Alienware AW3423DW vs LG C2 OLED vs Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 vs Neo G7

which of the four main choices for high-end hdr gaming monitors should you choose should you get the alienware aw3423dw or the lg c2 oled in a 42 inch size what about samsung's odyssey neo g7 or neo g8 well i've tested all four of these displays extensively so let's take a look at how they perform and break down their main areas of difference the alienware aw3423dw is a 34 inch ultrawide monitor with a by 1440 resolution 175 hertz maximum refresh rate and qd oled panel technology it'll set you back 1300 us the lg c2 in its 42 inch size is a 4k hdr tv with some gaming functionality like a 120 hertz refresh rate and full adaptive sync support it also uses oled technology in this instance lg's w oled and it will set you back 1400 us right now then we have the two samsung choices the odyssey neo g7 and neo g8 are very similar both are 32 inch curved 4k hdr monitors using v8 lcd technology complete with a 1192 zone full array local dimming mini led backlight the neo g7 has a maximum refresh rate of 165 hertz and costs 1300 us while the neo g8 pushes that up to 240 hertz at a 1500 us price point the highest of the four options we're looking at in this video of course we have detailed reviews of all of these displays available over on hardware unboxed if you want in-depth thoughts i think the first thing to tackle is the format of these displays as they're all quite different and ultimately this may be the main deciding factor for you the smallest of the options is the alienware aw3423dw despite its 34 inch size it actually has the least screen area of the four choices and that's down to its ultra wide 21x9 aspect ratio 21x9 isn't for everyone i personally like it and feel the extra width does provide additional immersion while gaming but others prefer a more normal 16x9 display the easiest way to think of the size is that the aw3423dw is the height of the standard 27 inch monitor but extended horizontally to be 33 percent wider dell are using an 1800 r curve here which feels right for the size of panel it's not too curved and helps make the edges of the display a bit easier to view the aw3423dw also has the lowest resolution of the options at just 3440x1440 which is a 1440p class resolution the other choices are all 4k though the pixel density of this monitor is similar to the 42-inch lg c2 i think 1440p ultrawide is a decent resolution for gaming and it requires the least gpu horsepower to run at its native resolution though 4k is superior in terms of sharpness especially for text and especially when using the most dense option in this comparison the odyssey neo products speaking of the odyssey neo these monitors are next up and sit in the middle for sizing with about six percent more screen area than the aw 3423 dw however the area is distributed in a much more traditional 16 by 9 aspect ratio so the g7 and g8 are about 6 centimeters taller than the alienware but 10 centimeters less wide in my opinion this makes the neo series less immersive than the aw3423dw though the additional vertical space is welcome and these monitors feel like a good size for the 4k resolution unfortunately the 1000r curvature is extremely aggressive and i feel it adds absolutely nothing to this size and aspect ratio of monitor and many of you seem to also have this opinion hating the curve on products like this the lg c2 42 inch model is by far the largest choice so it requires the most desk space but also i feel the 42 inch size is very usable as a gaming monitor and it's quite immersive it's 72 percent larger than the neo g7 and g8 at the same 4k resolution so the pixel density is lower not that i think that's an issue it's also 10 centimeters wider than the aw 3423 dw but also nearly 20 centimeters taller so this is a very large panel and can be extremely immersive at normal viewing distances the overall design of each product is obviously quite different and much of the visual style is a personal preference thing the most important things in my opinion to note are as follows the neo g7 and neo g8 have the least sturdy stand there's quite a range of ergonomic adjustment available but the build is quite weak so there's a lot of wobbling around on the opposite end of the spectrum the lg c2 has no ergonomic adjustment at all and the display can sit quite low on a desk with its basic legs so it may require wall mounting to raise it up to a more usable level in my opinion the aw3423dw has the best build quality and is the most suited to instant use as a desktop monitor also very important to know is that the screen coding on these products differ wildly the lg c2 uses a glossy glass finish with a strong anti-reflection polarized coating the alienware aw3423dw is also a glossy monitor that uses anti-reflection coating but without polarization then the odyssey neo monitors use a matte anti-glare finish which differs slightly between the neo g7 and neo g8 models with the neo g8 typically looking better what this means is that all four models handle ambient light and reflections differently the matte finishes of the neo series have zero mirror-like reflections but typically will reflect ambient light in a diffuse way particularly if there's lights shining on the display they had the least pop and wow factor but have the least distracting reflections in brighter conditions especially when there are light sources hitting the front of the display the lg c2 is basically the opposite you won't see any diffuse reflections the c2 is incredible at cutting down that source of reflectivity which gives the display their deepest apparent blacks in brighter usage environments however what the display does reflect is well