Of the many sizes and shapes the best gaming monitors come in, the 34-inch ultra-wide 21:9 screen strikes a good balance between size and player immersion. It’s wider than the 32-inch 16:9 format but not as large as extreme displays like the 52-inch LG I reviewed recently.

What makes them even better is QD-OLED technology, and there, Alienware is offering a nice update to last year’s AW3425DW. It’s the AW3426DW, and it brings a few new features, like a five-layer tandem OLED for higher light output, V-stripe RGB sub-pixels for sharper rendering, a bump from 240 to 280 Hz, and a new anti-reflective screen coating. It’s still WQHD 3440x1440 pixels, and it still offers Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, and wide gamut color, and adds Dolby Vision to its list of supported content. Let’s take a look.

Alienware AW3426DW Specs

The AW3426DW’s Tandem OLED is a new variant of the technology that takes the simple approach of stacking multiple OLED layers for greater light output with less energy consumption. It also taxes the layers less, so they last longer and are more resistant to burn-in. Alienware backs this with a three-year warranty that includes burn-in. The screen has a 34-inch diagonal, a 21:9 aspect ratio, a 1800mm curve radius, and WQHD (3440x1440) resolution.

V-Stripe RGB refers to the sub-pixel layout, which is finer and more precisely applied. This makes fine text and detail sharper by reducing color fringing. With its five OLED layers, the AW3426DW now boasts higher light output than last year’s model. The VESA DisplayHDR rating is now 500 nits for a full white field and 1,300 nits for a 3% window. To cap off the imaging improvements, there’s a new anti-glare coating applied to the screen that further deepens black levels and more effectively rejects ambient light.

With 280 Hz instead of last year’s 240, the AW3426DW is a tad speedier, and my test results, which you’ll see on the next page, show a nice drop in input lag. Panel response is typical OLED-quick, resulting in perfect motion resolution and smooth action free of motion blur. Adaptive-Sync is also supported on both Nvidia and AMD platforms.

It’s no surprise that the AW3426DW supports HDR10, but now it adds Dolby Vision to the mix. The benefits of its dynamic tone mapping cannot be understated. HDR10’s tone mapping is fixed to the content metadata, which usually has a peak of 1,000 nits. If a display can’t hit 1,000 nits, or its output exceeds that, it must tone map to render all brightness steps. Dolby Vision controls this process within the content and always knows the display's actual output level. Bottom line: it’s more accurate and consistent, and it looks better. It’s a difference you can plainly see. Dolby Vision isn’t common in games, but it is common from streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+.

All other features of the AW3425DW carry over to the AW3426DW, like AlienVision and its cool aiming point/sniper mode editor. You also get USB ports and a backlit Alienware logo on the back. There’s no headphone jack or internal speaker, but the downstream USB-A and USB-C ports are on the bottom edge of the panel, where they are within easy reach. Video inputs include two HDMI and a DisplayPort.

Assembly and Accessories

The AW3426DW arrived in secure molded pulp packaging that is completely recyclable. The base, upright, and panel assemble easily with no tools needed. The power supply is internal, so you get IEC power plus HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB cables. A small microfiber cloth is provided to keep that beautiful screen free of dust and fingerprints.

Product 360

The AW3426DW maintains the aesthetic Alienware introduced last year with softly rounded corners and smooth tapers. My favorite bit is where the upright and base meet; the joint appears to float with a slender swivel point that’s barely visible. In the back is a backlit Alienware head and a polished symbol; “Alienware 30” is the official term. The head can light up with different colors and effects. A subtle vent rings the fulcrum with small perforations that keep the internals cool. A graphite layer behind the OLEDs further cools the screen.

The side photo affords a good view of the rounded aesthetic. The stand has no angles or corners at all, just a small cable hole to keep wiring tidy. Ergonomics include a 5/21-degree tilt and a 20-degree swivel. The height range is 4.4 inches, and there is no portrait mode. Movements are firm and free of play. Build quality is premium in every respect. If you’d rather not use the stand, there is a 100mm VESA mount with fasteners included.

Underneath, you’ll find a small I/O panel with two HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC). A USB upstream port supports the two downstream jacks on the panel’s edge. You get a USB Type-A and Type-C. The Type-C port supports charging and peripherals, but not video. In the center, you can see the OSD joystick that controls all monitor functions.

OSD Features

Pressing the AW3426DW’s joystick opens a quick menu at the bottom of the screen with a large status bar at the top. It shows input signal info along with the current picture mode, HDR status, panel health, and dark stabilizer setting. The quick menu has five icons that scroll left to right. They can be programmed for many different monitor functions, such as brightness/contrast, input, AlienVision, HDR, and others. Clicking the joystick up opens the full OSD.

In the Game menu, you can choose from 13 picture modes. Standard works well by default and does not require calibration if you’re OK with using the full color gamut in SDR mode. It covers 105% of DCI-P3. If you want to make adjustments, select Custom Color, where you get RGB gain/bias and color management. To access sRGB, there’s a Creator mode with a gamut selector and gamma presets.

Game Enhance Mode contains a timer, frame counter, and alignment marks, but where are the aiming points? That’s one of the coolest features of the AW3426DW, it’s called AlienVision, and it is a completely customizable set of reticles and sniper modes, eight parameters in all, that can be edited and combined in hundreds of ways to create a custom view of the game environment. Once configured, there are three memories so you can have setups for different games.

In the AlienFX Lighting menu, you can customize the behavior of the power button and the Alienware head on the back. There are lots of color and effect options, and you can turn on Aurora, which coordinates the lights with what’s happening on screen. You’ll need Alienware Command Center and a USB connection to make that happen.

The Display menu has seven HDR modes for HDR10 content, including a tweakable Custom Color option. I found decent accuracy in both Desktop and HDR Peak 1300 Bright modes. I’ll tell you more about that on page five. You can also toggle Dolby Vision on and off here.

The AW3426DW includes PIP and PBP with options for window size and position. In Personalize, you can specify the functions of the five quick menu icons and the four joystick directions. This makes it easy to quickly change something like the input or the picture mode.

OLED care is much simpler now than in previous models. Functions like logo detection and pixel orbiting are handled automatically by the AW3426DW’s firmware. The only thing you can do manually is pixel refresh. This menu also has a factory reset option. In the Information menu, you’ll find an 11-page calibration report for each monitor, along with signal information and support resources.

Alienware AW3426DW Calibration Settings

Calibrating the AW3426DW is completely unnecessary. Just leave it in the default Standard mode and set brightness to taste. There is no variable brightness for SDR, so only one value is needed. If you want to calibrate, choose Custom Color. It has RGB gain and bias, plus hue and saturation sliders for each color. To change the gamut, use Creator mode. It lets you specify sRGB or P3 and includes five gamma presets. In the three Game modes, you can also adjust color and specify a custom value for the dark stabilizer. My SDR settings are included below.

For HDR content, there are seven more modes. Desktop is the default and is similar to HDR Peak 1300 Bright in its color and luminance tracking. The latter delivers the brightest highlights and the most vivid color.

Gaming and Hands-on

I suspect that some readers here will be wondering if the AW3426DW is a worthwhile upgrade over the AW3425DW. After several days of gaming and working, I will say that it is. HDR is brighter, and the new panel with its V-Strip RGB pixel structure is clearer than before. It’s hard to quantify this since OLEDs are sharp by nature, but the AW3426DW does make an incremental improvement. Brighter HDR certainly makes an impact with highlights that pop and a dimensional quality that no premium Mini LED can match.

Color accuracy is superb both out of the box and after calibration, where I changed just two settings, one click each. The AW3426DW is truly factory-calibrated. It equals any professional monitor in terms of measured performance and image fidelity.

Gaming was an addictive experience, as it is with any fast OLED. The smooth motion that comes with panel response, measured in fractions of a millisecond, is something you can’t get from an LCD. An OLED draws the screen about 10 times faster than an LCD with an equal refresh rate. The AW3426DW’s bump to 280 Hz is also a reason to upgrade. It reduces my input lag by 4ms in my test. Could I spot that difference in gameplay? No, but I’m not a competition gamer either. Those looking for every advantage will want to give this monitor an audition.

The 34-inch curved panel proved useful for both work and entertainment. It’s just large enough for me to display two documents side by side. It requires a bit more scrolling than my 16:9 32-inch screen, but the 1800R curve isn’t too severe. There was no image distortion, but I got a nice wraparound effect when navigating first-person shooters and graphical adventures.

I appreciated the inclusion of USB ports, especially the two located on the bottom edge of the panel. It’s easy to plug in peripherals or charge a phone from the USB-C port. But I missed the 3.5mm headphone jack. And there are no internal speakers, so to get audio, you’ll need USB-capable headphones or a desktop amplifier if you want to drive cabinet speakers. And I enjoyed the AlienFX feature with its glowing Alien head. It played colors off the wall behind my desk.

Takeaway: The AW3426DW is a worthy upgrade from the AW3425DW. It’s quicker and brighter, and the image is a tad sharper than before. Input lag is lower as well, which will appeal to skilled gamers looking for every possible advantage. Color is saturated and vivid with accuracy good enough to use right out of the box. The screen’s curve strikes an ideal balance between immersion and a square image.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To compare the AW3426DW’s performance, I’ve included its predecessor, the AW3425DW, along with Asus’ PG34WCDN, Acer’s X34 OLED, AOC’s AG346UCD, and Gigabyte’s MO34WQC2. The response chart is a different group of OLEDs owing to my recent acquisition of the Nvidia LDAT tester. It includes Acer’s X27 X1, ViewSonic’s VX2738-2K, MSI’s MPG 322UR X24, Asus PG34WCDN, and Alienware’s AW2726DM.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

OLED panel response times are extremely tight, and in practice, you’re unlikely to see a difference unless frame rates are low. A panel like the AW3426DW, with its 0.24ms draw time, will retain smooth motion resolution down to about 160 fps. A faster panel like the Acer can maintain blur-free operation up to around 140 fps. If your video card can keep the action above 200 Hz, all the panels will perform equally from a visual standpoint.

In the lag test, the AW3426DW is among the fastest panels I’ve tested. The Asus is an extreme overachiever. Only a couple of other monitors can approach 10ms in my test. 14.1ms is very fast, more than enough for pro-level competition. And it’s a tad quicker than last year’s AW3425DW. Most gamers will be satisfied with the AOC and Gigabyte screens at 22ms. Remember that the fastest human reaction time is typically around 100ms.

Test Takeaway: The AW3426DW improves slightly over its predecessor, with nearly 4ms less input lag. Its panel response is on par with the other fast OLEDs I’ve tested. Motion resolution is extremely high, with moving objects rendering blur-free. It is fast and smooth enough for pro-level competition.

Viewing Angles

Most Quantum Dot OLEDs show a slight tint in 45-degree-angle photos, but the AW3426DW’s tandem OLED tech seems to have eliminated that issue. There is no change to gamma or brightness either. This is about as good as it can possibly be. Viewing angles up to 45 degrees are visually perfect. The top view has a slight red shift with a 10% brightness drop and reduced gamma.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

Fittingly, the AW3426DW aces my uniformity test and is bested only by its predecessor, the AW3425DW. Visually, there is no difference here. You won’t see any variation among these screens, as they are all below the visible threshold of 10%. It doesn’t get better than that.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

The AW3426DW is a bit brighter than last year, with over 320 nits peak for SDR. That’s from a full field white pattern. There is no variable brightness option, so you’ll see the same number from smaller windows and highlights in actual content. This does not reduce the impact of OLED’s infinite contrast and its unmeasurable black levels. The new anti-glare layer and five-layer Tandem OLED are said to lower black levels, but to the naked eye, they were already as black as black gets.

After Calibration to 200 nits

Calibration doesn’t change the black level or contrast result. It still cannot be measured. You’ll only need one brightness value since there’s no variable option. That comes into play for HDR content, though. ANSI, or intra-image contrast, also cannot be measured.

Test Takeaway: The AW3426DW offers the same black level and contrast performance as any OLED. That said, its new anti-glare layer offers better light rejection, which improves the perception of blacks in environments with medium to high ambient light levels. That is a visual observation that I cannot measure with instruments. One point in favor of upgrading your AW3425DW to an AW3426DW is the extra 60 nits of peak brightness it offers.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

The AW3426DW came to me set to Standard picture mode, which, as you’ll see, does not need calibration. There is an 11-page report stored in each sample’s firmware that you can read from the OSD. My tests confirmed that it is indeed calibrated at the factory.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

If I were just going to put the AW3426DW on my desk and use it for gaming and productivity, I would not bother with adjustments. The first chart shows that it has no grayscale errors above 2dE, and the gamma is slightly dark but very close to the 2.2 reference. This is impressive out-of-box performance.

In the Custom Color mode, you get RGB gain and bias sliders. I didn’t have to touch the bias, but I lowered red and green gain by one click each. The result was all errors below 0.5dE and a slightly tighter gamma. The visual difference is extremely small, but if you have the desire and the means, why not? This is a superlative performance.

The Creator sRGB mode has very accurate grayscale, but gamma is a tad wonky. It’s too light at 10%, making the shadow areas less black. And there’s a rise between 60 and 80%, which takes a bit of definition out of the brighter mid-tones. This is a minor error, but it would be nice to have tighter gamma. You can change the preset, but you can’t alter the curve’s shape.

Comparisons

Though the AW3426DW impresses with a 1.46dE default grayscale score, it is slightly bested by its predecessor and by the Gigabyte. These numbers are more like talking points as the visual difference can’t be seen with the naked eye. But I am here to be precise in my testing.

Calibration takes the AW3426DW down to 0.44dE, but again, it is pipped by the AW3425DW by 0.01dE. Yes, that is a hair at best. All the monitors here test extremely well.

Gamma performance is excellent but middling by comparison. The range of values is very tight at 0.08 from lowest to highest. The deviation is 2.73% with an actual average of 2.26. This is excellent performance.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

The color test result clearly shows the advantage of Quantum Dot technology. The AW3426DW fully covers all primaries, including green with slight oversaturation at all points. This means the picture will be very colorful but also well-balanced. Calibration barely makes a difference, but you can see slightly better hue tracking in cyan, magenta, and yellow.

The sRGB chart is very good overall, but with some slight undersaturation in the midrange red tones. This is an extremely small error. The AW3426DW is qualified for color-critical applications.

Comparisons

The color difference between all six monitors is extremely small. From an error standpoint, there is no visible difference. The only variation comes in the volume test, where the AW3426DW sits at the bottom of the Quantum Dot screens. It has about 1.5% less color volume than the AW3425DW, which is an invisible difference. The AOC and Gigabyte screens have a touch more green and red, but you’ll only see that in the brightest content. For everyday games, videos, and applications, all six monitors will look the same.

Test Takeaway: The AW3426DW has exemplary out-of-box color, grayscale, and gamma accuracy. It does not need calibration, but a couple of tweaks generated awesome numbers in my tests. Its color volume is on par with other Quantum Dot screens at a hair shy of 105% of DCI-P3. No one would complain about its colorful and clear image.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The AW3426DW offers higher brightness than its predecessor for both SDR and HDR content. It’s rated for 1,300 nits from a 3% window and certified by VESA for DisplayHDR 500. HDR10 signals get seven specific modes, and it supports Dolby Vision.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

For my tests, I measured HDR10 performance and noted a 70-nit higher peak for the AW3426DW over the AW3425DW. This is from a 25% window pattern. A 3% window is claimed at 1,300 nits, and this result leaves no reason for doubt. The AW3426DW is definitely brighter than before, and its HDR is more impactful. Variable brightness is in play here and cannot be turned off, not that you’d want to. This is excellent performance.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

I measured the Desktop and HDR Peak 1300 Bright modes and got similar color and grayscale results. There are no visible errors in the first chart, and EOTF tracking is solid. The trace starts a tad dark, but I could still see all the steps in a test pattern. Shadow detail is clear and visible in all cases. The tone map transition is at 65%, which is correct for the measured white and black thresholds.

In the color gamut test, the AW3426DW uses all available coverage with extra saturation for P3 and almost 80% coverage of BT.2020. All points are slightly oversaturated, which is typical of the HDR monitors I’ve tested. They all push the envelope for extra impact, and it is effective. In the BT.2020 chart, the AW3426DW runs out of color at 90% red, 75% green, and 95% blue.

Test Takeaway: The AW3426DW presents a stunning HDR image with deep blacks and very bright highlights. It is a clear improvement over the AW3425DW. If you enjoy a lot of HDR content, it’s a worthwhile upgrade. Color and grayscale are very accurate in both Desktop and Peak 1300 modes.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

The benefits of 34-inch 21:9 curved gaming monitors are many when compared to the vast array of sizes and shapes currently available. Play is enhanced by a screen that mimics VR headsets by encompassing the viewer’s peripheral vision. And this size doesn’t have a huge footprint. While jumbo screens are cool, they demand a larger desktop and can be costly. The AW3426DW strikes a good balance between usability, performance and cost. At this writing, it’s brand new to the market with an opening price of $800, the same as last year’s AW3425DW.

The AW3426DW offers several compelling reasons to upgrade. It’s brighter for both SDR and HDR content by around 60 and 70 nits, respectively. It also boasts much brighter small highlights for HDR, around 1,300 nits for a 3% window. This is thanks to its new five-layer Tandem OLED tech. Color remains vivid, with 105% DCI-P3 coverage from its Quantum Dot layer.

Speed has increased from 240 to 280 Hz, and that brings with it a 4ms drop in input lag, about 22%. That will be worthwhile to the most skilled gamers who want every possible advantage. The new anti-glare coating helps keep the image solid in bright rooms. And the V-Stripe RGB sub-pixel layout sharpens fine detail and text better as well.

At $800, the AW3426DW is a solid value among OLED gaming monitors. If you already own an AW3425DW, it’s worth upgrading for the improvements in speed, brightness and clarity. If you’re looking for your first OLED, it’s a great choice for all-around use, work, and play that is worth checking out.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

It's the Fourth of July weekend, which means that there are huge savings to be had on a whole host of tech from Dell to sink your teeth into. Dell and Alienware products are on sale right now, covering a host of productivity and gaming PCs, laptops, monitors, and gaming chairs.

The rapid rise of AI has caused the entire computing market to sink into disarray, with huge price rises across the board. Pre-built rigs now offer the best value for your money in many cases, although Dell has typically demanded higher prices for its products. Luckily, a sale event like this one is often the best time to pick up a bargain on a Dell or Alienware PC or laptop that will last you for years to come.

● Shop the Dell/Alienware July 4th deals here

The curated list below showcases the best deals on offer right now in Dell's July 4th sale, along with a couple of deals available on Dell products at other tech retailers, too. Laptops and PCs that include the latest Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs are on offer here, along with monitors with top specs. The most popular deals can and will sell out, however, so keep a close eye on any products that you'd like to jump on.

There are two coupon codes you'll want to take advantage of, too. JULY4PC25 will knock an extra $25 off certain PCs and laptops from Dell directly, while JULY4PC50 will take $50 off. Make sure to double-check the product page to see if these codes are valid, however.

Dell and Alienware Deals for July 4th

More July 4th Tech Deals

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

There are plenty of great deals out there with discounts on Intel, AMD, and Nvidia's latest mobile hardware. We're constantly combing through the best deals across multiple retailers, backing up our deal selections with in-depth reviews, benchmarks, and comprehensive historical pricing analysis. We're checking deals around the clock to find the best options and keep this page up to date, but please note that they often won't last long, so you'll need to act quickly.

There may also be some older laptops, which you should definitely avoid. For instance, anything older than one generation is better off avoided. If you have the cash, spring for a system with a GPU that has at least 8GB of VRAM, as well as 16GB of RAM and at least 512GB of storage.

We also maintain lists of the best gaming laptops, the best gaming laptops under $1,500, and the best gaming laptops under $1,000, should you want to peruse some of our favorites.

Best Gaming Laptop Deals: Quick Links

• Amazon: All Gaming Laptop Deals, up to $1,000 off
• Amazon: Up to 29% off MSI Gaming Laptops

Best Gaming Laptop Deals

More Tech Deals

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

Dell has been at the top of its game when it comes to gaming monitors for years, and the Alienware brand has delivered pivotal technological advances, ranking among the first to embrace 500 Hz refresh-rate panels and QD-OLED technology. Dell is now claiming another “first” with its 39-inch Alienware AW3926QW, along with a fresh 34-inch QD-OLED SKU and two QHD/WQHD VA entries. All four new monitors use the same Alienware 30 design language, with AlienFX lighting, 360-degree ventilation, and streamlined cable management.

Alienware’s two new OLED gaming monitors

The Alienware AW3926QW is the largest monitor announced today and is billed as the world’s first 39-inch monitor to use an RGB Stripe Tandem OLED arrangement with 5K resolution. Dell is using an LG-sourced panel with a 4-stack light source consisting of two blue elements along with red and green elements. The stacked emissive layers reside behind an RGB-stripe subpixel layout.

Because of this particular architecture, we’re expected to see further improvements in color volume and brightness, as well as in text clarity, over legacy WOLED panels.

Using LG’s tech as the foundation, the AW3926QW features a 5120 x 2160 resolution with a native refresh rate of 165 Hz. However, since the AW3926QW is a dual-resolution monitor, dropping the resolution to 2560 x 1080 boosts the maximum refresh rate to 330 Hz. Dell boasts a 1.75 million:1 contrast ratio, aided by a polarizer layer that blocks ambient light and reduces reflections. As you might expect, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync are supported, and you’ll get a 0.03 ms GtG response time with 99 percent coverage of DCI-P3.

The monitor also supports various eSports display modes, allowing you to use just a portion of the display in predefined screen sizes. For example, you can simulate a 24.5-inch monitor with a 1520 x 855 resolution with a 330 Hz refresh rate or a 27-inch monitor with a 1680 x 945 resolution and a 330 Hz refresh rate. You can also configure the AW3926QW to work as a 31.5-inch monitor with a 4K resolution at 165 Hz. In each of these eSports configurations, the unused portion of the screen will remain black.

Additional features include an enhanced “personalized algorithm” that uses machine learning to predict your usage patterns and intelligently optimize panel brightness to extend panel longevity.

On the connectivity front, the AW3926QW includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 2.1 port, and a USB-C port (DisplayPort 2.1 Alt Mode with 90W PD) for video. There’s also a USB hub with two downstream USB-A 5 Gbps ports and one USB-C 5 Gbps port.

