Dell Alienware AW3426DW

Introduction
The Alienware AW3426DW that we’re reviewing today is the company’s third generation of 34″ ultrawide OLED monitor, following on from the O.G. OLED monitor that was released to market by the brand back in 2022, the AW3423DW (reviewed). At the time this was a breakthrough for OLED in to the monitor market, offering a 34″ ultrawide panel, 3440 x 1440 resolution and 175Hz refresh rate, and based on a QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display. That original offering also featured a Native G-sync module, actually still the only time that’s been used for any OLED monitor produced to date, and Dell later followed this up with a slightly lower cost adaptive-sync version with a 165Hz refresh rate and without that module the same year, the AW3423DWF.
In early 2025 they announced the successor, the AW3425DW which shifted to a second Gen QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display, offering some panel improvements in lifespan and longevity, with the key meaningful user upgrade being an increased 240Hz refresh rate.
A lot has changed with QD-OLED technology since the first panels were produced in 2022, something you can learn more about in our feature video here if you want to know more. Through various iterations, updates and improvements, the latest 34″ ultrawide panel is now in mass production and this is actually Samsung Display’s 5th Generation technology now, falling under the marketing banner name of “Penta Tandem QD-OLED”. Dell Alienware have now adopted this new panel for their own third generation of monitor. The AW3426DW is an update to their previous popular models, offering a wide range of improvements and upgrades this time around with the new panel and a range of modern OLED features.

The AW3426DW retains the same 3440 x 1440 resolution, but the refresh rate has been bumped up a little further to 280Hz. Most significant though are the changes to the Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel, now offering an RGB-stripe sub-pixel layout which significantly improves text clarity and sharpness compared with the earlier panels and Dell’s earlier 34″ models. It’s also got a new film coating (marketed as ‘QuantumBlack Film‘ by Samsung Display) which improves contrast and black depth in well-lit rooms, reduces purple tinting in the presence of external light sources, and improves panel hardness and scratch resistance as well. There’s also improvements to panel brightness, with increased SDR and HDR brightness capabilities. All in all, a big range of improvements are promised for this new display, and we’ll test and compare it throughout this review.
We’ve seen many of these panel upgrades already in our testing of Asus‘ and MSI’s models earlier this year, but we will take a look at those again and consider how Dell’s new monitor compares and performs in our extensive testing.
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Key Specs
- 34″ ultrawide, 1800R curvature
- Samsung Display 5th Gen Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel technology
- Semi-glossy screen coating with AR layer and ‘QuantumBlack Film’
- 3440 x 1440 resolution
- 280Hz refresh rate
- VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, 1300 nits peak brightness
- HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR format support
- Video connectivity: 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 2x HDMI 2.1
- Other connectivity: 1x USB-A data port, 1x USB-C data port (15W)
- Tilt, height, swivel adjustable stand (no rotate)

Design and Features

The AW3426DW has a 3 side “borderless” design although with an additional black panel border the total edges measure ~8mm along the top and ~11mm on the sides. This varies a little bit as a “pixel shift” OLED care feature will move the image round ever so slightly periodically for the purposes of image retention mitigation. The bottom of the screen has a dark silver bezel which gives a total ~16mm total border, and there’s an “Alienware” logo in the middle, and a blue power LED on the bottom right hand side.


The design looks pretty sleek and minimalist from the front, not too gamery. The stand and arm are finished in a matte, very dark blue plastic, which looks almost dark grey / black really in dimly lit rooms. The blue tint to it is very subtle, and this has been used on other Alienware monitors in recent times. The foot of the stand is rounded and provides a strong and stable base for the screen without taking up too much room.

The stand offers tilt, height and swivel adjustments (no rotate) which are all pretty smooth and easy to use. The screen remains stable with very little wobble as you move it around or use the on-screen controls which is great. The whole thing feels well-built.

The back of the screen is encased in the same dark blue matte plastic with a mostly smooth and simple design. The stand can be removed in favour of VESA 100 x 100mm mounting if you’d prefer.

