Alienware – AW2725QF 27″ IPS LED 4K UHD 180Hz .5-ms G-SYNC Dual-Resolution Gaming Monitor with HDR (HDMI, DisplayPort) – Black

Overall this monitor is the perfect answer for anyone looking for a gaming monitor that can also be used for work and playing media. I have three Dell 4k ultra sharp monitors that I use daily for work, they are great for doing office related apps but they are too slow to use as a gaming monitor. This Alienware 4k monitor is nearly as sharp as my Ultra Sharp displays but it has refresh rates that make this also a great gaming monitor.
Pros:
– The IPS display is bright with deep color saturation
– Consistent white screen for office applications like Word
– It’s got a wide viewing angle
– Variable refresh rates for 4k @180hz and HD @ 360hz
– OSD button is easy to access and use
– Total control of display and gaming options via OSD
– Lots of ports HDMI, Display Port and USBs, supports eARC HDMI
– Versatile stand and VESA compatible for mounting
Cons:
– Doesn’t deliver the darks that an OLED monitor would
– If you buy one you will want two or three more
After cabling up the monitor I verified its quality by running the EIZO and UFO display test. No dead pixels and the color ranges were bright and consistent. The white was bright without any off shading which really is nice when using office apps. I familiarized myself with the OSD menus and set the monitor up for gaming, touched up the brightness a tad and then started playing my games. I like racing games so having the ability to run HD at the higher refresh rate really seemed to make the images more stable. The colors really stood out in F1 2023 and the detail was sharp when playing Dirt Rally. To really check out the 4k capabilities I played several 4k videos and the images were very smooth without stuttering or pixelizating. Bottom line is this is great monitor no matter what you are wanting to do.

This monitor has great specs with a 4k resolution of 3840 x 2160 @ 180 hz as well as being able to support HD 1920 x 1080 with a super fast refresh rate of 360 hz. It is an IPS display panel with a reasonably quick 0.5ms response time. The bezel is narrow but slightly thicker on the bottom than my Dell monitors as seen in the photo. It has two HDMI ports with one supporting eARC to pass through audio. It supports both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for people like me that use a soundbar for gaming. It also has a DisplayPort, one USB-B upstream port, three USB-A downstream ports and one USB-C downstream port. The stand is very flexible and allows you to move the monitor in all directions to offset any alignment issues. The monitor has a headphones clip built in on the left hand side which is good as long as this is your leftmost monitor.

I’ve owned more monitors than any one person has a right to have owned in their lifetime, and I have to say this Alienware monitor ranks at the top of them all.
Packaging:
To start, it’s extremely well packaged, the box is very heavy and comes with all of the essentials. It comes with both displayport and hdmi cables so there’s no need to go hunting for your own, this is uncommon to have both (sometimes monitors dont even come with one) so it’s nice to have the option.
Setup:
About as straightforward as you can imagine, the monitor just rocks onto the stand and clicks in place, it has multiple HDMI inputs and a DP input, and it natively supports both 4k and 1080p resolutions based on your need. In my opinion, at 27″ the 4k option, while ‘nice to have’ is somewhat difficult to use and not terribly useful. In Windows you just end up jacking up the desktop scaling to be able to see things properly, and in games, while it’s “nice” it’s mostly just a brag at this size that it’s 4k. The 1080p option appears to be far more useful both in desktop and in games, being able to drive it at 360hz may give you an edge that other players dont have, if your graphics card can support it. It’s one of the higher refresh rates on the market. Final note is there’s a very cool E7 LED lit graphic on the backside of the monitor.
Gaming:
As I stated, while 4k at 180hz is ‘nice to have’ the 1080p x 360hz option is really where it’s at, it’ll give you smooth crisp images and it’s compatible with both gsync and freesync so no matter if you’re team red or team green, you’ll have solid refresh rates sync’d with your graphics card without issue. In high paced racing games I saw no tearing or sheering, same with FPSes like COD, Fortnite and others, it was a perfectly smooth and crisp experience. It’s beyond a beautiful monitor, and again, if 4k is your bag, then by all means, it’s capable. You can also easily switch between the two if you’d prefer it on in one instance and off in another.
Overall:
You really can’t go wrong with this monitor unless 27″ is just too small for your needs, with the dual resolution capability and the high refresh rate at both resolutions, it’s going to be more monitor than most people’s graphics cards can drive at high detail, it’s a good option to futureproof yourself while also having the capabilities to be one of the best available today at any resolution. I easily recommend it.

