When comparing Dell P2217H vs Acer Predator Z301C, the Slant community recommends Dell P2217H for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” Dell P2217H is ranked 32nd while Acer Predator Z301C is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Dell P2217H is:
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.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
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 Features a USB 3.0 hub
You can use the monitor’s integrated USB 3.0 hub to interconnect or charge peripheral USB devices.
Pro Has speakers
Even though the monitor’s 6 W speakers aren’t particularly useful for gaming, occasionally they might come in handy.
Pro Has a curve
The monitor’s 1800R curvature makes the overall gaming experience more immersive as you can experience the panel surrounding you.
Pro Overclockable
You can increase the monitor’s native refresh rate from 144 Hz to 200 Hz using Acer’s overclocking feature. Such overclocking doesn’t pose any danger to your hardware and is simple to implement.
Pro Has an FPS counter
The monitor’s integrated FPS counter works flawlessly and doesn’t increase the display lag.
Pro Has G-Sync
G-Sync allows the Acer Z301C to eliminate stutter and screen tearing by synchronizing its refresh rate to the framerate of your Nvidia video card.
This feature works with all the Nvidia’s graphics cards that are newer than the GTX 650Ti.
Pro Decent responsiveness
The monitor’s high responsiveness makes actions feel instant as its input lag of 6.8 ms is too low to be sensed even in fast-paced games.
The monitor’s input lag corresponds to the time delay needed by the monitor’s hardware to process a frame generated by a computer’s GPU.
Pro Excellent motion handling
The monitor does an excellent job of motion handling because of its low full pixel response time, integrated ULNB feature, and highly responsive 144 Hz panel.
The monitor doesn’t suffer from ghosting because its four milliseconds of full pixel response time ensures that fast-moving objects don’t leave overly long traces on the screen, as it allows each of the panel's pixel to change its color within only 4 ms.
The monitor’s ultra low motion blur feature eliminates the motion blur as it makes the monitor strobe and behave like CRT monitors.
The overall motion looks genuinely fluid because of the monitor’s 144 Hz panel, which refreshes so quickly, that the image transitions look perfectly smooth to the human eye.
Pro Great for widescreen gaming
For most new games, the Acer Z301C will give you the advantage of having a wider field of view compared to those who play on 1920x1080 panels. because of the monitor’s 2560x1080 resolution. It has a very noticeable impact in many FPS games where the extended side view lets you spot your enemies faster.
Pro Exceptional picture quality
The Acer Z301C offers picture quality that few other gaming monitors can match. Its native contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are superior to most of its competitors.
The monitor’s premium quality AMVA panel displays eye-catching images, with intensely deep blacks, vivid colors, and lifelike intermediate tones and highlights. The dark scenes look amazing thanks to the monitor’s contrast ratio of 2856:1. Colors look crisp as the Z301C can get up to 355 nits of brightness. The mid tones and highlights look saturated thanks to the panel's gamma which is only 2.3% off from being ideal.
Furthermore, the monitor's overall color inaccuracies are so minor that the human eye can’t detect those.
Pro Excellent for gaming
Because of its responsiveness, motion handling capabilities, and picture quality, the Acer Z301C is among the best gaming monitors on the market.
Additionally, the monitor comes with a bunch of gaming-specific features, such as G-Sync and an FPS counter.
Pro Good for media editing
The Acer Z301C is an excellent option for those who create media for web services as the monitor can display the full range of sRGB colors. The sRGB color space is the default for the majority of web applications, including YouTube and Twitch.
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 Needs slight calibration
To unleash the monitor’s full potential, you’ll need to adjust some of its settings. Fortunately, all the key calibration parameters are available on the Internet.
