Alienware AW3226Q

Introduction

Unveiled at IFA 2026 in August and now with us for a full review is Alienware’s latest 32″ OLED monitor, the AW3226Q. This is only the company’s second 32″ OLED monitor, following on from the very popular AW3225QF released back in early 2024. It offers a range of updates, improvements and a brand new 2026 OLED panel with some of the latest innovations included.

In fact this model shifts from a Samsung Display QD-OLED panel that was used on the old model, to a Tandem WOLED panel from LG Display, still offering a 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution although with a lower refresh rate than the earlier model at 165Hz. That helps enable a very attractive price point for those who aren’t necessarily looking for the fastest refresh rates available or who have systems which will already find 4K 165Hz a challenge anyway. The panel has a glossy screen coating and an RGB stripe sub-pixel layout to help deliver super-sharp and clear images and text, and we will explain more about both later. There’s also a decent range of connections and extra features on offer, and all from a very popular monitor brand.

We have previously reviewed Asus’ alternative ROG Swift PG32UCWM display, which uses a 240Hz version of this same Tandem WOLED panel, and so we’ll try and make some comparisons throughout this review between the two models.

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Key Specs

• 31.5″ size (32″ class), flat format
• LG Display Tandem WOLED panel
• RGB-stripe sub-pixel layout
• Glossy screen coating
• 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution
• 165Hz refresh rate
• VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, including peak brightness spec of 1000 nits
• HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR content support
• Video connectivity: 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 2x HDMI 2.1
• Other connectivity: 2x USB-A data ports, 1x USB-C data port (15W), 1x headphone
• Extra features: PiP/PbP support, VRR Anti-flicker, eARC sound over HDMI
• Tilt, height and swivel stand adjustments

Hands on and information from IFA 2026

You can find out more information and see our hands on experience with this display, and Alienware’s other new upcoming 24.5″ 540Hz Esports model, in our video above from IFA 2026 in August.

Panel and coating explored

Tandem WOLED panel

One of the key benefits of this new model relative to nearly all other WOLED displays released in the past, is that this is one of the first range of new screens to be released to market in the 32” segment to use the latest Tandem WOLED technology from LG Display. We’ve seen this in many 27” monitors already, but this marks a shift in the 32” segment which a lot of people have been holding out for.

Both the Asus ROG Strix XG32UQWMS (with RGWB pixel layout) and the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM (with RGB-stripe layout) that we’ve reviewed in recent months use Tandem WOLED panels, and this is a significant step forward in underlying panel tech.

In general, the Tandem WOLED panels promise improvements in brightness, power consumption, contrast, colours and panel longevity compared with earlier-gen WOLED panels. However, many of those improvements are only really applicable for the standard RGWB panels, and these claims could be different, or not realised here, because of the removal of the white sub-pixel and shift to an RGB-stripe layout on this Alienware model. We will cover those as we go through the review.

RGB stripe sub-pixel layout

The other key change with this particular panel used in the AW3226Q is that it’s only the third WOLED panel we’ve tested to feature an RGB-stripe sub-pixel layout. In this version of the 32″ 4K Tandem WOLED panel LG Display have removed the white subpixel, which leaves you with just an RGB stripe which promises better text clarity and image sharpness as a result. This is the layout expected by Windows OS, and it should fully resolve the long-standing challenges with OLED panel text clarity. We will examine and compare text performance more later.

Reduced brightness specs

While Tandem WOLED panels are typically promoted as offering improvements in brightness compared with earlier gen panels, the drawback of removing the white sub-pixel is that it will have an impact on panel brightness.

This version has a 250 nits SDR brightness spec and meets the VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 (TB400) tier and has a peak brightness of 1000 nits. We’ll examine real world performance in SDR and HDR later but the specs suggest a reduced brightness compared with the RGWB version of the Tandem WOLED panel that’s used on some competitor displays.

• Further reading: OLED RGB-stripe Panels Explained – Should You Wait?

This is still a ‘Tandem WOLED’ panel

Note that despite the removal of the white sub-pixel from the panel design, this remains a “Tandem WOLED” panel as the “W” in “WOLED”, contrary to common misunderstanding, represents the white colour of the light that the OLED stack produces, and is not related to the inclusion of a white sub-pixel.

Black depth, contrast and ambient light handling

One thing which remains consistent with this RGB-stripe version of the Tandem WOLED panel is the improvements offered for black depth and contrast in more well-lit rooms. This is inherent to the updated panel technology, and not impacted by the RGB-stripe design.

In a dark room the blacks are basically the same, but as ambient light increases the Tandem WOLED panel retains its black depth better and blacks stay blacker. This is an improvement with the new Tandem WOLED panel still.

For comparison we can also compare the Tandem WOLED panel against a latest-gen QD-OLED panel, one featuring their new QuantumBlack film in fact. That film helps QD-OLED in these tests, but it still remains quite a long way behind a Tandem WOLED panel in brighter room conditions.

Panel coating

This new Alienware screen features a glossy panel coating, like other recent Alienware OLED monitors including the 39″ ultrawide AW3926QW for instance. It provides a super clear and sharp image with a 0% haze rating. While it provides a really sharp and clear image and helps make the whole image “pop”, you need to be more mindful of your ambient light sources, as it can create mirror-like reflections. Be careful if you have light sources and windows facing the screen at all, as reflections and glare are more of a challenge than on matte anti-glare coated screens.

Power consumption

Tandem WOLED panels offer power consumption benefits relative to previous gen WOLED, or at least they draw the same power but reach higher brightness levels with it. But that doesn’t follow through to this RGB-stripe version of the panel, and the reason again is because of the missing white sub-pixel.

When displaying an all white image for instance most of the heavy lifting on the RWGB panel is done by the white subpixel, with the others not needing to be lit much at all. It’s the same in a lot of dynamic content, HDR, gaming etc. The white sub-pixel can take care of a lot of the brightness output, and lighting up one sub-pixel is easier than lighting up all 4.

Conversely on the AW3226Q there is no white sub-pixel, and so when showing the same white background, all 3 red, green and blue sub-pixels need to be lit up in an “additive” approach to reach white. This means higher power consumption. We saw the same on the Asus PG32UCWM as well as it’s the same principle.

To give an example we measured the power consumption of each screen when showing an all white image at 120 nits and 200 nits:

You can see the power consumption of the RGB-stripe panels (this Alienware screen and the Asus equivalent mode) are around 80 to 90% higher in this example than the RGWB version of the Tandem WOLED panel. Real world power consumption will vary depending on the content shown of course, your brightness level etc, but this is a reasonable proxy for lots of office use and white backgrounds, and gives an indication of the additional power consumption of the RGB stripe panel.

Design and Features

The AW3226Q comes in a fairly simple design with matte black plastics used for the stand and rear enclosure. There’s a 4 side “borderless” panel with a black edge of around 9mm along the top, 10mm at the sides and 14mm along the bottom. There’s no logos or labels visible from the front, but there’s a fairly large blue power LED on the bottom right hand edge. This can be turned off via the OSD menu if you want.

Note that this is Alienware’s first flat format 32″ model, with the previous AW3225QF having a 1700R curvature.

The rear of the screen is encased in a smooth matte black plastic with a minimalist design. You may note that this is proper black plastic now, called “Nova Black” by Alienware, as opposed to the very dark blue design from the last couple of years on some of their models.

There’s an Alien logo RGB lighting feature on the left, which can be controlled via the OSD menu. The stand attaches via a quick release mechanism in the middle, or that can be removed in favour of VESA 100 x 100 mounting if you need. There’s also a cable tidy hole in the back of the stand which is useful.

