Agreed! It's not only some of the most valuable, but is simultaneously some of the easiest and hardest content to make. Easiest because... you don't need to do anything special to make said content. Hardest because you can't test very many things in a "personal" manner (no 50 GPU "personal testing" benchmark from HUB Steve lol)
One way to reduce the window edge burn-in is to set the "Title Bars and Window Borders" checkbox for accent colors to off in the Windows personalization settings! It'll set it to the darkest gray Windows supports, which is dimmer than the darkest accent color you could pick.
In custom colors under the default ones you can set it to black which would be better then having it off, which to me in windows dark theme is grey and not black.
Bought my own AW3423DW back in January of this year (Firmware version MOB103) and have been using it as my primary display ever since. Here are some observations I have gathered during my roughly 1000 hours of usage with coding and gaming: The panel maintenance features seem to have been fixed in later firmware updates, as mine has always automatically performed each night when i turn my pc off. However I have also noticed the mild burn in when using window snapping in windows, mainly when i have a bright PDF file on one side and a dark IDE on the other side. However all the marks of this disappear after performing the quick panel refresh. The fan noise on my unit is pretty bad, I can't hear it when i have some audio playing, but when no sound is playing I can hear it clearly through my open-back headphones and it is sometimes louder than my PC. Brightness deviation when using the HDR 1000 mode is also sometimes a little too obvious. For example driving around in FH5 where the bright sky is moving behind mountains and other things, the brightness change is noticeable and sometimes even distracting. I have considered changing to the HDR400 mode, but those bright highlights during night time just look too damn good. Overall the monitor is amazing and the HDR experience is the best I've ever seen (I often post pictures of my monitor to my friends because I just can't believe just how good some games look) and as I live in Finland where most of the year is spent with little to no sunlight the brightness and the screen coating is not an issue. I have also never noticed the text fringing some people were talking about.
Thats not Burn in, that is Image retention. Burn in is the permanent image, you should not have burn in yet unless you left it on for a long time on one screen/. Fans noise complaints ive heard this from so many of these, quite sad to see. Text fringing happens a lot for text, you have to compare it to a normal monitor and it becomes quite obvious.
Thank you for your detailed comment. I want an HDR monitor for gaming but I can’t afford 2 monitors so the one buy will be for both work and play. I do coding as well and I always wondered if text fringing would be a problem for me in IDE’s and also if IDE’s would cause burn in since they have static UI elements that are on screen for very long periods that you can’t just hide like the task bar.
@@zanderlabuschagne2368 Hey, I have never noticed the text fringing on my monitor, even though I have a regular 1080p monitor on the side but your mileage may vary. Burn in hasn’t been an issue even after sometimes up to 10 hour long days staring at the same IDE screen. The static elements at least in jetbrains products are dark enough to not be something to worry about. On windows however I have used the regular prevention things such as hiding the taskbar and dimming desktop icons.
Another thing to note with the burn-in being more noticeable on green backgrounds. Humans tend to have greater perception of hue and gradient when viewing green compared to any other colour
@@nathanwhite617 actually it's believed we evolved sensitivity to green to better preceive movement in grass so we could detect predators better in the grasslands we started out in. so you're not too far off.
This was going to be my comment: humans can distinguish more shades of green than any other color... which is why it's used for night vision. I presume that could be part of why it seems easier to spot on the screen.
@@dremy746 Is it? It's also simply the part of the sun's spectrum that has the most energy in it. Perhaps it was most beneficial to distinguish shades of green, because that's the color the sun gives us most of to work with?
I'd honestly love if you added a "nitty gritty bad stuff" section into your monitor reviews. It's often difficult to find out if the stand is wobbly or if there is a Picture by Picture mode with severe limitations or if it takes a long time to turn on etc.
Hey! As an owner, I can answer these. No Picture by Picture mode, the stand is high-quality and very sturdy, and it takes about 3-4 seconds to turn on.
@@avengethis97 I don’t have this issue. Are you running it over HDMI by any chance? Could be due to an aspect ratio change or DRM handshake issue. I had this with my PS5 on my TV. I replaced the cable with a higher bandwidth one and never had the black screen issue again.
Given monitors are usually kept for years, Id love to see this type of monitor revisted after the full 3 year warranty period. It will be interesting how Dell supports late warranty burn in claims or if theres burn in say 6 months after the warranty ends. Hopefully they last a good 5 years or so though.
my guess is a high percentage of these monitors will begin to experience noticeable burn in around 2.5 - 3 years no way they last 5 years with no signs of burn in when used as a regular pc monitor. it will happen -it is a feature of oled
Kept for many years And used at least 4-6 hours a day. Someone that buys an oled to enjoy the benefits will clearly use minimum 4-5 hours/ day and could even go up to 15h/day So realistically we are looking at 2000-5000 hours/year. 10 times more than this situation. And then we go to games that require a hud. Many games are like this. An "in game" specific interface that is usually in a bright color (white usually) so players can see the info. You can't hide it as you need it, and is static throughout everything happening in the game. A serious gamer spends like 3 hours in a single title in a single go, thus no mitigating in any way of the burn in during that time. As there is a warranty in place, you play for 1-2 years and then send the product for repair, right?! And after that, you sell it, but anyone buying it will pay dime to the dollar as they know they are buying a single use product. That is the biggest problem, you buy something that will die out with use, and thus you lose the value. An IPS monitor will keep it's value even after longer time. Especially a new gen fast IPS monitor won't be worse in 5 years than a new ips monitor sold then.
I've had my AW3423DW since last November and I've used it for both work + gaming, so at least 8 hours a day of static code IDEs and game huds, 0 burn in but I have the second version of the firmware so the pixel refresh does run everytime the panel goes to sleep. Performance with HDR and auto HDR is superb, the only way to describe this monitor is with a list of superlatives
i just got this monitor. It was one that was in use in the shop, but I don't mind. They mainly used for desktop and mail checking and as a display computer
I'm planning on getting it for coding , pdfs , word documents , research , chrome and gaming / movies. 90/10. Would you still recommend it and what would you do to prevent burn in. Thank you. It will be used 12 hours a day. Me during the day and a friend during the night.
I've also had this monitor for about a year. I use it as my WFH monitor (so 8+ hrs a day) and I game maybe 5% of the time. I use it at 120 nit white point. Still great with no discernable burn in. I don't have an issue with automatic panel maintenance features, and I've been prompted to run the longer panel refresh x2 now.
Can you please share more information? What ide do you use and does it stay frozen in the screen for long? I have like 8 hours a day my IDE running and am afraid of the burn-in due to that. Did you do any tweaks to make it last longer? What exactly, if so? How is it with text? No clarity issues? Please, if you answer, include as much information as possible, I want to buy a qd-oled soon and I am going to use it for coding too. I use dark mode in everything (hate when something is white- it just burns the eyes hard), and static elements are also hidden (just occupy space when I don’t really need those). I use Linux though, and my own custom desktop environment, so I can do basically anything there to “help” the monitor last longer if there is anything I can do. Thank you in advance!
Man, I hope micro LED goes mainstream in the next few years. I love everything about OLED but I just know that if I get a monitor with OLED I’ll be constantly paranoid about the HUD elements in my games damaging the panel
if you are that type of guy that plays the same game thousands of hours(like every competitive player does), oled is not for you, if you play different games, 40 hours each, i dont think there will be a problem, i`ve been using a C2 42" as monitor for 6 months now, 10-12 hours a day, working and playing, all good so far.
Yeah. I invest hundreds of hours into games like Diablo and Overwatch. I’ve only had my DWF for a month but I’m fully expecting burn in sooner than later
good mini led monitors cost around 2K what do you think micro led will cost? These OLED monitors are around 1K and they blow pretty much everything out the water
A funny thing about this monitor is that when the pixel refresh option pops up in the middle of gaming session... I actually *appreciate* it, because it forces me to take a break when I've been playing for a bit too long, lol.
I have a DWF unit that I use for gaming and 3D production work. I use it for about 45 hours per week and have had it since January so around 540 hours of use and have not noticed any burn in. Love my DWF model so much.
I have the same DWF. I Love it. The 4 hour pixel reset is definitely my biggest "issue," but I knew what I was buying beforehand. 1 year later, I'm super happy with it for games. If I need to be reminded I need only turn my head and check out the IPS glow on my other monitor. I'll simply Never go back. : ) Game on.
I bought the DWF after your last review and that seems to fix all of your problems. Firmware upgradable, pixel refresh works and you can set it to do it every time in sleep mode, not having hdmi 2.1 is fine cause it actually works with PS5 now for 48-120hrz VRR and HDR so it’s great. The text thing is noticeable sometimes but I don’t mind. Probably the best monitor I have tried so far
I bought myself the DWF for christmas. It is the best monitor ever made. And I am really glad to see Dell is still looking in to fixing the HDR. At least there are workarounds for the moment. I was using better clear type for a while but it didnt do thwt much. I got used to the fringing after a while. I have my old 1440p IPS stacked above it, and the text clarity really isn't that much better from normal viewing, distances. My biggest gripe is the lack kf polarization filter. I had to black out all the windows in my room to get the most out of it. A few quirks need to be ironed out for the next model then it will be unbeatable!
I'm one of the first adopters and have had the monitor for almost a year (MB101 fw). I am a heavy user who uses this monitor for work during the day and gaming at night, probably averaging 12+ hrs a day. I haven't "babied" it as an OLED screen, but I don't leave it on when not in use (and have a 5 min stand-by timer) and I only use 30% brightness for SDR and 75% for HDR. I love the image quality, but I've had a number of issues: - I have burn-in in toolbar and taskbar areas. It's not obvious most of the time when gaming or watching videos, but I do notice it when I have dark images on the screen. - Chromatic aberration around text. This is a known issue given the subpixel structure, but worth noting for anyone considering this monitor for a significant productivity usage too. - Pixel refresh is not activating automatically and often prompts me to perform it right after I power it on in the morning, after being on stand-by all night. - GSync randomly stops working and requires unplugging from wall to fix. It's only happened a few times, but pretty serious and annoying. - I use an MKV to switch between my work and gaming PC, and it's a 50/50 chance every time that the monitor will be detected. The handshake times are really long even when they work. This is by far the most annoying issue for my use case. I'm about to request a replacement and hope to get one with the latest FW. I don't expect FW to address the first two issues, that's likely just the nature of this OLED tech. However, the rest are clearly bugs with this monitor and I hope they've been addressed.
@@indian-tech-support I received a replacement with 1.05 fw which improved the issues I was having but hasn't completely eliminated them unfortunately. No burn in on the new one so far.
I have had mine since launch. I must have at least 1500 hours on it since the Panel Refresh option just popped up on me last week. By far the best display I have had. Just looks incredible at all times. I use it in a dimly lit room with no glare, so the coating doesn't bother me. I keep it at 144Hz 10-bit at all times and use the HDR400 mode. As for burn-in, I do not notice any at all. I am probably 80% games and 20% media/web. I have no wallpaper, taskbar hidden and transparent, and no icons on desktop to prevent any kind of retention as much as possible. By far one of the best purchases I have made for PC.
"there are a few concerns though, such as the very early stages of burn-in after not a huge amount of hours". I love these videos, and I wholly appreciate Tim for his in-depth breakdown of things, but this is a _massive_ understatement. You said you were putting in about an hour of gaming per day, and total usage is about 300 hours in the last year. As you've rightly stated soon afterwards, many people buying this monitor are either going to be heavy gamers or people who plan on using it as a daily driver for a multitude of use-cases, including productivity and other WFH-related stuff. Seeing such early indications of burn-in with such light usage is honestly crazy to me, and especially when the burn in is perhaps due to the white window border split being a static element, and not something that can be easily remedied. I tested out this monitor awhile ago and fell in love with it. There simply aren't enough adjectives for me use that can adequately describe the beautiful image that is displayed when turning it on for the very first time. However, because I was using it for 6+ hours a day (often far more on weekends and what-not) , I looked at my monitor as a $1,200 ticking time bomb, and "screen on time" the same way I would stare nervously at my dad's old Cadillac Deville's fuel gauge: A beast to drive, but using so much fuel so quickly that it should have had it's own TLC intervention special. I shouldn't feel like I'm being punished for wanting to get as much use as I can out of something intended to make me happy. OLEDs will need to improve that reliability and provide true peace of mind for me to want use one again in the (hopefully) near future.
"due to the white window border split being a static element, and not something that can be easily remedied. " i don't have any white border between black/dark windows in split screen - meaning it can easily remedied by changing the UI theme? personalization - colors show accent color on the following surfaces title bars and window borders
@@stclaws9580 that's good to know that it also affects the window border itself and not just the title bars! I forgot all about that. I know that Microsoft set limitations for how dark you can make theme colors, but anything darker than white would be a substantial improvement in reducing risk of burn in. Thanks for sharing!
turn “oled brightness” down to 0 or as low as comfortable when l browsing /static images ect that is but thay is the main setting that causes burn in on all oleds
We now know from the rtings testing that QD-OLED can suffer damage from the equivalent of 2 hours a day of use for 1 year. They recommended heavily restricting all non-gaming usage. This is a ridiculous situation to be in for top tier monitors in 2024.
Also my daily driver since launch. 80% Gaming / work. Probably 2300 hours of use. No burn in for now. Also you can use registry edits to make most things pitch black including the window borders and selected window border
Concerning the burn-in, windows allows you to adjust the split screen once you have snapped a window to each side. Instead of a 50/50 split you can adjust the middle to a 49/51 etc.
Can you explain this monitor Tone Mapping? Does it change automatically depending on the game? Is Win11 sending HDR metadata to the monitor. In my experience Win11 doesn't send metadata to the LG OLED TVs and I have to change it manually
Im watching this particular video on my own AW3423DWF QD-OLED. I have had it since December. My usage is approximately 12 hours a day. Regarding your pet peeves, i may be able to help you out a bit. I understand the one where the small window pops up asking about your option choice. You can use the software to turn it off during usage and only do the pixel saver as you turn it off or go into sleep mode. I no longer have the annoying screen pop up at random times. Second, My DWF version has one less fan than yours. I can say that after six months I can still count on one hand the number of times the fan has turned on. It comes on only for a few moments just a few seconds really then its off again. I can see absolutely Zero Burn in after approximately 2400 hours of use. Thank You for all you do good sir.
Hey, daily driver of a AW3423DW here, I use it for both work and for gaming, I did some rough math about my usage of this monitor and i came out to about 5000 hours of use in the last 11 months. I'm happy to say that I've got about the same amount of burn in that Monitors Unboxed has, just noticeable on a flat mid grey screen, but invisible in day to day use. I do however have the MOB102 firmware so maybe this is the burn in prevention features working properly.
