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  1. Product

Dell S2721QS: Main Discussion

All updates to this product will be posted below. Click 'Follow Product Status' to receive notifications when there are updates for this product.

  • Product Purchased
    Oct 27
  • In The Lab
    Nov 4
  • Testing
    Nov 13
  • Writing Review
    Nov 18
  • Editing
    Nov 19
  • Final Review
    Nov 23
    Full Review
Posted 10 months ago

Our full review is now available.

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  1. 11
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    This can be the true high end monitor overall

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    This is going on sale at Dell’s web store in the US and Canada tomorrow by the way. I’m dropping my votes here, though I suspect RTINGS will jump on it anyway since it’s the first monitor with this panel. I might also try to order it day 1, and I’ll post my thoughts here when I get it if so.

  3. We’ve purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.

  4. 6
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    How about the AW2725DF?

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    I’m waiting for this one tbh

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    I doubt it will be bad. Hopefully it will become available in Europe soon,

  7. 8
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    I’ve had this for 24h now, and it’s an absolutely beautiful display. The HDR performance is almost identical to the 21:9 panel, and it’s configured well here, making for a stunning and accurate image. Text clarity is just not an issue anymore. You have to get right up against the panel to notice any color fringing, and text is clear and crisp overall. VRR is very smooth and largely flicker-free in my experience. The only VRR flickering I’ve noticed has been on loading screens.

    The Dolby Vision support is a bit buggy, though I believe this is a graphics driver-related problem, as some nvidia driver versions are bug free while others are quite buggy (AMD’s drivers are buggy too). The biggest problem is that, when you have HDR mode enabled in Windows, the Windows desktop and all SDR apps are seen as Dolby Vision content. The issue here is that there is display flickering when you switch between HDR10 and DV content. So when you alt tab while playing an HDR10 game, there will be flickering. Or even when there’s an SDR overlay element that pops up over your screen while playing an HDR10 game, you will get flickering since the monitor sees that overlay as DV content. If this is indeed a driver-side issue, then it may be on Nvidia and AMD to fix this. In the meantime, Nvidia users can stick to driver version 546.17 to avoid the issues. It’s just a couple months old, so it should be fine to use. A quick pro tip for those sticking with the latest drivers though: switch to Dolby Vision Dark mode. That seems to be the most accurate DV mode, and the SDR content picture accuracy is very good when in that mode. It’s a more accurate SDR image than any of the actual SDR picture modes this monitor ships with. (so for once, it’s better to just stay in HDR mode all the time.)

    DV oddities aside, it’s a great monitor with stunning picture quality. Every type of content I’ve thrown at this thing has looked beautiful. The high resolution and 240hz refresh rate is also a luxurious combination that feels great to use. That said, people who were hoping for a generational improvement over last gen panels may be a bit disappointed. This really is like a 4K 240hz AW3423DW with all the same performance and noticeably better text clarity. I think that makes for a pretty great monitor, though I’ll admit I wish it had an ABL curve more like the WOLED panels. In any case, here’s hoping that those DV bugs won’t take long to iron out, whether by Dell or Nvidia/AMD.

    Edited 1 year ago: added aw3423dw comparison at the end
  8. 3
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    I was hoping for a touch more overall SDR brightness from a QD-OLED panel before pulling the trigger. But, even if the AW3225QF fails to achieve higher SDR brightness than the 21:9, I may still take the plunge (pending numbers from Rtings). I was hoping for more brightness but I really insist on aspect 16:9, and the other benefits of QD-OLED seem just amazing

    Edited 1 year ago: detail
  9. 3
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    Does anyone know an approximation to how long it usually takes them from purchase, to arrival, to get to testing and releasing a statement/the test results? Really looking forward to this one.

  10. 3
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    Does anyone know an approximation to how long it usually takes them from purchase, to arrival, to get to testing and releasing a statement/the test results? Really looking forward to this one.

    Curious aswell, checking this website serveral times a day cause i wanna see rtings results of AW3225QF.

  11. 2
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    Curious aswell, checking this website serveral times a day cause i wanna see rtings results of AW3225QF.

    Yes, eventually even made an account to follow the product status and perhaps vote. Crossing my fingers for a good result.

