I Bought A Dell S2721QS 4K Monitor, My Review

 Dell S2721QS, 4K 60Hz, 2021, 99% sRGB, 8bits+FRC, $249 on Amazon.

OK, this is the first one I bought from my list of 15, because it was the least expensive 27' 4K 8bits+FRC monitor, and I wanted to see what I could get out of a budget Dell display.

It arrived from Amazon quickly. I immediately plugged it and... Noticed something odd.

On the default settings there is a visible color shift across the screen. It's bluish on the left, yellowish on the right. No! 😫

I asked my friends and family to have a look at the screen displaying a full screen white image, and they all saw the defect. So it's fairly obvious, not anodyne in any way.

I fiddled with the menu, nothing really helped. There isn't much in terms of customization anyway except for a User Colors setting, i.e. RGB sliders, Brightness and Contrast adjustments.

Otherwise, the screen is really nice. It's bright - way too bright on the default settings - crisp, compared to my old HD monitor, with a very smooth and stable image. The stand is adjustable, but it's kind of wobbly.

Time for calibration.

100% sRGB, 74% Adobe RGB, 84% DCI-P3, it's decent.

Not too bad. Not too great.

After calibration the color shift is somewhat less visible, but I can still see it! Darn! 😖

Let's measure the uniformity:

Not so great uniformity... 

So three negatives points for this Dell S2721QS model:

• Color shift across the screen
• Shoddy uniformity
• Wobbly stand

I don't like the suboptimal uniformity of this Dell, and I'm even more bothered about the color unbalance. There is definitely a yellowish blob tint on the right and a cyan tint on the left. These two problems compound badly to make the screen look cheap/bad.

Dell, Dell, did I get a lemon? Possibly some units are better than others? Maybe. I don't know if I want to try and order another one just to see. Probably not.

I will be using this panel for a little bit, overall though I would not recommend this model, and I think I will ultimately be returning it.

Do you have a S2721QS? Does it look good to your eyes? Do you see a color shift like I do? I'd be interested in knowing what's your experience.