Samsung OLED G8 vs Alienware AW3423DW vs MSI MEG 342C vs Alienware AW3423DWF

welcome back to monitor's unbox today we're going to do an in-depth comparison of the four qdo-led ultrawide gaming monitors to see which is the best today's video is sponsored by scribe the free browser extension for Chrome that allows you to easily Auto generate step-by-step guides with just a click of a button let's say for example that I wanted to create a guide showing our patreon members how to access our monitor OSD settings all I need to do is install the extension click on the Scribe icon in Chrome and start recording then I navigate through our post to find the link and how to search for your monitor in our spreadsheet after saving the recording scribe automatically generates a step-by-step guide complete with screenshots and the actions I took a few bits of editing to add in more information for our users and it's complete ready to share it's that easy with the Scribe extension and while the free version will be just fine for most of you scribe Pro even extends this functionality to support desktop app recording and screenshot customization if you're interested in trying out scribe for free click our Link in the description below it's really that easy the four contenders are the Alienware aw3423dw the Alienware aw3423dwf the MSI Meg 342c QD OLED and the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 I think there are a few other models that use this panel as well but I don't have any immediate plans to test them and these four are the models I've had extensive Hands-On time with all four of these monitors use the same Samsung Cudi OLED panel which is 34 inches in size and packs a 3440 by 1440 resolution three of the four models pack a 175 Hertz refresh rate the outlier being the aw3423 DWF which is capped to 165 Hertz this is a 10 Hertz discrepancy but such a small difference isn't really noticeable in practice and I don't think carries any significant weight in a buying decision because the panel used is the same there will be many areas where performance is identical between these models but also some surprising differences in areas such as HDR that we'll go through shortly all four models support adaptive sync variable refresh rate technology and this works on both AMD and Nvidia gpus regardless of whether it's branded g-sync or freesync so you can happily purchase a freesync monitor and use it with an Nvidia GPU just like you can buy a g-sync model and use it with an AMD GPU the latest generations of this technology across platform so The Branding itself doesn't matter this is a common misconception that I see with some buyers thinking that only the g-sync aw3423dw will work with their Nvidia graphics card that's not the case the other models will also work just fine the design of a product is always quite subjective so it's hard to say there's a definitive winner in this category personally I think the Samsung OLED G8 has the best design it's the slimmest of the four models has the thinnest bezels and uses the most premium materials including a metal back and compact stand I also quite like the RGB LED integration as a ring around the stand the Alienware monitors sit somewhere in the middle both the DW and DWF have a pretty similar design except the DW is mostly white whereas the DWF is mostly black the placement of RGB elements also differs but in general both a well-built premium monitors that look great meanwhile the MSI qdo LED is the ugliest of the lot in my opinion with a much more chunky design with larger bezels a below average construction and most of the outer housing is built using a cheap plastic the ergonomic adjustability offered by each stand is pretty similar with all offering height and tilt adjustment the main difference is that Alienware models also support swiveling whereas this isn't found on the MSI or Samsung models though I don't think this is a big deal all support vaser mounting and all make the most sensible Choice which is of course including a directional OSD toggle one deciding fact of you may be the port selection the Alienware monitors have the weakest range of ports with one HDMI and two display port on the aw3423dwf and two HDMI and one display port on the DW while the DisplayPort connectors here allow full refresh rate support neither offers HDMI 2.1 which makes the Alienware monitors the least suitable for console gamers the OLED G8 offers a better range of connection standards with its HDMI port being an HDMI 2.1 port to allow for higher refresh rates over HDMI and better compatibility with game consoles however Samsung made the choice to use micro HDMI and Mini DisplayPort along with USBC rather than including full-size ports which limits the OLED g8's compatibility with high quality display cables that rarely use mini size connectors this leaves the MSI 342c with the best connectivity two HDMI 2.1 ports both supporting the full refresh rate and 4K 120hz downscaling Plus One display port and USBC with DP alt mode which also supports 65 watts of fast charging fan noise from active cooling can be an issue with these QD OLED monitors depending on which model you buy and along with Port selection I think there's a clear best few choices here the outright winner in this field is the OLED G8 from Samsung as it appears to be passively cooled with no fan noise whatsoever if you are a silent gaming Enthusiast the Samsung is the best choice in second place is the aw3423dwf which does have active cooling but the fan is largely silent and a non-issue for most people the two less ideal products are the MSI 342c in third place and the aw3423dw in fourth place the MSI 342c is mostly silent like the DWF but occasionally ramps up the fan to annoying levels for seemingly no reason I suspect this is a firmware issue meanwhile the Alienware DW is the loudest of the four with more annoying fan Behavior such as ramping running the fan with the monitor in standby and just louder operation this cannot be corrected through a firmware update either as the DW is the only one of the four options that doesn't support firmware updates there are four fundamental characteristics to this OLED panel that do not differ whatsoever between which model you choose they are the curve the screen coding the subpixel layout and the risk of burn-in so let's quickly summarize these factors all four monitors use an 1800r curvature which I feel is a good level of curve for a gaming monitor of this size it's not too curved but it brings in the edges slightly to assist with visibility and immersion while gaming all four have bad screen Coatings the qdo LEDs panel has a glossy coating and it lacks a polarizer so it can reflect quite a bit of ambient light depending on the conditions in a standard indoor viewing environment with artificial light or in a sunlit room blacks can appear gray or raised due to some of the light being reflected off the panel the is unlike other glossy oleds which appear much blacker even with ambient light in the room this ambient reflectivity is exacerbated when there's more light in front of the panel but isn't as problematic when lighting is only behind the display as it's a non-issue in dimulit or dark rooms this can hamper the deep rich OLED experience in some viewing conditions All Leads are famous for their black levels but with these monitors you'll need to have an optimized setup to get the most out of it all four use a triangle RGB subpixel structure which hurts text Clarity for desktop productivity use relative to a standard IPS LCD the artifacts triangle RGB produce a pink and green fringing on the top and bottom of high contrast edges like you'd typically see viewing text this is not easily fixable with software Corrections some people don't notice this issue but others including myself found it reasonably obvious especially next to a normal LCD this reduces the crispness and Clarity of text in some situations but is a complete non-issue for Content consumption like gaming or watching videos as all four use the same qdo-led panel they are all most likely identical in their susceptibility to permanent burn-in this should be a non-issue while gaming or watching videos as the dynamic nature of that content won't cause uneven wear and noticeable burn-in but for desktop productivity use long periods of viewing static content will likely cause burn-in over time which is why we don't recommend any of these monitors for productivity work or desktop app usage there is a difference in burn-in warranty though both Alienware products come with a three year warranty that explicitly include burn-in coverage as stated on Dell's website the MSI 342c is also supposed to include a three-year warranty that includes burning coverage however as of publishing msi's website hasn't been updated to include a definitive statement on this Samsung offered the worst warranty which varies in length depending on your country and doesn't explicitly cover burn in some people have heard from their local Samsung support team that burn in is covered however this doesn't seem to apply universally as should be the case for the other options in terms of other features and inclusions before we move on to other aspects of performance the Samsung OLED G8 has clearly the best feature set it includes smart functionality including tv-like app support firm updates over the Internet Bluetooth such as for connecting to Bluetooth speakers and a wide range of color controls with few restrictions some of the other products do include useful or unique additions like the MSI 342c's KVM switch and the Alienware dwf's heat map feature but it's the G8 that's impressed me most with its feature set Motion Performance is effectively identical across the four monitors as they use the same qdo LED panel response time and general screen behavior is the same meaning no matter which model you choose you can expect just get the Lightning Fast Response times and artifact free experience We've Come To Love from oleds but performance is held very well across the refresh rate range on all four monitors and while the aw3423dwf does have a slightly lower 165 Hertz refresh rate versus 175 Hertz on the other monitors as I said earlier I think this difference is negligible in practice input latency does differ though the Alienware DWF MSI 342c and Samsung OLED G8 all feature excellent input lag within the instant processing delay and Fast Response times contributing to a very responsive experience the Alienware DW model though has around 5 milliseconds of processing DeLay So it isn't as lightning fast as the others I find it difficult to notice this difference in practice but I'm not a super latency sensitive multiplayer gamer it's just one aspect to these products to keep in mind power consumption is pretty similar between the three monitors and none of them are especially efficient the Alienware DWF uses the least power to display a 200 nit full white image while the other three models are around 100 watts of power consumption I don't think this is a significant factor when deciding between these models also something that isn't a factor is the color space these qdlers offer again as the panels are the same the color space coverage is effectively identical we get around 99.3 DCI P3 coverage and approximately 80 coverage of the wide Rec 2020 color space leading to a great range of colors for HDR content no real difference here all perform very well default performance is similar out of the box with all four monitors attempting to deliver the same sort of color experience the Samsung OLED G8 is the most accurate for grayscale with the best white balance and closest adherence to the gamma curve leading to the lowest Delta E's the two Alienware monitors are pretty good as well though not as good