There’s a small Alienware logo RGB light feature on the left hand side which can be controlled or turned off via the OSD menu. The back of the stand includes a handy cable tidy hole as well.
Connectivity

Connectivity is adequate, although a little more limited than many top-end OLED monitors we’ve tested. There is 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (with DSC) which is perfectly fine for handling the full spec of the screen. DP 2.1 with UHBR13.5 or above could have allowed DSC-free, uncompressed signal support but there’s no practical benefit in that compared to just using DP 1.4 with DSC so we feel that this is a non-issue. Some people may lament the lack of DP 2.1 though which is offered on some competing models. There’s also 2x HDMI 2.1 inputs, but unfortunately there’s no USB type-C with DP Alt mode available for single cable connectivity from laptops and other devices.
There are however 1x USB-A and 1x USB-C (15W) data ports located on the bottom edge of the screen for each access which are useful, along with the requisite USB-B upstream port on the back to connect back to your PC. We would have perhaps liked to have seen an additional USB-A port and a headphone connection here too.
OSD 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 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.
| OSD Menu | |
| Joystick toggle controller | |
| Quick and snappy | |
| Intuitive to use | |
| User updatable firmware | |
| Software application |
Dell also provide a ‘Command Center’ software which can be installed to control various settings from your PC if it’s easier.

OLED Care
Dell 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 with a graphite sheet used to help disperse heat across the panel and prevent localized hotspots.

There are however very limited OLED Care controls in the menu for this screen, only offering a single setting to manually trigger a pixel refresh cycle. 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.
| 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 |
Samsung Display told us that the updated EL 3.0 panel structure used for this screen has significant durability improvements with around 2x the durability from older generation panels expected which is great news for those concerns about life-span. This is also supported by a new T-con, or timing control board, which uses an “Advanced Compensation Algorithm” that can precisely analyse and control the panel on a per pixel basis to help enhance lifespan.
QuantumBlack Film

One of the big changes with this new model is an improvement to the panel coating and finish from the new Gen 5 panel, something that is designed to help address two areas that have been problematic on QD-OLED panels before. Samsung Display call this “QuantumBlack film“, although note that Dell don’t specifically market using this brand name, or a naming convention of their own, they just talk more broadly about the anti-glare coating and “improved black performance” on their product pages. But the panel does feature that same coating, used on competitor screens as well under various brand names.
Anyway, firstly this film now offers increased panel hardness, which is increased from a rating of 2H to 3H and now offers 2.5x times better scratch resistance apparently. We’ve never had issues with scratches ourselves during all our testing of QD-OLED monitors, but some people have reported problems and so this will be a welcome change to the coating hardness to those who may be concerned.

The second more apparent benefit of the new coating is that it is designed to help improve perceived black depth in well-lit rooms, which is achieved through a combination of the coating update, and adjustments to the colour layers and light absorption of the panel. In the presence of direct ambient lighting blacks typically turn grey or purple even on QD-OLED panels, and that has long been a challenge for this technology, and one of the main drawbacks compared with competing WOLED panels.
Note: We will use some images captured from the Asus ROG Swift PG34WCDN here to save us having to redo them all again, as it’s the exact same panel type and coating finish, so results are identical.


The raising of the blacks in the presence of ambient lighting is caused by the lack of a polarizer and the inadvertent activation of the Quantum Dot layer on the QD-OLED panel, and if you’re using the monitor in a bright room, or with light sources that face the screen, it can sometimes spoil your image and the otherwise amazing contrast you’d expect from an OLED panel. You can see in a dark room that both QD-OLED generations look the same, and blacks remain black. But in the brighter room environment the blacks start to become raised, and on the older-gen QD-OLED panel this is more apparent, and a purple tint also gets introduced. That is eliminated here on the QuantumBlack Film coating panel, and black depth is retained better too.

The new coating can’t solve this fully, but it does a pretty decent job of improving the perceived black depth in practice, even in brighter room conditions or direct lighting. We measured up to an 11% improvement in black depth using our previous measurement approach, and as we said, one key additional advantage seems to be that the pinkish-purple tint is now eliminated and you get a darker grey instead of a light grey or purple colour which in turn helps with the perceived contrast of the image.

It’s a good improvement but QD-OLED panels still remain a step behind the best WOLED panels, such as the glossy coated 4TH Gen WOLED panels we’ve seen used on various screens now, such as the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQWMG for instance compared above in a bright room.