The stand offers tilt, height and swivel adjustments (no rotate). These are all smooth and pretty easy to use, although vertical height can be quite stiff sometimes. There’s minimal wobble from the screen as you move it around and the stand feels sturdy and well built.

Connectivity

There’s a reasonable range of connectivity available on this screen, despite it’s competitive price point. There’s 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (with DSC) and 2x HDMI 2.1 video inputs although unfortunately there’s no USB type-C video support on this model. That’s a potential gap for those wanting to connect a laptop with a single cable. The HDMI ports support eARC sound as well, still a rare feature in the monitor space, capable of passing sound through to a soundbar or compatible speaker system.

There is 1x USB-A data port on the back along with a USB-B upstream port to connect the screen back to your PC. Then on the bottom edge of the screen there’s some easy access ports. There’s another 1x USB-A, this one with fast charging support, along with 1x USB-C data port (with 15W power delivery) and 1x headphone connection. It’s useful to see those available and easy access, we’d like to see more of that from other monitor manufacturers.

On-screen menu

The OSD menu is controlled through a single joystick toggle on the bottom edge of the screen, and this provides fast, intuitive access around the menu. There are a lot of settings available in the menu with many layers to go through in some places, sometimes it felt a little cluttered even, but there’s certainly plenty to adjust here. The menu remembers which section you were last in when you re-open it which is handy.

The clarity of the text in the menu is also a bit off, it looks a bit jagged for some reason, not especially sharp but it doesn’t really interfere with the useability at least. Dell also provide a ‘Command Center’ software which can be installed to control various settings from your PC if it’s easier.

OSD Menu
Joystick toggle controller
Quick and snappy
Intuitive to use
User updatable firmware
Software application

OLED Care

Alienware offer a 3 year warranty with the monitor, including burn-in cover which gives some added peace of mind around usage and image retention risks. This is the same as on their other recent OLED monitors. The screen has a fan-less design.

There are however extremely limited OLED Care controls in the menu for this screen, only offering a single setting to manually trigger a pixel refresh cycle. This is the same as we saw on their other recently launched OLED monitors, the 34″ AW3426DW and the 39″ AW3926QW.

OLED Care and Warranty
Warranty period	3 years
Burn-in cover
Screen saver
Pixel / screen shift	(Cannot be disabled)
Logo dimming
Taskbar detection
Motion / proximity sensor
Other OLED care features	CPC edge dimming – cannot be disabled

We observed a pixel shift in action every now and again during use, but there’s no way to turn this off unfortunately if you find it annoying. There’s also no other modern features like logo, taskbar, border dimming etc. Fine trying to keep things simple for the user, but at the same time when they provide such an extensive menu full of options, it’s odd to not offer more controls and settings here for OLED care we think. We’d have liked to see some further controls offered.

The other OLED care feature you may have heard talked about with their 39″ ultrawide AW3926QW model is also present here, and that’s CPC (Convex Power Control) edge dimming. We will talk about its impact on panel uniformity and usage considerations later in the review.

Testing Methodology Explained (SDR)

Performance is measured and evaluated with a high degree of accuracy using a range of testing devices and software. The results are carefully selected to provide the most useful and relevant information that can help evaluate the display while filtering out the wide range of information and figures that will be unnecessary. For measurement, we use a UPRtek MK550T spectroradiometer which is particularly accurate for colour gamut and colour spectrum measurements. We also use an X-rite i1 Pro 2 Spectrophotometer and a X-rite i1 Display Pro Plus colorimeter for various measurements. Several other software packages are incorporated including Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software – available from Portrait.com.

We measure the screen at default settings (with all ICC profiles deactivated and factory settings used), and any other modes that are of interest such as sRGB emulation presets. We then calibrate and profile the screen before re-measuring the calibrated state.

The results presented can be interpreted as follows:

• Gamma – we aim for 2.2 gamma which is the default for computer monitors in SDR mode. Testing of some modes might be based on a different gamma but we will state that in the commentary if applicable. A graph is provided tracking the 2.2 gamma across different grey shades and ideally the grey line representing the monitor measurements should be horizontal and flat at the 2.2 level, marked by the yellow line. Depending on where the gamma is too low or too high, it can have an impact on the image in certain ways. You can see our gamma explanation graph to help understand that more. Beneath the gamma graph we include the average overall gamma achieved along with the average for dark shades (0 black to 50 grey) and for lighter shades (50 grey to 100 white).
  
  
• RGB Balance and colour temperature – the RGB balance graph shows the relative balance between red, green and blue primaries at each grey shade, from 0 (black) to 100 (white). Ideally all 3 lines should be flat at the 100% level which would represent a balanced 6500K average colour temperature for all grey shades. This is the target colour temperature for desktop monitors, popular colour spaces like sRGB and ‘Display DCI-P3’ and is also the temperature of daylight. It is the most common colour temperature for displays, also sometimes referred to as D65. Where the RGB lines deviate from this 100% flat level the image may become too warm or cool, or show a tint towards a certain colour visually. Beneath this RGB balance graph we provide the average correlated colour temperature for all grey shades measured, along with its percentage deviance from the 6500K target. We also provide the white point colour temperature and its deviance from 6500K, as this is particularly important when viewing lots of white background and office content.
  
  
• Greyscale dE – this graph tracks the accuracy of each greyscale shade measured from 0 (black) to 100 (white). The accuracy of each grey shade will be impacted by the colour temperature and gamma of the display. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green line on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (below the yellow line). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. In the table beneath the graph we provide the average dE across all grey shades, as well as the white point dE (important when considering using the screen for lots of white background and office content), and the max greyscale dE as well.
  
  
• Luminance, black depth and contrast ratio (static) – measuring the brightness, black depth and resulting contrast ratio of the mode being tested, whether that is at default settings or later after calibration and profiling. We aim for 120 cd/m² luminance which is the recommended luminance for LCD/OLED desktop monitors in normal lighting conditions. Black depth should be as low as possible, and contrast ratio should be as high as possible.
  
  
• Shadow detail – this is evaluated with the screen configured to a 200 nits white luminance for consistency between different monitors, and viewed in a dimly lit room. This first 16 greyscale shades are measured using our UPRTek MK550T spectro device (0.002 nits lower limit) for shades near-black, and the results are plotted on a graph relative to a target gamma curve (usually 2.2 gamma). Where the measurement line crosses the 0.01 nits point on the Y-axis is typically the visual threshold for where we would start to be able to detect luminance compared with black (0.00 nits). We combine these objective measurements with visual tests using a grey shade test pattern to determine the first visible shade, and then rank the shadow detail performance accordingly.
  
  
• Gamut coverage – we provide measurements of the screens colour gamut relative to various reference spaces including sRGB, DCI-P3, Adobe RGB and Rec.2020. Coverage is shown in absolute numbers as well as relative, which helps identify where the coverage extends beyond a given reference space. A CIE-1976 chromaticity diagram (which provides improved accuracy compared with older CIE-1931 methods) is included which provides a visual representation of the monitors colour gamut coverage triangle as compared with sRGB, and if appropriate also relative to a wide gamut reference space such as DCI-P3. The reference triangle will be marked on the CIE diagram as well.
  
  
• dE colour accuracy – a wide range of colours are tested and the colour accuracy dE measured. We compare these produced colours to the sRGB reference space, and if applicable when measuring a wide gamut screen we also provide the accuracy relative to a specific wide gamut reference such as DCI-P3. An average dE and maximum dE is provided along with an overall screen rating. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green area on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (yellow areas). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. dE 2000 is used for improved accuracy and providing a better representation of what you would see as a user, compared with older dE methods like dE 1994, as it takes into account the human eye’s perceptual sensitivity to different colours. 

