27" 1440p monitor recommendations?

[tabascosauz]

ive got 2 of the Dell Gaming 27" monitors with Gsync. they suffer a engineering flaw, where a vertical line appears occasionally due to refresh rate de-sync, but its easily fixed by changing the resolution , then clicking 'do not apply' , even restarting the display driver with Cntrl+Shift+WinKey+B fixes it.

i paid less than $600 for two of them on sale , if you can get them cheap theyre good, im pretty sure the dell you listed is the same model, but i wouldnt pay over $300 for one.

Thanks, but they are definitely not the same panel. S2716DGR is a TN panel, along with the TN S2719DGF I mentioned earlier that someone else confused with the S2721DGF that I bought. You are right, I wouldn't pay more than $400CAD for the S2716DGR or S2719DGF.

Dell's gaming line nonclematures really do leave a lot to be desired. Ultrasharp is simple by comparison, P2715Q, U2415H, U2515H, U2715H, U2717D, U2719D, etc.

 

[kapone32]

I did say no to VA in the OP lol I did take a look at the G27QC (my friend recently bought the IPS G27Q (M27Q without KVM, essentially), unfortunately the G27Q has 0 availability now), but not too much a fan of VA compared to IPS. I have a GW2265 as my secondary monitor right now, and while it is quick and responsive the colours just aren't nearly as good as the IPS panels I have. It's got good contrast ratio and black depth, but the IPS GW2765HT next to it is equally good so if I really need the contrast for some odd reason, I'll probably just drag the window onto the big BenQ.

I don't usually use my monitors in "the dark" per se, I have a frosted lamp with a smart bulb behind my monitor to alleviate eyestrain a bit and 2700K table lamps off to the side as well. A lot of things are on dark theme right now, but very few aside from Windows apps are on an actually black background. The 27UL550 that I had for about a day had poor contrast ratio as well, but I really didn't mind (perhaps maybe even liked) the rather washed out blacks. Besides, I don't shoot photos in the darkness and then crank the contrast up 500%

I used to be a IPS snob too (I even has a 32" 4K 60hZ IPS). The first VA panel I ever bought was the 32QC and it does have some drawbacks to IPS but not enough to make me exclude them going forward..

 

[Space Lynx]

Hardware Unboxed recommends the MSI QRF-QD as its top recommendation.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

IPS vs VA
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/ls81ey This should be enough.

And I recommend and vote MSI 27QRF-QD

 

[TheLostSwede]

ive got 2 of the Dell Gaming 27" monitors with Gsync. they suffer a engineering flaw, where a vertical line appears occasionally due to refresh rate de-sync, but its easily fixed by changing the resolution , then clicking 'do not apply' , even restarting the display driver with Cntrl+Shift+WinKey+B fixes it.

i paid less than $600 for two of them on sale , if you can get them cheap theyre good, im pretty sure the dell you listed is the same model, but i wouldnt pay over $300 for one.

Entirely different displays with different panels in them.

 

[Space Lynx]

IPS vs VA
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/ls81ey This should be enough.

And I recommend and vote MSI 27QRF-QD

yep the MSI QD is the king of monitors right now.

 

[Cvrk]

@Khonjel thank you for the gif

don't know if Op has made a purchase yet. @tabascosauz you mentioned that you wanna get 120hz,but won't be hitting 120fps in all games (makes sense).

It doesn't have to make a difference in your purchase decision but here is my 2cents

get the highest refresh panel your wallet can handle. your wallet will suffer and your eyes will thank you for the rest of your life

I have been reading about this on the net and YB forever. The endless debate can the human eye tell the difference between 60hz and .....2 million hertz YES!! YES IT CAN
I got a 140hz panel and my eyes are always relaxed. The higher the better.
Before this, i never had more than 75Hz. The difference is huge when browsing the internet etc etc. - don't think just games.

 

[tabascosauz]

@Khonjel thank you for the gif

don't know if Op has made a purchase yet. @tabascosauz you mentioned that you wanna get 120hz,but won't be hitting 120fps in all games (makes sense).

It doesn't have to make a difference in your purchase decision but here is my 2cents

get the highest refresh panel your wallet can handle. your wallet will suffer and your eyes will thank you for the rest of your life

I have been reading about this on the net and YB forever. The endless debate can the human eye tell the difference between 60hz and .....2 million hertz YES!! YES IT CAN
I got a 140hz panel and my eyes are always relaxed. The higher the better.
Before this, i never had more than 75Hz. The difference is huge when browsing the internet etc etc. - don't think just games.

