Alienware AW2725Q Review

Introduction

The Alienware AW2725Q is part of a new generation of QD-OLED monitors, coming as part of the 2025 canon of 27-inch 4K 240Hz options that benefits from Samsung’s new fourth gen panel.

It isn’t much of an improvement over the 2023 models in terms of raw features, but essentially brings the powers of 32-inch 4K 240Hz options, such as the Philips Evnia 32M2N8900 and Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (2024), to a smaller panel with the same rich detail and exemplary responsiveness.

Coming with sleek looks, a bumper port selection and the benefit of multiple HDR standards, including Dolby Vision, it makes sense that the AW2725Q is by no means cheap. It’s priced at $899.99, which is expensive, but competitive against its contemporaries.

I’ve been testing this panel for the last two weeks to see if it’s the best gaming monitor we’ve tested – let’s take a closer look.

Design

• Sleek, modern looks
• Decent stand adjustment
• Lots of useful ports

The AW2725Q comes with typically Alienware looks, with a sleek, curved chassis. It’s a more modern take on the brand’s signature space-age design, and looks fantastic. Against last year’s AW3225QF, this smaller choice sports a black colourway, complete with a bulged out rear to house its revamped ventilation and cooling. It also comes with an illuminated Alienware logo that can be controlled in software.

It’s also easy to assemble, with no tools required. The base simply screws into the stand itself, while the AW2725Q’s slots into place with a clip. It’s all secure and sturdy, while offering solid adjustment with height adjust, tilt and swivel. You don’t get any portrait orientation, unfortunately.

With this in mind, Alienware says they’ve made the base of this monitor smaller than some older models to make it easier to put on a desk. While this isn’t something I’d usually touch on, it is quite a small base, and doesn’t impede on my large desk mat. Monitors of all sizes can have this trouble, and it makes the AW2725Q a good choice if you’ve got a smaller, or shallower, desk.

The AW2725Q impresses with its vast selection of inputs that has a few tricks up its sleeve. You get the benefit of two HDMI 2.1 FRL ports for the full 4K 240Hz experience, while one of them comes with eARC capabilities if you want to hook up external speakers or a soundbar. It also comes with a DisplayPort, as well as a three port USB-A hub controlled by the USB-B port, while further forwards is a USB-C port that can provide up to 15W of power delivery.

That’s quite a lot of ports, and one of the more modern accompaniments I’ve seen on a monitor in recent times. If I’m being nitpicky though, the likes of the MSI MPG 321URX and Philips Evnia 32M2N8900 can offer a more potent USB-C connection with Thunderbolt 4 powers and up to 90W of power delivery and KVM functionality, too.

Image Quality

• Truly sublime responsiveness and detail
• Deep blacks and gorgeous contrast
• Peak SDR brightness is a little lacking

Just looking at the spec sheet, it’s fair to say that the AW2725Q comes with rather high expectations with regards to its image quality. After all, as a 2025 model with the new 4th Gen Samsung QD-OLED panel inside, as well as a 4K resolution and 240Hz refresh rate, it’s the true cream of the crop.

Let’s not beat around the bush then – this Alienware screen is truly sublime. The combination of a 4K resolution for immense detail and a 240Hz refresh rate for obscenely smooth motion is fantastic. Combined with the deep blacks and gorgeous contrast you get with a QD-OLED screen, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better viewing experience on a monitor of its size.

This became apparent when running through everything from the high-intensity Counter-Strike 2 where the 240Hz refresh rate came into its own for responsive input in a shooter, while even more cinematic titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Indiana Jones & The Great Circle in all of their ray-traced glory looked brilliant with punchy, detailed images.

This is also backed up by the addition of my colorimeter for testing, with it measuring a 0.01 black level to signify just how deep and inky they are, while an 18690:1 contrast ratio gives it some fantastic dynamic range. There is a great assortment of HDR standards supported by the AW2725Q for even more punch in supported content, with DisplayHDR True Black 400, HDR10 and Dolby Vision all present.

Being a QD-OLED screen also means the colours here are virtually perfect. I measured 100% of the sRGB space and 99% and 91% of the more specialist DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB gamuts respectively. This aids the AW2725Q’s case in being especially well-suited to both productivity and increasingly specialist workloads, such as photo or video editing.

VRR support is also plentiful, with this Alienware screen supporting Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and even VESA Adaptive-Sync. This means that whatever GPU you’re using, you won’t experience any screen tearing or juddering for a smooth experience.

The movement to a new 4th-gen Samsung QD-OLED panel provides only a small improvement over the 3rd-gen ones fitted to the 2024 32-inch 4K 240Hz QD-OLED models, but it’s a nonetheless important one. Essentially, it brings even higher pixel density for even better clarity than previous models, to the point Alienware is claiming that the AW2725Q has the world’s highest pixel density in a QD-OLED monitor. To be precise, it’s 166ppi – that’s especially high, and results in some wonderful detail whether you’re gaming or dealing with productivity workloads.

The only area where this Alienware panel falls down, as other rivals do, is with its SDR brightness. OLEDs don’t typically get as bright as its Mini LED rivals, for instance, at least in SDR workloads. My colorimeter measures a peak of 246.4 nits, which hits Alienware’s typical target of 250 nits. Nonetheless, it can get up to 1000 nits peak brightness in a 3% window for truly impactful HDR performance in supported content.

Software and Features

• Comprehensive OSD menus
• No speakers

The AW2725Q’s OSD is controlled by the small joystick that protrudes out of the bottom of the middle of the monitor, making it to easy to navigate through menus. At first glance, the OSD is quite basic, with features for on-screen crosshairs, game modes, brightness, contrast and more.

However, if you push upwards with the joystick, it brings you into a much deeper set of menus where you can set everything from HDR standards to game modes and more. It’s one of the most feature-rich OSDs I’ve come across in quite a long time.

As is becoming even more common with monitors up and down the price ladder, the AW2725Q doesn’t come with any speakers. While I’d usually lament this decision, the fact is that one of the HDMI 2.1 ports on this screen supports eARC, which means you can plug a soundbar into it, as you would a television.

Should you buy it?