Final 12 months, producers launched loads of new 27-inch OLED gaming screens. Choices just like the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG, the MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED, and the Alienware AW2725DF 360Hz QD-OLED had been a few of 2024’s standouts, and so they all have one factor in frequent aside from their display dimension: a QHD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) decision. With that in thoughts, the primary OLED gaming monitor we have examined for 2025 ups the decision ante. It is the Alienware AW2725Q ($899), a 27-inch 4K monitor with a QD-OLED display, providing the very best pixel density on an OLED monitor of this dimension. It is a wonderful panel, however whereas the improved decision and better density would possibly win over players who have not but switched to OLED, the adjustments aren’t grand sufficient to warrant a near-$1,000 improve for many who have. In addition to, regardless of the decrease decision, the Editors’ Selection-award-winning AW2725DF gives a better refresh price and a decrease asking worth, a trade-off that we predict most players will probably be pleased with.
The AW2725Q is the primary gaming monitor to flaunt Alienware’s new design language, which features a rounded-off sq. base (versus the diamond-shaped stand of the earlier 27-incher), improved cable administration, and a brand new colour scheme (Interstellar Indigo) that offers it a bluish-purple glow. It weighs in at 14.9 kilos with the stand and measures 20.3 by 24 by 2.8 inches (HWD) with the stand arm totally prolonged.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The stand-design change is a shock to me, as I’ve discovered that sq. stands is perhaps limiting for some hard-core {and professional} players who use the angular stands of screens just like the Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor (AW2524HF) to anchor their keyboards. Maybe this alteration dovetails with the drop in refresh price. Whereas the AW2725DF has a 360Hz refresh price, the AW2725Q tops out at 240Hz. In fact, 240Hz is to not be scoffed at, particularly given this can be a 4K panel, however the very highest refresh charges have a tendency to draw critical players, so they won’t have an interest on this monitor to start with.
The stand apart, this monitor has ample tilt, peak, and swivel changes on the prepared. Turning the monitor round, you’ll spot the brand new AW30 “glyph” iconography, celebrating Alienware’s thirtieth anniversary. (Technically, it is somewhat early; Alienware was based in 1996, making the corporate 28 years outdated.) Curiously, the glyph doesn’t shine with AlienFX lighting—solely the Alienware brand does.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Options and Connectivity: A Dense-Dotted OLED
On the rear of the AW2725Q, you’ll discover two HDMI 2.1 ports (one in all which helps eArc for sound), a DisplayPort, a USB Kind-B upstream connector, two USB Kind-A ports, and a safety lock slot. Away from the port hub, tucked underneath the sting of the display itself, you’ll discover one other USB-A port and a USB-C port that helps energy supply of as much as 15 watts. This mannequin lacks built-in audio system and does not provide a headphone jack.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Turning to the show itself, we discover a attractive expanse of OLED that has a graphite-film heatsink inside its panel layers to assist dissipate warmth and forestall burn-in. Alienware additionally injects the monitor with some AI performance. (Cue the groans.) Whereas some AI chatbots pry in your private information and vacuum up copyrighted materials, the AI implementation right here is pretty innocuous. Alienware claims an enhanced AI algorithm regulates {the electrical} present on a per-pixel foundation to keep up picture uniformity and lengthen show well being over time.
AI has discovered its method into screens earlier than. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8, for one, used Samsung’s NQ8 AI Gen3 processor to upscale streamed motion pictures and video games to near-4K decision, and each the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED and the MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED supplied an AI Imaginative and prescient mode that robotically adjusted total brightness and colours to the content material on the display.
Alienware claims that the AW2725Q gives the very best pixel density on a QD-OLED monitor of this dimension. At 166 pixels per inch (ppi), it is larger than the 111ppi of the AW2725DF and the 140ppi of the AW3225QF. (Larger pixel density tends to contribute to raised picture high quality, all different elements being equal.)
It’s straightforward to suppose that the bump from 2K decision to 4K is the place Alienware discovered the additional pixels, however the firm credit an ultra-precise QD-OLED printing course of that employs quantum dot “ink” sprayed via micro nozzles in micrometer sizes. However does that larger density come throughout in precise day-to-day use? The reality is that whereas the picture high quality is gorgeous, you’d be hard-pressed to note the distinction and not using a side-by-side comparability with a lower-density monitor, and even then, it’s exhausting to inform. It is best appreciated if you happen to’re coming from a 27-inch OLED just like the Corsair Xeneon 27QHD240 OLED, which gives a decrease decision and a decrease pixel density. Should you’ve already been utilizing a 4K OLED monitor (like I’ve), the variations will probably be notably exhausting to note.
Testing the Alienware AW2725Q: Close to-Flawless Coloration
We examined the AW2725Q’s colour gamut, brightness, and colour accuracy utilizing Calman monitor calibration software program, a Murideo Six-G sign generator, and a Klein Okay-10A colorimeter. We additionally ran the monitor via a gauntlet of video games to measure enter lag and choose its real-world efficiency.
