Alienware AW3425DW review: This OLED is aggressive on price, image quality

Alienware AW3425DW design

The Alienware AW3425DW’s design doesn’t follow the same script as its predecessor. Like other recent Alienware monitors, it ditches the older model’s retro-futuristic vibe for a curved, organic look. It’s also available in just one color: dark blue.

To be honest, I don’t much like the look of it. I think it’s a clear downgrade from Alienware’s earlier models, which seemed more premium. The AW3425DW also reduces the RGB-LED lighting elements found on earlier models. Only the Alienware logo and the power button provide RGB-LED lighting, and both are rather small.

It’s not all bad news, though. While the design isn’t remarkable, it’s inoffensive, and the monitor feels solid in-hand. I also like the monitor’s subtle curve. Personally, I prefer flat-screen ultrawides (in the 34-inch size, at least). The AW3425DW isn’t flat, but the curve is often unnoticeable in day-to-day use.

I also like the small and compact stand, which minimizes the monitor’s impact on your desk. It’s an upgrade over the large, wing-shaped stand that shipped with the AW3423DWF. Like its predecessor, and most competitors, the AW3425DW’s stand adjusts for height, tilt, and swivel. It can also “slant” up to five degrees for fine-tuning the angle at which the panel sits relative to your desk.

A 100x100mm VESA mount is available for connecting a third-party monitor stand or arm.

Alienware AW3425DW connectivity

The Alienware AW3425DW’s video connectivity includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and a single DisplayPort 1.4, all of which can handle the monitor’s full refresh rate and resolution.

What you won’t find, however, is a USB-C port with DisplayPort and USB Power Delivery. Many competitive monitors now offer USB-C with Power Delivery, so the lack of USB-C is notable. The lack of USB-C also means the monitor doesn’t have a KVM switch.

The monitor’s downstream USB connectivity doesn’t impress, either. It has just one USB-A downstream port and one USB-C downstream port. The USB-C port offers 15 watts of Power Delivery, and both ports provide 5Gbps of data. Because the AW3425DW doesn’t have USB-C upstream, owners instead need to connect their PC to the monitor over a USB-B upstream connection (a USB-A to USB-B cable is included in the box).

You won’t find a 3.5mm audio-out jack for audio passthrough, either. This is unusual for a gaming monitor in 2025, and it’s bad news if you use headphones with a 3.5mm connector.

In short, the AW3425DW’s connectivity is as basic as it gets for an OLED monitor in 2025. This is exactly the opposite of what I would have expected, as most of Alienware’s competitors are going all-in on USB-C.

However, USB-C carries a premium, and competitors with it are often more expensive. The MSI MPG 341CQPX is very similar to the AW3425DW but offers USB-C with 98 watts of Power Delivery, and it retails at $899.99.

Alienware AW3425DW menus and features

Owners can control the Alienware AW3425DW’s options with a joystick centered behind the monitor’s lower bezel. This is a typical arrangement for a 34-inch monitor, and the AW3425DW’s joystick feels responsive.

The monitor’s features can also be changed through Alienware’s Command Center software. It’s an attractive utility that provides quick access to many monitor settings including brightness, contrast, and input, to name a few. It doesn’t offer adjustment for gamma or color temperature, however.

The AW3425DW’s range of image quality options is decent, though there’s still room for improvement. Alienware provides a Creator image mode preset, which has sub-modes for sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as gamma calibration which targets precise values.

However, this mode doesn’t allow for color saturation, temperature, gain, and offset adjustments. These instead are found in different modes; all game modes, as well as the custom color mode, provide significant color calibration. There’s enough here for most users to calibrate the monitor’s image quality as desired, but it’s odd that Alienware doesn’t provide an image mode that allows adjustment for all the above simultaneously.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

Moving beyond image quality, the AW3425DW offers a good range of gaming-centric features. It has a dark stabilizer, which can increase brightness in dark scenes to make enemies easier to see, plus an on-screen crosshair, timer, and FPS monitor. Gamers can also customize and select from three Alienvision presets, which apply some of these features to a limited portion of the display (sort of like looking down the scope of a gun in an FPS game).

