2K 165hz monitor choice

[bbaayezi]

Hello guys, new member here in this forum and I would like to share something, and hear your advice

I initially ordered S2721DGFA from Dell's website on Nov, 16 and can't accept the estimated 2 months delay, so I bought an Acer VG272UV two weeks ago, and I just noticed my S2721DGFA has been shipped today.

the panel used on S2721DGFA is LM270WQA-SSA2 from LG, a newer revision model than the SSA1 which was used on GL850, which explained the contrast difference between these two models

98% DCI-P3 coverage, fast response time, DP1.4 support, the only down side is the 850:1 contrast

As for my currently using VG272UV: 2k 170hz, the panel is M270DAN06.6 from AUO, the same panel used on Acer predator XB273UGS. Excellent panel with 95% DCI-P3 coverage, Quantum dot technology, even faster response time than the S2721DGF(A), higher contrast (1000+:1)

The SINGLE drawback, or the achilles' heel for this monitor, is that the anti-glare coating on this panel was a bit more "grainy", especially on a pure white background.

I was a little bit uncomfortable at the beginning, but now I sort of adopted to it. But I'm still planning to compare S2721DGFA with my VG272UV to see if S2721DGFA has this issue as well (from what I learnt online, it should not be the case), and hopefully make my final choice which monitor to reserve.

Also, VG272UV has build-in sRGB mode to clamp down the gamut to avoid oversaturation issue, while S2721DGFA does not have. I will see if the driver provided by dell can solve this issue

TL;DR, here are the pros & cons for these two monitors:

S2721DGFA (LM270WQA-SSA2)
+ DP1.4 (able to enable 10 bit, 2k, 165hz at the same time)
+ 98% DCI-P3 (although it means more saturated red color)
+ Better CS
- No built-in sRGB mode
- Lower contrast (850:1)
- Possibly inconsistent backlight (warm on left and cold on right)

VG272UV (M270DAN06.6)
+ 170hz
+ Quantum dot
+ Faster response time
+ Higher contrast (1000+:1)
- Slightly grainy looking anti-glare coating
- DP1.2

What do you guys think?

side info:
I just missed the 14 days return period for my VG272UV so if decided to reserve S2721DGFA I might have to sell it on ebay, and I'm not sure how long does it take to sell it in typical situation.

 

[bbaayezi]

I just did more research on the internet and I might have to keep my acer model, here is my reason:

S2721DGF did not support sRGB mode, and I just found that someone on reddit got a reply from Dell that they did not plan to add sRGB emulation mode via future firmware update, that's a deal breaker to me.

Yes, I can calibrate my monitor using a colorimeter, but the generated icc profile will only be used by software that supports color management. There are still lots of software out there not supporting color management, including most of the games and windows desktop.

Personally I can't withstand this issue, since my eyes will be physically uncomfortable watching over-saturated content for a long time, and for most of the time I'm using non-color managed software.

I won't blame this on Dell though, This monitor is great, I will blame this on windows/microsoft, nowadays there are more and more wide gamut monitors, and there is still no sign of windows supporting native color management.
Windows is an enormous project and it may be almost impossible for microsoft to add color management feature to their source code.

So I simply won't choose any monitor that cannot clamp down the color gamut to sRGB.
BTW I also purchased a three-year extended warranty from acer as well so maybe it's not that bad?