Note that the coating doesn’t change the visual appearance of the panel which remains semi-glossy with no grain, a glossy appearance, but with some moderate anti-reflective capabilities which is particularly useful on a curved screen like this where reflections can otherwise look distorted. It looks the same as the previous QD-OLED coating in those areas in side by side testing.
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 (SDR)

In SDR mode the screen operates with a uniform brightness as standard with pretty consistent luminance regardless of the APL and measurement window size. There’s some minor variance but not by anything you’d notice during usage. We measured a maximum luminance of 327 nits on this screen which was very slightly higher than the Asus PG34WCDN and MSI MPG 341CQR X36 models we’ve tested which feature the same 5th Gen QD-OLED panel, just with a 360Hz refresh rate. They’re all pretty similar though in SDR luminance.

Notably the luminance is 36% higher here than on Dell’s original AW3423DW model we reviewed, representing a sizeable upgrade in potential SDR brightness if you need it. This is thanks to the latest Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel which uses Samsung Display’s EL 3.0 material, an update from the EL 1.0 from the original AW3423DW / DWF models and EL 2.0 from the AW3425DW.
Only the most recent Gen 4 Tandem WOLED panels reach higher at this time (335 – 381 nits) . The minimum adjustment range is also very good at 24 nits, making it useable in darker room conditions.
Unfortunately there’s no option to disable the uniform brightness behaviour in SDR on this model, something that some people might like for dynamic content, gaming etc to give them a brightness boost in some situations, even at the cost of some ABL dimming.

Keep in mind also that as a result of the amazing contrast ratio of the OLED panel, the perceived brightness in SDR mode is equivalent to an approximate 530 nits LCD monitor, so that should be plenty bright enough for most users. We explained the principles behind this in our article here, and since this is a QD-OLED panel it would receive the ‘TrueBright 500’ certification tier.
SDR Performance
Default Setup
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 performance was very good though, with a consistent and reliable gamma close to 2.2 and a good RGB balance too, weighted slightly towards red and giving a slightly warm greyscale. This was very slight though and we had very good greyscale accuracy as a result.

With the full wide native wide colour gamut active here, the accuracy of sRGB colours was poor as we expected, with a dE 4.4 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 2.0 measured. This native mode is good for working with HDR content or providing a more vivid and saturated image that some people prefer, especially for gaming and multimedia. There is also good absolute coverage for Adobe RGB content, although you’d need a way to reliably clamp it back a little to more closely match that reference space.
Emulation modes
Dell 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 only have access to the brightness and contrast controls, as well as the gamma setting but there are no further options for colour temp, RGB channels etc.
sRGB emulation mode

The sRGB mode is actually configured to the similar, but slightly different sRGB gamma 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 RGB balance, resulting in a reliable colour 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 close to the sRGB reference, with only a small amount of under-coverage. 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 really well calibrated, with a gamma very close to 2.6 and 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, but accuracy was very good. 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. We also tested 2.2 gamma mode and that was equally accurate.

The native colour space is clamped back a little in this mode to remove the native over-coverage of around 8%, although it’s gone ever so slightly too far here and leaves us with a slightly reduced 97.1% absolute coverage of the DCI-P3 reference space. This was a good result though and we had very good colour accuracy now, with the only errors really being in pure red and blue where the gamut can’t quite reach the full 100% DCI-P3 coverage.
This represented a very 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.
Adobe RGB emulation
Unfortunately Dell do not offer an Adobe RGB emulation mode on this screen from the menu, which is a shame as the panel’s colour space can cover that reference nicely (97.5%). However, it extends a considerable way beyond the reference space (~116% relative coverage) and so needs to be clamped for more accurate work with Adobe RGB content, a colour space often used in the photography and professional segments. You would need your own calibration tool to be able to profile the screen to Adobe RGB.
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 moderate on this screen in the native mode with the first visible greyscale shade being RGB 5, since the luminance of these near-black shades is a little lower than the 2.2 target. The sRGB emulation mode behaves differently and thanks to its very accurately configured sRGB gamma, you can make out all near-black shades, even RGB 1. This improves shadow detail and brightens very dark scenes well.
The DCI-P3 mode had poor shadow detail by default but that is to be expected given it is configured to a 2.6 gamma instead of 2.2, which always caused black crush. If you change the gamma setting to 2.2 in this mode, it then behaves like the ‘standard’ preset.
All these results remain consistent at different refresh rates and during VRR situations, you don’t get the same variable gamma challenges on this QD-OLED panel that seem to impact all WOLED panels we’ve tested in this way so far. That’s a topic explored more in our article here.
Dark Stabilizer setting
Dell 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, raising it a little above the target but correcting the slightly dark default behaviour in dark shades. If nothing else, this seems a good option to bump up to level 1 if you’re using native mode and this brings out RGB 3 now visually which was good.
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. Level 2 now brings out RGB 2 and level 3 just about brings out RGB 1, but 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