I've had an AW23DW since September of 2022, so about 8 months. I have no noticeable burn-in. I use it exclusively for gaming about an hour a day on workdays, and about four hours a day on my days off. I have a separate PC and setup for web browsing and productivity. I treat the AW23DW with care and don't leave it on unattended for more than a couple minutes. I game in a dark environment so the lower brightness of the monitor and glossy finish don't detract from my experience. It was an immediate and noticeable improvement over my previous gaming monitor which was a 1440p, 120hz LCD. The most obvious difference was how deep the blacks were. If you are displaying a black screen on an LCD you can tell the panel is on because of the dull gray bleeding through of the backlight. With the AW23DW if you are displaying a black screen, you can't tell the difference between it being turned on or off the black is so deep. The self emitting pixels are simply off. The MAJOR issue I have is the fan. If I'm gaming I can't hear it and frankly don't care about it, but the AW23DW is in my bedroom about 15 feet from my bed. The fan will randomly start spinning in the middle of the night which is INCREDIBLY irritating. It doesn't happen all the time, maybe 5 times since I got it 8 months ago. Nobody wants to be woken up by a PC monitor gone rogue though. I've had to unplug it when this happens just to get a full night's rest. I considered contacting Dell for an RMA, but I really like it for gaming and the process would be a tremendous headache. Overall I think it's great, but the lack of firmware updates and fixes along with the randomly spinning fan are negatives to take into consideration.
@@wallacesousuke1433 I don't know if you're aware, but burn-in is covered by their warranty for three years. After owning LCDs and now having an OLED, I can say from experience with both that OLED provides an objectively superior experience. If you're on a budget though LCD might be the way for you. Your comment comes across as childish btw.
@@acidwizard6528 bro it's not that serious, I just found it funny that you mentioned the absence of burn-in when you seldom touch the damn monitor, might as well put it into a glass box and display it as a museum or collector's item :D I will never waste money on OLED when neo QLEDs trades blows with it for cheaper and for guaranteed longevity regardless of how much it's put to use.
@@wallacesousuke1433 It's all good man. I don't purposely pamper the OLED, that's just the amount of time I have to play games. If I played video games like I did when I was a teenager then I'd be using it for hours a day. Everybody's circumstances are different. Some people have jobs that require using a PC and use it more as a result. Some people leave their screen on at all times because they aren't concerned with their electric bill or irritating their wife. Some people prefer quicker refresh and response times at the expense of resolution because they play competitive games. Others might want the best possible HDR, color accuracy, and resolution because they enjoy cinematic single player games and don't mind that there is potential for burn in. I'm in that group. I upgrade my PC setup often enough that I'm not worried about being stuck with burn-in outside of the 3 year warranty period. If you're someone who is on a tight budget, uses the same monitor for many years, uses the screen for many hours per day, then an OLED probably isn't for you. Pick the best thing for your personal circumstances.
I have noticed the vertical lines too, although typically after a panel refresh / pixel refresh the lines go away for a time. I have the DW and it has had some intense use for work as well as gaming - 12+ hours a day since August 22. This is with Firmware 102
Vertical lines on the grey color is normal from what I understand. I saw a bunch of grey lines when I first got mine and panicked, but the internet said (if it can be trusted) that this is normal. What the OP shows sounds more like burn in if it's exactly in the center though.
I usually get vertical lines after watching a couple of yt videos, more precisely, I get those marks exactly where the youtube video ends on screen, due to unmatching aspect ratio between video and screen. They seem to go away, but it's kinda scary to watch youtube videos right now.
I have been using this monitor since July last year. It has the 102 firmware. I easily use it 12+ hours per day 6 days a week. I have not noticed any burn in. Initally I was having quite a few issues with the auto cleaning always popping up and monitor not waking from sleep. I was in the process of RMAing it and had it approved for replacement in Dec last year then the cleaning issue stopped popping up (honestly not sure what I did to do that) and I noticed the monitor walking up every time. I think the waking up every time could be because I moved from a 1080ti to a 3080, though you should expect the monitor to wake up every time regardless of card. I only use Displayport and have 2 monitors (32"). I use 10bit with 144hz refresh and Gsync enabled. You can't get higher than 144hz with 10bit sadly. Now that the monitor is behaving itself, I love it. I was getting rather annoyed with it late last year however. Tim! thanks for putting in all the work on testing monitors (amongst other things), your review of this monitor greatly influenced my purchase of it.
Hej, I have the dwf version for ~5 months, using it for 10+ hours a day for work (excel, email, apps) and content consumption, mainly gaining. No burning so far, but use preventing measures - hidden taskbar and turn off after 3 min idle. Reflections in direct sun are minor issues and apart from that absolutely love it and there is no coming back to lcd for me.
Hej, wersja z F na końcu ma możliwość wgrania nowego firmware w domu (bez serwisu) ? myślę nad jego zakupem jednak obawiam się przesiadki z 16:9 i płaskiego na 21:9 i zakrzywienie. Nie wiem czy moje oczy dadzą się radę przyzwyczaić. Nie denerwują cię ciemne pasy w filmach po bokach? ile zapłaciłeś i gdzie kupiłeś?
@@ultrasone8450 zakrzywienie jest bardzo naturalne i niezauważalne (siedzę około 75 cm od ekranu). Pasy nie denerwują, bo są po prostu czarne... jak to w oledzie.
I've had this monitor for probably around 10 months and it is my main monitor. I work from home and continue to use it before and after work, so it gets easily 12-14 hours of use a day. i play all kinds of games like FPS/MMOs/MOBAS, etc. I use it for web browsing and video content/steam/discord/etc. So probably have a few thousand hours on this monitor or more. Games with static interfaces like league of legends or WoW would be the most likely culprit for burn in potential and i have not seen any of that yet. i run the monitor around 60% brightness and use HDR. I do not split the screen like you since i have a 27 inch monitor on the side and a 49 inch above for multitasking/work. So i dont have the split screen line in the middle. i am kind of a monitor snob myself and enjoy your reviews so if you have any questions lemme know.
I've used this monitor for around 2-12 hours a day for 5 months now for both desktop and gaming. Bout 80% desktop use and 20% gaming. My firmware is M0B103. I have absoletely no issues so far with this display and no sign of burn in at all. The only issue I've had is after long periods of use (about 8 hours or so), the color on single color backgrounds can appear "wavy" or inconsistent, which is fixed with a quick pixel refresh. Highly recommend the monitor! Did have to replace the first one that came in because it had a bug where it showed only the calibration color test patters lmao. They sent a new monitor in and it came in within 2 days. Hella fast support!
@@indian-tech-support Sure thing. I do see a tiny bit of burn in on the sides of the monitor where 16:9 content stops being displayed. It's only visible in very dark (5-10%) fullscreen colors and not visible in any real world content. Basically the middle of the monitor is being used way more than the sides. It's very negligible and pretty much a non issue. I haven't run the full panel refresh so I'm unsure if that will solve it but have no need to imo.
@@Konigreich there's a adddon called ambient light for UA-cam. Chrome and Firefox. Tell me if that helps. I'm planning on getting this monitor but worried about burn in.
I will just add that *_if you are latency-sensitive_* and/or play a lot of competitive FPS titles, the DWF is probably your better option. *_For me personally_* the processing lag on this display was *_definitely_* noticeable, however that was also side-by-side with a top-performing 185Hz panel. Lastly, having a hardware GSYNC module is amazing. Ive noticed that especially in games with poor frame pacing, like Elden Ring for example, the hardware GSYNC module "feels" a lot smoother than just using standard VRR. That is to say that the stutters are almost non-existent with the hardware GSYNC module
Great to hear your personal experiences. I have the DWF since January and so far I'm happy with it, expect for the HDR1000 mode, which doesn't work all the time as it should - but it's a known issues. Could you do a video with the best way/s to keep an OLED/QD-OLED clean. I think as more monitors hit the market, it's also important for people to make no mistakes while keeping their display clean.
I removed the a/r film on my dwf. Don’t care about warranty so it was an easy decision for me. Haven’t looked back. No more scratches or haze. Just a nice glossy screen with very rich nice colors.
@@devon3658 razor blade and a lot of Isopropyl alcohol to remove the sticky mess afterwards. I posted small short video of the removal and final results of it on my channel. I’m still loving the results to this day still. Going to do this with every oled I buy in the future. It’s worth it to me and for what I like.
I got my AW3423DW last September and have been using it as my everyday monitor since then. This means that I've easily used it 4+ hours (almost) every day, and a lot of this time was spent using Google Chrome with quite a lot of time spent on UA-cam. Although I haven't specifically looked for any burn-in, meaning there's a chance it's just not clear enough (yet), I haven't noticed any in my everyday use. I did have a problem with the monitor (which you can find on the DELL forums as well) whereby my monitor would enter standby and then refuse to turn back on unless I pulled the plug out for a few seconds. I have since that time contacted customer support and received a new model from them which runs on MOB105 and should hopefully solve the issue. Overall I would say this monitor is great for anything you throw at it, whether games or everyday use. The HDR is gorgeous, the panel is beautiful and I absolutely love the colours. Yes, there's always the risk of a burn-in showing sometime in the next few years, but for now I've not had any issues.
I love mine. I use it for EVERYTHING. Gaming, youtube, and a LOT of Visual Studio. Hasn't given me any problems. I always do the pixel refresh every 4 hours and I don't have a single bit of burn it. Best monitor available. I do have the 102 firmware, so that might have helped in the quality preservation.
Thanks for the great 1 year review Tim! I am happy to provide feedback about my monitor as well (I'll try to keep it brief). - I bought my monitor on July 7, 2022, and it arrived on August 13, 2022. - Unfortunately, I had to return it for a replacement because of screen flickering. I received the replacement (the one I still have) on August 26, 2022. Basically I have been using this monitor now for a little over 8 months. - Firmware is the 102 version. - I do not see any sign of burn-in. - I use my monitor on average about 3 hours per day, so after about 8 months that means it has about 720 hours of use on it. - The pixel refresh automatically happens almost every day when I turn off my monitor, so I know that has been running regularly. - I have heard the fan run only 1 time since I have had the monitor (and that was within the last month) and it was pretty quiet. I only noticed it because it was a sound I had never heard before and wondered what it was. I could tell it was the monitor after putting my ear to the top vent on the back of the screen. - Love, the HDR picture. I keep the monitor in 1000 mode to get the brightest areas during games. - I play games on it most of the time, but also do some web browsing, spreadsheets, and Quicken work each day too. Probably 75% gaming, 25% other desktop stuff. - Never really notice any text fringing, and the screen coating is not an issue for me because I never notice any reflections or see any unusually grey areas. - When I'm not gaming, I have Windows set to SDR mode and before I start a game, I change Windows to HDR mode. I switch it back to SDR after I'm finished gaming. The reason I do this is because I find the automatic brightness limiter (ABL) too distracting when at the desktop, and the ABL doesn't seem to run at all while Windows is in SDR mode (or at least isn't noticeable). - I use a little utility that sits in the Windows system tray to turn on and off HDR mode because it just takes a single click to toggle it. If anyone wants a link, let me know. Even though hitting Win-Alt-B is pretty easy, I find it easier to just perform a single click to switch modes in Windows. - Overall, I love this purchase and would recommend it to anyone thinking about HDR gaming. - FYI, I purchased an extra 2 years of warranty from Dell for this monitor so that my burn-in possibilities are covered for 5 years now, instead of just 3 years.
Hi @skykingusa, Can you explain a little more about the screen flickering - cuz I notice mine have starting doing that like every 1-2 hours now and its looks like it really quickly blink from top to bottn and then back to normal. I have had mine sense 24/03/2022 and it have been turned on for more then 3000 hours I will assume because it have run 2 full panel refresh and I did read somewhere it does that every 1500 hours (the panel refresh took around 1.5 hour)
@@minimaann The flicker is like a full flash of the screen and would happen every few minutes. I tried to put a link here to show you the video I sent to Dell support but UA-cam keeps removing the link. So here it is without the "" at the beginning: ua-cam.com/video/JvpsOwj2c5g/v-deo.html
It blows me away how he hasn't properly brought up the issue of the panel Not Waking up (will NOT Power back up until replug of power cord), either from sleep or when switching on/off HDR. As some1 who's probably used this panel over 1k hrs, this is BY FAR the MOST FRUSTRATING flaw. The Worst part is the ONLY way to get the monitor to turn back on is to Physically Unplug/Replug the power cord from the monitor or wall. It happens around 1 in 30 sleep wake ups or 1/50 HDR on/off switches. I've been using the M0B102 firmware since Oct. 2022.Just Reddit search "AW3423DW Not Waking Up From Sleep" and you will see how common this awful flaw is!
Great review, with the AW3423DWF I think I’d rank my issues at about the same spots (minus the fan and updates as they’re not relevant) but I hard disagree about the coating. I have loved not having the coating that LG uses and a new iteration with a coating would be very heartbreaking. If there was a choice, i encourage the concept. But the coating is a no go for me
do you use your monitor in a bright or dark room? I am very interested in getting the dwf but my only concern is the coating, my room can get very bright during the day (although my usage is 80-90% at night) Ironically I switch the light on to play dark games on my current ips monitor. This seems to reduce the effect of the backlight making dark areas appear light grey.
I decided to get the DWF, best monitor I have ever owned, I always had an issue with how the display looks until this monitor, finally happy. I don't think burn in should be a major issue for me, I do the dark mode and hide taskbar and mostly used only for games a few hours a night, I might do some very little websites and windows work on there. I usually do the maintenance on it after every play session. I would say the one major downside is thinking about burn in and maybe avoiding certain things. But for how much I enjoy how my games look on this monitor it is definitely worth it.
Unless the technology has changed, you really don't want to be running the pixel refresher (if that's what you mean by "maintenance") that frequently. It should only be run when you actually notice burn-in. This video helps to explain it - ua-cam.com/video/fKAfKBqUu88/v-deo.html
Thank you very much for this video, it is very informative and useful. I've been using the AW3423DWF, not the DW, since mid-March. I've been using it for 600 hours, 300 hours of HDR exclusive gaming (HDR400 for 250 hours and HDR1000 for 50 hours since the firmware corrections), and 300 hours of desktop usage, as a single desktop monitor. I've not noticed any burnin issue, even looking at uniform colours in a dark room. The taskbar is hiding, I am in dark mode, the pixel refresh runs automatically. However, I always use my PC in very dark rooms, I've always had, and for gaming it's completely dark. Therefore, I've been using almost always the minimum brightness for desktop usage, which might explain the lack of burnin.
