The Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) ($499.99) 27-inch monitor is a thing of beauty—even when the display itself is turned off.
True to its name, the S2719DM's 27-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel is housed in an unusually thin, gently curving frame.
You pay a price for such slimness; the monitor has a meager port selection, and its stand offers only tilt adjustment.
The monitor displays colors well, though HDR content wasn't much more vivid than standard definition.
Slim and Stylish
The S2719DM ($339.99 at Amazon) is the larger of two ultra-thin monitors released by Dell early this year, the other being the 24-inch Dell 24 Ultrathin Monitor S2419HM ($299.99).
This silver-gray monitor's most notable feature is its thinness.
The cabinet measures 13.9 by 24 by a mere 1.1 inches (HWD), and it tapers to a thickness of only 5mm at the left and right edges.
When the stand is factored in, the S2719DM measures 17.8 by 24 inches by 6.2 inches (HWD).
The bezel is also thin, barely a quarter of an inch all around.
You can adjust the stand's tilt, but there is no height, pivot, or swivel adjustment.
An oval hole in the stand's pylon lets you easily snake cables through to the ports.
You get two HDMI 2.0 input ports, in addition to a plug for the power adapter and an audio-out port to connect to a set of external speakers, with the audio fed through the HDMI connection; the S2719DM lacks a built-in sound system.
Although it's nice that you can easily toggle between the two HDMI ports to receive input from different sources, the port selection is otherwise sparse.
In contrast, the BenQ EL2870U ($299.99 at Amazon) adds a DisplayPort input to its two HDMI ports, and the Editors' Choice ViewSonic VP2768 trounces these and many other monitors with its two HDMI inputs, two DisplayPort inputs, a DisplayPort output for daisy-chaining up to four compliant monitors, and a USB 3.0 hub with one upstream port and four downstream ports.
The S2719DM has native resolution of WQHD (2,560 by 1,440 pixels).
It covers greater than 85 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and more than 99 percent of the sRGB color spectrum.
It is rated at 400 cd/m2 (nits) for standard-definition (SDR) viewing and 600 nits for HDR.
Some Gaming Chops
Dell rates the gray-to-gray pixel response at 5 milliseconds in fast mode, and 8 milliseconds in normal mode.
(You can switch between these modes from the control panel.) Input lag—as measured with a Leo Bodnar Lag Tester—came in at a very reasonable 11 milliseconds.
(The BenQ SW2700PT remains our leader, with a 9.5-millisecond input-lag measure.)
To get an idea of the S2719DM's gaming chops, we hooked up the monitor to a Sony PS4 Pro ($369.99 at GameStop) and ran sessions of FIFA 18 and Ratchet and Clank.
We saw no signs of ghosting, tearing, or other artifacts in either game.
Colors were bright in Ratchet and Clank; FIFA 18 has known problems with muted colors when run in HDR, but even so, they looked better than they did when we ran the game on the BenQ EW3270U.
Controls and Menus
The S2719DM's control scheme is typical of today's monitors.
Five tiny buttons—the on/off button, plus four additional ones—are nubbins along the bottom of the projector's frame, near the right edge.
With them, you can navigate the display's menu system.
From an initial menu, you can control parameters such as brightness/contrast, the input source, color, and personalization settings.
Brightness and contrast are set at 75 percent by default.
From the menus, you can switch between input sources (the two HDMI ports) or have the monitor auto-select one or the other.
You can also choose a color mode such as Standard (the default), Movie, Game, Warm, or Cool.
From Display, you can change the response time and switch between HDR modes.
From Menu, you can choose among eight languages for the menu system, or change the screen's transparency.
A Personalization panel lets you customize the function of shortcut keys.
Dell covers the S2719DM with a one-year warranty.
That is on the sparse side, given that many monitor manufacturers offer three-year warranties.
Spot-On Color, But HDR Only a Modest Boost
Color accuracy out of the box was quite good.
Check out the sRGB chromaticity chart below, which was generated with an SDR (non-HDR, or standard dynamic range) signal in sRGB mode using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and SpectraCal CalMAN 5 software.
