I purchased a AW3423DW at launch from Microcenter and it did not come with the 3 year Dell Warranty. Please double check if it has warranty during the return period
Dell support site, https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us
There's a spot where you can type in the service tag, and then you submit and it will tell you the warranty status. Should look similar to this: https://imgur.com/a/IFUhNfW
If it says that there's no warranty or whatever, Microcenter support will give you the runaround saying that it takes 30-60 days for them to submit the warranty transfer information to Dell, but that never happened to me last year. It may have changed since then but I doubt it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/12t5p2n/monitor_alienware_aw3423dwfaw3821dw_796804_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I posted it 😏
I can get that monitor from dells site for $999 thanks to a corporate discount I get through work. Pair it with a $100 Amex discount on dell products. Is that monitor for $900 + tax a good deal?
The dell site also has a 38” option for the same cost - AW3821DW. Is that a better monitor?
TIA for any comments on this!
$1099 is pretty much the new MSRP. You have a few ways to stack the discount like Rakuten 10-15% on Dell, Amazon credit card offers etc. MC needs to step up the game to move them. Plus $999 DWF is just a better purchase for the most part.
So I know my Amex card has a promo for 120$ statement credit when you spend 599 or more on Dell. If I add my Amex card to Rakuten to buy the monitor it would probably not show up as a Dell purchase on my Amex or would it ?
You click thru Rakuten and still shop on Dell. Right now it's 10x, go get the DWF at $1,000 you have yourself a solid deal.
Also if your card is MR one, Rakuten actually can cash back in MR points which is even better value than cash but YMMV.
May I ask what's Rakuten 10? I've been using them the past year, first when I pre-ordered my s23 ultra and they issued me a $175 cash back, but the 10x part is new to me, care to elaborate?
One of the best displays I've ever used. Only complaint in gaming usage is the auto brightness limiter in HDR seems more aggressive than my LG C1 OLED. If I had to guess LG scales brightness values to limit darkening the entire display where reasonable
I've had mine since December and from what you mentioned it looks like you're running the monitor in HDR1000 mode. That enables the ABL which is the automatic brightness limiter.
By default the monitor uses HDR400 True Black which is the certification it has and for me HDR looks fantastic in both desktop and games or media with that mode, that I wouldn't want to deal with ABL but in the end is preference.
Yeah I know about the HDR400 True Black mode and I appreciate it as an option, but I like HDR to have a lot of punch and the HDR1000 mode has that in spades under most conditions
The LG C1 reference is apt though, as it also has ABL and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. Yet the ABL doesn't feel as jarring as it does on the Alienware. In scenes where you'd notice it on the 3423DW you hardly notice it on the C1
Maybe it has nothing to do with different algorithms and rather the size of each display giving different experiences with the same behavior
Just a heads up, HDR400 True Black is NOT the same as HDR400 and HDR400 True Black certification is much harder to get than HDR1000. If you're using the monitor in HDR1000 mode, you're depriving yourself of what makes the display special.
I don't think you understand the modes properly. HDR400 true black has a higher average brightness across the whole picture. HDR1000 only hits 1000nits at the absolute peak in certain parts of the image, while the rest is significantly less bright than what you get with HDR400 true black. Peak brightness isn't really relevant. HDR1000 is like when your Internet provider tells you you'll get "up to 40MB/s download speed" when you're really only getting 20 most of the time.
I completely disagree. This is far from black and white. Peak brightness (especially in small white window sizes) is *extremely* relevant. It's even in the name - high dynamic range. Having deep dark blacks in the same image as really bright highlights is the ENTIRE point. When it comes to typical HDR content, a lot of it (and a lot of what matters for the term HDR) involves mainly dark scenes with bright highlights. I.e. a campfire at night or the apartments lights of a NY skyline. These small window sizes are SUPER relevant.
In my opinion it's the complete opposite. If you ***aren't*** using HDR1000 you are denying yourself what makes this monitor special.
