When comparing Dell P2217H vs BenQ ZOWIE XL2720, the Slant community recommends BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is ranked 23rd while Dell P2217H is ranked 32nd. The most important reason people chose BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is:
You can move between different display modes with a click of a button because using the configurable fast-access switch attached to the base of the monitor.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Suitable for occasional gaming
The Dell P2217H offers good gaming experience for a general purpose display in this price range because of its reasonably low input lag and good motion handling capabilities.
The monitor feels responsive because of its input lag of 9.8 ms. Only gaming monitors in this price range outperform such result.
Motion looks reasonably clear because only tiny traces follow fast-moving objects on the screen. The monitor's pixels need only six milliseconds to change their color, which reduces motion blur.
Pro Flicker-free
This monitor doesn't put additional stress on your eyes as its backlight doesn't flicker. This is important as monitor flickering is one of the leading causes of eye fatigue.
Pro Doesn’t suffer from image retention
You can leave the monitor on for long periods without having to worry about pixel damage because the Dell P2217H does not have any problems related to image retention.
Pro Excellent ergonomics
You won't have any trouble setting this monitor according to the needs of your workspace since the Dell P2217H supports all of the necessary ergonomic adjustments. Additionally, you can easily change its orientation from landscape to portrait, and vice versa.
Pro Has a USB hub
You can charge external USB devices and connect them to a computer using the monitor's USB 3.0 hub.
The hub consists of four downstream ports that are used for connecting peripherals and a single upstream port that connects the hub to a computer.
Pro Good picture quality
The monitor's contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are on par with what the majority of competitors in this price range offer.
The monitor's IPS panel displays good-looking picture, with bright and saturated colors, reasonably deep blacks, and lifelike intermediate mid-tones. The colors pop thanks to the monitor's peak brightness of 250 nits. Dark scenes look pretty as the monitor's native contrast ratio of 1147:1 is high enough to make the IPS panel display good-looking blacks. The intermediate tones are well balanced as the monitor's gamma of 2.18 is only 1% away from the ideal value.
Additionally, color inaccuracies are very hard to spot because of its average color error dE of only 3.2.
Pro Good for general use
While it does not excel in any aspect, the Dell P2217H has enough versatility to be a decent general purpose monitor. It features good picture quality and excellent connectivity, combined with an impressive range of ergonomic adjustments.
The monitor is also suitable for occasional, non-competitive gaming since its input lag and pixel response time are low enough to grant reasonably smooth and responsive gaming experience.
Pro Has a remote
You can move between different display modes with a click of a button because using the configurable fast-access switch attached to the base of the monitor.
Pro Reduces the eye strain
The ZOWIE XL2720 causes noticeably less eye strain than the majority of competitors in its price range because the monitor is flicker-free and has a mode that reduces the intensity of blue light.
Backlight flickering and high-intensity blue light emitted by LEDs are among the main factors related to eye fatigue that is caused by extensive use of computer monitors.
Pro Decent ergonomics
You can adjust the monitor’s tilt angle, swivel angle, and height so you won't have much trouble configuring it according to your setup.
Pro Responsive OSD buttons
The five capacitive OSD buttons are built very well and react quickly each time you press them.
Pro Highly responsive
The monitor's input lag stays at the fantastically low value of 3.2 ms making the ZOWIE XL2720 one of the most responsive gaming monitors in its price range.
A monitor’s input lag represents the delay between your GPU generating a frame and the frame starting to appear on your monitor.
Pro Intuitive OSD
The OSD is organized in a user-friendly way so all of the settings in the menu are only a couple of clicks away. Additionally, you can customize the OSD menu.
Pro Displays motion well
The monitor's excellent motion handling capabilities allow the BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 to display fast-paced content free from motion blur and ghosting because of its panel's high native refresh rate and fast pixel response time.
Motion blur and ghosting effects are eliminated by the panel's quick pixels that need only one millisecond to change their color because of the monitor's full pixel response time of 1 ms. Such fast color change prevents fast-moving objects from leaving artificial trails.
The monitor’s 144 Hz panel refreshes every seven milliseconds making motion appear smooth and fluid.
Pro Good picture quality
Regarding its picture quality, the ZOWIE XL2720 is on par with the majority of gaming monitors in this price range as it offers sufficient contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma response.
While the monitor's dark scene performance is mediocre, it can still display vivid and accurate colors and eye-catching intermediate tones. It can recreate average-looking dark scenes with blacks that are neither overly flat, nor profound as the monitor's native contrast ratio is limited to 915:1. The colors pop and appear relatively accurate since the ZOWIE XL2720 combines relatively high peak brightness of 315 nits with almost unnoticeable color accuracy error dE of 2.2. Mid-tones look good and saturated thanks to the monitor's gamma response of 2.06 which is only 6.3% away from the ideal value.
Pro Built-in USB hub
You can connect up to three peripheral USB devices to your computer using the monitor's inbuilt USB 2.0 hub. This would come in handy for those who use a laptop and have a lot of stationary USB devices.
Pro Great for gaming
The BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is one of the best gaming monitors in its price range because it offers low input lag, flawlessly-handled motion, and high native refresh rate combined with decent overall picture quality.
Cons
Con Limited color space
The Dell P2217H is not the right tool for color-critical applications because it supports only 92.7% of the sRBG color space.
The sRBG is the default color space for web applications, SDR media, and the standard Windows environment.
Con Default picture settings aren't the best
You need to calibrate this monitor to achieve the best color accuracy. Fortunately, the calibration procedure of the Dell P2217H is straightforward, and all the ICC color profiles are available on the Internet. Fortunately, you won't need any specialized equipment to calibrate this monitor.
Con Lacks speakers
This monitor does not have onboard speakers.
Con Needs ambient lighting
The monitor doesn't look good in a dark room because its panel cannot fully absorb the monitor's backlight, which makes some areas on the screen look non-uniform.
This problem is common among most monitors in this price range.
Con Lacks 3.5 mm audio jack
The Dell P2217H does not have a 3.5 mm analog audio output.
Con Bad for bright rooms
The Dell P2217H can't fight glare in bright rooms because its peak brightness is not high enough.
Con Lacks adaptive sync
The BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is not compatible with either Nvidia's G-Sync or AMD's FreeSync.
Con Lacks speakers
The ZOWIE XL2720 does not have inbuilt speakers.
Con Expensive
Priced just a bit below the $380 mark, this is a pretty costly 27-inch FHD monitor.
