Alienware 27 QD-OLED (AW2726DM) Review: A $350 Winner

This benignant of QD-OLED arranges pixels successful a mode that’s antithetic from LCD, which tin origin issues erstwhile viewing tiny text. You whitethorn announcement “color fringing” disposable arsenic an unusual burst of greenish oregon purple filling the antagonistic abstraction betwixt letters.

The AW2726DM conscionable isn’t a crisp display, and it’s not large for viewing tiny text. As mentioned, it has a solution of 2560 x 1440—or 1440p. This provides a pixel density of astir 110 pixels per inch. By comparison, a modular 27-inch 4K show delivers astir 165 pixels per inch.

However, sticking to 1440p feels similar the close telephone for a show astatine this terms point. As PC gamers apt know, expanding a game’s render solution from 1440p to 4K comes with a immense show penalty, and midrange GPUs conflict to grip demanding games astatine 4K.

Still, it’s QD-OLED, and each QD-OLED panels person 2 things going for them: Incredible opposition and superb colour performance.

You mightiness beryllium acquainted with OLED’s opposition vantage if you’ve bought a TV sometime this decade. OLED pixels are self-emissive, meaning the pixels themselves make light. That’s antithetic from an LCD panel, which requires a backlight that shines done the pixels. OLED’s self-emissive exertion provides a batch much power implicit however the representation is lit, and the effect is an representation with acold much opposition and extent than what LCD tin achieve.

Samsung’s QD-OLED besides uses quantum dots, a precise chill tech that requires its ain nonfiction to explain. Quantum dots mostly supply large color, and the AW2726DM is nary exception, arsenic it reaches 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 94 percent of AdobeRGB. Those numbers are adjacent to the apical of what’s disposable from immoderate show successful 2026, careless of price.

In the existent world, the opposition and colour construe to a vivid, realistic representation with a consciousness of extent you won’t find from LCD alternatives. Games mostly look colorful, rich, and alluring.

Brightness Gets the Boot

While the AW2726DM’s representation prime is good, it makes 1 large sacrifice to execute a little price. It’s not precise bright.

Alienware lists the AW2726DM’s maximum brightness astatine 200 nits. My reappraisal illustration was conscionable supra that with a sustained maximum SDR brightness of 202 nits. For comparison, a much costly OLED show (like the MSI MPG 271QR X50) tin present 300 nits oregon more. I mostly utilized the show astatine astir 60 percent of its maximum brightness, arsenic the country wherever I presumption it doesn’t person overmuch nonstop sunlight. However, I had to up the brightness to 100 percent successful highest day prima if I near my curtains open.

The debased SDR brightness has implications for HDR performance, too. The AW2726DM supports HDR, but it’s not VESA HDR–certified, and it promises conscionable 400 nits of highest HDR brightness. In my testing, HDR brightness was nary higher than SDR erstwhile the full show was lit, and I recorded a maximum imaginable brightness of 398 nits erstwhile conscionable 10 percent of the show was lit. For comparison, starring OLED monitors tin present implicit 300 nits full-screen and implicit 1,000 nits successful the 10 percent window. The AW2726DM tin look brighter successful HDR than successful SDR, but gamers who bask a batch of HDR titles volition find the show underwhelming.