Alienware AW3426DW review: QD-OLED ultrawide at $799 is worth it

Full text

Gaming monitors have been getting more popular for all types of gaming, but ultrawide gaming monitors are still something that’s unique to PC gaming. There’s just something about the ability to stretch out the games you’re playing to a wide 21:9 aspect ratio that really sucks you into the game.

Now, premium ultrawide monitors traditionally came at a high premium, costing more than a thousand bucks. That’s where I expected the Alienware AW3426DW to fall, especially considering its gorgeous QD-OLED display and Dolby Vision compatibility. But unlike the gaming PCs that power this kind of display, gaming monitors are pretty much the only thing in PC gaming that isn’t going way up in price, with the AW3426DW coming in at $799.

That’s still a lot to spend on a display, but this is the kind of monitor that you’ll keep on your desk for years, likely through multiple GPU upgrades.

Purchasing Guide

The Alienware AW3426DW is available now for $799 on Dell's website . Luckily, Dell is also known for putting on a lot of sales, so you should be able to get it for an even better price at some point.

Design and Features

Right out the gate, the AW3426DW has the distinct look of an Alienware gaming monitor. It’s got the same galaxy purple colorway as some of the company’s recent laptops around the back, and it does look stunning, albeit a little plasticky. There are ventilation holes drilled in an oval pattern around the center of the monitor, with an RGB alien head punctuating it on the right.

However, just like any other gaming monitor with a fancy design, the back of the monitor will be facing the wall for most people most of the time. The front of the monitor, on the other hand, is surprisingly no-frills. There’s an Alienware logo emblazoned across the center of the bottom bezel and a lit-up power button on the bottom right corner. But even for a large ultrawide monitor like the AW3426DW, the bezels are surprisingly narrow.

But no matter how narrow the bezels are, that doesn’t stop the AW3426DW from being an absolute behemoth of a display. This thing measures roughly 32 inches wide and 14 inches tall without the stand, and weighs in at about 17 lb. That’s not terrible by any means, especially for an ultrawide display, but you will need to make sure you have the space for it. I, for one, don’t really have the space at home for the AW3426DW to make sense as a daily driver, even if the picture is beautiful enough to make me miss it when I send it back.

I already mentioned the lit-up power button, but there’s another button on the bottom of the AW3426DW, at the center, which will bring up the OSD. There’s nothing particularly special here – you can change picture settings, activate PIP (Picture-in-Picture), and swap between inputs. There is a USB-B port around the back that’ll let you connect the monitor via USB to your PC, and then you can use the Alienware Control Center to change settings like RGB lighting.

And, just like a lot of modern gaming displays, the OSD will let you turn on ‘Alienvision’. Rather than letting you see out into space or anything, this just turns on one of several aiming reticles that stay at the center of your screen. This is especially handy in first-person shooters, as it lets you center your aim, even when your in-game reticle is expanded. Some might call it cheating, but hey, it’s a feature that’s there – take it or leave it.

You can also enable ‘Esports Mode,’ which will essentially turn the AW3426DW from a 34-inch ultrawide into a 25-inch 16:9 display. The benefit here is that it becomes much easier to see the entire screen without having to move your head. For pro gamers that’s simply more important than having a ton of visual real estate that you can’t see at all times.

However, keep in mind that Esports mode drops the resolution to 2368x1332. Instead, I’d recommend manually setting the resolution down to 1920x1080, so that you can maximise your frame rate. Because, really, what’s the point of enabling an esports mode if you’re not going to take maximum advantage of the 280Hz refresh rate while you’re at it.

Even if you can’t fully saturate that high refresh rate, the AW3426DW supports Freesync, and is G-Sync compatible, so you won’t have to worry about screen tearing at lower frame rates. Granted, VRR, in whichever flavor, is expected in a gaming monitor of this caliber. I’m just glad that it supports both of the major solutions for PC gaming.

For everyone who isn’t an esports athlete, you’re going to want to take full advantage of this beautiful display. This is a 34-inch 21:9 panel with a 3440x1440 resolution at 280Hz. And, because it’s a QD-OLED display, it’s absolutely gorgeous, with deep blacks and one of the best HDR implementations I’ve ever seen in a gaming monitor, especially under $1000.

Gaming and Performance

I’ve spent the last three days obsessively playing games on the Alienware AW3426DW, and it is frankly stunning. Even dealing with the headache that is HDR on Windows, I’ve been blown away by how beautiful games look on this display.

Alienware claims that the AW3426DW hits 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and in my colorimeter tests, the monitor absolutely hits that level. It also hits 100% sRGB and 97% Adobe. This isn’t exactly the type of monitor that photographers and video editors are going to go in for, but you can absolutely do that kind of work with this level of color accuracy. And for games, it’s more than enough. Just sailing through the high seas in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced this week, the bright blue water just pops off of the screen.

Even in Diablo 4, which isn’t exactly known for being a visual showcase, the AW3426DW has incredible contrast, especially in dungeons with a lot of dark scenery punctuated by little light sources. Pretty much every game I’ve played on this display has looked stunning, even games like World of Warcraft, which don’t support HDR for some reason.

But it’s more than just a pretty picture. I paired the AW3426DW with a gaming PC running an RTX 5080, and was able to keep the display fully saturated, even if I had to lean on frame gen a couple times to get me there. Games look smooth and feel extremely responsive running on this display, and it doesn’t hurt that Alienware rates the display with a 0.03ms response time.

It’s worth remembering that, while $799 makes the Alienware AW3426DW seem like an expensive piece of kit, it’s quite a bit cheaper than competing monitors like the LG Ultragear UWQHD or the Asus ROG Swift PG34WCDN, both of which come in over $1000. But even with Alienware’s lower price tag, it doesn’t falter in the ways that more affordable gaming monitors typically do.

I put the AW3426DW through Blur Busters, and got nary a trace of ghosting or motion blur when running at the full 280Hz. I also didn’t really experience any light bleeding, even in games with a lot of contrast, or when I ran games at a 16:9 resolution. My only real criticism of the monitor is the plastic back panel, and that’s really not much of an issue once it’s set up on the desk.

That latter point actually comes with the benefit of being easier to move, because it doesn’t weigh 50 pounds like some of the more premium displays do. All told, the Alienware AW3426DW reminded me how much I miss playing games on an Ultrawide display, even though I had to make some questionable organizational decisions to fit it into my apartment.

If you have the space, though, this is an absolutely stunning gaming monitor. The wide aspect ratio really helps keep you immersed in your games, and the OLED display keeps you locked with a beautiful image, especially in games that support HDR. Just make sure you have a beefy gaming PC to power this thing.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra