Alienware AW5520QF 55-Inch OLED Gaming Monitor Review

Our Verdict

The Alienware AW5520QF 55-inch OLED straddles the line between loftier-end gaming monitor and premium Telly to bring superb PC gaming operation to the living room. Just even with fantastic performance and securely thoughtful pattern, it's a niche product that's fashion more expensive than the value it delivers.

For

Cute, polished design
Superb OLED panel
DisplayPort and multiple USB three.0 ports

Against

Crazy expensive
Complicated to enable features like HDR

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Alienware AW5520QF 55-inch OLED straddles the line between high-end gaming monitor and premium TV to bring superb PC gaming performance to the living room. But even with fantastic performance and deeply thoughtful design, it's a niche product that's style more expensive than the value it delivers.

Pros

+
Beautiful, polished design
+
Superb OLED panel
+
DisplayPort and multiple USB 3.0 ports

Cons

-
Crazy expensive
-
Complicated to enable features like HDR

The Alienware proper name has had a prominent place in the gaming earth seemingly forever, but the company'south latest innovation feels big. That'due south largely considering it's physically huge. The Alienware AW5520QF 55-inch OLED is a cute behemoth of a gaming monitor, a giant OLED display that dwarfs the TVs in many living rooms and offers a cornucopia of specs and features tailored to gamers. A quick rundown of the highlights should exist enough to inspire gadget lust in any game enthusiast, from the gorgeous OLED panel to the 120-Hz refresh charge per unit, born FreeSync support and Alienware'southward customizable RGB lighting.

But here's a number to give y'all break: $three,999. Yeah, Alienware's new gaming monitor is selling for 4 g, making information technology several times more expensive than even pricey, curved ultrawide-screen monitors and even most premium 4K TVs. It all circles back to one primal question: Does Alienware really have one of the all-time gaming monitors (and one of the all-time monitors in general) for the living room, or is this a slick repackaging of old technologies, hoping to score points with the Alienware name?

What makes it a monitor and not a Telly?

Staring at the 55-inch AW5520QF OLED display, information technology's easy to think to yourself, "This is just a TV with an Alienware logo on it. Why is it so expensive?"

But, dear reader, you're only one-half right. While the 55-inch display is certainly TV-like in its dimensions, and the size of the thing lends itself more to gaming on the couch than at a traditional desk-bound gaming rig, the TV comparisons only get so far.

For starters, this ain't a TV. With no connectedness for an over-the-air antenna and no digital tuner for receiving any antenna signal anyway, the Alienware is, past definition, not a TV. Fifty-fifty the standard "sold as TVs without a tuner" models from major TV manufacturers are technically required to call themselves "home theater displays" instead of televisions or TVs, because they aren't equipped for an over-the-air point. Is it a nitpicky way to ascertain what is and isn't a TV? Yup. But information technology'southward also the industry standard.

On the other hand, as a gaming monitor, the AW5520QF offers some features and capabilities that you won't notice on any TV, fifty-fifty the best 4K gaming TVs. Chief amidst those is a DisplayPort, which is the superior connectivity standard over HDMI two.0, and the main output for whatever graphics card worth its table salt. And as for the ports offered on the AW5520QF, only the DisplayPort is poised to handle total 4K resolution at 120 Hz; the HDMI ports tin offer 4K resolution or 120-Hz refresh rates, but not both at the same fourth dimension. DisplayPorts are also extremely rare on TVs — we oasis't seen a TV in 2019 to offer a single DisplayPort, with manufacturers opting exclusively for HDMI.

What about HDMI 2.1?

But this is where things start to get catchy, because HDMI 2.ane has arrived on the scene, showing upwardly on 4K TVs from both LG and Samsung. This new standard has much higher bandwidth, allowing for 4K at 120 Hz, and, even better, offering variable refresh rate (VRR) support, for an feel very similar to AMD's FreeSync.

To top it all off, the HDMI 2.1 spec isn't currently supported by any gaming GPUs, so even on those TVs that take 2.ane support, you lot'll still want to be able to game over DisplayPort rather than HDMI — well, for the moment, anyway.

To complicate things even more than, Nvidia has just certified the LG E9 and C9 OLED TVs as the first Nvidia Yard-Sync TVs, as part of a new certification programme from Nvidia that offers frame-charge per unit syncing without the demand for proprietary Nvidia hardware within the Television set. This comes back to VRR back up, just Nvidia as well adds a number of stringent requirements that dictate response times, format support and more than to ensure that the Yard-Sync name only gets applied to top-of-the-line TVs. Right now, that's offered just on LG OLEDs.

Pattern

The key feature of the Alienware AW5520QF is the size. While information technology's being billed as a gaming monitor, it measures 55 inches diagonally from corner to corner, putting it in the same class equally many of the 4K TVs we review on Tom'southward Guide. The entire monitor measures 30.3 x 48.iii 10 3.2 inches and weighs 90 pounds, putting it firmly in the same weight class as TVs.

