Alienware 34-Inch QD-OLED Monitor Review

Samsung blended the vast shade gamut generated through its Quantum Dot technology with the exactly emitted mild, deep blacks and speedy pixel response of OLED. Alienware took that QD-OLED panel and turned it into a tremendous gaming monitor, which the employer announced at CES 2022. The 34-inch Alienware 34 Curved Gaming Display (AW3423DW) has a significantly updated layout over its final-era widescreen linemates; it highlights the thin profile of the screen, modifications up the again lights and stands, and tweaks the format of the controls and connections. It will pass on sale here by the give up of March for a not-extraordinarily-less costly however now not overpriced $1,299.

Though you may want to apply it with a console like an Xbox Series X/S or PS5/PS4, way to its TV-like display, it is no longer an extraordinary match, no longer least due to the aspect ratio. If you do want it due to the fact you just have one place in your table to in shape a display for both PC and console and would like a widescreen version, get geared up for a few ugly pillar-boxing with the console.

Give it to me in 16:nine 4K and I'm there. But that might require HDMI 2.1. Sure, I'm disillusioned that this monitor does not guide HDMI 2.1, and for the reason that Alienware explains at length why this is in its reviewer substances, I'm guessing it is a commonplace complaint. The employer's bottom line approximately that: There's no manner to take benefit of any HDMI 2.1-particular skills, so it is no longer necessary.


How's that screen?

Alienware 34-Inch QD-OLED Monitor Review

The display is DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified and can hit 1,000 nits height brightness, though those are via one-of-a-kind modes. Though it might be nice to now not must switch backward and forward, you may see why when you examine them. In 1,000-nits mode, Windows crushes the lesser values -- those it makes use of -- into a smaller area, resulting in the flat, darkish appearance that people don't like. 

OLED is extraordinary for its capacity to render vivid highlights without losing a variety of elements, however at the same time as everybody else sees highlights I see shadows -- yes, it's likely a metaphor for my lifestyles -- and I've constantly hated the manner OLED sacrifices detail and shows important shade shift inside the darkest shadow areas. The shade shift isn't a huge deal until you are enhancing images or motion pictures, but the clipping inside the blacks, which many people do not even notice, makes me nuts. Boosting it via gamma modifications just seems unpleasant. 

Better rendering of the shadows plus the progressed accuracy come way to the Quantum Dot generation plus the usage of a blue OLED backlight (rather than white). The greater shadow element genuinely boosted the creep component when tromping via the darkest areas of Resident Evil Village. 

The regular complete-display brightness at the default seventy-five% putting is set 240 to 250 nits. That's regular for OLED, and its black blacks typically result in comparison that makes that dimness more proper than it's far on an IPS screen. Still, there had been instances once I located myself boosting that a piece.

DHDR mode preserves the colors and brightness that make the interface look ordinary. So you may leave DHDR mode on all of the time; for 1,000 nits, you may need to turn Windows' HDR on and off as wanted. It may additionally require extra power, which the reveal steadily reminds you whilst you grow the brightness (in SDR) past its default seventy-five%. 

Plus, the brightness in 1,000-nits mode handiest reaches that high in as much as a 5% window (approximately a four.Five-via-four.5-inch square), while DHDR peaks at 605 nits in a ten% window; depending upon what you are gambling or viewing, the marginally much less-vivid choice may be better. Deathloop's granular HDR settings permit you to make the maximum of the difference, consisting of in the beginning resurrection cut scene rendering of daylight on the water. In widespread, the sport appears exceptional in this show.

There are a handful of recreation-precise profiles which fantastically very mixtures of white factor, gamma, and brightness. There aren't any HDR recreation profiles, even though.

Like maximum OLED panels, it covers the complete P3 gamut. It's also a manufacturing facility calibrated, and you may transfer among P3 and sRGB profiles thru the onscreen menus in a specific Creator mode, which also helps you to change the gamma settings, from 2.0 to 2.6, independently.

Both drop brightness down to fifteen% consistent with preferred conventions and sRGB limits the color space to that gamut rather than the entire native area; you don't discover that much in gaming video display units, but it could be vital for color work. The P3 preset is near, but the red primary extends beyond the bounds of the coloration area, which throws its accuracy measurements off (and affects pores and skin tones). These can both be tweaked with software calibration.


Updated design

Alienware 34-Inch QD-OLED Monitor Review

I've no lawsuits about the image nice, although it stays to be visible how this new panel era will age. OLED brightness may also decay unequally (it's still an unknown) through the years, which could result in uniformity problems, and in case you sport for long hours with a desk-bound HUD, photograph retention or burn-in might be a difficulty. Dell does guarantee it for burn-in for 3 years. 

As for the layout, it's updated to look a bit sleeker searching than preceding comparable models. The thin OLED display screen is hooked up to a significantly thicker, vented section that homes the electronics and cooling. I nonetheless determined it was given a bit of heat sitting in the front of it, though no longer almost as bad as some of the 1,000-plus nit displays I've used.

The cable management gadget has you feed the cables up thru the space at the base of the stand and out through a hole on the alternative aspect; then you route them through a single channel to the ports. It's quite awkward, especially for thicker, stiffer cables. Like many widescreen video display units, the AW34 doesn't rotate, which makes gaining access to the connectors difficult.