Alienware AW2725Q QD-OLED Review: Pretty Picture, but Pricey

Deep Purple is a new black. Or if classic gaming brand alienware had that path, it would be. Alienware’s new AW2725Q 4K, 240Hz QD-OLED monitor with Twilight hues, the monitor blends into the shadows of my office’s fake game setup, like Prowl’s extraterrestrial Earth. The brand’s latest $900 monitor, owned by Dell, is over-priced and restrained, especially compared to last year’s large, wide curved models. In many ways, it’s profit. Unless you plan to pair it with the latest and greatest graphics cards, others will be a bit overloaded.

The company’s new monitor will take pages from last year’s ultra-expensive, curved AW3225QF (the newer version of that monitor, the AW3425DWM, also known as the AW30, also known as the purple aesthetic alienware). With a 32-inch curved display, the monitor was already in a good looking, solid desktop piece that offered 4K at a 240Hz refresh rate. The new 27-inch square AW2725Q is a simpler product and isn’t expensive for $900. This is cheaper than last year’s $1,200 32-inch curved display, but if you spend nearly $1,000 on a monitor, you want everything you can get from the display, right?

Alienware First announcement This monitor is like CES 2025 Many other Show manufacturer We have announced a 4K, 240Hz device. The latest Alienware monitors claim to itself by providing deep, deep colors with the help of QD-Oled of that size. It is located at 166 ppi or pixels per pixel. Display size usually affects pixel density. For example, mobile phones usually sit between 500 and 600 ppi on an OLED display. Still, it’s quite dense for OLEDs. Alienware claims that PPI comes from accurate QD all printing methods in production, but what I can say is that the screen clarity is really good. Those games are especially comfortable for those games, as opposed to cute and bright colors avowed or Marvel’s Spiderman 2.

Alienware’s AW2725Q is great, but somehow it’s a subtle screen experience

For those who don’t know, QD-Oled is a type of display that runs in parallel with QD-Mini LED (also known as QLED). A typical OLED panel is required, but add a layer of small semiconductor nanocrystals, nominal “quantum dots”, to enhance the color of the OLED self-emitting display layer. If OLED already offers high quality black levels, contrast and color density, QD technology is supposed to make it even better.

As is typical among exhibit enthusiasts, few people can agree that the QD aspect of QD-OLED does something that a typical OLED doesn’t offer yet, especially with a smaller screen size than a larger television. All I can say is that the colors on Alienware 27-inch monitors are always amazing. Even if you’re not in the game, you’ll find yourself staring at your PC’s default desktop wallpaper, distracted by the deep shades of the sunset radiated from the display.

The monitor supports Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync, and also has a grey to gray response time typical of OLEDs of 0.03 ms. It is a certified DisplayHDR True Black 400 for vibrant screen content. Plus, the display is surprisingly attractive. Directly illuminating your phone’s flashlight on your screen doesn’t really reduce the quality of your vision. I also experienced minimal reflections from the display. This is a monitor type that always sits in front of you in person, but does not reduce the color even when you sit 70 degrees from the screen.

The display brightness is 250 knit with SDR. That’s not very good, especially considering the price of this monitor. HDR can take up to 1000 knits, but it does come with problems. When I try to reduce the brightness with Dolby Vision on my PC, the contrast of what I was playing changes dramatically, washing away those beautiful colors. I noticed this with the AW3225QF, and this applies here too. These settings can be changed via the OSD (View on-screen) menu or via the Alienware Command Center software.

OLED burn-in is always something to consider for this type of display. If you’re losing $900 on your monitor, this is especially important if you’re hoping to use it for years. Alienware claims that part of the screen will not suffer more than the rest as the immediate problem with the “AI algorithm” that regulates current per pixel has been resolved. Of course, that is not something we can confirm ourselves. Instead, Dell offers a free panel replacement under warranty.

Alienware’s 27-inch QD-Oled feels premium, but $900 is a hard-to-swallow drug

The AW2725Q comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports (one EARC), one DisplayPort 2.1 for pass-through power up to 15 W, three USB-As, and a single USB-C. It’s all standard for monitors of this size, even with a sparkling alienwear logo on the back. The stand is of the quality you would expect from the Alienware brand, even though it is mostly plastic on top of the metal frame. It can be tilted from -5 to +20 degrees and rotated from -20 to +20. The stand only raises and lowers the 4 inches required for most desktop setups.

This kind of monitor is made to pair with equally expensive desktop PCs. I use the AW2725Q for my latest GPU reviews. The 240Hz display helps you show off your game on Prime when combined with the frame generation capabilities of the latest AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs. Honestly, however, if the refresh rate is high, it’s a boon for those lucky enough to get the latest high-end NVIDIA RTX 50 series. With 4x Multi-Frame Gen, you can play several games on over 150 FPS. For the $2,000 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, that graphics card can go well beyond 200 FP with 4X frames in the game Cyberpunk 2077 Ray tracing is on. And yes, it looks amazing on the AW2725Q.

In fact, can you tell us the difference between games that run at 240 fps and 240 fps? Probably not. Frame Gen is only beneficial to those who play single-player games. The impact on latency of Multi-frame Gen is that anyone trying to compete in multiplayer will turn it off anyway. Professional Gamer Tournaments usually rely on a 240Hz monitor. Anything more than that is too much. That means that only those who spend too much time setting up their desktops will experience the game at the absolute peak of what is currently available.

So for anyone else, the price is still difficult to swallow. Alienware also offers a $550 27-inch QD-Oled, which is maximizing at 1440p resolution. If you are aiming for a 1440p game with a new graphics card, it is an option. If you haven’t lost $2,000 on a graphics card, it’s hard to justify spending on a monitor as much as GPU. Still, if you desperately need a new monitor to pair with your GPU, Alienware’s latest one will make you sing the content.