The Alienware AW2725QF 27’’ IPS LED 4K Dual-Resolution Gaming Monitor is a fantastic monitor that comes with an interesting but somewhat niche feature to function either as a UHD 4K monitor capable of running at 180 Hz or as a FHD 1080p monitor capable of running at 360 Hz.
At first, I didn’t understand this feature because I have always been able to run my games at a lower resolution (such as 1080p) on any high resolution 4K monitor. Any graphics card can do this. Why is this even considered a feature on a monitor?
However, when I investigated this feature a bit more, I began to understand the reasoning for implementing it. If you use the graphics card to run a game at 1080p resolution on a regular 4K monitor, you are limited by that monitor for the refresh rate at 4K.
In the case of the new Alienware AW2725QF monitor, if you set the monitor to run as a FHD 1080p monitor, you are able to increase the refresh rate from 180 Hz to 360 Hz. The Alienware AW2725QF uses a true 4K display panel. When running as a FHD monitor, it essentially treats every group of 4 pixels as 1 big pixel and the hardware is able to refresh each big pixel at a faster refresh rate.
This technique essentially gives us one affordable monitor that can excel at productivity work and media consumption when running in 4K mode while also excelling in competitive gaming when running in FHD mode where higher refresh rates offer a competitive advantage.
Package Contents
The Alienware AW2725QF monitor comes packaged with the following items:
The monitor itself
A monitor base and stand
1x USB-A to USB-B 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Upstream Cable
1x HDMI 2.1 FRL cable
1x DisplayPort 1.4 cable
1x Power Cable
Quick Start Guide and Alienware Sticker
Main Specifications
3840 x 2160 (4K mode) up to 180 Hz and 1920 x 1080 (FHD mode) up to 360 Hz
1000:1 native contrast ratio
400 cd/m2 (typical) and 600 cd/m2 (HDR peak) brightness
0.5 to 1.0 millisecond response time
95% DCI-P3 (CIE 1976) color gamut
Supports both Dolby Vision and VESA DisplayHDR 600
Supports both NVIDIA® G-SYNC® and VESA AdaptiveSync
Supports Picture in Picture (PIP)
178 degrees horizontal and vertical viewing angle
1x DisplayPort
2x HDMI ports (2nd supports eARC)
1x USB-B 3.2 Gen1 upstream port (5 Gbps)
2x USB-A 3.2 Gen1 downstream port (5 Gbps)
1x USB-C 3.2 Gen1 downstream port (5 Gbps)
1x USB-A 3.2 Gen1 downstream port (5 Gbps) with BC1.2 power charging
Setup
Connecting the neck stand to the base was very simple. You just place the neck stand into the base and tighten the attached screw handle. No tools were needed. I also appreciated the design of the box to allow attaching the completed stand to the monitor while the monitor is still safely in the box. The stand clicks securely into the back of the monitor and once connected you can safely lift the monitor out of the box by the stand. Overall, this was probably the easiest physical setup of a monitor I have ever experienced.
The included stand allows for tilt, swivel, and height adjustment along with the ability to rotate the display between landscape and portrait orientations to enable the creation of the perfect workspace environment.
The Alienware AW2725QF also offers great connectivity by supporting 3 different source inputs and lots of USB ports. Support for Dolby Vision and HDMI eARC also means this will be a great monitor for gaming consoles.
Performance and User Experience
The Alienware AW2725QF performs extremely well in UHD 4K mode. Colors were rich, bright and vibrant and text was super sharp. In UHD 4K mode, this monitor excels in productivity and media consumption tasks such as programming, reading/writing emails, web browsing, and watching videos and playing games.
While watching videos, I discovered one surprising feature that was missing from this monitor. The Alienware AW2725QF doesn’t have any built-in speakers or any audio/headphone jack. I have a somewhat unusual setup where I have multiple computers sharing a single monitor, keyboard and mouse through a HDMI KVM switch so for my situation, it is very useful to have speakers on the monitor.
For audio support, there is an HDMI port that supports eARC so it’s possible to connect a small HDMI soundbar for sound. It should also be possible to use a USB audio adapter or USB digital speaker connected to one of the monitor’s USB ports for sound although I didn’t test this.