Brightness and Contrast

The screen offers a ‘uniform brightness’ behaviour in SDR which keeps the luminance consistent regardless of the content shown. That’s the most suitable option for desktop apps and office use, avoiding any kind of ABL dimming. It reaches 254 nits maximum which is on spec, but puts it quite a way behind some other modern OLED panels for those who might prefer a brighter SDR experience.

At the lowest setting it can reach down to 23 nits which makes it well-suited to dark room conditions.

It’s basically the same maximum luminance as the older gen WOLED panels and so it’s not a terrible result by any means. But we’ve seen some Tandem WOLED panels reach a fair bit higher. The RWGB version of this same panel (as used on models like the Asus ROG Strix XG32UQWMS for example) reaches 326 nits max, and some smaller 27″ models (e.g. Asus PG27AQWP-W) reach as high as 381 nits.

250 nits is still perfectly fine for most users we’re sure, but if you’re used to using your monitor at very high brightness levels, or you’re coming from an LCD with a high brightness spec that you’ve been using at a high brightness setting, then you may have more of an issue.

Perceived brightness

We should also keep in mind that the perceived brightness of OLED monitors is greater than traditional LCD monitors thanks to their higher contrast ratio, something we explored in our detailed article. We shouldn’t rely only on luminance measurements to compare between these different technologies and consider real-world brightness.

Based on the principles explained in our article, this OLED monitor would have the same approximate perceived brightness as a traditional LCD that reaches ~440 nits luminance. We can’t give it a TrueBright certification tier as that’s reserved for Samsung Display QD-OLED panels, but the same principles apply.

SDR Performance

Default setup – wide gamut mode

The screen comes out of the box in the ‘standard’ preset mode where there is access to the brightness and contrast controls, but not much else in the way of gamma or colour settings. This feels a bit limited in this mode, although there is a ‘custom color’ mode which affords you more customisation.

The default accuracy was moderate, with some greyscale inaccuracies present. The gamma was lower than the target 2.2, measured at 2.1 average and the red channel was a little lower than blue and green, resulting in a slightly cooler and slightly bluer greyscale. Nothing too major, but it needs some tweaking for more optimal performance.

With the full wide native wide colour gamut active here, the accuracy of sRGB colours was poor, with a dE 3.4 average measured. This is normal for a wide gamut screen and to be expected and we will look if we can improve sRGB / SDR accuracy in a moment.

The native colour gamut of this panel more closely matches the DCI-P3 reference, and with that closer match the accuracy of DCI-P3 colours out of the box was good, with a dE 1.7 measured.

This native mode is good though for working with HDR content or providing a more vivid and saturated image that some people prefer, especially for gaming and multimedia. Some people like that more colourful experience.

Emulation modes

Alienware provide two emulation modes in the OSD menu when using the ‘Creator’ preset, one for sRGB and the other for DCI-P3. When enabled you still have access to the brightness and contrast controls as well as the gamma setting now, but there are no further options for colour temp, RGB channels etc.

Note that there’s no Adobe RGB emulation mode provided, so if you want to work specifically with content in that colour space, such as for professional and photography applications, you will need to be able to profile the screen yourself using a calibration tool. There isn’t quite full coverage of this colour space available from the panel, reaching ~95% absolute coverage but it’s fairly close which is good, but you’d need to be able to cut back on the over-coverage (~119% relative coverage) for better accuracy.

sRGB emulation mode

The sRGB mode is actually configured to the similar, but slightly different sRGB gamma curve instead of 2.2, where there’s some small adjustments in dark shades near black which makes darker content a bit brighter. We will explore shadow detail more in a moment too. This mode offers a nice reliable gamma setup and very good RGB balance, resulting in a reliable greyscale temp and white point which was great news.

The key other change with this mode is the clamping of the wide native colour space back very close to the sRGB reference, with only a small amount of over-coverage remaining. This resulted in excellent colour accuracy for SDR and sRGB content and is therefore a very useful mode for those who want a more accurate setup for SDR usage, and want to avoid the more saturated and vivid colours offered by the native mode. This is a very well factory calibrated sRGB mode.

DCI-P3 emulation mode

The DCI-P3 mode is actually configured to different targets, with a 2.6 gamma and a D63 white point as per the DCI-P3 Theater standard. The brightness control is also turned down to 15% by default (although you can change this) to reach a target luminance of ~48 nits for this standard as well.

This mode was also mostly well calibrated, with a gamma very close to 2.6 apart from near black where it is too high, and that causes some additional crushing of shadow detail beyond what you’d expect even from a 2.6 gamma. There is however a very good RGB balance to meet the D63 (6300K) colour temp targets. With this colour temp you do have a greener looking greyscale which is expected and normal, and accuracy was reasonable with dE 2.1 average measured. This isn’t quite as accurate as the sRGB mode we’d just measured.

You can also change the gamma setting in the menu for this mode if you want something other than 2.6, but not the colour temp.

The native colour space is clamped back again in this mode to remove the native over-coverage of DCI-P3 of around 9% and this works nicely. This was a good result and we had very good colour accuracy now overall with dE 1.2 average.

This represented a pretty accurate factory calibration mode if you want to work with the DCI-P3 Theater standard specifically. While it’s nice that you can change the gamma if you want in this mode, it’s a shame there’s not also control over the colour temp or RGB channels so that you could configure to perhaps the ‘DCI-P3 Display’ standard, at 2.2 gamma and D65 white point. That would have made it a little more flexible.

Shadow Detail

We also explored and tested the near-black shadow detail which can sometimes be a challenge on OLED panels, even though they have a true 0 nits black depth and ~infinite contrast. We explored the reasons for this and the challenges that display manufacturers face when calibrating OLED panels in our detailed article here.

For these tests screen was configured to 200 nits white luminance, and we tested the screen in several colour space modes, as well as at different refresh rates.

Shadow detail was very good on this screen in both the native mode (~2.2 gamma) and the sRGB mode (sRGB gamma) with the latter having a brighter greyscale in the darker shades as intended. The DCI-P3 mode was configured to a 2.6 gamma overall, although our measurements earlier revealed the gamma was too high near black which further crushes shadow detail and the first 20 RGB greyscale shades get crushed in that mode. That’s with brightness bumped up to 200 nits as well, it’s even worse if you use the default 15% brightness which reaches ~50 nits.

As is common for WOLED panels, the gamma is tied to the refresh rate and so it shifts a little bit for lower refresh rates. The screen is actually factory calibrated at 60Hz and so you get slightly better performance in that configuration.

The standard (native) mode has a slightly brighter-than-intended greyscale near black, although this adjustment helps improve shadow detail on an OLED panel where otherwise the first few shades would get crushed. We don’t mind that tweak near-black on an OLED display personally.

You can see that the sRGB Creator mode is now even closer to the sRGB gamma curve at 60Hz, resulting in excellent shadow detail. The DCI-P3 mode improves a little, and tracks the target 2.6 gamma a bit better but still crushes the first 16 shades to black.

Dark Stabilizer setting

Alienware provide a ‘Dark Stabilizer’ setting in the menu with 3 levels available. This serves to brighten darker scenes to varying degrees but thankfully none of those modes cause a raising of the black point, so you maintain a true 0.00 nits black which is pleasing.