The next new monitor on the docket is the AW3426DW, which uses a QD-OLED panel with 5-stack “Penta Tandem” technology (the blue-emitting stack has increased from 4 to 5 layers). The Samsung-based tech is said to have a 1.3x uplift in luminous efficiency and a 2x improvement in panel longevity. A V-Stripe RGB subpixel arrangement is employed to deliver clearer, sharper text without the fringing that is common on traditional QD-OLED panels.

The end result is a 34-inch panel with a 3440 x 1400 resolution, a 1800R curve, and a maximum brightness of 1,300 nits (300 nits typical). You get a native refresh rate of 280 Hz, which is available over HDMI and DisplayPort connections. VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 and Dolby Vision are supported, along with FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync.

The AW3426DW features two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 port for video. You’ll also find a USB hub with USB-A 5 Gbps and USB-C 5 Gbps ports (the latter of which supports 15W charging).

Alienware hasn’t forgotten about mainstream gamers with its new Alienware 32 and 34

There are also two monitors aimed at the mainstream gaming market: the AW3226DM and AW3426DWM. Both feature 1500R curved VA panels with a 240 Hz refresh rate, VESA DisplayHDR 400 support, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, and 1ms GtG response times.

The two monitors primarily differ in their screen size and resolution. The AW3226DM features a 32-inch panel with a 2560 x 1440 (16:9) resolution, while the AW3426DWM has a 34-inch panel with a 3440 x 1440 (21:9) resolution.

Both monitors have two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, along with downstream USB-A 5 Gbps and USB-C 5 Gbps ports.

At this time, Dell has not announced pricing for the AW3926QW or the AW3426DW, but the former will launch this fall, while the latter will be available in July. The AW3226DM and AW3426DWM debut in July, priced at $299.99 and $399.99, respectively.

Great news, Dell's Memorial Day sale includes reductions on a host of your favorite Dell and Alienware products, including productivity laptops and monitors, Alienware gaming systems, gaming laptops, and gaming monitors.

If you've been holding off on buying your next tech upgrade, in the chances of finding a bargain in the sales, then now might be the time to pounce. Dell and its gaming arm, Alienware, are well known for producing quality products, although often at a premium price point, so any price reductions are a much-welcomed sight.

● Shop all the Dell/Alienware Memorial Day deals

We've put together a curated list of some of the best deals in Dell's Memorial Day Sale, everything from powerful gaming laptops and desktops with the latest Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, to high-resolution gaming monitors and laptops. We're updating this list frequently over the course of the event, so be sure to check back often for the latest hottest deals.

The Best Deals Spotted in Dell/Alienware's Memorial Day 2026 Sale

Looking for more deals?

Best gaming laptop deals | Best GPU Deals | Gaming Chair | Best monitor deals | Best SSD deals | Best CPU deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best laptop PC deals | Best Gaming PC deals | Best RAM deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals

Alienware has typically positioned itself as a premium brand of laptops and desktops for PC gamers. With the new Alienware 15 laptop, however, the Dell subsidiary is boiling down to the essentials in the hopes to reach a wider user base and offer a cheaper laptop.

For the lowest-end configurations, Alienware is digging in the parts bin for some older components, including AMD Ryzen 200 ("Hawk Point Refresh") and Intel Core Series 2 ("Raptor Lake") CPU options and GPUs starting with the RTX 4050 Laptop GPU in the United States, though some regions will start with the older RTX 3050 Laptop GPU.

In the U.S., the starting configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 220, 16GB of RAM (1x16GB DDR5-5600), 512GB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU will start at $1,299, while the cheapest Intel variant, subbing out the Ryzen chip for an Intel Core 5 210H will run $1,349. A Dell spokesperson suggested that there may be promotions that lower the prices at some point.

Those starting GPUs have just 6GB of VRAM, where as an update to the RTX 50-series options will get you a roomier 8GB.

I had access to a pre-production unit for early hands-on time, but I wasn't able to benchmark it (stay tuned for a full review for that). My initial opinions of it were that it didn't feel like an Alienware laptop. I'm used to Alienware laptops including some aluminum or premium plastics. While this system looks the part, with the Alienware head logo and rounded edges of the company's AW30 design language, the black polycarbonate lid and bottom cover feel a bit cheap. The bezels, in shiny plastic, feel like a relic of the old Dell G-Series, and the whole thing feels halfway between a standard Dell laptop and an Alienware machine.

I'm not surprised to see plain, white keyboard backlighting, similar to the Alienware Aurora line. RGB lighting is about the easiest thing to cut.

Our hands-on unit, with an RTX 4050, had a simple rear foot. If you get an RTX 50-series GPU, the company adds the cryo-chamber found on the Alienware Aurora for some extra cooling.

The keyboard has 1.3mm of key travel, and only comes with white backlight, similar to the Alienware Aurora line. On the bright side, in a short hands-on time with it, I didn't notice much flex in normal typing. You also get a 180-degree hinge.I'm not looking forward to fully testing that display. Dell claims the 15.3-inch, 1920 x 1200 screen covers 62.5% of the sRGB gamut and offers 300 nits of brightness. That sounds about right — games and movie trailers looked dim and often washed out.

On the bright side, Alienware hasn't skimped on ports here, with two USB Type-A ports, an Ethernet jack, HDMI 2.1, and a USB-C port with charging support and DisplayPort on the left side, while the right side has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and another Type-C port. These are slower, 5Gbps ports (USB 3.2 Gen 1 on all but the USB-C port on the left, which is USB 3.2 Gen 2) but if you're only using them for accessories, that shouldn't be a big deal.

Resident Evil Requiem seemed to run fine on the device at native resolution, even during a busy mid-game boss fight with tons of fire effects, but that game is extremely well-optimized. There's no unannounced silicon in this device, so we know what to expect, for the most part. But it didn't look amazing on the screen, which was dim and bland.

There will be more expensive versions, going up to an RTX 5060, 1TB of RAM, and either a Ryzen 7 or Intel Core 7 processor. Here's a table of configurations that Alienware provided:

It is understandable why Alienware is going for a cheaper laptop. Notebooks are very expensive right now, and the budget category has all but evaporated. For real deals, you often have to go several generations back on at least the CPU. This should widen the number of people considering Alienware in this market, and people who buy the entry-level system this time around may consider an Aurora or an Area-51 in a few years, alongside any of the mice, headsets, or keyboards that Alienware also makes.

The price is questionable. It's unclear what promotions may come and drop the price down the line — perhaps holiday or back to school sales. If a less premium brand dropped a laptop like this at this price, it might actually seem downright reasonable, given the current state of components. In fact, if some of Alienware's rivals, or even Dell itself under the G-series brand, had dropped this exact laptop two years ago and this was now the going price, I think some people would think it was more agreeable. But Alienware launching a less premium notebook with old parts now might make it seem expensive for what you get, or at least feel off-brand. And some of those higher tiers are still pricey, with an Intel system with an RTX 5060 passing $2,000.

It does risk making Alienware look a bit less premium. I'm very curious to see the mainstream reception to this notebook. Dell ended its G-Series gaming laptops, which were cheaper and technically not affiliated with Alienware, when the company rebranded its laptops in 2025. But hey, at least something is coming out aimed at the masses.

Last year, Dell's gaming arm substantially updated the Alienware 16 Area-51 with a new design. This year, the laptop has a much more moderate adjustment: the addition of an OLED display, which fans of the pricey brand have been clamoring for for a few years, and that several of the best gaming laptops already have.

Without any major GPU launches, Alienware's other internal update is an upgrade to Intel's latest CPUs, which are a light refresh that didn't provide any massive upgrades to our performance in testing.

You still get plenty of ports, and the $50 mechanical keyboard is worth it – at least to my fingers. And while I can't imagine most people buy new gaming rigs on an annual basis; there's not a ton of change year-over-year.

Design of the Alienware 16 Area-51

The 2026 edition of the Alienware 16 Area-51 looks identical to last year's model, which was a total overhaul, with rounded corners and curved edges, along with a striking "liquid teal" color that stands out from other gaming laptops and looks like different colors under different light.

The lid features Alienware's alien head logo in a mirror finish, but you can't see that once it glows with RGB lighting when you turn the rig on. The lighting can also be found in a diffused ring around the ports on the back "shelf" where the ports live, as well as beneath the keyboard and around the intake fans.

The majority of the ports are at the back of the laptop, including three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a pair of Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI 2.1, and the connector for the 360-watt power adapter. The left boasts an SD card slot and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

I get why Alienware puts the ports in the back; it lets you plug in major accessories and forget about them, and allows for a clean desk. But if you want to plug in external drives or peripherals that don't always have a home on your desk, you'll have to reach around the back of this big notebook. I would have loved at least one USB port on the side, but Alienware has spent most of the real estate on the side of the laptop for exhaust in its four-fan system.

On the bottom of the laptop, there's a glass window exposing part of the motherboard and the cooler, and you can also catch some RGB lighting here. It's cool on first glance, I guess, but I'd rather have something less breakable than glass on the outside of my laptop. It would probably save some weight to switch the glass, too.

The 16-inch Area-51 measures 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches and weighs 7.49 pounds (before the 2.2-pound power adapter). I could just barely close my backpack around it, largely because of the thermal shelf at the back. And there are smaller flagship 16-inch gaming notebooks out there. The MSI Raider 16 Max HX is 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.14 inches and 5.73 pounds.

Alienware 16 Area-51 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Alienware 16 Area-51

The Alienware 16 Area-51, with its Intel Core Ultra 290HX Plus and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU (16GB GDDR7, 175 W TGP, 1,500 MHz boost clock), proved to be a powerful performer across our benchmarks and in playtesting.

For instance, Resident Evil Requiem ran between 87 and 113 frames per second, as I explored the care center and engaged in a shootout to take down a blisterhead. That was at the system's native 1440p, with ray tracing on, hair strands improvements on, high graphics quality (with some at max), and without any upscaling or frame generation. It fell to 74 FPS in a darker area where I ultimately snuck behind and killed the villain known as the Chef.

We compared the Area-51 to last year's model, with a Core Ultra 9 275HX and an identical RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, to see how much the year-over-year CPU upgrade matters. We also compared it to a slightly more expensive system, the MSI Raider 16 Max HX, with an RTX 5090 and the same Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus as our review unit.

This year's Area-51 and last year's system were consistently in range. At 1920 x 1200, the newer model typically won out, with the exception of Far Cry 6. In a few games, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redmption 2, last year's model did better at 2560 x 1600, even if it lost at lower resolutions. In general, though, the two systems were largely in spitting distance of each other.

Unsurprisingly, the MSI's RTX 5090 won out in most games.

But if you just bought a top-of-the-line gaming laptop last year, slight CPU upgrades aren't going to make or break your experience. You likely won't even be able to tell the difference.

During our Metro Exodus stress test, in which we run the game at RTX settings for 15 runs, approximating half an hour or game play, the performance cores on the CPU averaged 4.11 GHz, while the efficient cores hit 2.75 GHz. The GPU ran at an average of 1,950.46 MHz.

Productivity Performance on the Alienware 16 Area-51

The Alienware 16 Area-51 we tested is using an Intel Core i9-290HX Plus. This new chip is based on a refreshed version of Arrow Lake, and we didn't see any massive changes in our testing. Last year's Area-51 that we tested ran on an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, while the MSI Raider 16 Max HX we're comparing here is using the same 290HX Plus processor.

On Geekbench 6, the Area-51 with 290HX Plus earned a single-core score of 3,216 and a multi-core score of 20,754. Last year's Alienware with Core Ultra 9 delivered scores of 3,126 and 20,498, so nothing eye-bulging here. The Raider achieved similar scores as the current model, at 3,231/20,656.

The SK Hynix drive in this year's system proved speedy, copying 25GB of files at a speed of 2,738.90 MBps, easily beating the MSI Raider (1,357.93 MBps) and last year's Alienware.

On Handbrake, the Alienware 16 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 2 minutes, which is 2 seconds behind last year's model, and enough for me to say it could go either way. The Raider was faster, at 1:51.

Display on the Alienware 16 Area-51

The major difference between the 2026 version of the Area-51 and last year's is the display. It's still a 2560 x 1600, 240 Hz screen, but this year there is an option for an anti-glare OLED panel.

In the trailer for The Odyssey, the screen appeared bright, especially in early scenes with Odysseus and his men underneath clear blue skies. There were some very deep blacks, like when Odysseus enters the cyclops' cave, where green foliage and orange flames all popped. It's not the most vivid OLED screen I've ever seen, but it's still nice.

The OLED worked to strong effect in Resident Evil 9, with dark blacks making for increasingly haunting shadows. But it was just as good with buckets of crimson zombie blood.

I like the anti-glare. I assume this took some of the shimmer out of the screen, but considering I work next to a window at home, I was still able to see most of the screen without reflections, even if the colors weren't as good at an angle.

The OLED screen covers 93.7% of DCI-P3 color volume, compared to 132.2% sRGB, surpassing last year's non-OLED model and the screen on the MSI Raider. Those screens, however, were brighter than the Area-51's OLED screen, which measured 368.6 nits on our light meter. Last year's model came in at 515.8 nits.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Alienware 16 Area-51

Our review unit came with a low-profile Cherry MX mechanical keyboard. We've seen these on a few gaming laptops (mostly from Dell and MSI), and they always seem worth the upgrade. In this case, it's $50. Frankly, I think that on these high-end notebooks, Alienware should just make these mechanical keyboards the default.

It feels great to type on, and I hit 121 words per minute at 98% accuracy on monkeytype.com. That being said, the keys are clicky, loud, and even have a bit of ping to them. But if you wear headphones while you type, your fingers may be happy enough that your ears don't care.

The layout is a bit weird, with a row at the end of the keyboard for the volume and mute keys. It feels out of place, as I'm used to having those on the function keys. Instead, four macro keys take up those spaces. Additionally, there's a massive Copilot key on the right side. It's about a key and a half wide.

The touchpad measures 4.4 inches wide by 2.5 inches tall, bucking the trend of large touchpads finally making their way to gaming laptops. This one feels a bit cramped, but not difficult to use, especially as people playing games typically use a mouse.

Audio on the Alienware 16 Area-51

There are four speakers on the Area-51: two 2W tweeters and a pair of 2W woofers. They're fine, but nothing special.

Listening to Jade Bird's "I Get No Joy," the computer filled my apartment with sound. Bird's vocals were clear, as were the guitars and some synths. When drums played alone, like in the song's intro, they were clear, but they got lost in the mix with the rest of the instruments. Despite the bulky chassis, there's not much bass here, either.

The system came tuned with Dolby Atmos, but in the settings software, changing the equalizers didn't seem to do very much.

In Resident Evil 9, Grace's nervous breathing was loud (and constant — tamp down, Capcom), and infected zombie growls were clear. The sound was acceptable, if not earth-shattering.

Upgradeability of the Alienware 16 Area-51

To open up the Alienware 16 Area-51, you need to loosen the four screws on the bottom of the system closest to the palm rest. These are captive. Another four screws hold the rest of the cover on, and those come out completely.

The bottom cover has glass on it, which provides a window into the system. Dell's maintenance guides stress that you shouldn't scratch it with a sharp tool, like, say, a screwdriver.

Dell's guides suggest that you can use your fingertip to loosen the base cover, but just like last year, I needed a plastic spudging tool to get through the plastic clips holding it on.

Once you're inside, you have access to the battery, as well as the memory slots and three SSD slots. There's a code written in an alien language on the bottom of the case, but it's identical to last year.

Battery Life on the Alienware 16 Area-51

The 96 WHr battery in the Alienware 16 Area-51 can't power the laptop for too long. On our battery test, which includes browsing websites, streaming video, and running light OpenGL tests with the screen set to just 150 nits of brightness, the system ran for 3 hours and 33 minutes.

Last year's non-OLED model lasted for 4:10. The MSI Raider 16 Max HX ran for much longer, at 8:33. Both appear to have Nvidia's Advanced Optimus, so it's unclear why the Alienwares aren't running as long.

Heat on the Alienware 16 Area-51

We measured heat on the Area-51 while running our Metro Exodus gauntlet, running the benchmark for about half an hour.

The chassis gopt a bit toasty. The center of the keyboard climbed to 105.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which you can definitely feel, while the hottest spot on the bottom was 114.5 F. The touchpad stayed cool at 83.5 F. Be sure to use this on a desk.

Inside, the CPU measured an average of 82.8 degrees Celsius, while the GPU reached 62.11 C.

Webcam on the Alienware 16 Area-51

There's a 1080p webcam embedded in the Area-51's top bezel. It's OK, though perhaps not befitting of a laptop that costs over $4,000.

While it caught stitching my shirt and individual hairs in my beard, images taken from the cameras had some pixelation, which also occurred in video calls. On the bright side, the camera was color accurate.

Last year, I tested a version of this system with a 4K webcam that I enjoyed more, but Alienware isn't offering it this time around. A representative for the gaming brand said in an email that this would "help pricing without compromising in other areas that are more essential for premium gaming."

Software and Warranty on the Alienware 16 Area-51

Alienware has preinstalled some software. I've seen worse, but there's more than I like here. Alienware Command Center is the primary application on the machine, with control of AlienFX RGB Lighting, system performance adjustments, and a built-in game library.

Otherwise, the Alienware apps include one dedicated to downloading anything you bought at purchase, as well as Dell Support Assist for customer service.

There is bloat on here, including McAfee with a month-long trial.

Alienware sells the 16-inch Area-51 with a 1-year warranty. You can cover accidental damage and spill for a year for an extra $79, while Elite Care adds extended battery support and "top-tier gaming support experts" for $99.

Alienware 16 Area-51 Configurations

We tested the Alienware 16 Area-51 in a $4,309.99 configuration including a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen 5 SSD, and the new 16-inch OLED screen. It also features a CherryMX low-profile keyboard and Windows 11 Pro.

The base model is $1,949.99 with a Core Ultra 7 255HX, an RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, a non-OLED screen, a membrane keyboard, and Windows 11.

Alienware's configurator has many options in between, including a Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, laptop GPUs up to an RTX 5090, RAM up to 64GB, and storage up to 12TB in RAID 0 (3 x 4TB). The most expensive configuration we could make came out to $8,009.99.

Bottom Line

The Alienware 16 Area-51 is a large, bulky gaming laptop designed to deliver a ton of gaming power on the go.

It's a heavy system, one that barefly fit in my backpack. Ideally, Alienware could find some way to slim this down, or at least drop a few pounds. But a slim, lighter laptop with the same components almost certainly wouldn’t be able to deliver the same level of performance.

On the bright side, Alienware finally brought OLED screen options, which should have always been available given the prices it's asking for its top-tier laptops. But this year's chip upgrades really don't povide better gaming performance year-over-year (not that most people are buying gaming laptops every single year.) It was unfortunate to see that the webcam was downgraded from 4K to 1080p; while that's arguably one of the parts people might care about least on a gaming rig, this system is over $4,000. It should have the best of the best.

If what you're looking for is a desktop replacement that's plenty powerful and portable enough, Alienware's 16-inch system delivers. But you may need a bigger backpack.

With AMD releasing its flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition CPU, Alienware has become the first PC brand to debut the chip on its Area-51 gaming desktop. According to the company, it is the most powerful Alienware desktop that they have ever built powered by an AMD processor. Naturally, it doesn't come cheap with pricing starting at $4,449.99 for a config with AMD's new chip, but one has to consider the $900 MSRP of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2.

• Check out the Alienware Area-51 from Dell.com

In addition to the existing Ryzen 9000 series configurations, the Area-51 desktop lineup will offer the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 CPU, AMD’s most ambitious consumer desktop CPU. It features 16 cores, 32 threads, and a massive cache of 208MB, making it one of the best CPUs for gaming. The CPU will be paired with a standard ATX Alienware X870E motherboard available with up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR5 XMP memory at 6400 MT/s. For graphics, Alienware sticks with Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series, ranging from the RTX 5070 to the RTX 5090. Storage options include 1TB/2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 5 SSD or a 4TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD. Depending on the configuration, the Area-51 can be paired with either an 850W Gold or 1500W Platinum power supply, along with options for a 240mm or 360mm AIO liquid cooler.

We recently tested the Area-51 with top-of-the-line Intel and AMD configurations and found it to be a noteworthy improvement over the company’s previous gaming desktop offerings. It features a rather large 80-liter chassis measuring 22.4 x 24.04 x 9.12 inches (569 x 610.5 x 231.6 mm), with a ‘Lunar Silver’ finish and a glass side panel to showcase the internals. It uses standard PC hardware, meaning you’re not fully restricted to OEM parts if you plan to upgrade in the future. However, you may need to purchase a $35 adapter kit for the included AlienwareFX daughterboard.

There’s plenty of I/O available, including two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and dedicated microphone-in and line-out ports at the front. At the back, there are two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, five USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and additional line-in, line-out, and SPDIF audio ports. The system also includes a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5G Ethernet controller, along with a MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless networking chip.

As expected from any Alienware product, there’s a large RGB light ring around the air intake, along with additional lighting inside the case. Apart from the included CPU liquid cooler, the case comes with dual 180mm fans at the front and two 140mm fans at the bottom.

The base configuration, priced at $4,299.99, includes a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, an Nvidia RTX 5070, an 850W PSU, and a 240mm liquid cooler. That said, Alienware’s system configurator recommends opting for the 1500W PSU and 360mm liquid cooler combo, which bumps the price up to $4,449.99. At the top end, a fully maxed-out configuration can go all the way up to $7,049.99.

OLED monitors have been getting more and more accessible over the past few years as both LG and Samsung iterate on their respective panel technologies. Cheaper models were previously relegated to older panels, but throughout 2025, we regularly saw modern OLED displays for around $500. Now, Alienware has just launched its latest 'AW2727DM' OLED monitor for only $350, marking a new era of OLED accessibility.

• Get the Alienware AW2726DM for $350

The AW2726DM is a 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor featuring a 3rd Gen QD-OLED panel from Samsung with the updated subpixel layout for improved text clarity. It has a 240 Hz refresh rate, with FreeSync Premium built in, so you're not getting entry-level barebones specs either. The only notable downside is the maximum brightness, rated at 200 nits. Keep in mind that's SDR brightness; your HDR content will still peak at around 1,000 nits and look incredible.

That's because this is still a QD-OLED panel with excellent color volume (better than competing WOLED options), perfect blacks, and a glossy coating to ensure clarity. Alienware is listing 99% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and it's a 10-bit panel, so it can display over a billion colors. The perceived contrast enabled by OLED's pixel-level dimming helps make HDR pop more than you'd think, given its on-paper specs.

