AW3423DW

I’ve shared my feedback on other posts but will reiterate here given there aren’t many reviews or real world experience users out there to share. For context, I’ve spent the last couple of years on OLED, first the Alienware 3423dw, then the MSI mpg321urx and a Samsung G80sd. I’ve also tried (and returned) the MSI and Samsung 49 inch super ultra wides. I “downgraded” to the g75f 40 and it’s been a pleasant surprise for me. I like it way more than I thought I would and giving up perfect blacks was a lot easier to do. Part of that may be because I don’t play a lot of really dark games, but I think part of it is this monitor has really good contrast. Colors seem great and calibrating with my Calbrite went well. My use case is 80% productivity and 20% gaming, maybe 90/10 or 100/0 on really busy weeks. I can’t understate how much easier it is on my eyes after a 10 or 12 hour day of spreadsheets and legal memos. Not having to set low brightness to avoid burn in helps with that I’m sure. Not having to hide taskbars, keep a bland black background are pluses for general usability/ enjoyment. The 5k2k and 40 inch form factor feels best for productivity, and while the Dell or LG IPS monitors have more productivity features, most of their convenience is covered by my work issued thunderbolt dock. Viewing angles aren’t nearly as good comparing to OLED but in practical use I’ve not had any issues. On occasion at the farthest edge of the screen I can see slight brightness / gamma shift. But otherwise, I sit in front of my monitor and haven’t found it problematic. Overall, seems to strike the right balance of productivity, gaming, and peace of mind for my admittedly very fringe use case/needs. At $676 all in with Samsung EPP through my work, I feel like I get good value out of it. Not worth it at retail or really anything above $850 in my opinion. I know the “OLED or die” crowd will pan it as poor value and for the gaming enthusiasts/ priority buyer, I’m sure it is bad value. But if you fall in a similar use case as me, I’d recommend giving it a shot if you get it on sale, you might be surprised. Worst thing that can happen is you don’t like it and return it.

I use an oled as my primary monitor for WFH and have static applications up all day long. I’m at 3.5 years and have no discernible burn. Mine is a first gen Alienware oled and all that I do it run the panel refresh feature once a week. I don’t even hide my taskbar or use a black background. Just my anecdotal experience though.

Congrats! Pre-order don’t even open until May for us Aussies; side by side that actually looks quite noticeably bigger than the AW34 which was something that I was a bit concerned about whether going from the 34 to 39 wasn’t big enough of a jump but looking at that I’m sure I’ll be happy going with the 39 instead of the 45 not wanting to deal with the 800R curve. How are you finding the colours going from a QD-OLED to the tandem OLED of the LG?

That’s awesome to hear man. I was in the store and saw the 45” side by side with a (MSI) 34” QD-OLED and it really looked flat and lacking pop in comparison and wasn’t sure if it was the matte coating or the panel itself so I’m very glad to hear that the colours on this new 39” looks good (coming from a AW3423DWF myself).

Yea I do photo editing too among other things and looking at the 45” in person I feel like it’s just a bit too much. I’m also someone that likes to kick back and chill and watch videos and I’d think with the 800R curve you’d have a pretty small sweet spot. I saw a YouTube vid too someone putting the 39” in front of the 45” and they ended up being roughly the same width due to the much more aggressive curve on the 45” so in use it’ll probably really only feel like you’re losing out on the vertical real estate with the 39”.

I've been trying to upgrade from Alienware AW3423DW (34'' 3440x1440 1800R curvature) for quite a while (as I love it, but the pixel density and layout bothers me). 45GX950A is great, but it's too large and 1000R curvature is way too much for me. 39GX950B strikes the best balance for me - a bit smaller, but still bigger than 34'' and it solves two main issues - 1500R is not as aggressive as 1000R and I get 5k2k. LG, please get my money right now as I'm ready :)

I don't know what OLED you had previously but I had the same issues on a first gen Alienware OLED and also ended up not keeping it. I now have the MSI 49" OLED and have no text issues. All of the 49" OLEDs are Samsung Gen2 with the subpixel updates so they should be similar. I have also worked on this monitor for about a year with no burn in issues. Not trying to change you mind but it may be worth looking at one.