We’ve plotted the results from each mode above while running in the ‘standard’ (native) mode. You can see mode 1 elevates the luminance slightly for these dark shades, while levels 2 and 3 continue to raise luminance in darker shades quite considerably and you can experiment with these in darker games and movies perhaps. At the same time they increase the brightness of the other dark shades so you will want to find a balance that suits your content.

Calibration

Calibration and profiling can produce some very good overall results and could be useful though if you wanted to operate the screen within its native wide gamut mode, but then map the colour space back to something else like sRGB or Adobe RGB for instance for colour-aware applications (e.g. Photoshop). You would need a suitable calibration device and software for this, or you could also try our calibrated ICC profile.

The screen was profiled to 2.2 gamma, 6500K colour temp and to the sRGB colour space. The screen was left in its native wide gamut mode, but this profile will be used in colour-aware applications to map back to sRGB in this instance. Overall the calibrated results were very good as you’d hope.

Best Setting Guide

• On our Patreon Insider tier and above you can find our full ‘Best settings guide’ for this screen which includes all our recommended calibrated settings and ICC profile for SDR mode, as well as other best settings guidance for other configurations, modes, HDR, gaming and everything else.
• Please note that you have the option to either join our Patreon on a subscription basis, which will also open up access to other locked posts on our page; or you can purchase just the single post for these best settings as a one-off if you’d rather.
• If you only want just our standard SDR settings and calibrated profile, that is available via our ICC database (without all the other best settings guide).

General and Office

Resolution and Scaling

The fairly large screen size of 31.5″ provides a decent size upgrade from common 27″ screens, and this combined with the 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution gives you a higher pixel density at 140 PPI. This 4K resolution is probably still a bit too high to use at native scaling (100%) for some people on a screen even of this pretty large size, although some people may find it ok. Text is small but if you’ve got good eye-sight and are up close then it’s still reasonable and does provide you then with a massive screen real estate and very sharp picture.

Other people will probably want to use operating system scaling to ensure fonts and text are a more sensible and readable size though. 150% is unnecessarily large despite being the “recommended” option detected by Windows, with 125% scaling offering a nice balance on a screen of this size we think. That gives you comfortable text size which is very similar to a 27″ 1440p screen, but does give you the equivalent desktop real-estate area of a 3072 x 1728 resolution. So that’s quite a nice jump up from common 2560 x 1440 resolution screens in this approximate size range. The extra pixel density of the 4K resolution will provide a very sharp and clear image for all uses including office and general applications. Just make sure that your software will support scaling effectively as it can sometimes be a bit difficult to get it right.

Keep in mind that not all Operating Systems and applications handle scaling the same. More recent versions of Windows tend to handle it all better, and recent versions of Mac OS are pretty solid as well. Some applications and games don’t handle scaling correctly and so you can end up with some things with very minute text and fonts and some things which don’t scale completely in every place. Keep this in mind if you’re selecting any super high resolution display as it could be an important factor. You need to ensure you have the necessary operating system and applications to handle scaling effectively for your needs. It does make life a bit more complicated than if you just ran at a native resolution and 100% scaling. If you have the necessary software and operating system then the 4K resolution provides a very sharp and crisp image though.

Sub-pixel Layout and Text Rendering

LG Display WOLED panels have always included an additional white sub-pixel alongside red, green and blue; used to boost panel brightness. It’s that added white sub-pixel which causes challenges for Windows systems which expect just a standard RGB layout, leading to text and image clarity issues. This was further exacerbated on earlier generation WOLED panels where the red, green and blue sub-pixels were also in the wrong order. The layout of the sub-pixels used to actually be red-white-blue-green (RWBG) which was not ideal. Later on from around 2024 onwards LG Display improved that by switching to the correct order, still keeping the white sub-pixel in there, but changing the order to be more optimal. The newer WOLED panels have a red-green-white-blue (RGWB) layout instead which helps improve text clarity a fair bit. Still not perfect because of the extra white sub-pixel, but better.

For 2026, and as used in this AW3226Q monitor, LG Display have started to produce panels with a true RGB-stripe layout, removing the white sub-pixel from the panel design which should help improve text clarity. We set the screen up side by side with a 32″ 4K WOLED model with the RGWB structure (the Asus XG32UQWMS) and tested a range of different office apps and text situations.

We have commented in the past on how we felt the text clarity was already very good on RGWB panels of this size, thanks to the updated layout and the ~140 PPI pixel density of the panel. For most people we think that it should be perfectly fine. However, there are improvements here with the RGB stripe design and that’s evident in side by side comparisons. The text looks a little sharper and crisper, and you avoid any remaining fringing artefacts completely now. Some edges of coloured cells in Excel for instance can still show fringing on the RGWB panel, but it’s eliminated here. It’s the same sharp text clarity now as an equivalent pixel density LCD.

For those who are particularly sensitive to text fringing, or concerned about using an OLED screen for lots of text and office work, then this offers improvements.

Coating

We talked at length earlier about the coating, and our advice would be to consider your ambient lighting conditions and positioning before deciding which coating is right for you. There’s no doubt that the new glossy panel coating provides a super sharp and clear image, removing any minor grain we’ve seen from previous glossy WOLED panels. It offers improvements in black depth in the presence of ambient light as well compared with matte AG coatings, but the downside is that reflections can be more problematic and distracting, as there’s no anti-glare or anti-reflection coating on this screen. That’s perhaps more of an issue for daytime office application usage or brighter office environments.

Panel uniformity

Luminance uniformity was mediocre on our sample, with the edges of the panel being darker than the central area, mostly along the left hand side on our sample where the luminance dropped from 120 nits down to around 89 nits minimum. This underlying panel uniformity may vary between samples, but we found this to be a little worse than the Asus PG32UCWM which had a 32″ 4K Tandem WOLED RGB Stripe panel as well.

Exacerbating this issue was the presence of the CPC (Convex Power Control) OLED care feature, which causes further dimming of the edges of the screen in certain situations, causing further variation in uniformity and a more noticeable vignetting effect around the edges of the screen. We measured the luminance dropping down as far as 52 nits once this feature becomes active, giving an even more pronounced difference between the centre of the screen and the edges.

This was a characteristic we also experienced on the 39″ ultrawide AW3926QW, something which a lot of users have also noticed during their usage which has prompted a full review by Alienware of the feature. That’s an ongoing discussion, with a potential plan to release a firmware update that offers users control over this OLED care feature so that it could be disabled if you want. At the moment, it cannot be disabled and that’s a potential issue when it comes to uniformity and overall panel performance, and it’s the same story here on the 32″ AW3226Q.

Where there is more varied content on the screen like a game, video or even your desktop wallpaper then this CPC OLED care feature kicks in and it takes around 25 – 30 seconds for it to slowly dim down to its maximum level. Then, if you switch to more consistently bright content like a full screen white test image, or perhaps a full screen office document, the edges slowly start to brighten again, and after about 25 seconds they are back to being more consistent with the centre of the screen, within the confines of the underlying panel uniformity as shown above.

As such, it’s more of an issue in varied and dynamic content sometimes, where HUD elements can be dimmed a lot and the edges may look darker than the central area, although in a lot of dynamic content it’s also much harder to see as the content is changing so much. It’s less problematic when viewing lots of office apps and white backgrounds we found as the CPC doesn’t kick in as often, which is a good thing, but ideally we’d like user control over the setting so you can turn it off if it’s problematic for your usage.

Note that we did not experience the uniformity-related colour desaturation issue we commented on for the AW3926QW on this smaller AW3226Q, even with all-orange tests, so that variation seemed to be more isolated to the larger 39″ model from what we can tell.