as the Samsung monitor with the MSI model a bit further behind all four monitors Ship Without A gamut clamp enabled by default when viewing SDR content so all have a similar level of oversaturation when viewing standard content like YouTube videos or Str movies in saturation and color Checker the aw3423dw is the most accurate while the MSI 342c is the least accurate however in all four cases none of these monitors are especially accurate so the differences are a bit of a much of a muchness if you want the best performance for SDR content with the least amount of fiddling around with calibration srgb modes are available on all models it's a battle here between the DWF and Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 the DWF is slightly more accurate by default but limits other adjustments through locked settings the OLED G8 is slightly less accurate but still great while allowing full control over white balance in other settings due to the more open approach to adjustment in the srgb mode I feel the OLED G8 is the better calibrated product with the best selection of settings for calibration the DW is still above average though while the MSI 342c is only average among gaming monitors I've tested in terms of fully calibrated performance you won't see much difference here between the models there's a few Oddities here and there depending on the test but realistically speaking all can be calibrated to roughly the same level however as the OLED G8 can have the most calibration done on a hardware level such as two-point white balance controls and a fully unlocked srgb mode I feel it's the easiest to calibrate and offers the best experience for those after color accuracy maximum brightness and brightness behavior is effectively identical between the four with all offering around 240 to 250 nits of peak brightness in the SDR mode and no automatic brightness limiter it doesn't matter what you choose 250 nits or so is the limit of curioled for full screen content however minimum brightness does differ the DWF model gets as low as 18 nits whereas the Samsung model only bottoms out at 64 nits which may be important to you if you are using this display in the dark black levels are also identical between the four with all capable of zero level blacks it's hard to make a definitive call about uniformity between these monitors as uniformity differs between units generally speaking this QD OLED panel offers great uniformity with my MSI model having the best uniformity and the DWF the worst but really I'd be happy with any of these results the general HDR performance characteristics of these four monitors are the same as they all use the same panel so things like per pixel local dimming deep zero level blacks all the usual benefits of OLED are identical over the four products so the fundamental hardware for HDR is the same however the tuning is different from each product which does affect performance for example when we look at basic brightness tests we get the same results no matter which monitor you choose full screen brightness is around 250 nits while 10 window brightness is around 450 nits use when looking at brightness versus window size we see the same brightness profile for each product including the ability to hit around a thousand nits at a two percent window size this isn't a case where buying one of the four monitors will give you brighter Hardware we've seen that with variants using LG LED panels but not with this Samsung qdo LED panel so far however real world brightnesses do differ and it's not necessarily consistent across the four products for example the MSI 342c is the brightest in our YouTube video sample for real scene brightness but in our film sample it's the oledga that's the brightest for gaming all four were capable of hitting 1000 nits it's inaccuracy where we see the biggest differences so I'll try my best here to rank the four monitors in terms of HDR eotf accuracy which ultimately affects how accurate the monitor is for showing the right brightness levels in HDR content the most accurate is the Alienware aw3423dw this product follows the correct HDR eotf curve the closest of the monitors in the 1000 nit mode and while there are some issues with larger window sizes like 25 the DW is capable of hitting 1000 nits without sacrificing accuracy and this is possible on both AMD and Nvidia gpus saturation accuracy is also decent so colors look great in the HDR mode in second place it's hard to split the MSI 342c and Samsung G8 OLED they each have strengths and weaknesses the G8 OLED for example is more accurate in its 1000 nit configuration when used with an Nvidia GPU but has weak saturation accuracy and cannot hit 1000 nits on an AMD GPU the MSI 342c is more consistent and has better saturation accuracy but the lower part of the eotf curve sees raised blacks in its 1000 nit mode the least accurate monitor is the Alienware aw3423dwf while this display is okay in its 400 nit mode to access the full 1000 nits you will see raised brightness across the entire eotf range which is very inaccurate this can be fixed somewhat on Nvidia gpus but not on AMD gpus Dell still needs to work on HJ accuracy for this monitor as the latest firmware update did little to fixed performance in some of these HDR battles it can be quite close for example if you have an Nvidia GPU then it's possible to get the Alienware DW and OLED G8 delivering about the same HDR experience with similar brightness and color accuracy but AMD owners might want to consider the MSI 342c and aw3423dw instead as the OLED G8 is much worse for AMD gpus when wrapping this up I think it's genuinely quite difficult to pick which of these qdl ad monitors is the best choice depending on your use cases and even the graphics card you own the decision may swing one way or the other in some of my other heads head videos I've been able to pick a clear winner but I find it