  12. 4
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    Does anyone know an approximation to how long it usually takes them from purchase, to arrival, to get to testing and releasing a statement/the test results? Really looking forward to this one.

    The full review usually comes out two weeks after they begin testing, though the early access review (which is just the data/scores) are usually available a week in advance. Plus or minus a few days for both of these, depending on how complicated of a review it is and how busy the team is.

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    The full review usually comes out two weeks after they begin testing, though the early access review (which is just the data/scores) are usually available a week in advance. Plus or minus a few days for both of these, depending on how complicated of a review it is and how busy the team is.

    Thank you dk382, that gives us an approximation. Feels like it might be worth checking out the membership too. This is often the go-to channel for buying decisions and that timeline just goes to show how detailed and seriously they work! :)

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    Sorry for the delay, I think dk382 did a pretty good job covering expectations for reviews haha. But generally speaking, the biggest delay on our end, is shipping. Sometimes we have to purchase products from the US which can make the wait time a little longer too. In this specific case, Dell actually revised our expected delivery date. Assuming the new date is accurate, the product is supposed to be delivered by EOD on the 20th. We’ll do our best to start testing ASAP once it arrives, and we’ll post updates in this thread once we have them!

  15. 3
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    How much is gray/purple tint visible in different lighting condition? And how much it influences contrast? I heard that sometimes QD-Oled has brighter black that VA or other types of matrics. Is it so bad?

  16. 3
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    I m waiting for test result. I m owner aw3423dwf but with 13900k and 4090 fe i m thinking about buy this monitor for 2nd monitor in my desk. Do u think is it good idea?

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    Sorry for the delay, I think dk382 did a pretty good job covering expectations for reviews haha. But generally speaking, the biggest delay on our end, is shipping. Sometimes we have to purchase products from the US which can make the wait time a little longer too. In this specific case, Dell actually revised our expected delivery date. Assuming the new date is accurate, the product is supposed to be delivered by EOD on the 20th. We’ll do our best to start testing ASAP once it arrives, and we’ll post updates in this thread once we have them!

    Any word on the 27 inch ?

  18. 4
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    Any word on the 27 inch ?

    No immediate plans to buy it, but you can track our potential review here.

  19. The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.

  20. 4
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    THIS is the REVIEW I am waiting for

  21. 3
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    I m waiting for test result. I m owner aw3423dwf but with 13900k and 4090 fe i m thinking about buy this monitor for 2nd monitor in my desk. Do u think is it good idea?

    Yes.

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    Sorry for the delay, I think dk382 did a pretty good job covering expectations for reviews haha. But generally speaking, the biggest delay on our end, is shipping. Sometimes we have to purchase products from the US which can make the wait time a little longer too. In this specific case, Dell actually revised our expected delivery date. Assuming the new date is accurate, the product is supposed to be delivered by EOD on the 20th. We’ll do our best to start testing ASAP once it arrives, and we’ll post updates in this thread once we have them!

    Thanks for updating and keeping us in the picture! I think there is a great audience patiently waiting to see what your tests will conclude about this product and if it is solid enough compared to the competing 4k 32 inch monitors. The same goes for the 27 inch models. I did not know that Rtings is outside of the USA, are you a Canadian enterprise? Great to see that the product arrived and have a good weekend!

  23. 3
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    Thanks for updating and keeping us in the picture! I think there is a great audience patiently waiting to see what your tests will conclude about this product and if it is solid enough compared to the competing 4k 32 inch monitors. The same goes for the 27 inch models. I did not know that Rtings is outside of the USA, are you a Canadian enterprise? Great to see that the product arrived and have a good weekend!

    Yep! Our office is based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada! :)

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  25. Our testers have started testing this product; is there anything specific you’re looking to see? Let us know in this thread.

  26. 5
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    hi Rtings, would like to see in the review how windows is supporting the dolby vision. does it work or does it come with issues? for the rest iam looking forward to see youre general review about the monitor. On paper it look the monitor to buy.

  27. 4
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    RE: anything specific you want to see?

    I’d like to know the best settings for the lowest possibly latency/pixel response time possible. You might already do that but I need my FPS games to be as responsive as possible so that would be helpful!