One feature you won’t find is a pair of built-in speakers. This is common among gaming monitors, as built-in speakers rarely perform well enough to do games justice. Still, the lack of built-in speakers means you’ll have to use headphones or desktop speakers if you want to hear anything at all.

Much as with connectivity, the AW3425DW’s feature set feels built to a budget. It covers the basics but doesn’t provide any significant features not available from competitors.

Alienware AW3425DW image quality

The Alienware AW3425DW has a Samsung QD-OLED panel with a refresh rate of 240Hz. Monitors with QD-OLED panels tend to look great in SDR (as well as HDR), but there’s often not much difference between monitors from different manufacturers. The AW3425DW doesn’t change that trend, though it does score a few small victories.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

First up is brightness. As expected, all the OLED monitors performed more or less the same. The Alienware AW3425DW’s maximum sustained SDR brightness of 258 nits is a little higher than some QD-OLED alternatives, but in the real world, these results will look rather similar.

It should also be noted that the LG Ultragear OLED 45GX950A-B scored the highest of the monitors used for comparison, and it uses an LG WOLED panel. So, if you do want the best SDR brightness, you might want to look at that monitor, although it is quite a bit larger than the 34-inch alternatives.

Even so, the Alienware AW3425DW’s SDR brightness is more than adequate for use in a typical home office or a gaming den. However, if you’re trying to use it in a brightly lit room or room with large windows that don’t have shades or blinds, it might not be bright enough. Also, the AW3425DW has a rather glossy finish over the display panel, which can make glare more obvious.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

Next up is contrast. There’s not much to say here because all OLED monitors perform exceptionally well. OLED provides an effectively infinite contrast ratio due to its ability to reach a minimum brightness of zero nits. This allows for an extremely immersive and deep image. This is a perk for the AW3425DW, but it’s also not a competitive advantage, as all OLED monitors offer the same level of performance.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

Next up is color gamut. QD-OLED monitors offer some of the widest color gamuts of any display that you can put on your desk. The Alienware AW3425DW hits 100 percent of sRGB, 98 percent of DCI-P3, and 95 percent of Adobe RGB. As the graph shows, all the QD-OLED monitors have basically the same level of performance, give or take a percentage here and there.

The LG Ultragear OLED 45GX950A-B, which again uses an LG WOLED display, is the only monitor at a notable disadvantage because it only displays up to 95 percent DCI-P3 and 89 percent of Adobe RGB.

These results are more applicable to content creators than they are to gamers. All of these monitors have a color gamut that’s more than wide enough to make games look vibrant, but if you want a very wide color gamut to ensure that you’re seeing as many colors as possible when editing a video or a photo, the Alienware AW3425DW is a good choice.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

The Alienware AW3425DW excels in color accuracy, delivering an average color error that significantly outperforms its competitors. While any average color error below 2 generally produces realistic imagery (and none of these monitors struggle with accuracy), the Alienware has a clear advantage for content creation tasks like video and photo editing.

Gamma and color temperature testing revealed both strengths and weaknesses. The AW3425DW ships with an ideal gamma curve of 2.2, which is what most PC applications target. This ensures images don’t appear artificially dark or bright, and it’s a welcome improvement over QD-OLED competitors that tend toward a gamma curve of 2.3, which displays content slightly darker than intended.

Color temperature, however, misses the mark. At 50 percent brightness, I measured a color temperature of 6100K, which is warmer than the standard 6500K target. While I personally don’t mind a warmer tone, this deviation is noticeable.

The AW3425DW’s sharpness is merely adequate. Like all 34-inch QD-OLED ultrawides currently available, the AW3425DW offers 3440×1440 resolution (approximately 110 pixels per inch). This feels increasingly dated as the market shifts toward new 27-inch and 32-inch 4K QD-OLED displays. For those willing to go larger, options like LG’s UltraGear 45GX950A-B deliver 5120×2160 resolution, which works out to about 125 pixels per inch.

Overall, the AW3425DW’s SDR image quality is excellent. Its great out-of-box color accuracy and spot-on gamma curve deliver a slightly more refined and realistic image than alternatives like the Gigabyte MO34WQC. QD-OLED monitors tend to look far more similar than different, but a win is a win, and my testing shows the Alienware has a slight edge in SDR image quality.

