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Overall
Review of Dell SE2717H
Gaming monitors are highly sought after by a lot of consumers for their fantastic speeds, aggressive design cues and a plethora of extra functionalities making them an excellent choice for people looking to upgrade from aging and typical displays or for those who are building new battle stations. The biggest caveat of this endeavor is cost. Manufacturers place a high premium on these offerings, and that extra carries over to your total spending on a capable system with a fast CPU and a capable graphics card. So it isn’t surprising that a vast majority of consumers usually only get a model which is within a lower price range, putting a larger chunk of the cash on better computer specs instead of a fancy monitor.
Manufacturers are starting to offer affordable solutions so their customers can still get in on the action on a slightly smaller scale. Enter the Dell SE2717H, an enterprise solution coming from one of the leading companies known for excellent displays like the S2716DG and the exotic Alienware gaming portfolio of products. The SE2717H looks like it was designed to fit into your workplace, but it has a certain amount of gaming pedigree thrifty enthusiasts will appreciate.
Dell SE2717H Specifications
- Screen Size: 27 Inches
- Resolution:1080p FHD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Panel Technology: In Plane Switching (IPS)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Response Time:6ms
- Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
- Brightness: 300 cd/m²
- Built-in Speakers: No
- Stand: Height – Yes (5.9 Inches)
- Stand: Tilt – Yes
- Stand: Swivel – No
- Stand: Pivot – No
- VESA Compatibility: No
- Connectivity: HDMI x 1, VGA x 1
- Dimensions With Stand(WxHxD): 24.5″ x 7.3″ x 18.1″
- Weight: 12.87lbs
Design and Features
The Dell SE2717H sports the company’s typical no-nonsense exterior design, making it a neat and timeless looking product. Bezels are reasonably thin at 10mm on three sides and 15mm on the bottom so that they won’t distract your oglers from the 27-inch screen. The cabinet has a piano black finish which attracts hairline scratches and fingerprints easily, but if you take extra care of it, the screen will look like a classy piece of kit on your desktop. The side view of this offering looks slim enough to contend with high-end models, but unfortunately, the SE2717H does not come with all the dazzles its similar-looking, but higher priced siblings have.
Connectivity is rather limited in this budget product since it only has HDMI and DVI for signal input. There are also no USB ports for accessories or audio-related hardware installed on the I/O layout. Dell could have at least added a bit of variety to the available options, but these omissions are understandable and justified by the low price. DisplayPort is ideal for Freesync operation with faster refresh rates, but by only updating your AMD drivers, you can use the function with HDMI. We prefer expanded I/O layouts so the product can bank more on the value it presents so that users can add other host devices such as consoles and Blu-ray players. There are also no built-in speakers for the Dell SE2717H, but that is a feature rarely missed by a lot of consumers.
Dell imbued the stand with the standard minimalist design they use across their product range, but this model only offers limited tilt adjustments. This fact, however, is not a deal breaker since you will not need a lot of fidgeting with the screen’s position to get a comfortable and maximized view of the IPS panel. There is a cable-tidy hole which is slightly too big considering you only have two connectivity ports on the back, but as always, the design feature is welcome for a clean setup. The material used for this part looks metallic, but it is a good quality plastic shell covering a steel frame. The build quality on the SE2717H is superb for a budget offering, and the whole product has the adequate heft to keep it stable on your desk.
Display and Performance
The Dell SE2717H has a 27-inch IPS panel with a 1920 x 1080 native resolution suitable for casual needs. At this day and age, this setup seems obsolete, but when you factor in that this model has an excellent IPS panel at sub $200, you won’t argue much further. There are multiple color modes in the OSD, but we found the Standard preset to be the most accurate out of the bunch. Accuracy and vibrancy are middling when compared to other options, but the undersaturation in the blue and red hues are rarely noticeable unless you need a professional monitor for photo editing. Contrast and grayscale output are also acceptable for casual applications, but If you want to squeeze out every ounce of performance from the SE2717H, calibration or tweaking using the Custom Color option among the built-in filters. Despite being a budget-oriented offering, we found this model to be capable of near Delta E 2.2 and capable of around 870:1 contrast ratio which are excellent results almost similar to high-end gaming offerings’ outputs.
Dell advertises a maximum brightness level of 300cd/m2, and in our tests, we have seen the SE2717H to have as much as 290cd/m2 for the maximum setting. The uniformity on our unit was excellent for the most part, and we did not notice any detrimental backlight bleeds or IPS glow which could hamper contrast and details in games. The maximum refresh rate for this model goes up to 75Hz, and the accompanying Freesync does its magic at 48Hz to 75Hz. The range is a bit narrow, but adjusting in-game settings on practical terms will produce stable FPS even on demanding titles such as Battlefield 1. 1080p is relatively easy to run with a wide selection of graphics cards even on the midrange bracket, so your enjoyment is covered. The pixel response is a bit slow when compared to expensive and exotic offerings like the Asus PG279Q which has 4ms, but we did not find any massive lagging issues when it came to the controller to screen output. For casual gaming and after hours enjoyment, the Dell SE2717H will prove its affordable worth. Our Battlefield 1 sessions ran fine and enjoyable, but FPS still does not go over 70Hz, which is ideal, so you won’t experience additional input lag which ensues when Freesync goes out of range, making buffering and V-Sync take over.
Conclusion
Dell chose to omit a lot of attractive features and accessories from the package of the SE2717H, and the specs can feel outdated for some. But at its current sub-$200 price range at the time of this review, 27 inches of Freesync-enabled eye candy is hard to contest. The IPS panel which is already a big plus by itself is capable of accuracy and vibrant colors out of the box, but you can even calibrate or tweak to get an improved output if you wished to do so. Products with this capability are getting harder and harder to find in the vast market for a wallet-friendly price, but the Dell SE2717H is a pleasant surprise. It’s fantastic capabilities justify the omissions and limitations Dell had to make to keep pricing low gracefully. The budget-conscious will surely get a kick out of the value this product brings to the table, so it is safe to say that the Dell SE2717H is a highly-recommended product.