  28. 3
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    Please test if the HDMI eARC works as intended for soundbars. It is rather new for monitors to support eARC.

    Questions I am interested in: 1) Is it possible to get sound through eARC from a PC connected via the displayport? 2) Is the monitor able to pass through 5.1 and Dolby Atmos via eARC?

  29. 4
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    I m waiting for test result. I m owner aw3423dwf but with 13900k and 4090 fe i m thinking about buy this monitor for 2nd monitor in my desk. Do u think is it good idea?

    Could you tell us a little bit more about what your use case will be for the 2nd monitor (e.x. 16:9 gaming, discord/slack/socials, music, browsing, etc…)? If it’s not something that requires the bells and whistles of this monitor (240Hz 4K OLED), you could still get something that suits your needs, and has good picture quality (perhaps even a 120Hz 4K OLED) without breaking the bank.

    If you are interested in the product for aesthetics or you have a specific setup need, it’ll still be worthwhile waiting for the review though, as we have started testing it!

  30. 4
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    “Our testers have started testing this product; is there anything specific you’re looking to see? Let us know in this thread.”

    Primarily know about the build quality and if this is true that it has VRR flickering (which apparently is not an issue with the 27 inch model). Dolby Vision is a + but seems to have problems and Nvidia users need to rollback the last firmware update 546.33 to 546.17 (https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/1960gsu/psa_for_new_aw3225qf_owners/) and how Dell and Nvidia usually handle these things. Another post suggested eye strain after 3-5 hours of use, where a commenter pointed out it has to do with PWM and that the screen should be used at high brightness to avoid eye strain. Is this true? And if so, what is the reason? (Transient spikes, blue light..) Please give insight as well to if there are benefits for future systems if it had DP 2.1 (Gigabyte Aorus, HP Transcend 32) or if there are none to be had, especially considering multi-screen setups. Will these setups be possible even with DP 1.4 with DSC or is this only a matter of the signal output handling of the GPU (Let’s say with a future GPU having 3 displays at 240 Hz and 4k resolution). Lastly, insight on colour correctness when viewing Dolby Vision content, content in HDR and SDR (is there any “AI” enhancement) and gaming in HDR and SDR.

    Thank you and I am looking forward to this one and future reviews.

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    Please look into the issue many are reporting of the monitor getting stuck in Dolby Vision mode. Folks elsewhere are having to revert back several NVIDIA driver releases (546.17) to correct the issue, and as far as I know, there is no current fix for AMD users. Also, please check 2.2 gamma curve tracking in SRGB creator mode, as many are saying it’s not following 2.2 and other modes such as 2.0 and 2.4 are more accurate. I am sure most issues will be fixed in future firmware updates - would be nice if you have the power to reach out to Dell/Alienware if you encounter such issues to see if they are aware.

    Edited 1 year ago: extra info
  32. 5
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    I’m mentioning the following because I have the AW2725DF which is clearly a related product that’s also using a gen 3 QD-OLED panel, so its problems may also be present on the AW3225QF.

    1) The biggest problem is that the pixel shifting algorithm moves the image past the left/right physical display pixel boundary resulting in a clipped image. I wouldn’t care as much if the product was a TV but this is a PC monitor so I expect the entire image to be visible at all times.

        My AW3423DW does not pixel shift the image out of the physical display area which is what I expected to occur with the AW27~.
    

    2) Turning the monitor off via its power button results in the unit behaving as if the DP/HDMI cable was physically disconnected which results in Windows desktops being rearranged, Windows acting like it’s having a seizure, and potentially BSODing (e.g. Kernel Mode Trap) if something like a game is running. This is an extremely annoying but well-known issue for PC users (e.g., Google search for “monitor hot plug detect disable”).

        My AW3423DW does not behave this way. When I press the power button on it, the display turns off but the GPU and Windows still sees the monitor as being connected.   This is useful when I want to manually minimize burn-in and/or trigger automatic pixel refresh/cleaning if needed when I'm away from the PC or not actively using the monitor.
    

    3) Toggling between HDR/SDR mode in the monitor also results in the disconnect/reconnect behavior as in above (2).

    4) Nvidia DSR does NOT work in any configuration when the AW2725DF is connected via DP. It does work ONLY via HDMI at up to native 1440p @ 8bit 144Hz.