pretty challenging here there's no clear Duds but no obvious choice either it's made even more difficult when factoring in the price which can vary from region to region in the US the Alienware DWF and MSI 342c sit at 1100 U.S the Alienware DW is thirteen hundred dollars while the Samsung OLED G8 is fifteen hundred dollars but here in Australia we're looking at Seventeen hundred dollars Aussie for the DWF 2100 for the DW and two thousand dollars for the old G8 with the price to be confirmed for the MSI model so looking at the exact pricing in your region and updating yourself on current prices via the links in the description below will be key but I'll try to work through my overall thoughts here and see where we end up I think at this point with three other great choices available to buyers that it's no longer worth buying the Alienware aw3423dw most of the time this is a fantastic display and was so back when it was released but many of the early adopter issues have been fixed in subsequent releases for example the DW is the loudest in terms of fan noise has the highest input lag and cannot receive firmware updates from the user all three of these areas are improved substantially on the other models while still delivering the same sort of performance characteristics 95 of the time when it's also generally one of the more expensive cutie oleds it becomes harder to justify but there are still a few reasons why the DW may be the right choice for you if you absolutely must have the best HDR accuracy and you own an AMD GPU the DW is your best option given the issues with the OLED G8 for AMD owners it also may come down to this or the MSI 342c with the Alienware model having the far superior design in my opinion the those are at least two areas where the DW isn't fully out of the running the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 I think is probably the best rounded cutie OLED ultrawide that Nails performance in the most circumstances but I could only recommend it if you meet two criteria if you own an Nvidia GPU so you can access a thousand nits of brightness and two you don't care too much about price and just want the best this monitor is expensive especially so in the United States but is pretty excellent in areas like color calibration features design fan noise and HDR where you wouldn't buy the OLED G8 is if you have an AMD GPU if you don't like the mini display connectors or if you are on a tighter budget it also has the worst warranty so someone that is especially worried about burning should probably stay clear as burn-in isn't explicitly covered under warranty the Alienware monitors offer the best warranty and best protection for burn-in if you can't afford the older G8 or you don't want to spend that much money which I think is fair enough the price premium for the Samsung model is a little excessive then we're left with the MSI and Alienware DWF variants I don't think there is a clear winner here with both offering various strengths at the same price for example if I had an AMD GPU I'd probably want the MSI model due to its Superior HDR accuracy and functional 1000 nit mode but if I had an Nvidia GPU then I might give the DWF model a shot and adjust the settings in the 1000it mode I think the Alienware model has the better design better SDR color accuracy and less annoying fan but the dodgy HDR experience in the 1000 nit mode is a real drawback here and alienware's first attempt at a firmware fix was insufficient the MSI 342c is also the only one of these monitors with a full sized HDMI 2.1 Port making it ideally suited to those playing games on PC and console they're not sure why it isn't necessarily ideal for console gamers it's also important to remember that there are many areas where performance is basically the same between all four models response times overall motion Clarity screen coding subpixel layout risk of burning the curve brightness characteristics contrast color gamut black levels all of those effectively are identical and many of these things are very important and fundamental to how a monitor performs so the differences we've been talking about are largely edge cases nitpicks subjective things like design and a few Oddities hopefully though this analysis highlights some of the differences a bit more closely and consolidates a lot of the information that's been spread across our four lengthy reviews of each monitor at the moment it's hard to go too wrong when buying a cutie OLED monitor the experience on offer here for HDR gaming is superb and I suspect buyers of any one of these four options have been very happy with their purchase so anyway that's it for this one if you want more information on any of the products we've been talking about in this sort of comparison video you want the full review experience we do have the full reviews of all four of these products available for you to watch three of them on monitors unboxed the DW I believe is on Hardware unboxed the review of that Alienware so you have to flick back to our Channel there to catch that one but yeah the rest of it right here on monitors unboxed if you do want to support independent testing and support making these videos there is a lot of testing that goes into a four-way comparison like this many many hours goes into the reviews and also making these videos so yeah if you do want to support that then please do well firstly just subscribe to the channel give us a thumbs up do all those do all those things for us but also if you want to support us further we've got patreon and float plan links to those in the description below you'll be able to join up to our Discord Community Check out monitors PC Hardware games all that sort of thing we also have our monthly live streams we have behind the scenes videos lots of good stuff over there so yeah thanks for watching this one and I'll catch you in the next one [Music] foreign

