Alienware 32 4K OLED (AW3226Q) Review

Design

• Grown-up Alienware looks
• Meagre stand adjustment
• Okay port selection

The AW3226Q carries a similar look to some of Alienware’s more recent, and indeed pricier, options, such as the Alienware AW2725Q, meaning it’s got more of a grown-up and almost minimalistic finish against the Alienware styling of old. There are rounded corners on the base and around the back, plus a large Alienware logo on the front so you know exactly what you’re dealing with.

Assembly is nice and easy with the flat base screwing into the stand, which clips into the back of the monitor. The flat base is a pleasant addition, making it easier to stand items on, such as my Sonos Beam soundbar, and meaning this screen takes up less space on a desk than a monitor with more conventional V-shaped legs.

The rear of the stand houses a wide cubby for routing cables through for easy management, which is a pleasant touch. With this in mind, there isn’t much scope for adjustment against some rivals, with tilt, swivel and height adjustment on offer. You don’t get any form of rotation for this screen to go into a portrait orientation.

As for ports, we’ve got a single DP 1.4 and a pair of HDMI 2.1 (with one supporting eARC for soundbar or speaker hookups) ports on the underside, alongside a 3.5mm jack, a USB-B port for powering the USB hub and a USB-A. 

On the underside of the front of the AW3226Q, you’ll spot another USB-A and USB-C port, the latter of which provides up to 15W of power delivery for charging a phone. There isn’t a KVM switch or any higher-wattage USB-C ports on offer, though. This feels a little more modest than some other screens, but it’s adequate for the price 

Image Quality

• Dazzling tandem OLED screen
• Deep blacks and lovely contrast
• Refresh rate isn’t as strong as dearer rivals

The AW3226Q is a prime example of how more advanced monitor tech is trickling down to more affordable means at long last, with it being built around one of LG Display’s latest Tandem W-OLED panels, complete with an RGB-stripe subpixel layout.

If that all sounds like gobbledygook, then let me break it down for you. A tandem OLED screen stacks layers of OLED panels atop one another to yield higher brightness figures. We’ve seen them fitted to everything from TVs to the latest iPad Pro models, as well as laptops and more monitors in recent times.

The RGB-stripe subpixel layout changes how the red, green, and blue dots are arranged inside the OLED screen, moving them to a more uniform stripe to help improve text clarity, remove fringing and also increase colour volume. Text is certainly especially legible on this Alienware panel, and with a 140ppi pixel density, it proves itself to be a solid productivity monitor.

Detail-wise, we’ve got a lovely 4K resolution across a larger 32-inch screen, making this a dead cert for more cinematic titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 in my testing. That said, this is also a screen that’s happy with more competitive, fast-paced titles such as Counter-Strike 2.

The 165Hz refresh rate provides some smooth motion, although it’s the one area where the AW3226Q skimps a smidgen against some dearer rivals that offer upwards of 240Hz.

My trusty colorimeter also measured this Alienware screen to have virtually perfect colour accuracy, with 100% sRGB coverage, as well as 99% DCI-P3 and 89% Adobe RGB. This means this panel can display all the mainstream colours needed for gaming and productivity workloads perfectly, as well as offer fantastic coverage of colours needed for more colour-sensitive workloads.

It also measured a deep black level of just 0.01, as well as a fantastic contrast ratio of 9050:1, meaning this Alienware monitor has marvellous dynamic range. It’s perhaps to be expected from a tandem W-OLED screen such as this one, although it nonetheless makes films, games and more wonderful to look at.

As with more standard OLEDs though, the peak SDR brightness isn’t too impressive, which is arguably its only weak point. My colorimeter measured a peak of just 249.8 nits – that said, it is virtually on the money against Alienware’s claimed 250 nits of peak SDR brightness. HDR is upwards of 1000 nits in a 3% window, according to the manufacturer.

VRR support is plentiful, with the AW3226Q supporting AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and is also Nvidia G-Sync-compatible. This means that whatever GPU you’re using, you won’t experience any screen tearing or juddering for a smooth experience. HDR support includes the more advanced Dolby Vision found on other Alienware screens for impactful highlights, as well as the more basic VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400.

Software and Features

• Comprehensive OSD menus
• No speakers

The AW3226Q’s OSD is controlled by the small joystick that protrudes from the bottom centre of the monitor, making it 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,  even including a dedicated eSports mode that’s enabled by default and a range of other presets.

You can also enable HDMI CEC for mirrored power states, so if you’re using this with a console or a Steam Machine, turning the system on will automatically turn the monitor on, too.

As is becoming even more common with monitors up and down the price ladder, the AW3226Q 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?