    So @RTINGS or others that have either of these monitors:

    Please let us know if the any of the above issues exist with the AW3225QF.

    Edited 1 year ago: Clarify & add DSR issue
  33. 3
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    Could you tell us a little bit more about what your use case will be for the 2nd monitor (e.x. 16:9 gaming, discord/slack/socials, music, browsing, etc…)? If it’s not something that requires the bells and whistles of this monitor (240Hz 4K OLED), you could still get something that suits your needs, and has good picture quality (perhaps even a 120Hz 4K OLED) without breaking the bank.

    Hi Nicholas,

    I posted some like important issues that I have with my AW2725DF that could pertain to the AW3225QF which I think many will like to know prior to making a purchase:

    https://www.rtings.com/discussions/S1E8DRUj46oXYQjF/review-updates-unknown-aw3225qf#comment-91286

    Hopefully your reviewers can look into it as part of the assessment. Thanks!

    Edited 1 year ago: to reply directly to Nicholas
  34. 6
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    Please investigate eye strain with this monitor

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    Been coming here everyday and hoping the review is up! Never put more trust into a decision of buying something than I do RTINGS right now.

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    I’ve had this monitor for 4 days now… something is seriously with it. The colors are all over the place between PC and Mac, Gamma 2.2 is broken, other issues as well. Oddly my biggest complaint is that it’s causing some serious eye strain for me. This is my first OLED so it could just be my eyes adapting to the monitor but it’s something I’ve never encountered before with a monitor. Please validate my claims lol, I think I’m going crazy.

  37. 3
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    “Our testers have started testing this product; is there anything specific you’re looking to see? Let us know in this thread.” Primarily know about the build quality and if this is true that it has VRR flickering (which apparently is not an issue with the 27 inch model). Dolby Vision is a + but seems to have problems and Nvidia users need to rollback the last firmware update 546.33 to 546.17 (https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/1960gsu/psa_for_new_aw3225qf_owners/) and how Dell and Nvidia usually handle these things. Another post suggested eye strain after 3-5 hours of use, where a commenter pointed out it has to do with PWM and that the screen should be used at high brightness to avoid eye strain. Is this true? And if so, what is the reason? (Transient spikes, blue light..) Please give insight as well to if there are benefits for future systems if it had DP 2.1 (Gigabyte Aorus, HP Transcend 32) or if there are none to be had, especially considering multi-screen setups. Will these setups be possible even with DP 1.4 with DSC or is this only a matter of the signal output handling of the GPU (Let’s say with a future GPU having 3 displays at 240 Hz and 4k resolution). Lastly, insight on colour correctness when viewing Dolby Vision content, content in HDR and SDR (is there any “AI” enhancement) and gaming in HDR and SDR. Thank you and I am looking forward to this one and future reviews.

    This monitor is definitely causing eye strain for me. No idea was PWM is but I’ll be looking into it. As far as I understand, running an OLED monitor at 100% brightness all the time is a death sentences for the monitor and accelerates burn in.

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    Hi there, I on the hunt for a perfect balance monitor, for work and gaming. For work I use my Mac Studio and for gaming and some work I use my PC with a 4080 in it and I believe this is the monitor I’ve been waiting for. I’ve try Samsung latest Oled g9 49 inch and I don’t like it, lots of problems and the screen already do some random mark. So I think I would go for this Alienware AW3225QF, since I’ve used Alienware for last 3 years without any issue. So for me a review by you guys will mean a lot for my next 4-5 years monitor. Thx guys

    Not a great monitor for productivity and MacOS makes you jump through hoops to get a proper image and clarity.

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    Hi there, I on the hunt for a perfect balance monitor, for work and gaming. For work I use my Mac Studio and for gaming and some work I use my PC with a 4080 in it and I believe this is the monitor I’ve been waiting for. I’ve try Samsung latest Oled g9 49 inch and I don’t like it, lots of problems and the screen already do some random mark. So I think I would go for this Alienware AW3225QF, since I’ve used Alienware for last 3 years without any issue. So for me a review by you guys will mean a lot for my next 4-5 years monitor. Thx guys

    Hi there yes I’m mostly interesed in is response time, g-sync and color accurency, cause I believe the rest will be as speces out on there website. Thx

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    Not a great monitor for productivity and MacOS makes you jump through hoops to get a proper image and clarity.