We've already reviewed the monitor and gave it an Editor's Choice award because there's simply nothing else on the market that challenges its value. Yes, you can find better specs, but you won't find them at this price. The cheapest OLED monitor on Amazon is the AOC Q27GAZD, which goes for $380 right now. The next step up from there is MSI's MAG 274QP X24, which is listed for $430, and that's on sale for $500.

For connectivity, you get 2x HDMI 2.0 ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are extras such as a KVM, speakers, or even a USB port for firmware upgrades. But the monitor does come with a 3-year burn-in warranty, typical for OLED displays these days. The OSD also features various OLED care options, such as pixel refresh, to make sure the panel stays as good as new for a long time.

Not that it matters much, but design-wise, the AW2726DM is a clean-looking unit with no frills. Usually, you'd see RGB on the back of an Alienware monitor, but $350 doesn't buy you that. The build quality is, however, very solid, and we were impressed with the stand included in an otherwise basic package. It has tilt, height adjustment, rotation, and swivel capabilities; more than enough to get you started. Alienware is offering all this at a $350 MSRP; no discount required.

To start this off as clearly and plainly as possible, this review is of a $350, 27-inch OLED gaming monitor with Quantum Dot color, 240 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR10 and QHD 2560x1440 resolution. If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming monitor market, you might want to stop reading right here and go buy one on those specs and pricing alone. The Alienware AW2726DM is far more than an incremental price drop for the category; the $500 barrier hasn’t been smashed, it’s been erased.

But please read on, because below you’ll find my full battery of test results, with comparisons to more expensive monitors with higher refresh rates. Let’s take a look.

Alienware AW2726DM Specs

For this price, you’d expect the AW2726DM to be stripped down to bare essentials. But while it isn’t festooned with features, this display isn’t a barebones proposition, either. You get a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with Quantum Dot color that fills over 111% of the DCI-P3 gamut, which is a tick higher than average. Accuracy is decent out of the box, with even better image fidelity after a quick calibration. The only thing missing on the color front is an sRGB mode, which isn’t a big deal for gaming.

There are plenty of other picture modes though, 11 for SDR and another three for HDR10 content. Brightness is one thing that is sacrificed on the altar of value. While I measured 400-nit peaks in HDR mode, SDR topped out at around 200 nits. You still get OLED’s perfect blacks, though. Like all its more expensive competitors, contrast is so good that it can’t be measured.

There are no sacrifices when it comes to gaming performance here. You get a 240 Hz refresh rate with Adaptive-Sync. That’s more than enough to eliminate motion blur, and coupled with the QHD resolution, speedy frame rates are easy enough to achieve. There’s no black frame insertion, AKA ELMB/ULMB, but it’s not needed unless you pair the AW2726DM with a slower gaming rig.

Less important omissions include internal speakers, USB ports, and LED lighting. And the stand is simply designed, though it has full ergonomics. Build quality is up to par with any Alienware display I’ve worked with, and long-term reliability is backed by a three-year warranty that includes burn-in. And that can be staved off with the pixel refresh you’ll find in the OSD.

Small misses aside, the AW2726DM is going to be hard to fault given its $350 price tag. The last few 27-inch QHD OLEDs I reviewed all had prices north of $500. Let’s see what the instruments reveal.

Assembly and Accessories

The AW2726DM’s carton is unassuming, and aside from a small line of text announcing the model number, 240 Hz and QD-OLED; you’ll have to open it up to experience the incredible bang-for-the-buck that it offers. The base and upright mate with a captive bolt and you’ll need to find the four screws and included tool to attach the panel. There is no snap on fitting here. The mount is 100mm VESA compatible, so aftermarket arms are easy to employ. The power supply is internal, so there’s an IEC cord plus cables for HDMI and DisplayPort.

Product 360

Styling is minimalistic thanks to the all-screen look Alienware is going for. The front bezel is flush and narrow, with a strip at the bottom just wide enough for an Alienware logo. Moving around the side, you can see the two-part design that many OLEDs feature. The panel is among the thinnest I’ve seen at just three millimeters deep. The component housing takes the total thickness to just 1.65 inches. And if you don’t use the included stand, the back is completely smooth. The AW2726DM is one of the slimmest displays you’ll find in any size.

The back features just a small Alienware head and the OSD joystick. A Kensington lock is provided too. There’s plenty of ventilation on top of the bulge, and the screen is further shielded from heat by a graphite layer. There are no internal fans.

The stand is reasonably solid, with full ergonomics that include 5.2 inches of height range, a 90-degree portrait mode, and 5/21 degrees tilt. Swivel is a full 360 degrees, thanks to a bearing ring in the base that allows the entire package to turn smoothly.

The input panel is up and under and is made up of a DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) and two HDMI 2.1 ports. They support consoles with VRR up to 120 Hz. For the full 240 Hz, you’ll need to use DisplayPort. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack.

OSD Features

The AW2726DM includes a tiny joystick around the back right as its only control. Pressing it brings up a quick menu, and an up-click opens the full OSD.

The quick menu has five icons that can be programmed for easy access to commonly used features like picture modes or game enhancements. At the top of the screen is a signal status bar that shows the input resolution, refresh rate, picture preset, HDR status, panel health, and the dark stabilizer setting. When panel health turns red, you can run the pixel refresh routine found in the Others sub-menu.

The Game menu has 11 picture modes for different game types, a color temp (warm or cool) preference, or Custom Color where you’ll find a two-point white balance control plus color management. There are no gamma presets, but the AW2726DM sticks close to the 2.2 reference for SDR and ST.2084 for HDR. Game Enhance refers to the available timers and frame counter. You also get alignment marks, but there are no aiming points or sniper modes.

HDR10 signals get three of their own modes. Display is the default and best choice there. I observed very obvious edge enhancement in the Movie and Game presets, but Display was free of artifacts.

There are many ways to customize the operation of the AW2726DM. Shortcut Key refers to the five icons in the quick menu. You can scroll left or right through the available settings and make them convenient things like input selection or picture mode. The four joystick directions can be programmed as well, for a total of nine options.

The AW2726DM’s only panel maintenance feature is a pixel refresher. I have never seen burn-in on any OLED display, and that includes the monitor I’m currently writing this review on and my nearly six-year-old LG television. Both have gotten by on pixel refresh alone with no need for orbiters or logo protection. And Alienware includes a three-year burn-in warranty if you’re still concerned.

Acer Predator X27 X1 Calibration Settings

My AW2726DM review unit wasn’t quite perfect out of the box in the Standard picture mode. It looked slightly green in tone when viewing grayscale test patterns, so I went for the Custom Color mode and its two-point RGB controls. That got me to reference level. There are no gamma options, but the monitor sticks close to the 2.2 power spec for SDR. Color is very saturated thanks to the Quantum Dot layer. It covers over 111% of DCI-P3. There is no sRGB option, so you’ll be seeing that extra color for all SDR and HDR content. I doubt anyone will consider that a bad thing. When I ran the initial measurements, brightness peaked at around 204 nits, but after calibration, it dropped to 185 nits. There is no variable brightness for SDR. To dial in your AW2726DM, try the settings shown below.

HDR signals get three of their own modes, with no options for adjustment. I found color and luminance to be nearly spot-on, which is a good thing. You can read more about that on page five.

Gaming and Hands-on

The AW2726DM is a 27-inch OLED for $350, so it’s really hard to fault. But in practice, it gives nothing away to more expensive displays. The picture looks gorgeous, even though it doesn’t quite have the measured brightness of others. But it is bright enough once set up. I learned during testing that it peaks around 185 nits after calibration, which was plenty of output for my moderately bright office with one sunny window opposite the test bench. The screen’s anti-glare layer was effective in this situation.

The picture is as stunning as any premium OLED, with deep blacks and lush color. The Quantum Dot tech is used to full effect here, with the AW2726DM covering over 111% of DCI-P3 in my tests. I had to calibrate for the best picture, but it wasn’t difficult to get to reference level.

The gaming experience was no different from other OLEDs either. The 240 Hz rating is a reliable and honest one, with no hiccups or artifacts to spoil the fun. Input lag is extremely low, as you’ll see on the next page. The AW2726DM punches well above its weight class, not only on price but also on speed. It’s just as quick or quicker than monitors with higher refresh rates. While a 500 Hz screen is great, you won’t see much need for it next to this one. I had no trouble mowing through alien monsters with precision and proliferation. My aim was true, and my defensive moves were exactly as planned. There was no motion blur and no breakup of finely detailed textures as I whipped about the virtual environment.

For everyday tasks, I was completely satisfied with the monitor as well, except for the missing sRGB mode. Most tasks are fine with extra colo,r but when working on graphics, it’s nice to at least do a reality check using the correct SDR gamut. Most users won’t have an issue, as the AW2726DM is very colorful in a good way. But it’s always nice to have options. The picture was super sharp and smooth though. 27-inch QHD has an ideal 109ppi pixel density, which is enough to hide the dot structure beyond a two-foot viewing distance.

The only things this screen gives to the competition are a few bells and whistles. It’s not difficult to live without USB ports, internal speakers, or LED lights. And getting a monitor with those extras and the AW2726DM’s performance will cost a lot more money.

Takeaway: The AW2726DM performs on par with premium OLED displays in every area that affects gameplay. It’s quick and smooth with very low input lag, so functionally, it is no different. You won’t have a significantly better experience with a 360 or 500 Hz monitor. It also has equal or better image quality than any Quantum Dot monitor. The only thing it gives up is peak brightness, which is a bit lower than pricier competition. For my needs and desires, though, I would be happy to use this screen every day.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Many of the latest 27-inch QHD OLED displays run at 240 Hz or more. In fact, the AW2726DM is on the low side of the numbers game when compared to others at 360 or 500 Hz. But that doesn't mean it’s less smooth or has more lag. To compare, I’ve included Gigabyte’s MO27Q28G, Asus’ XG27ACDNG and XG27AQWMG, Samsung’s OLED G6 and AOC’s Q27G4ZD.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

I’m still adding new results from Nvidia’s LDAT to my test database, so the first chart includes the OLEDs I’ve reviewed since I started using it. Clearly, refresh rate is not a guarantee of fast response. The Acer sits atop the group at 0.12ms while the AW2726DM matches the 360 Hz Asus at 0.24ms. In practice, this difference cannot be seen by the naked eye. Moving test patterns at 240fps have perfect resolution.

In the lag test, the AW2726DM takes the win with a super quick 13.6ms of total input lag. This is an average of 25 mouse clicks at 240 Hz. Given the test results and my visual observations, I cannot say that a 360 Hz OLED like the XG27ACDNG is any better for gaming. While this is not a universal truth, one should check out tests like these to see a monitor’s actual performance in comparison to its competitors.

Test Takeaway: The AW2726DM offers phenomenal performance for a $350 monitor. That it is an OLED is a bonus. It offers perfect motion resolution at 240fps and has less input lag than almost every monitor I’ve ever reviewed. That includes OLEDs running at 360 Hz and higher.

Viewing Angles

Many QD-OLEDs show a slight color shift when viewed from the side,s but not the AW2726DM. It has identical color and grayscale from all horizontal angles up to 45 degrees. It is very shareable by two users. There’s no change in brightness or gamma either. From the top, you can see a slight red tint and a reduction in gamma, which washes out the image. Brightness remains steady, though.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

Screen uniformity remains a sample-specific result, but my AW2726DM certainly excelled in this test. It’s one of the smoothest screens I’ve ever measured. Amazingly though, it isn’t the record holder. That honor belongs to the AOC Q27G4ZD. As a category, OLED offers uniformity that is superior to most LCDs.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

The AW2726DM has many impressive attributes, but high brightness is not among them. It offers just enough light to do well in a typical indoor setting like an office or media room. It should be kept away from sunny windows, though. Black levels are no different from other OLEDs. They cannot be measured, and neither can contrast. You get the rich and deep OLED picture but not a ton of light output. I noted that variable brightness was not an option for SDR signals. That’s unfortunate because the AW2726DM can top 400 nits (25% window pattern) in HDR mode. The headroom is there, but it isn’t made available for SDR content.

After Calibration to 200 nits

I kept the brightness slider maxed, but calibration cost me a few nits. I wound up at 185, which is still enough for workday tasks and gaming. Stay away from bright light sources, and you’ll be fine. Black levels are still unmeasurable as is static and ANSI (intra-image) contrast. This is typical OLED performance.

Test Takeaway: Aside from a little less brightness than others, the AW2726DM performs like any OLED, regardless of price. It has the black levels and contrast of its competition, just not the peak output. But it has enough light for a satisfying experience and a gorgeous picture. The only thing I’d like to see is a variable brightness option for SDR.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

The AW2726DM includes 11 picture modes with Standard being the default option. You can calibrate grayscale with two-point precision in Custom Color, which is where I ran my tests.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

My AW2726DM sample looked a little green out of the box with visible errors at 50% brightness and higher. You can just see the tint in test patterns or in neutral content like hockey games or black and white video. Gamma tracks almost perfectly to the 2.2 reference. That’s a good thing because there are no additional gamma presets.

I only needed to adjust the RGB gains to achieve perfect grayscale tracking. All errors are below 1dE, which is reference level. Gamma got a tad darker because I could only reduce the RGB sliders; they start at their maximums. Picture quality is visibly improved after these adjustments.

Comparisons

OLEDs are generally good out of the box so the AW2726DM’s 4.15dE score is a bit below average. In practice the error isn’t too obvious, but it is visible, so I recommend calibration. Adjusting just the RGB gain sliders made a significant improvement both measurably and visually. It’s impressive that 0.56dE is only good enough for fifth place here. That speaks highly to OLED’s quality and precision as a display technology.

In the gamma test, the AW2726DM maintained a tight 0.17 range of values from highest to lowest. The actual average of 2.25 equates to a 2.27% deviation from 2.2. This is excellent performance.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

The AW2726DM has solid out-of-box color accuracy with a 2.5dE result. You can see the bonus color in red and green, which are oversaturated when referenced to DCI-P3. The points are linear in progression, which keeps all hues looking natural and finely detailed. No picture information is clipped.

Calibration makes a slight difference in the chart with secondary colors closer to their hue targets and a bit more saturation in general. This is a good thing. The picture, like all good OLEDs, looks stunning. I noted that the AW2726DM does not include an sRGB mode. You’ll be enjoying its large color gamut for all content, SDR and HDR alike.

Comparisons

Like the grayscale test, OLED displays excel in the accuracy department, and the AW2726DM is no different. Its final score of 1.74dE means there are no visible errors. It is oversaturated but in a good way. No one will say that it is too colorful. In the volume test, it scores slightly above average for Quantum Dot screens with 111.51% coverage of DCI-P3. Anything over 100% is good, which makes the AW2726DM really good. There is no sRGB mode, so that coverage is a whopping 165.33%. You can’t use it for critical work unless P3 is the reference.

Test Takeaway: The AW2726DM is a tremendously colorful monitor with reasonable out-of-box accuracy and excellent results after calibration. I recommend an adjustment for the best picture. It has higher-than-average color volume but no sRGB mode. It’s fine for critical applications, as long as P3 is the goal.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The AW2726DM supports HDR10 content with an automatic switch and three dedicated picture modes. After seeing obvious ringing (edge enhancement) in Game and Movie, I settled on Display as the best choice. It also happens to be the default. There are no adjustments available in HDR mode.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

The AW2726DM has variable brightness for HDR content, as you can see by its peak value of 404.1313 nits. This is from a 25% window pattern. A full field is around 200 nits. This clearly differentiates HDR content from SDR with bright highlights and more vivid color. The AW2726DM is on par with most of its more expensive competitors, but a few go even higher, like the Asus and Gigabyte screens.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

There are no adjustments available in HDR mode, but given the above results, none are needed. Grayscale tracking is visually free of errors, with all values below 3dE. The EOTF tracks close to the reference, with slightly dark values below 30% brightness. This error cannot be seen in the content, as all detail is fully rendered. The transition to tone mapping is softer than the reference, but this does not affect the actual material. The transition point is at around 58%, which is correct for the measured black and white levels.

The AW2726DM is more color accurate in HDR mode than most of the displays I test. It is just slightly (rather than extremely) oversaturated. This gives the picture a smoother and more natural look. It is never cartoony or overblown. The monitor uses all its gamut volume in the P3 test and covers a good portion of BT.2020 as well. There, it runs out of color at 90% red, 80% green, and 95% blue.

Test Takeaway: The AW2726DM renders punchy and colorful HDR content. It isn’t quite as bright as some other screens, but it is on par with most of the competition. It is a bit more color-accurate than most, with only slight oversaturation that adds enough verve to distinguish HDR from SDR.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

For years, OLED gaming monitors solely resided in a premium price category. The cost has come down a little, but progress has been slow and incremental. And if you want great game performance, 240 Hz is a minimum. Image enhancers like Quantum Dot color have been cost increasers, too. Until now, you’d need $500-600 in your budget for a 27-inch QHD resolution QD-OLED with 240 Hz and Adaptive-Sync. Alienware decided that you should only have to spend $350 when it unveiled the AW2726DM.

To be fair, this isn’t a fully loaded display. There aren’t extras like sRGB modes, USB ports, LED lighting, or internal speakers. But you do get a fully adjustable stand and solid build quality. The AW2726DM has a three-year burn-in warranty that you are unlikely to ever need. And most importantly, it has the performance to compete with the best gaming OLEDs I’ve reviewed, at any price.

During both tests and gameplay, I noted very low input lag, and panel response quick enough to eliminate motion blur above 200 FPS. Since the AW2726DM is QHD, it isn’t difficult to drive to its 240 Hz maximum. When playing games, I experienced the same feel as I do with displays costing twice as much. At best, you’re looking at around $500 for a comparable screen from another brand. The only thing I truly missed was an sRGB mode. And that is only a workday issue. If you don’t edit graphics for publishing like I do, you won’t care about that. You’ll only notice how colorful it is.

If you have $350 to spend and you’ve been wishing for an OLED monitor, the Alienware AW2726DM is your ship that has just come in. Don’t look for USB ports, internal speakers, or RGB lighting, but do look for premium game performance, because it’s here and you definitely want to check it out.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

If you want a gaming PC with specs that few others can rival, then this Alienware Area-51 rig with a massive $950 discount, bringing the price down to $5,299.99, is the deal for you. You're getting a nearly $1,000 saving on a PC fitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

There's no exaggeration required with this one: this is a beast of a machine. This is a potent combo, with a CPU and GPU matchup that you'll struggle to beat. The 16-core 9950X3D has an edge over 8-core alternatives like the 9800X3D for all-round high performance, with those extra cores giving it more of a boost in productivity apps, with gaming performance that almost matches the 9800X3D.

● Check out this deal on Dell's website

Alienware PCs, especially at this high a spec, typically come with a premium price tag. $950 off this rig is a solid discount that brings the cost down considerably. As our latest Alienware Area-51 review shows, this is a visually stunning PC, massive in size, built as a statement piece for your desk, and able to fit standard PC parts, while remaining "surprisingly quiet" during use. This is a rig that will last for years, with performance that means you'll be getting high frame rates, regardless of what you throw at it.

As we've already touched upon, the real MVP's in this build are the CPU and GPU. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is, as our GPU benchmarks below will show, the most powerful consumer GPU that money can buy. It comes with 21,760 CUDA cores, over double the RTX 5080's 10,752 count, along with a massive 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM, using a 512-bit memory bus with memory bandwidth up to 1,792 GB/s. It's also expensive on it's own right now, with our GPU price tracker showing that even the cheapest on sale is around ~65% of the cost you'd pay for this entire machine.

You won't find a better card for gaming. The RTX 5090 is the best option for 4K, ray tracing enabled, with graphics presets set to ultra: it'll hit those high frame rates.

Nvidia's Blackwell GPU in this build is coupled with the powerful 9950X3D. Our AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D review shows this is the right all-rounder option if you want epic gaming and productivity performance from your processor. The 9950X3D is a no-compromise chip, with its second-gen 3D V-cache ensuring that it ties with the 9800X3D for gaming performance, as our CPU benchmarks confirm, with a chunky 144MB of available cache. Simply put, if you want a chip that can do it all, this is the CPU to have.

This 16-core, 32-thread processor uses AMD's latest Zen 5 architecture and has a boost clock speed of up to 5.7 GHz. This is a fully unlocked CPU, too, so you can overclock it, which wasn't possible in earlier 3D V-cache capable chips. For gaming, expect no bottlenecks from a processor like this. CPU-hungry games like Cyberpunk 2077 will run like a dream, even with intensive ray tracing enabled.

You're also getting 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM with this build, with speeds of 6,400 MT/s, along with a 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD with the fastest Gen 5 speeds. That'll give you space for a good selection of big AAA games, along with plenty of indies from Steam to fill in the gaps. Dell has also solved one of the previously typical complaints about its PCs, including Alienware rigs, by ensuring that it conforms to standard PC design specs, making this rig fully upgradable with industry-standard parts. It also comes with a 1,500W PSU, along with a 360mm AIO cooler. You've also got a Dell issue keyboard and mouse thrown in for free, although you'd probably want to upgrade these later.

Upgrading to 64GB RAM is possible, but it'll cost you an extra $400. Likewise, a bigger SSD will cost you extra, so 2TB is probably better to stick with for now. Either way, you're getting a PC that will be able to play any game you throw at it, comfortably, for years to come.

There really isn't much to dislike about this Alienware Area-51 gaming PC. This is an elite build that will dominate both home and work, with productivity performance that is hard to beat, and gaming power that enthusiasts will crave. The $5,299 sale price for this RTX 5090 Alienware Area-51 rig, saving you $950, won't be around for long, however. If you want the best of the best, with the power of Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPU flagship, along with an elite AMD X3D chip, get this build in your cart while you still can.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

There's a stonkingly big discount on offer for one of Alienware's flagship gaming PCs right now that you will not want to miss, with this Alienware Area-51 rig with an RTX 5090 and 9800X3D down to just $4,449.99. That's an enormous $1,200 off its usual $5,649.99 for a gaming PC that can truly handle it all.

Put simply, you'll struggle to find specs in a pre-built that can outperform this Alienware PC from Dell. It has the best GPU consumers can buy, and while the 9800X3D has recently been dethroned as the best CPU for gamers by the 9850X3D, it's only 3% slower than that beast, sitting very much at the top of the food chain.

● Check out this deal on Dell's website

A high-spec Alienware PC will typically come with a premium price tag, but a $1,200 saving brings the cost down significantly. Buying a PC like this ensures longevity, but you're not just buying this for its power (of which it has plenty). As our latest Alienware Area-51 review shows, this is a gorgeous-looking PC, massive in size, built to be a statement piece, and able to fit standard PC parts, while remaining "surprisingly quiet" during use.