I have a 3423dw since launch week and 0 burn in. People are being super paranoid.

As some of you might know from my comments in Discord and elsewhere, I've been actively using OLED ultrawide monitors for about 4 years now, tested a whole bunch of them, and I'm still running the AW3423DW and AW3423DWF as my daily drivers to this day. So when the first Gen 5 QD-OLED ultrawides started shipping, I obviously had to get my hands on one. I've had the MSI X36 on my desk for over a month now and I think I can give a proper assessment at this point. Quick setup context because it matters: RTX 4080 Super, VESA mounted, sitting about 70cm from the screen. I use it mixed, productivity during the day (code, documentation, lots of text), gaming in the evenings and some HDR content here and there. [Viewing Distance](https://preview.redd.it/78cj563caurg1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75f3d18f3bda9e8310c7b971b87f552d5fe00180) **The panel and why Gen 5 is actually a huge improvement** The V-Stripe RGB subpixel layout is what changed the most for me. I did my usual side by side text test on day one (different font sizes, ClearType on/off, light and dark backgrounds) and there's just nothing there anymore. No green magenta fringing on text edges, no need for any ClearType workarounds. https://preview.redd.it/dbjqh09jmurg1.png?width=1251&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcca0b547e7c0de9d250da85fdc6773ae08c55ff I use my AW3423DW daily for 12+ hours, including heavy text work, and the fringing on the old triangular subpixel layout was always a bit of an annoyance. Not enough to make me ditch the monitor because the image quality was too good for that, but enough to notice it every day. So I'm genuinely glad that's finally over with Gen 5. What also hits you right away is the “DarkArmor” coating. My office has a big window on the left side, and where my old QD-OLED panel always had that annoying magenta shine on dark areas in daylight, now it's often just black but with full sunshine on it or in weird angles as in the picture below you will still see this magenta shine. The coating apparently absorbs ambient light more effectively than the old one. The difference is immediately noticeable in real life. https://preview.redd.it/0k4opbrpcurg1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6cfb1fa5f2697f9d295115f3324109e4b273d43f **Image quality is what actually matters in daily use** I always test monitors for at least a few weeks in regular use before I even start caring about measurement charts, because how it actually feels on your desk tells you more than a Delta E table ever will. And the first impression here was damn good. Colors pop, but not in that over the top "Samsung vivid" kind of way. Just rich and natural. For the hard numbers I'll point you to the [DisplayNinja review](https://www.displayninja.com/msi-mpg-341cqr-qd-oled-x36-review/) since they did proper instrument based measurements. They got 1295 nits peak at 1% APL, around 507 nits sustained in True Black 500 mode, and roughly 306 nits in SDR with no ABL at all. That last part lines up exactly with what I noticed in daily use, the brightness stays rock solid no matter what's on screen. No dimming when you scroll through a bright document, no shifting when you switch between windows. For productivity that's a massive win. If you want the full technical breakdown, check their review directly. In HDR mode ABL is obviously still there, that's just OLED physics and there's no way around it. But MSI built in a "Uniform Luminance" feature where you can adjust 14 individual brightness points on the HDR curve. That's surprisingly granular and for HDR enthusiasts who like to fine tune things. Three HDR modes to choose from: 1.True Black 500 (best EOTF tracking) 2.Peak 1300 (maximum highlight brightness) 3.EOTF Boost, since the new FW seems to offer the best balance of both. **360 Hz do you need it?