Alienware AW3425DW HDR image quality

Things get more interesting in HDR.

The Alienware AW3425DW supports HDR and has VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. Testing results show the AW3425DW is an exceptional HDR performer that outshines many past WOLED and older QD-OLED monitors. It reached a peak brightness of 978 nits in a 10 percent window, which is the second highest in this competitive set, just behind the MSI MPG 341CQPX. The Alienware also performed well in a 50 percent window, again coming in just slightly behind the MSI.

The AW3425DW offers a significant advantage over older QD-OLED displays in HDR content. I measured peak brightness of just 400 to 500 nits from the Gigabyte MO34WQC and the veteran Alienware AW3423DWF. If you’re looking for a reason to upgrade from the older Alienware QD-OLED, HDR performance is it.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

Beyond the test results, HDR content looks fantastic on the AW3425DW. In the “Into the Storm” scene from Mad Max: Fury Road, lightning bolts streak through the dust storm with eye-searing brightness. Viewing the gargantuan scene from Interstellar, I could see excellent detail in the accretion disk around the black hole—an area that often appears blown out and featureless in SDR or on less capable HDR displays.

While the AW3425DW is solid in HDR, I was disappointed to see that it wouldn’t let me adjust brightness while in HDR. Some QD-OLED monitors now offer optional HDR adjustment. It’s a handy feature, as HDR content can at times feel overly bright on a computer monitor.

The AW3425DW is a good monitor for HDR content. Only Mini-LED monitors, which can reach higher brightness levels when large portions of the display are lit, will outperform it. However, Mini-LED hasn’t gained much traction in the market, so trying to find a Mini-LED alternative may not be worth the effort.

Alienware AW3425DW motion performance

The Alienware AW3425DW has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, meaning the image can update up to 240 times each second. It also has a minimum pixel response time of 0.03 milliseconds, which is typical for a QD-OLED monitor. For comparison, IPS LCD monitors typically have a response time between 1 and 8 milliseconds.

These specifications conspire to provide excellent motion clarity. Fast-moving objects are rendered with good detail and quick camera pans keep most of a game’s scenery intact. Viewing fast-scrolling test images from League of Legends, I found character silhouettes and terrain looked crisp. Character names and moving UI elements (like HP bars) could be a little hard to make out but were generally legible.

This is great performance and, if you happen to be upgrading from a 60Hz or 144Hz IPS LCD, it’s going to knock your socks off. However, virtually all of Alienware’s direct competitors offer a 34-inch 240Hz QD-OLED ultrawide, and they all have similar motion clarity. 240Hz is table stakes for a gaming monitor in 2025.

Alienware also provides official support for VESA Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. Most competitive monitors only list official support for one or two of these standards. The Gigabyte MO34WQC2 lists AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, for example, while the Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C lists Nvidia G-Sync.

Should you buy the Alienware AW3425DW?

Much like new Alienware’s 27-inch 4K QD-OLED, the Alienware AW3425DW takes the brand in an unexpected direction. The AW3425DW doesn’t try to beat its competitors on design or features. Instead, it’s all about delivering the best image quality possible at an affordable price.

If this was Alienware’s mission, I must admit it was successful. The monitor’s retail MSRP of $799.99 is lower than the MSRPs of similar monitors and still competitive with the best sale prices I’ve seen on competitors. Yet despite its pricing, the AW3425DW delivered great results in both SDR and HDR.

On the other hand, the Alienware AW3425DW is slim on features. There’s no USB-C video input with Power Delivery, no speakers, and no KVM switch. RGB-LED lighting is technically included, but it’s so subtle it’s basically non-existent. The monitor also lacks an HDR brightness adjustment.

If it were my money, I’d spend a little bit more on the MSI MPG 341CQPX, which offers nearly identical image quality and does have USB-C with 98 watts power delivery, a KVM switch, and other features not found on the Alienware. But if you just want QD-OLED image quality and a 240Hz refresh rate at an attractive price, the Alienware makes a lot of sense.