- Alienware has launched a new 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED monitor
- The AW2726DM marks a significant shift in the monitor market, making OLEDs much more affordable
- It’s available for $350 / £369 / AU$699 in the UK, US and Australia.
It’s taken a while, but OLED monitors have finally reached an affordable stage for PC gamers and those focused on productivity – and it seems Alienware has been spearheading this change.
As reported by Notebookcheck, Alienware has launched a new 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED monitor, the Alienware AW2726DM, available for $350 / £369 / AU$699.
It uses a 0.03ms GtG response time, a 240Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium support, HDMI 2.1 support and, most importantly, a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio for perfect black levels – and it’s easily entered my wishlist for a second desktop monitor.
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Notably, the AW2726DM lacks in brightness compared to more expensive QD-OLED models, with just 200 nits of brightness, and it’s clear that this is where corners have been cut to keep the price as low as possible.
However, this does not take away from the huge benefits of the screen, as QD-OLED is popular for ensuring that every scene in a movie or game has the best color and image quality via deep black levels, and is especially visible in darker scenes. The display is best used in an environment without glaring light on the screen, as it can easily ruin visuals due to the monitor’s entry-level 200 nits brightness.
Look on it
The biggest takeaway is the $350 / £369 / AU$699 price tag, as this effectively makes other regular IPS or LED monitors of the same size and resolution obsolete, as the AW2726DM is now in the same price bracket, providing tough competition for non-OLED displays.
It’s hard to beat an OLED panel in most cases, and while mini-LED monitors come close to delivering similar deep black levels, they can’t fully compete, with their only main advantage being greater brightness.
Samsung has already made clear its intention to make OLED more affordable, and even if it has, Alienware’s case stands out because it has opened the floodgates for even more affordable OLED displays to enter the market.
That’s simply because the price of the AW2726DM is the lowest I’ve ever seen for this type of display, with no discount. We may be looking at a future in which OLED finally becomes fully mainstream in the desktop monitor market, and I couldn’t be happier.
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