Both the CPU and GPU in this build are, to put it mildly, impressive. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is, as our GPU benchmarks below will show, the most powerful consumer GPU on the market right now. It comes with 21,760 CUDA cores, over double the RTX 5080's 10,752 count, along with a massive 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM, using a 512-bit memory bus with memory bandwidth up to 1,792 GB/s.

Put simply, there isn't an alternative: this is as good as it can get for gaming on a consumer PC right now, with the ability to throw everything at it. 4K, ray tracing, graphics presets set to ultra: you'll see high frame rates regardless. It's also very expensive to buy separately right now, as our GPU price tracker will confirm, with the best price on an RTX 5090 that we can find at the point of publication costing $3,800 — around 83% of the cost of this entire machine.

Take that GPU's performance, and then dial it up with the 9800X3D. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, to give it its full title, was recently dethroned by the 9850X3D, but it continues to offer performance that almost any other CPU can't beat. Intel isn't coming close, and as the CPU benchmarks confirm, this 3D V-cache capable chip continues to deliver exceptional performance for gaming.

This 8-core, 16-thread processor uses AMD's latest Zen 5 architecture and has a boost clock speed of up to 5.2 GHz. This is a fully unlocked CPU, too, so you can overclock it, which wasn't possible in earlier 3D V-cache capable chips. It's all down to that extra L3 cache, stacked beneath the CPU cores, closer to the integrated heat spreader, on a reconfigured die. For gaming, expect no bottlenecks from this processor. CPU-hungry games like Cyberpunk 2077 will run like a dream, even with intensive ray tracing enabled. Only the 9850X3D is better, but this processor is more energy efficient, using 30% less power.

This rig also comes with 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, rated for 6,400 MT/s, with room to upgrade, along with a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD with the fastest Gen 5 speeds, which will give you space to install a few big AAA games, along with plenty of indies. A typical complaint about Dell PCs, including Alienware rigs, is that they don't really conform to standard PC design specs, making them hard to upgrade. This new Area-51 design is different, as it uses industry-standard parts. It comes with a 1,500W PSU, along with a 360mm AIO cooler. You've also got a Dell issue keyboard and mouse thrown in to get you started.

Upgrading to 64GB RAM is possible, but it'll cost you an extra $350. Likewise, a bigger SSD will cost you extra. If you're going all-out, you might be tempted, but with the NAND flash pricing crisis affecting PC builders, compromise might be better. That's fine, as either way, you're getting a PC that will be able to play any game you throw at it, comfortably, for years to come.

If this build is pricing you out, however, then you can compromise a little. Downgrading to an RTX 5080 brings the cost down to $3,599.99. All the other specs and the PC design itself remain the same, so if you're happy to drop down to only the second-best consumer GPU on sale right now, then it's an option, with 4K gaming still very comfortable with this spec sheet.

The new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC is an exceptional option for any gamer. The $4,449.99 sale price for the RTX 5090 build will save you $1,200 on its list price, while the RTX 5080 variant for $3,599.99 will still save you $1,000. Either model will deliver exceptional performance for gaming, thanks to Nvidia's latest-gen Blackwell GPUs, along with the power of those X3D AMD chips. We don't expect these discounts to last for long, so if you're interested, make sure to get your order in soon.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Get ready for a long weekend, thanks to the upcoming Monday, February 16, Presidents' Day federal holiday. Not only is there an extra day off for many, but there's also a delightful ongoing sale happening as we speak. The first big sales event of the year sees many tech retailers offering President's Day discounts on their products, and Alienware is one of those retailers that is hosting massive discounts on some of the best-selling laptop and desktop gaming PCs in its lineup. Now is the time to pounce on a great deal before rising memory and storage prices push the cost of a new Alienware PC into the stratosphere.

• Check out all the President's Day PC and laptop deals at Alienware

Alienware has been making gaming systems for a long time, and is well known for housing their components in over-the-top cases in the past. Move to the present, and Alienware still makes powerful gaming PCs and laptops, although they are somewhat more subdued in their designs these days. Featuring the latest Nvidia graphics cards, these gaming beasts can conquer any game you throw at them.

You can actually save over $1000 on some of the Desktops that are discounted in the President's Day sales. Pick from the powerful Area-51 desktop to the Aurora, with a multitude of different configurations available to suit any task. This sale won't last long, and prices are only going to go up if we follow the recent trends of memory and storage price hikes. So you'll have to be quick to snag that deal.

Top Alienware President's Day Desktop PC Deals

Top Alienware President's Day Laptop Deals

Alienware laptops are specifically designed for gamers, with specifications and features that make the top-end systems actual desktop replacements. Alienware laptops feature lush screens, responsive keyboards, and the latest graphics hardware, such as Nvidia's 50-series mobile GPU processors.

We're not expecting these discounted PCs and laptops to stick around for long, as it's only a short sales weekend and the first large event of the year. If you want a new computer or laptop, then President's Day is a good time to jump on one of these Alienware deals.

More President's Day Tech Deals

Best gaming laptop deals | Best GPU Deals | Gaming Chair | Best monitor deals | Best SSD deals | Best CPU deals | Gaming Chair | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best laptop PC deals | Best Gaming PC deals | Best RAM deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals

Grab yourself a nice gaming PC in the first sales event of the year. This coming weekend heralds the arrival of the President's Day celebrations on Monday, 16th February 2026. Many retailers are offering discounts on their goods and services, and if you're a techie, you might be able to find some good deals on your favorite desktop PCs and components. We've already spotted this excellent deal at Best Buy, where the Alienware Aurora desktop gaming PC prebuilt is on sale for $1,399.99, a huge saving of $400 off the $1,799.99 list price.

• Grab this deal at Best Buy

If we compare some of the hardware inside to current prices on PC Partpicker, we can see the 32GB of RAM costing around $345, for the cheapest RTX 5060 Ti GPU it's $359, and around $169 for a Gen4 1TB SSD. This brings us to $873 before we even add a CPU, PSU, motherboard, case, cooler, Windows 11, fans, and anything else you would need to construct the PC yourself.

Inside this Alienware Aurora gaming PC is an Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti graphics card, Intel Core Ultra 7 265F processor, 240mm AIO cooler, 32GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage for the operating system and any games you'd like to install. This is a solid configuration for a gaming PC that would excel with 1080p to 1440p gaming. It would also be able to run 4K in games, but you would start to feel the limits of the 8GBs of VRAM and framerate caps. Being a 50-series card, though, you can start to utilise DLSS 4 for multi-frame generation, to help with frame smoothing.

Now there are some things to consider with this PC. Although it's a perfectly capable machine for gaming with these specs, there are some concerns for the longevity of the GPU, due to the 8GB limitation on VRAM. A lot depends on how far you're pushing the resolution and graphics settings in games, as 8GB is more than enough for the vast majority of titles, but can be eaten up quickly in newer games, especially on 4K settings. We benchmarked the 8GB version against the 16GB version to see how they stacked up against each other, to give you an idea of some of the trade-offs you're making by opting for the lower amount of VRAM.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Alienware is bringing OLED panels to a significant portion of its gaming laptops for the first time, following in the footsteps of brands like Asus and Lenovo that have introduced OLED displays to gaming laptops over the past 12 months. Alienware was actually a pioneer in this space, offering OLED panels on models here and there, going as far back as 2016. But now the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Alienware 16X Aurora are getting updated with 240Hz anti-glare OLED displays.

For now, Alienware is only updating its 16-inch laptops with an OLED panel. Dell claims the display has a 0.2ms response time, 620-nit peak HDR brightness, and 120% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. It also comes with certifications from VESA, including DisplayHDR True Black 500 and ClearMR 9000. The displays come with an anti-glare coating, which Alienware claims reduces “gloss by 32%.” That number comes from internal testing from Samsung Display, so add a bit of salt.

The Alienware 18 Area-51 isn’t getting an OLED upgrade, instead sporting the same 18-inch IPS panel, with a 300Hz refresh over the previous generation.

All three laptops remain unchanged aesthetically, still sporting Alienware’s AW30 design language that it rolled out last year; you can read our thoughts on them in our Alienware 16 Area-51 review and Alienware 16 Aurora review. The 18-inch and 16-inch Area-51 models have a slight spec adjustment, however. Alienware says they’ll pack “new” Intel Core Ultra 200HX processors. These laptops already go up to a Core Ultra 9 275HX, which is one step below the highest-end mobile Arrow Lake offering Intel has. Dell wasn’t able to share model names or specs.

Outside of the CPU updates (and the OLED display on the 16-inch model), the two Area-51 designs remain unchanged. You can configure them with an RTX 5070 Ti up to an RTX 5090, as well as up to 64GB of DDR5-6400 memory and a total of 12TB of storage, split across three M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs in RAID 0.

The lower-end Alienware 16X Aurora remains unchanged, outside of its OLED update. You can configure it with up to a Core Ultra 9 275HX — it isn’t getting whatever new HX models Intel has, it seems — along with up to an RTX 5070 mobile running at a 115W TGP. You can also configure it with up to 64GB of DDR5-5600 memory, as well as 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage.

All three updates will be available in the first quarter of 2026, but Alienware hasn’t shared any pricing details yet. Given the current crisis in RAM availability, there’s a good chance prices will rise compared to last year’s models.

Alienware Ultra-Slim and Entry-Level concepts

Alienware is updating its range of Area-51 and Aurora laptops at the beginning of the year, but it teased two new models that will arrive later in 2026. Currently, they’re just called the Ultra-Slim and Entry-Level laptops. These laptops will round out Alienware’s laptop offerings, as it moved away from designs like the slim Alienware x14 R2 during Dell’s larger rebranding efforts.

First, Dell says the Ultra-Slim design is around 17mm thin, or around 0.66 inches. For context, the MacBook Air M4 is about 0.45 inches thick, while the 2024 and 2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is around 0.64 inches. For specs, Alienware says the laptop will come with a discrete Nvidia GPU and “new highly efficient CPUs.” It’ll be available in a 14-inch and 16-inch variant, and Alienware claims the 16-inch model is nearly 50% smaller in volume compared to the Alienware 16 Area-51.

Alienware hasn’t shared any details about the Entry-Level laptop yet, short of the render you can see above. Alienware says those interested should “stay stunned for more this spring,” suggesting the laptop is closer than the lack of details would let on.

Alienware Area-51 Desktop, now with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D

Starting in February, Alienware plans to offer its flagship Area-51 Desktop with AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9850X3D. The souped-up X3D chip comes with an average 7% improvement compared to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, says AMD, though even Team Red’s official benchmarks show minor improvements in most games, with some games posting identical results.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is identical to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, short of the clock speed. The updated CPU can climb up to 5.6GHz, while the original model topped out at 5.2GHz. Nothing else is different. Both CPUs carry the same 120W TDP, and they both carry 104MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. The 96MB SRAM chunk is placed under the compute die on both models, giving them more thermal headroom for overclocking. AMD supports multiplier-based overclocking (along with PBO) on both chips.

Alienware originally launched the Area-51 Desktop exclusively with Intel’s Core Ultra 200S ‘Arrow Lake’ CPUs before bringing AMD’s Ryzen 7 9700X, Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and Ryzen 9 9950X3D to the desktop in November of 2025. Alienware hasn’t said if the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will replace the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but AMD claims both CPUs will live in the Zen 5 X3D lineup moving forward.

Outside of the new CPU, the specs of the Area-51 remain unchanged. You can pack in up to an Nvidia RTX 5090, 64GB of DDR5-6400 memory, and 12TB of total SSD storage split across three 4TB PCIe Gen4 drives. Neither Alienware nor AMD has shared pricing details on the Ryzen 7 9850X3D yet, but the configuration will reportedly arrive in February.

The Alienware AW3423DWF has always been a top pick for us, and it's easy to see why! It started at over $1,000, but that price has been dropping steadily since it came out three years ago. When we last visited the monitor in October, it was selling for $521.99. However, it's not down to an all-time low of just $499.99 as part of Amazon's early Black Friday deals.

• Grab this deal at Amazon

This AW3423DWF, which we gave a perfect 5 out of 5 stars, has a 34-inch Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) panel with a 3440 x 1440 resolution and an 1800R curve. The refresh rate isn't as fast as some newer screens, but it's still pretty good at 165 Hz. Plus, it supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and is compatible with Nvidia G-Sync.

You'll find two DisplayPort 1.4 ports and one HDMI 2.0 port for your video needs, and Alienware includes a USB 3.2 hub with four downstream ports. Just a heads-up, there aren't any speakers on the AW3423DWF, but it does have a 3.5mm headphone jack.

We found that the AW3423DWF excelled in input lag tests against its peers. We measured input lag at just 27 ms, putting it at the head of the class.

Want to see how this deal stacks up against the rest? Check out our list of the best gaming monitors to get a feel for what's out there. You can also find out what specs to keep an eye on when you're picking out a new gaming monitor.

If you're looking for more Black Friday savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard or CPU Deals pages.

One of Seagate's largest Ironwolf Pro hard disk drives is on sale at Newegg, with 75 bucks knocked off the list price in their "Gametober" sales event. If you're looking for a reliable drive for a NAS or other backup setup, one of Seagate's enterprise-grade drives will offer extra peace of mind when storing your precious data.

Today's deal is on Seagate's IronWolf Pro HDD (28TB capacity) for $479.99, available from Newegg. The list price for this drive is $556.49, making this a 14% discount. The sale is part of Newegg's Gametober sales event, which has replaced Fantastech II, which ended last week.

Some might think that mechanical hard disk drives are a relic of the past and are far too slow for modern needs. While nowhere near as fast as the latest PCIe Gen5 SSDs, what they lack in terms of speed they make up for in price per capacity and longevity. These particular enterprise-grade drives from Seagate are designed to be operated 24/7 all day, every day.

• Grab this deal at Newegg

The IronWolf Pro is a 3.5-inch drive with a 7200 RPM spin speed and SATA connectivity. The SATA III interface has a 6 Gb/s transfer bandwidth, a read/write transfer speed of 285 MB/s, and a workload rating of up to 550TB per year. It uses Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology and is much faster than cheaper models that use Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR). If you're looking for some of the best drives to fill up your workhorse NAS setup, then this IronWolf Pro deal should be on your radar.

Rated for 2.5 million hours of MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), and using built-in rotational vibration (RV) sensors for vibration tolerance and consistent performance in multi-bay systems. The Seagate IronWolf Pro also comes with a 5-year limited manufacturer's warranty. The 28TB Ironwolf Pro is an identical spec to the 30TB version we reviewed in September 2025. Scoring 4 stars, it offers great maximum performance despite some quirks. The only other drawback is the high base cost, negated somewhat by this deal. The IronWolf Pro is listed as our top NAS pick in our best hard drive roundup. You can see how it performed in benchmarks versus rivals below.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day sales extravaganza is firmly in the rear-view mirror as we settle briefly for a few weeks before the even bigger sales events come into view. November will see Black Friday and Cyber Monday enter the fray with early deals starting weeks beforehand. But that's not to say that deals will disappear. Dell, for example, always has some deal running on one of their product lines, and today it's on one of their gorgeous QD-OLED monitors.

In today's deal, you can save a hefty $350 off the Dell Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor and pick one up for just $849. This equals the previous all-time low pricing that we've seen for this rather luxurious monitor. The prices of QD-OLED screens have dropped in price since they first appeared on the scene, but still command a high price tag compared to more common IPS monitors that have dropped to much more affordable mainstream pricing.

If perchance you're an avid gamer and are looking for a fancy new gaming monitor for upcoming games like EA's Battlefield 6, then this could be a great option for you. With a mix of smooth motion resolution and low input latency, this could be the perfect opportunity to experience QD-OLED in action.

• Grab this deal at Dell

The Alienware AW3225QF is a large 32-inch gaming monitor that boasts impressive specs and an extensive list of additional features. It's easy to see why this gaming monitor would be a welcome addition to any PC gaming setup. With a 4K resolution and ample pixel density on its 32-inch QD-OLED screen, the Alienware AW3225QF is a great piece of kit. We've had the Alienware AW3225QF on the test bench to review and were so impressed with its performance that we awarded the monitor 5 stars and gave it our coveted Editor's Choice award.

We noted how the monitor produced a stunning image with broad contrast and rich color, and how the OLED panel had a greater color volume than most other OLEDs we'd tested. Motion smoothness is another standout feature of the QD-OLED panel.

In our testing, the Alienware AW3225QF had exceptional responsiveness. Performing better than even LCDs running at 360, 500, and 540 Hz. The only caveat is that the AW3225QF’s 4K resolution plus high refresh rate will demand more from your system, so a high-end graphics card is necessary to power the full capabilities of this monitor.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

You’ve decided to splurge on one of the best OLED gaming monitors, and you’ve decided that a 27-inch flat panel is just right for your desktop. The question now is, “How much OLED do I need?” It’s possible to spend $800 or more if you go for 4K resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate. But is that overkill? Can you get the same gaming experience from QHD and 280 Hz?

I’ll attempt to answer that as I review Alienware’s new AW2725D. It’s a 27-inch QHD 2560x1440 resolution Quantum Dot OLED with 280 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR400, and wide gamut color. And it’s $550 at this writing, so let’s take a look.

Alienware AW2725D Specs

One thing all OLEDs share, at least the ones I’ve reviewed, is a super quick panel response. The universally quoted figure is 0.03 milliseconds, and it is not an exaggeration. This is why OLED doesn’t need overdrive and why it’s smoother at a given refresh rate than a comparable LCD. The threshold where motion resolution equals static resolution is around 144 Hz. And since you can’t go beyond perfect, is there a reason for OLEDs to be quicker than 240 Hz?

As you ponder that question, check out the Alienware AW2725D. It breaks into a lower pricing zone at $5,50 and for that sum, you get 280 Hz, QHD 2560x1440 resolution, Quantum Dot technology, HDR400, a wide color gamut, LED lighting, USB ports, a full rack of play aids, and Alienware’s usual premium build quality.

The QD layer means extra color gamut coverage. I measured over 111% of DCI-P3, making it one of the most colorful monitors I’ve yet tested. Accuracy is OK out of the box and excellent after a simple calibration. You also get Creator mode, which lets you pick between DCI-P3 Cinema and sRGB. The picture is very satisfying with or without adjustment.

The panel’s lifespan is assured by a heat-dissipating graphite film behind the OLED layer, along with generous ventilation in the back. It’s passive, meaning there are no fans. In the OSD, you’ll find a panel refresh routine and a health indicator that lets you know when to run it. Alienware backs the AW2725D with a three-year warranty.

Gaming features include AlienVision, which is fast becoming my favorite aiming point system with its flexible and capable editor that includes many shapes and colors and even a night vision mode. Also included are timers, a frame counter and display alignment marks. The LED show extends to Alienware’s famous head icon in back and a large power button. Both can be set to any color and be made to coordinate with on-screen action. Two USB ports underneath the panel’s bottom edge make plugging in peripherals a snap. The only things missing are a headphone jack and internal speakers.

The AW2725D delivers a lot of performance and image quality for $550. It is the best way to avoid dropping $1,100 on a big, fancy, and potentially slower 4K OLED gaming monitor.

Assembly and Accessories

Alienware’s molded pulp packaging has proven itself to be more than capable of protecting computer monitors from the rigors of shipment. I have yet to receive a damaged sample, despite some having gone through multiple trips on the FedEx truck. The AW2725D’s three component parts assemble without tools into the cool new design I’ve seen from Alienware with an upright that appears to float above the base. It’s very solid in practice. The cable bundle includes HDMI, DisplayPort, USB and IEC for the internal power supply.

Product 360

The AW2725D’s bezel is reasonably narrow at 6mm wide on top, 11mm to the sides and 14mm at the bottom, where you’ll find an Alienware moniker and a large backlit power button. Its color and behavior are controlled in the OSD. Additional lighting is in the back where the Alienware Head is prominently displayed. It too can light up in any color and both LEDs can follow on-screen action using the Aurora control app.

The stand looks delicate thanks to the upright’s floating look and the base’s small size. But it is quite heavy and the three parts mate solidly to form a monolithic package. Ergonomics include 5/21 degrees tilt, 20 degrees swivel, 90-degree portrait mode and a 4.6-inch height adjustment. Movements are firm and sure with no wobble or play. The AW2725D isn’t expensive, but it is premium in every way.

The input panel is kept compact in the center, underneath the stand attachment point. You get two HDMI 2.1 and a single DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC). A USB-B upstream port forms a hub that includes Type C and A ports on the panel’s bottom edge. They’re easy to access from the front, so you can plug in peripherals, like headphones for instance, as there is no traditional 3.5mm jack. There are no internal speakers either.

OSD Features

Pressing the AW2725D’s center joystick, the only control, opens the quick menu and status bar seen in the first photo below. An up-click opens the full OSD, which will be familiar to any user of Dell or Alienware monitors.

The top status bar shows signal information and panel health info. At the bottom is a quick menu with five programmable icons that provide access to often-used functions. The full OSD starts appropriately with Game and its 12 picture modes. Standard is the default with solid gamma out of the box, but I found it a tad green in tone. After the game-specific modes, you’ll find Creator with gamut and gamma selections. Its DCI-P3 option refers to the cinema standard with a 2.6 gamma and D63 white point. sRGB is close to spec and is appropriate for colorists and photographers needing that reference.

To find the best image, I went for Custom Color and its two-point white balance sliders. A few tweaks took grayscale and color to pro-level accuracy. The rest of the Game menu includes game aids like timers and a frame rate counter. And there's AlienVision, which is a super cool aiming point editor. It includes multiple shapes and colors plus night vision and even a dynamic reticle that changes color to stay in contrast with the background.

The lighting options have fixed colors for the power LED and Alienware Head. Or you can sync them with your PC using the Aurora control app. HDR options are found in the Display menu where you get six additional modes. Desktop is the default, and it is good, but HDR Peak 1000 is the most dynamic with variable brightness and accurate color tracking. It provides a vivid, colorful presentation that is unmatched by anything except another QD-OLED monitor.

The PIP/PBP mode includes five different screen split ratios plus options for the PIP window position. This feature lets you view two video sources at once. In Personalize, you can set the functions of the joystick directionals and the five icons in the quick menu.

In Others, you can run the pixel refresh routine manually whenever you wish. When the panel health indicator turns red, it runs automatically. Finally, you can view nine screens of factory calibration info that is unique to each AW2725D sample.

