Alienware AW3926QW 39-inch WUHD OLED gaming monitor review: Premium play and imagery in a large format

What gives a product flagship status? Some might say price, and that is sometimes true. But in the computer monitor world, a flagship is something that stands apart from the rank and file.

I’ve reviewed many 34-inch ultra-wide panels. These 21:9 aspect ratio curved displays can cover the user’s peripheral vision almost as well as a pair of VR goggles. When using them, I have often wished for a little more vertical space. The easiest way to achieve this is with a 39-inch size.

Alienware’s latest flagship delivers that very thing to the best gaming monitors category. The AW3926QW is a 39-inch, 21:9 1500R curved OLED panel with Tandem RGB Stripe technology, 5120x2160 (WUHD) resolution at 165 Hz, eSports modes that run at 330 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, Dolby Vision, VESA DisplayHDR 500 and wide gamut color. Let’s take a look.

Alienware AW3926QW Specs

This isn’t my first foray into Tandem RGB Stripe tech. I saw it in Asus’ recent PG32UCWM as well. It brings two important advantages: higher brightness with lower power consumption and wide gamut color without the addition of a Quantum Dot layer. The AW3926QW easily tops 500 nits in HDR mode for a 25% window pattern and can fill the screen at over 300 nits. Alienware claims 1,300 nits for a 3% window, and I have no reason to doubt that. It doesn’t quite have the color volume of a QD display, but my sample covered more than 100% of DCI-P3. It also came out of the box with reference-level color accuracy and a pro-worthy sRGB mode.

The AW3926QW also has higher pixel density than typical 34-inch ultra-wides. Most of them are 3440x1440, which means 109ppi, equivalent to a 27-inch 16:9 QHD panel. A 39-inch panel at 5120x2160 pixels delivers a 4K level density of 144ppi. That’s a clearly visible difference. The AW3926QW is super sharp with no fringing or other clarity-reducing artifacts.

Gaming performance is high thanks to Adaptive-Sync, FreeSync, and G-Sync support, and a 165 Hz refresh rate. For eSports applications, there are multiple resolution and refresh modes that go up to 330 Hz in full screen, 25, 27, and 32-inch formats. These can be switched with a single click thanks to a programmable joystick that controls a comprehensive OSD. Alienware also provides its AlienVision feature with its designable aiming points and sniper aids. And you get a frame counter, timer, and screen alignment marks.

On the outside, the AW3926QW sports AlienFX lighting with colored LEDs for the power button and the Alien Head on the back. These can be controlled in the OSD or with the Alienware Command Center app. Also included are the latest video inputs, DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, along with USB-C for a total of four ports. And there are USB upstream and downstream connections with KVM control.

With everything included except for internal speakers, you’d expect the AW3926QW to cost a lot, but it’s opening at $1,100, which makes it competitive with many other premium OLED ultra-wide displays. On paper, Alienware is delivering everything a flagship should have without an extreme price. Let’s see how it performs.

Assembly and Accessories

Alienware’s packaging is completely recyclable, even down to the paper tape that seals the clamshell carton. The panel, upright, and base assemble without tools. Included cables are IEC power, two USBs, DisplayPort, and HDMI. The power supply is internal.

Product 360

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The AW3926QW maintains Alienware’s latest styling aesthetic with a thin bezel and the cool floating upright that appears to be detached from the small-footprint base. Everything is solid, with metal cores and heavy plastic coverings finished in a matte texture. On the back is a lozenge-shaped vent ring that provides effective fanless cooling. Inside it is the Alien Head and a polished logo. The stand unsnaps to reveal a 100mm VESA mount with fasteners included if you want to use an arm.

The stand provides a 4.3-inch height range plus 5/21 degrees tilt and 20 degrees swivel. The base remains stationary while the stand pivots upon it. There is no portrait mode, but you can tweak the panel with five degrees of yaw if your desk isn’t level. Movements are firm and sure and befit a flagship product.

The screen curve is 1500R, which in the scheme of things is fairly subtle. There’s just enough wraparound effect to bring the sides of the screen into your vision cone when sitting around three feet away. You can sit closer if you like since pixel density is tight, but then you’d have to turn your head to see the whole image. The screen coating is shiny, but a polarizing layer keeps reflections from affecting the picture.

There are inputs aplenty for video, four in all. You get two HDMI 2.1, a DisplayPort 2.1, and USB-C, which functions as DP Alt and delivers 90 watts of power. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack plus more USBs: two on the bottom of the panel edge (C and A) and an A and B on the I/O panel. They can be bound to video inputs using the KVM wizard in the OSD.

OSD Features

The AW3926QW’s OSD appears when you click the joystick. First up is a quick menu with signal info at the top, then an up-click opens the full menu, which is quite extensive, which is why there are 12 photos below.