defined and more like a mirror now while these reflections aren't super obvious and are dimmed substantially by the coding and polarization layer you can often make out brighter objects that are reflected the aw3423dw has the weakest display coating of the four while the glossy finish does make colors pop and looks excellent in dimmer viewing environments the coating and layer structure is far less effective than the c2 at reducing ambient light and diffuse reflections the aw3423dw tends to reflect diffuse light in brighter environments particularly if you have any light source in front of the display which raises apparent black levels compared to what you expect from an oled and indeed get with the c2 the coating does a great job of reducing mirror-like reflections but they are also still present to some degree if you do purchase the aw3423dw my advice is to ensure all light sources are behind the display or use it in a darker environment to get the full benefits of the oled panel for ports the most well featured displays are the odyssey neo series that come with both displayport and hdmi 2.1 allowing for the best compatibility with pc and consoles the aw3423dw does not have hdmi 2.1 which limits console compatibility and restricts the hdmi mode to just 100hz meanwhile the lg c2 has great console compatibility thanks to hdmi 2.1 but lacks displayport so 120hz is only accessible on this display by the latest generation of graphics cards that support hdmi 2.1 as for features i don't think any of these displays is going to fully win you over with additional features however the c2 does have clearly the strongest feature set by far as it's a smart tv it has full tv functionality it can run apps it has the widest range of calibration settings and all sorts of other potentially useful processing options the odyssey neo series has an ok but limited feature set but at least it supports user upgradable firmware which the aw3423dw does not and is already proving to be a bit problematic for early adopters when it comes to motion performance there's two factors to consider response time performance and the refresh rate as all four of these displays use a sample and hold technique the combination of response and refresh is very important to how clear the overall image will be as far as response times are concerned the two oled options are clearly superior to the va lcd of the neo g7 and neo g8 d monitors are extremely fast as far as lcds go but they just can't match the pure speed and artifact free experience of the oleds both of which deliver very similar response time performance at each display's maximum refresh the old lids are typically two to three times faster and for lower refresh rates the margin grows a fair bit so on average you can expect the oled options to be four to five times faster they also have much more consistent performance across all refresh rates and have zero overshoot issues to speak of there's nothing quite like an oled for how it handles motion even if the neo g7 and g8 are among the best of the lcd pack as for the actual motion clarity you'll experience this is also dictated by the refresh rate among the four the neo g8 has the fastest refresh rate at 240 hertz the neo g7 and aw 3423 dw are similar at 165 and 175hz respectively then the lowest refresh rate model is the lg c2 or just 120 hertz when using the blurbuster's ufo test to subjectively evaluate motion clarity it's a hard call as to which is better in my opinion the aw 3423dw is probably the best option here the combination of 175hz with one millisecond response times delivers an excellent experience that is probably just slightly less clear than the clearest parts of the neo g8 240hz image however the neo g8 does have some artifacts due to its overshoot and slower response times so while some areas are a bit clearer and smoother at 240hz the 175hz of the aw3423dw looks and feels elite meanwhile the neo g7 at 165 hertz is significantly worse than the 175 hertz of the aw 3423 dw slower response times and a similar refresh rate will do that the neo g7 is a bit less blurry than the 120 hertz image from the lg c2 but like with the neo g8 it has more response time artifacts like ghosting than you'll see on the defect-free c2 image i think the c2's motion clarity holds up really well despite having a much lower refresh rate though it is beaten by the neo g8 and aw 3423 dw this is also a discussion mostly revolving around image clarity high refresh rates also feel smoother so the neo g8 tends to feel the most smooth with the aw 3423 dw a close second the c2 while a low input lag display with great response times just doesn't have the same smoothness as the other options due its more limited refresh rate speaking of input lag the processing delay of the c2 is the lowest of the four monitors when using either the sdr or hdr modes when using hdr in particular with local dimming enabled the c2 is the only monitor with less than one millisecond of processing delay the aw3423dw is more around five milliseconds while the neo monitors extend to nine to ten milliseconds latency is also impacted by refresh rate but in general the c2 ends up looking pretty good here with the alienware in second place as for color performance the aw3423dw is the widest gamut display with the neo series in second place and the c2 with the least wide gamut although all four are wide gamut monitors that have very good coverage of dc ip3 factory calibration is an important aspect of performance and the aw 3423dw typically has the best factory experience offering the best default grayscale accuracy and the best srgb mode the lg c2 has issues with greyscale from the factory but does have some good included display modes and decent color checker