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

bimbleuk · 12 Aug 2022 at 12:34

I've been using an original X34 Predator since release and was waiting for something to tick enough boxes to replace it. I did buy a 32" 16:9 VA 165Hz monitor from the Amazon warehouse just to try something different and will keep that one as a spare. Some games just suit that one better.

I've almost been tempted by a 38" ultrawide and was considering the recent Samsung 32" UHD monitors but the Alienware monitor had a big enough screen with a res that my GPU can drive comfortably. The contrast + blacks offsets the lower overall brightness and the HDR mode has given the highlight pop I was after.

However I have cleared my desktop plus enabled the taskbar auto hide. I've hidden the Afterburner graphs and will probably hide the FPS counter too in-game. I'm playing Icarus with the GUI hidden and have followed the prompts to run the refresh a couple fo times this week.

I'm happy with the monitor so far as I mainly game on it but I will still be on the lookout for a monitor to replace this one but with more overall brightness and less likely to suffer retention or burn-in.

My X34" was £900 when new but has lasted me 5 years. I've no problem paying £934 for this one discounted and hopefully it'll last me at last 3 years too.

TNA · 12 Aug 2022 at 14:24

Each to their own I guess. I change my monitor every 2-4 years anyway so makes no difference to me

Troezar · 12 Aug 2022 at 15:46

TNA said:
Each to their own I guess. I change my monitor every 2-4 years anyway so makes no difference to me

Hark at Rockefeller here :cry:

Rawr · 12 Aug 2022 at 18:19

Nexus18 said:
TBF, mrk is the first person I've seen who has experienced this so could be panel variance again for this kind of thing, same way my LG e7 is still burn free yet you have some who say they have burn in with similar usage to mine. Imagine if it is something that will be common, we will be seeing more reports of this over the coming month or 2....

There was apparently someone on HardForum that had it too, but yeah besides that I don't think I've seen someone mention it on reddit or whatever, and a lot of people do own it now. Guess we'll see in the coming months.

Definitely right that panel variance could be a thing though, as it is with all monitors really.

Nexus18 · 12 Aug 2022 at 18:21

Rawr said:
There was apparently someone on HardForum that had it too, but yeah besides that I don't think I've seen someone mention it on reddit or whatever, and a lot of people do own it now. Guess we'll see in the coming months.

Definitely right that panel variance could be a thing though, as it is with all monitors really.

That guy didn't let the pixel refresh run and had it in HDR mode at all times.

Rawr · 12 Aug 2022 at 18:27

Nexus18 said:
That guy didn't let the pixel refresh run and had it in HDR mode at all times.

Sure, but still a concern for owners that they need to be careful - that the monitor sadly might need some "babying".

For what it's worth some days I've gone for around 10-12 hours without a pixel refresh if I happen to forget to switch my monitor off when I go away for a bit (I have a black screensaver that kicks in though), but fortunately I've not gotten any burn in yet. That said I don't use HDR permanently. I know quite a few people do though due to save them from having to re-enable/disable every time they want to watch a youtube video etc in HDR. I don't think either are particularly uncommon scenarios.

Grim5 · 13 Aug 2022 at 07:16

I set up mine today

First impressions

* Mine has marks on the screen from the bubble wrap but should come off with a clean

* The anti reflective coating reflects more than I expected but I'm coming from a matte monitor. However it's not an issue when the monitor is on and showing light color images; only when show pure black across the whole screen do I start to notice reflections.

* While blacks have some purple tint to them when the room is bright, it's still a million times more black than the edge lit IPS it's replacing which was incapable of making black under any circumstances.

* the HDR400/1000 modes are a bit finicky; sometimes in 400 mode white webpages look brighter than switching to 1000 where the ABL dims it to under 400 but when watching HDR videos/content the 1000 is much brighter and vibrant.

* As I expected, despite some reviewers saying it's a dim monitor in SDR at 250nits full screen brightness, it's far more than I need and I ended up lowering the max brightness in SDR to 130nits.

* The blue light filter seems to be more aggressive than my old monitor so my windows night light settings for night time working need to be changed.

* The text is a little bit less sharp than my old monitor, but I quickly got used to it and it's perfectly serviceable even for working.