The resolution of this screen remains unchanged from the previous 34″ models in their range, but at the standard 3440 x 1440 found for this screen size and format, it is very comfortable and provides the same pixel density (~110 PPI) as 27″ 1440p models as well. You can use this without needing to worry about OS or application scaling and it provides a sharp and clear picture which looks very good. The ultrawide format is well suited to multi-tasking and split screen work and is a nice upgrade over 16:9 models.
RGB-stripe sub-pixel layout

One of the key upgrades for this model is that this panel offers, for the first time, a true RGB stripe sub-pixel layout. This is the first modern OLED monitor panel currently available to buy from either Samsung Display or LG Display to offer this layout, shifting in the case of QD-OLED technology from the previous triangular layout to a standard RGB stripe as shown in the examples above. With Windows designed to work with that standard layout, that means finally we get perfect text rendering with none of the fringing or artefacts that have been visible on earlier QD-OLED panels, including the earlier 34″ ultrawide panels / monitors.

Samsung Display made some improvements to the sub-pixel shape over the years which helped a bit by shifting from a diamond shape to a squarer shape for instance. Both previous 34” panels had the diamond shaped sub-pixels, but other panels like the 27” and 49” options had a squarer shape. Then the introduction of higher pixel densities on their 32” 4K and especially the 27” 4K panels helped a lot too, but this shift to a normal sub-pixel arrangement helps ensure sharp, clear, artefact-free text on this new panel where the pixel density is lower still.

This 34” ultrawide panel has a 3440 x 1440 resolution still, so the same 110 PPI pixel density as previous generations of this size, but the pixel layout does a great job of improving text and overall image clarity and it looks the same now as an equivalent pixel density LCD panel. This is a key upgrade with this new panel for sure.
Screen brightness
| Brightness | |
| Maximum brightness (SDR) | 327 nits |
| Minimum brightness | 24 nits |
| Uniform brightness behaviour available | |
| Flicker free | |
| TrueBright certification tier | TrueBright 500 |
Thanks to the new QD-OLED EL3.0 material panel there’s a significant improvement in luminance for office and general applications (SDR), with the screen reaching up to 327 nits that operates with a uniform brightness behaviour which is optimal for desktop and office work to avoid any kind of ABL dimming.
- Further useful reading: Comparing OLED and LCD Brightness and Exploring Samsung Display’s TrueBright Certification
Flicker-free performance

| Flicker | |
| Flicker free verified | |
| PWM / flicker frequency | n/a |
Blue Light

| Blue light output | |
| Blue peak wavelength | 457 nm |
| Blue light portion | 26.94% |
| Low blue light modes available | |
| Low blue light mode temp | n/a |
The native panel spectral distribution is shown above at a calibrated 6500K white point, where the blue peak is at 457 nm. Dell do not offer any low blue light modes in the menu unfortunately, but there is a ‘warm’ preset mode you could potentially use for lots of text work or in the evening. That has a warmer 5957K white point but it doesn’t look overly yellow or warm which makes it quite useable.
Useful features
| Features | Notes | |
| USB type-C connectivity (DP Alt mode) | ||
| USB type-C power delivery | ||
| Daisy chaining support | ||
| KVM switch | ||
| PiP and PbP support | ||
| USB data ports | 1x USB-A and 1x USB-C | |
| Easy access USB data ports | Above ports are on bottom edge of screen | |
| Integrated speakers | ||
| Audio output / headphone out | ||
| Mic input | ||
| Integrated webcam | ||
| Ambient light sensor | ||
| Motion sensor | ||
| Stand adjustments | Tilt, height, swivel | |
| VESA mount support | 100 x 100mm | |
| Integrated power supply | ||
| Tripod socket | ||
| Firmware updates | ||
| Fan-less design |
There are a few additional features on offer here but overall it’s more limited than some other competing top-end displays in this class, although that is presumably to help keep the retail costs down. Notably there’s no USB type-C connection, KVM switch or integrated speakers which are often useful on screens like this which may be a gap for some people.