results the neo series are in last place with the least accurate factory experience and the worst srgb modes i'd also class the lg c2 as the most calibratable display on offer here it has by far the widest range of color controls with no restrictions when the gamut is being emulated to srgb and really handy multi-point white balance controls you can very effectively hardware calibrate the c2 whereas the aw3423dw and especially the neo series from samsung require more software tuning in the sdr mode none of these displays are particularly bright the neo g8 and neo g7 are the brightest at around 330 nits while the aw 3423 dw is also at a barely passable level of brightness recording 240 nits full screen the c2 has the worst peak brightness which can make it difficult to cut down on reflections in brighter usage conditions both the c2 and aw3423dw are optimized more for dimmer conditions as for contrast ratio the two oled options have an effective infinite contrast ratio with deep blacks the neo g7 and g8 are both very good in terms of contrast ratio from an lcd panel but not in the same league as oleds so for the best contrast and deepest blacks you'll want to go with either the c2 or the aw3423dw however each of these monitors has a slightly different subpixel layout which affects text clarity the neo g7 and g8 have the sharpest and clearest text as both use a standard rgb stripe layout and also have the highest pixel density unfortunately the neo g8 has a scan line issue which affects its highest refresh rate meanwhile the lg c2 has mid-tier text clarity the rgbw subpixel layout isn't as good as regular rgb for text rendering but i didn't find the small clarity reduction all that noticeable the aw3423dw has the weakest subpixel layout triangle rgb which in conjunction with its lower pixel density causes a bit of noticeable fringing around text and sharp high contrast edges some people have said this isn't a big deal or very noticeable but to me it was somewhat easy to spot and the text clarity from this qd oled was the weakest of the four options as for viewing angles the clear weakest monitors are the neo g7 and neo g8 the va lcd structure here has mediocre viewing angles which combined with the curve mean you need to sit basically dead center to get the best experience the aw3423dw has excellent viewing angles while the c2 is perhaps a step better due to its flat panel obviously a big selling point for all of these monitors is the hdr experience all four are true hdr products meaning they have legitimate hardware that supports displaying hdr in the way that it's intended but this hardware does differ substantially so picking a monitor here for hdr isn't easy first let's talk about hdr reproduction and blooming both oled options are self-lit so each pixel can be individually illuminated this is the ideal scenario for hdr as you don't get any blooming or haloing relating to dimming zones dark and bright objects can coexist side by side with no issue on an oled panel delivering deep blacks and stunning highlights in close proximity oleds have no issues with tricky hdr scenes like star fields or christmas lights and there's no restrictions on how tightly bright highlights can be displayed each pixel can do whatever it needs to do in contrast the neo g7 and neo g8 are lcds with full array local dimming totaling 1196 zones this means each backlight zone controls about 7000 pixels while this may sound like a lot of pixels to deal with both of these odyssey monitors do a very good job of minimizing blooming so you won't often see ugly raised blacks around bright objects that's not to say you'll never see this issue the neo series isn't great at dealing with star fields for example but as far as lcds go it's hard to find a better experience in a monitor right now i would still say oleds are a class above in how they handle hdr content though self-lit pixels are a joy to behold for hdr contrast what we typically see is that the lg c2 and alienware aw3423dw have effective infinite contrast in all test conditions the neo g7 and neo g8 which have basically the same hdr performance can manage a near infinite contrast ratio in ideal conditions but this falls to a near twenty thousand to one ratio for the worst cases where bright and dark objects are close together and of course four thousand to one world local dimming is ineffective not the worst results but the oleds do have the purest hdr all four of these displays i describe as a contrast first hdr experience meaning that the hardware tuning and optimization is geared around delivering the deepest blacks richer shadows and the least amount of blooming this comes at the expense of brightness none of these panels really get super bright although brightness is decent for hdr highlights when we look at brightness versus window size the lcd options are the brightest at all sizes except for a two percent window which is expected as many led backlights tend to be able to get quite bright but i wouldn't exactly describe 345 nits of full screen brightness on the neo g7 or neo g8 as being that bright for larger window sizes the aw3423dw is in second place while the lg c2 is in last for moderate window sizes around the 10 to 25 range the neo series is clearly brighter than the oleds and this is where the lcd technology is able to comfortably push above 1000 nits the oleds are stuck around 350 nits at a 25 window size and at 10 percent the aw 3423 dw is only around 470 nits while the c2 does hit a decent 667 nits sustained and near 700 nits peak for even smaller sizes the gap closes between lcd and oled now the aw3423dw is able to hit as high as 1000 nits while the lg c2 tops out around 600 to 700 nits in real world content i've tended to find the