* Mine has what I belive to be the latest firmware installed, MOB102 even though the box says manufactured in April 2022.

* I like the stand, and was easy to install the panel. The RGB lighting is meh, I like the idea but the lights are nowhere near bright enough to be able to use them for bias lighting - I may get some RGB strips for the back of the screen.

* Overall it's pretty good monitor so far. If I have to nitpick I'd say text clarity could be better and the anti reflective coating could be better but other than that the images it produces is amazing and the colors definitely pop a bit more than my C9 OLED TV, this is especially noticeable on certain colors (red, orange, yellow and gold). A couple times while testing I thought HDR was on when it was actually off just because of how much the Orange UI elements in Windows now pops.

* Regarding fan noise; what noise? If I didn't read from reviews that the monitor has two fans I would not have known, I can't hear any noise from the back of the monitor and the monitor also doesn't seem to give off much heat.

Grim5 · 13 Aug 2022 at 07:17

Is there a list of recommended settings?

Only configuration I've set is using Better ClearType already but it doesn't seem to actually make text look any better. Text is less legible than an IPS screen but it's serviceable

bimbleuk · 13 Aug 2022 at 07:44

Grim5 said:
Is there a list of recommended settings?

Only configuration I've set is using Better ClearType already but it doesn't seem to actually make text look any better. Text is less legible than an IPS screen but it's serviceable

I think the Cleartype apps need to support the triangle sub pixel because as you say it doesn't make much difference.

TFTCentral has a good write up with some suggestions and a colour profile to try though I'm never quite sure if that only applies to their monitor calibration.

I switched between Creator & Custom Colour and to me they don't make that much difference compared to simply adjusting the brightness & contrast

Iron Man · 13 Aug 2022 at 10:50

bimbleuk said:
I've been using an original X34 Predator since release and was waiting for something to tick enough boxes to replace it. I did buy a 32" 16:9 VA 165Hz monitor from the Amazon warehouse just to try something different and will keep that one as a spare. Some games just suit that one better.

I've almost been tempted by a 38" ultrawide and was considering the recent Samsung 32" UHD monitors but the Alienware monitor had a big enough screen with a res that my GPU can drive comfortably. The contrast + blacks offsets the lower overall brightness and the HDR mode has given the highlight pop I was after.

However I have cleared my desktop plus enabled the taskbar auto hide. I've hidden the Afterburner graphs and will probably hide the FPS counter too in-game. I'm playing Icarus with the GUI hidden and have followed the prompts to run the refresh a couple fo times this week.

I'm happy with the monitor so far as I mainly game on it but I will still be on the lookout for a monitor to replace this one but with more overall brightness and less likely to suffer retention or burn-in.

My X34" was £900 when new but has lasted me 5 years. I've no problem paying £934 for this one discounted and hopefully it'll last me at last 3 years too.

I upgraded from the x34p to the QD-Oled and it’s a nice upgrade especially if you are playing in a darkened room as the brightness is amazing.

HungryHippos · 13 Aug 2022 at 11:01

Grim5 said:
Regarding fan noise; what noise? If I didn't read from reviews that the monitor has two fans I would not have known, I can't hear any noise from the back of the monitor and the monitor also doesn't seem to give off much heat.

You'll hear it a bit once the room heats up, and once it's been on for a while. Both of the ones I've had do it, but it seems worse in this heat wave.

Nexus18 · 13 Aug 2022 at 11:06

Another quality HDR title to check out on this, spiderman :cool:

Robert896r1 · 13 Aug 2022 at 11:26

Creator preset, srgb, gamma 2.4 and hdr1000 will be the most accurate modes as always for this set. Anything beyond that is subjective.

