Alienware AW3418DW Review: Curved Gaming Monitor Bliss

[Mike Andronico]

The Alienware AW3418DW offers an incredibly rich 34-inch curved display and strong gaming performance for a premium price.

Alienware AW3418DW Review: Curved Gaming Monitor Bliss : Read more

 

[Matthew Langley]

Good review though surprised you still stick with the X34 since 100hz native & 120hz OC vs 60hz native & 100hz OC is a pretty big deal.

 

[dave.rara66]

Agree with Matthew Langley. Also, the RGBs on the back of the monitor certainly do serve a purpose: If your system is against a wall/ in a corner, they light up the wall, making nice ambient lighting. If your desk is visible from the back, then you can see the lights directly, of course. Either way, they do work and are nice to have.

This monitor's looks are much more appealing to the over-25 crowd, and it will almost certainly have better QC than the Acer (funny how everyone neglects to mention all the issues and the RECALL). Hasn't anyone noticed the seemingly endless supply of refurbs available? Dell's customer support and exchange policy destroys the competition as well. Finally, this monitor can be found for $999 regularly. The Acer/Asus models have nothing on the AW.

Your link to Dell is wrong, this monitor is not $399.99

 

[Ninjawithagun]

Technically speaking, the early defect issue with the initial release Acer X34 units was NOT a recall. Recalls are an official 'mandatory' recall of a product by the manufacturer due to a safety issue. The defect with the X34 did not qualify as such. Acer did offer the owner free repair, but at the expense of the owner having to pay S&H to send the monitor back to the factory. A lot of owners that chose to do regretted it when they received their monitor back physically damaged by disgruntled Acer workers. One of the reasons why I did not return my monitor. I kept it and it still has the backlight 'half off' issue on cold startup, but fixes itself by the time I boot up into Windows. I've had the monitor since day one of initial release (Sep 2015) and still love it. I just bought an AW3418DW (excellent condition - open box) from Best Buy through eBay (no sales tax thanks to it being considered an auction!) for only $899 (free S&H) and know I'll love that monitor even more ;-)

 

[jezka1983]

I purchased Alienware to replace my 4 years old 1080p 144Mhz monitor. I was originally planning on getting 35inch Asus HDR but lack of solid release date and unknown price made me change my mind. I have also found out that Asus will be on VA panel so viewing angles might be an issue and for such a big monitor with curve this potentially could be a problem.

This is my first IPS panel so coming of TN panel I was little worried about infamous IPS glow. This is first time I experience IPS glow so have nothing to compare Alienware glow against but honestly I think that I have very little IPS glow. I have some at the left and right bottom corner. Left side has some glow.(about 0.7mm), right side is affected by 0.4mm are of IPS bleed.

Please bear in mind that monitor's is not calibrated well out of the box. I really encourage everyone to download and install ICC profile from TFT central. Please also reduce the brightness. I noticed that reducing brightness to 37 reduced IPS glow on the right side to about 0.25mm and I achieved similar reduction on the left side corner. TFT ICC profile and recommended calibration improved viewing experience and helped to bring this 1440p gorgeous screen to its full glory. Panel's colour reproduction is amazing and panel's uniformity is great. No dead pixels etc.

Monitor's OSD is very intuitive and packed with features. It is easy to navigate and offers quick & easy access to monitor's presets. You can customize brightness and contrast for each preset which is really helpful as I found brightness to be too high on all pre sets. Your adjustments to the profiles are saved.
OSD also lets you to configure LED lighting effects. LED lights are very subtle but add to the beautifully striking design of this monitor.

Monitor's native refresh rate is 100Mhz and can easily be overclocked to 120Mhz. I am running this monitor in full OC mode and have not come across any major issues. Screen flickered once or twice (due to panel being OCd) but it happened to me only few times.

Refresh rate wise I cant really notice the difference between 144Mhz 1080p panel and 100-120 Mhz 1440p panel. If anything I find GSYNC to be great piece of technology and having to experience it for the first time I am truly amazed how much it helps to improve overall gaming experience. I feel that even if games runs slower they feel smoother than they did on 144 Mhz monitor. It is truly amazing.

Contrast ratio is lower than advertised but blacks are really good anyway so I do not find this to be an issue really. I believe that unless you work with lots of dark content this will not be a problem for you. Games look superb, the colours are beatiful and level of details is astonishing. I tested monitor's performance in few games and just WOW. I could see individual rain drops on Adam Jensen's armour. Particle effects, textures and colours never looked so good in SW Battlefront II. Battlefield 1 looks stunning. IPS colour reproduction rules !


What I like about this monitor:

Aggressive, amazing curve which is very immersive and pulls you more into the game
Gorgeous 1440p screen
Design and build quality of this monitor
GSYNC technology and refresh rate


What I do not like:

lower than expected contrast ratio
price