There are however a couple of easy access USB data ports and PiP/PbP support which is good news, along with a strong and stable stand with good ergonomic adjustments.
HDR

Being an OLED panel, the AW3426DW is well-equipped to handle HDR content from a hardware point of view 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 although it can’t reach the same brightness levels as that technology, although improvements have been made here with the new Penta Tandem panel and EL 3.0 material compared to earlier models of this size.
The shift to the latest EL 3.0 OLED material helps improve both panel brightness and life-span. Samsung Display have been updating their ‘Electroluminescent Layer’ every 2 years so far and it’s considered one of the significant fundamental changes between generations. EL 3.0 helps improve efficiency by more than 30%, resulting in no increase to power consumption over previous panels and no additional heat generation, which allows them to push peak brightness without any additional risk of burn-in.

That means this new monitor is certified to the VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 tier, a step up from the TB400 tier that all previous ultrawide QD-OLED panels have reached, including the earlier Dell AW3423DW / DWF and AW3425DW models. This is also the first QD-OLED panel to offer an increased peak brightness spec of 1300 nits, a 30% improvement over all previous QD-OLED monitor panels which have been stuck at 1000 nits for several years.
As we talked about earlier, the new ‘QuantumBlack Film’ also helps with perceived black depth in brighter rooms which is a welcome improvement to this new panel, although optimal performance is in a darker room still for HDR. This is one of the most welcome changes though we think with this new model.
The AW3426DW can support both HDR 10 and Dolby Vision HDR formats, the latter of which is still a quite rare feature in the OLED monitor market.

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, True Black, Peak 1300 and Peak 1300 Bright. Most settings are locked by default, including for brightness and contrast, except in the ‘Custom Color’ mode where you then have access to adjust contrast, hue and saturation – but not brightness, colour temp or RGB gain levels.
The screen can also support two HDR formats, HDR10 and Dolby Vision and you can switch between those modes in the menu depending on your input device and Dell provide a Dolby Vision on/off control too. 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. You’d need to manually disable this in the menu for a PC input as otherwise it seems to detect the signal as DV whenever you enable Window HDR.
If you’re connecting an external device like an Xbox Series X, or perhaps a streaming media device of some sort which can support Dolby Vision more readily, so you can switch to that mode here if you want to use it and the screen detects the correct HDR signal properly from those kind of devices a lot better.
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.
HDR Performance
Peak White Luminance Measurements

Peak white luminance reached up to just over the advertised 1300 nits when using the Peak 1300 / Peak 1300 Bright HDR modes, but is capped to around 537 nits when using the other modes, including the True Black 500 mode which is designed for accuracy and to pass VESA’s certification process. Those modes exhibit less dimming overall due to the more consistent, but lower brightness. While it offers accurate EOTF performance which ensures detail is retained, it’s limited in its peak brightness capability and so most people will likely want to use one of the other peak modes we think.
EOTF Measurements

We’ve provided EOTF measurements for a few of the available modes above. The True Black 500 mode follows the target EOTF more accurately in brighter scenes, although there is a bit of roll-off in mid to light shades which causes those to be a little darker than intended. This is more pronounced in the Peak 1300 mode, a common challenge on QD-OLED panels that we’ve explored a lot in the past and caused by aggressive panel dimming.
This causes the Peak 1300 mode to actually end up looking darker than the TB500 mode (and other similar options) in brighter overall HDR scenes, despite the ability to reach a higher peak luminance for dark scenes.
To try and overcome this panel dimming limitation, Dell have added an extra ‘Peak 1300 Bright’ mode which acts similarly to modes we’ve seen on competitor screens in the past, like Asus’ Dynamic Brightness Boost and MSI’s EOTF Boost modes for example. In this mode the EOTF is boosted and over-brightened in the darker, low APL scenes to try and reduce the amount of roll-off in the brighter, higher APL scenes. This does however lead to loss of detail in some situations.

To demonstrate this a little more we can compare the greyscale measurements in each Peak 1300 mode against their target shades. Each bar is divided in to two sections, the ‘actual’ measurement along the top half, and the ‘target’ for what the shade should be along the bottom half.
In the Peak 1300 mode the section highlighted in red is where the measured shades are quite noticeably daker than their targets, and this impacts overall scene brightness in real content. This is quite a noticeable difference in real world content.
In the Peak 1300 Bright mode you can see a few shades marked in red which are a little darker than intended, but not by as much. In this mode however there are also some shades highlighted in blue which are brighter than their target. This results in a brighter overall scene, but can crush some detail in some cases.