** Honestly, coming from 175 Hz on my AW3423DW, the jump to 360 Hz is very noticeable. Way more so than going from, 120 to 175hz was for me with the upgrade from the AW3420DW to the AW3423DW. Everything just feels buttery smooth, in CS2 at 300+ fps the difference to 175 Hz was immediately obvious, in something like Crimson Desert you'll never get there anyway. Input lag wasn’t noticeable for me. Zero ghosting in the UFO test, zero overshoot. Nothing to complain about here but there aren’t many games where u can reach such numbers. Important technical bits over DP 2.1a you get 3440x1440@360Hz without DSC at 8bit. Over HDMI 2.1 you do need DSC for full refresh rate. USB-C also does full resolution at 360 Hz plus 98W power delivery for laptop charging. Adaptive Sync works out of the box, VRR range is 48-360 Hz. G-Sync runs in compatible mode and I can confirm it works perfectly fine with my 4080 Super, no flickering in terms of blanking and sync drops, VRR flickering will always be a thing on OLED panels which you can only help yourself with by turning VRR off. No official NVIDIA certification but in 2026 with adaptive sync this isnt a dealbreaker for me anymore. **What's not great** **110 PPI.** This is and remains the elephant in the room for 34 inch UWQHD. If you're coming from a 4K display, you will notice the difference in text sharpness. Windows scaling at 100% is just barely okay at around 70cm viewing distance, but if you primarily edit text and want pixel perfect crispness, the 110 PPI will bother you. That's not an MSI problem, it affects the entire 34 inch UWQHD class. But it needs to be said. **The AI features are meh.** AI Brightness and AI Light Sensor sound cool on paper. There's a sensor in the monitor that checks 5 times per second whether you're still sitting there. In practice though, the automatic brightness adjustment reacts more or less unreliably and it's more annoying than helpful. Both are disabled by default and honestly I turned them off after two days of testing and never looked back. **Gaming Intelligence software** was still buggy for me but I have to say that I got a press version so that’s nothing I would worry about on the consumer side. The joystick OSD works great though and is easy to navigate, so not a dealbreaker. **No built-in speakers.** Doesn't bother me at all, but for some people that's a consideration. **Uniformity:** Up to 20% brightness dropoff in the corners on full white. That's typical for OLED and barely noticeable in daily use, but you'll see it on test patterns if you go looking. Some slight vertical banding on very dark greys, also standard OLED stuff. **How it stacks up against the competition** Compared to the AW3425DW (QD-OLED, 240 Hz, triangular subpixel layout), the X36 brings three real improvements: no more text fringing, 360 instead of 240 Hz, and about 30% more HDR peak brightness at comparable APL windows. The roughly 300$ premium is justified in my opinion, but only if at least two of those three points matter to you. If you already own the Alienware and mainly game on it, you don't necessarily need to upgrade. The W-OLED panels in the ASUS PG34WCDM and LG 34GS95QE use an RWBG subpixel layout, which still produces noticeable fringing on text due to the reversed subpixel order and the extra white subpixel. They also top out at 240 Hz and around 1200 nits measured peak. Gen 5 QD-OLED with its proper V-Stripe RGB layout is a clear step up here, both in text clarity and HDR headroom. The Acer Predator X34 F3 and ASUS PG34WCDN use the exact same panel by the way. Acer costs 100$ more at 1200$, ASUS pricing is still TBA. That makes the MSI the cheapest confirmed Gen 5 ultrawide on the market right now at 1099$. **Burn-in the eternal question** The tandem OLED architecture is supposed to reduce the risk by about 30% compared to previous generations. OLED Care 3.0 includes pixel shift, multi logo detection, and a panel refresh interval that's been extended to 24 hours (up from 16) or after 4 hours of cumulative use. The 3 year warranty explicitly covers burn-in damage. Realistically I obviously can't say anything about long term behavior after a month. But the protective measures are more comprehensive than any previous generation, and the warranty gives you peace of mind for at least three years. **Price** 1099$ or roughly 1299€ is not cheap. But for what you get here Gen 5 QD-OLED without fringing, 360 Hz, 1300 nits HDR peak, DP 2.1a, USB-C with 98W PD, completely fanless passive cooling. Two years ago you would have paid more for less. **tl;dr** Gen 5 QD-OLED finally kills text fringing, the MSI X36 is currently the cheapest way to get it and delivers in basically every category. 110 PPI remains the only real compromise. If that doesn't bother you, this is the best 34 inch ultrawide you can buy right now.