Dark content uniformity / grey banding

OLED panels, especially Tandem WOLED, can be impacted by noticeable banding artefacts and a “dirty screen effect” when viewing darker content. This might be in dark games, or dark mode apps, and it’s a topic we’ve explored at length in the past. Each display was configured to a consistent 0.2 nits luminance for this full-screen grey test, and the photos captured are as representative to what we see visually as possible.

• 165Hz
• 60Hz

165Hz

60Hz

As we’ve seen on other RGB stripe WOLED panels, the grey banding issue seems to be far less noticeable than on the standard RGWB panels. At the native 165Hz refresh rate it’s very slight which is great news and seems to be basically eliminated from what we could see here. It’s helped somewhat by this screen having a slightly lower refresh rate than competing 240Hz models (which also have 480Hz dual-mode) as grey banding generally increases with refresh rate.

The improvement is likely down to the RGB stripe sub-pixel structure with the white sub-pixel causing additional challenges at low luminance levels on standard panels it seems. We’ve tested three RGB stripe Tandem WOLED panels now and each of them has shown this improved performance, enough for us to draw initial conclusions about the general improvement RGB stripe offers in this area.

As with other WOLED panels we’ve tested, any slight banding or dirty screen effect is reduced even further at lower refresh rates. It’s very hard to see at all in these tests at 60Hz.

beenhere

Grey Banding Explored:

Exploring issues reported on Tandem WOLED panels with banding artefacts in certain situations, especially on dark grey colours. Is this a widespread issue to be concerned about and does it affect all OLED panels in the same way?
[Read here]

Viewing angles

We’ve seen some people asking us about the viewing angles on the Tandem WOLED panels so we’ve included some photos here of 3 different panel options showing a white background, calibrated in each case to D65 white point and 200 nits luminance. Note that these photos were taken from the 240Hz version of the panel from the Asus PG32UCWM, but it’s exactly the same with this 165Hz version in this monitor.

• previous gen WOLED
  (e.g. Asus XG32UCWMG)
• Tandem WOLED, RGWB
  (e.g. Asus XG32UQWMS)
• Tandem WOLED, RGB stripe
  (e.g. Alienware AW3226Q)

previous gen WOLED
(e.g. Asus XG32UCWMG)

Tandem WOLED, RGWB
(e.g. Asus XG32UQWMS)

Tandem WOLED, RGB stripe
(e.g. Alienware AW3226Q)

The viewing angles of Tandem WOLED do seem to be a little worse than previous gen WOLED, showing a slightly more noticeable colour tone shift on these all-white images as you move away from a central viewing position. The appearance of white also looks a little different as you can see, down to the panel structure and spectral distribution we believe.

The colour tone shift is a little more pronounced than on the RGWB Tandem WOLED panels, and this is related to the colour filter structure and the loss of the white sub-pixel. To maximize aperture ratio, the black matrix is kept fairly narrow on the panel and so at wider viewing angles, some light can “spill” into adjacent colour filters, which can introduce a slight colour shift, especially on white backgrounds where it’s easier to spot.

This is not really noticeable we don’t think from a head on viewing position, you mainly see the colour tone shift as you move to the sides. It’s also not visible during normal dynamic content, gaming etc, it’s more of a potential consideration if you’re working with lots of full screen white documents or something. Perhaps, depending on your viewing position, you might see a small shift towards the edges of the screen. It’s very slight though we would say.

Flicker-free performance

Flicker
Flicker free verified
PWM / flicker frequency	n/a

Office features

	Features	Notes
USB type-C connectivity (DP Alt mode)
USB type-C power delivery		15W (data port only, no DP Alt mode)
Daisy chaining support
KVM switch
PiP and PbP support
USB data ports		2x USB-A, 1x USB-C
Easy access USB data ports		1x USB-A (fast charging), 1x USB-C (15W)
Integrated speakers
Audio output / headphone out		1x connection easy access
Mic input
Integrated webcam
Ambient light sensor
Motion sensor
Stand adjustments		Tilt, height, swivel (no rotate)
VESA mount support		100 x 100mm
Integrated power supply
Tripod socket
Firmware updates
Fan-less design

This model has a pretty good range of additional features that make it quite well-suited to a range of use-cases, not just for gaming. There’s unfortunately no USB type-C connection with video DP Alt mode and high power delivery available, so that’s one gap for connecting laptops etc. There are 2x USB-A and 1x USB-C data ports though, including some which are easy access on the front bottom edge. Despite this there’s oddly no KVM switch function, which would have been useful.

There is support for various PiP/PbP modes for handling multiple video inputs. Note that there’s no integrated speakers on this screen although a headphone connection is available.

Blue Light and Eye Care Modes

Blue light output
Blue peak wavelength	451 nm
Blue light portion	27.25%
Low blue light modes available
Low blue light mode temp

The native panel spectral distribution is shown above at a calibrated 6500K white point, where the blue peak is at 451 nm. There’s no specific low blue light modes or settings, and no presets either which are designed for reading or late night work. The closest thing would be to use the ‘warm’ preset mode which has a slightly more yellow appearance and a white point of 6044K.

HDR

Pixel level dimming

Being an OLED panel, the AW3226Q is well equipped to handle HDR content with its per-pixel level dimming allowing for true blacks, a basically infinite contrast ratio and the avoidance of all blooming and halos. In these regards it can easily surpass any Mini LED backlit LCD monitor. However, it cannot reach the same luminance levels as Mini LED screens, and carries a “peak brightness” spec of 1000 nits, which will then also lower as the content on your screen changes and the APL increases which is normal on this technology. This is one key area where Mini LED screens can look brighter and deliver a more impactful HDR experience.

HDR format support and certification

Note that this screen is certified under the VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 tier, the same that was used for the previous gen WOLED screens, but lower than the new range of True Black 500 tier monitors being launched at the moment. Usually the shift to Tandem WOLED offers upgrades to brightness, but because of the removal of the white sub-pixel on this panel, it’s stuck back at True Black 400.

This Alienware screen supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR content, the latter could be useful for consoles and external media devices which support that format.

Black depth and ambient light handling

We talked about this a bit earlier, but the WOLED panel maintains better contrast and black depth in the presence of ambient light than alternative QD-OLED panels, which show raised blacks that start to go grey as ambient light increases, especially where those light sources are in front of the screen. Some improvements have been made with 2026 ‘QuantumBlack’ coated QD-OLED panels, but they still remain behind WOLED in this regard. The ambient light handling and the black depth of the panel is especially good here thanks to the Tandem WOLED panel, which is better in this regard than earlier-gen WOLED panels too.

The glossy glossy coating used on this screen also helps with black depth retention, as it doesn’t diffuse light across the panel like a matte AG coating would, but on the flip side you do need to be more mindful of mirror-like reflections with this coating and the screen is not as well suited to brighter viewing environments.

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HDR Demo and Test Video

Test and demo the HDR on your display using our handy compilation, highlighting black depth, contrast and peak brightness capabilities.
[View here]

HDR Modes and Operation

There are 7 HDR modes available within the OSD menu – Desktop, Movie, Game, Custom Color, DisplayHDR True Black, Peak 1000 and Peak 1000 Bright. Most settings are locked by default, including for brightness and the only mode which offers you a bit of flexibility is the HDR Custom Color mode where you can control contrast, hue and saturation if you want to.