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 115,648

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Id: aMa5mo-v_Aw

Length: 23min 21sec (1401 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 30 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Jackopeng]

What I got from this, all are great, buy the cheapest!

[u/phoebdroid]

HDR = AW3423DW

[u/Hibbleton_]

Also important to note the MSI is the only one of these four to have a KVM and Pip/PbP features. Only reason I’m leaning towards the MSI or the upcoming Philips (which I believe also has those features but is a nicer design than the MSI in my opinion)

Edit: wasn’t aware the dwf has Pip!

[u/BluPix46]

They weren't fair on the DW. They stated it had numerous issues which have been fixed in the other variants (such as fan ramping etc). And used these issues as a reason to avoid the DW.

What they seem to have failed to mention is that these issues were fixed a while ago and if you were to order a DW now, it would ship on newer firmware.

I'm assuming that their DW is a launch model using the original firmware which did have issues. Yes, this cannot be updated but no DW bought now or from as early as September/October last year, maybe earlier, has shipped with the original firmware.

The fan ramping that they mark it down for quite heavily is not present on my DW, at least it's not audible and mines on firmware MB102.

So although the DW cannot be user updated, as long as you have firmware MB102 or greater, all the issues they mark the DW down on compared to the DWF, should not be present.

[u/steaksauce101]

What are people’s thoughts on the text clarity issue of these monitors? I want to use it in my work from home / gaming setup, but I don’t know if this will be noticeable to me and they’re not in stock at any store nearby for me to try it.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]