Alienware AW3926QW review: My favourite monitor of the year so far

Ultrawide PC monitors have long been something of a status symbol in the gaming world – a sign that you not only have the highest of standards when it comes to your display, but also a budget to go with those standards. Finally, though, we're starting to get some monitors that don't feel egregiously priced.

For all that Dell just fumbled the UK pricing of the XPS 13, the launch price of its latest flagship ultrawide is a reminder of just how punchy its Alienware brand can be with the right setup.

The Alienware AW3926QW on review is the monitor I've been saddest to wave goodbye to in ages after its loan period – and I think it might just thread the needle for almost anyone.

Price and Availability

The Alienware AW3926QW is on sale now in the USA, but in the UK and EU it's going to take a tiny bit more time – with sales commencing from 8 September, to be precise.

In the UK the monitor will cost £999, while the EU will get it for €1149, and customers in the US will pay $1099.

I'll cover the specs of the monitor in greater detail further down, but for this scale of curved OLED that's an extremely competitive price. For those who want an ultrawide and have a cap that sits around a grand, it might just be the new best deal out there.

Design and Features

Look, I can't pretend that there's a vast amount of interesting stuff going on where the design of the AW3926QW is concerned. Other than its size, in fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find many differences compared to the 5-star AW3426DW that I reviewed earlier this summer.

It has the exact same stand and adjustment system, in fact, with a pedestal base that honestly doesn't take up too much space on a desk, and relatively easy adjustment options for height, tilt and rotation. This makes it easy to setup exactly and as ergonomically as you want it.

However, there's no getting around the size of the monitor. At 39-inches diagonally, this is quite a beast, and you will need to be careful with its measurements to make sure it doesn't dwarf whatever surface you're aiming to put it on.

In terms of controls, you get a power button on the bottom-right of the display, while there's an intuitive control nub on the back of it in the middle. This makes it easy to switch between inputs or adjust settings.

The display itself comes in at a whopping 5120 x 2160 (otherwise known as 5K), and Dell is calling it the first RGB stripe tandem OLED in this size. That means you're getting the latest innovations in OLED panel technology, the outcome of which ultimately comes down to brightness, colour vibrancy and accuracy.

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In terms of refresh rate, you can get 165Hz at 5K or 330Hz at Full HD; high dynamic range (HDR) is also present and correct here – with DisplayHDR True Black 500 for real oomph in the black levels.

The monitor's curve comes in at 1500R, which I found to be really well-judged. It's enough to give you proper immersion, but not so much that you feel like it's trying to swallow you whole.

The bezels are also impressively small on all sides. A glossy coating on the whole thing still manages decent amounts of anti-reflection, although other more deliberately matte coatings excel more in this area.

There are two USB-C ports, one of which handily offers pass-through 90W charging, while the twin HDMI ports are both HDMI 2.1 with eARC in case you want a soundbar. There are no built-in speakers, though. Crucially, that HDMI 2.1 spec also brings variable refresh rate (VRR) to the table.

You also get a DisplayPort 2.1 port for PC use, two USB-A ports for connections, and a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting speakers or headphones. This makes the AW3926QW pretty fully-featured for the price, and I don't think there are any obvious shortcomings (although a third HDMI port would literally never go amiss on this sort of monitor, in my view).

Performance

I don't think anyone buys an ultrawide for its design, realistically, although its specs are more important. Most crucial, though, is how it performs in regular use, and I made the AW3926QW my main monitor for nearly three weeks to find out.

That meant it was a work monitor all day most days, connected to my MacBook Pro, and a gaming monitor most evenings, both on my gaming PC and connected to my PS5 Pro.

In all three settings, I had a pretty much flawless time with its luscious OLED panel, which resolves the tiny issues I had with the more affordable AW3426DW. That display sometimes saw text fringe a little, but I detected no such foible here, whether because of the upgraded panel or the beefier resolution.

It was a dream to work on, and even more of a pleasure to game on. Connected to my PC, I got through hours of both Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy (which natively supported the monitor's resolution, to outstanding effect) and Star Wars Zero Company (which didn't, but still looked great at a lower resolution).

Both underlined how terrific an ultrawide can be nowadays, and the range of colour and vibrancy displayed really was quite something, particularly in Resonance. Brightness is fabulous, and while I prefer a matte coating on my displays, I didn't find the glossy one here an issue at all – a benefit of the curved nature, in part.

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Perhaps most impressive of all, though, was my experience connecting my PS5 Pro. Normally I accept that while testing an ultrawide, my console experience will be degraded a little, since most of them are built with such connections as afterthoughts, since they can't support the right resolutions.

The AW3926QW, though, auto-switched to its cut-down esports mode when I turned on my console, putting black bars on the right and left of the screen. Crucially, though, it was able to output at 4K in this mode, and 120Hz, too, which meant that I was basically playing the console on a 24-inch monitor.

That's the dream experience, in short, and it means that those who (like me) have a PC and a console connected to the same monitor aren't forced to go with a standard panel to avoid weird interactions with an ultrawide. I'm sure this isn't the only monitor managing such a trick, but it's really slick nonetheless, and a great advert for all-in-one usage.

Let's be clear – this is a PC monitor first and foremost. However, the fact that I had as smooth a time as this using a console with it is really quite rare, and I do think there must be others out there raring to get an ultrawide this adaptable.

Verdict

It's a rare thing to find a monitor that can flex in the ways offered by the Alienware AW3926QW. It's an expansive OLED with the latest bells and whistles, but it's the way it can apply those to both the PC and console experience that really makes it shine. I'd keep it as my daily monitor without hesitation, given how smooth I've found it to use in the last few weeks.

Crucially, although its price obviously still makes it a premium choice, it's launching at a really impressive cost compared to the competition (if you go by spec lists). I think it represents a fabulous choice at its full RRP, but I almost can't wait to see what sort of prices it might hit in 2027 once it's had time to bed in – this could be a monitor that rightly garners a proper fanbase over time.

Also Consider

I've mentioned Dell's other recent Alienware launch a couple of times in this review, and it's a really justifiable alternative if you want to save some money and know that you'll only really use it with a PC. The AW3426DW has the added advantage of being smaller, in case you have less space.

If you have more space, though, and want something truly sci-fi, consider the LG UltraGear 45GX950. It remains the maddest monitor I've ever tested, and the sheer scale of it is hard to comprehend. It frankly won't make sense for most people, but for dedicated gamers, there's nothing else quite like it.