The Alienware 34-inch Ultrawide OLED monitor (model number AW3423DW) is the best display I’ve ever used, completely transforming my gaming experience when both gaming and working at my home PC setup.
It’s not every review that I say something so sweeping off the cuff, but it’s difficult to underscore just how good Alienware’s new monitor is.
Every box has been ticked with Alienware’s new monitor. It’s an OLED, it’s huge, it offers 4K resolution (21:9, QHD 3440 x 1440 at 175hz) and it’s ultrawide, with a 1ms refresh rate. There’s not a lot else this monitor could cram in at the moment: 4K monitors aren’t as common as 2K and 1080p options, ultrawide displays are few and far between and there are even less OLED monitors available in Australia.
But Alienware’s new monitor is all of these things, pulling it off at a price that doesn’t actually seem too egregious. Let’s get into it.
Jump to lightspeed
First, let’s talk about the OLED. OLED is a different technology from LCD, the tech behind most current displays. The main drawcard of OLED is that the pixels are only illuminated when they need to be, whereas LCD displays constantly have every pixel turned on.
Because of this, OLED screens are able to show much better darks and blacks, which really comes into its own when playing games with lots of darkness, like Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Forza Horizon 5. Seriously, it’s difficult to show how good the darkness is in these games, but if you’re ever given the opportunity to see an OLED gaming display in action, please do it. The persistent illuminated darkness you might expect from an LCD panel simply just does not exist on this screen.
This Alienware monitor is, in fact, quite unique in offering an OLED panel because the tech isn’t widely available on gaming monitors. It’s much more popular with newer TVs, but it’s only recently that monitors have started to use OLED. Another notable recent entrant into the OLED monitor space is the new ASUS monitor, though it’s not ultrawide.
One of the main criticisms of OLED screens is, however, pixel burn-in. This is absolutely something to be concerned about, although Alienware offers a three-year burn-in warranty, in case you’re worried about damage. Alienware’s pretty confident that its screen won’t suffer from burn-in easily and if you press the power button on the right of the monitor, you can perform a pixel refresh to keep burn-in from occurring. Think of it like a maintenance routine for when you’re not using the display.
While results may differ with long-term use, I’ve been using the screen for the past two weeks and haven’t noticed a single instance of burn-in, even with gaming HUD and constant, persistent visuals on the display (like the taskbar and Google Chrome tabs).
Which, a slight note, this monitor is also great for productivity. I’m able to work quite effectively on this thing with two separate Chrome windows open on the one screen. Even if I had one window open taking up the entire screen, I’d be able to see so much left and right. I’m not sure if it’s worth the price over simply a big screen, but the ultrawide aspect ratio has been great for my job.
The mothership
This monitor is huge, but given that it’s ultrawide, it’s difficult to get a good scope of just how big it is compared to a standard monitor. To clear that up, here’s how big it is beside my 32-inch Gigabyte monitor, which is already bigger than what you might be used to.
Yes, it’s less tall, but keep in mind that it’s also curved and wider. That’s both terrific and not always brilliant. Also, note how far the stand leans back: this monitor would certainly be less impressive on a small desk (it was nearly too big for mine).
Back to the ultrawide display, take Forza Horizon 5, for example, which offers ultrawide support outside of menus (this is the game in the above photo). Driving through Mexico in a car, playing online and competing in races, the ultrawide monitor added quite a bit of enjoyment to the experience over my standard display.
Exploring in games like Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Assassins Creed: Valhalla was also enhanced by this gigantic screen, giving you great big views of the open-world landscape.
A similar experience was provided in both Cult of the Lamb and Rollerdrome, two new indie games with great ultrawide support and unique art styles. Though I won’t say the ultrawide aspect improved the experience much over a standard display, it did feal great being able to see further left and right.
However, it’s not all perfect in ultrawide world. Some games don’t have native ultrawide support, such as Fall Guys, which renders large sides of the screen unusable when gaming. Often this is for multiplayer balancing reasons (a user with an ultrawide monitor may have an advantage over one without) but this is slowly not becoming the case.
These days, even intense competitive multiplayer games like Valorant support ultrawide resolutions. While it’s common that the game you want to play will have support, it breaks the immersion when it doesn’t. If you’re considering an ultrawide monitor for a specific game, please look into if that game supports ultrawide resolutions.
Phone home
The Alienware 34-inch Ultrawide OLED monitor is a terrific gaming display. While I have nothing interesting to say about the curved monitor feel (it’s really nothing too special over a flat monitor), having an OLED gaming monitor feels incredible. The fact that it’s ultrawide is icing on top.
But make no mistake: this is a monitor for serious gaming enthusiasts and not budget gamers (and another note that some consoles don’t offer ultrawide support).
I absolutely recommend the Alienware Ultrawide OLED display, but only if you can afford it. I doubt OLED monitors will remain expensive forever, however for now they’re not exactly affordable.
This is one of the best monitors on the market right now for the OLED panel alone and as similar displays are released, I suspect this monitor will be quite popular among them.