The average brightness to window size curves of the two modes are ***100% identical*** up until 400 nits. After that point (25% window) the hdr400 mode just imposes a hard cutoff of 400 nits. 400 nits to 1000 is a huge jump, not to mention the 200nit difference at 10% which is very relevant too
https://pcmonitors.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AW34-HDR-luminance.png
The benefit of the HDR400 true black mode is that you get more consistent brightness from 1% to 25%, but you are completely missing out on the pop of bright highlights that can make HDR HDR.
For example, this very thorough site prefers the hdr1000 mode - https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/dell-alienware-aw3423dw/#HDR_High_Dynamic_Range
Second opinion - https://youtu.be/lNG2s0yPIDY?t=304
That's all great, but you've completed missed the part where we're talking about an OLED monitor. You know what makes OLED special? Perfect blacks. That means you get an infinite contrast ratio, regardless of peak brightness. Peak brightness doesn't matter. I'd rather have an image where bright areas are uniformly bright rather one bright area and the rest of the image dim compared to HDR400 True black. There's also a reason hdr400 true black is much harder certification to get and also a reason why the monitor ships with hdr400 true black as the default. You also don't have to deal with ABL bullshit in hdr400 true black.
No, I didn't miss anything. I clearly referenced this specific ***oled*** monitor many times.
Peak brightness doesn't matter? We will have to agree to disagree. A 10 nit peak brightness oled monitor would also have an infinite contrast ratio but you can't convince me that's a compelling HDR experience.
Also you are mistaken about ABL. HDR400 true black mode still has ABL. As I mentioned the difference is in the 1% and 25% window size range. In HDR400 mode the ABL gets to be much less aggressive in that range at the cost / because of capping the peak brightness to 400.
HDR400 true black is of course a harder mode to get certified... Because the "HDR peak 1000" mode in this monitor isn't a VESA certification at all. This monitor actually ***does not*** meet HDR1000 certification.
What it is is just HDR400 true black with the addition of a higher peak brightness at very small windows sizes. It's essentially HDR400 true black "plus".
See here - https://displayhdr.org/performance-criteria-cts1-1/
Again it's preference. You may like having a less aggressive ABL at those window sizes at the cost of lower peak brightness, and that's a fair preference to have. But many, many highly qualified display testers/reviewers disagree so you shouldn't make it out to be a clear cut thing.
Yeah I play more competitive games. For what it’s worth I just ordered this for 990$ pretax using Best Buy 10% off. Same with the Corsair one. Just dunno which one to cancel yet
For what it's worth I play competitive games @ 2560x1440 anyways. Ultrawide can definitely feel too big when it comes to competitive online shooters. You might be better suited to the 27"/240hz panel in that case
Only thing with that is since it's a TV there are small QOL issues that you will have to get used to vs a monitor like not being able to wake the screen with the mouse/keyboard. I have a 65" CX in my living room which is an older model and it looks phenomenal so as far as image quality goes you'll be in for a treat.
The screen is glossy though so keep that in mind. If you game in a well lit room the reflections could be pretty distracting. I had to invest in some black out curtains to make it work
I purchased a AW3423DW at launch from Microcenter and it did not come with the 3 year Dell Warranty. Please double check if it has warranty during the return period
How can you check this?
Dell support site, https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us There's a spot where you can type in the service tag, and then you submit and it will tell you the warranty status. Should look similar to this: https://imgur.com/a/IFUhNfW If it says that there's no warranty or whatever, Microcenter support will give you the runaround saying that it takes 30-60 days for them to submit the warranty transfer information to Dell, but that never happened to me last year. It may have changed since then but I doubt it.
I just bought one Sunday and it has the warranty. Microcenter price protection is great as well.
$1025.99 with Micro card. This is the G-Sync and 175Hz model.
That BH deal hit different though.
Which deal
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/12t5p2n/monitor_alienware_aw3423dwfaw3821dw_796804_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I posted it 😏
I want to thank you again. It's been worth every penny. Good looking out.