Tim the other thing regarding the refresh cycles - turning eco mode on seems to make them work properly for myself and my brother. I run MOB102 and he runs MOB101 and that fixes it for us. We notice sometimes every now and then it bugs out again, so we unplug the monitor (just turn it off at the wall) and wait 10 seconds, then turn it back on and it seems to fix that problem (every few months or weeks sometimes, it’s weird and random). Eco mode also doesn’t impact brightness or anything so I just run it and it seems to make it work properly in that respect
Yup, I'm guessing eco mode is off as well. When eco mode is off all hours plugged into the wall count against the next pixel and panel refresh. Also the fan runs 24/7 when eco mode is off. Another thing the manual mentions is the monitor may not come out of standby when eco mode is off. Turning Eco off is pointless and I don't understand why it is even an option.
Just purchased a AW3423DWF and I received it with very last firmware already installed and there is now a support easy tool for updates. There is no Gsync noisy fan module anymore so it has fixed 2 of the major issue. I play in a dark room so I can't notice the coating layer... The only question mark for me is still the burn in phenomenon
I've been using my aw3423dw for 10 months now. I use it always with HDR at full brightness for about 9h a day. When looking at a grey screen I can definitely see many slight burn-in artefacts. Some are definitely desktop icons, the task bar and UA-cam. The edges and lower corners are also a bit brighter. When gaming I can see slight burn-in when looking at the sky for example but in general it is barely noticable and doesn't bother me so much as of now but it might get worse over time, we will see.
I am somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 hours of use on my AW3423DW (received it at the very end of August 2022), including at least 1300 hours of productivity work. I do not do exact window splitting the way you describe in this video which may explain why I don't have a similar detectable line, but I do have spreadsheets and other programs open in the same area of the monitor every day at work, and I don't see anything at all really. I've been really impressed with it so far.
My monitor set brightness doesn't change, and that is at 40%. When on my work PC, HDR is disabled and the Windows brightness is at 26% currently (can't say it always has been, jut checked to respond to you). @@wwang1110
I bought the AW3423DW on 1st May 2022 so it's a year old as of writing this. It's on M0B101 firmware. This is my primary display and since I was prompted to run the panel refresh last month I must have clocked in over 1500 hours on it so far. The only major concern I've had with it is that on two occasions I've had a bright green vertical line appear on the right side of the screen about a third of the way in from the side. Switching cables didn't fix it, but luckily running the panel refresh did, both times it appeared. It wasn't burn-in or image retention, since these pixels were at full brightness. Other than that, the other gripe is that the fan does run loud though it's only annoying when I'm not using it for movies or gaming, and the fan can run at all times even for quite a while after turning off the monitor (though still plugged into the power). I wish the fan curve was smooth, but as it is it sounds more like me when I'm on the treadmill, huffing and puffing. I haven't had any burn in, and I run it in HDR1000 mode at all times. It looks glorious and well worth the minor nitpicks, no regrets here with two full years left on the warranty.
Thanks for the video. Always enjoyable and informative. I have the DWF variant, which has the same screen coating. Speaking for myself, I have zero issue with it, I like that its slightly reflective since it brings out the vibrant color more.
@@jonathanmarkleonard5571 What card?, how much memory, and what game(s) at what quality setting. I know 8GB of Video memory isn't enough for newer games with high quality textures, causes alot of stuttering. If thats not the problem, run HWmonitor to see whats going on with the cpu, video card , memory and ssd/m2 to see what the bottleneck might be.
I use it 10 hours a day during the week (professional work) and then gaming after work. Plus up to another 2-4 hours during weekends per day. I haven't seen the half-screen snap burn in like you have, luckily. Got it last June.
The AW3423DW is my primary monitor for 1 year. I spend a minimum of 8h/day coding stuff (so mostly static display in fixed places on the screen with lots of toolbars), and browsing and gaming in my spare time. The pixel-refresh is on a 4h timer by default, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I had to disable that and refresh manually because that thing popping up in the middle of a meeting or while you share screens when coding is just very annoying. So far no burn in, thank God. Hope it's going to stay like that because I absolutely love this monitor.
Wallpaper engine is also a nice thing to have since it’s a lot better to have an animated wallpaper as opposed to a static image that comes by default on windows.
Bought the AW3423DW (firmware version 102) five months ago and I'm using it daily for 8 hours of work and about 2-4 hours of gaming/entertainment. My work involves 2 browser windows open side by side all the time. I'm using Windows PowerToys FancyZones so I can set my split window size the way I want it and I've been changing it slightly during this time (2-3 times in the 5 months period) to avoid burnin in the same spot. In my opinion, FancyZones is recommended to anyone using this type of monitor to just shift the split ratio a little from time to time. I had no issues whatsoever with the monitor so far. Fan noise is barely audible on my unit and I can only hear it if I get really close to it. The only annoyance is that when waking from standby the monitor sometimes switches preset mode from Creator to something else but it takes 2 seconds to change it back (I binded the Creator preset to the quick menu). Panel maintenance seems to work fine on my unit with the mentioned firmware every time I shut down the PC. I also noticed the monitor doing it's thing sometimes when I'm away for more than 10 minutes and the monitor goes into standby. I don't know what kind of maintenance it does though (pixel refresh or panel refresh), since all I see is the glowing green power led and I disabled the warning message (that started to annoy me). I haven't noticed any burnin yet at a glance but I'll inspect it in further detail.
I have the exact same line down the centre of the screen with the AW3423DWF. I noticed it just days after receiving it from brand new. I don't use the split screen mode, I've done all the regular maintenance and precautions (hidden toolbar / moving wallpaper / desktop icons moved to 2nd monitor etc) so I'm not sure if this is something caused by the user.
I have three monitors and fresh out of the box, they all have this. Its called vertical banding, sadly this is a thing on OLEDs. But I only notice it when I go looking for it. Not noticeable in normal usage.
Thanks for the update. I also use the AW3423DW for my dedicated gaming PC. Best of both worlds when you can have a workstation and gaming PC right next to each other...
Great video, for me this made clear that the Alienware AW3423DW vs AW3423DWF, goes for the second, even when HDR is a little worse, the Firmware update option is just a better option to have. But being honest, from what I have read, the issue is not on Dell, but on Nvidia, because they don't allow user firmware update if the Monitor have a Nvidia G-sync module...
Thanks for the update Tim. The screen coating of all these 34" oled's is really holding me back from buying a 1100-1300 euro monitor. And another one is the hdr issues with amd cards I'm not going to buy nVidia cards so I want it to work well on my 6950XT. It's to bad lg does not have 32/36" wrgb tv's yet it would have been a good alternative. 27" is to small when comming from 34" I would consider 32" 16:9. But I would prefer to stay with 34" 21:9 or go 38" 21:9.
I absolutely love the glossy screen of the monitor. Glossy displays really enhance the clarity and contrast of the display and are well worth the trade off with reflections.
Definitely worth mentioning that Dell has now (december 5th 2023) released a firmware update for the DW on their site, bringing all versions of the monitor up to the most recent. Nvidia must have allowed them to do their own firmware updates. It fixed the issue i had where sometimes the monitor simply wouldnt turn on before i did a full power cycle.
I've owned one since launch, mixed usage for work and gaming, windows bar hidden and usual precautions taken, dark mode etc. Probably 8 -9 hours on time a day, 70 percent work. I have very obvious burn in across where the Chrome browser bar would be, most noticeable in grey and in skyboxes in games e.g. resident evil 4 remake. Very concerned and really don't want to have to baby it constantly and still get issues. Really wish more mini led monitors in this format were available.
Just input from a 13 month user of the DWF model. I've been extra careful with the burn-in, so I have no background image on my desktop, just plain black, also the autohide taskbar is on and I've changed the windows settings to turn off the monitor after 5 minutes of inactivity. I've used the monitor for just about everything you can throw at it: games, work, movies, web browsing, etc. I work in construction, so I had a lot of planning to do, which means a lot of thin black lines on a white background. I would still say that burn-in is a non-issue, but it is starting to show in some cases. So far, it seems that the easiest way for this monitor to burn in is to consume content with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means that there are two black bars on the side of the screen. I now notice a slight difference in brightness on a grey background (such as UA-cam's dark mode), where a straight vertical line runs down each side of the monitor where the black bars would be when watching 16:9 content. The screen is visibly brighter on the sides than in the centre. Fortunately, this isn't noticeable when watching content intended for a 21:9 aspect ratio, and even full-screen colours such as red, green or blue don't show this burn-in, only darker greys. So if you're considering this monitor, I'd say go for it, it's a phenomenal monitor, but keep the box and the receipt for the 3-year burn-in warranty.
@@phero6933 Nice... you got Lucky.. I guess.. BTW you have 32" 4K version and how much you got it for, if you don t mind me asking? Also, does the Curve bother you?
Lmao you have a mental disorder if a faint line thats barely visible only at 50% grey image bothers you. Your Mini LED and it's terrible viewing angles/uniformity is way more noticeable than that 😂
I've also had the AW3423DW since around early may of last year, also using it exclusively for gaming. I'm surprised to hear that people are having issues with the panel maintenance using this firmware. Mine has been doing the pixel refresh consistently (green light flashing, monitor is off after restart) without issue. I've also only received the error popup you talk about when I have eco mode off, so that may have something to do with this issue. Also, after using this pretty extensively in a single game (800ish hours), I have no noticeable burn in even on a gray screen. I'm sure I'd find some UI elements if I looked harder, but nothing has stood out to me yet
I've been asking about this for ages, so here it goes yet again. In your review of the AW3423DW and subsequent videos where you compare monitors to it, you report that you measured an input latency of 7.9ms. Other sites like TFTcentral for example report a latency of 5.17ms. Apparently this is due to you testing with GSYNC turned OFF, while they tested with GSYNC turned ON. Is this something you're aware of? And would you be willing to retest that specific thing? I really hope you see this question and answer it as I'm extremely curious.
@@TheGlobuleReturns That is the general rule of thumb, yes. But in this case it seems to be the opposite. I have no idea why that is. But in any case, the fact is that different outlets are reporting different numbers, and there must be a reason.
You mean input lag? To be honest there is no way to fully know the exact input lag but all displays probably have 16ms plus the added lag you see on reviews
The problem with testing with G-Sync on is that it introduces other potential variables and doesn't represent performance on video cards other than Nvidia. Tim is definitely correct to test with G-Sync off IMO.
@@giglioflex I do agree with that. But why not test both and just put an asterisk next to it saying. This is with nvidia GPU and this is with AMD. It's literally just one extra step. There are literally two gpu brands that are in the mainstream. AMD and Nvidia. It's not THAT much to ask, especially if it will give such a big difference in results.
AW3423DW user here, I also got mine about a year ago and I have really abused it. I often work on it, which involves web browsering and email, and I use it about 50/50 for productivity and gaming. I have noticed some very faint uniformity issues, same as yours only barely visable on a 50 gray screen, but I cannot for my figure out what caused it because its on the left lower hand corner. Maybe discord. In any case I don't notice anything during normal use, but I might end up pulling the ripcord on the 3 year warrenty in a year or so. Still the best monitor I've had by far.
I use my DWF for over 8 hrs a day so will have most likely put more hours into my monitor than you already. I am glad I have the option to upgrade the firmware if I need too and happy I went for the cheaper DWF even though the white aestetic of the DW would have matched my PC better. I can notice no burn in at all but I do not snap my windows in place and just move them around to where I want them. I hide the taskbar , have no icons on desktop and also use an animated wallpaper that I change every few days. None of your 7 issues are at all relevant to me. I have the DWF so 2 are ruled out straight away but for me this is just about the perfect monitor.
I have this monitor with MOB102 firmware from almost a year ago and my usage is well over 4 hours a day (I work from home often), most of the time the monitor has been at 85-100 brightness and I have ECO mode enabled but otherwise make no extra effort to avoid burn in etc. I have no burn in at all. Happy to answer any other questions. The only issues I have experienced is light flickering black line occasionally noticeable when playing a game with a static background, I notice this in Slay The Spire and I believe it might be due to GSYNC (which I have enabled for full screen and windowed 100% of the time), I also have the annoying 'breathing' fan noise on occasion but I'm pretty used to it now :D Oh and the subpixel layout was noticeable when I first used it on text but using Better Cleartype Tuner and using 2200 RGB helps a lot.
I used this monitor for work and gaming 7+ hrs per day cant see any burn in. The fan is very annoying when working, only having one DisplayPort be my second big issue. Screen image does look amazing and when gaming on different monitors you really notice the difference.
Yea no burn in on mine too and use for same hours. Sometimes I can slightly hear the fan continuously and sometimes the fan has a louder pulsing ramp up of the fan. But not a deal breaker for me at all screen looks so good.
Same here, had it since day 1 April 2022, work from home and use it as a screen for my work laptop using hdmi input and as monitor for my gaming rig. Fan has been fine over the winter since the room is cooler, but summer it is noisy and on all the time, even when using it as a screen for the laptop, so no gsync. I don’t see any burn in despite having email open and other docs. Used it for over 1000 hours at least. I use the pixel refresh when asked by the monitor, not had any issues with turning on and being asked to run it.
Still the best all around. 1. If you buy today the firmware is the most up to date and all of the issues have been resolved. 2. The fan is silent on newer models. Not sure if hardware changed or firmware related. 3. warranty is a must on any oled. They all burn in some. Even my lg. 3 yr is pretty solid. 4. Holy cow hdr on this is amazing. 5. Gsync and freesync ultimate means gsyn or freesync WITH HDR. Must have. 6. The response rate being lower isnt perceptible by humans. Also. It’s much lower than his testing shows, since he has gsync disabled. And this monitor has less response time with gsync enabled. Has to do with the way they engineered it. Known flaw in his reviews and also why he thinks it’s issue #7.
I got the DW last May and have well over 1000+ hours into it easily. All the stuff he mentions also applies to me. I haven't done the RGB test but I play a ton of games with static elements and I haven't noticed any burn in yet. The most annoying is the pixel refresher popping up in the middle of a game... which is a horrible experience in the middle of a heated multiplayer match. Other than that I just leave it in hdr with windows 11 and it's been fantastic
Also my monitor has that issue where it looks like little dirty bubbles on the screen coating. It goes away when you clean it with a monitor screen cleaner and microfiber cloth but it comes back within the month
Nothing like getting that OLED Pixel refresh halfway through an Apex Legends Ranked game where I have like 5 KP :D. I have to turn it off and hope my game doesn't crash as I switch monitors
@@AngelDiaz-ls9ph I did select the option to turn it off... its bugged and still pops up. I even did multiple factory resets to select that option again.