First, we examined the brightness with the monitor’s default image mode over an SDR sign. Below these situations, it noticed a mean brightness of simply 275 nits (candelas per sq. meter), although that is brighter than what we recorded on final 12 months’s OLED Alienware screens. Switching over to HDR, we measured 445 nits of brightness whereas utilizing the Commonplace preset profile with the HDR Peak 1000 setting. That is barely above the monitor’s VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification.
OLED screens don’t must get very vivid as a result of they will preserve distinction at decrease brightness ranges, so the image will all the time look vibrant in low-light settings like gaming dens, even when the measured brightness appears low. As compared, IPS panels can usually attain 500 nits or extra. Nonetheless, their distinction ratios are far decrease, and a decrease distinction ratio on a monitor can have an effect on the perceived brightness by making blacks look washed out.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Like earlier Alienware OLEDs, the AW2725Q touts a rated 1,000 nits of peak brightness in HDR. We measured a peak brightness of 1,064 nits at a 2% pattern dimension. (We measure sustained HDR brightness at a ten% window dimension, however to measure peak brightness, we drop the take a look at dimension all the way down to 2%. Why? As a result of OLED shows grow to be brighter because the take a look at patch dimension will get smaller.) Nonetheless, few scenes in video video games and flicks have highlights reaching this peak measurement.
Transferring from brightness to paint gamut efficiency, we see the OLED panel proceed to shine. It spanned 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, 94% of Adobe RGB, and 98% of DCI-P3 in our checks. These are glorious numbers, although barely under these we recorded from the AW3225QF and the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Coloration accuracy was a knockout, because the monitor recorded a wonderful Delta E measurement of 0.7. The upper the Delta E, the extra the colours are inclined to stray from their meant hue. A price underneath 1 is right, although only a few gaming screens attain it, particularly out of the field.
The AW2725DF is rated for a peak distinction ratio of 1,500,000:1. (Distinction ratio signifies the distinction in luminance between the brightest white and the darkest black {that a} monitor can produce.) It makes a distinction in image high quality, particularly throughout darkish scenes in video games. A ratio this wildly excessive is par for the course for OLED panels, nevertheless it’s not terribly significant as a comparability; it is simply inflated by the way in which OLEDs produce black tones. What’s necessary to notice about sky-high distinction ratios like these is that they signify a show’s skill to provide completely deep blacks alongside vivid whites, leading to improved picture high quality in each mild and darkish scenes. In distinction, IPS panels usually characteristic distinction ratios of 1,000:1 to three,000:1, in order you’ll be able to think about, they don’t actually provide the identical quantity of vary. (However you additionally should not count on a 500x-to-1,500x enchancment in visible distinction, because the numbers counsel, both.)
Recreation and Media Efficiency
We’ve discovered glorious colour vary packed away within the AW2725Q, however as a gaming monitor initially, crucial metric for some buyers would be the enter lag. To measure the monitor’s enter lag, we use an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix; we additionally play a handful of video games from our library to verify for any noticeable blemishes, like display tearing. Utilizing the HDFury, we recorded lower than 1 millisecond (ms) of enter lag for the AW2725DF at default settings.
The AW2725Q does cap the refresh price to 240Hz, down from the 360Hz supplied by the AW2725DF, however that does not take a lot away from the monitor’s total efficiency. A lightning-fast response time and a 240Hz refresh price ought to eradicate any potential ghosting. On the similar time, Nvidia G-Sync Appropriate, AMD FreeSync Premium Professional, and VESA AdaptiveSync certifications ship tear- and stutter-free movement with any of at the moment’s graphics playing cards.
We spent a while operating Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Name of Obligation: Black Ops 6, and Returnal on the monitor to see if there have been any important blemishes we may spot. All in all, the video games seemed unbelievable, although we couldn’t assist however want the monitor had been somewhat brighter in sure scenes.
Verdict: Otherworldly Pixel Density, Stratospheric Value
The AW2725Q manages to slip in underneath $1,000. Whereas nonetheless costly in a macro sense for a 27-inch panel, it’s akin to many 4K OLED screens. Nonetheless, you’ll find cheaper alternate options. Although not an OLED, the Alienware 27-Inch 4K Twin-Decision Gaming Monitor (AW2725QF), a 4K/180Hz monitor with a 1080p/360Hz mode, is $499, whereas the bigger Alienware AW3225QF 4K QD-OLED has been discounted to as little as $899.
Whereas we’re impressed with what the AW2725Q gives, it’s exhausting to suggest it as an improve if you have already got a fairly modern gaming monitor. Should you already use a 32-inch 4K OLED for gaming, you may discover the leap in pixel density much less spectacular and possibly not well worth the step down in dimension. So the Editors’ Selection-winning AW2725DF 360Hz QD-OLED, which gives a better refresh price and is steadily discounted to as little as $699, stays our prime choose on this class. You even have loads of alternate options if you happen to search a barely bigger monitor, just like the AW3225QF or the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM.
We suggest the AW2725Q if you happen to’ve but to improve to an OLED gaming monitor, or if you happen to worth visible constancy foremost and do not wish to sacrifice an excessive amount of desk house. Below these situations, if you happen to’ve received the money and also you’re out there for the most recent and best 27-inch monitor, the pixel-dense AW2725Q is a troublesome gaming show to beat.
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About Zackery Cuevas
Analyst, {Hardware}
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