Thanks for the suggestion. Yep, I mentioned a few posts back that I got the S2721DGF. In fact, it's arriving today. We'll see how it turns out.

That was my thought too, obviously with my 2060 Super I won't be maxing out the display. Risk of Rain 2 is probably easy enough for 120fps+ (except when >1 hour in and absolute madlad difficulty, frames can bog down), BTD6 (lol) I think is high refresh capable, Project Reality is engine limited to 100fps, Borderlands 3 probably around 60-90fps, Genshin is engine limited to 60fps currently, No Man's Sky probably around 100-120fps, MCC I think only H2A works properly at 144fps. CSGO and Siege obviously are easy high fps candidates, but I hardly play them these days.

I'm more interested in the wide gamut support and better brightness compared to my BenQ; I have a colorimeter on the way so I can hopefully also get a sRGB-clamped .icc profile to use for photo editing while having a wide gamut .icc for better colors in everyday use.

Of course, all this depends on it being a good QC panel. It's Dell, fortunately, so I'm not worried at all about return/exchange.

 

[tabascosauz]

So now that I've spent about a week with the S2721DGF, there are good things:

• Excellent colors and reasonable accuracy even without calibration.
• Really freaking fast, as expected, with no input lag at all. My old GW2765HT is pretty much unusable for gaming now.
• Just the right amount of brightness range on SDR.
• Nice stand, would still use it if I didn't have monitor arms
• The contrast ratio issue is highly exaggerated

The not-so-good:

• Terrible black uniformity. There's a very obvious amount of IPS glow in the bottom left, some in the top left.
• Yellow tint in the top right and bottom right that also kind of look like IPS glow. Honestly, if it was just the white glow, I wouldn't care, but obvious yellow shift on the right side of the monitor is pretty much deal-breaking.
• There's no way to use tilt/height/brightness/contrast/black stabilizer to compensate for one issue, without exacerbating the other.

Changing Windows/Edge/Youtube themes can compensate slightly for the left side glow, especially if set to a black taskbar with a white background. However, the yellow shift stays and is equally obvious on dark themes.

Admittedly, I am a little OCD, but it's wholly disappointing that my 5-year-old BenQ GW2765HT still boasts near-perfect black and grey uniformity with zero (or at least, completely consistent) IPS glow but the 4 monitors I've tried in the last 2 years have failed to even come close to that level of performance and consistency.

I would do the usual exchange with Dell (and might end up doing so), but from a quick search it seems like the lower-left IPS glow and yellow shift on the right side is less a lottery issue and more an inherent flaw with the LG nanoIPS panels on the 27GL850 and S2721DGF. I was surprised to see from a quick Googling how many people had panels that exhibit exactly the same appearance as mine.

I still have until beginning of April until my Dell return window expires, so I ordered a MSI MAG274QRF-QD to see if that panel (AU Optronics quantum dot, not LG nanoIPS) can do better. That way I can have the 3 panels side-by-side to see whether the Dell or MSI is better.

 

[Space Lynx]

So now that I've spent about a week with the S2721DGF, there are good things:

• Excellent colors and reasonable accuracy even without calibration.
• Really freaking fast, as expected, with no input lag at all. My old GW2765HT is pretty much unusable for gaming now.
• Just the right amount of brightness range on SDR.
• Nice stand, would still use it if I didn't have monitor arms
• The contrast ratio issue is highly exaggerated

The not-so-good:

• Terrible black uniformity. There's a very obvious amount of IPS glow in the bottom left, some in the top left.
• Yellow tint in the top right and bottom right that also kind of look like IPS glow. Honestly, if it was just the white glow, I wouldn't care, but obvious yellow shift on the right side of the monitor is pretty much deal-breaking.
• There's no way to use tilt/height/brightness/contrast/black stabilizer to compensate for one issue, without exacerbating the other.

Changing Windows/Edge/Youtube themes can compensate slightly for the left side glow, especially if set to a black taskbar with a white background. However, the yellow shift stays and is equally obvious on dark themes.

Admittedly, I am a little OCD, but it's wholly disappointing that my 5-year-old BenQ GW2765HT still boasts near-perfect black and grey uniformity with zero (or at least, completely consistent) IPS glow but the 4 monitors I've tried in the last 2 years have failed to even come close to that level of performance and consistency.

I would do the usual exchange with Dell (and might end up doing so), but from a quick search it seems like the lower-left IPS glow and yellow shift on the right side is less a lottery issue and more an inherent flaw with the LG nanoIPS panels on the 27GL850 and S2721DGF. I was surprised to see from a quick Googling how many people had panels that exhibit exactly the same appearance as mine.