@@christopherjarrett9067 I know haha I put in 500 hours this year in apex and I swear it pops up during the most heated moments. Like right when a fight starts or something.
I wound up bringing back my PG42UQ OLED and swapping it out for the PG27AQDM OLED and the PA278QV IPS. Only having space for one system, and using it for both gaming in addition to video editing, I was worried about burn in on the big OLED. That and W-OLED has the same text fringing issues as the QD-OLED. So I sidestepped the issue entirely and have the best of both worlds.
An invaluable review ! Received mine about a year too and it still going strong and no burn in. Granted, I don’t use more than 3 hours a day and I have black random back ground. As long as you taking care of it, it’ll last you for at least passing warranty by 1 year. A worth it monitor !
@@wubnoxious that’s funny ! Hahah ! However, beware of windows auto turn on because of setting. I often press the monitor close button after used. At least I’m sure it’ll be off regardless of windows auto restart or turning on.
In theory yes, but Dell would have to release firmware that's actually on par with the DW first. HDR tracking is the main issue there, especially on AMD. On the other hand the DW has way worse input lag than any other QD-OLED, which is guaranteed to never get fixed so... the situation is annoying either way.
My dwf is a way better version vs the dw, 1 I barely calibrate it within 3 clicks and it's already accurate vs my cousins dw, plus it has a sharpness setting It's lighter Black Input lag is way better Less heat meaning less fan noise
It's great to see an update like this even if you haven't used it for everything. Sure seems like using the split mode is probably not a great idea on a panel like this. I would love to see your reviews covering power consumption of these displays slightly more in depth because I've seen elsewhere that the g-sync modules cause idle power consumption issues. It'd be nice to see a comparison of idle/sleep and static desktop on top of peak/normal type numbers. Power consumption in general seems to be ignored in many monitor reviews, likely due to brightness having such an impact, but is still valuable.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tim. Definitely not a monitor for me because the coating, considerable burn-in risk as tested by rtings, fan noise, pixel density, resolution and screen height are all pretty much deal breakers to me (I had the 34GN850 for over a year and even though OLED obviously blows IPS out of the water, I’m not returning to a 34” UW anyway) but hey, to each their own.
Obviously speaking with your wallet here, all those "issues" you mentioned are slight to moderate things some just subjective opinion. But when you factor in the fact that to remedy those things you are paying 50% more and getting worse HDR, panel, refresh rate, latency and whatever else I forget it's quite hard to argue, objectively, against it. And if you are to actually remedy those and get similar experience we are talking 200-300% the cost. So yes if a thousand or two dollars more or less for monitor is trivial there are other options if not well there really isn't. I'll lump together all 34" oleds as it is the same panel and variance is slight.
@@emilpapis93 LG C2 is cheaper and eliminates many of the objective or subjective flaws I listed… I simply consider the 34” UW format not immersive enough - and yes, that’s just an opinion, YMMV.
@@DariusPL actually forgot about the c2 i was mentioning monitors. But yes you are right the c2 is a good alternative but one most just simply can't use. The space you need for the panel itself and the depth of setup to be a good distance from it will simply not work for most people. And if you want to play FPS games and actually be above average it's simply not usable. I have tried playing on my TV and I simply couldn't do it I have to sit more or less upright at a table if not my abilities are so much worse that I'm simply too annoyed to play. But as a lean back and enjoy less competitive games and SIM games I can totally understand where you are coming from. I do think if you actually calculate the FOV of your setup Vs mine with a 34" i think you'd be surprised how little extra you are getting in comparison to the disadvantages like mentioned and the lack of ability for 2. Monitor. The c2 for very specific people/usecases can do better sure. But it comes with alot more drawbacks than the 34" alternative.
@@DariusPL C2 had noticeably worse image quality however, with off colored white levels, afterglow issues, spotty localized brightness and increased burn in risk. Not saying its a bad monitor/tv but it is certainly not a clear winner when comparing the two. There is a good video here on YT that compares the Samsung panel and the LG C2 side by side (42" LG C2 vs Alienware QD-OLED Monitor Side-by-Side Comparison).
i got 0 burn in and zero fan noise in my unit my D5 pump in wc is louder. Ozzy from my polish forums same no fan noise hes running desktop/programing 12h a day every day
yo! I got my aw3423dw in august last year, so im about 2/3 of the year through. ive just run some available colour panel youtube vids and im not able to make out any discernable shadowing or highlighted areas. i have been off work with an mobility limiting injury for the duration of my owning this monitor and have played a LOT of games with youtube and web browsing mixed in. I have see at least 2 panel refresh popups with one being in the last week or so. im on the new firmware and also run black background, dark themes, 3 min sleep, hiden taskbar and translucentTB app to minimise imapact. i have had a panel replaced within DOA period with what appeared to be the glossy coating like chipped of, honestly not sure if PLBKAC, but dell were gracious enough to replace it WAY faster than the og monitor turned up hahaha. im super surprised at the impact youve seeing as ive spent considerably longer using it however i dont really use static windows like you have done with web browsing at all....honeslty i find myself cranning my neck over to my other displays watching stuff for way to long befre realising i should be using the OLED instead! anyway man, love your content, keep it up, youre display jezuz! oh take advantage of that sweet sweet burn in warranty we have and get a freshie, youve earned it!
I have the MOB101 firmware and have been using it for a few hours almost everyday since I got it. The burnin is entirely unnoticeable in general use but is far more obvious on a dark grey full screen image like the one you used. The locations being the along the whole bottom edge of the bookmark bar on chrome, and black bars from watching 16:9 fullscreen content. I would say my burnin is slightly more pronounced then what you have shown in the video, but without seeing something like this in person i don't think anyone could say for sure.
I had the DW initially but the noise was a dealbreaker for me. Bought the Samsung G8 half a year later and really happy with it, silent, great design and most kinks were fixable (there only remains one where sometimes the monitors does not weak up when the PC comes back from sleep mode) The Smart TV software is okayish, I kind of prefer to use a remote instead of fingering around below my monitor to change settings. I don't use the smart TV features at all.
The fan in mine is virtually silent even under the quietest room conditions. The sound of my mouse clicking far exceeds any fan noise produced by the monitor.
I've also been using an AW3423DW quite extensively for ~1 year as one of my main monitors. I use it extensively for productivity and I haven't observed any concerning signs of burn-in. I often split apps with either 2 windows or 3 side by side. I've not yet closely observed the centre of the screen using the static shades that highlighted minor burn-in on your unit but will check that at some point. Interestingly I haven't had any issues with my unit running its maintenance cycles correctly and it's the same original firmware revision as yours. Do you have 'Eco Mode' enabled? I'm sure you're aware, but disabling that can cause some issues with the maintenance cycle timing.
@@captante9889 Like Tim, I test and have access to a large number of monitors. Like Tim, I decided to keep the AW3423DW for my own personal usage. That's because it's a genuinely good monitor in many ways and was a breath of fresh air in the market. No bias or self-justification here. Not everyone is out there to deceive and mislead, you know - sometimes we just enjoy genuinely good products and want to inform others about them so they too can enjoy the experience.
At what point will the text rendering/resolution issue come close to being resolved completely or is it simply not possible with this panel technology?
Thanks. You are great at capturing, appraising and prioritising the issues. I get a lot of burn in and uneven backlighting on IPS but doesn’t bother me. Hope to get OLED once it becomes more affordable
I got a AW3821DW instead, 38" 3840x1600. I expected these to get cheaper and more widespread, but instead it looks like they are being abandoned, yet I'm glad I bought one (it was on 30% sale). I didn't want an OLED since my screen is turned on over 15hours a day, I don't really like the idea of having an expiration date on hardware.
Thanks Tim, I’ve been using this monitor for 10 months now. I have to say it has been a fantastic monitor, except for the annoying pixel refresh pop up which always seems to happen as I’m 1 on 1 with an enemy in Warzone. I also use my monitor as a second screen for work so it easily has been used 8+ hours most days. I love that it saves the screen settings to the input, so my work laptop running via hdmi has a much lower screen brightness to minimise screen burn as I have spreadsheets open all day. I’ve not noticed any burn in as yet, but I haven’t looked as closely as you. All in all it been a worth upgrade to my LG IPS ultrawide (gn850 in think) I had before.
@@smarshallsay Hi, yes if you go in to the menu and scroll down to “Others” you will see an option that says “Screen Maintenance” which should be set to “on”. I’m on Firmware version MOB102, if yours is on, but you are not getting the pop-up then I suspect you are on the newer version which is supposed to run it in standby mode.
@@curtismariani6303 Ah I think what it is if you have ECO mode on the monitor does it's pixel refresh etc automatically when the monitor turns off so unless you leave your computer on for days at a time you'll never see the popup (I haven't yet but my computer is off every night)
I recently purchased this monitor to replace an otherwise-identically-spec'ed LCD and I was not prepared for how great it was. It was like the first time I saw VGA (yes I'm that old). The worst problem I had (other than 2 RMAs for bad pixels) was how terrible my TV looked all of a sudden. So I also had to buy an LG OLED!
I'm actually the opposite, bought a LG OLED tv last year and its been amazing and just today ordered the DWF for my PC at only $672 to replace my budget 1440p $400 ultrawide I've been using since 2018 that will now become my 2nd monitor mounted above my new Alienware.
Now when the AW3423DW finally have a firmware update available since December, can you maybe do a short little revisit while retesting the new lower input lag. I would like to see where the monitor slots in now, hopefully just above the DWF model.
500 hours is a ton lmao. He has daily driven it. What do you want? Use it while he sleeps? Burn in is a non issue especially when you use dark mode like you should do by deafult
500 hours is like at least 100 days of REASONABLE daily usage. _If you spend 8hrs or more a day on your PC and you're not working on it you should seek some help as that may indicate addiction._
@@GewelReal I’m working, and then I use the same setup for entertainment and studying. I already have different keyboards for different tasks, I don’t want to have multiple monitors, I don’t have enough desk space as is
I got AW3423DW 3 Days ago , I have no fan noise and working great. Compare to my Oled tv , Monitor is less brighter in white light but overall best monitor i ever owned.
Thank you for the review, very relatable. Keep up the great work and effort your team puts into these videos. I'll await the second generation of this screen to his South Africa before purchasing.
These sorts of "amount of time later" reviews are, in my opinion, just as valuable if not moreso than day 1 reviews. Thanks, Tim!
how many "personal" things can be reviewed? at some point it just turns into fake like all TV
Definitely more important. There's so much you miss can't discover until you've used something for a long time.
ofc especially for OLED's
Agreed! It's not only some of the most valuable, but is simultaneously some of the easiest and hardest content to make.
Easiest because... you don't need to do anything special to make said content. Hardest because you can't test very many things in a "personal" manner (no 50 GPU "personal testing" benchmark from HUB Steve lol)
Yeah Tim. Thanks.
One way to reduce the window edge burn-in is to set the "Title Bars and Window Borders" checkbox for accent colors to off in the Windows personalization settings!
It'll set it to the darkest gray Windows supports, which is dimmer than the darkest accent color you could pick.
Great idea!
I do that as well, works like a charm
Thanks mate, this really helps!
In custom colors under the default ones you can set it to black which would be better then having it off, which to me in windows dark theme is grey and not black.
@@WhyitJellyDonut I tried setting it to black, but it looks like that color's not available.
Revisiting products after actually using them for a long time is so insightful, especially the ranking of drawbacks.
Bought my own AW3423DW back in January of this year (Firmware version MOB103) and have been using it as my primary display ever since. Here are some observations I have gathered during my roughly 1000 hours of usage with coding and gaming:
The panel maintenance features seem to have been fixed in later firmware updates, as mine has always automatically performed each night when i turn my pc off.
However I have also noticed the mild burn in when using window snapping in windows, mainly when i have a bright PDF file on one side and a dark IDE on the other side. However all the marks of this disappear after performing the quick panel refresh.
The fan noise on my unit is pretty bad, I can't hear it when i have some audio playing, but when no sound is playing I can hear it clearly through my open-back headphones and it is sometimes louder than my PC.
Brightness deviation when using the HDR 1000 mode is also sometimes a little too obvious. For example driving around in FH5 where the bright sky is moving behind mountains and other things, the brightness change is noticeable and sometimes even distracting. I have considered changing to the HDR400 mode, but those bright highlights during night time just look too damn good.
Overall the monitor is amazing and the HDR experience is the best I've ever seen (I often post pictures of my monitor to my friends because I just can't believe just how good some games look) and as I live in Finland where most of the year is spent with little to no sunlight the brightness and the screen coating is not an issue. I have also never noticed the text fringing some people were talking about.
Thats not Burn in, that is Image retention. Burn in is the permanent image, you should not have burn in yet unless you left it on for a long time on one screen/.
Fans noise complaints ive heard this from so many of these, quite sad to see. Text fringing happens a lot for text, you have to compare it to a normal monitor and it becomes quite obvious.
Thank you for your detailed comment. I want an HDR monitor for gaming but I can’t afford 2 monitors so the one buy will be for both work and play. I do coding as well and I always wondered if text fringing would be a problem for me in IDE’s and also if IDE’s would cause burn in since they have static UI elements that are on screen for very long periods that you can’t just hide like the task bar.
@@zanderlabuschagne2368 Hey, I have never noticed the text fringing on my monitor, even though I have a regular 1080p monitor on the side but your mileage may vary.
Burn in hasn’t been an issue even after sometimes up to 10 hour long days staring at the same IDE screen. The static elements at least in jetbrains products are dark enough to not be something to worry about. On windows however I have used the regular prevention things such as hiding the taskbar and dimming desktop icons.
MOB103? i got MOB102 still, how did you update it? doesnt seem easy, been looking around how
@@kujalanville Good point on the dark themes of JetBrains products. I use them too. Thanks for the info.
Another thing to note with the burn-in being more noticeable on green backgrounds. Humans tend to have greater perception of hue and gradient when viewing green compared to any other colour
That i suspected as well!
Probably because we needed to distinguish edible plants from weeds when evolving 😮
@@nathanwhite617 actually it's believed we evolved sensitivity to green to better preceive movement in grass so we could detect predators better in the grasslands we started out in. so you're not too far off.
This was going to be my comment: humans can distinguish more shades of green than any other color... which is why it's used for night vision.
I presume that could be part of why it seems easier to spot on the screen.
