Review on High Performance Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor: Height Adjustable, 240Hz, Full HD 1920X1080P - AW2518Hf by Paul Alexander

I debated whether to keep the Alienware AW2518HF or the ViewSonic XG2530 and finally settled on the ViewSonic. I've also previously bought an Acer XF250Q which I was returning due to frame drop when not using G-Sync (so not running at 240Hz), bottom screen flickering and 1ms overdrive disabled when using G-Sync Sync (works with normal response time of 4 - 6ms). At the time of writing this review, the latest iteration of the 240Hz 0.5ms panels are now available from Revain, including the AOC AG251FZ2 and the MSI NXG252R, which you should consider starting at the 1ms lot. I needed a 240Hz monitor for competitive FPS gaming. , and using it with a response time of 1 ms is absolutely necessary. At these settings, the Alienware exhibited severe ghosting/blurring, while the ViewSonic had almost no ghosting. Of course, ghosting isn't as noticeable when playing FPS since you're not moving a static image on a static background, but there's also no convenient way to toggle fast mode when you're not gaming. Alienware has terrible colors out of the box, especially when compared to ViewSonic's default colors, which match my 100+% sRGB Dell P2415Q IPS monitor. There is also no gamma setting on Alienware and it only uses 1.8 gamma which doesn't bother me as I use the same setting on the ViewSonic. I haven't messed around with color grading on the Alienware and it would help if it also had a simple ViewSonic slider to saturate the colors. When using Alienware I stopped watching movies, especially animations, as it was impossible to watch them with bad colors. With the ViewSonic, I don't have to switch to my IPS monitor just to watch. Like I said, I need a 240Hz monitor for that competitive edge, so as much as I love the ViewSonic's picture quality, I gravitate towards the faster Alienware Absolute. Input lag as measured by Tom's Hardware, where Alienware was 19ms and ViewSonic was 25ms. Not having a high-speed camera to objectively measure, I measured my performance in-game, in the real world, because although milliseconds count, ViewSonic's better image quality wins when there's no significant difference in my performance. In fact, I couldn't see a convincing difference between my performances on either monitor. I measured the pressure reflex response time and while I was able to get a more consistent 0.16-0.17s with the Alienware, I got the fastest result of 0.159s with the ViewSonic. The biggest problem with an Alienware monitor is the visible screen door ." Flicker", especially compared to ViewSonic which doesn't show it. I saved this for last as I don't know if it only applies to what I received. I have "flicker" in quotes set because I don't know if it's really flickering or is the result of the TN panel's brightness and colors changing as you move your view.But the ViewSonic has the same TN panel and it has no sign of this problem and even a very subtle and very nice "blur" filter Finally, another reason to keep the ViewSonic XG2530 is that it is a used monitor from the admin of BlurBusters (monitor test site). t and he swears by it.