Alienware AW2725D Calibration Settings

The AW2725D comes out of the box in Standard mode, and I found that it was a bit green in tone. It has spot-on gamma and color, but bright white shades are slightly off. The best choice is Custom Color where you’ll find RGB gain and bias sliders plus hue and saturation controls for all six colors. With a few changes to gain, I achieved a visually perfect grayscale. Gamma is spot on in any case, but there’s only one choice, 2.2. If you want a darker or lighter presentation, you’re out of luck. My SDR settings are below. Note that there is no variable brightness option in SDR.

HDR signals enable six additional picture modes, of which HDR Peak 1000 is the best. It employs variable brightness for peaks around 460 nits, slightly higher than the class average. Custom Color HDR offers a contrast slider that lets you dial down the overall brightness, plus color hue and saturation controls.

Gaming and Hands-on

As I played a few hours of Doom Eternal’s horde mode, I kept thinking of the word “translation.” The AW2725D, like nearly all OLEDs faster than 200 Hz, translates your thoughts into action with no delay and no blur. About the only other monitor class on this level is an Ultra HD OLED at 240 Hz. So taken on a price/performance basis, the AW2725D clearly wins.

With a decent mouse and keyboard, a monitor like this lets your skills shine, as in, it’s never in the way. There is no delay, and the picture is always sharp as a tack, whether still or moving. Aiming and shooting is consistently precise. The AW2725D’s video processing is without flaw.

The image is stunning in every respect. The extra punch from Quantum Dot color is clear when comparing the AW2725D to a non-QD screen. Though it’s just a 10-15% difference in volume, you can plainly see the extra red and green in gameplay and in the Windows desktop. Photos look brighter and more vibrant. And those perfect black levels don’t hurt. The AW2725D delivers performance on par with all the QD-OLEDs I’ve reviewed and has just a tad more color than most of them.

From a convenience standpoint, the AW2725D’s extra USB ports on the bottom are handy. They are easy to find and are the perfect place to plug in a pair of headphones. Though I wished for a 3.5mm jack to run my trusty Sennheisers, there are plenty of capable USB cans out there. Some may mourn the loss of internal speakers, but considering the sound quality coming from most of them, it isn’t a big sacrifice.

The AW2725D is a great everyday screen for work and play. Its color is a real asset when working on graphics in Photoshop or watching video. I’m a fan of mini home theaters and a screen like this creates a personal experience in a small space for not a lot of money. Add in good desktop speakers or headphones and you can enjoy the latest blockbuster from Marvel Studios while sitting in your favorite gaming chair.

Takeaway: The AW2725D is a great all-around display and a superlative gaming monitor. It has the same premium video processing as any high-end monitor with low input lag and perfect motion resolution. Do you need a higher refresh rate? I’m going to say no. 280 Hz QHD is super responsive and the picture here gives nothing away to higher-res screens thanks to its highly saturated color. For the price, this OLED is going to be hard to top.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

I’ve reviewed plenty of 240 Hz QHD OLEDs, but lately, more displays are coming out at 360 and even 480 Hz. To answer the question, “How fast does an OLED need to be?”, I’ve rounded up the LG 27GX790A, Samsung OLED G6, Asus XG27ACDNG, Philips 27M2N8500, and AOC Q27G4ZD.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

When you’re counting individual video frames from a 1,000fps video, yes, you can tell the difference between 240-280 Hz and 360 Hz. In practice, you cannot. 240 Hz provides perfect motion resolution. That means there is no loss of detail and no blur from moving objects or panning backgrounds. I’ve observed this in Blur Busters test patterns and in actual content. This also means that you won’t find more smoothness at 280, 360, or 480 Hz. The AW2725D matches motion quality with all the quicker screens, and so does the AOC with its 240 Hz refresh rate.

Input lag is therefore the deciding factor, and there certainly is a difference there. The LG and Philips are my two record holders at 10ms of total lag. So, you’ll need at least 360 Hz to play in that sandbox. But the AW2725D is right in the fray with 17ms, putting it 1ms ahead of the Samsung. I doubt anyone can tell a 1ms difference in input lag, or differentiate between 17 and 18ms. Bottom line, the AW2725D is plenty quick.

Test Takeaway: If smooth motion is your top priority, there is no need to buy an OLED faster than 240 Hz. The AW2725D’s 280 Hz is more than quick enough for perfect motion resolution and blur-free operation. Its input lag is also low enough for competition unless you want the ultimate performance offered by Philips or LG’s 360/480 Hz displays. Which cost $700 and $800, respectively, so there’s that. Performance-wise, the AW2725D is going to be hard to beat.

Viewing Angles

Quantum Dot layers usually create a subtle polarization effect that manifests as a barely visible green tint. The AW2725D shows this trait in a gray test pattern, but it’s nearly impossible to spot in content. Brightness and gamma remain consistent at 45 degrees to the sides. The top view is also solid with slightly reduced gamma and brightness.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

At 3.96%, the AW2725D has above-average screen uniformity. You won’t see any issues like bleed or glow here. Though this result is sample-specific, I’ve found OLEDs to be very consistent in this test. I haven’t encountered a bad one yet.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

The AW2725D doesn’t include a variable brightness option for SDR mode, so window and full screen patterns will measure the same. I recorded 265 nits peak in the Standard mode, which is on par with other screens in the genre. The LG and Asus panels can top out at over 400 nits, which would be handy in a very sunny environment like a location video shoot. Black levels cannot be measured by currently available instrumentation, so contrast is undetermined.

After Calibration to 200 nits

Calibration and the setting of 200 nits peak don’t affect black levels or contrast. They are still unmeasurable. ANSI, or intra-image contrast, is the same way, with no reading coming from the black squares in my checkerboard pattern. This is typical OLED performance.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725D has about the same peak brightness as its competition save the LG and Asus monitors, which can go over 400 nits in SDR mode. If you need those higher peaks for your environment, they are a good choice. For a typical office, media or game room though, the AW2725D is more than bright enough.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

The AW2725D comes in its Standard picture mode, allowing for brightness and contrast adjustment, but has fixed color and gamma. You can tweak grayscale in the Custom Color mode and change the gamut in Creator mode.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

The AW2725D is a touch green by default, which is noticeable in brighter content with a lot of white and neutral tonality. Green is the color most visible to the human eye, so it’s a difficult error to forgive. Luckily, gamma is spot on the reference line, so all that’s needed are RGB tweaks.

In the Custom Color mode, a few changes to the RGB gains are all it takes to achieve visual perfection. With all errors under 0.5dE, the AW2725D is pro-monitor territory. In Creator mode, the sRGB gamut works as intended, but the grayscale is green, and there is no mechanism to fix it. Gamma is slightly askew, but not enough to impact the image negatively

Comparisons

The AW2725D’s default grayscale error of 3.73dE and its visible green tint mean that it should be calibrated. While some users will be satisfied with the default image, the adjustments do make a visible improvement in depth and realism. Once adjusted, it becomes the top finisher with a tiny 0.32dE average error. That’s about as good as it gets.

I’ve observed lately that all the Alienware monitors I review have perfect gamma. The AW2725D rides the 2.2 line perfectly with only a 0.08 range of values and a 0.9% deviation, the actual value is 2.22. This means color saturation and tonal separation will be optimal in all SDR content. This is excellent performance.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

If you measure a monitor’s quality by its color gamut accuracy, the AW2725D excels both before and after calibration. The first chart, Standard mode, shows slight hue errors in cyan and magenta, plus a bit of extra saturation in red, green and cyan. These are minor errors and in practice cannot be seen in content.

Calibration tightens up the chart nicely, making the visual impact a bit more vivid. Removing the green tint from neutral tones lifts a veil, to use symbolism, and makes the image pop.

In the sRGB test, you can see slight hue errors in cyan and yellow and a tad bit of bonus green. This mode is suitable for color grading and critical applications, although its grayscale output runs slightly green and lacks calibration options.

Comparisons

OLEDs are generally color accurate in my tests and the AW2725D continues that trend. It sits right in the middle of the pack with a solid 1.76dE result. In practice, all the monitors will appear equal since none have errors greater than 3dE, the generally accepted visible threshold.

In the volume test, the AW2725D shows its best asset with over 111% coverage of DCI-P3. That’s about as good as it currently gets. Even among QD-OLEDs, it’s a cut above. The 109% figure for sRGB isn’t ideal, but still can be used for color grading.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725D is an extremely colorful gaming monitor with above-average DCI-P3 gamut coverage. With a few tweaks, it delivers pro-level accuracy and has exemplary gamma tracking. I only wish there were additional gamma presets because I’m a fan of choice.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The second reason to buy an OLED gaming monitor after smoothness is HDR quality. With infinite contrast and perfect black levels, no display technology can do HDR like OLED. The AW2725D offers six HDR picture modes that provide extra flexibility to the user.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

The LG drives its panel a bit harder to top out at 763 nits, but the AW2725D is the brightest of the rest at 460 nits. Variable brightness is in play, and I know this because I had to measure a 25% window to get that figure. A full white screen hits around 265 nits. This result tracks with its VESA DisplayHDR 400 rating.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

I measured all six modes and found HDR Peak 1000 to track the best for grayscale, EOTF and color. Grayscale runs slightly green above the tone-map transition of 65%. The EOTF is a tad dark until 40% where it meets the reference line. This is solid performance.

In the HDR color test, the AW2725D takes full advantage of its large gamut to deliver high saturation and a vivid picture. All six colors show solid hue tracking, so there are no issues visible in content. Some bright neutral tones are a tad green, but that doesn’t have a significant impact. In the BT.2020 test, the AW2725D tops out at 90% red, 80% green and 95% blue. It covers more of that gamut than many QD-OLEDs.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725D stands out among QD-OLEDs with tremendous color coverage and solid accuracy. Though I noted a little green in neutral tones, it did not impact the image significantly. Thanks to vivid color and deep contrast, the AW2725D is a superb display for HDR content.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

We’ve seen OLED refresh rates climbing steadily from 144 Hz up to 480 Hz in a few cases. But after playing on many 240 Hz QHD panels, I’ve concluded that you don’t need more speed than that because motion resolution can’t get better than perfect. By that, I mean that moving objects are rendered with the same clarity as static ones.

The Alienware AW2725D’s 280 Hz is more than fast enough for any gamer at any skill level. Though you can buy lower input lag at 360 and 480 Hz, there are very few players who can differentiate between 17 and 10 milliseconds. If you want the faster one, expect to pay $700-800.

For $550 at this writing, the AW2725D delivers tremendous color volume and a bright image with over 460 nits for HDR and 265 for SDR. You get reasonable accuracy out of the box and pro-level performance after a few tweaks. And it’s flexible with lots of color modes, a full set of gaming aids and USB ports placed within easy reach. Add in Alienware’s excellent build quality and you have a winner that pulls the OLED price of admission a little lower. If you have $550 in your monitor budget, keep if on your shopping list.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

If you've been holding out for a quality gaming display to go on sale, now is your chance. The Alienware AW3423DWF is one beefy display, and right now you can buy it for the lowest price we've ever seen for it. Recently it has been selling at $699, marked down from the $1,099 launch price, but today you can buy it for just $549. This is a great offer not only on this particular screen but in general for one in this class.

• Check out this deal on Amazon

The Alienware AW3423DWF is a curved gaming monitor that spans 34 inches across, making for a notably immersive experience. This monitor is packed with all the bells and whistles you want out of a gaming monitor. We had the opportunity to review it for ourselves, and we absolutely loved it — rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

If you're looking for something big and flashy with performance, you don't have to look much further. The Alienware AW3423DWF was definitely designed with gamers in mind. It's designed around a 34-inch quantum dot enhanced OLED (QD-OLED) panel with a curvature graded at 1800R. It features a WQHD resolution which measures in at 3440 x 1440px. The refresh rate can get as high as 165 Hz, which is ample without being groundbreaking, but the response time can reach an impressively low 0.1ms.

The AlIenware AW3423DWF is AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certified for its superior performance and ability to hit certain quality metrics, like providing low framerate compensation (LFC) support. It covers 99.3% of the DCI-P3 and 149% of the sRGB color gamuts, and can reach a peak brightness of 1,000 Nits. You get a USB Hub to play around with for peripherals and two video input options, including both an HDMI 2 port and two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs. A couple of 3.5mm jacks are thrown in for connecting audio devices, as well.

Check out our list of best gaming monitors if you want to see how well this offer stacks up against the rest of the market. You can also get an idea of what specs to look out for when picking out a new gaming monitor.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

When you’ve maxed your gaming PC budget for a high-end video card and you don’t have enough left for an OLED monitor, you reach for the next best thing – a speedy LCD with a fast refresh rate, preferably something over 300 Hz. And this isn’t necessarily settling for second best. Some truly excellent deals in this category are less than half the price of an the best OLED gaming monitors.

Alienware’s newest generation of gaming screens embraces value, and few models define that better than the AW2525HM. This 25-inch FHD IPS screen runs all day at 320 Hz, supports G-Sync and FreeSync, delivers HDR10, and, in a rarity for the genre, covers nearly 94% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. And it’s $250 at this writing. Let’s take a look.

Alienware AW2525HM Specs

The AW2525HM is less than half the price of a 27-inch OLED, but in terms of features and performance, the return is well over half. It runs at 320 Hz without overclock, a frame rate that’s easy to achieve at 1920x1080 resolution. The screen size means pixel density is a serviceable 90ppi, meaning it’s sharp enough for clear imagery and fast enough for high motion resolution. The overdrive is precise and provides near-full elimination of blur and no ghosting artifacts.

An IPS panel delivers decent contrast, over 1,100:1 in my tests, and that figure is both a static and an intra-image result, which is rare for any monitor category. However, the big draw is color. Very few FHD monitors have wide gamut coverage, but the AW2525HM delivers just under 94% of DCI-P3, making it a class leader, by a wide margin. That color is accurate as well, with calibration optional and reference level performance after a few adjustments.

There’s a complete set of gaming aids here, including Alienware’s slick new aiming point editor that incorporates a dynamic aiming point and night vision options with three user-programmable presets. You also get a frame rate counter, a set of timers, and alignment marks. At $250, some users might want to put two or three of these compact screens on their desktops.

Physical features are in the everything-you-need-and-nothing-you-don’t category. There are no internal speakers, nor is there a headphone jack. And there’s no LED light show either. But you do get USB ports, two of which are on the panel’s bottom edge for easy access. And the stand is top shelf with quality ergonomics and a solid build. It’s a 320 Hz monitor for $250. That kind of speed would have cost $500 just a few years ago.

Assembly and Accessories

The AW2525HM comes in an easy-open clamshell box with molded pulp forms securing the contents. It’s fully recyclable and there are no foam crumbs to vacuum up after unpacking, yay. The three parts, base, stand, and panel, assemble without tools into a stylish and solid piece. The cable bundle includes IEC for the internal power supply, plus DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB.

Product 360

I really dig Alienware’s latest aesthetic with an upright that appears to float just above the base and the smooth surfaces found throughout. There isn’t a sharp angle or hard edge in sight, just balanced ovals and rounded rectangles. The front view is all screen with one of the narrowest bezels I’ve seen to date, just 5mm around the top and sides and 14mm on the bottom. The trim sports the Alienware moniker and a large backlit power button/LED.

The back photo is a bit deceiving. Alienware’s Head logo is not backlit, but it does split white light into red, green, and blue from any angle other than straight on. It’s a neat holographic effect that I haven’t seen before. Ventilation is provided by a ring of small holes that mimic the shape of the attachment plate. Under that is a 100mm VESA mount with fasteners included.

The stand is solid despite its floating appearance. The look of its attachment to the base is something I haven’t seen elsewhere, and it’s a feature of all the latest Alienware displays. The height adjustment is 4.3 inches along with 5/21 degrees tilt, 30 degrees swivel and a 90-degree portrait mode. Overall, the AW2525HM is hefty despite its small size. It’s reasonably portable and ruggedly built.

The input panel is up and under the center, just behind the OSD joystick. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4. A USB-B serves as the upstream hub connector with the two downstream Type As arrayed on the bottom edge of the panel, where they’re in easy reach of peripheral connections. There’s no headphone jack, which is unusual, and ironic because on the upper left side is a pop-out headphone hook made from a very thick piece of powder-coated metal.

OSD Features

Alienware and Dell monitors all have the same basic OSD design as the AW2525HM. Pressing any joystick direction opens a small menu with signal status at the top of the screen. You can left- and right-click for quick access functions, which the user can specify. An up-click opens the full OSD.

The Game menu offers 13 picture modes, each corresponding to a different game type. Three Game modes offer RGB gains and bias sliders, along with dark stabilizer and response time values, which are independent of each memory. There is no Creator mode, but you can call up sRGB in the sRGB mode. It is reasonably accurate, though slightly undersaturated, more on that later. For the most precise calibration, go for Custom Color with its RGB and color management options.

Game Enhance Mode has the aids you’ll need with a set of timers, frame rate counter and alignment marks. The Response Time (overdrive) has three settings, of which I found Extreme to be the most responsive and smoothest. None of them have ghosting artifacts.

The AlienVision sub-menu is super cool because it gives you total control of the aiming point’s size, shape, and color. It also includes night vision. There are three presets, all user programmable, that can be called up with a couple of clicks. The dynamic crosshair changes color to stay in contrast with the background, or you can keep it a static color.

The AW2525HM fully supports HDR10 with four dedicated modes. Desktop measured well in my tests and looked the best for gaming and video. Custom Color HDR offers color saturation and contrast adjustments.

The Personalize sub-menu controls the functions available in the quick menu and the joystick direction commands. It’s very flexible and completely programmable by the user.

Alienware AW2525HM Calibration Settings

The AW2525HM can be used without calibration in its Standard mode, but I found a visible improvement by adjusting the RGB gain sliders in Custom Color. There are no gamma options, but my tests showed that luminance tracked closely to the 2.2 reference value. If you need sRGB color, there is a picture mode for it, and it is a tad undersaturated but close enough to reference to be called accurate. My recommended SDR settings are below.

For HDR content, I found the default Desktop mode to be the best measuring and the best looking. It doesn’t offer any adjustments, but it more than doubles contrast thanks to a field dimming feature and delivers plenty of color too.

Gaming and Hands-on

When space or money is at a premium, a small high-performance gaming monitor is the perfect solution. The Alienware AW2525HM is one of the best examples I’ve played on lately. Though I’ve experienced 500 and 540 Hz screens, the 320 Hz rate here is just as smooth and satisfying for any kind of gameplay, from lush adventures where you’ll spend time enjoying the scenery to frenetic shooters where you barely have time to breathe.

With no perceptible input lag, I enjoyed instant response to all control inputs. The AW2525HM never wavered in its delivery of smooth gameplay with no artifacts, hesitation, or frame tearing. My test PC maintained 320fps throughout with its GeForce RTX 4090 in operation. The image remained sharp with enough pixel density to keep the FHD resolution beneath my notice. You can certainly achieve a sharper image with QHD or UHD screens, but not for $250 and not at 320fps.

Comparing the experience to other small monitors, the AW2525HM’s extra color is a real value-add. You won’t find more than 90% of DCI-P3 anywhere else in the FHD category and that extra saturation is easy to see. Reds and greens were vibrant, and the image looked natural and correct both before and after testing and calibration. The AW2525HM is ready to go out of the box.

Everyday tasks are a breeze with enough sharpness to keep small fonts and icons legible. If you’re used to a larger screen, the 25-inch size will take some adjustment, but among small monitors, the AW2525HM stands out with its excellent color and brightness. HDR was particularly nice, not only for gaming but also for video, which played smoothly.

My only gripe is the lack of audio options. There are no internal speakers, which isn’t unusual, but there’s no headphone jack either. Ironically, there is a substantial metal headphone hook that pops out of the upper left side of the panel. So, you can hang headphones there if they plug into a USB port. I’ve seen a few monitors lately without headphone jacks, I hope it’s not a trend.

Takeaway: In use, it’s hard to fault the AW2525HM on any level. It’s a great gaming monitor with smooth motion and quick response. It has enough pixel density to provide a sharp image. And it has greater color saturation and volume than any other fast FHD screen I’ve reviewed. For the relatively low price of $250, it punches well above its weight class.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To compare the AW2525HM’s performance, I’ve rounded up 24, 25, and 27-inch FHD screens running between 280 and 540 Hz. They are Lenovo’s R27fc-30 and R25f-30, Asus’ PG248QP, BenQ’s XL2566X+, and ViewSonic’s XG2536.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

Refresh rates, AKA frame rates, are the primary governor of smoothness or motion resolution. More Hertz/fps means less blur, assuming that overdrives are of the same quality. The AW2525HM has an excellent one, and it has no problem matching the 400 Hz BenQ. Only the Asus with its 540 Hz refresh rate can claim better performance, and in practice, the difference is small.

You’d think that the Asus would be on top for input lag, but surprisingly, it isn’t. The win goes to the 280 Hz ViewSonic with just 13ms of total lag, and the AW2525HM manages to equal the PG248QP with a respectable 19ms score. Bottom line: it’s plenty quick and will deliver competition-level performance for a low price.

Test Takeaway: The AW2525HM is nearly equal in smoothness to the fastest LCDs currently available, matches their input lag and costs less in the process. It’s a high bang-for-the-buck gaming monitor that will satisfy gamers of all skill levels, from novice to professional.

Viewing Angles

The AW2525HM looks a bit better from 45 degrees off-axis than typical IPS panels. Though you can see a slight green/blue tint, it is barely a factor in practice and there’s no appreciable drop in brightness or gamma. While few users will be sharing a 25-inch monitor, this one has the capability. The image looks pretty much the same from all angles up to 45 degrees. The top view is darker and greener in tone with lowered gamma that reduces visible detail.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

The AW2525HM’s screen uniformity score is comfortably under the visible threshold of 10%. With an 8.09% value, you won’t see any glow, bleed, or hotspots. My sample measured a bit brighter in the center, but I couldn’t see a problem.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

All the monitors here deliver plenty of brightness, with the AW2525HM occupying the third spot in the comparison. 419.7 nits is brighter than you’d need for any application unless the sun is shining directly on the screen. I noted that you can easily dial it down to 50 nits for dark room play. With a 0.3647-nit black level, contrast works out to a respectable-for-IPS 1,150.8:1. The Lenovo’s VA panels give them a distinct advantage in this test.

After Calibration to 200 nits

The AW2525HM’s calibration doesn’t change anything visually except for the new white level of 200 nits, which I use to level the field for testing. It moves up one spot in the black level and contrast comparisons, though, so that’s progress. The ANSI score is higher than the static, which is something I rarely see. That speaks to the AW2525HM’s high quality control and component selections. It means the grid polarizer element is fitted precisely, which is a good thing.

