The content of the video, the accuracy and the exhaustiveness of the explanations (typical Tim style) are fantastic. We must applaud the impeccable video editing, which adds an extra gear to content, which is already excellent. You're a wonderful team, guys!
Excellent summary. I have all these LCD technologies, and yes, all have their place, though it's unlikely I'll ever buy another TN panel. I think your viewers would benefit from a sort of how-to video on monitor calibration, at least including the consumer-level tools available and how they work. Seems like maybe you did one years ago, but a refresh would be great. Even though you're in Australia, Happy Thanksgiving, US-style!
Outstanding work at packing this much of information! Not too dense nor too surface-level, specially with those many graphs and backlight zoning examples, just perfect, and that B roll is *chef kiss*.
Agreed. I've bought and returned a few great OLED monitors because I can't get myself to stick with them for mixed use. It's just too stress inducing to manage around it when you can get a top-tier IPS and get a good all-around experience that you don't have to worry about.
To bad he always forget to tell people about one of the biggest drawbacks regarding OLEDs: VRR Brightness flicker, granted it depends alot on the game, the fps you get with your setup and other factors,but yeah,it can be pretty annoying. "VRR Flicker Problem In Monitors" on RTings if anyone is interested in what it is. I sometimes wonder if Tim actually plays games on an OLED or just reviews static content considering he never mentions this.
As of yesterday I am a proud owner of a 3rd-gen QD-OLED gaming monitor. Also it's my first HDR monitor. And I must say wow, it's incredible. No ghosting no overshoot no halos . All I have to do now is figure out how to properly work with icc profiles in Windows 10.
Now it's time for devs to improve their games by not using TAA that introduces motion blur/ghosting because as of now playing new unreal engine 5 releases is horrible and pretty much any monitor with better motion clarity you're mainly paying to see TAA blur at a higher definition as of recently.
@CrunchyTire Don't get me wrong I am totally aware of all the shortcomings of this kind of monitor. Potential for burn-in, self-adjusting brightness, not being bright and advanced enough to achieve HDR10+ level of certification, VRR flicker which can be fixed with FPS limiter, pixel shift, oled care mandatory cycles. Also I am limited to HBR3 bandwidth but with the latest firmware update I can turn off DSC and drive the monitor at native 1440p RGB mode with 10 bit color at a pretty decent 200 Hz refresh rate with no compression. I say that's plenty.
@@demonfedor3748 if only FPS limiters worked… If the game wants to stutter or produce erratic frametimes - it will despite any limiters and then you’ll get flicker
Thanks for doing this. Been using monitors since I was a kid in the 80's and I feel that the most noticeable attributes are: 1. Anything that degrades the experience--color, ghosting, angles, text, max brightness, and responsiveness--if it feels bad or it can't be tuned, pass on it immediately. 2. Anything less than 120 Hz. 3. Brightness, gamma, and contrast. 4. Color gamut and accuracy 5. Is the HDR experience real or just hacked together/weak or minimal performance.
This is the best explanation I have seen on this topic! Well done! One thing I noticed based on someone elses comment below is that it would be good to compare the contrast of WOLED vs VA with 300/500+ zones vs VA with 1000+ zones vs IPS (same zones as the VA ones), vs QD-OLED in a bunch of scenes with some light in the room. The HDR spec says to always use some light, 5 nits, so your eyes don't get too effected when there is some sudden bright flash or scene, that's why SDR starts at 0 nits and HDR starts at 0.005 nits I believe. This would also more realistically test the black level on the OLEDs which can look raised with some light on in the room. Making the comparison closer to LCDs than we might first think..... Also I disagree with the whole OLEDs have infinite contrast, since there are some LCDs that do turn off the back-light. So it would be more accurate to say OLED gives you a higher contrast more consistently compared to LCDs which can vary more between scenes. But especially in HDR since it starts at 0.005 nits, the contrast can't ever really be considered infinite in HDR at least. For SDR they seem even closer since on a LCD at 100 nits it doesn't struggle as much to control the back-light at lower max light levels. Just an idea maybe for a future video or to incorporate as part of your future testing methodology since HDR should always be watched with some light on in the room. 😃
Go make your own video if you want to misinform people. This guy did a fine job, and nobody is going to change their wording for an entire product line up because 1 or 2 models possibly do something different from the rest.. you’re a clown, whos highly uneducated and has wayyyy to much time on his hands
Yeah, these are good points - I also find the "infinite contrast" statements a bit questionable... as in, there will always be some tiny light leakage due to the way those semiconductors work, reflection/refraction between panel surface layers, etc... Now, I suppose it is mostly "academically interesting" whether the real contrast is around 1:20k, or 1:100k, or even higher, but still: I wouldn't be surprised if there were relevant differences between different models, as in, some do noticeably better at displaying pictures of a starry sky, for example, where you would easily be able to tell the difference between 20k and 100k contrast (assuming the room is relatively dark). But yeah, it might be a bit much effort for them to get the right kind of measurement equipment, with relatively niche use, so... it makes sense for them to not prioritize this.