The included stand up has a boomerang-shaped base of operations and affixes to the dorsum of the brandish with an fastened mounting plate. If the TV-similar dimensions of the AW5520QF exit you wanting to wall mount the OLED monitor, you can remove the stand and back panel and hang information technology on the wall with a 400 ten 400-millimeter VESA mountain.

The dorsum of the AW5520QF combines that same white-gray coloring with a black panel that covers the back side of the slim OLED brandish. The rear console is etched with the number 55 just is otherwise blank. The nearly-white rear panel covers the back of the monitor with a seamless surface, but remove information technology and you'll find recessed connectors for power, HDMI and USB, along with channels for running cables without the usual tangled mess.

Removing the panel is exceptionally easy, thanks to a series of magnetic clasps that guide the plastic cover into place and snap it into proper position. It's an incredibly polished design element that left me wishing that something similar were used on other monitors and TVs.

And in truthful Alienware style, the AW5520QF OLED gets some gamer-oriented eye candy, like RGB lighting on the back side of the gear up, and the cabinet is dressed up to match the aesthetics of the new "Legend design" seen on the Alienware Aurora desktop. The stripe of neon-like RGB lighting and the glowing Alienware logo tin both exist tweaked to you liking, whether it's a specific shade of pink or green, or a pulsing pattern that cycles through every colour of the rainbow.

Ports and interface

Ane area where the AW5520QF OLED is more monitor than TV is in the drove of ports. Like a TV, you'll become three HDMI 2.0 ports, simply different any Television set we've seen in the last year, information technology also comes equipped with a single DisplayPort 1.four. Bated from these video inputs, the set offers 4 USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack and SPDIF sound output for connecting to environs-sound speakers.

These connections are divvied upwards between a rear set of ports in the back (secreted away backside the removable back panel) and a side-mounted cluster that offers ane HDMI connexion and 2 USB iii.0 ports. This keeps things fairly accessible while still taming the snarl of cables that oft accumulates betwixt and behind a gaming desktop and monitor.

Gaming performance

A screen this big is just begging to be hooked up to a PC for hours of gaming. So we did. We started with Far Cry: New Dawn and ran the mission to free Timber, our fluffy Akita, from becoming literal dog food. As nosotros fabricated our style to the compound, we chop-chop gained an audition who were pretty generous with the oohs and ahhs for the game's vibrant mural, specifically the pink verbena flowers against the verdant backdrop. When I finally freed Timber, we could see the private hairs in her red-orangish fur. And when she attacked a nearby enemy, she was fiercely flooffy.

It's easy to await skilful in a bright setting, but the dark is another story. And nosotros're glad to study that we're not afraid of the dark — and neither is the Alienware. Exploring the depths of an ancient catacomb in Witcher iii was fun with the correct amount of creepy. Even though we were making our manner through a darkened crypt, there was a clear difference in blacks, marker a articulate delineation between dark, gloomy and pitch black. Simply fifty-fifty at the screen's darkest, I could yet brand out minute details, like the raised filigree on a subconscious treasure breast.

For all its fancy features and TV-like size, the Alienware AW5520QF OLED is notwithstanding a gaming monitor. And then how does it stack upwardly against the best gaming monitors we've seen? To observe out, we tested the brandish with the same equipment we use for other gaming monitors, using a Klein K10-A colorimeter for testing color and effulgence.

And here's where things get sticky. While Alienware claims that the AW5520QF can produce 400 nits of brightness, initially the all-time we could coax out of the display in our testing setup was 113 nits. Even so, later on toggling between settings and rebooting the desktop, nosotros managed to get closer to Alienware'south nit merits.

MORE: All-time Gaming Monitor - Upkeep, Yard-Sync and 4K Monitors

Notwithstanding, discrepancies betwixt manufacturer brightness claims and lab results aren't uncommon, peculiarly every bit HDR-capable displays widen the gap between what a monitor can practice for an instant in specially formatted alive content and what can be sustained, in a standardized testing environment.

But even with those considerations, the Alienware wasn't quite as impressive as the imposing size and toll might suggest. The best brightness reading we could go was 113.4 nits. Our favorite 4K monitor from a few years back, the Asus ROG Swift PG27A (234.ii nits) offered better, and HDR-capable models, like the Samsung CHG70 (364.8 nits) and the LG 38GL950G UltraGear (558 nits) accident information technology out of the water.

Color reproduction was far better, with the Alienware covering 141.9% of the sRGB color gamut, which exceeds the Asus ROG Swift PG27A (130%) and the Acer Predator X34 (98.9%), and is only slightly behind the LG 38GL950G UltraGear (148.9%) and the Samsung CHG70 (154.1%).