@@dremy746 Is it? It's also simply the part of the sun's spectrum that has the most energy in it. Perhaps it was most beneficial to distinguish shades of green, because that's the color the sun gives us most of to work with?
I'd honestly love if you added a "nitty gritty bad stuff" section into your monitor reviews. It's often difficult to find out if the stand is wobbly or if there is a Picture by Picture mode with severe limitations or if it takes a long time to turn on etc.
Hey! As an owner, I can answer these. No Picture by Picture mode, the stand is high-quality and very sturdy, and it takes about 3-4 seconds to turn on.
The nitty gritty is it goes black randomly other than that it's bad ass
@@avengethis97 I don’t have this issue. Are you running it over HDMI by any chance? Could be due to an aspect ratio change or DRM handshake issue. I had this with my PS5 on my TV. I replaced the cable with a higher bandwidth one and never had the black screen issue again.
Given monitors are usually kept for years, Id love to see this type of monitor revisted after the full 3 year warranty period. It will be interesting how Dell supports late warranty burn in claims or if theres burn in say 6 months after the warranty ends. Hopefully they last a good 5 years or so though.
Good question.
my guess is a high percentage of these monitors will begin to experience noticeable burn in around 2.5 - 3 years
no way they last 5 years with no signs of burn in when used as a regular pc monitor. it will happen -it is a feature of oled
Kept for many years And used at least 4-6 hours a day.
Someone that buys an oled to enjoy the benefits will clearly use minimum 4-5 hours/ day and could even go up to 15h/day
So realistically we are looking at 2000-5000 hours/year. 10 times more than this situation.
And then we go to games that require a hud. Many games are like this. An "in game" specific interface that is usually in a bright color (white usually) so players can see the info. You can't hide it as you need it, and is static throughout everything happening in the game.
A serious gamer spends like 3 hours in a single title in a single go, thus no mitigating in any way of the burn in during that time.
As there is a warranty in place, you play for 1-2 years and then send the product for repair, right?! And after that, you sell it, but anyone buying it will pay dime to the dollar as they know they are buying a single use product.
That is the biggest problem, you buy something that will die out with use, and thus you lose the value.
An IPS monitor will keep it's value even after longer time.
Especially a new gen fast IPS monitor won't be worse in 5 years than a new ips monitor sold then.
Yeah burn in with such light desktop use after a few months is incredibly concerning.
If the warranty is over, it's over. What are you expecting, free stuff? If you want more coverage, extend the warranty. It's pretty simple.
This "one year later" review format is priceless. Please keep doing this.
I've had my AW3423DW since last November and I've used it for both work + gaming, so at least 8 hours a day of static code IDEs and game huds, 0 burn in but I have the second version of the firmware so the pixel refresh does run everytime the panel goes to sleep.
Performance with HDR and auto HDR is superb, the only way to describe this monitor is with a list of superlatives
thanks, I wanted to hear from someone who uses this as a daily driver, as in for work and gaming
It has a pop up for panel refresh that I rather disable it then run it becouse the pop up is so annoying, I have to go to setting to refresh
i just got this monitor. It was one that was in use in the shop, but I don't mind. They mainly used for desktop and mail checking and as a display computer
I'm planning on getting it for coding , pdfs , word documents , research , chrome and gaming / movies. 90/10. Would you still recommend it and what would you do to prevent burn in. Thank you. It will be used 12 hours a day. Me during the day and a friend during the night.
I've also had this monitor for about a year. I use it as my WFH monitor (so 8+ hrs a day) and I game maybe 5% of the time. I use it at 120 nit white point. Still great with no discernable burn in. I don't have an issue with automatic panel maintenance features, and I've been prompted to run the longer panel refresh x2 now.
Can you please share more information? What ide do you use and does it stay frozen in the screen for long? I have like 8 hours a day my IDE running and am afraid of the burn-in due to that. Did you do any tweaks to make it last longer? What exactly, if so? How is it with text? No clarity issues? Please, if you answer, include as much information as possible, I want to buy a qd-oled soon and I am going to use it for coding too. I use dark mode in everything (hate when something is white- it just burns the eyes hard), and static elements are also hidden (just occupy space when I don’t really need those). I use Linux though, and my own custom desktop environment, so I can do basically anything there to “help” the monitor last longer if there is anything I can do. Thank you in advance!
How far do you sit from the screen, and do you notice and text fringing?
Hi , can we have an update please.
I grabbed a LG C2 42" about a year ago and couldn't be happier. No burn in issues at all despite lots of hours put into it.
Same here, the best single upgrade to my gaming setup. Miles better than my now second display Asus PG279Q IPS!
42C2 1850H no Burnin.
QD OLED is still in its infancy, as rtings test shows.
Man, I hope micro LED goes mainstream in the next few years. I love everything about OLED but I just know that if I get a monitor with OLED I’ll be constantly paranoid about the HUD elements in my games damaging the panel
if you are that type of guy that plays the same game thousands of hours(like every competitive player does), oled is not for you, if you play different games, 40 hours each, i dont think there will be a problem, i`ve been using a C2 42" as monitor for 6 months now, 10-12 hours a day, working and playing, all good so far.
Yeah. I invest hundreds of hours into games like Diablo and Overwatch. I’ve only had my DWF for a month but I’m fully expecting burn in sooner than later
good mini led monitors cost around 2K what do you think micro led will cost? These OLED monitors are around 1K and they blow pretty much everything out the water
I have used a cx oled 48 inch for 2 years now and played the same games for very extended hours and have had 0 burn ins with the tv
@@Midnightservant1 LG TVs are way better about burn in mitigation than other brands/models
A funny thing about this monitor is that when the pixel refresh option pops up in the middle of gaming session... I actually *appreciate* it, because it forces me to take a break when I've been playing for a bit too long, lol.
hahaha same i go take shit or make food.
I have a DWF unit that I use for gaming and 3D production work. I use it for about 45 hours per week and have had it since January so around 540 hours of use and have not noticed any burn in. Love my DWF model so much.
I have the same DWF.
I Love it. The 4 hour pixel reset is definitely my biggest "issue," but I knew what I was buying beforehand. 1 year later, I'm super happy with it for games. If I need to be reminded I need only turn my head and check out the IPS glow on my other monitor. I'll simply Never go back. : ) Game on.
I bought the DWF after your last review and that seems to fix all of your problems. Firmware upgradable, pixel refresh works and you can set it to do it every time in sleep mode, not having hdmi 2.1 is fine cause it actually works with PS5 now for 48-120hrz VRR and HDR so it’s great. The text thing is noticeable sometimes but I don’t mind. Probably the best monitor I have tried so far
Nice. I have the original Tim is using and yea, no idea if the pixel refresher is doing its thing. :/
I hope they are working on a better firmware update fixing an HDR. Besides that, the monitor is awesome
just ordered mine! hopefully it serves me well!
I bought myself the DWF for christmas. It is the best monitor ever made. And I am really glad to see Dell is still looking in to fixing the HDR. At least there are workarounds for the moment. I was using better clear type for a while but it didnt do thwt much. I got used to the fringing after a while. I have my old 1440p IPS stacked above it, and the text clarity really isn't that much better from normal viewing, distances. My biggest gripe is the lack kf polarization filter. I had to black out all the windows in my room to get the most out of it. A few quirks need to be ironed out for the next model then it will be unbeatable!
40 series gpus don't event have displayport 2.1 which is disappointing...has the power to run over 120fps in 4k maxed settings.
I'm one of the first adopters and have had the monitor for almost a year (MB101 fw). I am a heavy user who uses this monitor for work during the day and gaming at night, probably averaging 12+ hrs a day. I haven't "babied" it as an OLED screen, but I don't leave it on when not in use (and have a 5 min stand-by timer) and I only use 30% brightness for SDR and 75% for HDR. I love the image quality, but I've had a number of issues:
- I have burn-in in toolbar and taskbar areas. It's not obvious most of the time when gaming or watching videos, but I do notice it when I have dark images on the screen.
- Chromatic aberration around text. This is a known issue given the subpixel structure, but worth noting for anyone considering this monitor for a significant productivity usage too.
- Pixel refresh is not activating automatically and often prompts me to perform it right after I power it on in the morning, after being on stand-by all night.
- GSync randomly stops working and requires unplugging from wall to fix. It's only happened a few times, but pretty serious and annoying.
- I use an MKV to switch between my work and gaming PC, and it's a 50/50 chance every time that the monitor will be detected. The handshake times are really long even when they work. This is by far the most annoying issue for my use case.
I'm about to request a replacement and hope to get one with the latest FW. I don't expect FW to address the first two issues, that's likely just the nature of this OLED tech. However, the rest are clearly bugs with this monitor and I hope they've been addressed.
FW?
OH firmware
Can we have an update , has the burn in gotten worse.
@@indian-tech-support I received a replacement with 1.05 fw which improved the issues I was having but hasn't completely eliminated them unfortunately. No burn in on the new one so far.
I have had mine since launch. I must have at least 1500 hours on it since the Panel Refresh option just popped up on me last week. By far the best display I have had. Just looks incredible at all times. I use it in a dimly lit room with no glare, so the coating doesn't bother me. I keep it at 144Hz 10-bit at all times and use the HDR400 mode.
As for burn-in, I do not notice any at all. I am probably 80% games and 20% media/web. I have no wallpaper, taskbar hidden and transparent, and no icons on desktop to prevent any kind of retention as much as possible. By far one of the best purchases I have made for PC.
"there are a few concerns though, such as the very early stages of burn-in after not a huge amount of hours".
I love these videos, and I wholly appreciate Tim for his in-depth breakdown of things, but this is a _massive_ understatement.
You said you were putting in about an hour of gaming per day, and total usage is about 300 hours in the last year. As you've rightly stated soon afterwards, many people buying this monitor are either going to be heavy gamers or people who plan on using it as a daily driver for a multitude of use-cases, including productivity and other WFH-related stuff.
Seeing such early indications of burn-in with such light usage is honestly crazy to me, and especially when the burn in is perhaps due to the white window border split being a static element, and not something that can be easily remedied.
I tested out this monitor awhile ago and fell in love with it. There simply aren't enough adjectives for me use that can adequately describe the beautiful image that is displayed when turning it on for the very first time. However, because I was using it for 6+ hours a day (often far more on weekends and what-not) , I looked at my monitor as a $1,200 ticking time bomb, and "screen on time" the same way I would stare nervously at my dad's old Cadillac Deville's fuel gauge: A beast to drive, but using so much fuel so quickly that it should have had it's own TLC intervention special.
I shouldn't feel like I'm being punished for wanting to get as much use as I can out of something intended to make me happy. OLEDs will need to improve that reliability and provide true peace of mind for me to want use one again in the (hopefully) near future.
"due to the white window border split being a static element, and not something that can be easily remedied. "
i don't have any white border between black/dark windows in split screen - meaning it can easily remedied by changing the UI theme?
personalization - colors
show accent color on the following surfaces
title bars and window borders
@@stclaws9580 that's good to know that it also affects the window border itself and not just the title bars! I forgot all about that. I know that Microsoft set limitations for how dark you can make theme colors, but anything darker than white would be a substantial improvement in reducing risk of burn in.
Thanks for sharing!
turn “oled brightness” down to 0 or as low as comfortable when l browsing /static images ect that is but thay is the main setting that causes burn in on all oleds
We now know from the rtings testing that QD-OLED can suffer damage from the equivalent of 2 hours a day of use for 1 year. They recommended heavily restricting all non-gaming usage. This is a ridiculous situation to be in for top tier monitors in 2024.
Also my daily driver since launch. 80% Gaming / work. Probably 2300 hours of use. No burn in for now. Also you can use registry edits to make most things pitch black including the window borders and selected window border
We need an OLED tool that does all this shit automatically
@@Luke-ih1oc or MS just needs to make it a Windows feature.
Concerning the burn-in, windows allows you to adjust the split screen once you have snapped a window to each side. Instead of a 50/50 split you can adjust the middle to a 49/51 etc.
Can you explain this monitor Tone Mapping? Does it change automatically depending on the game? Is Win11 sending HDR metadata to the monitor. In my experience Win11 doesn't send metadata to the LG OLED TVs and I have to change it manually
Im watching this particular video on my own AW3423DWF QD-OLED. I have had it since December. My usage is approximately 12 hours a day. Regarding your pet peeves, i may be able to help you out a bit. I understand the one where the small window pops up asking about your option choice. You can use the software to turn it off during usage and only do the pixel saver as you turn it off or go into sleep mode. I no longer have the annoying screen pop up at random times. Second, My DWF version has one less fan than yours. I can say that after six months I can still count on one hand the number of times the fan has turned on. It comes on only for a few moments just a few seconds really then its off again. I can see absolutely Zero Burn in after approximately 2400 hours of use. Thank You for all you do good sir.
Can we have an update please , do you do anything to prevent the burn in / any tips.
Hey, daily driver of a AW3423DW here, I use it for both work and for gaming, I did some rough math about my usage of this monitor and i came out to about 5000 hours of use in the last 11 months. I'm happy to say that I've got about the same amount of burn in that Monitors Unboxed has, just noticeable on a flat mid grey screen, but invisible in day to day use. I do however have the MOB102 firmware so maybe this is the burn in prevention features working properly.
Can we have an update , how bad is the burn in now.
What about now? How is it?
@@Microsoft130 got my monitory 3 months ago its awesome. For movies to working on
I've had an AW23DW since September of 2022, so about 8 months. I have no noticeable burn-in. I use it exclusively for gaming about an hour a day on workdays, and about four hours a day on my days off. I have a separate PC and setup for web browsing and productivity. I treat the AW23DW with care and don't leave it on unattended for more than a couple minutes. I game in a dark environment so the lower brightness of the monitor and glossy finish don't detract from my experience. It was an immediate and noticeable improvement over my previous gaming monitor which was a 1440p, 120hz LCD. The most obvious difference was how deep the blacks were. If you are displaying a black screen on an LCD you can tell the panel is on because of the dull gray bleeding through of the backlight. With the AW23DW if you are displaying a black screen, you can't tell the difference between it being turned on or off the black is so deep. The self emitting pixels are simply off. The MAJOR issue I have is the fan. If I'm gaming I can't hear it and frankly don't care about it, but the AW23DW is in my bedroom about 15 feet from my bed. The fan will randomly start spinning in the middle of the night which is INCREDIBLY irritating. It doesn't happen all the time, maybe 5 times since I got it 8 months ago. Nobody wants to be woken up by a PC monitor gone rogue though. I've had to unplug it when this happens just to get a full night's rest. I considered contacting Dell for an RMA, but I really like it for gaming and the process would be a tremendous headache. Overall I think it's great, but the lack of firmware updates and fixes along with the randomly spinning fan are negatives to take into consideration.
