I agree with the adage that you really should in no way skimp on something that separates you from the ground, but I believe it desires to be updated for modern day life. Sure, it is sensible to devote as substantially as you can afford on top quality boots, beds, and workplace chairs, but do we give adequate believed to the screen we stare at for eight hours or additional just about every day? So starts my justification for dropping $1,300 on a dreamy gaming monitor.
Dell’s Alienware AW3423DW triggered very a stir when it landed final spring for the reason that it uniquely utilizes a Quantum Dot-Organic Light Emitting Diode (QD-OLED) panel. The smartphone and Television markets had been really shaken up when OLED came onto the scene, and this show technologies is poised to disrupt laptop monitors. Boasting vivid colors, lightning-rapidly response instances, and inky blacks—the pixels on these screens independently light up and turn off, delivering excellent black levels—it presents a lot for Computer gamers.
Lift Off
It’s not frequently you get a properly-balanced solution in any category, let alone displays. This Alienware’s three,440 x 1,440-pixel resolution is sharp adequate for most people and tends to make it achievable to pair the screen with gaming PCs that could possibly struggle to energy a monitor with a 4K resolution. Dell’s decision of a Samsung QD-OLED panel sweetens the pot, enabling larger peak brightness and higher colour volume, standard weaknesses of regular OLED displays.
Consider also the 175-Hz refresh price (you have to use the DisplayPort), which suggests the screen can match the frames of the games you play. The show also has a gentle 1800-R curve that assists make content material appear immersive, and the .1-millisecond response time suggests it normally feels snappy. The depth and accuracy of colors, combined with the leading-notch HDR help, is also a step up. (If it matters, the AW3423DW covers 99.three % of the DCI-P3 colour space.)
After a handful of months of staring at the AW3423DW (horrible name, I know), I have no regrets. I’ve worked on it for many hours every single day, but it genuinely begins to shine when the sun goes down and I fire up a game. From the glinting armor and flaming swords of Total War: Warhammer III to the gore and viscera of Doom Eternal and the glorious cosmic nebulae of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, this monitor has repeatedly blown me away.
It’s not just the luscious imagery, but the immediacy of believed into action. The total lack of ghosting or any perceptible delay involving my crucial presses or mouse clicks and onscreen response is refreshing. The slight curve adds to the immersion, and there is no detectable blooming or screen tearing. Officially, it supports Nvidia’s G-Sync Ultimate, but it is worth noting that it performs fine with AMD Totally freeSync graphics cards when connected by means of DisplayPort.
I choose to watch motion pictures on the biggest screen obtainable in my household, but there are instances when my youngsters have claimed the LG C1 OLED Television in my living room—this Alienware is a wonderful fallback. Favorites like Rogue One and Blade Runner 2049 appear completely beautiful on this monitor.
There are two HDR modes. Switch on HDR Peak 1000 mode (which goes as higher as 1,000 nits) and a torch in a dark scene will shine vibrant adequate to make you squint. This mode is only for motion pictures and games in a dark area. It’s developed for highlights, so if there’s also substantially white on the screen, it cannot cope, colors appear off, and all round brightness falls. The HDR 400 True Black mode appears substantially far better to me most of the time, and highlights nevertheless pop.
Photograph: Dell
Photograph: Dell
Build top quality is exceptional, and if you are not into the sci-fi really feel of the molded white plastic and glowing blue light on the back (it appears a bit like a spaceship’s exhaust), you can turn them off in the monitor menu—the joystick is in the middle of the underside.
One issue to note is that the Alienware AW3423DW is not meant for consoles, and you really should steer clear of utilizing either of the HDMI two. ports to hook up your Computer for the reason that they limit the refresh price to one hundred Hz. There is also 1 USB-A three.two port in and two out, but no USB-C.
The stand is super sturdy, with constructed-in cable management to retain your desktop neat, but it took up also substantially space on my desk. Luckily, there’s VESA help, so I snagged an Ergotron LX ($189) in white that matches the aesthetic and holds the screen up with no challenges. (I strongly advise enlisting some assistance when attaching this heavy monitor to a mount.)
Back to Earth
Photograph: Dell
As pleasing as the Alienware AW3423DW is for gaming and motion pictures, there’s a decent likelihood that you, like me, will have to use it for perform also. Sadly, it is not excellent as a perform monitor, but some of the challenges you will face are uncomplicated to repair with a tiny tweaking.
