Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Contrast and Color for Days

The Alienware AW3423DWF is a 34-inch 21:9 QD-OLED gaming monitor with 3440x1440 resolution, 1800R curvature, HDR 1000, extended color, Adaptive-Sync, 165 Hz and infinite contrast.

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Alienware AW3423DWF
Editor's Choice
(Image: © Dell)

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OLED panels look great in SDR mode, but HDR is where they truly shine. The AW3423DWF can produce bright highlights, expanding its dynamic range and making the picture pop even more.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

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Alienware AW3423DWF
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

OLED panels vary their brightness depending on the total picture level. Though the AW3423DWF can hit 1,000 nits, I had to measure a tiny white window to achieve this result. A full-field white pattern is closer to 450 nits. This is where the two Alienware monitors have an advantage over the Aorus. It can’t go beyond 400 nits regardless of content. The AW twins deliver super bright highlights. A starfield is the best example of this. The stars really twinkle against an inky black background. It’s something no LCD can match, no matter how many dimming zones it has.

With unmeasurable black levels, contrast is theoretically infinite. It certainly is to the eye. Blacks really are black, yet shadow detail is clearly visible. The other monitors do a good job with their VA panels, but OLED is on another level in HDR mode.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

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Alienware AW3423DWF
(Image credit: Portrait Displays Calman)

I spoke earlier about the AW3423DWF’s various HDR modes. You must select the True Black mode to get the most accurate luminance tracking and widest dynamic range. HDR 1000 will get you the bright peaks, but its low and mid-tone areas are too light. If you only view bright content, that’s fine, but the presentation is mostly a murky gray in darker scenes. The EOTF tracking result supports this. Between zero and 40%, it’s well above the reference line. In True Black mode, it’s nearly perfect. In either case, the tone-map transition point is at 60%. And grayscale tracking has no visible errors.

Color is different in the two modes as well. In HDR 1000, red and blue come up a bit short of full saturation. True Black is over-saturated linearly, so color looks balanced, and all detail is sharply rendered. The Rec.2020 charts are closer to each other, but True Black is still the best choice for image fidelity.

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Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SpadeM
    What FW version did this ship with?
    Reply
  • s1aver
    Great now I really don't know which to get. The input lag is better than the AW3423DW but EOTF in HDR 1000 which tracked perfectly for the AW3423DW, for the AW3423DWF is a mess.
    Reply
  • ssj3rd
    Is 10 Bit with 165hz (DSC) possible now? And not a word about the Fan(s)/Cooling/Noises?
    Reply
  • ikernelpro4
    s1aver said:
    Great now I really don't know which to get. The input lag is better than the AW3423DW but EOTF in HDR 1000 which tracked perfectly for the AW3423DW, for the AW3423DWF is a mess.
    input lag doesn't exist, get over it.
    Reply
  • anonymousdude
    SpadeM said:
    What FW version did this ship with?

    Updateable firmware and the first update supposedly only affects the fan, so all results should be valid here.

    ssj3rd said:
    Is 10 Bit with 165hz (DSC) possible now? And not a word about the Fan(s)/Cooling/Noises?

    No DSC. Also no 10 bit 144hz like the DW had in its supported resolutions weirdly enough. So if you want that you'll have to use a custom resolution though I have seen people having trouble getting that working. 10 bit 120hz is confirmed to work as a custom resolution though.
    Reply
  • kiniku
    "Alienware, like its parent company Dell, ships its monitors in sustainable packaging where most of it is recyclable." I've been holding out on buying a $1000.00+ monitor until now. that sold me today.
    Reply
  • s1aver
    anonymousdude said:
    Updateable firmware and the first update supposedly only affects the fan, so all results should be valid here.



    No DSC. Also no 10 bit 144hz like the DW had in its supported resolutions weirdly enough. So if you want that you'll have to use a custom resolution though I have seen people having trouble getting that working. 10 bit 120hz is confirmed to work as a custom resolution though.

    DWF has a higher pixel clock this why it can only 120hz. If 144hz at Displayport 1.4 HBR3 limit by 103% so even custom res would kick you to 8bit at 144hz. If account lag and response the DWF is probably faster at 120Hz than DW at 144Hz. Though like I mentioned above bad HDR 1000 EOTF tracking on DWF vs the DW is a deal breaker for me. Hopefully they fix via firmware update.
    Reply
  • PsychicAnomaly
    Something doesn't make sense, how is there a 7ms difference between dw and dwf when dw has under 5ms signal processing time (source:TFT)
    Reply
  • s1aver
    Can you guys test the HDR 1000 EOTF with source tone mapping enabled( game>console>and source tone map in the monitor controls ) and see if fixes the EOTF tracking? Ppl are suggesting it does but no one has actually tested it. Please confirm. Thanks
    Reply