My red, green, and blue color measurements (represented by the colored dots) are fairly near their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes).
Their placement just outside the triangle indicates a generous color gamut.
When viewing movies and photos in sRGB mode, colors looked true and reasonably bright.
Our chromaticity chart for the S2719DM in Movie HDR mode (below) showed a slightly wider color gamut than sRGB, though the difference was not dramatic...
HDR video that I watched looked a little more vivid than when viewed in SDR.
The S2719DM also did very well in our grayscale testing.
And the monitor's viewing angles, both from the side and above, were superb, as befitting an IPS panel.
I noted no sign of dimming or color shift, even at extreme off-center angles.
See How We Test Monitors
The S2719DM consumed a frugal 25 watts of power, a bit more efficient than two other 28-inch monitors, the Westinghouse WE28UX8310 and the AOC U2879VF, which consumed 33 watts and 36 watts, respectively, while operating in their Standard preset modes.
(Like the S2719DM, neither offers a power-saving mode.) The power consumption of the 27-inch BenQ EW277HDR ($482.96 at Amazon) was slightly lower than the S2719DM's, using 22 watts while set to Standard mode and 14 watts while in power-saving ECO mode.
It's a Lean, Mean Screen
With its ultra-thin frame, HDR compatibility, and accurate color rendition, the Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) is good choice for style-conscious consumers.
Its fairly fast pixel response and short lag time make it suitable for both gaming and fast-motion video.
The S2719DM, however, has a much more meager port selection than the ViewSonic VP2768 ($379.99 at Amazon) , which remains our Editors' Choice; it adds a USB 3.0 hub and a DisplayPort output for daisy-chaining multiple monitors.
If you are fine with HDMI connectivity, though, with the S2719DM you get a touch of style—and, at least as important, pleasing image quality.
Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM)
Cons
Limited port selection.
No built-in sound.
Lacks holes for VESA mount.
Short (one-year) warranty.
Stand offers only tilt adjustment.
View More
The Bottom Line
The Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) is a stylish display with good color accuracy and HDR support, but a limited port selection.
The Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) ($499.99) 27-inch monitor is a thing of beauty—even when the display itself is turned off.
True to its name, the S2719DM's 27-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel is housed in an unusually thin, gently curving frame.
You pay a price for such slimness; the monitor has a meager port selection, and its stand offers only tilt adjustment.
The monitor displays colors well, though HDR content wasn't much more vivid than standard definition.
Slim and Stylish
The S2719DM ($339.99 at Amazon) is the larger of two ultra-thin monitors released by Dell early this year, the other being the 24-inch Dell 24 Ultrathin Monitor S2419HM ($299.99).
This silver-gray monitor's most notable feature is its thinness.
The cabinet measures 13.9 by 24 by a mere 1.1 inches (HWD), and it tapers to a thickness of only 5mm at the left and right edges.
When the stand is factored in, the S2719DM measures 17.8 by 24 inches by 6.2 inches (HWD).
The bezel is also thin, barely a quarter of an inch all around.
You can adjust the stand's tilt, but there is no height, pivot, or swivel adjustment.
An oval hole in the stand's pylon lets you easily snake cables through to the ports.
You get two HDMI 2.0 input ports, in addition to a plug for the power adapter and an audio-out port to connect to a set of external speakers, with the audio fed through the HDMI connection; the S2719DM lacks a built-in sound system.
Although it's nice that you can easily toggle between the two HDMI ports to receive input from different sources, the port selection is otherwise sparse.
In contrast, the BenQ EL2870U ($299.99 at Amazon) adds a DisplayPort input to its two HDMI ports, and the Editors' Choice ViewSonic VP2768 trounces these and many other monitors with its two HDMI inputs, two DisplayPort inputs, a DisplayPort output for daisy-chaining up to four compliant monitors, and a USB 3.0 hub with one upstream port and four downstream ports.
The S2719DM has native resolution of WQHD (2,560 by 1,440 pixels).
It covers greater than 85 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and more than 99 percent of the sRGB color spectrum.
It is rated at 400 cd/m2 (nits) for standard-definition (SDR) viewing and 600 nits for HDR.