I still have until beginning of April until my Dell return window expires, so I ordered a MSI MAG274QRF-QD to see if that panel (AU Optronics quantum dot, not LG nanoIPS) can do better. That way I can have the 3 panels side-by-side to see whether the Dell or MSI is better.

please keep us up to date with your final review and decision. i have had my eye on the QD MSI for awhile now... almost grabbedit when it was on sale for $419 on amazon, but i didn't do it... lol now i regret it.

 

[tabascosauz]

please keep us up to date with your final review and decision. i have had my eye on the QD MSI for awhile now... almost grabbedit when it was on sale for $419 on amazon, but i didn't do it... lol now i regret it.

Got the MAG274QRF-QD (god what a mouthful) today. Put it next to the S2721DGF for a bit, then used the MSI alone for a bit and got the MSI calibrated with my SpyderX. Out of the box, the quantum dot tech makes colours really pop which is nice, just not so great for photo work. Thankfully I was able to get it dialed in to about a deltaE of 1 with DisplayCAL.

The uniformity is...interesting. There is still a bit of glow in the bottom left corner, just like the Dell, just more subtle. The colour temperature is certainly cooler in the corners, but the bulk of the screen is pretty consistent. And as odd as it sounds, the uniformity discrepancies are consistent enough (all the corners are similar, not just the bottom left) that it's much more tolerable than the Dell. The bottom edge and top edge have a bit of bleed, but are also pretty consistent from left to right, which makes 100% the difference.

A bit more vignetting, whereas the LG panel in the Dell is pretty much perfect all the way to the corners.

Needless to say, the S2721DGF is packed neatly back into the box, waiting for me to arrange the return. It's a nice screen and has its own perks, but the LG panel's by-design huge white glow in the bottom left and yellow glow in the right corners I just couldn't live with long-term. The AUOptronics panel isn't perfect either, but its nitpicks are much easier for me to live with.

At some point I probably need to accept that panel makers don't know what "quality control" is anymore, and I will literally never again get the sort of perfection I have on my old BenQ GW2765HT.

 

[Chomiq]

Yeah from what I've read about 32" 4K display LG panels are usually inferior to AUO's offerings. I imagine this translates to lower res panels as well.

 

[Space Lynx]

Got the MAG274QRF-QD (god what a mouthful) today. Put it next to the S2721DGF for a bit, then used the MSI alone for a bit and got the MSI calibrated with my SpyderX. Out of the box, the quantum dot tech makes colours really pop which is nice, just not so great for photo work. Thankfully I was able to get it dialed in to about a deltaE of 1 with DisplayCAL.

The uniformity is...interesting. There is still a bit of glow in the bottom left corner, just like the Dell, just more subtle. The colour temperature is certainly cooler in the corners, but the bulk of the screen is pretty consistent. And as odd as it sounds, the uniformity discrepancies are consistent enough (all the corners are similar, not just the bottom left) that it's much more tolerable than the Dell. The bottom edge and top edge have a bit of bleed, but are also pretty consistent from left to right, which makes 100% the difference.

A bit more vignetting, whereas the LG panel in the Dell is pretty much perfect all the way to the corners.

Needless to say, the S2721DGF is packed neatly back into the box, waiting for me to arrange the return. It's a nice screen and has its own perks, but the LG panel's by-design huge white glow in the bottom left and yellow glow in the right corners I just couldn't live with long-term. The AUOptronics panel isn't perfect either, but its nitpicks are much easier for me to live with.

At some point I probably need to accept that panel makers don't know what "quality control" is anymore, and I will literally never again get the sort of perfection I have on my old BenQ GW2765HT.

yep. now i really regret not getting the MSI QD when it was in stock for 419. crap.

 

[tabascosauz]

Yeah from what I've read about 32" 4K display LG panels are usually inferior to AUO's offerings. I imagine this translates to lower res panels as well.

I don't have any experience with AUO's recent IPS-type panels, all I know is that this new quantum dot AUO panel is supposed to be their very first panel that can compete with midrange-high end nanoIPS. But my BenQ is also a AUO panel, so that could explain why I prefer the MSI, if there are indeed design patterns between different AUO panels.

On an amusing note, the slightly cooler colour temp "curtains" down the left and right edges of the screen remind me of the LG 27UL550 that I tried, a 4K60 LG panel, except on that monitor there was significant light fall-off on those edges, as opposed to a slight colour temp shift, making it extremely obvious in all usage scenarios and basically unusable.

yep. now i really regret not getting the MSI QD when it was in stock for 419. crap.