neo g7 and neo g8 are a bit closer to the oleds than this chart shows but typically the neos can get somewhat brighter depending on the scene as for hdr accuracy each monitor has its strengths and weaknesses typically the aw3423dw is the most accurate hdr monitor out of the box especially for dark content though there are a few issues with the higher luminance range the lg c2 is a close second with good tracking of the eotf curve the samsung odyssey series is in last place here comfortably it needs some work with hdr accuracy and how it handles eotf tracking in different conditions so there you have it that's how the alienware aw 3423dw lg c2 samsung odyssey neo g7 and odyssey neo g8 all compare across various performance categories while they are quite different displays in their format i think we can still draw a few conclusions on the best options to get right now as i've mentioned previously in other videos i think i can safely rule out the odyssey neo g8 from contention while it is the highest refresh rate model in this comparison the neo g8 has scanline issues at 240 hertz and it's really no better than the cheaper neo g7 in other areas the price tag of 1500 us so 200 more than the neo g7 doesn't really feel justifiable when there is an unacceptable defect with the product shipping to consumers of the remaining three options what has become quite clear testing these products is that none of them provide a very versatile monitor option for all of gaming content consumption and desktop productivity app usage both the oled options have non-standard subpixel layouts and are at risk of permanent burning when viewing static content for long periods so based on that i can't recommend them for desktop usage meanwhile the neo g7's aggressive 1000r curvature is also not well suited to productivity work as it tends to distort the image so of these three monitors i think you can only make a case to buy them if you are primarily going to be using it as a gaming or video playback display personally i'm torn over whether to get the aw 3423 dw or the lg c2 oled i think you can make a strong case for either to be placed in the number one position the samsung odyssey neo g7 i would comfortably place in third the motion clarity isn't as good as either oled monitor in my opinion the hdr experience is good but not as good as the oleds and while brightness is better it's let down by samsung's weaker color accuracy bad viewing angles and less solid hdr optimization priced at thirteen hundred dollars the same as the alienware and just a hundred dollars cheaper than the c2 i just don't see as much value here now that's not to say there aren't cases where i would recommend buying the neo g7 it's the most standard desktop friendly size so if you don't want the enormity of the c2 or the ultra wide nature of the alienware then the neo g7 is a great choice provided you can tolerate the 1000r curvature it also has the best text clarity and is perhaps the most suited to more normal desktop use and while it may not be as good as the oleds in some areas it still has really solid performance in many areas for an lcd with impressive hdr performance thanks to its 1196 zone backlight as for the oleds well i think a lot of this will come down to the size preferences the c2 is large and a totally different format to the aw3423d if there's any hesitation around ultrawides or large displays the choice one way or another is pretty obvious but i think there's a lot of reason to be on the fence here after all the c2 is actually a bit wider than the ultra wide alienware and it gives you a lot more height for a greater overall screen area here are the separating factors for me the aw 3423dw is a higher refresh rate display that's better suited to pc use due to its displayport connector higher sustained brightness and better burn-in policy it has similar hdr performance to the lg c2 and at times can actually get brighter while obviously maintaining similar black levels it has good factory calibration great hdr accuracy and decent stand ergonomics the lg c2 is in the lead with its feature set it's a full-blown tv with smart features and a much wider range of calibration options including support for dolby vision which the aw3423dw doesn't support it's larger has a better display coding better subpixel layout and has better console compatibility thanks to hdmi 2.1 it's also a lower processing latency display and lg supports their products very well through software updates unlike the alienware which doesn't even have user upgradable firmware personally i would slightly prefer the alienware over the c2 i think the refresh rate and brightness advantages just get me over the line but i could certainly quite easily make a case for the c2 as well and i've loved my time using both of these displays we're choosing either of these old loads i think it's kind of hard to make a bad choice neither are perfect options and there's plenty of room for improvement but the image quality they provide for gamers today is outstanding anyway that's it for this comparison if you are interested in more in-depth thoughts on any one of these monitors we do have reviews for all four of them available over on hardware unboxed right now for you to check out also if you want to support our independent testing we did buy actually we bought all four of these monitors so please do support us on patreon floatplane so that we can afford to buy lots of high-end displays like this for testing throughout the year you'll gain access to some of our nice little benefits like our discord community monthly live streams behind the scenes videos all that sort of good stuff so thanks for watching and i'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 240,058

