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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
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.
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