LMAO imagine having to use a monitor almost NEVER in order to not suffer burn-in.. hell nah, screw OLED trash
@@wallacesousuke1433 I don't know if you're aware, but burn-in is covered by their warranty for three years. After owning LCDs and now having an OLED, I can say from experience with both that OLED provides an objectively superior experience. If you're on a budget though LCD might be the way for you. Your comment comes across as childish btw.
@@acidwizard6528 bro it's not that serious, I just found it funny that you mentioned the absence of burn-in when you seldom touch the damn monitor, might as well put it into a glass box and display it as a museum or collector's item :D
I will never waste money on OLED when neo QLEDs trades blows with it for cheaper and for guaranteed longevity regardless of how much it's put to use.
@@wallacesousuke1433 It's all good man. I don't purposely pamper the OLED, that's just the amount of time I have to play games. If I played video games like I did when I was a teenager then I'd be using it for hours a day. Everybody's circumstances are different. Some people have jobs that require using a PC and use it more as a result. Some people leave their screen on at all times because they aren't concerned with their electric bill or irritating their wife. Some people prefer quicker refresh and response times at the expense of resolution because they play competitive games. Others might want the best possible HDR, color accuracy, and resolution because they enjoy cinematic single player games and don't mind that there is potential for burn in. I'm in that group. I upgrade my PC setup often enough that I'm not worried about being stuck with burn-in outside of the 3 year warranty period. If you're someone who is on a tight budget, uses the same monitor for many years, uses the screen for many hours per day, then an OLED probably isn't for you. Pick the best thing for your personal circumstances.
I have noticed the vertical lines too, although typically after a panel refresh / pixel refresh the lines go away for a time. I have the DW and it has had some intense use for work as well as gaming - 12+ hours a day since August 22. This is with Firmware 102
Vertical lines on the grey color is normal from what I understand. I saw a bunch of grey lines when I first got mine and panicked, but the internet said (if it can be trusted) that this is normal.
What the OP shows sounds more like burn in if it's exactly in the center though.
I usually get vertical lines after watching a couple of yt videos, more precisely, I get those marks exactly where the youtube video ends on screen, due to unmatching aspect ratio between video and screen. They seem to go away, but it's kinda scary to watch youtube videos right now.
Gaming for 12+ hours a day? Sounds like you have other issues than burn-in to worry about
@@Dr.WhetFarts Why do you care? Everyone does what they want right? Don't you have any personal issue to take care instead ?
I have been using this monitor since July last year. It has the 102 firmware. I easily use it 12+ hours per day 6 days a week.
I have not noticed any burn in. Initally I was having quite a few issues with the auto cleaning always popping up and monitor not waking from sleep. I was in the process of RMAing it and had it approved for replacement in Dec last year then the cleaning issue stopped popping up (honestly not sure what I did to do that) and I noticed the monitor walking up every time. I think the waking up every time could be because I moved from a 1080ti to a 3080, though you should expect the monitor to wake up every time regardless of card.
I only use Displayport and have 2 monitors (32").
I use 10bit with 144hz refresh and Gsync enabled. You can't get higher than 144hz with 10bit sadly.
Now that the monitor is behaving itself, I love it. I was getting rather annoyed with it late last year however.
Tim! thanks for putting in all the work on testing monitors (amongst other things), your review of this monitor greatly influenced my purchase of it.
Hej, I have the dwf version for ~5 months, using it for 10+ hours a day for work (excel, email, apps) and content consumption, mainly gaining. No burning so far, but use preventing measures - hidden taskbar and turn off after 3 min idle. Reflections in direct sun are minor issues and apart from that absolutely love it and there is no coming back to lcd for me.
Hej, wersja z F na końcu ma możliwość wgrania nowego firmware w domu (bez serwisu) ? myślę nad jego zakupem jednak obawiam się przesiadki z 16:9 i płaskiego na 21:9 i zakrzywienie. Nie wiem czy moje oczy dadzą się radę przyzwyczaić. Nie denerwują cię ciemne pasy w filmach po bokach? ile zapłaciłeś i gdzie kupiłeś?
@@ultrasone8450 zakrzywienie jest bardzo naturalne i niezauważalne (siedzę około 75 cm od ekranu). Pasy nie denerwują, bo są po prostu czarne... jak to w oledzie.
@@ultrasone8450 Tak, mozesz wgrywac nowy firmware.
I've had this monitor for probably around 10 months and it is my main monitor. I work from home and continue to use it before and after work, so it gets easily 12-14 hours of use a day. i play all kinds of games like FPS/MMOs/MOBAS, etc. I use it for web browsing and video content/steam/discord/etc. So probably have a few thousand hours on this monitor or more.
Games with static interfaces like league of legends or WoW would be the most likely culprit for burn in potential and i have not seen any of that yet. i run the monitor around 60% brightness and use HDR.
I do not split the screen like you since i have a 27 inch monitor on the side and a 49 inch above for multitasking/work. So i dont have the split screen line in the middle.
i am kind of a monitor snob myself and enjoy your reviews so if you have any questions lemme know.
I've used this monitor for around 2-12 hours a day for 5 months now for both desktop and gaming. Bout 80% desktop use and 20% gaming. My firmware is M0B103. I have absoletely no issues so far with this display and no sign of burn in at all. The only issue I've had is after long periods of use (about 8 hours or so), the color on single color backgrounds can appear "wavy" or inconsistent, which is fixed with a quick pixel refresh. Highly recommend the monitor!
Did have to replace the first one that came in because it had a bug where it showed only the calibration color test patters lmao. They sent a new monitor in and it came in within 2 days. Hella fast support!
Can we have an update is there any burn in.
@@indian-tech-support Sure thing. I do see a tiny bit of burn in on the sides of the monitor where 16:9 content stops being displayed. It's only visible in very dark (5-10%) fullscreen colors and not visible in any real world content. Basically the middle of the monitor is being used way more than the sides. It's very negligible and pretty much a non issue. I haven't run the full panel refresh so I'm unsure if that will solve it but have no need to imo.
@@Konigreich there's a adddon called ambient light for UA-cam. Chrome and Firefox. Tell me if that helps. I'm planning on getting this monitor but worried about burn in.
Nice catch with the slight burnin!
I have the exact same background image from JWST - it's so beautiful
I will just add that *_if you are latency-sensitive_* and/or play a lot of competitive FPS titles, the DWF is probably your better option. *_For me personally_* the processing lag on this display was *_definitely_* noticeable, however that was also side-by-side with a top-performing 185Hz panel.
Lastly, having a hardware GSYNC module is amazing. Ive noticed that especially in games with poor frame pacing, like Elden Ring for example, the hardware GSYNC module "feels" a lot smoother than just using standard VRR. That is to say that the stutters are almost non-existent with the hardware GSYNC module
Bought this monitor (though with updated firmware) mostly from the influence of this channel. Zero regrets! It's been a phoenominal experience
Great to hear your personal experiences. I have the DWF since January and so far I'm happy with it, expect for the HDR1000 mode, which doesn't work all the time as it should - but it's a known issues.
Could you do a video with the best way/s to keep an OLED/QD-OLED clean. I think as more monitors hit the market, it's also important for people to make no mistakes while keeping their display clean.
I have so many spit marks on my DW LOL! They are hard to remove, need some distilled water to remove them.
I removed the a/r film on my dwf. Don’t care about warranty so it was an easy decision for me. Haven’t looked back. No more scratches or haze. Just a nice glossy screen with very rich nice colors.
@@SVT_LIGHTNING how’d you do that?
@@devon3658 razor blade and a lot of Isopropyl alcohol to remove the sticky mess afterwards. I posted small short video of the removal and final results of it on my channel. I’m still loving the results to this day still. Going to do this with every oled I buy in the future. It’s worth it to me and for what I like.
I was team oled until using a great mini led tv. Now I'm team mini led. No worries of burn in and HDR is unmatched.
I got my AW3423DW last September and have been using it as my everyday monitor since then. This means that I've easily used it 4+ hours (almost) every day, and a lot of this time was spent using Google Chrome with quite a lot of time spent on UA-cam. Although I haven't specifically looked for any burn-in, meaning there's a chance it's just not clear enough (yet), I haven't noticed any in my everyday use.
I did have a problem with the monitor (which you can find on the DELL forums as well) whereby my monitor would enter standby and then refuse to turn back on unless I pulled the plug out for a few seconds. I have since that time contacted customer support and received a new model from them which runs on MOB105 and should hopefully solve the issue.
Overall I would say this monitor is great for anything you throw at it, whether games or everyday use. The HDR is gorgeous, the panel is beautiful and I absolutely love the colours. Yes, there's always the risk of a burn-in showing sometime in the next few years, but for now I've not had any issues.
Any burn ins now ?
I love mine. I use it for EVERYTHING. Gaming, youtube, and a LOT of Visual Studio. Hasn't given me any problems. I always do the pixel refresh every 4 hours and I don't have a single bit of burn it. Best monitor available.
I do have the 102 firmware, so that might have helped in the quality preservation.
Thanks for the great 1 year review Tim! I am happy to provide feedback about my monitor as well (I'll try to keep it brief).
- I bought my monitor on July 7, 2022, and it arrived on August 13, 2022.
- Unfortunately, I had to return it for a replacement because of screen flickering. I received the replacement (the one I still have) on August 26, 2022. Basically I have been using this monitor now for a little over 8 months.
- Firmware is the 102 version.
- I do not see any sign of burn-in.
- I use my monitor on average about 3 hours per day, so after about 8 months that means it has about 720 hours of use on it.
- The pixel refresh automatically happens almost every day when I turn off my monitor, so I know that has been running regularly.
- I have heard the fan run only 1 time since I have had the monitor (and that was within the last month) and it was pretty quiet. I only noticed it because it was a sound I had never heard before and wondered what it was. I could tell it was the monitor after putting my ear to the top vent on the back of the screen.
- Love, the HDR picture. I keep the monitor in 1000 mode to get the brightest areas during games.
- I play games on it most of the time, but also do some web browsing, spreadsheets, and Quicken work each day too. Probably 75% gaming, 25% other desktop stuff.
- Never really notice any text fringing, and the screen coating is not an issue for me because I never notice any reflections or see any unusually grey areas.
- When I'm not gaming, I have Windows set to SDR mode and before I start a game, I change Windows to HDR mode. I switch it back to SDR after I'm finished gaming. The reason I do this is because I find the automatic brightness limiter (ABL) too distracting when at the desktop, and the ABL doesn't seem to run at all while Windows is in SDR mode (or at least isn't noticeable).
- I use a little utility that sits in the Windows system tray to turn on and off HDR mode because it just takes a single click to toggle it. If anyone wants a link, let me know. Even though hitting Win-Alt-B is pretty easy, I find it easier to just perform a single click to switch modes in Windows.
- Overall, I love this purchase and would recommend it to anyone thinking about HDR gaming.
- FYI, I purchased an extra 2 years of warranty from Dell for this monitor so that my burn-in possibilities are covered for 5 years now, instead of just 3 years.
Question do you know if the input lag was improved with the 102 version
Hi @skykingusa,
Can you explain a little more about the screen flickering - cuz I notice mine have starting doing that like every 1-2 hours now and its looks like it really quickly blink from top to bottn and then back to normal.
I have had mine sense 24/03/2022 and it have been turned on for more then 3000 hours I will assume because it have run 2 full panel refresh and I did read somewhere it does that every 1500 hours (the panel refresh took around 1.5 hour)
Would love that HDR one click plug in. Where's that?
@@nestaash Sorry, I do not know for sure, but I suspect it is the same.
@@minimaann The flicker is like a full flash of the screen and would happen every few minutes. I tried to put a link here to show you the video I sent to Dell support but UA-cam keeps removing the link. So here it is without the "" at the beginning: ua-cam.com/video/JvpsOwj2c5g/v-deo.html
It blows me away how he hasn't properly brought up the issue of the panel Not Waking up (will NOT Power back up until replug of power cord), either from sleep or when switching on/off HDR. As some1 who's probably used this panel over 1k hrs, this is BY FAR the MOST FRUSTRATING flaw. The Worst part is the ONLY way to get the monitor to turn back on is to Physically Unplug/Replug the power cord from the monitor or wall. It happens around 1 in 30 sleep wake ups or 1/50 HDR on/off switches.
I've been using the M0B102 firmware since Oct. 2022.Just Reddit search "AW3423DW Not Waking Up From Sleep" and you will see how common this awful flaw is!
These monitors need nicknames. So funny to hear the full name said each time
I appreciate the time you take to detail your personal experience with your own monitor in such a thorough and professional way, thank you!
Great review, with the AW3423DWF I think I’d rank my issues at about the same spots (minus the fan and updates as they’re not relevant) but I hard disagree about the coating. I have loved not having the coating that LG uses and a new iteration with a coating would be very heartbreaking. If there was a choice, i encourage the concept. But the coating is a no go for me
do you use your monitor in a bright or dark room? I am very interested in getting the dwf but my only concern is the coating, my room can get very bright during the day (although my usage is 80-90% at night)
Ironically I switch the light on to play dark games on my current ips monitor. This seems to reduce the effect of the backlight making dark areas appear light grey.
I’e had mine for a year as well. I couldn’t go back to non OLED. Absolutely stunning monitor. No burn in for me.
Wow one year.
Come back again in 4 years mate.
I decided to get the DWF, best monitor I have ever owned, I always had an issue with how the display looks until this monitor, finally happy. I don't think burn in should be a major issue for me, I do the dark mode and hide taskbar and mostly used only for games a few hours a night, I might do some very little websites and windows work on there. I usually do the maintenance on it after every play session. I would say the one major downside is thinking about burn in and maybe avoiding certain things. But for how much I enjoy how my games look on this monitor it is definitely worth it.
Unless the technology has changed, you really don't want to be running the pixel refresher (if that's what you mean by "maintenance") that frequently. It should only be run when you actually notice burn-in. This video helps to explain it - ua-cam.com/video/fKAfKBqUu88/v-deo.html
Thank you very much for this video, it is very informative and useful.
I've been using the AW3423DWF, not the DW, since mid-March. I've been using it for 600 hours, 300 hours of HDR exclusive gaming (HDR400 for 250 hours and HDR1000 for 50 hours since the firmware corrections), and 300 hours of desktop usage, as a single desktop monitor.
