Alienware launches $350 QD-OLED monitor with lower brightness to cut costs

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In brief: Monitor manufacturers are clearly trying to expand the potential user base for OLED and QD-OLED displays. Dell's gaming brand, Alienware, has now pushed pricing and acceptable brightness levels to new lows in an effort to further popularize their QD-OLED monitor lineup.

Alienware makes some of the best gaming monitors on the market, though they are not necessarily the cheapest. Now, the Dell-owned brand is taking a different approach by introducing a more affordable QD-OLED monitor with some unusual trade-offs in its hardware specifications. Getting a modern OLED panel for under $500 may be worth the compromise, however, so the new monitor could still prove to be a popular choice.

The newly launched Alienware AW2726DM is a 27-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor featuring a QHD (2,560 × 1,440) resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. Based on Samsung's Quantum Dot OLED panel technology, the AW2726DM offers a pixel density of 111 PPI, a 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, a 1.5 million:1 contrast ratio, and 10-bit color depth.

Like many other Alienware displays, the AW2726DM provides extensive adjustability, including tilt, rotation, height, and swivel. The monitor also comes with a three-year warranty and several features designed to reduce OLED burn-in risk, including Dell's AI-based pixel management algorithm and a graphite film heatsink.

Dell's latest supports AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync technologies to reduce screen tearing and smooth gameplay. Connectivity options include two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 input, although the full 240Hz refresh rate is only available over DisplayPort. The monitor also features a 200 cd/m² brightness level in SDR mode, which is noticeably lower than many other 27-inch QD-OLED displays on the market.

This relatively low brightness specification could also impact peak brightness in HDR mode, although Alienware states that the monitor fully supports HDR10 content. Additionally, there is no official support for any G-Sync-compatible mode, a feature I now consider essential when choosing a new monitor.

Is 200 nits really too low for a capable OLED monitor that could serve as a daily driver for both gaming and office work? My current monitor, an Alienware AW2721D Fast IPS model, reaches 600 cd/m² brightness, so I suspect I would not find the AW2726DM particularly comfortable to use. The debate is still ongoing.

However, the AW2726DM's real advantage is its price. Dell is currently selling the monitor for $350, meaning it could soon drop even further through third-party retailers such as Amazon.

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Alienware launches $350 QD-OLED monitor with lower brightness to cut costs

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Releasing a low brightness OLED is completely missing the point. Like selling a 5090 with 512 MB of memory.

 

[NumberNine]

One dollar per nit is the best I can do. Better yet, I'll give ya "up to" one dollar per nit.

 

[guillejp]

I'd be fine since I use my monitor at a pretty low brightness...

 

[Starfals]

Old OLED tech is just meh, this is one reason why nobody wants second hand or 1-2 or even 3 gen OLEDs... brightness is low, missing features... fixes... meh. Its a tech work in progress. Reminds me of early access games. Better to wait and buy something more feature full. This last gen seems to be fixing alot of issues. Might be finally worth getting. Black levels, low refections, high brightness... RGB text... the list goes on and on.

VRR flicker fix too.

 

[cfenton]

As long as peak HDR brightness is decent, 200 nits of full screen SDR brightness isn't too bad. I do color and brightness sensitive work on my monitor, so it runs at 150nits most of the time. It obviously won't overcome direct sunlight, but it's a desktop monitor so it shouldn't have to.

 

[poshflamingos]

Releasing a low brightness OLED is completely missing the point. Like selling a 5090 with 512 MB of memory.

Eh, it's not that bad. It says it's 200 nits in SDR, so I'm assuming brightness in smaller 10%/1% windows for HDR highlights is higher.
This would be the perfect monitor for me. I use my monitors in an office that's dark all day and night, and I have eye strain headache issues, so I keep brightness as low as I can. My main IPS monitor is literally at "0" brightness most of the time, which iirc is about 100 nits for this model. It won't give you the eye-searing HDR highlights of 1000+ nits monitors, but given my usecase and headache issues, I'm fine with that.
If you want maximum spectacle, sure, buy something else. But this isn't a bad option to exist at $350, you still get all the other benefits of OLED (black levels/contrast, motion clarity, colour volume, the joy of trying to minimize burn-in, etc).

 

[Watzupken]

200 nits is ok for indoor use, but is still going to be quite dim. I would think this monitor is not going to be suitable for general use, I.e. doing work, browsing web, etc. With proper HDR, it should be more suited for games and movies.

 

[trgz]

Good to hear, though I'll probably never buy one, as I pretty well have run every monitor I've had (since a CRT) at the lowest settings available

 

[Pastuch]

Tons of brightness for me

 

[toooooot]

Very interesting product. I really want to see it side by side with a typical 700 bucks 2k OLED monitor.
If it is not much worse, it could be a hit like that cheap MacTop Neo

 

[Puiu]

I find even 300 nits to be not good but "workable", anything under just makes my eyes hurt even indoors with proper lighting.

 

[RaXelliX]

Old OLED tech is just meh, this is one reason why nobody wants second hand or 1-2 or even 3 gen OLEDs... brightness is low, missing features... fixes... meh. Its a tech work in progress. Reminds me of early access games. Better to wait and buy something more feature full. This last gen seems to be fixing alot of issues. Might be finally worth getting. Black levels, low refections, high brightness... RGB text... the list goes on and on.

VRR flicker fix too.

It's not old. It's the the same panel tech that's on the market with 1440p 240Hz models that already cost as little as 370. Granted 350 is slightly cheaper still, but it's not like OLED's were 1000 and now here comes a 350 one.

And if you want someone to blame for this panel not supporting the latest advancement then ask Samsung why they haven't ported these advancements to their 1440p 27" panels yet. The last update to those was with the release of 500Hz panel last year and the new advancements are thus far limited to 4K and UW models.

Very interesting product. I really want to see it side by side with a typical 700 bucks 2k OLED monitor.
If it is not much worse, it could be a hit like that cheap MacTop Neo

Why 700?

OLED's have been trending down already and some models launched at 500 now cost below 400 already.

As for the whole brightness thing - this is a budget OLED. No one expects high brightness from this. Well aside from whiners on forums it seems.