@@highdefinist9697 that is cope. Oled is so dark that to see the faintest light coming from the blacks you need to not have ANY other source of light. to the point where a single status led from anything in the room will seem like searing sunlight in comparison. i turned off all lights in my room and the blacks on my oled don't differ from the black borders for like 3 minutes, and even when my eyes were fully adapted, the difference was like f#000000 to f#010101. it's effectively infinite because it's beyond the range we can even sense even at our most sensitive pupil dilatation when there is ANY contrast at all on the image. if there's anything on the screen that is not full black, it'll be enough to drag your eyesight floor levels above what the oled screen blacks, making the blacks infinite again. the oled on my galaxy s3 had a pretty elevated floor and i could concede your point in that case, but none of my more recent oleds have that issue including my "monitor". I tried taking a 10 second exposure picture with my phone at ISO 3200 from a tripod, it couldn't tell the difference between the black bezel and the screen. it's going to take a minute of exposure to see anything, probably. unfortunately my phone doesn't do that. if you could measure it, contrast would easily be over 10 million to one. the contrast between oled black and lcd black is way larger than lcd blacks vs their peak white.
be aware of Dark Level Smearing on cheap VA panels, I know it got a lot better in recent years/models, but depending on where you live and budget, you can get a dud
In all likelihood, MicroLED will be surpassed by QDEL - quantum dots that emit their own RGB light, eliminating the backlight entirely. They're also much easier to manufacture than OLEDs or MicroLEDs since they don't need a vacuum chamber, meaning monitors may be some of the first products to launch, rather than having to wait until TV panels can be shrunk. It's quite likely that prototypes will be shown at CES.
When I was younger chosing the monitor was not a big deal: better refresh rate or better colors. Nowadays it requires a PhD on Panel Engineering lmao. I have plans to change my monitor by 2027 so let's see how the market evolves. For now, i'd still choose IPS as durability is a must for high end PCs unless u're rich.
Thank you again. I ended purchasing the Alienware 34DWF based on your recommendations, and cannot believe the picture I am looking at...amazing colors.
I too, bought the alienware, about a year ago now. the image is mind blowing. as was warned, being a mmo player, meaning static hud elements, I do have some burn in, despite regular pixel and full panel refresh cycles. completely advised and warned, I expected this. honestly, the quality of the image, makes it worth it. if say 3 years in, become a significantly greater issue, Ill replace with whatever is best then. and if I'm honest with myself, I generally replace main displays after 3 years regardless. so, yes, I think it's worth it. the in game image quality is superior to everything else Ive ever used.
@@fawneight7108 daily, 10+ hours a day. I have switched the hud around regularly, but still, some of the most static elements can be seen on black screens. it's not a problem, I have to look for it, but Im sure it will get worse.
VA panels are great for work stuff and bright environments. I have one in my workshop with 450 cd/m" brightness and (as far as i remember) 3500:1 native contrast. It's always readable. For CAD (mostly wireframe) and boring business tasks, response time does not really matter.
@@AverageDoomer69 In this case, i use read mode. Or i pivot the monitor and read the website as a whole, which works in 4K. But to be fair, the VA panel i have is not that bad with this.
Since I tried VA, I just can't go back to IPS. Because of the deep, articulated blacks and contrast. Sure, for a designer you would want IPS color accuracy. But for single player gaming or movie watching, casually dark scenes VA is the life saver. Eye saver. Since VA I have never had trouble with dark games and "you should barely see this" tests at the start of many. Looking forward to OLED soon. My guess is it should go down in price for 1/3 or so within a year or two. Even though I could afford one right now, that would be premature investment. Better tech at cheaper price to come. And TN is just trash budget range. Angles and everything.