Test Takeaway: If you want a lot of contrast for a little money, VA is still the king, but the AW2525HM’s IPS panel is a little above average with over 1,100:1 measured in all tests, including ANSI, which is unusual, in a good way. The picture is satisfying with convincing black levels and more than enough brightness to suit any usage environment.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

I started my color tests in the AW2525HM’s Standard picture mode and found that it was just on the edge of needing calibration. Most users will be satisfied to use the monitor unadjusted. In the Custom Color mode, it’s possible to achieve very accurate results for all color benchmarks.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

In the AW2525HM’s first grayscale/gamma chart, you can see a slightly warm tone rising from 40% brightness up to the peak level. This error is minor because green and red are in balance; neither color dominates. All that’s needed is a bit more blue. Gamma tracks perfectly on the 2.2 reference line with no anomalies visible in content.

Calibrating the Custom Color mode delivers perfection with all errors now below 1dE. That is reference-level performance. Gamma now says 2.19 average, but that change is so minuscule that it’s barely visible on the chart, much less in practice. It doesn’t get better than this, even from a pro display.

The sRGB mode is based on a higher 2.4 gamma reference and the AW2525HM is slightly darker than that. Grayscale errors are invisible, so this issue is extremely minor. The monitor is qualified for grading work, but as you’ll see below, the sRGB gamut is slightly undersaturated.

Comparisons

The AW2525HM’s 3.41dE default grayscale value is borderline for calibration. Since the errors create a warm tone, they are more forgivable than a blue or green push, which is easier to spot in content. But with such precision available from calibration, it’s logical to do so. If you use sRGB, it lacks adjustments but runs a solid 1.58dE grayscale error and gamma that’s close to the intended 2.4 value.

Gamma tracking is about as good as it gets with top scores for value range and deviation. A 0.07 gap between low and high numbers is super tight and the 2.19 average means it’s just 0.45% off the reference, which is an excellent result.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

I was impressed by the AW2525HM’s color coverage. No FHD screens in my experience cover as much of the DCI-P3 gamut as this one. Only green comes up slightly short. All points are on or near their targets with just the slightest hue errors in cyan and magenta. With an average of just 1.87dE, you won’t see any issues.

Calibration takes the AW2525HM below the difficult-to-achieve 1dE threshold. Only a few monitors can manage this. Remember that it is the average value of 36 measurements. This is on par with the best professional displays.

The sRGB test result was a bit disappointing as it shows clear undersaturation in red, magenta and green. The AW2525HM certainly has enough color to cover 100% of sRGB. I would still call it qualified for critical applications, but just barely.

Comparisons

The AW2525HM wins the color accuracy contest for DCI-P3 with a 0.93dE score. It’s one of the few monitors that has cracked 1dE in my test. The next four screens aren’t far behind, but the BenQ is out of the mix at over 7dE.

The coverage test is where the AW2525HM really shines. You won’t find Quantum Dot color in the FHD gaming monitor category, but Alienware has achieved significantly more color than its rivals. The extra coverage is in red and green, meaning the picture is visibly more saturated and vibrant. It’s a great enhancement for gaming that adds to the AW2525HM’s already exemplary performance. The sRGB gamut comes up short of the mark with 86.82% coverage. For gaming, this isn’t an issue, but if you really need sRGB, there are monitors that do it better like the Lenovo R27fc-30.

Test Takeaway: The AW2525HM offers excellent color, grayscale and gamma accuracy that competes with professional screens after calibration. It has a greater DCI-P3 gamut volume than all its competitors, translating to more vibrant and enjoyable gaming.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The AW2525HM accepts HDR10 signals and switches modes without user intervention. There are four dedicated modes available, focused on different uses: Desktop, Game, Movie and an adjustable option, Custom Color HDR. The BenQ XL2566X+ is absent from this test because it does not support HDR.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

I managed to measure over 419 nits in SDR mode, but the AW2525HM only topped out at 355 nits for HDR content. That isn’t a huge drop in brightness, and its offset by a field dimming feature that takes contrast to over 2,700:1, more than double the SDR value. That’s thanks to very low black levels. I noted that a zero signal shuts off the backlight, so I had to put a tiny info bug on the screen to take an HDR black level measurement. In the comparison, you can see the VA screens have about the same dynamic range for SDR and HDR, and the Asus uses more aggressive dimming to raise its contrast ratio.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

In the AW2525HM’s HDR grayscale test, I saw near-perfect tracking with errors above 70% just touching the 3dE threshold. This is an acceptable result. The EOTF runs a tad dark below 40%, then rides the reference line until the tone map transition at 65% where it takes a softer turn than the reference. In practice, there is no effect on detail rendering.

The AW2525HM has a large color gamut that delivers better HDR saturation than its competitors. With nearly full coverage of DCI-P3 and linear oversaturation, the image pops and makes HDR games stand out from their SDR counterparts. Hue tracking is on-point as well. In the BT.2020 test, color runs out at 85% red, 65% green and 95% blue.

Test Takeaway: If you want really good HDR, I wouldn’t normally recommend a fast FHD display, but the AW2525HM challenges that statement. Clearly, it is just as colorful as QHD and UHD offerings and it manages above-average contrast for a $250 gaming monitor. It’s accurate too, with no tweaking required so that you can enjoy HDR right out of the box. Based on this group of tests, the AW2525HM has no equal in its price category for HDR performance.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Many users need a small monitor that suits both budget and desk space. While jumbo and ultra-wide screens are killer gaming displays, their footprint and cost don’t always match the user’s available assets. Competition gamers require a rugged and fast panel that is both easily transportable and quick to set up. The Alienware AW2525HM is such a product, and it delivers terrific value as well.

A few years ago, a 320 Hz monitor would have been on the bleeding edge with a $500 price tag to match. The AW2525HM delivers that same low input lag and smooth motion resolution, along with a huge color gamut and really good HDR. Even its native contrast is above the IPS average at over 1,100:1. Setup is flexible enough that you can either enjoy the picture as is, or calibrate for professional-grade accuracy.

My only complaint is the lack of audio options. Though USB headphones are out there, many users rely on an old and trusted set of cans that sound better than many of today’s offerings. The AW2525HM has one of the best headphone hooks I’ve seen, so that’s something. I was also glad to see USB ports arrayed on the bottom edge of the panel for easy access.

If you can’t afford a premium OLED gaming monitor, a small, fast screen is a great alternative. The AW2525HM’s 320 Hz delivers smooth play and low input lag while also rendering more color than its competition. And it’s only $250 at this writing, which makes its price/performance very high. For bargain shoppers who want to compete at a high level, this is a monitor worth considering.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

Save a whopping $350 during Dell's back-to-school sales event. You can grab the Dell Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor from Dell for just $849, the lowest price I've ever seen for this rather luxurious monitor with extra card and membership discounts. It's still an expensive outlay even with the discount, but if you're a gamer and fancy trying out a gaming monitor with perfect motion resolution and low input lag, then this could be the opportunity for you to experience QD-OLED in action.

The Alienware AW3225QF is a large 32-inch gaming monitor that boasts impressive specs and an extensive list of additional features. It's easy to see why this gaming monitor would be a welcome addition to any PC gaming setup. With a 4K resolution and ample pixel density on its 32-inch QD-OLED screen, the Alienware AW3225QF is a great piece of kit, but it comes with a fairly hefty price tag. It's awesome to see such a large discount in Dell's back-to-school sales event.

• Grab this deal at Dell

We've had the Alienware AW3225QF on the test bench to review and were so impressed with its performance in our benchmark testing that we awarded the monitor 5 stars and gave it our coveted Editor's Choice award. We noted how the monitor produced a stunning image with broad contrast and rich color, and how the OLED panel had a greater color volume than most other OLEDs we'd tested. Motion smoothness is another standout feature of the QD-OLED panel.

In our testing, the Alienware AW3225QF had exceptional responsiveness. Performing better than even LCDs running at 360, 500, and 540 Hz. The only caveat is that the AW3225QF’s 4K resolution plus high refresh rate will demand more from your system, so a powerful graphics card is necessary to experience the full capabilities of this monitor.

Enhancing immersion in your games, the AW3225QF sweeps around your peripheral vision thanks to its rounded 1700R curve. Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, and Dolby Vision are some of the AW3225QF's major selling points aside from the impressive QD-OLED panel used for this screen. Excellent build quality and a 240 Hz 4K QD-OLED display help to justify the price somewhat compared to just buying a large OLED TV.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

The Alienware AW3225QF is a large 32-inch gaming monitor that packs some serious specs, and also has an impressive list of extra features to boot. It's easy to see why this gaming monitor would be a welcome addition to any PC gaming setup. With a 4K resolution and ample pixel density on its 32-inch QD-OLED screen, the Alienware AW3225QF is a great piece of kit, but it does come with a fairly hefty price tag, so it's awesome to see such a large discount in Dell's Black Friday in July summer sales event.

• Up to 47% off PC and gaming monitors on Prime Day

Saving a whopping $350 in Dell's sales event, you can pick up the Dell Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor from the Dell website for just $849, the lowest price I've ever seen for this rather luxurious monitor. It's still a pretty expensive outlay even with the discount, but if you're a gamer and fancy trying out a gaming monitor with perfect motion resolution and low input lag, then this could be the opportunity for you to jump on the QD-OLED bandwagon.

We've had the Alienware AW3225QF on the bench to review and were so impressed with its performance in our benchmark testing that we awarded the monitor 5 stars and gave it our coveted Editor's Choice award. We noted how the monitor produced a stunning image with broad contrast and rich color, and how the OLED panel had a greater color volume than most other OLEDs we'd tested.

In our testing the Alienware AW3225QF had exceptional responsiveness. Performing better than even LCDs running at 360, 500 and 540 Hz. The only caveat is that the AW3225QF’s 4K resolution will demand more from your gaming system. You’ll need a very powerful graphics card to see its full capabilities.

For enhanced immersive gaming, the monitor sweeps around your peripheral vision with its 1700R curve. Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, and Dolby Vision are the AW3225QF's stand-out features beyond the impressive panel used. Excellent build quality, and that world-leading 240 Hz 4K QD-OLED display helps to justify the price a little compared to just buying a large OLED TV, plus the extra connectivity a PC monitor offers.

The input panel of the AW3225QF includes one DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 (one upstream and three down), and a USB-C port.

Some PC games play best with a super-high resolution, while others may prioritise lower resolutions and higher refresh rates. This used to mean that whatever your favorite game, it dictated the type of monitor you'd like to buy. Dell has made that decision much easier by combining these two scenarios and manufacturing a dual-resolution screen that can easily switch between the native resolutions and refresh rates.

The Alienware AW2725QF has a high-pixel-density 4K panel with a fast 180Hz refresh rate (most graphics cards will struggle to reach in graphically intensive games), and also a mode that switches the monitor to a 1080p resolution, but ups the refresh rate to a whopping 360Hz for buttery-smooth low-latency esports levels of gaming for when I want to prioritise that type of game.

This interesting gaming monitor deal from Dell lists the Alienware AW2725QF at just $499, a $100 reduction from the original $599 list price. It's just a single monitor, but technically, it can act as two, allowing you to switch the monitor's native output levels depending on the type of game you want to play.

Having reviewed the Dell Alienware AW2725QF late last year (Sept 2024), we awarded this versatile gaming monitor an Editor's Choice award for its class-leading performance, dual-resolution feature, inclusion of Dolby Atmos support, build quality, and wide color gamut. This gaming monitor gives you the best of both worlds: high-resolution 4K gaming and superfast refresh rate 1080p esports performance.

The Alienware AW2725QF comes with both HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity as standard, utilizing the latest HDMI 2.1 standard for the HDMI ports. There are two HDMI ports, with one of them supporting eARC for Dolby Atmos signal pass-through. The DisplayPort is 1.4 compliant, with a mix of USB-A, USB-B, and USB-C (5 Gbps) ports.

Today's deal features a stunning 32-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor from Dell that offers plenty of screen real estate in addition to a very high refresh rate, exceptional color gamut, and high resolution. If you're looking for a new centerpiece for your gaming setup and really want to show off the capabilities of your graphics card, then the latest lineup of QD-OLED and OLED monitors is the way to go.

This deal is available at Dell, where you can find the Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor for $899, saving $300 off the original $1,199 MSRP price. Prices are slowly declining as OLED monitor tech becomes more mainstream, but currently, the most cost-effective way to get one is in a deal like today's or one of the big sales events throughout the year.

The Alienware AW3225QF comes with a 4K resolution and ample pixel density on a 32-inch QD-OLED panel. The screen also features a 1700R curve for more immersive gaming, a blisteringly fast 240Hz refresh rate, adaptive sync, HDR10, and Dolby Vision. For connectivity, the input panel of the AW3225QF includes one DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 (one upstream and three down), and a USB-C port.

To achieve or push towards that smooth 240Hz refresh rate, you will want to pair this luscious screen with a very powerful GPU, especially at 4K and on graphically intensive games.

Having had the chance to review the Alienware AW3225QF, we were impressed with its performance in our benchmark testing. This amounted to us awarding the AW3225QF gaming monitor 5 stars, along with an Editor's Choice award. We noted how well the monitor produced a stunning image, with broad contrast and rich color, and excellent OLED color volume compared to most other OLEDs we'd tested, as well as a 110% DCI-P3 color gamut.

I'm in the market for a new gaming monitor, as my trusty old screen is starting to show its age with a few dead pixels. Shopping around a few monitor dealers, I came across this interesting deal on Dell's Alienware AW2725QF gaming monitor.

It ticks a lot of the right boxes for me. Primarily, it has a high-pixel-density 4K panel with a fast 180Hz refresh rate (most graphics cards will struggle to reach in graphically intensive games), and also a mode that switches the monitor to a 1080p resolution, but ups the refresh rate to a whopping 360Hz for buttery-smooth low-latency esports levels of gaming for when I want to prioritise that type of game.

This interesting gaming monitor deal from Dell lists the Alienware AW2725QF at just £415. A reduction in price of £73 from the original £488 list price. It's just a single monitor, but technically it can act as two, with you being able to switch the monitor's native output levels depending on the type of game you want to play.

Having reviewed the Dell Alienware AW2725QF late last year (Sept 2024), we awarded this versatile gaming monitor an Editor's Choice award for its class-leading performance, dual-resolution feature, inclusion of Dolby Atmos support, build quality, and wide color gamut. This gaming monitor gives you the best of both worlds: high-resolution 4K gaming and superfast refresh rate 1080p esports performance.

The Alienware AW2725QF comes with both HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity as standard, with the HDMI ports using the latest 2.1 standard. There are two HDMI ports, with one of them using eARC for Dolby ATMOS signal pass-through support. The DisplayPort is 1.4 compliant, with a mix of USB-A, USB-B, and USB-C (5 Gbps) ports.

The RTX 5090 is Nvidia's top-of-the-line card, which makes it the fastest consumer graphics card you can buy right now. But can you actually buy it? Most places are sold out of the RTX 5090 and prices from scalpers on eBay range from $3,400 to more than $4,000 for a card that's supposed to sell for around $1,999.

Fortunately, you can get a fully-loaded Alienware Area-51 desktop with an RTX 5090 inside for not much more than the bare card. For $4,899, reduced from $5,499, during Memorial Day weekend, you can get an Area-51 with a Core Ultra 9 285K CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, a 1,500-watt power supply, Alienware's snazzy case and that RTX 5090 you've been dreaming of.

We had a chance to review a similarly-configured Alienware Area-51 with RTX 5090 inside and came away impressed with its performance. In the review, we compared it to RTX 4090-powered desktops we had tested in the past.

At 1080p, the Area-51's Core Ultra 9 285K CPU held it back a little bit in comparison to competitors with the better but older Core i9-14900K processor. But when you step up to 4K resolution, you see more of a difference between the old and the new.

On Red dead Redemption 2, It scored 109 fps at Medium Settings (this is a very demanding title) , eclipsing competitors at that resolution by at least 29 fps.

With ray tracing enabled in Cyberpunk 2077, the differences were also stark, with it beating its nearest competitor by at more than 20 percent.

Overall, this is about as powerful of a gaming desktop as you can get.

Early Memorial Day deals are popping up left, right, and center as the week nears the national holiday on May 26th. This gorgeous monitor deal is one for the hardcore gamer who wants no compromise when it comes to both picture quality and performance. Featuring the latest OLED technology paired with superfast refresh rates, the Dell Alienware AW2725D can not only reproduce your games on screen with stunning visuals and motion resolution but also give you esports-level refresh rates for pinpoint accuracy and latency.

You can find this Memorial Day offering at Dell, where the Alienware AW2725DF gaming monitor is now $649, reduced from $899, saving you a tasty $250. The AW2725D measures 27 inches diagonally and uses a QD-OLED panel with a native 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution. QD-OLED technology lets you experience unrivaled contrast, with infinite blacks and eye-popping colors.

When we reviewed the Alienware AW2725DF, we were impressed by the speed of the monitor, first with its 360Hz refresh rate and secondly, the 0.03ms response time, which delivers perfect motion resolution without needing strobing or overdrive. A larger color gamut than other QD-OLED monitors, the AW2725DF doesn't include internal speakers or an analog headphone jack, but this didn't put us off awarding the AW2725DF with five stars and an Editor's Choice award.

The AW2725DF comes with plenty of connectivity options, including 2x DP 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-B upstream port (Rear), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A downstream port (Rear), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-C downstream port, which supports BC1.2 power-charging, and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A downstream port.

As one of the biggest PC builders in the US, Dell offers some great deals now and then as they put certain PC, laptop, and monitor models on short sales cycles. Having recently released the Alienware Area-51 machine with 50-series GPUs from Nvidia, the older Aurora models were left behind. Now we're seeing these slightly older case designs get an injection of more recent hardware to bring them up a level. There are some niggles, in that this machine uses some proprietary parts which can cause upgrade headaches in the future, but if that's not a concern for you, then this deal is spot on.

Save $400 on the Dell Alienware Aurora gaming PC (RTX 5080), going for $2,470 after the discount. The previously listed price was $2,870 for this machine. There are also ways to bring this sale price down even lower, with coupon offers and a 10% discount code when you register on the Dell website or sign up for emails. But these can sometimes be a little temperamental, so give them a try before you buy, and you could get this machine for as low as $2,223.

The upgraded components list for this Alienware Aurora gaming PC includes the powerful Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU with 16GB of superfast GDDR7 VRAM, an Intel Core Ultra 285 CPU with 24 cores, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage for your operating system and games. Keeping the CPU cool is a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, and handling power requirements is a beefy 1000W Platinum-rated power supply.

I would like to see Dell incorporate some of their more powerful gaming PC's with AMD's Ryzen X3D processors, such as the 9800X3D, but the Intel Core Ultra 285 is still a very capable CPU, and also functions very well in multi-threaded applications outside of gaming.

There’s a new member of Alienware’s excellent QD-OLED gaming monitor family, and it looks to be potent for enthusiasts seeking to gain an advantage over the competition. The new AW3425DW sports a 34-inch QD-OLED panel in a widescreen 21:9 aspect ratio and 3440 x 1440 resolution with an 1800R curve.

Compared to its predecessor, the AW3423DW, Alienware has increased the maximum refresh rate from 175 Hz to 240 Hz. More importantly, the AW3423DW only featured HDMI 2.0 ports, limiting the refresh rate over HDMI to just 100 Hz. However, the AW3425DW has no such concessions as it supports 240 Hz over HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4. Speaking of ports, the AW3425DW features one DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1 ports. It also features an integrated hub with 5 Gbps USB-A and USB-C ports (the USB-C port supports 15-watt charging).

Given that this is a QD-OLED panel, you won’t be shocked to learn that it boasts a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio and a quick 0.03 ms response time. SDR brightness isn’t usually a strong point for OLED panels, and the AW3425DW is rated for 250 nits. However, peak HDR brightness is measured at 1,000 nits with a 3 percent window. As expected from any high-end gaming monitor, the AW3425DW supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync.

Besides the internal upgrades, the AW3425DW also incorporates the new AW30 design language finished in Interstellar Indigo. The organic shapes look quite sleek, and you'll also find AlienFX RGB lighting, which is customizable via the Alienware Command Center software package.

A couple of additional notes on the AW3425DW: most OLED gaming monitors feature a glossy finish to make colors pop a bit more, but this one has an anti-reflective coating. Alienware has also incorporated a graphene-infused heatsink within the panel to better dissipate excess heat. According to Alienware, this is yet another mitigation strategy to root out potential screen burn-in.

The Alienware AW3425DW is currently available in the United States and is priced at $799.99.

You might not be able to get your hands on a new Nvidia 50-series graphics card separately, but there are still a few floating about in prebuilt gaming PCs from various builders. Today's deal focuses on a top-spec build from Dell's Alienware lineup that features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 at its heart. Now I do use the term "deal" here a little loosely, as yes, there is a deal whereby you get $400 off of the list price of this gaming rig, but, the cost of the whole PC is pretty expensive, and not a good deal if you're only after the GPU.

If you like this PC deal, check out Dell.com where the Alienware Area-51 (RTX 5080) gaming PC is listed for $4,649, a markdown of $400 on the list price of $5,049. This is a very beefy and competent gaming PC spec list with components that will be able to help push the most out of the latest game titles.

Dell has listened to customer feedback, done away with proprietary parts, and constructed a gaming PC that can be easily upgraded when more powerful components become available. The new case design features a glass side panel and a subdued yet modern design, and the hardware inside is up-to-date and powerful. The list of hardware inside this Alienware Area-51 includes the aforementioned Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, Intel's 24-core Core Ultra 9 285K processor, 64GB of DDR5 RAM, and 4TB of SSD storage.

For cooling the CPU, the Alienware Area-51 uses a 360mm All-in-One liquid cooler, and to ensure the power-hungry GPU gets enough power and covers transient spikes, the PC comes with a 1500W Platinum-rated ATX12VO power supply.

Don't forget to look at our Dell coupon codes for March 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Dell.

Today's deal features a superb value gaming monitor from Dell that features many specifications that are common on more expensive gaming monitors. So, if you're looking for a new monitor, a second screen, or a main monitor for a low-cost budget gaming setup, this is a great place to start.

You can find this deal over at Dell, where the Alienware AW2724DM is just $199, saving over $180 from its original MSRP. I've seen this monitor on sale on Amazon for $230 before, and currently, you can also find it on sale for $199.

