Tell me if this annoying scenario sounds familiar: You’re enjoying a cozy run through a game like Skyrim or Spider-Man Remastered on your reasonably powerful 4K gaming PC. Then you decide to join up with your buddies in something like CoD: Warzone or Apex Legends. Since you value higher framerates and responsiveness more than eyecandy in competitive games — and don’t have the world’s most expensive GPU — you scale back your resolution from 4K to 1080p, but the resulting visuals devolve into a blurry pixelated mess. That’s because 1080p isn’t the panel’s native resolution.
Well, Alienware wants you to know they have a potential solution lined up with their newly-announced 4K Dual-Resolution Gaming Monitor (AW2725QF).
The AW2725QF is a 27-inch monitor with a rather unique distinction. It’s technically two native monitors rolled into one, and it’s packing some appealing specs: Dolby Vision, DisplayHDR 600, Nvidia G-Sync, VESA AdaptiveSync, Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture (for viewing two PC sources at once on the same panel), and ridiculous refresh rates: 180Hz at 4K (3840×2160), and 360Hz at 1080p (1920×1080). The icing on that display cake is a 0.5ms response time.
Alienware’s AW2725QF also has some solid connectivity: 2 HDMI connections, 1 DisplayPort connection, and a whole grip of SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps downstream ports, including USB-A, USB-B, and USB-C.
It’s also compatible with consoles at up to 4K/120Hz, and supports VRR.
Why Dual-Resolution Matters
A typical display refreshes the screen one row at a time, one pixel at a time. But with dual-resolution tech, you can have it refresh two rows at a time, meaning 1:1 pixel mapping. Ordinary monitors that don’t offer 1:1 pixel mapping have to rely on scaling, which results in a blurry, undesirable image that detracts from the experience. At least, that’s my subjective opinion.
Here’s a way to visualize it:
So, this feels like an innovative approach for people who enjoy bouncing between multiple genres of games — or frequently bounce between lighter and graphically demanding games.
The Competition
Alienware isn’t the first to this dual-resolution party, but it’s showing up with a competitive price. Asus has the 27-inch ROG Strix XG27UCG for $499 which has slightly lower specs: 4K/160Hz and 1080p/320Hz with DisplayHDR400. Meanwhile, LG has a dual-resolution panel in the 32-inch UltraGear, which raises the refresh rates to an insane 240Hz and 480Hz and adds a gorgeous OLED panel. Of course, the LG will set you back about $1400 at time of writing this.
Native 4K plus native 1080p in the same package seems like the missing piece to my own gaming puzzle, and I’m looking forward to seeing this in action.
The Alienware AW2725QF launches in China tomorrow, and the rest of the world on September 12, 2024 for $599.
