Dell G3223Q: Two minute review
While the Dell G3223Q gaming monitor isn’t coming in with wild specs, its bringing 4K/144Hz to a large, bright display at a respectable price, at least when it’s discounted below Dell’s suspect MSRP.
The best gaming monitors have some stunning options among them, and new technologies are shaking up the field, like the QD-OLED panel on display in Alienware’s recent AW3423DW. Unfortunately, Dell’s G3223Q lags behind many of these trends, and it makes it’s price tough to justify.
The Dell G3223Q is available for $1,099 (£659 / AU$1,499), which is very expensive for what you’re getting, though Dell has dropped this price down as much as 30% on it’s site. Whether you can get a lower (and more justifiable) price is another matter, and it shouldn’t come down to luck whether you get a good value.
What feels so egregious about the high MSRP is that the Alienware QD-OLED monitor is only $200 more and it brings game-changing display tech. And LG’s 42-inch C2 OLED isn’t far at that point either.
Dell G3223Q Key Specs
Panel size: 32 inch
Panel type: Fast IPS
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 600 nits
Contrast: 1000:1
Pixel response: 1ms GtG
Refresh rate: 144Hz
Inputs: 2 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x DP 1.4, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1 x Audio Out (3.5mm)
Meanwhile, Dell’s G3223Q gaming monitor is something of a gaming version of the Dell G3223QE with the panel swapped for the purpose. But it also swaps ports, upping bandwidth for display connections to support the faster refresh rates needed for gaming but dumping USB-C, the KVM switch, and the outbound DisplayPort connection for daisy chaining monitors.
Instead of a 32-inch business display, we’re looking at a 32-inch 4K/144Hz display boasting 1ms GtG pixel response time, pre-calibrated color covering 95% of the DCI-P3 color space, DisplayHDR 600 for extra brightness, and FreeSync Premium Pro. But this monitor is still rocking an IPS panel with the typical pain points that come along with the tech.
Don’t write it off too quickly, though. Between the wide color gamut, the sharpness, and the in-your-face brightness of the display, the visuals can be downright stunning when HDR comes in to punch up brightness and colors to an extreme, especially for the close proximity of a monitor.
But contrast is as wanting as it’s ever been on an IPS display. When displaying HDR test footage that pairs a bright and colorful subject with a black backdrop, the panel stumbles hard. Not only is all that black area raised up to a noticeable gray, but the corners are lifted even more, so the black space doesn’t appear uniform, making it all the more distracting.
Pitch black is something to behold, but it’s not the be-all-end-all of a useful monitor. The Dell G3223Q looks great when it’s displaying lots of bright, colorful content. This includes while working with multiple windows. Text is sharp, there’s no weirdness with brightness. And even with HDR on in windows, the display doesn’t seem to get confused about what should be white and what should be almost white.
Then there’s its chops for gaming. 4K, or Ultra HD to be more specific, allows for a lot of detail to shine through, and the 32-inch panel does a great job filling up our field of view at an arm’s length away. The 144Hz refresh keeps it all flowing smoothly too, whether over DisplayPort 1.4 or the two HDMI 2.1 ports that can also serve up 4K/120Hz from consoles.
Gaming peripherals can also tidily connect to the two USB ports serving as a hub on the monitor (conveniently close to the front of the monitor instead of tucked back with the display ports). During action, there’s a bit of motion blur to moving objects, and super-fast movements can leave a trail, but there aren’t isn’t too much in the way of ghosting or coronas. Turning the overdrive to Super Fast or Extreme does introduce coronas behind moving objects, but fails to noticeably improve the motion blur. While FreeSync Premium Pro is available to keep frames looking clean, we find the monitor also plays nice with G-Sync on an Nvidia graphics card.
All of this comes built on to a fairly adjustable stand, albeit one that likes to wiggle a bit. And around back the monitor has a bit of bias lighting.
Ultimately, the Dell G3223Q is a fantastic looking monitor in the right conditions, and well balanced when it comes to features. It has some weaknesses that can crop up in specific situations, but it’s still on the pricey side for gaming monitors. If you can get it under $800/£700/AU$1,100, we can recommend it, but at its full MSRP, it’s a pass.