The Alienware AW2724DM is a flat-panel fast-IPS gaming monitor with 27 inches of real estate for your games. Some of the fantastic features of this screen include a fluid 165Hz refresh rate (up to 180Hz when overclocked), HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and a 1ms gray-to-gray extreme response time. The picture has a QHD 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution for sharp images, and with most modern GPUs, you can achieve respectable frame rates on this gaming monitor.

Avoid screen tearing and visual anomalies with VESA adaptive-sync, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, plus compatibility with Nvidia G-Sync tech. The screen has a superb 600-nit brightness and great color accuracy with a DCI-P3 0f 95% and is factory calibrated with an accuracy of Delta E less than two.

Don't forget to look at our Dell coupon codes for January 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Dell.

If you're looking for a new monitor or an upgrade to your existing setup, then today's deal is a beautiful monitor from Dell that offers plenty of screen real estate along with high refresh rates, high color gamut, and high resolution. Just in time to pair with one of Nvidia's new graphics cards when they release at the end of the month.

Available on Dell's website you can find the Dell Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor for $999, saving $200 off the original $1,199 MSRP price. This gaming monitor is the complete package if you're looking for a high-resolution screen with an OLED panel and a high framerate for super-smooth gameplay.

The Alienware AW3225QF has a 4K resolution and ample pixel density on a 32-inch QD-OLED panel. The screen also features a 1700R curve for more immersive gaming, a blisteringly fast 240Hz refresh rate, adaptive sync, HDR10, and Dolby Vision. For connectivity, the input panel of the AW3225QF includes one DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 (one upstream and three down), and a USB-C port.

We've had the chance to review the Alienware AW3225QF and were impressed with its performance in our benchmark testing. We awarded the monitor 5 stars along with an Editor's Choice award, noting how the monitor produced a stunning image, broad contrast, and rich color, with excellent OLED color volume compared to most other OLEDs we'd tested, and 110% DCI-P3 color gamut.

Don't forget to look at our Dell coupon codes for January 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Dell.

It’s been six years since we last saw an Alienware Area-51 device, but Dell is bringing its flagship gaming sub-brand back in a big way for CES 2025, with color-shifting 16- and 18-inch laptops, complete with a glass window on the bottom (to better see its internal RGB fans), and a monstrous full-tower gaming desktop with support for cooling the most power-hungry next-gen components.

Area-51 16, Area-51 18 gaming laptops

The 16- and 18-inch laptops sport a new “AW30” external design named for the company’s 30th anniversary – curious considering the company was founded in 1996. This includes a striking “liquid teal” color-shifting anodized shell and a “thermal shelf” bump behind the screen that houses cooling hardware and ports, surrounded in typical Alienware fashion by a diffused RGB light ring. The touchpad is also RGB-lit, and the per-key RGB keyboard features Cherry MX mechanical switches.

In a first, Alienware has added a Gorilla Glass window on the bottom of the laptop and RGB fans that shine through, giving the laptop an underglow while you game or work. You can also faintly see the lighting from the fans from the top while looking down through the vents.

Details on graphics options were scarce when we wrote this, but it’s likely both models will support up to an RTX 5090, as Alienware touts the laptops’ “highest total power ceiling in a gaming laptop” with up to 175W for the GPU and 105W for the CPU simultaneously, for a total of 280W. How well (and how noisily) the laptops handle those extreme loads of course remains to be seen.

CPU support is listed as up to a Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, RAM up to 64GB DDR5-6400 (and XMP support up to 72000), and storage up to 12TB – with one of the M.2 slots supporting PCIe 5.0 drives.

As you might have guessed, these laptops aren’t thin or light, even compared to other gaming laptops. THe Area-51 16 is 1.12 inches thick at the back and tops out at 7.6 pounds, while the larger 18-inch model is 1.2 inches thick and weighs 9.82 pounds fully specced out. 

When we saw the laptops ahead of CES, they were under very low lighting, and the press shots the company provided were under the same lighting conditions, so it’s still a little unclear how they’ll look in the light of day. But the design is still very much in the typical Alienware realm, with the iconic head on the lid, and lots of curved edges. If you’re an Alienware fan, chances are you’ll like how these laptops look.

Dell says its Alienware Area-51 laptops will be available sometime later in Q1, with entry configurations expected to land around $1,999. But if you want one at launch, that model will set you back around $3,199, with a “high-end, next-gen” Nvidia GPU. 

Area-51 Desktop 

At 22.4 inches tall, 24.04 inches deep, and weighing in at a minimum of 76 pounds, the new Area-51 desktop is a big, bold gaming rig with a rounded metal exterior and a front light ring, borrowing much of its exterior design for the Aurora R16. As you would expect from an Area-51, top-end components will be supported, including GPUs up to 4 slots wide and 17.1 inches long, PCIe 5.0 storage, and 360mm AIO cooling (with room for an even larger 420mm radiator in the top chamber).

Interestingly, all of the system’s fans are intake, relying on positive pressure to move warm air out of the back. The company says this lets the system run 13% cooler and 45% quieter, though we’ll, of course, have to wait for testing to see how cool and quiet the rig actually is.

My favorite aspect of the Area 51 is its use of a standard-sized ATX motherboard (supporting Intel’s Core Ultra Arrow Lake CPUs) and ATX power supply, making future upgrades easier. And for those who aren’t particularly confident in their DIY PC skills, the company has also printed several QR codes at key spots inside the case, so you can bring up how-to videos to aid the upgrade and maintenance process.  

The chassis looks nice and feels premium, though it would be nice if there were fewer visible seams. I’m happy to see the company move to more standard parts though, a direction that HP’s competing Omen line has been moving toward for a few years now. Hopefully, we’ll see that trend trickle down to the company’s more mainstream Aurora line.

The Alienware Area-51 desktop should be available in Q1 of this year. Starting price is still up in the air, but the company says a launch configuration with a “high-end, next-gen” Nvidia GPU will set you back $4,499. How that stacks up to similarly equipped desktops from other PC makers remains to be seen, but you can probably expect the usual Alienware price premium.

OLEDs have become the “new hotness” in the gaming monitor space, and we’re seeing a lot of activity with monitors big and small. Dell is debuting a new OLED gaming monitor at CES that is definitely on the smaller side of the scale, measuring 27 inches across (actually, 26.7 inches).

The Alienware AW2725Q uses a QD-OLED panel with a 4K resolution, which is uncommon, although not unheard of for such a small monitor. As a result, you’ll find that the AW2725Q offers 166 pixels per inch (ppi), which is the highest density currently available for a QD-OLED gaming monitor.

Since this is a gaming monitor, performance is a key focal point for potential buyers. Thankfully, the AW2725Q doesn’t disappoint with a maximum panel refresh rate of 240 Hz, which is supported using the HDMI 2.1 port. The response time is 0.03ms, which is typical for OLED gaming monitors. As you’d expect from a high-end gaming panel, the AW2725Q supports both AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync technologies to help prevent screen tearing.

Alienware AW2725Q Specifications

As if that wasn't enough, the AW2725Q has a claimed 99 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, along with Display Vision HDR and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certifications.

The AW2725Q also ushers in a new design language for Alienware gaming monitors, which is dubbed "AW30" to commemorate the brand's upcoming 30th anniversary. You can also find AW30 iconography on the back of the monitor. The monitor is finished in what the company calls “Interstellar Indigo” and includes 360-degree ventilation, improved cable management that routes through the monitor stand, and a smaller footprint for the monitor base to free up more space on your desk.

The on-screen display (OSD) has also been redesigned (this new OSD will be featured on all subsequent Alienware gaming monitors), and there's full support for Alienware Command Center 6.6, which allows you to control the AlienFX lighting.

Dell says that the Alienware AW2725Q will debut in March 2025, priced at $899.99. The monitor has a three-year advanced replacement warranty and OLED burn-in coverage. We’ll be eager to see in a future review if the AW2725Q has the chops to be included among the best OLED gaming monitors. 

Our favorite ultrawide gaming monitor, the Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming display, has been marked down to its lowest price to date. It debuted with a price of $899 but right now it's available for just $649 as part of an early Cyber Monday promotion. As far as gaming monitors go, this one has plenty of beefy specs to delight the pickiest of gamers.

In fact, when we reviewed the Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor, we rated it at 5/5 stars. We were hard-pressed to find any issues with the display, listing the only con as having no flaws at all. It offers an incredibly slick performance and comes with an AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification.

The Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor features a 34-inch quantum dot OLED (QD-OLED) panel with a curvature of 1800R. The resolution is incredibly dense, measuring in at 3440 x 1440px. The refresh rate can get as high as 165Hz while the response time can get as low as .5ms.

The monitor's AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification is well-earned thanks to high-powered specs like its ability to cover 99.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut which pairs well with a maximum brightness of 250 Nits. There are two video input options including two DisplayPort 1.4 ports and an HDMI 2.0 port. A USB hub provides 5 USB Type-A ports and a 3.5mm jack is offered for connecting external audio devices. The monitor is backed up by a 3-year warranty from Dell as well as Amazon's 30-day return policy.

Check out this great offer while it's still in stock by heading over to the Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor product page at Amazon.

If you've been in the market for a dedicated gaming rig, you've got to check out this discount on the Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 4070i gaming desktop. It usually goes for around $2099 but today it's discounted to $1499 as part of a Black Friday promotion. This saves you $600 off the asking price, netting an RTX 4070i GPU, Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage.

We reviewed a slightly different version of the Aurora R16 gaming desktop that had some spec differences and were very pleased with our experience. We ended up giving it a rating of 3.5/5 stars, remarking on its port selection and small footprint. Our biggest gripes were that the fans can occasionally get loud and the fact that it uses a proprietary motherboard.

The main processor powering the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop is an Intel Core i7-14700F. It works alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070i Super graphics card that has 16GB of GDDR6X. For memory, it comes with 16GB of DDR5-5600 via two 8GB modules and a 1TB internal SSD. It's also powered by a 1000W Platinum SSD.

As far as networking support goes, it has WiFI 6E AX210 802.11ax support and an Ethernet port for wired connections. Like we mentioned above, it's got quite a bit to choose from as far as ports go. The front panel has three USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports and a USB Type-C Gen 2 3.2 port. The rear ports include an assortment of audio ports, two USB Type-C ports and six USB Type-C Gen 2 3.2 ports.

It's not clear for how long this offer will be made available so we can't guarantee it will last past Black Friday. Visit the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop product page at Dell while supplies last.

The Dell Alienware m18 R2 featuring Nvidia's flagship RTX 4090 mobile GPU alongside Intel's 24-core i9-14900HX has dropped to $2,999 this Black Friday. Whether it be heavy workloads, gaming, or internet browsing, the m18 carries 64GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, a 4TB SSD, and a stunning 18-inch 480 Hz display to fulfill all your needs.

The RTX 4090 laptop GPU - based on AD103 silicon - offers 9728 CUDA cores and 16GB of VRAM. We see Intel's i9-14900HX on the CPU end in action - with a massive 24-core count (eight P-cores and sixteen E-cores) and 32 threads. Intel's "HX" processors are essentially rebadged desktop processors in the mobile form factor. This allows the i9-14900HX to boost up to 5.8 GHz and is further backed by 68MB of total cache (36MB L3 + 32MB L2).

The Dell Alienware m18 comes installed with Windows 11 Home and includes a 360W SFF power adapter. Check out our detailed review of this laptop for a closer look at its relative performance. Below, you can see several of our extensive gaming benchmarks we ran on this laptop to compare it with other leading models. 

Modern workloads are memory-intensive and to address that problem, the m18 comes equipped with 64GB of DDR5-5200 RAM (2x32GB) - running in dual-channel. The 4TB SSD, on the other hand, should eliminate all storage concerns, although Dell did not disclose the specific speeds.

Moving over to the externals, the m18's chassis is built using anodized Aluminium and offers a Dark Metallic Moon finish. The display is decked out with a large 18-inch 1920x1200 panel, running at 480 Hz, with G-SYNC compatibility, and can display 100% of the DCI-P3 color space. All this performance does come at the cost of a lower battery runtime. However, the 97Wh 6-cell battery should be ample to provide a few hours of backup.

You also have the option to swap the existing keyboard with an LP-mechanical US-profile keyboard with CherryMX switches for $50 more. While ultrabooks and slim laptops are all the hype, they compromise on I/O ports. On that note, the m18 offers a robust selection of ports, including four different USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one RJ45 Ethernet port, one 3.5mm port, one HDMI 2.1 port, one power-adapter port, one mini-display port and one SD-card slot.

We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

Black Friday is just on the horizon but you can already find some pretty stellar deals on gaming hardware—like this awesome deal on the Alienware M18 R2 RTX 4080 gaming laptop. This edition usually goes for around $2799 but right now it's discounted to just $2199. As of writing, it's not clear how long this discount will be made available.

We took the opportunity to review Alienware M18 R2 RTX 4090 edition earlier this year and really enjoyed it, ultimately giving it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. Overall, it's a heavy, 18-inch machine with performance that makes lugging it around absolutely worth it. It's got plenty of room for upgrading the storage which makes it an excellent main gaming rig.

Under the hood of this beefy machine, you'll find an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor. It works alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card with 12GB of GDDR6. This GPU outputs to an 18-inch display with a QHD+ plus resolution that measures in at 2560 x 1600px. The refresh rate caps out at 165Hz while the response time gets as low as 3ms.

This edition comes with 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB internal SSD for storage. You can expand upon this using its four M.2 SSD slots. It has quite a few USB ports to take advantage of including 3 USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port and 2 USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. For video output it has both an HDMI 2.1 port and a mini DisplayPort. For network support, it has both WiFi 7 support and an Ethernet port for wired connections. A 3.5mm jack is provided for audio output, as well.

Visit the Alienware M18 R2 RTX 4080 gaming laptop product page at Amazon for more details and purchase options.

With Black Friday just around the corner, you can already find some pretty good discounts on quality hardware, like this offer from Dell on the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop. It debuted with a price tag of $3,999, but as of writing, it's currently available 33% off, or just $2,999. This is one of the best prices we've seen for the machine since its launch.

We reviewed both editions of the Alienware Aurora R16 in late 2023 and ultimately rated our experience at 3.5 out of 5 stars. Overall, the machine performed well, but a few caveats stood out. However, considering today's discount, it's easier to look past those concerns. 

Under the hood of this gaming rig, you'll find an Intel Core i9-14900KF processor paired with an OEM GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. It comes with 32GB of DDR5-5600 and two SK Hynix PC801 1TB internal SSDs. The processor is cooled by a 240mm liquid cooler and two 120mm case fans. For network connectivity, you've got both an Ethernet port for wired connections as well as Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1675x for wireless support.

The front port selection includes three USB 3.2 Type-A ports and one UB 3.2 Type-C port alongside a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the rear panel, you get four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and two USB 3.2 Type-C ports. There's also a decent selection of audio ports including a line in, line out, mic in and SPDIF to take advantage of. Video output includes an HDMI port and three DisplayPorts. The unit also features a 1000W Platinum power supply.

This system is poised to deliver great performance with Intel's fastest gaming CPU paired with Nvidia's fastest gaming GPU. However, while we appreciated its footprint paired with a vast selection of front ports, we weren't fans of the proprietary motherboard and how loud the fans could get when cooling under heavy loads. Again, these considerations aren't as pressing given the reduced cost. 

Visit the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop product page at Dell for more details and purchase options.

Despite the rumors of an upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, the RTX 4090 is still expensive. But over at Dell, which is having sales to compete with Amazon's October Prime Day, one pre-built with a 4090 in it is seeing a $1,000 price cut.

The Alienware Aurora R16 is down to $2,999.99 with that top-of-the-line GPU, down from $3,999.99. Pricey, definitely, but still a deal. And in a quick check at other stores, we couldn't find another PC with that GPU for any less. If you don't want to build your own, this is as cheap as you're going to get for now.

This system also comes with an Intel Core i9-14900KF, 64GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD, as well as a 240 mm AIO cooler and a 1,000-watt PSU.

In our testing, the Alienware (with the same configuration except for 32GB of RAM) ripped and tore through gaming benchmarks — as it should with these parts — at both 1080p and 4K resolutions.

But if you're buying to upgrade for the future, be warned. While Alienware redesigned the outside of the chassis to be smaller and sleeker, the inside still uses a proprietary motherboard and a server PSU. There's not much in the way of upgrades here, though you could always take that RTX 4090 with you to a new build.

That being said, this isn't bad when you compare the pricing to building one on your own, especially considering we found that to be the case before it went on sale.  If you don't want to build your own rig, can deal with some fan noise, and don't mind the lack of upgrade potential, this is a pretty solid deal.

Ever-popular for their pre-built gaming PCs and potent laptops, Dell often commands premium price tags, notably on its Alienware gaming line-up. We track deals on Dell and Alienware systems from multiple retailers, so make sure to keep checking this page for updates.

Dell's Alienware brand has been synonymous with gaming over the years. High-spec gaming machines from the Aurora lineup, and now the Area-51 relaunch, use top-tier hardware like the RTX 5090 graphics card from Nvidia, the most powerful consumer GPU available, and newer-generation CPUs for peak performance.

We use our in-depth knowledge, gained from thorough reviews, expansive benchmarks, and extensive historical pricing analysis, to help us pick the best deals for you to choose from. We keep that constantly updated list below.

Best Dell and Alienware Deals: Quick Links

• Dell: Up to 40% off Dell productivity and gaming monitors
• Dell: Over 40% off headsets, keyboards, and mice

Top Alienware Deals

Best Dell Deals

More Tech Deals

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

This year, we saw a trend of gaming laptops getting toned down a bit, trading tons of RGB for a more subtle, utilitarian look. For Dell, that was the Alienware m16 R2, complete with a "Stealth mode" that switches the RGB keyboard to white and sets the fans to quiet. Opposite October Prime Day, Dell has the m16 R2 on sale in three different configurations, all with the Core Ultra 9 185H and ranging between $300 and $500 off.

Perhaps the best deal is the $1,699.99 option, which is $400 off. It gets you a Core Ultra 9 185H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 2560 x 1600 screen.  This is cheaper than we reviewed a version with a Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB of RAM and an RTX 4070 earlier this year.

On the low end, there's a $1,399.99 model ($300 off) with an RTX 4060, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. On the high end, there's the Ultra 9, RTX 4070, 2TB SSD and 64GB of RAM for $2,099.99 ($500 off). All three models have the same display.

When we tested the m16 R2, we appreciated its strong build quality, solid gaming performance, plentiful ports and the ease of being able to add RAM or storage later..

These sale laptops, however, aren't offering one of our favorite Alienware features, the Cherry MX mechanical keyboard. You'll have to deal with a standard membrane.

In our testing, with a Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 4070, the Alienware powered through our benchmarks, beating out the 14-inch competitors that also went with plain looks this year, though other 16-inch laptops were competitive.

It's likely that Dell is trying to get rid of these to make space for upcoming Arrow Lake gaming laptops, but hey, if you're going to get last-gen stuff, get it while the price is good.

When building or purchasing a gaming PC, the video sub-system is ultimately what makes or breaks your experience. We all want the highest possible resolution, you need to take a look at one of the best 4K gaming monitors. But that means an expensive video card is needed to move those 8.3 million pixels. Even with the fastest hardware currently available, getting past 200 fps in 4K is hard.

What if you could have the best of both worlds in one monitor? 4K for more casual games, high-quality video and productivity; and FHD for super-quick response in first-person shooters and racing sims. You can do this with Alienware’s new AW2725QF. It operates like two monitors in one and with a single button, switches modes seamlessly. It’s a 27-inch IPS panel with 4K at 180 Hz, Full HD at 360 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR600 and wide gamut color. Let’s take a look.

Alienware AW2725QF Specs

The AW2725QF isn’t the first monitor I’ve reviewed with two resolution/refresh modes. I recently tested Asus’ PG32UCDP, an OLED that does 4K at 240 Hz and FHD at 480 Hz. While it posted some impressive numbers, it is also expensive at $1,300. The AW2725QF is selling for $600 at this writing and delivers nearly the same performance in both panel response and input lag.

For that sum, you get a 27-inch IPS panel that runs 4K at 180 Hz and Full HD at 360. It also supports G-Sync with an Nvidia certification and FreeSync plus VRR for consoles. A DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1 inputs will run the full resolution and refresh rates with a PC. Consoles can run at 4K and 120 Hz with VRR.

A Fast IPS panel is certified for VESA DisplayHDR 600, and it offers wide gamut color. I measured over 90% coverage of DCI-P3. Creator modes deliver accurate sRGB color if you need precision for critical applications. The backlight is an LED edge array with 24 dimming zones for greater contrast in HDR mode. In my tests, the AW2725QF topped 11,200:1 with low black levels, putting it in Mini LED territory for both brightness and dynamic range.

Like all Alienware gaming monitors, the AW2725QF does not skimp on features. The only thing it doesn’t have are internal speakers, but you get a cool pop-out hook for headphones. It also has plenty of USB ports including a USB-C on the bottom edge of the panel where it’s easy to reach. AlienVision includes several viewing enhancements like sniper, night vision and aiming points.

Oh, and I almost forgot. The AW2725QF supports Dolby Vision. Though common for a few years in the TV world, Dolby Vision is still only found in a handful of computer monitors. Support from gaming titles is sparse which is the likely reason for this, but if more desktop displays had it, more game creators would embrace it. Its dynamic tone mapping is visibly superior to the fixed version found in HDR10 material.

Even with its huge array of features, the AW2725QF’s big attraction is its dual-mode operation. It literally is two monitors in one and as you’ll soon see, this could be a real game-changer.

Assembly and Accessories

Alienware continues its responsible tradition of forgoing the usual crumbly foam packaging for molded cardboard that is completely recyclable. The base and upright connect with a captive bolt and the panel snaps in place to create a solid package with a premium look and feel. The AW2725QF cuts no corners in build quality. The accessory bundle includes an IEC cord for the internal power supply plus DisplayPort, HDMI and USB cables.

Product 360

The AW2725QF follows Alienware’s simple but instantly recognizable aesthetic with smooth tapered surfaces, a matte finish, and elegant lighting. The back shows The Alien plus a “27” to denote the screen size. A crosshatch pattern adorns the central oval that rings the stand’s attachment point. The screen has a super thin flush bezel with the Alienware moniker at the bottom. The power LED is also a button and glows with whatever color you choose from the OSD. You can also pick the colors of the lights in the back. Or shut everything off for a stealth look.

