Alienware 27 QD-OLED (AW2726DM) Review: A $350 Winner Leave a comment

This sort of QD-OLED arranges pixels in a manner that’s completely different from LCD, which may trigger points when viewing small textual content. You could discover “shade fringing” seen as an odd burst of inexperienced or purple filling the destructive house between letters.

The AW2726DM simply isn’t a pointy show, and it’s not nice for viewing small textual content. As talked about, it has a decision of 2560 x 1440—or 1440p. This supplies a pixel density of about 110 pixels per inch. By comparability, a regular 27-inch 4K monitor delivers about 165 pixels per inch.

Nonetheless, sticking to 1440p looks like the fitting name for a monitor at this worth level. As PC players doubtless know, rising a recreation’s render decision from 1440p to 4K comes with an enormous efficiency penalty, and midrange GPUs wrestle to deal with demanding video games at 4K.

Nonetheless, it’s QD-OLED, and all QD-OLED panels have two issues going for them: Unbelievable distinction and excellent shade efficiency.

You may be acquainted with OLED’s distinction benefit in case you’ve purchased a TV someday this decade. OLED pixels are self-emissive, that means the pixels themselves create gentle. That’s completely different from an LCD panel, which requires a backlight that shines via the pixels. OLED’s self-emissive know-how supplies much more management over how the picture is lit, and the result’s a picture with much more distinction and depth than what LCD can obtain.

Samsung’s QD-OLED additionally makes use of quantum dots, a really cool tech that requires its personal article to clarify. Quantum dots usually present nice shade, and the AW2726DM is not any exception, because it reaches 98 p.c of DCI-P3 and 94 p.c of AdobeRGB. These numbers are near the highest of what’s out there from any monitor in 2026, no matter worth.

In the actual world, the distinction and shade translate to a vivid, reasonable picture with a way of depth you gained’t discover from LCD options. Video games usually look colourful, wealthy, and alluring.

Brightness Will get the Boot

Whereas the AW2726DM’s picture high quality is sweet, it makes one main sacrifice to attain a cheaper price. It’s not very vivid.

Alienware lists the AW2726DM’s most brightness at 200 nits. My overview pattern was simply above that with a sustained most SDR brightness of 202 nits. For comparability, a costlier OLED monitor (just like the MSI MPG 271QR X50) can ship 300 nits or extra. I principally used the monitor at about 60 p.c of its most brightness, because the room the place I view it doesn’t obtain a lot direct daylight. Nonetheless, I needed to up the brightness to 100% in peak afternoon solar if I left my curtains open.

The low SDR brightness has implications for HDR efficiency, too. The AW2726DM helps HDR, but it surely’s not VESA HDR–licensed, and it guarantees simply 400 nits of peak HDR brightness. In my testing, HDR brightness was no greater than SDR when all the show was lit, and I recorded a most potential brightness of 398 nits when simply 10 p.c of the show was lit. For comparability, main OLED displays can ship over 300 nits full-screen and over 1,000 nits within the 10 p.c window. The AW2726DM can seem brighter in HDR than in SDR, however players who take pleasure in a variety of HDR titles will discover the monitor underwhelming.