    Thx for the comment. That gives me good tips to decide.

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    Hi Nicholas, I posted some like important issues that I have with my AW2725DF that could pertain to the AW3225QF which I think many will like to know prior to making a purchase: https://www.rtings.com/discussions/S1E8DRUj46oXYQjF/review-updates-unknown-aw3225qf#comment-91286 Hopefully your reviewers can look into it as part of the assessment. Thanks!

    Hi, thank you for the suggestions on things to look at for this monitor. We’ll certainly have a peek during testing.

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    Hi I’m curious to see the review on this monitor!!

    I’m in the market for a new monitor. I’m close to pulling the trigger on the LG 32GR93U-B however part of me is holding out a bit to see how this review turns out.

    For context, I spend most of my time doing UI Design in programs like Figma and/or playing RPG games like Baldurs Gate, WoW, etc.. with some occasional halo here and there. I have an RTX 3060ti.

    I’m curious to see mostly how the text clarity is on this monitor (if it is better than an IPS or even remotely close), how the color accuracy is with sRGB and also DCI-P3.

    Im slightly worried about burn in from long gaming sessions too, especially RPGS where my HUD stays on the screen for 3-6 hours at a time.

    You think I should hold out for this? Or go with the LG for nearly half the cost (around $700 USD)? Only thing with the LG is it’s locked at 144hz but I doubt I’d notice a difference going any higher doing the kind of stuff I do.

    Overall I feel like gunning for the Alienware might be a bit more future proof despite the high cost. What do you think?

    Edited 1 year ago: Adding new content
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    Hi there, as part of the review / comparison, were you guys planning to describe how the text clarity would compare to the LG 27 inch OLED from last year and the Alienware 34 inch OLED? This was the main reason I held off on buying last year as I plan to use the monitor for productivity (lots of reading and coding), watching shows, and gaming.

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    I’ve had this monitor for 4 days now… something is seriously with it. The colors are all over the place between PC and Mac, Gamma 2.2 is broken, other issues as well. Oddly my biggest complaint is that it’s causing some serious eye strain for me. This is my first OLED so it could just be my eyes adapting to the monitor but it’s something I’ve never encountered before with a monitor. Please validate my claims lol, I think I’m going crazy.

    I’ve had this monitor for 13 days now.. Only issue I’ve had is locked Dolby Vision on latest Nvidia drivers. Though you can fix that by physically turning on and off the monitor after enabling HDR. Colors are perfect, gamma is perfect, and absolutely no eye strain.

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    Will the review finally be posted online today?

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    SRGB mode gamma issue in HDR is fixed by way of changing to the color space. Then turning HDR off, then back on.

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    Will the review finally be posted online today?

    We expect to finish testing this monitor early next week, with our early access results being available shortly after!

    Edited 1 year ago: clarity
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    We expect to finish testing this monitor early next week, with our early access results being available shortly after!

    Are you going to compare or maybe test this product too? MSI coming in hot with 950$ US and 800$ respectively in about a week. Where release window seems to be 1st-6th of February in Europe at least.

    https://us-store.msi.com/MPG-321-URX-QD-OLED?search=Oled https://us-store.msi.com/MPG-271QRX-QD-OLED?search=Oled

    Also, i found this to be an interesting post, about Dolby Vision issues (finally someone from Nvidia wrote, but no comment from Dell yet afaik).

    https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/s/7jfz7JOkzT

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    We expect to finish testing this monitor early next week, with our early access results being available shortly after!

    Hey. Can you guys please change your testing methodology and provide more information on the color accuacy including white point and delteE for ALL of the presets for both the sRGB color gamut & DCI-P3 selected on the monitor ? You only provide the data for the most accurate preset but dont let us know how the other presets performed with both color gamuts. Especially since the most accurate one often locks a lot of settings. On such expensive monitors it would be awesome to have the measurements for all of the presets for both color gamuts.

    I would really appreciate it. You should do that for both the 32" and 27" OLEDS. Thank you very much.

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