Alienware 39 5K review: The ultrawide gaming monitor sweet spot

Finally, a large ultrawide monitor with tons of vertical screen space.

If I had to pick one monitor to use for the next ten years, it would be Alienware's new 39-inch 5K ultrawide display. Imagine taking a standard 32-inch widescreen monitor, stretching the sides out a bit, and you've got the basic idea of what this screen holds. It features the latest and brightest OLED display technology available, a 5K resolution that's incredibly sharp and an expansive screen that fills your entire field of view. It also has the ability to jump between 5K 165Hz and 1080p+ 330Hz modes at the touch of a button, which can be useful for shooters. Put it all together, and you've got a true sweet spot of ultrawide features.

Now you might think Alienware is lagging behind the likes of LG and Samsung, both of which offer 49-inch ultrawide screens, but that number doesn't tell the entire story. Whereas most of those screens are very wide but not very tall with 1,440 vertical pixels, the Alienware 5K has the useful height of a 32-inch 4K screen (2,160 pixels). Couple that with 5,120 ultrawide horizontal pixels, and you've got a screen that can fill your entire field of view, making it far more immersive for both gaming and diving into massive media editing timelines.

While the Alienware 39-inch 5K monitor is certainly pricey at $1,100, it's significantly cheaper than LG's 5K2K ultrawide UltraGear, which currently sells for $1,600. I'd also bet the two monitors share the same LG panel, as they both offer the same features, right down to dual 5K and 1080p modes. That makes Alienware's offering a bit of a deal — at least that's how my screen-obsessed brain would justify it. It does so many things well, I wouldn't mind shelling out for this screen.

Similar to Alienware's new 34-inch ultrawide, the 39 5K isn't big on design flourishes. Its plastic case is simple, yet functional, and the only trace of decorative lighting is along the small Alienware logo on the rear. Crucially, it offers both height and tilt adjustment, something that's sorely lacking on Apple's $1,600 27-inch 5K Studio Display . Alienware was likely able to keep costs down by going with a relatively simple case (that could be a reason LG's comparable ultrawide is $500 more), and you can always throw the display on a monitor arm if you don't like the case's aesthetic on your desk.

The display is what really makes the Alienware 39 5K special. It's powered by LG's latest four-stack tandem OLED panel (essentially four OLED panels on top of each other) with a three-subpixel RGB stripe. That's meant to deliver sharper text than earlier WOLED (white OLED) panels, which often display purple fringing around letters. Its new OLED technology helps it deliver between 500 and 1,300 nits of HDR brightness, and it also supports Dolby Vision. The monitor also covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it accurate enough for professional video and photo work.

OLED screens are already known for their deep black levels, since they don't rely on traditional backlighting technology like LEDs. The Alienware 39 5K takes things a step further with a polarizer layer on its panel, which rejects ambient light from reflecting off of the screen itself. That makes for darker black levels across all lighting environments, even very bright rooms.

The Alienware 39 5K's native 165Hz refresh rate is slower than most monitors we see today — the company's 32-inch and and 34-inch OLEDs hit 240Hz and 280Hz, respectively — but I'd argue it's more than enough for most games. As I mentioned, the monitor can also switch to a 2,560 by 1,080 pixel mode to achieve a far faster 330Hz refresh rate. You can also scale it to standard 4K at 165Hz, or 24.5-inch (1,520 by 855) and 27-inch (1,680 by 945) at 330Hz.