I bought Dell's AW3225QF Alienware monitor- and it changed my PC experience
Dell's AW3423DWF is probably one of the best monitors on the market - and here's what we thought of it
I’ve been a PC gamer for the past 10 years and every time I make a significant investment in PC and gaming parts, I always seem blown away about how better hardware gets. It has been a while since I invested in a monitor and now with hardware getting more powerful, native 4K gaming is a much easier reality – and something that will become the norm in the next few years.
So I decided to treat myself – I went out and bought Dell’s Alienware AW3225QF. A 4K 240hz OLED monitor with a 32-inch curved screen and a purchase which meant all my savings had been depleted for a while.
240hz 4K monitors are becoming the new high-tier standard for PC gamers with all the beauty of OLED with the speed and clarity of high refresh rate – and let me tell you: if you have been eyeing one of these up, you should consider saving your pennies if you want one.
Like all monitors and hardware, make sure you have the PC to be able to make use of the screen. I’ve got a beefy i7-14700K with a RTX 4080 PC and this monitor won’t be super useful if your PC can’t run it.
First off, I haven’t been super used to OLED screen. I used to run QLED or LCD screens for a while but ever since experiencing them, they are out of this world and this Alienware screen is up there.
It's an expensive purchase but the AW3225QF monitor might be the best monitor I've ever tried and seen.
You get a stunning 4K OLED monitor, 240HZ screen - all encapsulated on a 32-inch screen. It's truely one of the best out there - but prepare to pay up if you want to get one!
Colour reproduction is spot on and the monitor lets your games pop when they are on screen. One of my biggest worries was the curved screen which I’ve noticed has put many of purchasing this monitor.
But using it for a few months now, the curve has not been an issue at all and rarely do I notice it. Set-up was extremely easy and took me 10 minutes to plug together with the stand and place it on my desk.
One of the biggest gripes I had with the monitor was its size. At 32 inches, you need a sizable desk to make it fit and if you have a second monitor, you might need to rearrange your setup. I had to make my second monitor vertical which turned out to be quite beneficial for productivity.
When it comes to gaming, the monitor has been amazing and hardly flinched at what I threw at it. Colours are crisp, motion is smooth, and my gaming experience has been enhanced ten-fold.
But running 4K games at 240hz is still tough depending on what you throw at it. I booted up Cyberpunk 2077 and managed to get a meagre 40-60fps depending where I was stood with most raytracing cranked up to full. Native 4K games can be hard to run for most people but as new graphics cards are said to be on the horizon, I might actually be able to reach 240hz 4K in the near future.
Baldur's Gate 3 impressed me the most. The game seemed to look vastly different compared to my old monitors thanks to the HDR and colour reproduction. Character popped out of the screen when you when into dialogue and has resulted in me replaying the game all over again!
I also believe its the best price 4K OLED monitor on the market for the UK. Most alternatives like this MSI 4K monitor will set you back more than £1100.
And at the time of writing, you can get it for £889. It's a lot of cash but for those people who want to save or splurge, you might want to jump on the price before it goes back up.