I've not noticed any burnin issue, even looking at uniform colours in a dark room. The taskbar is hiding, I am in dark mode, the pixel refresh runs automatically. However, I always use my PC in very dark rooms, I've always had, and for gaming it's completely dark. Therefore, I've been using almost always the minimum brightness for desktop usage, which might explain the lack of burnin.
Tim the other thing regarding the refresh cycles - turning eco mode on seems to make them work properly for myself and my brother. I run MOB102 and he runs MOB101 and that fixes it for us. We notice sometimes every now and then it bugs out again, so we unplug the monitor (just turn it off at the wall) and wait 10 seconds, then turn it back on and it seems to fix that problem (every few months or weeks sometimes, it’s weird and random). Eco mode also doesn’t impact brightness or anything so I just run it and it seems to make it work properly in that respect
Yup, I'm guessing eco mode is off as well. When eco mode is off all hours plugged into the wall count against the next pixel and panel refresh. Also the fan runs 24/7 when eco mode is off. Another thing the manual mentions is the monitor may not come out of standby when eco mode is off. Turning Eco off is pointless and I don't understand why it is even an option.
Just purchased a AW3423DWF and I received it with very last firmware already installed and there is now a support easy tool for updates. There is no Gsync noisy fan module anymore so it has fixed 2 of the major issue.
I play in a dark room so I can't notice the coating layer...
The only question mark for me is still the burn in phenomenon
I've been using my aw3423dw for 10 months now. I use it always with HDR at full brightness for about 9h a day. When looking at a grey screen I can definitely see many slight burn-in artefacts. Some are definitely desktop icons, the task bar and UA-cam. The edges and lower corners are also a bit brighter. When gaming I can see slight burn-in when looking at the sky for example but in general it is barely noticable and doesn't bother me so much as of now but it might get worse over time, we will see.
did you contact dell support? I am curious how much burn-in can make them offer a new panel for you
Contact dell. I’ve had mine since release and played moderately and I haven’t seen any burn in.
@@John-lt8wv It is still very usable so I would like to wait a year or longer.
It's awesome to hear what major reviewers truly use day in and day out - thank you Tim!
I am somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 hours of use on my AW3423DW (received it at the very end of August 2022), including at least 1300 hours of productivity work. I do not do exact window splitting the way you describe in this video which may explain why I don't have a similar detectable line, but I do have spreadsheets and other programs open in the same area of the monitor every day at work, and I don't see anything at all really. I've been really impressed with it so far.
what's the brightness in your daily productivity configuration?
My monitor set brightness doesn't change, and that is at 40%. When on my work PC, HDR is disabled and the Windows brightness is at 26% currently (can't say it always has been, jut checked to respond to you). @@wwang1110
I bought the AW3423DW on 1st May 2022 so it's a year old as of writing this. It's on M0B101 firmware. This is my primary display and since I was prompted to run the panel refresh last month I must have clocked in over 1500 hours on it so far.
The only major concern I've had with it is that on two occasions I've had a bright green vertical line appear on the right side of the screen about a third of the way in from the side. Switching cables didn't fix it, but luckily running the panel refresh did, both times it appeared. It wasn't burn-in or image retention, since these pixels were at full brightness.
Other than that, the other gripe is that the fan does run loud though it's only annoying when I'm not using it for movies or gaming, and the fan can run at all times even for quite a while after turning off the monitor (though still plugged into the power). I wish the fan curve was smooth, but as it is it sounds more like me when I'm on the treadmill, huffing and puffing.
I haven't had any burn in, and I run it in HDR1000 mode at all times. It looks glorious and well worth the minor nitpicks, no regrets here with two full years left on the warranty.
Thanks for the video.
Always enjoyable and informative.
I have the DWF variant, which has the same screen coating.
Speaking for myself, I have zero issue with it, I like that its slightly reflective since it brings out the vibrant color more.
do u use a nvidia gpu or amd gpu? any stuttering or issues when gaming in HDR with a nvidia gpu?
@@jonathanmarkleonard5571 Currently, a 2080, but I'll be switching to a 7900xt in a few day. As for the Nvidia, no stuttering while gaming in HDR.
@@goose5462 cool! weird cause i get that stutter with a nvidia card on a samsung g7 monitor on HDR
@@jonathanmarkleonard5571 What card?, how much memory, and what game(s) at what quality setting. I know 8GB of Video memory isn't enough for newer games with high quality textures, causes alot of stuttering. If thats not the problem, run HWmonitor to see whats going on with the cpu, video card , memory and ssd/m2 to see what the bottleneck might be.
@@goose5462 i play around with high settings? but its a 3080 with 16gb of ram?
I use it 10 hours a day during the week (professional work) and then gaming after work. Plus up to another 2-4 hours during weekends per day. I haven't seen the half-screen snap burn in like you have, luckily. Got it last June.
Is this monitor still viable in 2024? My best buy store has one for about 600 dollars and I'm between this and a 4k monitor for my new 4090
The AW3423DW is my primary monitor for 1 year. I spend a minimum of 8h/day coding stuff (so mostly static display in fixed places on the screen with lots of toolbars), and browsing and gaming in my spare time. The pixel-refresh is on a 4h timer by default, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I had to disable that and refresh manually because that thing popping up in the middle of a meeting or while you share screens when coding is just very annoying. So far no burn in, thank God. Hope it's going to stay like that because I absolutely love this monitor.
Wallpaper engine is also a nice thing to have since it’s a lot better to have an animated wallpaper as opposed to a static image that comes by default on windows.
If you truly care about longevity, a black desktop background is ideal
Bought the AW3423DW (firmware version 102) five months ago and I'm using it daily for 8 hours of work and about 2-4 hours of gaming/entertainment. My work involves 2 browser windows open side by side all the time. I'm using Windows PowerToys FancyZones so I can set my split window size the way I want it and I've been changing it slightly during this time (2-3 times in the 5 months period) to avoid burnin in the same spot.
In my opinion, FancyZones is recommended to anyone using this type of monitor to just shift the split ratio a little from time to time.
I had no issues whatsoever with the monitor so far. Fan noise is barely audible on my unit and I can only hear it if I get really close to it. The only annoyance is that when waking from standby the monitor sometimes switches preset mode from Creator to something else but it takes 2 seconds to change it back (I binded the Creator preset to the quick menu).
Panel maintenance seems to work fine on my unit with the mentioned firmware every time I shut down the PC. I also noticed the monitor doing it's thing sometimes when I'm away for more than 10 minutes and the monitor goes into standby. I don't know what kind of maintenance it does though (pixel refresh or panel refresh), since all I see is the glowing green power led and I disabled the warning message (that started to annoy me).
I haven't noticed any burnin yet at a glance but I'll inspect it in further detail.
I have the exact same line down the centre of the screen with the AW3423DWF. I noticed it just days after receiving it from brand new. I don't use the split screen mode, I've done all the regular maintenance and precautions (hidden toolbar / moving wallpaper / desktop icons moved to 2nd monitor etc) so I'm not sure if this is something caused by the user.
I have three monitors and fresh out of the box, they all have this. Its called vertical banding, sadly this is a thing on OLEDs. But I only notice it when I go looking for it. Not noticeable in normal usage.
Thanks for the update. I also use the AW3423DW for my dedicated gaming PC. Best of both worlds when you can have a workstation and gaming PC right next to each other...
Great video, for me this made clear that the Alienware AW3423DW vs AW3423DWF, goes for the second, even when HDR is a little worse, the Firmware update option is just a better option to have. But being honest, from what I have read, the issue is not on Dell, but on Nvidia, because they don't allow user firmware update if the Monitor have a Nvidia G-sync module...
Yeah its basically NVIDIA issue, not dell
Thanks for the update Tim.
The screen coating of all these 34" oled's is really holding me back from buying a 1100-1300 euro monitor. And another one is the hdr issues with amd cards I'm not going to buy nVidia cards so I want it to work well on my 6950XT. It's to bad lg does not have 32/36" wrgb tv's yet it would have been a good alternative. 27" is to small when comming from 34" I would consider 32" 16:9. But I would prefer to stay with 34" 21:9 or go 38" 21:9.
Wait it's already been one year ? Damn
I absolutely love the glossy screen of the monitor. Glossy displays really enhance the clarity and contrast of the display and are well worth the trade off with reflections.
Yeah I feel like I remember when getting a glossy finish was an upgrade for my old Dell laptop lol
Definitely worth mentioning that Dell has now (december 5th 2023) released a firmware update for the DW on their site, bringing all versions of the monitor up to the most recent. Nvidia must have allowed them to do their own firmware updates. It fixed the issue i had where sometimes the monitor simply wouldnt turn on before i did a full power cycle.
Since you recommend HDR for any new high end purchase, do you intend to review more miniLED displays? Like Innocn 27M2v or Redmagic GM001J?
I've owned one since launch, mixed usage for work and gaming, windows bar hidden and usual precautions taken, dark mode etc. Probably 8 -9 hours on time a day, 70 percent work. I have very obvious burn in across where the Chrome browser bar would be, most noticeable in grey and in skyboxes in games e.g. resident evil 4 remake. Very concerned and really don't want to have to baby it constantly and still get issues. Really wish more mini led monitors in this format were available.
Just input from a 13 month user of the DWF model. I've been extra careful with the burn-in, so I have no background image on my desktop, just plain black, also the autohide taskbar is on and I've changed the windows settings to turn off the monitor after 5 minutes of inactivity.
I've used the monitor for just about everything you can throw at it: games, work, movies, web browsing, etc. I work in construction, so I had a lot of planning to do, which means a lot of thin black lines on a white background. I would still say that burn-in is a non-issue, but it is starting to show in some cases. So far, it seems that the easiest way for this monitor to burn in is to consume content with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means that there are two black bars on the side of the screen. I now notice a slight difference in brightness on a grey background (such as UA-cam's dark mode), where a straight vertical line runs down each side of the monitor where the black bars would be when watching 16:9 content. The screen is visibly brighter on the sides than in the centre. Fortunately, this isn't noticeable when watching content intended for a 21:9 aspect ratio, and even full-screen colours such as red, green or blue don't show this burn-in, only darker greys.
So if you're considering this monitor, I'd say go for it, it's a phenomenal monitor, but keep the box and the receipt for the 3-year burn-in warranty.
Great video as always. The issues you mentioned, including the slight burn in, is why I went with a mini LED. Absolutely loving my Neo G7.
Don t the Scanlines bother you?
@@abhishekab1 I don't have any
@@phero6933 Nice... you got Lucky.. I guess.. BTW you have 32" 4K version and how much you got it for, if you don t mind me asking? Also, does the Curve bother you?
@@abhishekab1 wasnt Neo G7 the ~144Hz one?
Samsung's names are stupidly confusing to me
Lmao you have a mental disorder if a faint line thats barely visible only at 50% grey image bothers you. Your Mini LED and it's terrible viewing angles/uniformity is way more noticeable than that 😂
I've also had the AW3423DW since around early may of last year, also using it exclusively for gaming.
I'm surprised to hear that people are having issues with the panel maintenance using this firmware. Mine has been doing the pixel refresh consistently (green light flashing, monitor is off after restart) without issue. I've also only received the error popup you talk about when I have eco mode off, so that may have something to do with this issue.
Also, after using this pretty extensively in a single game (800ish hours), I have no noticeable burn in even on a gray screen. I'm sure I'd find some UI elements if I looked harder, but nothing has stood out to me yet
I've been asking about this for ages, so here it goes yet again.
In your review of the AW3423DW and subsequent videos where you compare monitors to it, you report that you measured an input latency of 7.9ms. Other sites like TFTcentral for example report a latency of 5.17ms. Apparently this is due to you testing with GSYNC turned OFF, while they tested with GSYNC turned ON. Is this something you're aware of? And would you be willing to retest that specific thing?
I really hope you see this question and answer it as I'm extremely curious.
I would have thought the opposite was true, with gsync causing slightly more latency , but with a slightly smoother experience?
@@TheGlobuleReturns That is the general rule of thumb, yes. But in this case it seems to be the opposite. I have no idea why that is. But in any case, the fact is that different outlets are reporting different numbers, and there must be a reason.
You mean input lag? To be honest there is no way to fully know the exact input lag but all displays probably have 16ms plus the added lag you see on reviews
The problem with testing with G-Sync on is that it introduces other potential variables and doesn't represent performance on video cards other than Nvidia. Tim is definitely correct to test with G-Sync off IMO.
@@giglioflex I do agree with that. But why not test both and just put an asterisk next to it saying. This is with nvidia GPU and this is with AMD. It's literally just one extra step. There are literally two gpu brands that are in the mainstream. AMD and Nvidia. It's not THAT much to ask, especially if it will give such a big difference in results.
AW3423DW user here, I also got mine about a year ago and I have really abused it. I often work on it, which involves web browsering and email, and I use it about 50/50 for productivity and gaming. I have noticed some very faint uniformity issues, same as yours only barely visable on a 50 gray screen, but I cannot for my figure out what caused it because its on the left lower hand corner. Maybe discord. In any case I don't notice anything during normal use, but I might end up pulling the ripcord on the 3 year warrenty in a year or so. Still the best monitor I've had by far.
I use my DWF for over 8 hrs a day so will have most likely put more hours into my monitor than you already. I am glad I have the option to upgrade the firmware if I need too and happy I went for the cheaper DWF even though the white aestetic of the DW would have matched my PC better.
I can notice no burn in at all but I do not snap my windows in place and just move them around to where I want them. I hide the taskbar , have no icons on desktop and also use an animated wallpaper that I change every few days.
None of your 7 issues are at all relevant to me. I have the DWF so 2 are ruled out straight away but for me this is just about the perfect monitor.
Except for the degraded HDR experience which is a minus the DW doesn't have.
I have this monitor with MOB102 firmware from almost a year ago and my usage is well over 4 hours a day (I work from home often), most of the time the monitor has been at 85-100 brightness and I have ECO mode enabled but otherwise make no extra effort to avoid burn in etc. I have no burn in at all. Happy to answer any other questions. The only issues I have experienced is light flickering black line occasionally noticeable when playing a game with a static background, I notice this in Slay The Spire and I believe it might be due to GSYNC (which I have enabled for full screen and windowed 100% of the time), I also have the annoying 'breathing' fan noise on occasion but I'm pretty used to it now :D
Oh and the subpixel layout was noticeable when I first used it on text but using Better Cleartype Tuner and using 2200 RGB helps a lot.
I used this monitor for work and gaming 7+ hrs per day cant see any burn in. The fan is very annoying when working, only having one DisplayPort be my second big issue. Screen image does look amazing and when gaming on different monitors you really notice the difference.
