Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor review

Our Verdict

With bright colors and a pleasant curve, the Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor performs well, but may be too big and expensive for many gamers.

For

Bright, colorful screen
Helpful presets
Piece of cake to set up and detach

Against

Expensive
Takes up a ton of infinite

Tom's Guide Verdict

With bright colors and a pleasant bend, the Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor performs well, but may be too large and expensive for many gamers.

Pros

+
Bright, colorful screen
+
Helpful presets
+
Easy to set and disassemble

Cons

-
Expensive
-
Takes upwards a ton of infinite

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor specs

Screen Size: 32 inches
Resolution: 2560 × 1440
Refresh Rate: 165 Hz
Inputs: DisplayPort, HDMI, USB, three.5 mm audio
Dimensions: 28.0 x 18.v x ix.8 inches

EDITOR'Southward NOTE: The Dell S3220DGF won a "highly recommended" award for best gaming monitor in the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.

The Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor doesn't settle the question of whether yous really need a 32-inch gaming monitor. All the same, it's a good argument that there'southward some value in the proposition. This brilliant, colorful, curved display is a worthwhile accompaniment for any PC with quad Hd output, provided you have the desk space to suit it — and the money to afford it.

With like shooting fish in a barrel setup and plenty of ways to plug in, connecting the Dell S3220DGF to your desktop is effortless (provided you lot tin suit its large curve and hefty brandish stand), and switching between presets for various game genres is only every bit easy. While navigating the card can be a pain, yous'll have plenty of options at your disposal — even if the default settings will habiliment your optics out pretty quickly.

Since the Dell S3220DGF is both expensive and space-consuming, it's not necessarily the all-time gaming monitor for every PC gamer. But if yous've got your eye on a huge quad-Hard disk drive curved monitor, it's at least a good place to starting time. Read on for our full Dell 3220DGF Gaming Monitor review.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor cost and availability

The Dell S3220DGF gaming monitor costs $450, and is available through both Best Purchase and Dell'southward official website.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor design

I'm of 2 minds about the Dell S3220DGF's physical pattern. On the one hand, it looks restrained and even somewhat elegant, with a plain black chassis, an low-key bend (1800R) and a brandish stand that mirrors the curvature of its screen. On the other paw, it takes upwards a ton of space (28 x 19 x 10 inches), and is one of the heavier monitors I've reviewed at 34 pounds. If you take a inexpensive desk, this monitor will put a strain on it over time.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor review — (Epitome credit: Tom'due south Guide)

While some gamers know definitively whether they dearest or hate 32-inch monitors, I should include a few potential pros and cons for those on the debate. The Dell S3220DGF's big screen and tasteful curve do indeed brand certain games experience more immersive, since they'll take upwardly your total field of view.

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On the other hand, unless your desk is very deep, you'll nearly never be able to focus on the whole screen at once. This is troublesome in many games, and disastrous for productivity. While a 32-inch screen obviates the need for a 2d monitor, it likewise leaves you stuck with a ton of unused vertical space, and very tired eyes at the terminate of the day.

One argument for 32-inch monitors is that they're necessary to get the nigh out of 4K resolution, simply since the Dell S3220DGF is a 1440p monitor, that doesn't apply hither. I will say from my ain experience, the Dell S3220DGF didn't handle quad HD resolutions whatsoever improve than a 27-inch monitor; your mileage may vary.

Beyond that, the S3220DGF is rich in ports, with a DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, three USB ports and 3.5 mm audio jacks for both line-in and line-out. The ports are an unbelievable pain to accomplish, since the monitor doesn't tilt much in either direction, but if yous have a agglomeration of cables y'all don't intend to disconnect regularly, the ports could be useful.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor display

Bold y'all desire a 32-inch quad HD screen (pros and cons discussed above), the Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor provides a expert one. Y'all get 322 nits of brightness in regular mode, or 442 with HDR activated, as well as 133 percent of the sRGB colour spectrum and a color accurateness Delta-E of 0.2 (lower is ameliorate). Of all the gaming monitors nosotros've tested in the few months, the S3220DGF'southward brightness and spectrum are amidst the meridian contenders; its color accuracy is the best, hands-downwards.

Qualitatively speaking, the effulgence really presents a fleck of a problem. At default settings (75 percentage), the screen was vivid plenty to injure my eyes, especially at night. Even with the brightness lowered, there'south a lot of screen to accept in all at once, and you'd have to position your chair pretty high to become your head at the center of it. Almost of the presets are optimized for gaming, and take a bad habit of obscuring text — just they're also easy plenty to switch, when y'all're between applications.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor gaming functioning

Flowing waterfalls and eerie caves felt real and immediate in a fashion that's difficult to replicate on a flatscreen monitor

The Dell S3220DGF gaming monitor works well enough in some games, and beautifully with others. To exam the auto, I ran it through Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (beta), Doom Eternal, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy XIV.

Across genres, the graphics looked proficient at 1440p, and the frame rate was shine (up to 165 frames per 2d). Since I have an older machine with an Nvidia card, I wasn't able to take advantage of the monitor'due south AMD FreeSync capabilities, or get 100+ frame rates. Simply gamers with powerful AMD machines shouldn't have any problem taking advantage of both. The S3220DGF likewise offers a variety of presets, for genres similar MOBA/RTS, FPS and RPG, all of which looked quite good in-game — and quite bad back out in Windows.

While it was a little difficult to wrangle my units across such a wide infinite in Historic period of Empires Iii, the S3220DGF really came into its own for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Here, flowing waterfalls and eerie caves felt real and firsthand in a way that's hard to replicate on a flatscreen monitor, and a large, detailed Lara took center phase in each screen. It's the best I've ever seen the game look, and I'll exist a little disappointed to get dorsum to a smaller, flatter monitor.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor interface

Similar a lot of other devices in this category, the Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor has a tedious, convoluted interface that nonetheless allows you to practice a lot of interesting things. Merely bringing upward a menu tin exist a hurting. Although the monitor has a whopping half dozen navigation buttons, none of them brings up a menu when commencement pressed; you have to press twice to get anywhere.

Switching presets is fairly easy, only tinkering with more than circuitous bill of fare options (sharpness, shortcuts, timers and and then forth) requires punching your way through eight different menus with four of the six buttons. If you want to customize your whole monitor experience, from presets to gaming options, you may also just set aside an hour or two.

Dell S3220DGF Gaming Monitor verdict

If you accept zero else away from our Dell S3220DGF review, call back this: It's not for the faint of heart. This is a huge, heavy monitor that will consume up a ton of real manor on your desk and remove $450 from your wallet. You can go non-curved QHD monitors in this size for at to the lowest degree $100 less — and even some curved models. Granted, the Dell S3220DGF is a good machine, and the visitor'due south monitor pedigree is well-earned. Whether that's worth the premium cost is upwards to you.

While I appreciated the S3220DGF'southward smooth performance and detailed screen, I was also very eager to pack it upward and replace it with something smaller, sleeker and easier on my field of vision. But if you lot know that a 32-inch quad HD monitor is what you want, the Dell S2330DGF is a solid choice with a handful of helpful perks.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a scientific discipline writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and applied science. Later hours, you tin can discover him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.