Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED (AW2725Q) Review: A New Standard for Pixel Density

If $899.99 for a 27-inch show shocks your senses, don’t worry, I felt the same. However, I began singing a precise antithetic tune aft utilizing the Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED (AW2725Q) acknowledgment to the boon its immense pixel density has connected some gaming and wide computing.

Price and Availability

The Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED (AW2725Q) is simply a gaming show that retails for $899.99.

Included successful the container are 3 six-foot transportation cables: DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and USB-A to USB-B 5Gbps. There’s besides a microfiber cloth and powerfulness cable.

A Fitting Form for a Flagship Monitor

Alienware is positioning the AW2725Q arsenic its flagship monitor, and it’s casual to spot wherefore without adjacent powering connected the screen.

This table portion is arsenic gorgeous successful its dusky bluish casing arsenic it is space-efficient. This second constituent stands retired compared to the company’s last-generation models, peculiarly the larger monitors with agelong protruding legs. The recently designed basal present sits conscionable down the display, freeing up ever-valuable table space. It’s besides remarkably casual to maneuver the screen, including a mostly seamless modulation betwixt scenery and portrait modes. I accidental “largely” due to the fact that the country of the show scrapes against the beforehand borderline of the basal a little, but it’s thing I’d beryllium disquieted astir unless you program to flip it regularly.

It doesn’t wounded that mounting up the AW2725Q couldn’t beryllium easier. The basal has a pre-installed thumb screw that twists into the limb with a fewer turns, and the limb has a magnetic hook-and-lock mechanics that securely slots into the surface (it's released by a button). I had this connected my table and powered up wrong a fewer minutes of pulling it retired of the box.

If there’s 1 disapproval I’d levy connected the different superb caller design, it’s that radical who similar achromatic oregon achromatic colour schemes don’t person that enactment here. I emotion the caller color, but options are ever welcome, particularly for those who color-coordinate their gaming peripherals.

Jaw-Dropping Pixel Density Defines This 4K Display

27-inch 4K monitors are a caller paradigm that astir large brands are jumping on. I was skeptical of this determination arsenic it seemed similar a needless outgo summation for tiny displays, but aft utilizing one, I understood my folly was overlooking the interaction of its 166 PPI pixel density.

This sharpness inherent to downsizing a surface of the aforesaid solution makes a immense quality erstwhile your look is close up against it. In practice, the smaller 4K signifier origin does conscionable this, offering unprecedented representation explanation that was hard to pry my eyes distant from. Pixels practically vanish to an grade that volition beryllium a oversea alteration not conscionable for 27-inch show users upgrading to 4K and a notable betterment for 4K 32-inch and larger users.

This gave newfound clarity to tiny details successful noisy in-games areas similar foliage-laden forests and bustling cities, and to substance portion web browsing. I tin spot this second facet being an appealing imaginable to imaginable purchasers that request a show for wide productivity with a spot of gaming connected the side.

This gorgeous representation prime is aided by the QD-OLED panel. There’s thing excessively breathtaking to sermon here, which isn’t a atrocious thing. You get the aforesaid cleanable opposition and accelerated effect times (.03 ms) that OLED and QD-OLED technologies person staked their sanction on. It each works successful tandem to make a surface that’s astir arsenic bully arsenic you could get close now, astatine slightest successful the 27-inch category.

This besides means the flaws of immoderate OLED sheet are not lone contiguous but a spot much of a bugbear than usual. Namely, this show is beauteous dim, with a max of 250 nits for SDR contented and 1,000 nits for HDR and content. These are the aforesaid specs arsenic the 1440p Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED (AW3423DWF) I use from the erstwhile procreation of Alienware monitors. While it doesn’t impede my usage of either monitor, the vastness of the curved ultrawide signifier origin makes it easier to excuse, whereas the much intimate acquisition of a 27-inch show drives much attraction to washed-out blacks nether nonstop airy exposure. Basically, if you ain a (QD-)OLED panel, you cognize what to expect.

The afloat suite of HDR options and accommodation features are here, adjacent if astir users volition acceptable it to HDR Peak 1000 and hide it. I’m skeptical that it’s regularly hitting its 1,000 nits target, but I ne'er minded excessively overmuch since HDR and Dolby Vision connected specified a pixel-dense QD-OLED show is simply a dainty regardless. That’s truly my wide takeaway here: criticisms instrumentality a backseat to the laudable qualities of the AW2725Q’s ocular feast.

Highly Performant, but the Ports Undersell It

The main crushed to bargain a gaming show is for high refresh rates, and the AW2725Q is nary slouch successful this section with its awesome capableness to output a 4K solution astatine 240 Hz. This is presently the precocious extremity of refresh rates disposable astatine 4K; if you privation thing higher, you’ll request to look astatine 1440p monitors.

You’ll request a high-end graphics card to get anyplace adjacent 240 Hz connected galore games, but past again, you astir apt person 1 if you’re considering dropping a abdominous stack connected a 4K monitor. With the requisite PC parts, everything works arsenic intended here. Unfortunately, RTX 50 bid owners won’t beryllium capable to scope that card’s autochthonal capableness of 4K 240 Hz output via DisplayPort 2.1 due to the fact that Alienware decided to instrumentality with the older 1.4 standard.

Such a prime made consciousness successful erstwhile generations of monitors arsenic RTX 40 bid cards lone enactment 1.4. Yet present that next-generation cards enactment DisplayPort 2.1, there’s nary bully crushed not to enactment it connected a high-end monitor. While I don’t personally announcement the display watercourse compression utilized to scope these speeds with older formats, the benignant of tech-savvy idiosyncratic buying this show whitethorn precise good person a keen oculus for it. Even if this volition beryllium irrelevant to astir people—especially if they’re utilizing HDMI 2.1 (which besides doesn’t enactment 4K 240 Hz)—it’s the benignant of omission that makes an different forward-thinking merchandise consciousness similar it has 1 ft stuck successful the past.

I besides recovered myself plugging my MacBook Pro into the show via HDMI a fewer times and wishing I could conscionable usage an easier-to-manage Thunderbolt cablegram instead. That’s a beauteous circumstantial use-case that won’t adjacent registry connected the radar of the people demographic for this monitor.

Should You Buy the Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED (AW2725Q)?

My critiques of the Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED (AW2725Q) are not insignificant—especially erstwhile it comes to brightness and the deficiency of DisplayPort 2.1—but it each fades distant erstwhile you’re basking successful the glorious pixel density afforded by a 27-inch 4K monitor. If you privation the adjacent champion happening successful smaller monitors and are consenting wage a hefty terms for it, the AW2725Q is an casual recommendation. I besides deliberation 32-inch show users who aren’t attached to the surface size should see downsizing for a 4K representation prime boost.

This is perfectly a luxury item, though. If you aren’t excessively discerning, past determination are 1440p monitors for hundreds of dollars little that inactive look fantastic and whitethorn adjacent supply superior refresh rates. Consider these instead. I besides deliberation anyone with a existent gen graphics paper that supports DisplayPort 2.1 and isn’t successful contiguous request of a caller show should clasp disconnected until manufacturers much wide follow the caller standard.