Dell Alienware AW3420DW Monitor Review

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has a gamer-centric, modern design. It's mostly made out of plastic and it has RGB lighting on the back, the stand, and at the bottom of the screen. The screen is curved and the bezels are thin on all sides. The stand has wide-set feet and supports the monitor well.

The stand supports the monitor well and there's almost no wobble at all. The feet are wide-set, so you can still use the space in front.

The Dell Alienware SW3420DW has decent ergonomics. It has a wide range for height, swivel, and tilt adjustments, but it can't rotate to portrait orientation.

The back of the monitor is covered with plain off-white plastic, and there's an Alienware logo that lights up at the top right corner. The stand also has an LED strip, and cable management is built-in. The stand has a quick release feature if you choose to VESA-mount it.

The bezels are thin on all sides and aren't distracting.

The monitor is fairly thick, mainly due to the curvature of the screen.

Build quality is excellent. Even though the monitor is mostly plastic, it feels solid and sturdy. The stand supports the monitor well and there's very little wobble.

Like most IPS monitors, the Dell Alienware AW3420DW has a poor contrast ratio, resulting in blacks looking like gray. Our measurements were done after calibration, and the calibration process caused a decrease in the overall brightness of the monitor, which also impacts its native contrast. Prior to calibration, it was measured at 800:1.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW doesn't have a local dimming feature; the video above is provided for reference only.

SDR peak brightness is okay. There's no variation in brightness when displaying different content, and it should be bright enough for a well-lit room, but it may struggle a bit in direct sunlight.

Do note that the peak brightness was measured after calibration and with the backlight set to maximum. Before calibration, the monitor was able to achieve the advertised 350 nits in the 10% window. In other words, you can achieve higher peak brightness, but at the expense of color accuracy.

This monitor doesn't support HDR. If you're looking for an ultrawide monitor that has HDR support, check out the LG 34GN850-B.

The Dell Alienware 3420DW has decent viewing angles. Images remain fairly accurate when viewed from the side, but black levels rise quickly when you move off-center. This is important if you like to share content or play co-op games.

Vertical viewing angles are decent. Images should remain accurate at the top and bottom of the screen even if you sit up close.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has excellent gray uniformity. The top left corner and the right side of the screen are darker, but there's virtually no sign of dirty screen effect. In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is near perfect.

Black uniformity is sub-par, which is typical of most IPS monitors. There's backlight bleed at all corners of the screen, as well as some clouding and vertical smearing throughout the screen.

Out of the box, the Dell Alienware 3420DW has an acceptable color accuracy. There are inaccuracies with several colors and with shades of gray; however, gamma follows the target curve well, so most scenes appear at the correct brightness. The color temperature is slightly warmer than our target of 6500K.

After calibration, color accuracy is outstanding. There's still some inaccuracy with the color blue, but it shouldn't be noticeable for most people.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has an exceptional SDR color gamut. It covers nearly all of the sRGB color space used in most content, and it has excellent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, which is great for professional photo editing.

SDR color volume is outstanding, but it can't display dark, saturated colors due to the monitor's low contrast ratio.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has no risk of temporary image retention or permanent burn-in.

Gradient performance is very good. There's some banding when displaying dark green, dark gray, and dark blue.

There's no color bleed at all on this monitor.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has mediocre reflection handling. It has a matte coating that diffuses light across the screen, though you may still need to raise the brightness if you're in a very bright room.

Text clarity on this monitor is good. With Cleartype enabled (top photo), diagonal lines appear much better, but vertical lines look thinner, such as on the T and I.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has an excellent response time when playing at maximum refresh rate. Most monitors' overdrive level can be adjusted and we recommend the 'Fast' setting, which provides the best performance with the least amount of overshoot. You may still see some artifacts, but it's significantly better than the 'Super Fast' and 'Extreme' settings, which caused visible inverse ghosting. If you want a similar monitor with faster response time, check out the LG 34GP83A-B.

Response time when playing at 60Hz is great, just slightly slower than at maximum refresh rate, though most people won't be able to notice it. Again, the 'Fast' setting gives the best performance with minimal overshoot.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW has a flicker-free backlight to help reduce eye strain.

This monitor doesn't have a black frame insertion feature.

The Dell Alienware AW3420DW supports G-SYNC natively. The VRR range is outstanding and it only works through the DisplayPort connection. Unusually, it also supports Adaptive Sync, allowing for a variable refresh rate when connected to a FreeSync source, but only over DisplayPort. If you want a similar monitor with a higher refresh rate, check out the Acer Nitro XV340CK.

Input lag is superb. It's slightly higher when playing at 60Hz or when G-SYNC is enabled, but it shouldn't be noticeable for most people.