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Alienware's New 39-Inch AW3926QW OLED Monitor Draws Strong Reviews for Price and Performance

3 outlets8/27/2026

The short version

Three outlets tested Alienware's AW3926QW, a 39-inch 5K2K OLED gaming monitor with a new tandem panel design, and all found it to be a standout performer at a competitive $1,099 price.

via Tom's Guide

Alienware has released the AW3926QW, a 39-inch curved gaming monitor using a new four-stack, three-subpixel RGB stripe "tandem" OLED panel that the company says is the first of its kind on the market. The monitor supports a 5K2K resolution of 5120x2160 at 165Hz, or can switch to a lower 2560x1080 resolution stretched across the 21:9 screen to hit a 330Hz refresh rate for competitive gaming. It has a 1500R curve, a 0.03ms response time, and is compatible with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync. The monitor launched at $1,099 and is sold through Dell's online store.

All three reviewers praised the monitor's value. PCWorld called the $1,099 price "a crazy good price," noting that a comparable-size, comparable-resolution LG OLED retails for $1,800. Tom's Hardware said the AW3926QW is priced competitively with other premium OLED ultrawide displays despite offering a near-complete feature set. Tom's Guide similarly rated it as one of the best gaming monitors available, citing its combination of resolution, brightness, and speed.

Reviewers highlighted the panel's brightness and color performance, though exact figures varied by source and test method. Tom's Hardware reported the panel topping 500 nits in HDR for a 25% window and filling the screen at over 300 nits, with Alienware claiming up to 1,300 nits in a 3% window; it also measured color gamut coverage of more than 100% of DCI-P3 and said the display was accurate out of the box with no calibration needed, aside from a minor gamma issue only adjustable in one picture mode. Tom's Guide's lab tests measured lower figures — 243 nits in SDR and 301 nits in HDR — but noted the monitor could reach roughly 500 nits at a 10% window and about 300 nits across the full screen in dedicated HDR modes, along with strong color accuracy (Delta-E of 0.24) and 95.1% DCI-P3 coverage.

On design and features, reviewers pointed to the monitor's build quality, port selection, and software. It includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort, USB-C with up to 90 watts of charging, USB-A and USB-B ports, and a built-in KVM switch, according to PCWorld and Tom's Hardware. Tom's Hardware also noted HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black certification, and a three-year warranty that includes burn-in coverage, a point PCWorld also mentioned. Both Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide described the on-screen menu system as extensive but easy to navigate via a joystick control, with multiple picture modes for gaming, creative work, and eSports use, plus AlienFX RGB lighting on the rear panel.

In gaming performance tests, Tom's Hardware ran the monitor with an RTX 4090 and found smooth, responsive performance at 165Hz with no need for higher refresh rates, while also finding the 330Hz eSports modes useful for competitive play or less powerful graphics cards. Tom's Guide tested with an RTX 5080-equipped PC and reported smooth performance in Cyberpunk 2077 at both 165Hz and 330Hz, without frame drops or screen tearing, though it noted that a similarly powerful PC would be needed to take full advantage of the display. The main drawback noted was size: Tom's Guide said the 39-inch panel and its curvature require a relatively deep desk and more viewing distance, making it potentially too large for smaller setups, while Tom's Hardware found the extra height compared to typical 34-inch ultrawides beneficial for productivity tasks like photo editing and side-by-side document comparison.

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