My review on this monitor
This month for me has been busy for with a lot happening. Been doing a few “home” projects (like changing all the light fixtures and fixing the kitchen etc) … quite tiring, but also been very rewarding. It’s easy to get sucked into this and lose focus or sight of anything else … but when I got the message this monitor arrived in stock I promptly made payment and quickly got ready to pick it up. I’ve been patiently waiting for a while to find a worthy replacement to my Asus ROG PG348Q (an awesome monitor even by todays standards). But the truth is for years there has been nothing that would replace it in this size … all had issues with eye watering pricing … so when this monitor was announced it felt like someone out there was listening to this boys prayers he made every evening and said “here you go my son
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For me a 34inch widescreen monitor at 3440x1440p is the perfect sweet spot. I don’t feel the need to go bigger or even wanting a higher resolution. A 48 inch OLED C1 (which I have) is just too big as a monitor. Not to mention at this resolution it’s not as taxing on my gpu at full 4K. There are diminishing returns going from 1440p to 2160p for my eyes … I’d be lying to anyone if I really could without hesitation tell a stark difference. So onto the monitor …
Unboxing (pleasantly easy for a big box)
It comes in a well laid out box that has “easy unboxing” in mind. Unlike TVs and other things in big boxes where you need to lift the contents out the box with its polystyrene packaging or laying it on a floor and pull the stuff out. What Alienware has done is made the experience pleasant … lay the box on its back open the box up and all its contents neatly laid out … attach the stand to the screen and lift and remove from the box. Easy!
I tend to do all my cable routing and monitor position adjustments before removing any protective film (or bubble wrap in this case) off the screen … so it’s the last thing I do. There are the usual cables you’d find in the box with some usb cables, hdmi cables and DP Cables. The power cable is just a kettle cord with no power brick (less things to worry about hiding behind my desk 😀). Pamphlets and marketing is minimal with a small box that housed all of this. Energy compliant notes (this is a G rated monitor btw … lol for eskom bill). There is a calibration certificate showing the results of this monitors calibration (which I did not read) and an a4 sized how to setup guide (which I also did not read). Also stumbled across a sticker from Saudi Arabia regarding some compliance certification … strange but ok …
The design and aesthetic and build quality is well … good
When sitting down to gawk at the beauty of the screen (switched off) I noticed the monitor being slightly skew. Had some heart palpitations only to realise that unlike my Asus monitor this can swivel on it axis as well (not fully vertical though). So adjusted it to be aligned and revelled in this monitors beauty. It’s well built although it does have some kinks under its armour when one looks closer (which I’ll get to). Having a matte white finish don’t know how this will fair with dust and dirt in time … if only Alienware offered this in a dark grey colour ❤️
Those kinks I talked about … That damn bubble wrap over the screen … eish DELL what the fuck. Thing is this screens anti reflective coating is like staring into a black abyss. It does a great job reflecting any light and you wouldn’t notice anything amiss. But take your phones camera light to it and you will see a lot of residue from the bubble wrap likely as a result of it rubbing against the screen and don’t be surprised to find some micro fine scratches in places due to this. Being OCD I used a lightly damp cloth to carefully and lightly wipe off all the residue and then a dry micro fibre cloth to wipe away any residue my cloth left behind. The screen is glossy and like anything glossy you will unfortunately get the odd half a cm micro super fine scratch that can only be seen under light at a specific angle. It’s honestly a nitpick as no one is going to be shining their cellphone light at the screen. This is me looking for shit. Under normal conditions you won’t notice any of this even with your eyeball right up against the screen. But Dell could have avoided this by just using a protective film over the screen (like my Samsung and Lg OLED had) … the screen has the protective white sleeve over it and the box is also padded on the inside for protection. Doubt it would have cost them more to have opted for a film versus the bubble wrap !? I’d gander to say maybe even cheaper
The edge of the frame that meets the screen also feels a little rough and again it’s something you won’t see or notice. But overall these two flaws are something I can live with. They really nitpicks and it’s me expecting the micro level attention to quality that I’ve only seen on a high end mechanical watch.
On the positive side is the simple yet effective cable management. It’s just a hole at the bottom of the stand and a hole at the centre of the stand. Cables pass through here and definitely easier done than the Asus PG348Q solution to cable management
Turning this baby on … is it worth all the hype? Oh yes it is
I have what many considered as one of the best TVs Samsung has ever made the Q9FN and also an LG OLED C1. Both are stellar … this Alienware’s PQ trumps them both. It’s tough to really say how and why. But there is just a level of immersion … of you going “god damn” when walking around in cyberpunks night city with all those pops of colour contrasted against a gritty and dark backdrop … jaws dropped staring at a random flood light in the dessert night in one of the Panam quests … words can’t describe it. I can’t even screen shot the images seen to show what I mean. One needs to just experience it. The gf was watching that resident evil series on netflix on the Samsung whilst I was busy with the pc. Went to sit with her for a small bit only to then notice the Samsung PQ was second to the Alienwares. That’s the thing once you experience something better you get accustomed to it and going backwards is tough.
And and and …
it’s so absolutely great to finally … on a pc monitor … have proper black levels 🙏… no more ips glow or backlight bleed or greyish blacks … it’s a Godsend. Viewing angles are as expected flawless (not that I really cared about viewing angles as I am always dead centre of the screen)
I did calibrate my screen with the i1 display pro and used the custom preset to do so. I mean out of the box the monitor comes with the standard preset and it’s definitely wow , vibrant, punchy and awesome (but will give you eye strain after some time). The creator preset is very dark and won’t be to most peoples taste (it is calibrated to a dark 100cdm3 … unlike my i1 calibrated to 120cdm3) …. So I always opt for a warmer looking and more natural true to life image (your eyes will adjust). SDR content looks great as well
With windows 11 I have HDR disabled by default for normal browsing and only enable HDR when I start an HDR game. I might play with the SDR brightness slider in Windows 11 to see at what setting will my luminance and colour PQ be maintained. Am looking for a method to do so without too much clicking here and there
Yes there are some twinkly lights at the back which I have not bothered with and left the default colour scheme. Also can’t see it as the backside of the monitor is against the wall. But I guess that ambient light will help contrast (not that one needs this) and eye health im told
Fan noise ? Onboard sound?
To be honest I’ve not noticed the fans running on the monitor. I do think this is largely as a result of my gpu fans being louder than the monitor fans. So the internet has blown this up more than it should have. Perhaps peoples mileages will vary. But for me it’s a total non issue. It would have been great to have had built in sound (even shitty ones). It’s sometimes a schlep to reach down to my subwoofer to turn on the z5500 system. Having said that there is though an audio option on the monitor so that one can run a speaker from the monitor. I might consider doing this … get a single speaker and hide it somewhere
So the final verdict … it’s a definite 👍
It’s the best display my eyes have had the pleasure of looking at … period! If Asus had this panel am sure this would have been a R50k piece of kit and at its current price of around R25k … dare I say it … it feels worth it (to think I paid almost R30k for the Asus PG348Q when it launched). Yes there is the issue with the choice Dell made on choosing bubble wrap over a protection film for the screen and the damage that can cause. For me luckily it did not result in a big something. Yes it would have been nice if it had a built in speaker, even a shitty one when I just need to view a YouTube review or tutorial. And despite all of this I’d still choose this monitor over anything in the market right now. If you can find one it’s a definite recommended buy that is better than “rtx on”. A solid 9/10