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The little quick menu at the bottom of the first screen is programmable by the user. You can put almost any monitor function into the five slots provided. You can also program the four joystick directionals for a total of nine options. This makes it easy to change picture modes, refresh modes, call up aiming points, or whatever. That’s all controlled in the Personalize menu, photo 11 above.

The first menu is Game, and it has everything a gamer could want. There are 12 picture modes in total. Three of them have color temp and dark stabilizer settings, called Game 1-3. Custom Color also has color temp gain and offset sliders along with color management. Creator is where you’ll find gamma presets and colorspace options like sRGB. Standard is the default mode, and it’s visually perfect out of the box.

Game Enhance Mode has a timer, frame counter, and alignment marks. For the aiming points, go to AlienVision where you’ll see a cool reticle editor that includes settings for sniper aids. You can create up to three configurations for later recall.

The eSports modes are where you can change the refresh rate and image size. I’m not sure why they aren’t all in one menu, but between the two sections, you’ll find 25, 27, 32, and 39-inch settings. All but the 32 run at 330 Hz. The 32-inch gives you 4K at 165 Hz and puts black bars on the sides of the image. That one is handy because it doesn’t change the pixel density like the others. The 25- and 27-inch options can be moved up or down from the center if you prefer.

AlienFX Lighting refers to the power LED and Alien Head’s color and effect options. You can customize them to a variety of colors and movements.

For HDR signals, there’s a Dolby Vision option along with eight modes for HDR10 content. Custom Color HDR includes grayscale calibration. Of the listed modes, the brightest one is True Black, and the one with the best luminance tracking is Peak 1300 Bright.

The USB menu is where you’ll find the KVM options. There, you can bind the HDMI and DisplayPort inputs to specific USB ports which means you can use one keyboard, monitor and mouse for multiple systems like a PC and a console.

Personalize is where you can program the quick menu and joystick directionals, as well as toggle the power delivery of the USB ports.

For panel maintenance, the AW3926QW has pixel refresh, which runs automatically when the panel health indicator goes red. That’s determined automatically by internal software. Alienware backs the AW3926QW with a three-year warranty that includes burn-in.

Alienware AW3926QW Calibration Settings

The AW3926QW doesn’t need calibration in its Standard picture mode. I noted slightly light gamma, but the color gamut and temperature are visually perfect out of the box. To adjust the grayscale, I used Custom Color mode, which has both gain and offset sliders. If you want to change the color space, Creator mode has that option along with gamma presets. The three Game modes also have grayscale adjustments. My recommended SDR settings are below. For HDR, there are eight modes available plus Dolby Vision. I suggest trying Peak 1300 Bright and True Black to see which you prefer. They look similar, but the latter is a tad brighter while the former has more accurate luminance tracking.

Gaming and Hands-on

A few days with the AW3926QW proved its flagship status beyond a doubt. It excelled as a gaming monitor and workday display in equal measure.

For gameplay, my test PC with its GeForce RTX 4090 was more than enough to drive it at 165 Hz at full 5120x2160 resolution. That’s 11 megapixels in case you’re counting, about 23% more than Ultra HD. The video processing here is good enough that I didn’t wish for 240 Hz. And I had little need for the 330 Hz modes. I can see their use in competition or with lesser video cards to keep the action smooth. But I saw nothing but perfect motion resolution and hyper precision. Aiming and moving became an extension of my brain as control inputs were instantly translated.

Image quality was also superb, with lush bright color and deep contrast. Playing in SDR mode with the full color gamut was excellent, but HDR games were even better. The AW3926QW is a superb HDR display. And don’t forget to try Dolby Vision with its dynamic tone mapping. I didn’t have any DV games, but I watched content from a Blu-ray player that looked stunning. Going back and forth between HDR True Black and Peak Bright 1300, I found I preferred True Black because it had a tad more impact. On page five, I’ll explain the technical differences.

I’ve reviewed many 34-inch ultra-wide displays, and while I find them excellent for gaming, they lack the height I prefer for writing content. The 39-inch AW3926QW is perfect for getting work done. It is only half-an-inch shorter than the 32-inch 16:9 screen I use every day. So, it’s ideal for lining up two or three windows side by side when comparing copy or graphics. I loved it for Photoshop, where I could open and see multiple photos and still have room for toolbars. If you’re already a user of dual screens, the AW3926QW is the perfect replacement if you’re sick of that pesky dividing line.

The monitor proved to be flagship-worthy in every respect. The stand is solid; styling is premium and everything about the AW3926QW exudes quality. The inclusion of USB ports and KVM further extends its usability. And the selection of esports modes makes it flexible for a wide variety of gaming systems.

Takeaway: The AW3926QW is super useful in every way and excels as a gaming display. It delivers speedy and responsive performance at 165 Hz and impressive frame rates up to 330 Hz in the esports modes. The picture is gorgeous with vivid and accurate color and plenty of brightness. HDR has high impact and multiple picture modes to choose from, plus Dolby Vision support. The AW3926QW is a great all-around monitor that delivers a lot of bang for the buck.

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