And when nosotros measured functioning in the DCI color space, which is fast becoming the more relevant standard, the Alienware OLED reproduced 100.5% of the color infinite, in line with our recent Editor's Choice LG 38GL950G UltraGear (105.5%).

Color accurateness was also impressive, with a Delta-Eastward rating of 0.27, indicating nearly ephemeral deviation from perfectly true colors. That's extremely shut to the accuracy offered past the LG 38GL950G UltraGear (0.24), and that rating easily bests the Asus ROG Swift PG27A (1.96) and Acer Predator X34 (1.77), despite the relatively impressive accurateness of the latter two.

TV functioning

Though the Alienware AW5520QF is technically not a TV, it makes sense to compare it with similar-size displays, especially since TVs are being used to fill up the aforementioned ultralarge gaming niche that the AW5520QF is positioned to fill.

To that end, we ran our usual TV tests on the giant gaming display, using our X-Rite spectrophotometer and CalMAN calibration software, and then compared it with some of the best TVs on the market place. Specifically, we compared it with both the LG C9 OLED and the Sony Master Serial A9F — two OLED TVs that accept as well sourced their OLED panels from LG Display, and tin can make comparable claims about contrast, color accurateness and overall visual operation. We also compared information technology with the Samsung Q60 QLED Tv set, which is currently our favorite TV for gaming, cheers to its mix of performance, brusque lag times and relatively affordable cost.

In some areas, the AW5520QF offers fierce competition. In terms of color, the AW5520QF produced 130.1% of the sRGB color gamut and was fairly accurate, with a Delta-E rating of three.eight (lower scores are better). That's right in line with other premium OLED displays, with the Sony Main Series A9F edging alee past simply a fraction of a percentage signal (130.8%) in gamut reproduction and coming in with a rating that was just a pilus more precise (Delta-East three.5). The LG C9 OLED, on the other hand, edged out both with a 132.1% colour gamut and a Delta-Eastward rating of 1.8. Any way you wait at it, that's superb colour operation from the Alienware, merely it's non dramatically better than comparable OLED TVs.

The AW5520QF fared slightly better against the Samsung Q60 QLED Tv set, which reproduced a more than minor 99.nine% of the sRGB color gamut, but an impressive Delta-Due east rating of 1.half dozen, offer the best accuracy of the models we compared with the Alienware.

More than: What Is OLED?

But there'due south one surface area where the AW5520QF fell below our expectations, and that was lag fourth dimension. When tested with our Leo Bodnar input lag tester over HDMI, the AW5520QF consistently clocked a lag time of 29.5 milliseconds. While nigh of our tests were performed in standard motion picture mode, we made certain to perform lag testing beyond every manner the Alienware offered, just it stayed consequent in every manner. While that's non far out of line with premium OLED TVs, like the Sony A9F (27.5 ms) and the LG C9 OLED (21.2 ms), information technology's significantly slower than the Samsung Q60 QLED, which offered a game fashion with lag times of sixteen.3 ms. For a gaming-focused monitor, from ane of the biggest brand names in gaming, I expected better.

Still, when I played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the monitor had no issues keeping upwards with the action. Unsheathing my sword, I jumped into action, deftly dodging, parrying and striking until the activity reached its bloody and satisfying crescendo — a slow-motility shot of u.s.a. lopping off the final scoundrel's arm, sending a viscous ribbon of claret spinning through the air along with the newly disembodied limb. Throughout the fight, the FreeSync-assisted frame rate was silky polish with not a stutter in sight.

Since they're both 4K and HDR capable, we hooked upwards both the PlayStation four Pro and the Xbox One Ten to Alienware's behemothic monitor. At first, neither system recognized the Alienware's HDR ability, which led to more than a bit of confusion and consternation. Information technology took a chip of futzing, but we figured out that we needed to enable Smart HDR mode on the monitor and restart the consoles to get everything to work. And fifty-fifty though nosotros saw an firsthand crash-land in vibrancy, I wish there was an icon or something to let united states of america know HDR was enabled like you become on an LG Television receiver. But checking the in-game settings confirmed that I was playing in captivating HDR.

Streaming performance

To test how the AW5520QF handles streaming content, nosotros immediately fabricated a beeline for the 4K UHD content, starting with the David Attenborough-narrated Our Planet on Netflix.

Even though the AW550QF delivers more realistic color compared with competing OLED TVs, we couldn't aid but exist impressed past the monitor. A scene with flamingo hatchlings showed off small birds with white, downy feathers flanked past their stunningly pink-colored parent, its eye a fiery ball of red with a deep-blackness educatee. Details were so clear that we could see the large salt crystals that solidified around the legs of a chick, impeding its movements.