The stand is Alienware’s usual high-quality piece with full ergonomics. You get 5/21 degrees tilt, 20 degrees swivel and a 4.3-inch height adjustment. The smooth and firm movements befit a premium display. At the top left is a metal headphone hook that extends when pressed. It feels capable of supporting heavy cans and will likely withstand many years of use.

The input panel is underneath and faces downwards. It’s split in two with USB 3.2 (one up and two down) on one side and video (one DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1) on the other. On the front edge, next to the OSD joystick are two additional USBs, one of which is type C. The HDMI inputs are designed for consoles’ 4K at 120 Hz with VRR but will support the full 3840x2160 resolution, and refresh rates (180 or 360 Hz) on a PC.

OSD Features

The AW2725QF’s OSD is extensive so apologies in advance for the large number of photos. Hey, this monitor does a lot of cool stuff. A centrally located joystick controls the fun. Press it once to summon a quick menu with status bar. Click it back to open the full OSD.

To enable the AW2725QF’s dual refresh/resolution operation, you press the joystick once to open the quick menu, then scroll left or right until the “4K” icon is centered. Another press changes the resolution and refresh rate on the fly. I’ll get into more detail in the hands-on section because there are a few setup chores to do first.

In the Game menu are 12 picture modes with different levels of adjustability. Standard is the default and it’s reasonably accurate but has no options for color tweaks. The Creator mode has DCI-P3 and sRGB options along with gamma presets, but no color temps. The three Game modes let you adjust grayscale and configure video processing. And there’s the familiar Custom Color mode which has RGB gain and offset plus color management. For my purposes, I used Custom Color which, after a few tweaks, is very color accurate.

Game Enhance has timers, a frame rate counter and display alignment marks. The overclock is also dual mode in that you can set it separately for 4K and FHD resolution. In 4K, the choices are 170-180 Hz and FHD has 340-360 Hz. I maxed both modes and had no issues with stability. The three-level overdrive works well in both refresh modes. I found Super Fast to strike the best balance between blur reduction and ghosting. AlienVision has night vision, sniper mode and aiming points to help you better dispatch distant threats.

The input selector has options for the dual-resolution switch. I recommend leaving these alone as they are already on the right settings for an easy change that requires just two presses of the OSD joystick. AlienFX Lighting lets you change colors and effects for the power LED, The Alien and the 27 on the back of the panel. Or you can turn the lights off if you wish.

Smart HDR refers to the HDR10 options, which includes five modes. Though you might think DisplayHDR 600 is the brightest, it isn’t. Custom Color HDR is where I found the best image. It also has adjustments for brightness, contrast and color saturations. In the Dolby Vision sub-menu, you can pick between Bright, Dark, Game or Off. This mode only works when content is encoded in Dolby Vision.

The OSD joystick can be programmed for many different quick access functions. You can also set up your own AlienVision menu to easily toggle play enhancements on and off.

Alienware AW2725QF Calibration Settings

There are a few ways to optimize the AW2725QF’s image depending on your intended use. For most situations, the default Standard mode is fine with a slightly warm grayscale, accurate gamma and good color saturation in the DCI-P3 space. If you want sRGB, choose Creator mode and that gamut from the sub-menu. To calibrate grayscale, I recommend Custom Color, where you’ll find gain and offset sliders plus color management. I only had to tweak the gain controls to achieve reference level. The sRGB mode has a fixed D65 color temp that tracks without any visual errors. My settings for Custom Color mode are below.

For HDR content, the best image comes in the Custom Color HDR mode, which has the brightest highlights and broadest dynamic range. For Dolby Vision, I recommend Bright for rooms with some ambient light and Dark for rooms with no light.

Gaming and Hands-on

To set up the dual refresh modes, I started with the AW2725QF in 4K mode. Go to the Overclock section of the Game menu and select 180 Hz. Once this is working, select the 4K icon in the OSD quick menu to switch to FHD resolution. Visit the Overclock section again and set it to 360 Hz. Then, you’ll be able to switch with two presses of the joystick. When making the change, do it from the Windows desktop, not in-game. That way, it will be seamless.

My testing PC is equipped with a GeForce RTX 4090, so it is well suited for 4K gaming. I was able to maintain the maximum 180fps in 4K while playing Doom Eternal. I enjoyed the superb overdrive which erased nearly all motion blur.

I switched to 360 Hz mode by returning to the Windows desktop and pressing the OSD joystick twice. Make sure the little 4K icon is centered before the second press. The AW2725QF changes within a few seconds and I was back in Doom Eternal about a minute later. The response and non-existent input lag were obvious as my aiming precision improved by leaps and bounds. Dispatching enemies became child’s play because I could stop and fire exactly where I wanted to. If you’re playing in an esports competition, the FHD mode provides a significant advantage.

Comparing the images, FHD is a little softer than 4K. But motion resolution is so clear and consistent I barely noticed. The one thing in favor of the AW2725QF’s 4K mode is pixel density. 27-inch 4K monitors are rare, but they should be savored because there are 163 pixels per inch. That’s about as dense as it gets unless you go to 6K or 8K. That 27-inch size also means FHD won’t be as soft as it is on a 32-inch monitor, the more common 4K size. Bottom line, the AW2725QF has a pixel density advantage over its chief rival, Asus’ PG32UCDP.

I had no negative observations to make when engaging in workday tasks. The AW2725QF’s color is superb with rich hues and bold saturation. The native gamut is just over 90% of DCI-P3 so it’s well situated between sRGB and the full P3 space. You get more color but not too much more. Accuracy, particularly in the Custom Color mode, is excellent and I never thought it looked overblown in SDR/sRGB content. The high pixel density also made small text razor sharp, enough that I barely noticed that I wasn’t playing or working on a 27-inch screen. My daily use display is 32 inches.

Takeaway: The AW2725QF is incredibly versatile for any game type and any work situation. If you have a powerful video card, you can play most games in 4K. But if you want the ultimate advantage with super low input lag, FHD/360 mode is only two button clicks away. The switch was always seamless and reliable. I also appreciated Alienware’s precise overdrive. The HDR image is one of the best apart from a premium Mini LED or OLED so that is a definite consideration. For $600, the AW2725QF delivers tremendous performance and usability.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

The AW2725QF’s comparison group is a bit diverse with both IPS and OLED screens, all 4K. I’ve included the only other dual-resolution screen in my database, Asus’ PG32UCDP, plus Alienware’s AW3225QF and Aorus FO32U2P for the OLED category. IPS is represented by HP’s Omen 27k and BenQ’s EX321UX which is a Mini LED display.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

Here’s what I expect most of you have skipped ahead to. Is the AW2725QF the fastest monitor of all time? Not quite. That honor still belongs to the PG32UCDP, which, in 480 Hz mode, draws a full white field in 2ms and has 11ms of total input lag. But the AW2725QF is close behind at 3ms and 17ms for its 360 Hz mode. Remember that at the faster refresh rate, both monitors are running FHD resolution, but the AW2725QF has greater pixel density thanks to its smaller screen. In 4K mode, both monitors are quick but not quite as smooth as the 240 Hz displays which can draw in 4ms. When total input lag is considered though, the AW2725QF is faster at 180 Hz than two of the 240 Hz monitors in the group.

Test Takeaway: There are a few things to consider here. First, there is nothing that has better motion resolution than a fast OLED. At 360 Hz, the AW2725QF is close but not quite as clear. However, when input lag is considered, it beats all but a few 500 Hz screens on the market. Since the principal selling point is dual mode opedual-modets only real competition is the PG32UCDP which costs more than twice as much. For $600, the AW2725QF is one of the fastest and most versatile gaming monitors available.

Viewing Angles

OLED screens will beat the AW2725QF’s off-axis image quality but not by a lot. Among IPS monitors, this is one of the better examples, with only a slight red shift to the sides and no apparent reduction in light output. Gamma is consistent too which means detail is sharp. The top view is blue in the middle and red on the sides with a 40% light reduction and lower gamma as well.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

My AW2725QF had visually perfect screen uniformity except for a slight hotspot in the lower right corner. I couldn’t spot the problem in actual content unless it was nearly all dark. It certainly was not a distraction at any time.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

The AW2725QF is an extremely bright monitor, nearly matching some Mini LED displays. In SDR mode, I recorded almost 500 nits peak which is a lot of headroom for indoor use. The brightness slider is non-linear in operation which means each click changes the light level by a different amount. From 75% and up, the screen gets significantly brighter.

Of the IPS screens, the AW2725QF has the lowest black level and the best contrast by a hair. 1,176.2:1 is better than the IPS average of 1,000:1. Coupled with excellent color saturation, the picture is quite vivid.

After Calibration to 200 nits

Calibration required me to lower the contrast slider a few clicks to solve a clipping issue, so the resulting dynamic range is lower than before. 944.3:1 is OK but not quite at the level of most of today’s IPS monitors. It’s mitigated somewhat by the wide color gamut, so I recommend sticking with Custom Color mode rather than Creator for the most vibrant image.

ANSI contrast falls a bit to 839.8:1. Intra-image contrast suffers a bit because you can’t use the zone dimming for SDR content. It only works in HDR mode. The AW2725QF’s performance in contrast tests is good but with some room for improvement.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725QF has vibrant color but slightly less SDR contrast than the competition. It’s unfortunate that the zone dimming can only be used for HDR. The picture is satisfying though, and I suspect that most buyers will be focused (and properly so) on its substantial gaming prowess.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

The AW2725QF has 12 total picture modes that can create a large number of different looks should the user choose. Standard is the default, and it can be used without calibration. Specific gamuts can be chosen in Creator mode, or you can calibrate grayscale in the Game and Custom Color modes.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

In the AW2725QF’s default Standard picture mode, you can see a slight blue reduction as brightness increases but the errors are only a hair past the visible threshold. One could use the monitor this way and be happy. Depth and contrast are solid thanks to accurate gamma which stays very close to the 2.2 reference line.

After calibration in the Custom Color mode, grayscale tracking is visually perfect with nearly all errors below 1dE. It doesn’t get much better than that. Gamma is unchanged which is also a good thing.

If you need sRGB for color grading work, it has an error-free grayscale, but gamma is a little off the mark. It’s light in the 10% brightness region, then becomes too dark in the upper mid-tones. This makes the image a little flat but sinc,e color is on-spec, it can be used for critical applications.

Comparisons

The AW2725QF’s default grayscale error is 3.48dE which is just at the line between calibrate or not. Since the error is small, it’s forgivable if you don’t want to tweak the Custom Color mode. But if you do, it takes the number to near-reference level.

In the gamma comparison, the AW2725QF places third in both metrics. The range of gamma values is fairly tight relative to the competition and the deviation from 2.2 is only 1.36%, actual value 2.17. This is very good performance.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

The AW2725QF has bold and vibrant color and when referenced to DCI-P3, we see a little bonus red and blue and a slightly under-saturated green primary. This is typical of the wide-gamut LCD/LED monitors I’ve tested. With an average error of 2.56dE, there will be no complaints about accuracy.

Calibration lowers the gamut error to 1.83 which isn’t much, but the difference can be seen. Magenta and cyan are now closer to their hue targets.

The sRGB option in Creator mode is spot-on with a small average error of 1.51dE. That qualifies it for critical work and color grading if you have that need.

Comparisons

None of the monitors here have any visible color errors so the accuracy comparison is essentially a wash. The AW2725QF performs on par with its competition. Where it lacks a bit though is in color volume and that is solely due to the slight green under-saturation I noted earlier. This is squarely in the realm of nit-picking but if you want the largest possible gamut, a Quantum Dot monitor is the way to go. You’ll find that tech in the AW3225QF, EX321UX and FO32U2P OLED screens. They fill out the green primary for extra total volume. The AW2725QF’s sRGB volume is a nearly ideal 98.62%.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725QF doesn’t have quite as much color volume as its competition but it has enough to be called colorful. Accuracy is high whether you calibrate or not and for gaming, it provides a rich and vibrant image. It should be noted that the AW2725QF is significantly less expensive than all but the HP.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The AW2725QF has comprehensive HDR support with five modes for HDR10 and three more for Dolby Vision. The latter standard is rarely seen in the computer monitor genre and I’m glad to see it included here. Though it doesn’t have a lot of game support, it is commonly seen from streaming services like Netflix and Disney+.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

The AW2725QF is rated for VESA DisplayHDR 600, and it easily exceeded that figure in testing with a peak white level of 663 nits. This was achieved in the Custom Color HDR mode. Interestingly, I could only hit around 420 nits in the DisplayHDR 600 mode when measuring a 25% window pattern. It’s likely that a smaller window would get over 600 nits. However, when viewing content, Custom Color HDR was clearly brighter with better black levels and contrast. The AW2725QF’s ratio of 11,276.4:1 is excellent when compared to other edge-backlight monitors. You can thank the 24 dimming zones for this.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

Custom Color HDR also has the most accurate grayscale, EOTF and color tracking of the five HDR modes. There are no visible grayscale issues, and the luminance curve stays very close to the reference. The tone-map transition comes a tad early, 65 instead of 70%. But you won’t see this issue in actual content.

In the HDR gamut tests, the AW2725QF is generally over-saturated but in a linear fashion so as not to clip detail. This provides extra impact to HDR content and coupled with the well-engineered dimming feature, delivers an excellent image. The Rec.2020 chart looks respectable with similar over-saturation until the AW2725QF runs out of color. It manages around 90% of red and blue, while green tops out at 65%.

Test Takeaway: The AW2725QF is one of the best edge-backlight HDR monitors I’ve reviewed. It has solid contrast that’s beaten only by OLEDS and some Mini LEDs. The dimming feature works seamlessly to deliver the best possible image with accurate and well saturatewell-saturated600, you won’t find much better.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

With the graphics and display hardware currently available, it’s difficult to buy or build a gaming PC without some compromise. 4K delivers the sharpest picture, but you sacrifice frame rates. You can run at some ridiculous speeds with a 360 or 500 Hz monitor but then you give up resolution. And putting two premium monitors on your desk runs up the bill even more.

Alienware has found a great balance by employing some simple math. 4K has four times the number of pixels as Full HD. That means it can engineer a monitor that runs both resolutions by doubling the refresh rate and halving the pixel count. It is truly two monitors in one.

The AW2725QF truly delivers a lot for $600. You get superior pixel density in 4K, 163ppi for the 27-inch screen. 180 Hz is faster than many 4K displays and coupled with a precise overdrive, a premium system can drive it smoothly and with low input lag. And when you want even more performance, two clicks of the OSD joystick makes a quick and seamless change to FHD and 360 Hz where you’ll enjoy even smoother motion and no perceptible input lag. In the video processing metric, it's a win-win.

The AW2725QF also delivers an excellent image with good SDR contrast and excellent HDR contrast. The 24-zone dimming edge backlight hit over 11,200:1 in my tests which puts it ahead of nearly all edge-backlit screens and within striking distance of many Mini LEDs. To see better, you’ll have to spend a lot more money. I also noted very accurate color with calibration. And even in its out-of-box mode, the picture is very colorful and satisfying.

The Alienware AW2725QF presents an effective and innovative solution to the issue of balance between display and video card. It’s versatile enough to be paired with gaming systems that cover a wide range of costs. And at $600, it’s priced below premium Mini LED and OLED monitors. At this point in time, it has no real competition. Definitely check it out.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

Right now at Amazon, you can find the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop for one of its best prices to date. According to CamelCamelCamel data, this is the lowest price ever for this particular build. It usually goes for around $2,199 but today it's been marked down to $1,899 without any specified expiration date.

We reviewed another edition of the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop back in 2023 and found the experience to be generally pleasant, rating it at 3.5/5 stars. We appreciated its performance and form factor which is on the compact side. It's important to note, however, that the specs for the unit we reviewed do not match the one we have found discounted on Amazon today.

Alienware PCs can be on the pricey side and this one is no exception, so the fact that this is the lowest price ever for this particular model is welcome. The machines often have a flair for design, with ecosystem-styled peripherals available, and have notable brand recognition which lends to the higher price tag. That said, the specs are still worth getting excited about. This one comes with an Intel Core i9-13900F processor which is liquid-cooled. It is supported by a comfortable 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory.

As far as graphics are concerned, you get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU which comes with 12GB of GDDR6X video memory. You get both a 1TB internal SSD and 1TB HDD for your local storage and a 500W Platinum PSU for power. All of the hardware is visible through a clear side panel. A complete list of front and rear ports is available on the product page.

Visit the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop page at Amazon for more details and purchase options.

Today's deal is one for the hardcore gamer who wants no compromise when it comes to both picture quality and performance. Featuring a combination of the latest OLED technology and superfast refresh rates, the Dell Alienware AW2725D can not only reproduce your games on screen with stunning visuals and motion resolution but also give you esports-level refresh rates for pinpoint accuracy and latency. 

Available at Dell, the Alienware AW2725D gaming monitor is now $689 - reduced from $899, saving you a tasty $210. The AW2725D measures 27 inches diagonally and uses a QD-OLED panel with a native 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution. OLED technology lets you experience unrivaled contrast, with true blacks helping the picture to be truly vibrant. 

When we reviewed the Alienware AW2725DF we were impressed by the speed of the monitor, first with its 360Hz refresh rate and secondly, the 0.03ms response time which delivers perfect motion resolution without needing strobing or overdrive. The picture is stunning, with a larger color gamut than other OLEDs. The AW2725DF doesn't include internal speakers or an analog headphone jack, but this didn't put us off awarding the AW2725DF with 5 stars and an Editor's Choice award.  

The AW2725DF comes with plenty of connectivity options, including 2x DP 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-B upstream port (Rear), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A downstream port (Rear), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-C downstream port, which supports BC1.2 power-charging, and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A downstream port.

Alienware just released a 27-inch 4K display that gives gamers the best of both worlds and has the potential to land on our best gaming monitors list. The AW2725QF has two modes: a native 4K mode with 3840x2160 resolution and a 180Hz panel, and a native FHD mode (1920x1080 resolution) with a 360Hz refresh rate. This allows you to enjoy immersive games with smooth animations, and with a push of a button, you can also gain the upper hand in competitive games with the competitive 360Hz refresh rate.

The Alienware monitor can achieve this kind of refresh rate by combining four pixels into one in the FHD/360Hz mode. But aside from its sharp resolution and ultra-high refresh rate, the AW2725QF also covers 95% of DCI-P3 with a Delta E<2 accuracy straight out of the box for nearly lifelike colors. It also has Dolby Vision and is VESA DisplayHDR 600 certified, making it the ultimate display for both entertainment and creative work.

This display is also Nvidia G-Sync compatible and is certified with VESA AdaptiveSync. This guarantees that you won’t experience tears and stutters while gaming, and its 0.5ms gray-to-gray response time means you’ll have minimal ghosting and blurring that could throw off your aim.

With its dual HDMI 2.1 ports and single DisplayPort 1.4 connector, this dual-resolution gaming monitor can be used with your preferred gaming platform. It also has a single USB-B 3.2 Gen1 upstream port that gives you three USB-A ports and one USB-C port on the display, making it convenient to attach your peripherals.

But despite all these features, Alienware is doing one thing right: the monitor is just $599.99 — a great deal for those looking for a display that will give them everything they need in the professional and gaming worlds.

If you're on the hunt for a new main monitor and centerpiece for your gaming battle-station setup then you probably want something special that has the latest features, plenty of screen real estate, and the performance needed to display your games with the optimal visual acuity. Today's deal should satisfy all of those needs and with a tasty $200 knocked off of the MSRP price of this monitor, it's less strain on the finances.

This is certainly not a budget-oriented monitor, you're looking at a halo product that uses the latest OLED display tech for a gaming monitor. If you pop on over to the Dell Alienware website you can find the Dell Alienware AW3225QF curved 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor for $999, saving $200 off the original $1,199 MSRP price.

With its 4K resolution and ample pixel density on a 32-inch QD-OLED screen, the Alienware AW3225QF is a great piece of kit. The screen also features a 1700R curve for more immersive gaming, a blisteringly fast 240Hz refresh rate, adaptive sync, HDR10, and Dolby Vision.

The input panel of the AW3225QF includes one DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 (one upstream and three down), and a USB-C port. We've had the chance to review the Alienware AW3225QF, and we were impressed with its performance in our benchmark testing. We awarded the monitor 5 stars and gave it an Editor's Choice award, noting how the monitor produced a stunning image with broad contrast and rich color, excellent OLED color volume compared to most other OLEDs we'd tested, and 110% DCI-P3 color gamut.

If you want eye-popping color and smooth gaming at very high frame rates, you can't beat Alienware's AW2725DF. This 27-inch flat monitor features a vibrant OLED panel that runs at 2560 x 1440 resolution and at up to 360 Hz. 

When we reviewed the AW2725DF, we gave it a perfect, 5-star rating thanks to its sharp images, extremely wide color gamut coverage and very quick response time. Like other Dell and Alienware monitors, the build quality is also fantastic. Now, you can get the AW2725DF for just $749, an all-time low at either Dell or Amazon.

In our tests, the Alienware AW2725DF was able to reproduce a stunning 110 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That's just a ridiculous amount of color. 

It also had an infinite amount of contrast, which really makes colors pop. Its response time of 4 ms is incredibly low.

Overall, this is a fantastic buy. However, if the $749 price is too much or you want a wider screen, consider some of the other great Prime Day monitor deals we have listed.

Today we have one great deal that turns into two when you take up a bundle offering and save yourself a whopping $700 with both offers combined. If you like the look of a new Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC, then check out this deal that not only saves you $300 off of the cost of a new gaming rig, but if you add the 34-inch Alienware AW3423DWF to your order you can save 44% ($400) off of the listed price of this fantastic curved QD-OLED monitor as well. 

If you take a look at this deal on the Alienware Aurora R16 for $1,599 at Dell, you can then see the offer for the Alienware AW3423DWF 34-inch curved QD-OLED gaming monitor for just $499 - if you add it to the order. When combined you save that $700 and get yourself a mighty impressive gaming battle station for a total price of $2,098. If you don't need a new monitor, the deal for just the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop on its own is still worthwhile. 

Inside the Alienware Aurora R16 are some great hardware components for crushing any game you want to play. Powering the graphics is an Nvidia RTX 4070 Super with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM, an Intel Core i7-14700F processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage for your OS and games library. 

The Alienware AW3423DWF is one of our favorite gaming monitors and a 5-star Editor's Choice award winner. Take a look at that review of the Alienware AW3423DWF for more information on the Quantum Dot OLED display and how this gaming monitor stood out with its exceptional motion clarity, inky blacks, and picture quality.

Together, these two products make an awesome setup that will let you play your favorite games in insane fidelity with jaw-dropping colors popping from that QD-OLED screen.