I'm sure you'll get another chance. Didn't the QD launch at $550? I bought mine for the equivalent of $445US, didn't even wait for a sale. I guess MSI finally came to their senses regarding pricing. QD panels are good, but they don't warrant a $100 premium over the nanoIPS competition

 

[MagnyCours]

Does the S2721DGF use the same panel as the 27GL850? Because it's also notorious for its IPS glow on the bottom-left corner.

Don't know about the rest of the panels listed in the poll, but I'd recommend you avoid the 27GL850 if you're sensitive to IPS glow.

Here are pics of mine:

 

[Space Lynx]

Does the S2721DGF use the same panel as the 27GL850? Because it's also notorious for its IPS glow on the bottom-left corner.

Don't know about the rest of the panels listed in the poll, but I'd recommend you avoid the 27GL850 if you're sensitive to IPS glow.

yep the LG nano-ips is highly overrated in the community.

I'm sure you'll get another chance. Didn't the QD launch at $550? I bought mine for the equivalent of $445US, didn't even wait for a sale. I guess MSI finally came to their senses regarding pricing. QD panels are good, but they don't warrant a $100 premium over the nanoIPS competition

nope the $550 price was misleading it never launched for that, it was 450 at launch and briefly 419 on amazon. i had it in my cart. kicking myself lol - stock has been out for a long time now.

 

[tabascosauz]

Spoke too soon lol. The MSI panel developed some bright pixels smack dab in the middle of the screen. Which was exactly what I had feared from reading the reviews - it didn't sound like MSI's quality control was any better than Gigabyte's. Guess I found out firsthand.

So the S2721DGF is right back on my desk and it's the MAG274QRF-QD waiting to be returned now. Such is my luck with most of the things I do.

I guess I'll get used to the glow eventually. And if I can't, I guess I'll just have to watch movies on my Renoir HTPC on the TV instead.

I will say, I think the Dell has mellowed a bit with two weeks-ish of use. Just gotta dial in the calibration with my SpyderX.

Does the S2721DGF use the same panel as the 27GL850? Because it's also notorious for its IPS glow on the bottom-left corner.

Don't know about the rest of the panels listed in the poll, but I'd recommend you avoid the 27GL850 if you're sensitive to IPS glow.

Here are pics of mine:

Yeah, the 2721DGF and GL850 use the same panel, hence the same flaws. Looks pretty much the same as my S2721DGF did on day 1.

 

[TheLostSwede]

At some point I probably need to accept that panel makers don't know what "quality control" is anymore, and I will literally never again get the sort of perfection I have on my old BenQ GW2765HT.

Sorry, but this is a flawed statement. You can't buy a gaming focused screen and expect to get the best panel quality, as the focus on those panels is to be able to drive them at high refresh rates, not the best possible display quality. Your old Benq is most likely better, because it's an office monitor.
You want something with better quality, take a look the displays that are designed for the work you want to do on them, such as:

ProArt Displays - All products | ASUS Global

ProArt monitors feature cutting-edge 4K HDR technologies, perfect color reproduction from screen to print, with features to streamline your creative workflow.

www.asus.com

or

ConceptD – Creator Laptops, Desktops, Monitors, & More | ConceptD | Acer United States

No matter if you’re a graphic designer, video editor, or photographer, ConceptD devices give you the power to fully realize your creative potential.

www.acer.com

or

ColorEdge Color Management Monitors | EIZO

ColorEdge LCD monitors feature hardware calibration to provide consistent, predictable color for professionals in pre-press, photography, graphic design, and post production.

www.eizoglobal.com

I guess this would be be what you should've gotten if you want high refresh and a high quality panel.

Acer Laptops, Desktops, Chromebooks, Monitors & Projectors | Acer United States

Shop the latest Acer products, from Chromebooks, laptops, monitors, desktop PCs, and projectors for office, home, and entertainment use.

www.acer.com

 

[tabascosauz]

Sorry, but this is a flawed statement. You can't buy a gaming focused screen and expect to get the best panel quality, as the focus on those panels is to be able to drive them at high refresh rates, not the best possible display quality. Your old Benq is most likely better, because it's an office monitor.
You want something with better quality, take a look the displays that are designed for the work you want to do on them, such as:

ProArt Displays - All products | ASUS Global

ProArt monitors feature cutting-edge 4K HDR technologies, perfect color reproduction from screen to print, with features to streamline your creative workflow.

www.asus.com

or

ConceptD – Creator Laptops, Desktops, Monitors, & More | ConceptD | Acer United States

No matter if you’re a graphic designer, video editor, or photographer, ConceptD devices give you the power to fully realize your creative potential.

www.acer.com

or

ColorEdge Color Management Monitors | EIZO

ColorEdge LCD monitors feature hardware calibration to provide consistent, predictable color for professionals in pre-press, photography, graphic design, and post production.

www.eizoglobal.com

I guess this would be be what you should've gotten if you want high refresh and a high quality panel.