Remote control

One more TV-esque feature of the AW5520QF is the included remote control. (Just one more than way that the Alienware, while non technically a TV, is still totally a Goggle box.) The remote has rounded ends, for a look not different the Roku remote control, merely with even more than of a rounded capsule shape.

The buttons and controls include a ring-shaped directional pad, buttons for volume and brightness control, and iv additional navigation buttons for pulling up menus and navigating through on-screen options, each marked with an icon.

The remote has the same two-toned white-greyness and blackness colour scheme as the monitor, and the Alienware logo peeks out at the bottom of the controller. Simply unlike many remote controls, yous won't take to fiddle with any impenetrable battery compartment here. The white-gray faceplate and the black lesser half of the remote are 2 halves that can exist easily separated, thanks to a magnetic closure that holds everything securely together in utilize, but makes it super convenient when you're changing batteries.

Audio

Although nosotros would notwithstanding invest in a soundbar of some sort, on their own, the Alienware's pair of fourteen-watt speakers have some serious kicking. Nosotros could hear the frustration in Aloy'south vox as she inner monologued through a mission in Horizon: Zero Dawn. The background strings were and then gentle, they all but faded from our firsthand consciousness. However, the startled call of a flim-flam and the jostling of Aloy'due south armor brought everything into aural focus. And when we went to battle with a rampaging Sawtooth, we were treated to weighty explosions as the rogue machine ran into our booby-trapped trip wires.

Alienware AW5520QF vs. the competition

With monitor engineering science packed into a display that has TV dimensions, the Alienware AW5520QF squares off against a surprisingly varied field of competitors. Obviously, with other gaming monitors offering 4K resolution, ultrawide displays and all sorts of gaming eye processed, there are traditional gaming monitors to worry about.

There are likewise TVs, which have steadily been encroaching on the territory traditionally held past monitors. As display technologies advance and more media is purely digital, the lines between monitor and Telly are getting blurry, and new TVs are going farther to erase those distinctions, with gaming support that but wasn't imaginable for TVs a few short years ago.

MORE: Assist Me, Tom'south Guide: Which TV Tin I Apply as a Gaming Monitor?

One of those is variable refresh rate (VRR), which makes the same sort of GPU-to-frame rate matching possible over HDMI that is currently handled past technologies like AMD's FreeSync and Nvidia's G-Sync. The Alienware is certified for the former. On top of this, FreeSync is fully supported on Samsung'south new TVs, and LG's OLED TVs are getting the showtime Nvidia M-Sync certifications.

Finally, Alienware isn't the just company with dreams of gaming on much larger screens. Nvidia'south BFGD initiative puts Thou-Sync hardware into Television-sized gaming monitors also. The HP Omen X Emperium, Asus ROG Swift PG65 and Acer Predator CG437K P are all fleshing out the nascent category between monitors and TVs.

Lesser line

The Alienware AW5520QF 55-inch OLED gaming monitor is one of the best gaming monitors available today, and if money is no object, there's no good reason not to buy it. It offers some of the all-time aspects of PC gaming monitors in a TV-sized parcel, a combination that is arguably the pinnacle of gaming displays.

But unlimited budgets only aren't realistic for most people, and $four,000 is an awful lot to ask for any chip of gaming gear that doesn't actually accept a GPU. The even larger question is whether the Alienware AW5520QF offers enough of an improvement over existing products to justify the leap to this item solution.

And that'southward where it gets hard to recommend the AW5520QF, to anyone. Is it cute? Yes. Is information technology meliorate than other options? Current leading gaming monitors, like the Editors' Choice LG 38GL950G UltraGear, offer better operation beyond the board: better effulgence and color accuracy Chiliad-Sync, and a price tag that looks downright reasonable by comparison. It's but designed for the desktop, with a 38-inch curved design.

For gaming in the living room, an LG C9 OLED TV volition deliver similar big-screen gaming with all the aforementioned benefits of OLED — perfect black levels, decent (merely not keen) responsiveness and a rich combination of visual and audio performance. And unlike the Alienware AW5520QF, the LG C9 boasts future-proof HDMI 2.1 connections and costs less than half of what Alienware'south charging for the same 55-inch panel.

Neither is a perfect replacement for what the Alienware AW5520QF is offering. If you're one to drib large bucks to be an early adopter, go for information technology, but we'll hold off for now. However, we really hope this isn't just a i-off attempt from Alienware, because the design is fantastic, the features are thoughtful and well-implemented, and the technology is but nearly at that place. In the new niche of living room PC gaming, a 2d generation of this product could be unbeatable, and we actually hope information technology gets there.

Sherri L. Smith has been cranking out product reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2011. In that time, she's reviewed more her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones and everything in between. The resident gamer and sound junkie, Sherri was previously a managing editor for Black Web ii.0 and contributed to BET.Com and Popgadget.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/alienware-aw5520qf-55-inch-oled-gaming-monitor

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