Yea no burn in on mine too and use for same hours. Sometimes I can slightly hear the fan continuously and sometimes the fan has a louder pulsing ramp up of the fan. But not a deal breaker for me at all screen looks so good.
Same here, had it since day 1 April 2022, work from home and use it as a screen for my work laptop using hdmi input and as monitor for my gaming rig. Fan has been fine over the winter since the room is cooler, but summer it is noisy and on all the time, even when using it as a screen for the laptop, so no gsync. I don’t see any burn in despite having email open and other docs. Used it for over 1000 hours at least. I use the pixel refresh when asked by the monitor, not had any issues with turning on and being asked to run it.
Still the best all around.
1. If you buy today the firmware is the most up to date and all of the issues have been resolved.
2. The fan is silent on newer models. Not sure if hardware changed or firmware related.
3. warranty is a must on any oled. They all burn in some. Even my lg. 3 yr is pretty solid.
4. Holy cow hdr on this is amazing.
5. Gsync and freesync ultimate means gsyn or freesync WITH HDR. Must have.
6. The response rate being lower isnt perceptible by humans. Also. It’s much lower than his testing shows, since he has gsync disabled. And this monitor has less response time with gsync enabled. Has to do with the way they engineered it. Known flaw in his reviews and also why he thinks it’s issue #7.
I got the DW last May and have well over 1000+ hours into it easily. All the stuff he mentions also applies to me. I haven't done the RGB test but I play a ton of games with static elements and I haven't noticed any burn in yet. The most annoying is the pixel refresher popping up in the middle of a game... which is a horrible experience in the middle of a heated multiplayer match. Other than that I just leave it in hdr with windows 11 and it's been fantastic
Also my monitor has that issue where it looks like little dirty bubbles on the screen coating. It goes away when you clean it with a monitor screen cleaner and microfiber cloth but it comes back within the month
You can change that so you do pixel refresh when you shut it off after use instead of random pop ups
Nothing like getting that OLED Pixel refresh halfway through an Apex Legends Ranked game where I have like 5 KP :D. I have to turn it off and hope my game doesn't crash as I switch monitors
@@AngelDiaz-ls9ph I did select the option to turn it off... its bugged and still pops up. I even did multiple factory resets to select that option again.
@@christopherjarrett9067 I know haha I put in 500 hours this year in apex and I swear it pops up during the most heated moments. Like right when a fight starts or something.
OMG thank you so much for this update! This is the kind of stuff that concerns me about OLED.
I wound up bringing back my PG42UQ OLED and swapping it out for the PG27AQDM OLED and the PA278QV IPS. Only having space for one system, and using it for both gaming in addition to video editing, I was worried about burn in on the big OLED. That and W-OLED has the same text fringing issues as the QD-OLED. So I sidestepped the issue entirely and have the best of both worlds.
just ordered the aw3423dwf, hopefully it serves me well! thanks to Tim's reviews i finally pull the trigger
me too! can't wait
An invaluable review !
Received mine about a year too and it still going strong and no burn in. Granted, I don’t use more than 3 hours a day and I have black random back ground. As long as you taking care of it, it’ll last you for at least passing warranty by 1 year. A worth it monitor !
I use black background myself and sometimes I cant even tell it’s on 😂 next to my old monitors it is so night and day
@@wubnoxious that’s funny ! Hahah ! However, beware of windows auto turn on because of setting. I often press the monitor close button after used. At least I’m sure it’ll be off regardless of windows auto restart or turning on.
Damn, perfect timing. If all goes well i'm buying the DWF in few days. Let's see if it's worth it lul
Would be interested in your thoughts when you get it
@@faith9113 sure, if i don't forget it, i'll post
Yeah DWF is way better that's why I got it. Cheaper with better features in about every way over the DW.
@@der_shingen8548 any complaints?
5 months still flawless for me best monitor that I've purchased
Isn't the DWF the "better" version given that the user updatable firmware issue is addressed?
yeah asking the same :D
Not if the latest DW firmware has no issues
In theory yes, but Dell would have to release firmware that's actually on par with the DW first. HDR tracking is the main issue there, especially on AMD.
On the other hand the DW has way worse input lag than any other QD-OLED, which is guaranteed to never get fixed so... the situation is annoying either way.
Yes. I own one and pretty much all of these issues are non-existent on it.
My dwf is a way better version vs the dw, 1 I barely calibrate it within 3 clicks and it's already accurate vs my cousins dw, plus it has a sharpness setting
It's lighter
Black
Input lag is way better
Less heat meaning less fan noise
It's great to see an update like this even if you haven't used it for everything. Sure seems like using the split mode is probably not a great idea on a panel like this.
I would love to see your reviews covering power consumption of these displays slightly more in depth because I've seen elsewhere that the g-sync modules cause idle power consumption issues. It'd be nice to see a comparison of idle/sleep and static desktop on top of peak/normal type numbers. Power consumption in general seems to be ignored in many monitor reviews, likely due to brightness having such an impact, but is still valuable.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tim. Definitely not a monitor for me because the coating, considerable burn-in risk as tested by rtings, fan noise, pixel density, resolution and screen height are all pretty much deal breakers to me (I had the 34GN850 for over a year and even though OLED obviously blows IPS out of the water, I’m not returning to a 34” UW anyway) but hey, to each their own.
Obviously speaking with your wallet here, all those "issues" you mentioned are slight to moderate things some just subjective opinion. But when you factor in the fact that to remedy those things you are paying 50% more and getting worse HDR, panel, refresh rate, latency and whatever else I forget it's quite hard to argue, objectively, against it. And if you are to actually remedy those and get similar experience we are talking 200-300% the cost.
So yes if a thousand or two dollars more or less for monitor is trivial there are other options if not well there really isn't. I'll lump together all 34" oleds as it is the same panel and variance is slight.
@@emilpapis93 LG C2 is cheaper and eliminates many of the objective or subjective flaws I listed… I simply consider the 34” UW format not immersive enough - and yes, that’s just an opinion, YMMV.
@@DariusPL actually forgot about the c2 i was mentioning monitors. But yes you are right the c2 is a good alternative but one most just simply can't use. The space you need for the panel itself and the depth of setup to be a good distance from it will simply not work for most people. And if you want to play FPS games and actually be above average it's simply not usable. I have tried playing on my TV and I simply couldn't do it I have to sit more or less upright at a table if not my abilities are so much worse that I'm simply too annoyed to play. But as a lean back and enjoy less competitive games and SIM games I can totally understand where you are coming from. I do think if you actually calculate the FOV of your setup Vs mine with a 34" i think you'd be surprised how little extra you are getting in comparison to the disadvantages like mentioned and the lack of ability for 2. Monitor.
The c2 for very specific people/usecases can do better sure. But it comes with alot more drawbacks than the 34" alternative.
@@DariusPL C2 had noticeably worse image quality however, with off colored white levels, afterglow issues, spotty localized brightness and increased burn in risk. Not saying its a bad monitor/tv but it is certainly not a clear winner when comparing the two. There is a good video here on YT that compares the Samsung panel and the LG C2 side by side (42" LG C2 vs Alienware QD-OLED Monitor Side-by-Side Comparison).
i got 0 burn in and zero fan noise in my unit my D5 pump in wc is louder. Ozzy from my polish forums same no fan noise hes running desktop/programing 12h a day every day
yo! I got my aw3423dw in august last year, so im about 2/3 of the year through. ive just run some available colour panel youtube vids and im not able to make out any discernable shadowing or highlighted areas. i have been off work with an mobility limiting injury for the duration of my owning this monitor and have played a LOT of games with youtube and web browsing mixed in. I have see at least 2 panel refresh popups with one being in the last week or so. im on the new firmware and also run black background, dark themes, 3 min sleep, hiden taskbar and translucentTB app to minimise imapact. i have had a panel replaced within DOA period with what appeared to be the glossy coating like chipped of, honestly not sure if PLBKAC, but dell were gracious enough to replace it WAY faster than the og monitor turned up hahaha.
im super surprised at the impact youve seeing as ive spent considerably longer using it however i dont really use static windows like you have done with web browsing at all....honeslty i find myself cranning my neck over to my other displays watching stuff for way to long befre realising i should be using the OLED instead!
anyway man, love your content, keep it up, youre display jezuz! oh take advantage of that sweet sweet burn in warranty we have and get a freshie, youve earned it!
I have the MOB101 firmware and have been using it for a few hours almost everyday since I got it. The burnin is entirely unnoticeable in general use but is far more obvious on a dark grey full screen image like the one you used. The locations being the along the whole bottom edge of the bookmark bar on chrome, and black bars from watching 16:9 fullscreen content. I would say my burnin is slightly more pronounced then what you have shown in the video, but without seeing something like this in person i don't think anyone could say for sure.
About the light grey edges in the windows UI, you can change it! It can use your chosen accent color.
Yeah, something to remember to do when on OLED.
I had the DW initially but the noise was a dealbreaker for me. Bought the Samsung G8 half a year later and really happy with it, silent, great design and most kinks were fixable (there only remains one where sometimes the monitors does not weak up when the PC comes back from sleep mode)
The Smart TV software is okayish, I kind of prefer to use a remote instead of fingering around below my monitor to change settings. I don't use the smart TV features at all.
Mine doesn't make noise? 😅
The fan in mine is virtually silent even under the quietest room conditions. The sound of my mouse clicking far exceeds any fan noise produced by the monitor.
This is a great video. Thank you for taking the time to give us the information we’re hoping for
I've also been using an AW3423DW quite extensively for ~1 year as one of my main monitors. I use it extensively for productivity and I haven't observed any concerning signs of burn-in. I often split apps with either 2 windows or 3 side by side. I've not yet closely observed the centre of the screen using the static shades that highlighted minor burn-in on your unit but will check that at some point. Interestingly I haven't had any issues with my unit running its maintenance cycles correctly and it's the same original firmware revision as yours. Do you have 'Eco Mode' enabled? I'm sure you're aware, but disabling that can cause some issues with the maintenance cycle timing.
same as me my batch is from june and maintenance running no problem.
Yeah right.... be careful about biased "advice" from folks trying to justify their purchase.
@@captante9889 Like Tim, I test and have access to a large number of monitors. Like Tim, I decided to keep the AW3423DW for my own personal usage. That's because it's a genuinely good monitor in many ways and was a breath of fresh air in the market. No bias or self-justification here. Not everyone is out there to deceive and mislead, you know - sometimes we just enjoy genuinely good products and want to inform others about them so they too can enjoy the experience.
Absolutely loving the LG 240hz OLED monitor.
At what point will the text rendering/resolution issue come close to being resolved completely or is it simply not possible with this panel technology?
It's not the panel tech, it can easily be fixed by microsoft. Also I have this monitor and after 3 days of use it looks normal.
it is possible but no one is bothering to release an official fix so third part is all that remains
I use this monitor everyday and never noticed it must depend on the persons eyes
I have one of these monitors and you literally can't see it unless your sit like four inches from the screen.
With dldsr it's not visible at all anymore
Thanks. You are great at capturing, appraising and prioritising the issues. I get a lot of burn in and uneven backlighting on IPS but doesn’t bother me. Hope to get OLED once it becomes more affordable
I got a AW3821DW instead, 38" 3840x1600. I expected these to get cheaper and more widespread, but instead it looks like they are being abandoned, yet I'm glad I bought one (it was on 30% sale). I didn't want an OLED since my screen is turned on over 15hours a day, I don't really like the idea of having an expiration date on hardware.
Thanks Tim, I’ve been using this monitor for 10 months now. I have to say it has been a fantastic monitor, except for the annoying pixel refresh pop up which always seems to happen as I’m 1 on 1 with an enemy in Warzone. I also use my monitor as a second screen for work so it easily has been used 8+ hours most days. I love that it saves the screen settings to the input, so my work laptop running via hdmi has a much lower screen brightness to minimise screen burn as I have spreadsheets open all day. I’ve not noticed any burn in as yet, but I haven’t looked as closely as you. All in all it been a worth upgrade to my LG IPS ultrawide (gn850 in think) I had before.
I'm a heavy user of this screen too, I've never seen the popup but I also have no problems with burn-in. Is there a setting that triggers the popup?
@@smarshallsay Hi, yes if you go in to the menu and scroll down to “Others” you will see an option that says “Screen Maintenance” which should be set to “on”. I’m on Firmware version MOB102, if yours is on, but you are not getting the pop-up then I suspect you are on the newer version which is supposed to run it in standby mode.
@@curtismariani6303 Ah I think what it is if you have ECO mode on the monitor does it's pixel refresh etc automatically when the monitor turns off so unless you leave your computer on for days at a time you'll never see the popup (I haven't yet but my computer is off every night)
@@smarshallsay I have Eco mode on as well. Are you saying I should switch it off?
@@curtismariani6303 no from what I've read having eco mode off causes the popup
I recently purchased this monitor to replace an otherwise-identically-spec'ed LCD and I was not prepared for how great it was. It was like the first time I saw VGA (yes I'm that old).
The worst problem I had (other than 2 RMAs for bad pixels) was how terrible my TV looked all of a sudden. So I also had to buy an LG OLED!
I'm actually the opposite, bought a LG OLED tv last year and its been amazing and just today ordered the DWF for my PC at only $672 to replace my budget 1440p $400 ultrawide I've been using since 2018 that will now become my 2nd monitor mounted above my new Alienware.
Now when the AW3423DW finally have a firmware update available since December, can you maybe do a short little revisit while retesting the new lower input lag. I would like to see where the monitor slots in now, hopefully just above the DWF model.
Too bad you have just around 500 hours of use. I was hoping that you had spent more time with it. Thank you for sharing your impressions
500 hours is a ton lmao. He has daily driven it. What do you want? Use it while he sleeps?
Burn in is a non issue especially when you use dark mode like you should do by deafult
@@wile123456 that's less than 2 hours a day. That's not alot.
I think my aw3423dw has around 1500 hours of use
500 hours is like at least 100 days of REASONABLE daily usage.
_If you spend 8hrs or more a day on your PC and you're not working on it you should seek some help as that may indicate addiction._
@@GewelReal OLED is not recommended for work. Especially if you’re a designer or programmer.
@@GewelReal I’m working, and then I use the same setup for entertainment and studying. I already have different keyboards for different tasks, I don’t want to have multiple monitors, I don’t have enough desk space as is
I got AW3423DW 3 Days ago , I have no fan noise and working great. Compare to my Oled tv , Monitor is less brighter in white light but overall best monitor i ever owned.
Thank you for the review, very relatable. Keep up the great work and effort your team puts into these videos. I'll await the second generation of this screen to his South Africa before purchasing.