Acer Laptops, Desktops, Chromebooks, Monitors & Projectors | Acer United States

Shop the latest Acer products, from Chromebooks, laptops, monitors, desktop PCs, and projectors for office, home, and entertainment use.

www.acer.com

None of those monitors are any closer to solving the problem, which is black uniformity, not color accuracy. Neither the S2721DGF nor MAG274QRF-QD have any color problems after calibration. The calibrated S2721DGF has good sRGB and P3, and the calibrated MAG274QRF is good on sRGB, P3 and Adobe. That's not a problem.

• The rtings review for the ProArt PA278QV shows uniformity that isn't much better than the MAG274QRF-QD I have. No high refresh. So much for ProArt.
• Eizo's only high refresh monitor, the now-EOL FS2735, doesn't have the uniformity compensation feature that makes Eizo Eizo.
• No ConceptD monitors are available here. I can't even get one from B&H. Specs look good, but 0 reviews anywhere, not even user reviews. Makes no claim to uniformity, nor has a brand reputation or features for it like Eizo.
• As much as I like the SW2700PT and SW271, no high refresh.

I admit, maybe I got lucky with my old monitor or maybe it just improved that much over time. But my point still stands - striving for the fastest gaming panel can understandably impact color accuracy (and I wouldn't hold poor performance in that against a gaming monitor), but there's no reason why uniformity and glow should just magically be allowed to be worse than a "non-gaming" monitor. "Oh it's a gaming monitor, I guess frickin white and yellow blinding orbs in the corners are okay then"

Hey, just wanted to get it off my chest. I'll get over it. If not for the glow, the S2721DGF's performance is not bad. Definitely not feeling wallet remorse the way I did after the first two U2719Ds last last year.

 

[TheLostSwede]

None of those monitors are any closer to solving the problem, which is black uniformity, not color accuracy. Neither the S2721DGF nor MAG274QRF-QD have any color problems after calibration. The calibrated S2721DGF has good sRGB and P3, and the calibrated MAG274QRF is good on sRGB, P3 and Adobe. That's not a problem.

• The rtings review for the ProArt PA278QV shows uniformity that isn't much better than the MAG274QRF-QD I have. No high refresh. So much for ProArt.
• Eizo's only high refresh monitor, the now-EOL FS2735, doesn't have the uniformity compensation feature that makes Eizo Eizo.
• No ConceptD monitors are available here. I can't even get one from B&H. Specs look good, but 0 reviews anywhere, not even user reviews. Makes no claim to uniformity, nor has a brand reputation or features for it like Eizo.
• As much as I like the SW2700PT and SW271, no high refresh.

I admit, maybe I got lucky with my old monitor or maybe it just improved that much over time. But my point still stands - striving for the fastest gaming panel can understandably impact color accuracy (and I wouldn't hold poor performance in that against a gaming monitor), but there's no reason why uniformity and glow should just magically be allowed to be worse than a "non-gaming" monitor. "Oh it's a gaming monitor, I guess frickin white and yellow blinding orbs in the corners are okay then"

Hey, just wanted to get it off my chest. I'll get over it. If not for the glow, the S2721DGF's performance is not bad. Definitely not feeling wallet remorse the way I did after the first two U2719Ds last last year.

The thing is, if you buy a professional monitor, that would be considered unacceptable.
If you buy a gaming monitor, it's not targeting your use case, so the monitor manufacturers are expecting to get away with certain flaws, as most users wouldn't care. This is also why so many gaming monitors are still using TN panels.
I never said any of those monitors except Acer's ConceptD was high refresh, as said those are the kind of monitors you ought to be looking at for work.
Interestingly, that specific ConceptD display is not available in Taiwan either...

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Your thread has been pretty interesting to follow.... Small sample size but I've had a decent amount of hands on with the LG GL850, GN850, and the S2721DGF. All of them were pretty good with very minimal glow in the bottom/left corner. If i did professional work none of them would probably be my choice but for gaming they were all great

I have a buddy who grabbed the Msi varient you did and he sent it back for the same reason although his had a decent amount of ips glow in all corners as well.