Some Gaming Chops
Dell rates the gray-to-gray pixel response at 5 milliseconds in fast mode, and 8 milliseconds in normal mode.
(You can switch between these modes from the control panel.) Input lag—as measured with a Leo Bodnar Lag Tester—came in at a very reasonable 11 milliseconds.
(The BenQ SW2700PT remains our leader, with a 9.5-millisecond input-lag measure.)
To get an idea of the S2719DM's gaming chops, we hooked up the monitor to a Sony PS4 Pro ($369.99 at GameStop) and ran sessions of FIFA 18 and Ratchet and Clank.
We saw no signs of ghosting, tearing, or other artifacts in either game.
Colors were bright in Ratchet and Clank; FIFA 18 has known problems with muted colors when run in HDR, but even so, they looked better than they did when we ran the game on the BenQ EW3270U.
Controls and Menus
The S2719DM's control scheme is typical of today's monitors.
Five tiny buttons—the on/off button, plus four additional ones—are nubbins along the bottom of the projector's frame, near the right edge.
With them, you can navigate the display's menu system.
From an initial menu, you can control parameters such as brightness/contrast, the input source, color, and personalization settings.
Brightness and contrast are set at 75 percent by default.
From the menus, you can switch between input sources (the two HDMI ports) or have the monitor auto-select one or the other.
You can also choose a color mode such as Standard (the default), Movie, Game, Warm, or Cool.
From Display, you can change the response time and switch between HDR modes.
From Menu, you can choose among eight languages for the menu system, or change the screen's transparency.
A Personalization panel lets you customize the function of shortcut keys.
Dell covers the S2719DM with a one-year warranty.
That is on the sparse side, given that many monitor manufacturers offer three-year warranties.
Spot-On Color, But HDR Only a Modest Boost
Color accuracy out of the box was quite good.
Check out the sRGB chromaticity chart below, which was generated with an SDR (non-HDR, or standard dynamic range) signal in sRGB mode using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and SpectraCal CalMAN 5 software.
My red, green, and blue color measurements (represented by the colored dots) are fairly near their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes).
Their placement just outside the triangle indicates a generous color gamut.
When viewing movies and photos in sRGB mode, colors looked true and reasonably bright.
Our chromaticity chart for the S2719DM in Movie HDR mode (below) showed a slightly wider color gamut than sRGB, though the difference was not dramatic...
HDR video that I watched looked a little more vivid than when viewed in SDR.
The S2719DM also did very well in our grayscale testing.
And the monitor's viewing angles, both from the side and above, were superb, as befitting an IPS panel.
I noted no sign of dimming or color shift, even at extreme off-center angles.
See How We Test Monitors
The S2719DM consumed a frugal 25 watts of power, a bit more efficient than two other 28-inch monitors, the Westinghouse WE28UX8310 and the AOC U2879VF, which consumed 33 watts and 36 watts, respectively, while operating in their Standard preset modes.
(Like the S2719DM, neither offers a power-saving mode.) The power consumption of the 27-inch BenQ EW277HDR ($482.96 at Amazon) was slightly lower than the S2719DM's, using 22 watts while set to Standard mode and 14 watts while in power-saving ECO mode.
It's a Lean, Mean Screen
With its ultra-thin frame, HDR compatibility, and accurate color rendition, the Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) is good choice for style-conscious consumers.
Its fairly fast pixel response and short lag time make it suitable for both gaming and fast-motion video.
The S2719DM, however, has a much more meager port selection than the ViewSonic VP2768 ($379.99 at Amazon) , which remains our Editors' Choice; it adds a USB 3.0 hub and a DisplayPort output for daisy-chaining multiple monitors.
If you are fine with HDMI connectivity, though, with the S2719DM you get a touch of style—and, at least as important, pleasing image quality.
Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM)
Cons
Limited port selection.
No built-in sound.
Lacks holes for VESA mount.
Short (one-year) warranty.
Stand offers only tilt adjustment.
View More
The Bottom Line
The Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DM) is a stylish display with good color accuracy and HDR support, but a limited port selection.