HDR Testing Methodology Explained

Performance is measured and evaluated with a high degree of accuracy using a range of testing devices and software. The results are carefully selected to provide the most useful and relevant information that can help evaluate the display while filtering out the wide range of information and figures that will be unnecessary. For measurement, we use a UPRtek MK550T spectroradiometer which is particularly accurate for colour gamut and colour spectrum measurements. We also use an X-rite i1 Pro 2 Spectrophotometer and a X-rite i1 Display Pro Plus colorimeter for various measurements. Several other software packages are incorporated including Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software – available from Portrait.com.

We measure the screen at default settings (with all ICC profiles deactivated and factory settings used). The results presented can be interpreted as follows:

HDR accuracy section

• Greyscale dE – this graph tracks the accuracy of each greyscale shade measured from 0 (black) to 100 (white). The accuracy of each grey shade will be impacted by the colour temperature and gamma of the display. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green line on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (below the yellow line). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. In the table beneath the graph we provide the average dE across all grey shades, as well as the white point dE (important when considering using the screen for lots of white background and office content), and the max greyscale dE as well.
  
  
• RGB Balance and colour temperature – the RGB balance graph shows the relative balance between red, green and blue primaries at each grey shade, from 0 (black) to 100 (white). Ideally all 3 lines should be flat at the 100% level which would represent a balanced 6500k average colour temperature for all grey shades. This is the target colour temperature for desktop monitors, popular colour spaces like sRGB and ‘Display DCI-P3’ and is also the temperature of daylight. It is the most common colour temperature for displays, also sometimes referred to as D65. Where the RGB lines deviate from this 100% flat level the image may become too warm or cool. Beneath this RGB balance graph we provide the average correlated colour temperature for all grey shades measured, along with its percentage deviance from the 6500k target. We also provide the white point colour temperature and its deviance from 6500k, as this is particularly important when viewing lots of white background and office content.
  
  
• ST 2084 EOTF (PQ) tracking – this graph tracks the PQ curve in HDR mode, akin to gamma measurements in SDR. The yellow line represents the ideal PQ curve, while the grey line plots the monitors measured performance.
  
  
• Luminance, black depth and contrast ratio (top right hand table) – measuring the brightness, black depth and resulting contrast ratio of the mode being tested. The luminance figure captured here is from a standard 10% APL window area measurement, although further luminance measurements are included in a separate section to capture “peak brightness” and the luminance at other APL areas. This section also measures the black depth on the screen and the resulting contrast ratio.
  
  For HDR, any local dimming is left enabled, and so we measure the black depth adjacent to a white test image and calculate the “local contrast ratio” from there. We also measure the black depth towards the edges of the screen, away from the white test area in order to calculate the “maximum full frame contrast ratio” across the whole panel. These figures will often be different on LCD screens with local dimming, as this dimming can be more effective for dark areas further away from light areas.
  

HDR colours section

• Gamut coverage (2D) – we provide measurements of the screens colour gamut for HDR relative to the very wide Rec.2020 colour space. Coverage is shown in absolute numbers as well as relative, which helps identify where the coverage extends beyond a given reference space. A CIE-1976 chromaticity diagram (which provides improved accuracy compared with older CIE-1931 methods) is included which provides a visual representation of the monitors 2D colour gamut coverage triangle as compared with Rec.2020. The higher the coverage, the better.
  
  
• dE colour accuracy – a wide range of Rec.2020 colours are tested and the colour accuracy dE measured. An average dE and maximum dE is provided along with an overall screen rating. These numbers are calculated based on the colour tone and hue, and ignore any luminance error. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green area on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (yellow areas). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. dE 2000 is used for improved accuracy and providing a better representation of what you would see as a user, compared with older dE methods like dE 1994, as it takes into account the human eye’s perceptual sensitivity to different colours.

Peak white luminance measurements

In most situations all the modes delivered the same peak white luminance, although the two Peak modes pull away for the darkest, low APL scenes <10% APL where they can reach a higher peak luminance. We measured up to 1006 nits in those modes which was in line with the panel spec. The other modes, including the certified True Black 400 (TB400) mode capped out at ~422 nits and so cannot reach the higher levels for bright highlights in darker scenes.

This is a familiar pattern, but doesn’t tell a complete picture as we need to evaluate other areas for real-world performance, beyond simple white measurements.

EOTF measurements

Let’s have a look at the EOTF tracking in each mode and it’s a fairly familiar pattern to what we’ve seen from QD-OLED monitors in fact. The ‘True Black 400’ mode offers the most accurate tracking in all scenes, although it does dim a little in brighter scenes. It also has a capped maximum brightness of around 422 nits as we showed earlier, so this mode lacks the punch of bright highlights in dark scenes.

The ‘Peak 1000’ mode is accurate in dark scenes and can reach up to the higher 1000 nits peak brightness, giving more impressive highlights in those situations. But in brighter overall scenes you get panel dimming, just like you do on QD-OLED panels, and the image is quite a lot darker than it should be.

Alienware provide the ‘Peak 1000 Bright’ mode to try and compensate for this, which offers more accurate EOTF now in brighter scenes, but requires over-brightening in darker scenes. It doesn’t raise the black point, but it does brighten the whole scene, not as accurate in terms of the artistic intent of the content, but improving overall brightness.

Real-world brightness

In real world content you can see that in all scenes here, the True Black mode is overall brighter than the two peak modes. In fact it’s luminance is typically around twice as high as the standard Peak 1000 mode, and so is brighter for everything apart from peak highlights in very dark scenes. The Peak 1000 mode looks noticeably darker in most real-world content.

The boosted ‘Peak 1000 Bright’ mode offers some improvements, but remains around 44% lower luminance on average than the TB400 mode which is a shame. The over-brightening compensation isn’t sufficient to fully solve the panel dimming in brighter overall scenes, and so this mode is a still darker in many situations, although this is sometimes offset by the more impactful highlights which do make a difference to the overall HDR experience. This is almost identical behaviour to what we saw on the 39″ ultrawide AW3926QW as well.

It’s hard to say which mode will be better overall. The Peak 1000 mode should be avoided we think as it’s too dark, but the Peak 1000 Bright mode could be preferred for darker scenes where highlights can reach their full potential and will “pop” more. If your HDR content is more generally brighter scenes, the TB400 mode provides a better brightness and better image accuracy as well.

• True Black modes
• Peak Bright modes

True Black modes

Peak Bright modes

We can also compare the real-scene brightness against the other 2026 Alienware OLED monitors we’ve tested, comparing the True Black modes and the Peak Bright modes on separate graphs above. You can see that the two ultrawide models reach brighter in HDR content. In the case of the 39″ model, that also has an RGB-stripe Tandem WOLED panel, but the brightness has been boosted due to the larger panel size and better heat dissipation potential compared with the smaller 32″ model. The 34″ model features a modern Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel instead, and reaches a little brighter still.

• AW3226Q in True Black mode
• AW3226Q in Peak Bright 1000

AW3226Q in True Black mode

AW3226Q in Peak Bright 1000

We can also compare the real scene brightness against various other modern OLED monitors, each set to their optimal / brightness mode.

In the first tab above the AW3226Q is set to the TB400 mode which offers pretty comparable real-world brightness to the other screens in most scenes which is good. However the AW3226Q lacks the ability to reach higher peak brightness in dark scenes for bright highlights when running in this mode, being capped to around 422 nits or so max. The other models shown here can reach these overall brightness levels while running in their full brightness modes, reaching up to 1000 – 1500 nits or so for peak highlights depending on the screen. Certainly all of them reach higher peak brightness in their modes than the AW3226Q does in its TB400 mode.