In real-scene brightness measurements you can see that in all scenes the TB500 mode actually ends up being significantly brighter than the normal Peak 1300 mode, around double the luminance in fact in all but the darkest scene. The P1300 mode can reach up to higher peak highlights in those dark scenes where needed, but the TB500 mode ends up looking visually a lot brighter in general usage and other scenes. The standard P1300 mode actually looks very dull for an HDR mode to be honest.
The ‘Peak 1300 Bright’ mode addresses this pretty well, not always reaching the same brightness as the TB500 mode but getting closer in most scenes, and around 34% lower luminance on average. Visually those two modes look more like one another, with the P1300 Bright mode able to push up to the impressive >1300 nits peak highlights where needed, unlike the TB500 mode which caps out around 537 nits. It might have been possible for Dell to push the brightness even further in the P1300 Bright mode, but only at the cost of further over-brightening of the EOTF and further loss of tonal detail, so it’s a decent balance here we think. Experiment with both modes but we think most people will prefer the ‘Peak 1300 Bright’ mode overall.
EOTF and Greyscale Measurements

Having settled on the Peak 1300 Bright mode as the preferred configuration, we measured this in a bit more detail to evaluate the greyscale accuracy and temperature. There’s a good RGB balance in HDR mode with a decent overall greyscale temp and a good white point as well which was great news. There aren’t any controls for colour temp in HDR mode but thankfully the greyscale temp is very good by default anyway and close to D65. All the other modes offered the same greyscale and RGB balance too, it’s just the EOTF and brightness capabilities that seem to vary.
Shadow detail was reasonable in HDR mode with the first visible grey shade being RGB 4. This was a little worse in the TB500 mode which showed RGB 6, so another good reason to stick with the P1300 Bright mode perhaps.
HDR Colours

The colour gamut in HDR mode was the same as in native SDR mode (no additional clamping) and we had a good match to the DCI-P3 colour space used for a lot of HDR content. Colour accuracy was very good overall with dE 0.5 average, if we ignore the 100% primaries from Rec.2020 which this panel cannot reach.
Gaming

The AW3426DW is well-suited to gaming, using an OLED panel which is well-known for its near-instant response times and excellent motion clarity capabilities at high refresh rates. It can also support HDR gaming very well with amazing blacks and contrast ratio. The semi-glossy screen coating provides a super clear and clean image although you need to be mindful of the positioning of external light sources relative to the screen to reduce reflections compared with matte AG coatings. The new QuantumBlack film helps with contrast and black depth in more well lit rooms as we discussed earlier.
Refresh Rate
| (at native resolution) | Refresh Rate |
| Maximum Refresh Rate DisplayPort | 280Hz |
| Maximum Refresh Rate USB type-C | n/a |
| Maximum Refresh Rate HDMI | 280Hz |
| VRR range | 48 – 280Hz |
| ClearMR certification tier |
The screen has a lower refresh rate (280Hz) than many other recent OLED monitors, which now offer 360 – 540Hz commonly. You will also find various 34″ ultrawide panels using the latest Gen 5 Penta Tandem QD-OLED panels with a 360Hz refresh rate, as there are two versions available from the panel manufacturer. Dell have opted to use the lower refresh rate version in a measure to offer a more attractive price point, pointing out that it’s still an upgrade over their previous 34″ displays (which were 165Hz, 175Hz and 240Hz) and likely more than adequate for most users.
This is a more mid-tier refresh rate, but it’s certainly not slow and still provides great motion clarity and frame rate support. There’s many people who don’t want or need anything higher than this, either because they’re not playing competitively, don’t play games that support super high frame rates, or don’t have a powerful enough system to drive it anyway. There’s no dual-mode support on this model either, a feature that so far has not been offered on any QD-OLED display, although there are plans to offer this in the future from new panels next year.
Variable Refresh Rates and Gaming Features
| Other Features | |
| Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support and certifications | NVIDIA G-sync Compatible AMD FreeSync Premium Pro VESA AdaptiveSync |
| OLED VRR Anti flicker | |
| Black Frame Insertion (BFI) | |
| Dual-mode support | |
| Gaming extras | FPS counter Timer Display Alignment Dark Stabilizer Alien Vision |
| Emulated gaming sizes | 25″ Esports mode |
To help support the demands of 3440 x 1440 @ 280Hz the screen features adaptive-sync, giving Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for both NVIDIA and AMD systems which is great news. It has received certifications under all the key VRR schemes as well. There are no VRR anti-flicker modes offered on this model though or Black Frame Insertion blur reduction mode unfortunately which would have been useful.