I honetly think like with anything it's just silicon lottery... back in 2017 I purchased 3 PG279Q, and one AG271QG and they all were terrible.... ended up just going with a PG278QR becuse it's faults for what it cost were way easier to deal with. My GN850 is miles better than all of them and was a decent amount cheaper.

​

 

[tabascosauz]

Your thread has been pretty interesting to follow.... Small sample size but I've had a decent amount of hands on with the LG GL850, GN850, and the S2721DGF. All of them were pretty good with very minimal glow in the bottom/left corner. If i did professional work none of them would probably be my choice but for gaming they were all great

I have a buddy who grabbed the Msi varient you did and he sent it back for the same reason although his had a decent amount of ips glow in all corners as well.

I honetly think like with anything it's just silicon lottery... back in 2017 I purchased 3 PG279Q, and one AG271QG and they all were terrible.... ended up just going with a PG278QR becuse it's faults for what it cost were way easier to deal with. My GN850 is miles better than all of them and was a decent amount cheaper.

My only experience with Asus is the PB287Q, a 28" 4K60 TN. Given my recent luck with monitors, I have to get a monitor that has 30 days no questions asked return, which is why I've been defaulting to Dell. Otherwise, the retailer would have to have that kind of return policy, e.g. Amazon or Memory Express.

I was hoping this time around that the panel lottery would matter less / be a little kinder to me, but I guess I was asking too much.

After calibration the panel actually looks a bit better now, or maybe I'm just used to it. The bottom left glow is here to stay, though. The nanoIPS panel seems extremely dependent on viewing angle - thanks to my VESA arm I was able to position the screen in a way that minimizes the yellow glow in the upper right corner. Obviously, that makes the white glow in the bottom left brighter, but also makes most of the bottom edge brighter as well so it's actually not as noticeable.

Seems like it's time for me to give up on the dream of having a single do-it-all monitor now that I've been spoiled with 165Hz. I just came across BenQ's new Adobe SW270C that has Eizo-esque software based uniformity compensation, but it would strictly be for my photo editing and not much else. The Dell has pretty poop Adobe coverage compared to the MSI (86% vs 98%), but thankfully my current needs don't yet warrant buying a $1099 SW270C.

 

[s3thra]

I picked up the Dell S2721DGF on sale recently. Coming from my trusty 24.5" TN Acer KG251QF monitor, I was looking for something just a bit bigger with high refresh to boot, and with all my experience in the past with IPS panels with their better-than-TN colour accuracy, I was really looking forward to the upgrade. I've used an older Dell 27" IPS at work for years now, and the colour accuracy on that thing is impeccable.

So I did my research, checked things out on RTINGS, watched the Hardware Unboxed review a couple of times, weighed things up and thought about things considerably before finally making the decision on the S2721DGF.

The unit arrived, I quickly unboxed it, then set things up the first chance I had some spare time. I pull up my chair in front of my desk, adjust the panel height and angle, switch on my PC, log in, and stare at the screen for a few seconds before noticing a weird haze or shimmer, particularly in the corners of the screen. I fiddle with the colour settings based on the review recommendations - that should fix things right? Wrong. OMG THE IPS GLOW! WTF IS THIS?! It's like I'm seeing double vision in the corners, like I can't quite focus my eyes properly. AAAHH!

Yes, the reviews were mentioning the IPS glow, the backlight bleed as well, but I thought to myself "eh, how bad can it be coming from a TN panel". Well, it's very bloody noticeable for someone who has always used TN panels; I just can't do it, particularly in my dark-ish room.

Yes, TN has its flaws, but they are flaws I can live with and have gotten used to over the years coming from CRT. I must say as well, the new 24.5" TN panels are a huge step up from the old 23.8" units that have been around since like 2011. I was using a circa 2009 Dell 24" TN for the better part of a decade, and when I upgraded to the new Acer it was like night and day with brightness, colour, and contrast.

So overall it was an experiment, but I've learned now what @tabascosauz has learned - there's "design monitors" with awesome colours, and then there's gaming monitors, with less than perfects colours, rubbish glow, but play games without ghosting which look great as long as your game doesn't have any dark areas, like that's a thing.

There might be some VA monitors out there that will do what I'm looking for, but they are all bloody curved things and I'm pretty sure that would seriously trigger my OCD. So for now I'll return the S2721DGF and just go back to my KG251QF.