Alienware AW3226DM Review

Design

• Grown-up Alienware looks
• Meagre stand adjustment
• Solid ports for the price

The AW3226DM 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 round 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, with just height adjustment and tilt on offer. You don’t get any form of rotation or swivel.

As for ports, we’ve got a single DP 1.4 and a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports on the underside, and that’s about it in that section. On the underside of the front of the AW3226DM, you’ll spot a 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. A handy benefit here is that one of the HDMI ports can act as an eARC port for hooking this screen up to a soundbar or a set of speakers that supports eARC, as you would to a TV or AV receiver.

Image Quality

• Detail not quite as sharp as more conventional rivals
• Smooth refresh rate and immense brightness
• Middling black level and contrast ratio

The AW3226DM features an easier-to-drive 1440p (or 2560×1440) resolution across a larger 32-inch screen, providing some solid image quality, although it is a little lacking in sharpness against 27-inch 1440p or 32-inch 4K choices, which are a little more conventional.

The high 240Hz refresh rate also helps responsiveness in everything from cinematic titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, to quicker-paced eSports titles where that refresh rate becomes more useful, such as Counter-Strike 2 and Dirt Rally 2.0.  

Brightness-wise, we’re seeing a peak of 529.6 nits, which keeps images punchy and vibrant. There is also some more advanced HDR support, with DisplayHDR 400 and even Dolby Vision present, and with that peak brightness in mind, it should lead to some impactful results.

The AW3226DM features a VA panel, providing traditionally better contrast than IPS screens, with my colorimeter measuring a peak 2010:1 ratio at peak brightness. This comes alongside a reasonable black level of 0.14 out of the box, rising to 0.26 at peak. It’s fine, although not as good as IPS panels I’ve tested.

As for colour accuracy, my colorimeter measured a perfect 100% coverage of the sRGB colour space, meaning this screen displays all the mainstream colours needed for gaming and productivity workloads perfectly. For more colour-sensitive workloads, this panel could conceivably be used, with 88% DCI-P3 and 83% Adobe RGB coverage being above the requisite 80 percent measurement, although you’d be better off with a screen that’s designed for that purpose, rather than a gaming one.

Variable refresh rate support comes in both AMD FreeSync and the brand-agnostic VESA Adaptive Sync, meaning the AW3226DM comes with a tear and stutter-free experience with GPUs from both Team Red and Team Green, theoretically.

Software and Features

• Comprehensive OSD menus
• No speakers

The AW3226DM’s OSD is controlled by the small joystick that protrudes from the bottom of the middle 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 console mode that ensures full compatibility with Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox systems. Intriguingly, it caps the refresh rate to 120Hz, but allows a 4K signal to be received that’s then downsampled to 1440p. 

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 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?