As 2024 kicks off, the world’s graphics card supply has been letting up, which means upgrade time for many gamers! Alienware’s recent announcement of two brand-new QD-OLED monitors for CES 2024 is set to make that challenge even more difficult.
This year, Alienware will be providing gamers with two brand-new displays to choose from, both touting boundary-pushing specifications. The two displays that the company has just announced will feature cutting-edge, Quantum Dot LED, or QD-OLED, technology with resolution and refresh rate specifications that build on their past success.
Alienware’s AW3225QF gaming monitor is the first-ever 4K-spec’d display gaming monitor available for consumers. It offers top-of-the-line specs, boasting a 32-inch, curved screen, peak brightness of 1000 nits, and a 240Hz native refresh rate. This 16:9 display is Dolby Vision HDR enabled, offering increased image accuracy and vibrancy and its NVIDIA G-Sync and VESA AdaptiveSync compatibility will allow increased frame-rate performance. In addition, it features a special console-specific mode allowing “optimised HDR performance” and a 4K, 120Hz viewing experience on the latest next-generation console hardware. Its eARC compatibility opens the door for better sound reproduction when using compatible audio hardware.
While we are still waiting for word on its availability and pricing in Singapore, we are expecting that when this display is made available in Q1 2024 it will not come cheap. But for some gamers that might not matter as the technological sophistication of this display might just be motivation enough for a purchase.
While gamers looking for the sharpest image may be drawn to the previously detailed display, streamers, competitive gamers, and FPS-lovers might prefer Alienware’s next offering. The Alienware AW2725DF is the world’s-first 360Hz QD-OLED display. This display features a 27-inch, Quad HD 16:9 resolution of 2560 x 1440 and is AMD Free-Sync enabled allowing for reduced screen-tear and stuttering while gaming. While it is certainly no technological slouch, it does lack certain premium features found in the above-mentioned display. It is a traditional flat-screen display and lacks the eARC capability of the AW3225QF. However, for certain gamers and streams, the chance to use a 360Hz QD-OLED display in their set-up may be all that they want.
Alienware was the first company to produce QD-OLED tech in gaming monitors, getting the ball rolling in 2023. QD-OLED screens had not been available for very long by that point, with the screens first being made available to consumers in 2022 in the form of TV displays. While QLED screens find their strengths in their vibrancy of colour and industry-leading brightness, OLED picture technology offers extremely deep black levels and vibrant contrast tones, however, it often lacks the brightness of QLED screens. QD-OLED as a technology hopes to offer a middle way, the best of both worlds of vivid colours, deep blacks, excellent contrast and fantastic brightness, for users. Without getting into too many specifics, the revolution in how colours are produced via screen pixels reduces the number of layers in a display that light has to pass through, reducing the amount of brightness lost for the viewer. QD-OLED is an exciting new technology that all display users can hope will see rising adoption, providing us better viewing experiences, and with economies of scale, hopefully increasingly affordable prices in time to come.
Ryan grew up a geek, with one of his earliest memories being crowding round a computer in the late 90s with his two brothers, watching his Dad play Command & Conquer on a Windows 95 desktop. Exciting new tech, movies, video games, and motorcycles (and a dash of the outdoors) are the way to his heart.
Gerald
Natalie
Trinity Sun