Keywords:

Id: gw7f6d7iFgI

Length: 22min 52sec (1372 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/KaleidoscopeRich2752]

TL:DW:

1. Alienware
2. LG C2 (very close tho)
3. Neo G7
4. Neo G8

[u/Naekyr]

The biggest problem with this review is that HUb at no point in this video have all four screens side by side to do a comparison

I don't want to see reviews that just read numbers off a piece of paper

[u/xsubkulturex]

Can anyone explain to me why when ever I see anything regarding Alienware AW3423DW that the resolution being under 4k is never put down as a con? When it comes to HDR content people obviously do care about resolution so you're sacrificing some sharpness right? Surely that makes 4k OLEDs more compelling especially when you want to watch 4k content? On the gaming side the sharpness is also a concern as you're getting this monitor for incredible picture quality and then on the high refresh rate side you have to play games like CS;GO in non native resolution.

[u/bobbymack93]

I had to switch back to my g9 mainly because I missed the super wide aspect ratio also the pixel refresher not happening when I put it to sleep was super annoying. I didn't want to be nagged about refreshing the screen when it could easily be done when my PC is asleep. I know I could turn that off but I didn't want to risk any type of burn in that could occur by turning it off. If they maybe would have allowed for user updatable firmware like Samsung then I would have kept it if they fixed it.

[u/TimeGoddess_]

The thing I don't like about the Samsung monitors is there terrible accuracy and crushing of black details to try and get better black levels and be more competitive with OLEDs.

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/samsung/odyssey-neo-g8-s32bg85

https://i.rtings.com/assets/products/EoaFgFWy/samsung-odyssey-neo-g8-s32bg85/eotf-large.jpg

It makes it look nicer to have blown out bright highlights and darker blacks but it loses a lot of details and if you try and fix it it just looks washed out. the OLED monitors allow you to have perfect black levels without crushing out the detail

[u/Foodwraith]

I have been watching the reviews on the Alienware. The active fan seems like a real buzz kill.

[u/tahtics1337]

I play mmos oled will never happen for me to many static hud elements

[u/TheSaddestInTheRoom]

How it feels the curve if you sit a bit far maybe to watching a movie ? Becomes bad if you're not sitting close ? Ty