There’s various gaming extras available, including an “Esports mode” which simulates a 25″ screen size area for those who want a smaller focus area and a lower resolution for more competitive gaming situations. Once enabled, the screen auto switches to a lower resolution with 1:1 pixel mapping, running at 2368 x 1332, and offering full refresh rate support.

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 280Hz, 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, with an average of only 0.49ms G2G measured. All transitions can keep up easily with the frame rate demands, and there was also no visible overshoot evident which is great news too, so overall there was nice and clean pixel transition times as we’re used to seeing from OLED panels.
Our thanks to the following manufacturers for support in the build of our test system:
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | Buy the latest AMD CPUs here | |
| Asus ProArt B650-Creator | Buy Asus motherboards here on Amazon | |
| Corsair DDR5 RAM | Buy here on Amazon | |
![]() | Corsair H100i Elite Capellix AIO cooler | Buy Corsair coolers here on Amazon |
| Corsair iCUE RGB Elite Fans | Buy here on Amazon | |
| NVIDIA RTX 5070 | Buy NVIDIA RTX graphics cards here on Amazon |
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Motion Clarity
We captured some pursuit camera photos of the screen at it’s native 280Hz refresh rate and compared it against other modern OLED panels with lower and higher 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 as you track moving objects across the screen.

With all the recent increases in OLED refresh rates, 280Hz could arguably be considered quite “slow” nowadays in the OLED market when we have so many 360Hz, 500Hz and even 540Hz monitors being released. We’re really being spoiled now with OLED refresh rates, but 280Hz is still excellent and it provides clean and clear motion clarity which looks very good, we don’t think it should be considered slow really.
Competitive gamers may see further benefits with motion clarity in looking at faster refresh rates, but at the moment the only option above this for 34″ models is 360Hz. If you’re particularly focused on gaming and feel like you need every little advantage, then those 360Hz models might be worth looking at instead. Higher refresh rates would also offer improvements with end to end system latency, reduced stroboscopic effect and higher frame rate support.
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.

We tested the screen and found there were moderate levels of visible flicker in dark and moderate scenes. Unlike WOLED panels, the gamma is not directly tied to the frame rate on QD-OLED, and so flickering behaves a bit differently. You get consistent spikes of flicker in terms of their amplitude, but the frequency of those spikes increases as your frame rate lowers.
So, the trick with QD-OLED panels is to try and keep frame rates not only consistent but also as high as possible to reduce the frequency of any spikes. Situations where you cross the LFC boundary also cause noticeable flicker at the lower end of the refresh rate range. Dell do not offer any VRR anti-flicker settings on this monitor, but overall we wouldn’t say the flicker was too bad.
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 an extremely low lag at native refresh rate, measured at ~0.86 ms total display lag, and leaving us with only ~0.74 ms of estimated signal processing lag which is basically nothing and is perfectly fine for competitive gaming situations. There’s a little bit more at 120Hz (3.0ms) but 60Hz is a bit slower still (8.25ms) which is normal for most screens. The ‘Esports mode’ when simulating a 25″ screen size didn’t seem to add any additional lag, we measured the same at 280Hz as the native aspect ratio which was good news.
Console Gaming