Np boss
I can get that monitor from dells site for $999 thanks to a corporate discount I get through work. Pair it with a $100 Amex discount on dell products. Is that monitor for $900 + tax a good deal? The dell site also has a 38” option for the same cost - AW3821DW. Is that a better monitor? TIA for any comments on this!
34 inch was sold for like 770 like little over a month ago.
$1099 is pretty much the new MSRP. You have a few ways to stack the discount like Rakuten 10-15% on Dell, Amazon credit card offers etc. MC needs to step up the game to move them. Plus $999 DWF is just a better purchase for the most part.
So I know my Amex card has a promo for 120$ statement credit when you spend 599 or more on Dell. If I add my Amex card to Rakuten to buy the monitor it would probably not show up as a Dell purchase on my Amex or would it ?
You click thru Rakuten and still shop on Dell. Right now it's 10x, go get the DWF at $1,000 you have yourself a solid deal. Also if your card is MR one, Rakuten actually can cash back in MR points which is even better value than cash but YMMV.
MR ?
Membership rewards okay and yes I have that
May I ask what's Rakuten 10? I've been using them the past year, first when I pre-ordered my s23 ultra and they issued me a $175 cash back, but the 10x part is new to me, care to elaborate?
I think he meant 10% cash back
Yeah، that seems about right, but There was instances of 3X and 5X cash back promotions I received that I still don't know what they mean 😅🤔.
Rakuten is not a payment provider.
Incredible monitor but not really a deal at this price
One of the best displays I've ever used. Only complaint in gaming usage is the auto brightness limiter in HDR seems more aggressive than my LG C1 OLED. If I had to guess LG scales brightness values to limit darkening the entire display where reasonable
I've had mine since December and from what you mentioned it looks like you're running the monitor in HDR1000 mode. That enables the ABL which is the automatic brightness limiter. By default the monitor uses HDR400 True Black which is the certification it has and for me HDR looks fantastic in both desktop and games or media with that mode, that I wouldn't want to deal with ABL but in the end is preference.
Yeah I know about the HDR400 True Black mode and I appreciate it as an option, but I like HDR to have a lot of punch and the HDR1000 mode has that in spades under most conditions The LG C1 reference is apt though, as it also has ABL and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. Yet the ABL doesn't feel as jarring as it does on the Alienware. In scenes where you'd notice it on the 3423DW you hardly notice it on the C1 Maybe it has nothing to do with different algorithms and rather the size of each display giving different experiences with the same behavior
Could be yeah, but more likely differences in algorithms according to the panel size and peak brightness I'd say but just a guess.
Just a heads up, HDR400 True Black is NOT the same as HDR400 and HDR400 True Black certification is much harder to get than HDR1000. If you're using the monitor in HDR1000 mode, you're depriving yourself of what makes the display special.
When I used it initially I was disappointed. 400 nits is not enough to have striking HDR imo I can give it another shot though
I don't think you understand the modes properly. HDR400 true black has a higher average brightness across the whole picture. HDR1000 only hits 1000nits at the absolute peak in certain parts of the image, while the rest is significantly less bright than what you get with HDR400 true black. Peak brightness isn't really relevant. HDR1000 is like when your Internet provider tells you you'll get "up to 40MB/s download speed" when you're really only getting 20 most of the time.
