Alienware AW3418DW 34 Inch WQHD (3440 x 1440) 21:9 Gaming Monitor, 1900R Curved Screen, 120 Hz OC, IPS, 4 ms, NVIDIA G-SYNC, DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.0, Adjustable Stand, 3 Years Warranty

Very, very nice monitor. Make sure you know what you’re getting - as it’s an IPS panel you’re very likely to get IPS glow in the corners (mine is predominantly in the lower left corner). Tips to reduce this are - lower the brightness (mine is set to 30%, with the contrast and darkness stabiliser turned up to compensate for this), raise the panel and tilt it slightly upwards, sit back from the monitor as far as you can, and use a very mild desk lamp to get ambient light into the room. Having done all these the glow on my unit is absolutely minimal, and only noticeable in very, very dark and static in game environments. - build quality wise it’s very sturdy. The height / tilt adjustment is stiff so should not have any troubles with the monitor height, but please be aware that the base legs themselves are MASSIVE. Don’t go getting any ideas of placing anything large underneath it (like, I don’t know, a soundbar or something) as there is no room at all for anything other than smaller objects. Also, assuming you want to sit directly in front of it, you don’t want a desk any less than 60cm in depth or you’re going to struggle to fit your keyboard directly in front of it. To be fair the monitor would be right up in your face anyway. I’ve not played around with the overclocking feature yet as I don’t really care about getting to 120hz if the monitor will flicker as I’ve heard, but overall if you want to get into the ultra wide gaming world, and have both the space and the machine to make the most of it; get this monitor.Edit:After now having had this monitor for 3 years I can say that it’s still going very strong. I’ve seen other monitors but have no desire to update yet. Get yourself a good, strong monitor arm (I have a Duronic off Amazon) and it is a real game changer - be sure to get an arm that can support its weight as the monitor is a beast (a double-hinged arm is simply not going to work) and you won’t regret it.

I've had an ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q 27 inch and multiple Dell monitors ranging from 27" to 30" and Refresh from 120-144. This beats them all I don't even notice the drop in refresh from 144 to 120 and the extra screen space is fantastic.Gaming: I'm running it with a 1080 ti Asus Strix and while I've down graded from ultra setting* to high I'm able to run games smoothly and the only reason for the drop it go get the extra fps in some games, the extra field of vision is very handy in the fps I've played and strategy games benefit from the extra space as well.Movies: It's stunning some benefit from the wide screen some you'll have black bars down the side and youtube you'll have black bars. Crisp colours and the black bars nearly vanish with the small bezel so I don't notice them.Productivity: Who doesn't want extra space to look at spread sheets, edit videos etc.Curve: Let's get the straight the one thing putting me off buying this was the curve. When I set it up and started using it I hated it but after a day or two I've totally forgotten it's there and wouldn't go back.Price: Well what can I say it's a ton of cash but if you want a stunning monitor, have a decent graphics card to run it and have the money to spare you really can't go wrong this. Sure you could get a couple of 27" monitors for the price but this is a beautiful alternative and I've actually got mine paired with one of my old 27" monitors as I upgraded from 2x27" monitors.* It's probably fair to mention I'm running this monitor along side a 27" dell so it might well do ultra setting in games with a 1080 ti if your not multi screening.

SummaryBoth the AW3418DW (AW) and LG 34GK950F (LG) are good monitors and in some areas the AW is better. The screen quality seemed slightly better on the LG and so went with it in the end, in every other way the AW is better.Build Quality/Design (excluding panel/display quality)AW: 5/5, LG: 1/5Ignoring screen for now the AW is in a different league when it comes to build quality. I think AW probably put more effort into the design and quality of the box than LG put into the monitor it's self. Everything about the AW looks good and feels good quality. The box was easy to unpack and everything was properly protected with thick foam. The stand is sturdy and looks great. Even the light design on the monitor looks classy (as much as RGB could ever be classy). In comparison the LG looks and feels like cheap plastic, because it is. The LG stand is already scratched after a week and I am not even sure how it happened (I was being careful as was considering returning). The stand feels wobbly and looks and feels like very cheap plastic. It only gains a point as found navigation via the central rocker switch easier than the multiple buttons on the AW.ScreenAW: 3/5, LG: 4/5Both the LG and the AW have quite bad IPS glow, this cost both a point. It's worst bottom left and slightly better top left. Right side not too bad and only noticable at very high brightness. If I played a lot of dark games in a dark room this would be an issue but during avg usage I don't notice. The fact it's as bad as it is given the price of the monitors is ridiculous.The LG had no bad pixles and from what I have read I got lucky. The AW had three bright pixles in bottom left, unlike LG this is considered a fault and would have been replaced if I had decided keep the AW and return the LG instead. It actually worked out for me as meant I did not have to pay postage to return the AW.White looked very yellow on the AW compared with the LG, once calibrated as best as I could the difference was small but noticable. The AW seemed to have more screen uniformity variance. Colours looked better on the LG than AW from what I could achieve, possibly the difference would be less if having professional calibrated. The AW colour just looked a little washed out compared to the LG and this for me was the biggest deciding factor in keeping the LG. Last weekend I had a LAN and two of my friends brought their AWs and I noticed these like the one I had did not look as vibrant as the LG.The LG goes much brighter than the AW and could be relevant if using in a very bright room. However I found the LG hurt my eyes at full brightness, even in a bright room. Both should be bright enough for most people I should think, turned down AW to around 40 in dark room and around 17 for LG.GamingAW: 5/5, LG: 5/5The AW overclocked to 120Hz for me without any flicker or issues however the LG does 144Hz. Honestly I could not see a difference between them they are both very responsive. I found the IPS glow slightly more noticeable in dark games on the AW, although it was noticable on both.ConclusionBoth have very bad IPS glow that at the price should not be the case. Without doing side by side screen comparisons I would probably have gone with the AW. Should anything go wrong I would have expected Dell to offer better custom service then LG. I got both in sale so only paid an extra 50 for the LG, At full price outside of sale I would go with the AW especially because Dell would offer better customer service and warrantee.