Grim5 · 13 Aug 2022 at 12:24

Flat version coming

Alienware QD-OLED gaming monitor could ditch its curves

Alienware might steamroll its QD-OLED AW3423DW gaming monitor, as a leak suggests a version of the high-spec gaming PC screen without curves is on the cards

www.pcgamesn.com

Troezar · 13 Aug 2022 at 14:26

Grim5 said:
Flat version coming

Alienware QD-OLED gaming monitor could ditch its curves

Alienware might steamroll its QD-OLED AW3423DW gaming monitor, as a leak suggests a version of the high-spec gaming PC screen without curves is on the cards

www.pcgamesn.com

That should be interesting, probably better if you want to do productivity and office work too.

chaparral · 13 Aug 2022 at 20:34

mrk said:
So screen burn then! Mine appears to have some screen burn but only over the yellow desktop icons that were always visible. As noted before, I do the pixel refreshes etc and had my 2nd panel refresh recently too. I only noticed this in the last week, and a new panel refresh didn't sort it so it def appears to be persistent retention or screen burn, but only where the yellow desktop icons sat:

Ignore the colour/artefacting etc, it's just a grey image to highlight the burn area more effectively. You can see the 3 corner shadows where the desktop icons would normally sit: I also have two browser windows open at all times pretty much. My other settings are black sreen screensaver after 5mins no activity, monitor goes to standby mode after 30 mins no activity, and I manually power off the monitor with the button if I am stepping away for any longer than that so it is used in a reasonable manner or does a pixel refresh regardless on those 4hr intervals really even if I miss a few in any given day.

Dell service request raised and they have accepted replacing the monitor. I have sent them the requested photo of the back etc and am awaiting shipment confirmation details in 24/48 hours.

This 3yr burn in warranty may well be put to good use after all.... I wonder how much the firmware affects this sort of thing as mine is one of the originals on MB101 firmware.

screen burn already :eek:

mrk · 13 Aug 2022 at 20:35

But has been used for as good as 12-18 hours a day most days!

chaparral · 13 Aug 2022 at 20:39

mrk said:
But has been used for as good as 12-18 hours a day most days!

I was thinking of buying the new 65 inch Sony TV that uses this Samsung panel, But think am going to wait first and see if anyone suffers from screen burn on it

mrk · 13 Aug 2022 at 20:40

By the way, I reckon a few others will have similar too as I notice mine is only visible on one of my grey colour charts and not the other, so it's only visible on certain grey shades, example:

My charts are here for anyone wishing to try too: https://robbiekhan.co.uk/root/photos/stuff-room/pc_DellALienware_AW3423DW/ColourPallettes/

Lighter grey:

Darker grey:

TNA · 13 Aug 2022 at 23:18

Grim5 said:
I set up mine today

First impressions

* Mine has marks on the screen from the bubble wrap but should come off with a clean

* The anti reflective coating reflects more than I expected but I'm coming from a matte monitor. However it's not an issue when the monitor is on and showing light color images; only when show pure black across the whole screen do I start to notice reflections.

* While blacks have some purple tint to them when the room is bright, it's still a million times more black than the edge lit IPS it's replacing which was incapable of making black under any circumstances.

* the HDR400/1000 modes are a bit finicky; sometimes in 400 mode white webpages look brighter than switching to 1000 where the ABL dims it to under 400 but when watching HDR videos/content the 1000 is much brighter and vibrant.

* As I expected, despite some reviewers saying it's a dim monitor in SDR at 250nits full screen brightness, it's far more than I need and I ended up lowering the max brightness in SDR to 130nits.

* The blue light filter seems to be more aggressive than my old monitor so my windows night light settings for night time working need to be changed.

* The text is a little bit less sharp than my old monitor, but I quickly got used to it and it's perfectly serviceable even for working.

* Mine has what I belive to be the latest firmware installed, MOB102 even though the box says manufactured in April 2022.

* I like the stand, and was easy to install the panel. The RGB lighting is meh, I like the idea but the lights are nowhere near bright enough to be able to use them for bias lighting - I may get some RGB strips for the back of the screen.

* Overall it's pretty good monitor so far. If I have to nitpick I'd say text clarity could be better and the anti reflective coating could be better but other than that the images it produces is amazing and the colors definitely pop a bit more than my C9 OLED TV, this is especially noticeable on certain colors (red, orange, yellow and gold). A couple times while testing I thought HDR was on when it was actually off just because of how much the Orange UI elements in Windows now pops.

* Regarding fan noise; what noise? If I didn't read from reviews that the monitor has two fans I would not have known, I can't hear any noise from the back of the monitor and the monitor also doesn't seem to give off much heat.

Welcome to the club. After all the attempts at slating the monitor I am glad to see you have finally seen the light and purchased one for yourself and like it