The second tab shows the brightness if you instead run the AW3226Q in its ‘Peak 1000 Bright’ mode. That allows you to reach the higher peak brightness in dark scenes, up to around 1000 nits now, but overall it’s darker in most other situations and falls behind the other OLED panels shown here quite noticeably. There’s a trade-off either way, you can’t have the best of both world’s on this panel.

Dolby Vision HDR

The Dolby Vision mode is restricted to the same max brightness as the True Black mode reaching around 410 nits max, there doesn’t appear to be a mode which pushes up to 1000 nits peak for DV operation and we believe the reason for this is because of the dynamic meta data, with the intention here to offer accurate EOTF performance, and so that means you’re limited to the lower max brightness modes. Greyscale, RGB balance and colours remain consistent with the HDR10 modes (discussed more below).

You can switch to DV mode via the menu when you might need it. Dolby Vision HDR support and content from a PC is very limited and complicated to get working, so you’d almost certainly stick with the HDR10 mode for PC connections and leave the DV setting turned off. That also gives you the choice to use the Peak 1000 Bright mode if you want to as well.

If you’re connecting an external device like an Xbox Series X, or perhaps a streaming media device of some sort, those can support Dolby Vision more readily, so you can switch to that mode here if you want to use it.

EOTF and greyscale measurements

We can explore the greyscale further, beyond the EOTF measurements we provided earlier. There is a good overall RGB balance and greyscale temp, although in the light grey shades and white, the image gets a little cooler and has around a 4% error from the target D65 white point. No major issues though really.

There is some black crush though in HDR mode with shadow detail being weak (RGB 8) at the native 165Hz refresh rate, which is a shame as it had been very good in SDR mode. There are some improvements (RGB 5) if you are using a 60Hz input device due to the variable gamma of WOLED panels, but it’s a shame it’s not a bit better at 165Hz.

The RGB balance, colour temp and greyscale accuracy remain consistent if you decide to switch to the Peak 1000 Bright mode instead, only the EOTF tracking and luminance are impacted as we explored and compared earlier.

HDR colour accuracy

The colour gamut in HDR mode is basically the same as SDR mode with no additional clamping going on. Colour accuracy was very good overall with dE 0.8 average, if we ignore the 100% primaries from Rec.2020 which this panel cannot reach.

HDR Best Settings

• You can find our full Best Settings guide for this screen here, including HDR settings and mode selection

Gaming

The AW3226Q is generally well-suited to gaming thanks to its OLED panel and high resolution, although its refresh rate could probably be considered fairly “slow” by todays OLED standards. That feels strange labelling 165Hz as “slow”, it’s still a tough frame rate to power at 4K for most systems and in most modern games, and the motion clarity of an OLED panel at these refresh rates is still very impressive. It’s just that there’s 240Hz versions of this exact same panel available (e.g. Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM), and those also offer a 480Hz dual-mode at 1080p for even faster gaming situations. There’s no dual mode at all here, and the native refresh rate is lower at 165Hz.

This panel has been selected with a lower refresh rate in order to help support a more budget-friendly price point though, and so if you’re after a more affordable OLED but still want the latest Tandem WOLED tech, RGB stripe layout and all the other features we’ve discussed in this review, it’s an attractive option. Not everyone wants or needs the higher refresh rates as well, so that’s another consideration.

Anyway, you can find faster 240Hz models using the same Tandem WOLED RGB-stripe panel if you want, as well as much faster OLED monitors up to 540Hz in smaller sizes (and soon even faster!) if you are most focused on gaming and refresh rates. In the 32″ 4K space, 165Hz is still very capable and impressive.

Refresh Rate

(at native resolution)	Refresh Rate
Maximum Refresh Rate DisplayPort	165Hz
Maximum Refresh Rate USB type-C
Maximum Refresh Rate HDMI	165Hz
VRR range	48 – 165Hz
AMD FreeSync certification	FreeSync Premium Pro
NVIDIA ‘G-sync Compatible’ certified
VESA ‘AdaptiveSync’ certification
ClearMR certification tier

The screen has a native 165Hz refresh rate which is supported by adaptive-sync for Variable Refresh Rates (VRR) from compatible systems. It has been certified under the NVIDIA ‘G-sync Compatible’, VESA ‘AdaptiveSync’ and AMD ‘FreeSync Premium Pro’ schemes.

Gaming Features

	Other Features
OLED VRR Anti flicker
Black Frame Insertion (BFI)
Dual-mode support
Gaming extras	FPS counter Timer Display alignment Alien Vision Dark Stabilizer
Emulated gaming sizes	24.5″ and 27″ emulation modes

There’s a few gaming extras like an FPS counter, timer, Dark Stabilizer control and their Alien Vision settings (see their user manual for more info on this). There is unfortunately no BFI blur reduction mode on this screen and no dual-mode support either. The latter was included on the 39″ 165Hz model, so it’s a bit of a shame it’s omitted here for the 32″ 165Hz model. Some people may have found that useful for a boosted 330Hz at 1080p perhaps.

There are a couple of ‘Esports’ modes which simulate smaller screen sizes. There’s 25″ (actually measured at 24.5″) which operates with 1:1 pixel mapping at 3008 x 1692, and then a 27″ model which runs at 3296 x 1854, again with 1:1 pixel mapping. You may prefer to lower your resolution further with these modes, for instance you could use 1920 x 1080 @ 165Hz in the 25″ mode if you wanted. It doesn’t look as clear and crisp as the resolution has to be scaled by the screen, but on the smaller screen area it’s not bad for gaming and dynamic content and looks reasonably sharp.

Response Times

As discussed in our detailed article about Response Time Testing – Pitfalls, Improvements and Updating Our Methodology we are using an improved and more accurate method for capturing G2G response times and overshoot, based on figures that are more reflective to what you see visually on the screen in real-World usage. Our article linked above talks through why this is better and how we arrived at this improved method in much more detail.

The above G2G response times are consistent at all refresh rates, including 165Hz, 120Hz and 60Hz and during VRR situations with changing frame rates. Thanks to the OLED panel the response times are super-fast and near-instant. All transitions can keep up easily with the frame rate demands easily.

Quite unusually for an OLED panel we did measure a bit of moderate overshoot on transitions from black to grey. We’ve seen a couple of OLED screens do this in the past, but in practice it wasn’t visible here, so overall there was nice and clean pixel transition times. We saw basically the same thing on the 32″ Asus PG32UCWM which uses the 240Hz version of this same panel and the 39″ Alienware AW3926QW, and the thing these 3 screens have in common is the RGB stripe Tandem WOLED panel. Perhaps this is an oddity with transitions from black on RGB stripe panels that isn’t typically there on RGWB panels, presumably again caused by the removal of the white sub-pixel. We mention this only out of interest and for the people who like the detail, it doesn’t cause any visual issues that we could see.

Motion Clarity

We captured some pursuit camera photos of the screen at it’s native 165Hz refresh rate. These can be compared it against other modern OLED panels with other refresh rates supported. These photos are designed to capture real-world perceived motion clarity and gives you a good indication of how the screen looks in real use, beyond G2G response time measurements.

At its native 165Hz refresh rate the screen offers the exact same excellent motion clarity as other 165Hz OLED monitors, including for instance the 39″ ultrawide Alienware AW3926QW. Motion clarity is very good, but there are improvements to be had from higher refresh rates from other OLED monitors though.

VRR Flicker

All OLED monitors can show flicker and gamma fluctuations in VRR situations and this is something we studied and tested in detail in our article here. Asus have included their OLED Anti-flicker feature on this screen to give you a mode that will hopefully help reduce flicker, should you experience any in your usage. Remember that just because a screen can show flicker, doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily experience it during your usage and from your system. Please see our detailed article for loads more information about this issue on OLED monitors.

