Alienware AW3821DW thoughts

apostolis_kt · 4 Oct 2021 at 11:51

Hello,

I am on the fence in upgrading from my samsung 34sj550 to the Alienware monitor. Got the gpu to drive it so no issue there.

Is it a good monitor? I read a lot of people praising it, but a lot of people say its bad (hdr, blacks are basicaly horrible grey and issues with glow etc)

Was holding up for the LG C1 or maybe the C2 but possibly I will wait until the BF of 2022 for one as a second gaming tv/monitor. I still need a monitor for work anyway as I wfh so oled non stop in desktop might not be good for the tv burn in wise.

It seems that the 38" uw monitor product range hasn't seen an upgrade in a while was hoping we would have gotten something new by now.

Can find it around 935ish with the current price Dell has.

Glanza · 4 Oct 2021 at 12:18

Huge thread on this monitor here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/new-alienware-q3-2020.18895590/

apostolis_kt · 4 Oct 2021 at 12:26

Oh cool thanks Ill have a look

Howling · 4 Oct 2021 at 13:51

apostolis_kt said:
Is it a good monitor? I read a lot of people praising it, but a lot of people say its bad (hdr, blacks are basicaly horrible grey and issues with glow etc)

Great monitor - just don't turn HDR on because the edge-light dimming is total ass and actually makes the image worse (imho anyway). Being IPS the colours are great, the high refresh and Gsync are great, the size is great, the price is .... reasonable when compared to other high end monitors (especially if you can get extra discounts). I've had no issues with it at all - just, as I say, the HDR implementation is ******* so don't even bother.

apostolis_kt · 4 Oct 2021 at 14:26

Thats what put me off last year when i read that its gsync Ultimate and was the first monitor to not be 1000nits and essentially not following the old Gsync Ultimate spec (which essentially meant FALD backlight)

Bill Turnip · 4 Oct 2021 at 18:03

I think it's a great monitor, and strongly recommend it, but I will agree on the HDR to a point. However, monitor wise, I'm not sure there are any alternatives at the price, or even higher - Not had the chance to see some of the £2k plus monitors that are available in the flesh, however.

It'll depend how you want to use it, I find that the vast majority of things I use it for doesn't have HDR, and that for well lit scenes/games (Main example I can think of is Warzone) HDR is fine without any blooming, and adds to the experience. You'll notice the lack of definition and increased blooming in a dark scene or game, however (Thinking Ori and Will of the Wisps, I think it was).

However, I will repeat that I recommend the monitor wholeheartedly and don't believe that you will beat it for the money.

apostolis_kt · 4 Oct 2021 at 20:37

Dang it, I havent seen yet how hdr looks. Got an expensive panasonic tv back in 2016 that literally has 4 zones and its horrendous was hoping for something better i guess.
Got Shadow of the tomb raider, Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus and Wow to play but i play mostly wow so hdr wont matter i guess.

Sean473 · 9 Oct 2021 at 02:06

Howling said:
Great monitor - just don't turn HDR on because the edge-light dimming is total ass and actually makes the image worse (imho anyway). Being IPS the colours are great, the high refresh and Gsync are great, the size is great, the price is .... reasonable when compared to other high end monitors (especially if you can get extra discounts). I've had no issues with it at all - just, as I say, the HDR implementation is ******* so don't even bother.

AW3821 DW Owner here for 10 months - Absolutely agree witb this!