World first QD-OLED monitor from Dell and Samsung (34 inch Ultrawide 175hz)

AW3423DW in my case, got it asap after release (3 months of waiting) and still going strong. I work on it way more than I play games or consume media. I didn't even bother with hiding task bar, though I use dark mode in windows and apps (not in all of them, though). No burnout at all, no issues with fonts clarity when working, superb for gaming and gladly they also let one upgrade firmware these days after months of claiming that will never be possible because of gsync module. :p if this ever dies, I'll just get another (newer gen) of such monitor. Not going back to IPS, as low latency, no blur in movement and HDR in media consumption or gaming are just way too good to give up on them. :)

Now, it's not perfect, gsync module fan makes noise now and then and it's impossible to remove Alienware app that Windows installs automatically (short of blocking all updates). Standard blocking of KB or drivers installation do not do anything.
Cheers for the review. Seems I just need to find a deal on it now. One thing I won't miss about my current monitor is the gsync ultimate module fan!
 
Now you have had this a while, how are you finding it, particularly for WFH? My monitor went kaput today, some of the LEDs in the FALD now gone permanently dim on my ASUS PG27UQ.

I have the AW3423DWF and I bought one of the first batch that arrived in the UK. Still going strong, still stunning colours.

Interestingly, I have a cheap ASUS vp229he 22" montor (cost £100) sat next to it, and the ASUS really does well. Of course the OLED is faster and has better, brighter colour. Especially reds. But, casually, the little ASUS is a darn good monitor. I generally find the colour balance of ASUS monitors to be very good.

Anyway, the Dell has and continues to be a superb monitor. The only one downside is that I use dark backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds does highlight the text fringing. I have learnt to ignore it though.

Would I buy it again? In a heartbeat. You can get an IPS monitor to almost match the colours. I have a £1200 Dell on the opposite side to the ASUS. It's almost as good. Not quite so fast and the colours don't have the contrast or magical glow that OLED has, but it's a darn good monitor. But, if you are going to spend that much on a monitor I don't see any reason not to get an OLED.

I did take some sensible precautions over burn-in. Set the screen timeout low. Change the wallpaper every 10 mins. Avoid overly bright wallpaper. Things like that. But, apart from that, I paid it no attention and the screen is still fine.

By the way, although mine is Freesync, I use it with an NVIDIA and it's every bit as good as the other Dell I have that is G-Sync Ultimate. I have never heard the fan.
 
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Bought mine in March 2022 and it's still as new, no burn in (I 97% always use the pixel refresh), no issues, no coil whine. It did a full panel refresh earlier this year.

Still smile when I turn it on.

I have been replaying Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines from 2004 in 21:9 and it looks stunning. I wish I played this game with this screen back then instead of a 24" Dell IPS.
 
AW3423DW in my case, got it asap after release (3 months of waiting) and still going strong. I work on it way more than I play games or consume media. I didn't even bother with hiding task bar, though I use dark mode in windows and apps (not in all of them, though). No burnout at all, no issues with fonts clarity when working, superb for gaming and gladly they also let one upgrade firmware these days after months of claiming that will never be possible because of gsync module. :p if this ever dies, I'll just get another (newer gen) of such monitor. Not going back to IPS, as low latency, no blur in movement and HDR in media consumption or gaming are just way too good to give up on them. :)

Now, it's not perfect, gsync module fan makes noise now and then and it's impossible to remove Alienware app that Windows installs automatically (short of blocking all updates). Standard blocking of KB or drivers installation do not do anything.
Went for the MSI 341CQP in the end. Seemed to have more modern features and thanks to a friend got a further 10% off employee discount from where I bought it on top of the already discounted price bringing it down to £584.10.
 
Went for the MSI 341CQP in the end. Seemed to have more modern features and thanks to a friend got a further 10% off employee discount from where I bought it on top of the already discounted price bringing it down to £584.10.
First impressions, it is an excellent monitor for excellent value. Can imagine the picture on any other alternative OLED panel is purely incremental on this. Very pleased. Comes with rather accurate picture modes out of the box too which is nice
 
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First impressions, it is an excellent monitor for excellent value. Can imagine the picture on any other alternative OLED panel is purely incremental on this. Very pleased. Comes with rather accurate picture modes out of the box too which is nice

What's 1440p like at that size?
 
It is a pretty standard res for 34 inch ultrawide, same as my old ultrawide that I had years ago. Tbh not missing 4k so far (prev screen was 27 inch 4k).

Ive got 32" 4K, and when I switch to 1440p it's noticeably worse, yeah I know it's a standard res at 34 UW, just wondered how looks compared to 4K. Coming from 27" 1440P, to 32" 4K, it's not even close - BUT at 27" 1440p is still very good.
 
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Ive got 32" 4K, and when I switch to 1440p it's noticeably worse, yeah I know it's a standard res at 34 UW, just wondered how looks compared to 4K. Coming from 27" 1440P, to 32" 4K, it's not even close - BUT at 27" 1440p is still very good.
I had higher PPI coming from 27" 4K. All the text and stuff seems natural at 34" UW, though. Not done much in the way of gaming yet. But as I am using an RTX 3080 eGPU, I think I will favour the lower res a bit tbh. My 4090 with my 65" 4K OLED upstairs nowadays.
 
What's 1440p like at that size?
3440x1440 is the native resolution for a 34" ultrawide, not 4K UWA equiv.

Think of it like this, if Windows defaults to any DPI scaling factory other than 100%, then your monitor is not running at what should be the native res for that screen size. and as a result things can look over/under-sized depending on content without tweaking scaling and maybe some other stuff.

The native screen size for a 5120x2160 res would be around 40".

4K at 32" is too high a res for that screen size as well hence why Windows defaults to 150% scaling and as a result I need to mitigate some layout features of my productivity panels in Lightroom as 3440x1440 gave me more width to lay panels out vs the 3840x2160 I currently have as more primary window in Lightroom was available to work with than it is now but it's fine to use as a stop gap until the 40" UWAs are out and I get one and come back to 21:9
 
First impressions, it is an excellent monitor for excellent value. Can imagine the picture on any other alternative OLED panel is purely incremental on this. Very pleased. Comes with rather accurate picture modes out of the box too which is nice
Looks nice but what are MSI’s return policies like for image retention etc?
 
Looks nice but what are MSI’s return policies like for image retention etc?
Apparently covered by warranty. Explicitly states it. Hard to know how easy it will be unless I use it.

Don't expect to have issues, though. I've had OLED TVs for years with no issues, the earlier ones used to have temporary image retention but even those I looked after well.

The MSI has a heatsink and if that is anything like my Panasonic OLED TV, I doubt I will even get any temporary image retention, nevermind permanent. Not seen any yet anyhow. Don't think the Dell ultrawide has a heatsink.
 
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