Alienware’s QD-OLED gaming monitor is an ultrawide marvel | Engadget

Imagine every little thing you’d need in a gaming monitor — a brilliant and exquisite display, a quick refresh fee for silky clean graphics, HDR to essentially make issues shine — and there is a good likelihood you will discover it in Alienware’s 34 Curved QD-OLED monitor. It’s one of many first screens to ship with Samsung’s Quantum Dot OLED panels, and it is stacked with different options that’ll make your Halo Infinite matches all of the extra satisfying. While it could appear a bit extravagant at $1,299, in comparison with Apple’s $1,599 Studio Display it is virtually a steal. (Or possibly I’m simply telling myself that to justify shopping for this factor.)

I’ll admit this up entrance: I’m a sucker for ultrawide (21:9) screens. Having a ton of horizontal house makes it straightforward to juggle a number of apps directly, and it’s miles cleaner than establishing a number of shows. So when Alienware revealed that it was lastly debuting an OLED ultrawide, I used to be offered. While OLED has solidified its place in premium TVs, it is taken some time to succeed in pc screens (we solely began getting OLED laptops usually a number of years in the past). What makes this monitor much more intriguing is that it has all the advantages you’d anticipate from OLED — deep black ranges, glorious distinction and no backlight bleeding due to pixels that gentle up individually — however the addition of quantum dots means you will proceed to see vibrant colours because the display will get brighter.

Sure, this new tech means there’s one other annoying show acronym to recollect, however at the least QD-OLED will provide another notable upgrades. According to Samsung, it will be capable to attain as much as 1,000 nits of peak brightness (like this Alienware monitor), whereas the cream of the present OLED crop reaches round 400 nits. More brightness is not every little thing, particularly since OLED’s excellent black ranges can produce some eye-blistering distinction, but it is nonetheless a significant step ahead as LCDs have gotten much more luminous with Mini-LED backlighting.

The Alienware QD-OLED monitor, like many 34-inch ultrawide fashions, encompasses a 3,440 by 1,440 decision. Think of it as an extra-long quad-HD display: It’s not as sharp as 4K, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an enormous leap forward of 1080p. And because it would not have as many pixels as a 4K display, you’ll play many video games at its native decision with out taking out a mortgage for an RTX 3080 Ti. There’s additionally assist for G-SYNC Ultimate, NVIDIA’s adaptive refresh fee know-how which helps to cut back stuttering, in addition to HDR 400 True Black. Alienware says it reaches 99.3 % of the DCI-P3 shade gamut and it is also shade calibrated on the manufacturing unit, each vital options in the event you’re doing any manufacturing work.

But sufficient specs, does this monitor really look good in motion? Yes, oh sure. My eyes watered whereas taking part in Halo Infinite’s desert-based “Behemoth” map, it was virtually as if I used to be watching the solar reflecting off pristine sand in individual. (That was additionally an indication I wanted to decrease the brightness a bit.) I stored noticing new particulars about my Spartan’s armor, due to the monitor’s shade accuracy and pitch-perfect distinction. It additionally took me some time to get used to taking part in Overwatch once more, as my mind struggled to maintain up with the QD-OLED’s quick 175Hz refresh fee. The recreation reacted virtually immediately, due to the QD-OLED monitor’s 0.1ms response time.

Compared to Dell’s 34-inch ultrawide gaming monitor, which I examined for a number of months final 12 months, the Alienware QD-OLED seemed dramatically higher it doesn’t matter what I used to be taking a look at. Colors popped off the display, even after I was simply scrolling via the net or watching film trailers, and the deep curve at all times stored me within the middle of the motion. You’ll need to stay with vertical black bars if you wish to watch typical 16×9 movies fullscreen, however personally, I’d relatively have extra room to play one thing within the nook or facet of the display. Let your TV deal with film evening — ultrawide screens are all about multitasking.