The screen has a native 3440 x 1440 resolution panel, but can accept a “virtual 4K” input signal, allowing for wide support of modern games consoles. Importantly this allows for HDR support from an Xbox Series X which can only run in HDR mode at 4K.
| Console Gaming | |
| Native panel resolution | 3440 x 1440 |
| Maximum resolution and refresh rate supported | 4K @ 120Hz |
| Virtual 4K support | |
| 4K at 24Hz support | HDR10 mode only |
| 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 | |
| Display aspect ratio controls for 16:9 | |
| Black Frame Insertion (BFI) support | |
| Integrated speakers | |
| Headphone connection | |
| Ultra high speed HDMI 2.1 cable provided |
Because this screen has an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio you need to first enable the ‘Auto’ aspect ratio control in the menu to avoid the image being stretched. You also need to switch the ‘console mode’ setting on in the game menu, otherwise the screen won’t accept a Virtual 4K input signal. You could set your console to 1440p if you’re using a PS5, but from an Xbox Series X you need to set it to 4K to be able to use HDR at all.
We confirmed via an Xbox Series X that 4K 120Hz works fine along with features like VRR and ALLM. The screen can support both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR content, although for the latter you will need to enable the option in the menu and then have relevant content which supports it. The screen does seem to be able to correctly detect which HDR content is being sent to it from a console which is good news, so it will only use DV mode where appropriate. We spotted one odd bug which we’ve reported to Dell which was that when DV is enabled in the OSD menu, 24Hz 4K content is not supported (applicable for some movies perhaps), but if you disable DV mode it appears again.
One interesting option in console mode is a setting for ‘source tone-map’ which can be enabled for HBR10 signals and will operate more reliably with HGiG content, taking the tone mapping information from the source device itself.
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 to the console itself. There’s also no headphone connection, audio output or HDMI eARC sound here. That’s one potential gap for the AW3426DW if you’re looking to play console games or connect other external devices but that’s one of the few things it’s missing. The other is a BFI mode, which could have been useful for 120Hz devices perhaps to improve motion clarity.

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.
[View here]
Conclusion
The AW3426DW is a very good screen and offers a great set of improvements and updates in Dell’s popular 34″ ultrawide OLED range. If you’ve been eyeing up a new 34″ OLED then it’s definitely worth considering this new model, with notable improvements in brightness, contrast, text clarity, and to a lesser extent, refresh rate. It’s hard to say that anyone should upgrade from an existing 34″ OLED screen, unless they’re experiencing a specific problem or missing a feature that this new model addresses, but it’s great to see a wide range of improvements on offer from this new display.
The new RGB-stripe pixel layout especially offers significant improvements in text clarity and make the screen far more suited to office and general work alongside the usual gaming and multimedia use-cases. The QuantumBlack film is a positive step forward as well for contrast on QD-OLED panels, and combined with the new, brighter panel, it offers an impressive experience for SDR and HDR.
The AW3426DW offers the usual strong factory calibration and high levels of accuracy and configuration we’ve come to expect from Dell’s monitors, including a very good sRGB mode. There’s great motion clarity, response times, lag and console support for gaming. HDR is also impressive and Dell have created a decent mode to overcome panel dimming challenges without pushing it too aggressively, and making the most of the TB500 panel and increased peak brightness the new panel offers. Alongside the support for both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR content (still very rare), there’s solid HDR support from this new model.
Some people might be disappointed with the lack of some features you can find elsewhere, most notably USB type-C connectivity, a KVM switch, BFI blur reduction mode, VRR anti-flicker settings and audio extras. It even has a very limited set of OLED Care settings and controls by today’s standards. Likewise some people may be disappointed that it’s “only” 280Hz, when 360Hz competitors are already available. But all of these have been cut back in favour of offering a more mainstream and competitive price point, and that’s probably going to be fine for many users still.
The Alienware AW3426DW is being released today in US at a price of $799.99 USD, and it was released a couple of weeks ago in the UK (£709 GBP) and Europe (€809 Euro) as well, so it should be quite widely available to order now. You can check latest pricing and availability for your region using our affiliate link above.
The price point is certainly competitive in this segment. By comparison Asus’ PG34WCDN retails for $1,299 USD and MSI’s MPG 341CQR X36 retails for a more modest $949 USD at the time of writing. Dell’s ~$800 price point is bound to attract many buyers who are looking for a better price point. If you’re happy that you won’t really need the higher refresh rate, and don’t particularly need some of the omitted features then this makes it very compelling.

| Pros | Cons |
| Penta Tandem QD-OLED panel offers a good range of upgrades and improvements | Missing some features on competing models like USB type-C, KVM switch, BFI blur reduction |
| RGB-stripe pixel layout offers great text clarity and resolves text fringing problems from earlier generations | Lower refresh rate than competing 360Hz models |
| Improved brightness in both SDR and HDR usage | OLED Care options are limited although there is a good warranty |
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