The monitor market hasn’t been as blessed as the TV market with the latest great panel technology, OLED. Lately, OLEDs have been creeping cheaper for desktop displays, and the latest OLED monitor from Alienware, the Alienware 27, hits the nail on the head.
Simply speaking, OLEDs are better because darkness looks so much more natural on an OLED display, and by extension, images get an immediate quality bump
The Alienware 27, technically named the AW2725DF, has reaffirmed my love for OLED technology, after spending some time with OLED’s expensive rivals in the TV market, notably Mini-LED and Neo-QLED.
Every game that I played on the Alienware 27, from racing games like Forza Motorsport, to intense third-person action games like Ghost of Tsushima (which will make up the bulk of the images in this review) looked as good as they possibly could within the bounds of a 1440p resolution (the step down from 4K that’s more attractive for budget-minded gamers with less powerful rigs).
If a 27-inch monitor is your desktop weapon of choice, then the Alienware 27 is the model to beat.
You’re telling me an Alien would Ware this?
I’m not in the business of panel comparisons, we review a lot of technology at Gizmodo Australia, so take this review as more of a casual meditation on the Alienware 27.
The Alienware 27 comes with a bold assortment of features; a 1440p (QHD, 2K) resolution, a 360hz refresh rate, a response time of 0.03ms, and a maximum brightness of 1,000nits. It’s only available in the 27-inch size, though separate models are available in greater sizes (with a noticeable draw that we’ll get to). The monitor supports HDR from app to app, and features support for AMD FreeSync. The high refresh rate and resolution are only supported via the Display Port connection, though that’s not surprising. HDMI will max out at 144hz, which is more than enough for a casual desktop user.
These are impressive specs, and for my gaming habits, a 2K resolution is the ‘just right’ solution. I don’t care for the performance dropoff that comes with a 4K resolution, so I dodge it entirely (though perhaps I should rethink this with my latest PC build). The 360hz refresh rate is also good, but for most modern, graphics-intensive games, even on higher-end PC builds, you’re probably going to see a ceiling of 120fps, so this spec didn’t matter to me that much. It’s great for FPS-craving competitive gamers of CS2, but not for casual gamers like myself that play mostly offline things. The same goes for the response time.
What I like most about the Alienware 27 is actually what it’s not. Over the past several years, monitor companies have been pivoting gamers to curved screens at the higher end of the market, which don’t make things any better, but latch on a higher cost. I personally avoid them because they take up far more space on the desk, especially when paired with ultrawide resolutions, and I prefer the flat look of a monitor anyway, because it’s easier to adjust to from multiple positions. The OLED displays that Alienware offers above the 27 are all curved, which leaves me uninterested (though make no mistake – Alienware’s good at making them!).
The monitor that I normally use is the Gigabyte M32U, a 2K monitor that’s a very nice size, offers great contrasting and was quite affordable when I bought it ($750 on sale) and what I would like from the Alienware 27 is just that monitor, but as an OLED panel.
The truth is out there
As if I needed to say it, the Alienware 27 is good, so good that I would call it one of the best monitors that I’ve ever used.
Every visual that I saw on the screen was gorgeous, though I would appreciate some extra brightness in some parts. The darkness provided by the individual pixel lighting behind the screen enhances every aspect of the display, making colours much richer and making darkness much more vivid and dramatic, completely removing the ambient bright blacks of a standard LCD screen.
If you want lighting on the back of the screen, then Alienware has you covered with two RGB lighting zones that can illuminate the space behind the monitor. You can program these lights through the Alienware Command Centre app, though note that you’ll need a separate cable running between the monitor and PC to customise these (as the monitor can’t be interacted with as software over HDMI or DisplayPort).
I also love how flush the monitor is. A programmable LED light supports the single button that the display has for turning off and on. Aspects of the monitor can be adjusted through the Command Centre, but for the most part, I can’t say that I’ve ever used monitor buttons all that much in my many years of desktop use.
And of course, it’s great how toned down this monitor is. No big ugly alien logo on the front (though there is on the back, but who cares?), no excessively designed stand, no ugly white colours that will eventually turn eggshell-coloured. It feels like Alienware’s image has matured greatly over the past two years, and I’m all here for it.
The verdict: should you buy the Alienware 27?
For 2K gaming at a 27-inch size, the Alienware 27 has it all – at a fairly reasonable price as well of $1,190. That price puts it above its non-OLED rivals, obviously, but in my opinion, a PC gamer will see a greater experience improvement from an OLED panel over upgrading from 2K to 4K.
The only things I would like changed about the panel is I would like a bigger option that’s not curved, and I would like higher brightness. Neither of these things write the review off as anything close to a failure, but we’re slowly wiggling our way closer to what I would consider the perfect monitor.
The Alienware 27 AW2725DF is available now from Dell and JB HiFi, starting at $1,190.
Image: Zachariah Kelly/Gizmodo Australia