Alienware AW3423DW Review: This OLED Gaming Monitor Is Out of This World

I agree with the adage that you need to by no means skimp on something that separates you from the bottom, however I believe it must be up to date for contemporary life. Sure, it’s smart to spend as a lot as you’ll be able to afford on high quality boots, beds, and workplace chairs, however will we give sufficient thought to the display we stare at for eight hours or extra each day? So begins my justification for dropping $1,300 on a dreamy gaming monitor.

Dell’s Alienware AW3423DW prompted fairly a stir when it landed final spring as a result of it uniquely makes use of a Quantum Dot-Organic Light Emitting Diode (QD-OLED) panel. The smartphone and TV markets had been actually shaken up when OLED got here onto the scene, and this show expertise is poised to disrupt pc displays. Boasting vivid colours, lightning-fast response instances, and inky blacks—the pixels on these screens independently mild up and switch off, delivering good black ranges—it gives quite a bit for PC players.

Lift Off

It’s not usually you get a well-balanced product in any class, not to mention shows. This Alienware’s 3,440 x 1,440-pixel decision is sharp sufficient for most folk and makes it attainable to pair the display with gaming PCs which may battle to energy a monitor with a 4K decision. Dell’s selection of a Samsung QD-OLED panel sweetens the pot, enabling greater peak brightness and larger colour quantity, conventional weaknesses of customary OLED shows.

Consider additionally the 175-Hz refresh price (you need to use the DisplayPort), which implies the display can match the frames of the video games you play. The show additionally has a mild 1800-R curve that helps make content material look immersive, and the 0.1-millisecond response time means it at all times feels snappy. The depth and accuracy of colours, mixed with the top-notch HDR assist, can be a step up. (If it issues, the AW3423DW covers 99.3 p.c of the DCI-P3 colour area.) 

After a number of months of staring on the AW3423DW (horrible title, I do know), I’ve no regrets. I’ve labored on it for a number of hours every day, nevertheless it actually begins to shine when the solar goes down and I fireplace up a recreation. From the glinting armor and flaming swords of Total War: Warhammer III to the gore and viscera of Doom Eternal and the wonderful cosmic nebulae of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, this monitor has repeatedly blown me away.

It’s not simply the luscious imagery, however the immediacy of thought into motion. The full lack of ghosting or any perceptible delay between my key presses or mouse clicks and onscreen response is refreshing. The slight curve provides to the immersion, and there’s no detectable blooming or display tearing. Officially, it helps Nvidia’s G-Sync Ultimate, nevertheless it’s value noting that it really works effective with AMD FreeSync graphics playing cards when related by way of DisplayPort.

I choose to observe films on the most important display out there in my family, however there are occasions when my youngsters have claimed the LG C1 OLED TV in my front room—this Alienware is a superb fallback. Favorites like Rogue One and Blade Runner 2049 look completely beautiful on this monitor.

There are two HDR modes. Switch on HDR Peak 1000 mode (which matches as excessive as 1,000 nits) and a torch in a darkish scene will shine vibrant sufficient to make you squint. This mode is just for films and video games in a darkish room. It’s designed for highlights, so if there’s an excessive amount of white on the display, it could’t cope, colours look off, and total brightness falls. The HDR 400 True Black mode appears to be like a lot better to me most of the time, and highlights nonetheless pop.

Build high quality is superb, and when you’re not into the sci-fi really feel of the molded white plastic and glowing blue mild on the again (it appears to be like a bit like a spaceship’s exhaust), you’ll be able to flip them off within the monitor menu—the joystick is within the center of the underside.

One factor to notice is that the Alienware AW3423DW shouldn’t be meant for consoles, and you need to keep away from utilizing both of the HDMI 2.0 ports to hook up your PC as a result of they restrict the refresh price to 100 Hz. There can be one USB-A 3.2 port in and two out, however no USB-C. 

The stand is tremendous sturdy, with built-in cable administration to maintain your desktop neat, nevertheless it took up an excessive amount of area on my desk. Luckily, there’s VESA assist, so I snagged an Ergotron LX ($189) in white that matches the aesthetic and holds the display up with no points. (I strongly advise enlisting some assist when attaching this heavy monitor to a mount.)

Back to Earth

As pleasing because the Alienware AW3423DW is for gaming and films, there’s a good likelihood that you simply, like me, must use it for work too. Sadly, it’s not best as a piece monitor, however some of the problems you’ll face are simple to repair with a little bit tweaking.