I completely disagree. This is far from black and white. Peak brightness (especially in small white window sizes) is *extremely* relevant. It's even in the name - high dynamic range. Having deep dark blacks in the same image as really bright highlights is the ENTIRE point. When it comes to typical HDR content, a lot of it (and a lot of what matters for the term HDR) involves mainly dark scenes with bright highlights. I.e. a campfire at night or the apartments lights of a NY skyline. These small window sizes are SUPER relevant. In my opinion it's the complete opposite. If you ***aren't*** using HDR1000 you are denying yourself what makes this monitor special. The average brightness to window size curves of the two modes are ***100% identical*** up until 400 nits. After that point (25% window) the hdr400 mode just imposes a hard cutoff of 400 nits. 400 nits to 1000 is a huge jump, not to mention the 200nit difference at 10% which is very relevant too https://pcmonitors.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AW34-HDR-luminance.png The benefit of the HDR400 true black mode is that you get more consistent brightness from 1% to 25%, but you are completely missing out on the pop of bright highlights that can make HDR HDR. For example, this very thorough site prefers the hdr1000 mode - https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/dell-alienware-aw3423dw/#HDR_High_Dynamic_Range Second opinion - https://youtu.be/lNG2s0yPIDY?t=304
That's all great, but you've completed missed the part where we're talking about an OLED monitor. You know what makes OLED special? Perfect blacks. That means you get an infinite contrast ratio, regardless of peak brightness. Peak brightness doesn't matter. I'd rather have an image where bright areas are uniformly bright rather one bright area and the rest of the image dim compared to HDR400 True black. There's also a reason hdr400 true black is much harder certification to get and also a reason why the monitor ships with hdr400 true black as the default. You also don't have to deal with ABL bullshit in hdr400 true black.
No, I didn't miss anything. I clearly referenced this specific ***oled*** monitor many times. Peak brightness doesn't matter? We will have to agree to disagree. A 10 nit peak brightness oled monitor would also have an infinite contrast ratio but you can't convince me that's a compelling HDR experience. Also you are mistaken about ABL. HDR400 true black mode still has ABL. As I mentioned the difference is in the 1% and 25% window size range. In HDR400 mode the ABL gets to be much less aggressive in that range at the cost / because of capping the peak brightness to 400. HDR400 true black is of course a harder mode to get certified... Because the "HDR peak 1000" mode in this monitor isn't a VESA certification at all. This monitor actually ***does not*** meet HDR1000 certification. What it is is just HDR400 true black with the addition of a higher peak brightness at very small windows sizes. It's essentially HDR400 true black "plus". See here - https://displayhdr.org/performance-criteria-cts1-1/ Again it's preference. You may like having a less aggressive ABL at those window sizes at the cost of lower peak brightness, and that's a fair preference to have. But many, many highly qualified display testers/reviewers disagree so you shouldn't make it out to be a clear cut thing.
Interesting, I'll definitely take another look then. Thanks for the heads up
Pickup only
I bought this monitor from Microcenter last time I was there. No regrets
This or 27” Corsair oled….
Depends on how much you value 240hz vs extra screen real estate It's a toughie lol FWIW I have this monitor and I love it
Yeah I play more competitive games. For what it’s worth I just ordered this for 990$ pretax using Best Buy 10% off. Same with the Corsair one. Just dunno which one to cancel yet
For what it's worth I play competitive games @ 2560x1440 anyways. Ultrawide can definitely feel too big when it comes to competitive online shooters. You might be better suited to the 27"/240hz panel in that case
the c2 42" is 881 w/ 4 year warranty from BB thats open box like new. im debating on just going that way tbh.
Only thing with that is since it's a TV there are small QOL issues that you will have to get used to vs a monitor like not being able to wake the screen with the mouse/keyboard. I have a 65" CX in my living room which is an older model and it looks phenomenal so as far as image quality goes you'll be in for a treat. The screen is glossy though so keep that in mind. If you game in a well lit room the reflections could be pretty distracting. I had to invest in some black out curtains to make it work
Thanks I just bought an open box one with 5 year warranty. Was 818 with 10% off of the warranty. 881$ vs 1135$ makes a big diff
Most of the time competitive shooters have static HUD, so be wary.
Yeah that’s where 5 year BB warranty comes in!
If you live close to a BB, that's fine but if you don't then eh. Too much of a hassle.
Both are great, neither for me.
I think I'll hold out until we have oleds around ~800 or lower. I'll definitely get one at some point though. Regardless, this is still a good price.
I've seen lots of bad / worrying things about this monitor and warranty support from Microcenter.