By The Verge | Created at 2025-03-04 14:00:59 | Updated at 2025-03-04 21:01:41
7 hours ago
2024 was the year OLED cemented its victory — and 2025 might let more gamers actually afford the glorious screens. Today, Alienware says it will try* to bring the price of a QD-OLED gaming panel down to $549 this summer with the AW2725D, a new 27-inch 2560 x 1440 QHD monitor that’ll offer OLED’s incredible blacks and deep colors.
Outwardly, the AW2725D looks and sounds almost identical to the $899 27-inch AW2725Q 4K 240Hz QD-OLED monitor that Alienware is just now putting on sale today — but $350 cheaper, if you can settle for 110 pixels per inch (ppi), rather than the class-leading 166ppi that Alienware’s 4K OLED screen will offer.
There could be other compromises, too, as Alienware didn’t have spec sheets available by press time… but it’s actually a slightly faster panel at 280Hz versus 240Hz, offers the same 99 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, Delta E<2 color accuracy, and the same small rounded rectangle of an adjustable height stand (see below). Alienware display product manager James Cha tells us it also has the same graphite film heatsink and not-too-aggressive burn-in protection algorithm I’ve been enjoying in the $1,199 32-inch version of the screen.
The Alienware AW3425DW.
If that $549 panel wasn’t enough to tempt you away from the $899 version, what about a curved 34-inch ultrawide for $799? That’s what Dell is targeting* for the AW3425DW you see above, its latest version of the first 3440 x 1440 QD-OLED monitor it wowed us with in 2022.
There, you’re getting a 240Hz panel (up from 165Hz), HDMI 2.1 fixed rate link instead of TMDS signaling (which should provide enough bandwidth to go above 4K60 HDR over HDMI), a USB-C port with 15W charging, and a new user interface for its onscreen display, all for $100 less* than before.
Alienware’s also still offering its same three-year burn-in warranty on its QD-OLED panels, where it’ll ship you a new monitor before you have to return the old one. When I asked whether Dell might further extend its warranty now that panel maker Samsung Display offers more protections, Cha says, “That’s something we could look into.”
Alienware has more new monitors where these came from, including a pair of budget 25-inch and 27-inch Fast IPS screens that start at $249* and $269,* respectively, each using the same new industrial design as the QD-OLED screens. (The 25-inch AW2525HM is a 1080p 320Hz panel coming in the summer; the 27-inch AW2725DM is a 1440p 180Hz screen arriving in two days.)
*But Dell apparently can’t promise exact prices for these quite yet, with all of them subject to change — possibly due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China that are set to go into effect today.
It’s unlikely that Dell has an exclusive on the Samsung panels inside these new monitors, so don’t be surprised if other 27-inch and 34-inch QD-OLED screens hit the market at new low prices, too. In fact, Samsung Electronics recently reduced the price of its 27-inch Odyssey G61SD (1440p 240Hz QD-OLED) to $549 in an extended sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and its own store, perhaps in anticipation of successors.
