most of the monitor is white plastic, with black inserts where the ports can be found and on the joint where the stand connects to the screen. It's a striking look, and a nice departure from the usually boxy, black look of most monitors, even many elite gaming ones. (That said, Alienware also offers a blacked-out version dubbed "Dark Side of the Moon," model AW2521HF)

Facing downward on the back in a recess behind the stand, the panel has a power connector for a standard three-prong PC power cable, an input USB port for connecting to your computer, and two downstream USB ports to use the monitor as a hub. These ports are to the left of the monitor stand. Two HDMI inputs, a DisplayPort input, and a 3.5mm audio output can be found in the recess on the opposite side of the stand. Finally, two more USB downstream ports, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack, face straight down on the bottom edge of the monitor itself, centered in front of the stand.

The main power button also sits on the bottom edge of the monitor, near the lower-right corner. Around the back, in a vertical row near the right edge, a four-way control stick and four additional buttons, each with a hexagon motif, can be found. All are used for navigating the monitor's menus.

The monitor stand sits on a wide, V-shaped foot that supports a central pillar. The top of the pillar snaps securely onto the back of the screen and holds it in place while providing a variety of adjustment options. The monitor can tilt vertically (from -5 to 21 degrees) and horizontally (20 degrees to either side), as well as move up and down (within a range of 5.1 inches). It can also rotate 90 degrees on the stand in either direction for a portrait orientation. The back of the screen also features a VESA mount, if you want to use a monitor arm or some other alternative to the stand.

Speaking of the stand, you can really show off your gamer energy with the AlienFX lighting system built into the stand. You control it via the Alienware Command Center software; it doesn't mandate a connection to an Alienware PC. A long RGB light loop runs along the back of the stand. Along with Alienware's signature alien-head logo on the top-right corner of the back of the screen, it can be programmed to light up however you want, including dynamic lighting effects that reflect activities in games.

Testing the Alienware 25: Lag-Be-Gone

The screen itself is a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel Fast IPS panel with both Nvidia G-Sync Compatible and AMD FreeSync adaptive-sync capability. It does not support high dynamic range (HDR) signals. As noted earlier, it's rated for a peak refresh rate of 240Hz. That's not as high as desktop gaming monitors come (360Hz panels have recently hit the market), but it's way up there and aimed at serious esports types pushing games at very high frame rates. 

We measure luminance and color on gaming monitors using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator connected over HDMI, and Portrait Displays' Calman software. Out of the box, the Alienware 25 shows a black level of 0.236cd/m2 and a peak black level of 244.493cd/m2, for an effective contrast ratio of 1,036:1. That's in line with (and very slightly better than) the monitor's rated contrast ratio of 1,000:1. Dell claims the monitor can reach a typical brightness of 400cd/m2, which doesn't appear out of the box but can be easily massaged by boosting the monitor's brightness setting to 100. At that setting, we recorded a peak brightness of 436cd/m2.

Dell claims the Alienware 25 can hit up to 99% of the sRGB color space. It comes close in our tests, but in Standard mode, the monitor only reaches 96.8% of the gamut, as shown in the sRGB color-space diagram below... 

It can also only reach 81.1% of the cinema-focused DCI-P3 color space. This isn't particularly high, and can result in dull colors when watching movies.

Input lag is where the Alienware 25 really shines, as it should in a gaming monitor. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured a 4.1-millisecond input lag on a 60Hz signal, which means an input lag of just over 1ms at 240Hz. That makes the Alienware 25 the fastest gaming monitor we've tested to date.

Test-Driving the Alienware 25: Gaming and Watching

The Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition graphical benchmark looks very nice on the Alienware 25, with natural-looking colors in the green fields and blue skies. The colors could be a bit more vibrant, though, and while the picture is quite bright, fine details in shadows and dark objects occasionally appear a little muddy. The action is nice and smooth, with no noticeable motion artifacts.

The Alienware 25's 240Hz refresh rate makes for generally smooth action in-game, as well, but it occasionally steps on itself in refreshing its picture. Playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the monitor showed some vertical sync errors while the game pushed frame rates of 300fps-plus. Even with the frame rate capped to 240fps, I noticed occasional choppiness and screen tearing. These weren't massive, screen-warping artifacts, but they were noticeable. This could be because the Alienware 25's "G-Sync Compatible" capabilities aren't native G-Sync, and so their adaptive-sync performance isn't quite as good. (My test system employed a GeForce RTX 2060 card.) The Alienware 34, in contrast, uses native G-Sync, and while it also shows some slight choppiness it isn't nearly as pronounced as on the 25. I didn't notice any ghosting artifacts when testing the monitor.

The modest color space coverage of the Alienware 25 comes through in our 4K Costa Rica test video. The greens of plants and frogs look natural and reasonably well-saturated, but they could have appeared a bit more vivid. Details are sharp, and action is smooth, but colors aren't quite as rich or as vibrant as they could have been with proper HDR processing, or simply a wider color gamut (like on the also-HDR-less Alienware 34).

The Quick and the Solid

The Alienware 25 is a blazingly fast monitor, with its 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms input lag. Its color performance isn't very impressive, though, and it really could have used native Nvidia G-Sync. The ViewSonic Elite XGQ70QG offers a 1440p picture and far wider color reach, which (for most players and most games) will be worthy trade-offs for a 120Hz refresh rate and 2ms input lag. If you can splurge a bit and frame rates are your be-all and end-all, the 1080p Asus ROG Swift PG259QN offers a 360Hz refresh rate and better general color and contrast, which is why it remains our Editors' Choice winner at this size and resolution.

That said, if you're all-in on Alienware gear and coordinated bling, looking to sync up your battle station with a late-model Aurora desktop or Area-51 laptop, you won't find a better visual complement out there than this panel.

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