Dell Alienware AW3226Q review: Another stunning monitor in a stellar year

The world of gaming hardware might feel like it's in a death spiral where pricing is concerned (and you only really have to do a little shopping around for one of the best laptops or a PC gaming handheld to feel pessimistic), but monitors are a bit of a light in the dark at the moment.

Some arcane combination of component prices and market realities means there have been some genuinely exciting launches this year, at prices that are actually persuasive not just for the elite, but for the rest of us too. A good chunk of credit here should go to Alienware, which has had a tremendous year on the display front – and now has another to check out in the AW3226Q.

Price and Availability

The Alienware AW3226Q is rolling out over the course of October 2026, depending on where you live. If you're in the USA then you should be able to buy it now directly from Dell, priced at $699.99.

In the UK, we're going to have to wait a couple of weeks, but from 27 October it should go live at £649, while the EU will have that same date at a €749 list price.

That makes this a pretty darn competitive monitor for the specs that it brings (more on that later). It's a 32-inch OLED, so it doesn't have that much competition, but a few years ago you'd have expected to pay well over a grand for something like this.

Design and Spec

• Dimensions: 70.7cm wide, 41.9cm tall
• 4K WOLED panel

The Alienware AW3226Q is a funny old monitor to receive on your doorstep, because the box it comes in very much screams "ultrawide". That's a way of saying that it's massive, at the sort of scale that normally doesn't accompany a traditional, flat display.

Of course, that makes sense – at 32 inches, this display is as big as plenty of people's main TVs, and that makes it a bit of a monster on the desktop if you haven't done your measurements (as it's almost 71cm wide and 42cm tall). It's a full 4K display, too, so you get the maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160, as you'd expect.

The panel itself is an RGB Stripe tandem OLED, and its use of four stacks and three sub-pixel layers makes it relatively uncommon on the market right now (Asus has a rival in the PG32UCWM).

This means you get all of the benefits of OLED, including those deep blacks and vivid colours, along with the one remaining risk – burn-in, which is drastically less of a problem than it used to be, but still can happen.

As far as specifications go, beyond those headlines above, you get VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, Dolby Vision and standard HDR – so you should be able to set it up to look great, depending on the conditions in your room of choice. Its refresh rate tops out at 165Hz, too, and supports the big motion standards: Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and VESA AdaptiveSync.

Image 1 of 3

Design-wise, the monitor is refreshingly simple, with a square stand that's easy to assemble and impressively sturdy. It allows height adjustment, tilt and swivel, so you get the full range of motion that you'd hope for.

In terms of I/O, you get the expected two HDMI 2.1 FRL (Fixed Rate Link) ports, along with a DisplayPort 1.4 alternative. There's also a USB-C port with 15W charging for your devices, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio. That means there are no built-in speakers, though, which might be worth considering for some.

It's an extremely solid list of specs, and it ensures that the machine is genuinely competitive with monitors from a couple of years back that might have cost significantly more. That said, its 32-inch form factor obviously means it won't make sense in every setup.

Controls are straightforward and the same as every other Alienware monitor launched this year. You get a power button on the bottom right of the monitor, while the back features a control knob in the middle that's easy to reach. This lets you navigate through menus to toggle modes, tweak settings, and adjust whatever you like.

Performance

Dell has made great strides when it comes to ease of use on its Alienware monitors in the last few years, and that isn't any different on the AW3226Q, which I've found a real pleasure to get to grips with.

The monitor is a treat right out of the box, with a huge flat panel and a glossy coating that's impressive when it comes to reflectiveness – meaning it really isn't an issue in my experience, despite the gloss. The bezels on all four sides are pretty slim, too.

That 32-inch WOLED panel is a real looker, too, and ensures that this monitor's upper-mid-range pricing feels like a pretty great bargain once you start gaming. Even before then, in my daily work, I've found it a superb panel to use for my whole daily routine.

This sort of display has historically had issues with text clarity and fringing, but that one bugbear has been banished by progress in the last couple of years, meaning the AW3226Q is a workhorse for productivity as well as gaming.

Image 1 of 3

I've done hours of both on it, though, and found that gaming is, of course, its heartland. Playing Ace Combat 8 in its entirety on the display, I was super impressed by its clarity and brightness (which isn't industry-leading, but is more than good enough in my view).

It's unsurprisingly sharp at full resolution, but since I've sat so close to it, I've found 1440p more than good enough in most situations. The advantage of the monitor being 4K is in future-proofing, but it's worth benchmarking how much you'll really use that maximum before you decide you need it. On my work Mac, for instance, it was easier to sit at a lower resolution to avoid having to scale all my tabs individually for clarity.

I also found the AW3226Q really easy to tweak to my liking, thanks to that control knob, but it was also a pretty nice pairing with my PS5 Pro, which could flex its muscles fully thanks to those HDMI 2.1 ports. This makes the monitor a great pick if you want one panel that ticks all the boxes for both console and PC play.

Verdict

The AW3226Q is another superb launch from Alienware, in a year that it must have known was going to be one of its strongest ever. It, like the ultrawides before it, offers superb bang for your buck, with a full 4K panel that delivers brilliant image quality and motion clarity.

Whether a 32-inch monitor is right for you is arguably a whole different kettle of fish, but if you think it's the right size (and you've measured up), then you're going to want to consider it. Its price is bang on, and the experience it offers can't be argued with.

Also consider

If you're in the market for a big monitor, then you're probably already wondering whether an ultrawide might be sensible – and rightly so. If you have a bit more to spend, Dell's own Alienware AW3926QW remains the best monitor I've tested this year, with all the benefits of ultrawide and basically none of the downsides.

For those committed to flat panels, check out last year's LG UltraGear OLED 27GX790B-B, which I also loved. It's smaller and more PC-centric at 1440p, but its image quality is second to none, and it's a dream to use for more competitive pursuits (something this Dell can't really be stretched to due to its 165Hz cap).