Sometimes unique products cost an arm and a leg, but that is not the case with Alienware's 34-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor. The company introduced the monitor back at CES, and it will be available shortly for less than $1,300.
The Alienware AW3423DW features a 3440x1400 resolution and a modest 250 nits brightness yet an unprecedented (for OLED) peak luminance of 1000-nits (which is where an HDR transport comes in). The curved monitor also boasts a 175 Hz response rate with Nvidia's G-Sync Ultimate badge in the top (enough to drive the best graphics cards to their limit in modern games, but you have to use a GeForce GPU). Speaking of HDR, formally, the unit complies with the DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 spec, so it perhaps makes sense to take the official specs of about 1000 nits luminance at peak with a grain of salt.
The monitor also has all the benefits (and disadvantages) of an OLED display, like a very high contrast ratio with deep blacks due to the nature of the OLED technology and a 0.1 ms response time. Yet the monitor's key feature is its quantum dot film on top of an OLED panel.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Alienware AW3423DW key specs |
|---|---|
Panel tech | Quantum Dot enhanced OLED |
Display size | 34 inches, with 1800R curve |
Resolution | 3440 x 1400 pixels, for 21:9 aspect ratio |
Refresh rate | Max 175Hz (DisplayPort), or 100Hz (HDMI), with Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate |
Response time | 0.1ms gray to gray response time |
Color | 99.3% DCI-P3, 149% sRGB, VESADisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 certification |
Brightness | 250 nits (typical), 1000 nits (peak) |
Ports | 2x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, 3x USB 3.2, audio line-out, headphone |
Stand | Adjustments for height, tilt, and swivel, VESA mount option, cablemanagement |
Special features | AlienFX lighting, TUV-certified ComfortView Plus, gaming and creatormodes |
Dimensions | 32.1 x 14.3 x 5.4 inches |
Price / release | Price TBA, released on March 29, three year warranty |
For those who aren't aware, QD-OLED is Samsung's $1 billion initiative to make OLEDs look great in color reproduction while lowering overall pricing. We're talking about 99.3% of the DCI-P3 and 149% of the sRGB color spaces.
The curved 34-inch monitor promises very accurate color reproduction, a whopping 1000-nits brightness, a 175Hz response rate with Nvidia's G-Sync Ultimate badge on top, and all the benefits (and disadvantages) of an OLED display.
The Alienware monitor costs $1,299, and while that's on the higher end of the stack, it's not as high as you would have expected for a monitor of its caliber.