Luckily, one of the computers I have connected to the KVM switch is a laptop so I was able to use the laptop’s built-in speakers for sound.
You can switch operating modes (UHD 4K or FHD 1080p mode) by pressing the joystick menu button for about 2 seconds. When you do that, the connected computer thinks you physically attached a new monitor to it.
You can also download the Dell Display Manager application to customize and control the settings of the monitor. I did not get a chance to try this out.
I was very curious about how the Alienware AW2725QF would look like when running In FHD 1080p mode and how it compares to using the graphics card to produce a 1080p display when running in UHD 4K mode.
Overall, the display running in FHD 1080p mode looks about the same as when using your graphics card to display a 1080p image on a UHD 4K monitor. I didn’t really see any difference when it comes to graphics.
However, if you look more closely at text, you can notice the text to be slightly more blocky with slightly better contrast in FHD 1080p mode compared to UHD 4K mode.
Using the graphics card to display a 1080p image in UHD 4K mode produces text that is smoother and softer. This is because the graphics card can produce text using anti-aliasing techniques since it has full access to every pixel in the 4K display.
I played Black Myth Wukong at 1080p on the monitor and I was very impressed. Image quality was great and the game was very enjoyable on this monitor. At first I noticed some minor tearing but once I enabled nVidia G-Sync on my laptop’s RTX 4060 graphics card, I did not see any more tearing so this feature seems to work really well.
I played the game using both FHD 1080p mode and UHD 4K mode (while setting the graphics resolution to 1080p) and didn’t notice any image quality or performance difference.
I am not a competitive gamer, so I will probably be mostly using the monitor in UHD 4K mode as the type of games I typically enjoy (X-COM 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, Marvel Midnight Suns etc.) don’t really need super high refresh rates.
Summary
The Alienware AW2725QF produces a beautiful image with bright, vibrant, rich colors along with razor sharp text. It offers plenty of connections and the included stand is very flexible for creating the perfect workspace environment. Support for Dolby Vision and HDMI eARC also makes this monitor great for a gaming console.
The Alienware AW2725QF has a unique ability to also function as a lower resolution monitor (FHD 1080p) that offers higher refresh rates (up to 360 Hz) for those who are into competitive gaming and need the highest rates possible.
Overall, I can easily recommend the Alienware AW2725QF to anyone looking for a new UHD 4K gaming monitor that is also excellent for productivity and media consumption.

The Alienware 4K gaming monitor is an excellent choice for both competitive and casual gaming. Its 4K resolution delivers stunning image quality, and with a refresh rate of 165 Hz, it ensures smooth gameplay. For those focused on competitive play, the monitor also offers a 1080p option that supports a remarkable 360 Hz refresh rate. This higher frame rate provides better timing and improved accuracy during intense gaming sessions.
This monitor is versatile enough to fit any setup, whether used as a main monitor or a secondary one. It has a decent size and is easy to assemble; you simply snap in the stand and secure it with one screw. After that, you can connect it to a power source and use an HDMI or DisplayPort cable to link it to your computer.
The Alienware monitor performs well with both fast and slower computers, allowing for high frame rates even at lower resolutions. Users with slower systems can enjoy smooth gameplay at 1080p, while still benefiting from a monitor capable of delivering 360 frames per second. For those with powerful systems, the monitor shines at 4K resolution with a 165 Hz refresh rate, providing an outstanding visual experience.
Additionally, the monitor offers a standard array of color modes, such as FPS and racing, with the standard mode being my personal favorite for its vibrant colors, which avoid a flat appearance. Overall, the Alienware monitor is a worthwhile investment for anyone seeking an efficient and visually appealing display.