• Off
• On

Off

On

VRR flicker was moderately high in very dark scenes, but hard to see elsewhere so overall not too bad. The trick with WOLED screens is to try and keep frame rates as consistent as possible, regardless of what the frame rate is, and in practice this screen should show low levels of flicker in most situations.

Alienware provide a VRR anti flicker option in the menu which behaves differently to similar features we’ve seen from other manufacturers in the past. This doesn’t make any change to the available VRR range, and VRR seems to remain active – the frame rate counter shows changing fps for instance. This does seem to completely eliminate flicker altogether, even in our stress testing which is very impressive, but it does seem to cause games to be a bit less smooth. We’re not really sure what is being done here, but if you find flicker particularly problematic you can try this mode and see how you get on.

beenhere

OLED VRR Flicker Explored:

We explore and test OLED VRR flicker. What causes it? Is it the same on WOLED and QD-OLED panels? What can be done to improve it?
[Read here]

Lag

Read our detailed article about input lag and the various measurement techniques which are used to evaluate this aspect of a display. The screens tested are split into two measurements which are based on our overall display lag tests and half the average G2G response time, as measured by our oscilloscope. The response time element, part of the lag you can see, is split from the overall display lag and shown on the graph as the green bar. From there, the signal processing (red bar) can be provided as a good estimation of the lag you would feel from the display. We also classify each display as follows:

Lag Classification (updated)

• Class 1) Less than 4.17ms – the equivalent to 1 frame lag of a display at 240Hz refresh rate – should be fine for gamers, even at high levels
• Class 2) A lag of 4.17 – 8.33ms – the equivalent of one to two frames at a 240Hz refresh rate – moderate lag but should be fine for many gamers. Caution advised for serious gaming
• Class 3) A lag of more than 8.33ms – the equivalent of more than 2 frames at a refresh rate of 240Hz, or 1 frame at 120Hz – Some noticeable lag in daily usage, not suitable for high end gaming

There is a low lag measured at 1.3ms total display lag at the native 165Hz refresh rate which is nice and low and pretty similar to other Alienware models we’ve tested.

This increased to 5.6ms for 120Hz input devices, and for some reason was much higher for 60Hz devices at ~25ms. That could be a problem for 60Hz inputs, but remember that it’s the 165Hz number which applies to PC gaming, including when you use VRR. The emulation modes like the 25″ Esports mode seem to add ~7ms of additional lag from our testing.

Console Gaming

The screen has a native 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution, allowing for excellent support of modern games console features and capabilities. The OLED panel is well-equipped to handle HDR gaming as well.

	Console Gaming
Native panel resolution	3840 x 2160 “4K”
Maximum resolution and refresh rate supported	4K @ 120Hz
4K at 24Hz support
4K at 50Hz support
HDMI connection version	2.1
HDMI-CEC auto switch
VRR (variable refresh rates)
Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)
HDR10 support
Dolby Vision HDR support
Blur reduction mode available
Integrated speakers
Headphone connection
Ultra high speed HDMI 2.1 cable provided

There was excellent console support from this screen. 4K 120Hz works fine along with support for features like VRR and 4K 24Hz / 50Hz content (for stutter-free movie playback). This model can support both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR formats and it should auto detect the relevant input source from a console.

A setting called ‘Console mode’ in the OSD menu gives you further control over screen settings, colours and even source-based tone mapping for connected consoles if you enable it.

Note that there are no integrated speakers on this model unlike some competing screens, and so you’ll need to connect headphones or some kind of external soundbar/speaker system when using a console. There is however eARC sound over HDMI which can be useful for that. There’s also no blur reduction mode featured on this screen unfortunately.

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Console Gaming Monitor Guide

If you’re looking to buy a new monitor for console gaming, this guide should help you understand the specs and features to look out for.
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Conclusion

The Alienware AW3226Q is an impressive new 32″ OLED monitor at a very attractive price, delivering a modern panel with a focus on image quality and a conscious decision to leave off some features in order to meet a more budget friendly price point. The new Tandem WOLED panel offers improvements in contrast, black depth, colours and durability, and the decision to use an RGB stripe layout panel and a glossy screen coating show the prioritisation of image clarity and sharpness, including for text and office work.

The text clarity is excellent and there’s a good range of accurate user modes for general usage. Thanks to the removal of the white sub-pixel, the panel seems to be free from the noticeable grey banding issue that impacts other standard Tandem WOLED panel which is great news, although on the other hand the panel uniformity, and especially the CPC OLED care feature could cause concern for some. It’s the same situation there as with the larger 39″ AW3926QW model, some people will find it ok, others may be put off. We await further news from Alienware on a possible user control for this feature (hopefully for both models) which would really help.

Brightness is adequate for SDR and HDR overall, although the removal of the white sub-pixel leaves some challenges in this area, especially when you’re trying to balance the risks of image retention and burn-in. 250 nits in SDR should still be fine for most users, but we found there wasn’t really an HDR mode which could offer you an optimal level of brightness in all situations. You either had a brighter general ‘True Black’ mode with a limited peak luminance, or a ‘Peak Bright’ mode which could push the peak luminance higher, but ended up darker in many other scenes. Still, HDR accuracy and colours were good and the support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision was welcome.

Gaming was overall very good, with the usual near-instant response times of OLED, very good motion clarity, solid support for console gaming and some useful additional gaming extras included. Some users may miss things like a BFI blur reduction mode or a dual-mode function, but not everyone wants or needs those. As before, these are left off to meet the lower price point.

Perhaps the most obvious gaming sacrifice is with the refresh rate, with 165Hz being fairly slow by modern OLED standards. Still very good, don’t get us wrong, and still a big challenge at 4K anyway, but when there’s so many 240Hz 32″ models available now, and the first 32″ 4K 360Hz are also due next year, it feels a bit of a shame. Again though, this has been selected to help meet the lower price point, so it’s to be expected. It’s not like the retail price is the same as those faster models.

There’s a pretty good range of extra features available including some handy easy-access ports, PiP/PbP, Dolby Vision support and eARC sound. Although you do miss out on things like USB type-C video connectivity, a KVM switch, blur reduction mode and dual-mode support that many other modern OLED monitors offer in this segment. Those have been omitted here though to help keep the cost down, and for those who don’t want or need those features, it gives you a very interesting choice for a new panel at an affordable price point.

Update 27 Oct 2026: The Alienware AW3226Q is available to buy now in all key regions. It’s available in the US at a price of $699.99 USD, and in Canada at $949.99 CAD. It was released there slightly earlier than some other regions but it’s also now available in Europe as of 27 October priced at £649 GBP in the UK, and €749 Euro in Europe. You can check latest pricing and availability for your region using our affiliate link above.

This makes it very competitively priced for a 32″ 4K OLED monitor, half the price in fact of Asus’ competing 32″ RGB-stripe model, the ROG Swift PG32UCWM ($1,399 USD). The Alienware has a lower refresh rate and a more reduced feature-set, but that’s one hell of a price difference and makes it a very attractive option.

Pros	Cons
Excellent picture quality thanks to the 4K resolution, RGB stripe panel and glossy coating	HDR brightness is limited
Good feature set overall for the price point	165Hz refresh rate is lower than most other 32″ 4K OLED monitors
Attractive price point for this segment with the latest panel tech	Missing some features you can find elsewhere, but done to support the lower price point

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