Technically you could do professional work on a calibrated TN if it has the color gamut you require, like mentioned in the video. So if you get a VA you could pay someone to calibrate it or buy one that's already factory calibrated, not that it's worth it for stuff like gaming.
i also dont understand the "IPS is just better than VA" thing. like who is using their 24-27 inch monitor with 4 ppl or sth, so that u actually notice the viewing angles. it might be a different story when ur a designer or do some sort of art related, creative work, where u need that colour accuracy from all angles. when gaming, the contrasts are more important and if a leaf at the edge of my screen is a slightly brighter green than it should be, how the fck would i even notice that? yes there are response times, but... u dont have to get a 20ms VA, a 1ms VA will be very close to a 1ms IPS and still be a LOT cheaper. so for gaming and watching movies, its cheaper and looks better. so long as its not your TV in your living room and u have seats at a 45 degree angle or sth. and indeed, oled is way too expensive. im also waiting for it to drop, either by time, QDEL/micro LED being the new high end thing or by more 120-144Hz 1440ps, amybe with response times not as low as 0.03, who knows if there is a way cheaper OLED technology next year that "only" achieves 0.2ms but are way cheaper. a monitor just shouldnt cost more than a lot of ppls RENT
@@privatjetconnaisseur My problem with VA panels is the very prominent dark smearing which is immediately obvious and very distracting to me, the viewing angles are fine
@@mechkg oh yeah i wanted to write that as well but forgot about it when i moved on to the next part xD my bad. its more of a preference thing, since to me, due to the contrast, the blacks are better than on an IPS, but for others like u, IPS gives better blacks due to less smearing. if i had 2 exact same monitors just beign different by the panel, i would buy the cheaper one.
The best video of its kind out there. It's obvious that you know what you're talking about and you present everything the way it should without being partial at all. That's coming from someone who has done a very extensive research on the matter and has experienced all display types. I would love to have seen a NanoIPS and QD-VA, QD-IPS inclusion though mentioned separately, but overall fantastic work.
I recently purchased three Dell S3222DGM screens for my triple screen sim rig. I often race in the dark and wanted better contrast in low light situations. They are only $200 US right now. I never thought I could pay $600 for 32" triple screens. The monitors aren't anything special, but based on what I read they do the basics very well for a VA panel. I hope to see these monitors through for a few years and hope OLED drop in price enough to eventually go 3x32" OLED for the sim rig. Cheers.
I like seeing Monitors Unboxed really taking off Tim. 😉 I've always felt this was an area that needed it's own Hardware Unboxed/Gamers Nexus styled coverage and there really aren't any other channels that seem to do the *work* to get there. (Outside of RTINGs & HDTVTest) I'd say your coverage is a step above either of those channels IMO, although I do like the way HDTVTest sets up his *dark room* side by side presentations. While still limited by what the camera can capture, as well as the panel you're watching the video on, you can see obvious differences in quality between panels by doing this.
At 13:55 you state that OLED performance doesnt change at different refresh rates. According to rtings the Samsung g60sd has worse performance at lower refresh rates. Is it correct or do rtings simply not understand how to read the measurements correctly? Thanks for great vids
Nice video. A couple of things. 1. I have seen many lcd panels suffer from burn-in. Often confused with image retention. For one example, one car insurance company sent us about 30 monitors under warranty with their staticly displayed software burned into the panel. I did not see this issue on these monitors from other businesses or consumers. Just this one company with a static display. This is just one example of many. 2. Not a single word on the scurge of modern monitors...VRR flicker. I have sold off two ultrawide monitors with vrr flicker over the last few years. Nothing could be done to eliminate it and it's definitely a deal breaker. Vrr flicker is unacceptable. If I had known about it before the purchase I would never have purchased those monitors. Basically vrr flicker is a thing on some VA and OLED panels. If causes the brightness to flutter or flicker and can happen anywhere, in game, during cutscenes, in menus and even on the desktop. Always caused by variable refresh. On both those ultrawides I had to shut freesync off and use fastsync in the nvidia control panel. This worked well until I could sell those monitors. After that I went with a Samsung CRG9 49" SUW with a VA panel and quantum dots. Best VA panel I have ever used. Edge lit unfortunatelty but still did local dimming and HDR. Very bright and...VRR flicker. I was crushed. I was going to return it but found a firmware update that had a osd setting that eliminated vrr flicker completely. Turned out to be an excellent monitor. Now, thanks to a black friday sale, I have an MSI 49" OLED SUW. I did vrr research on this before purchase. No results. On facebook one guy said he had a 32" MSI OLED and it would flicker if the fps went below about 60. I don't usually see anything under 80 with one exception so I bought the 49". I have not seen any VRR flickr on it in any games. Very disappointed that this channel did such a great video on panel types with no mention of VRR Flicker. I would like to see lists of what monitors suffer from this issue and I would like to see it mentioned in EVERY monitor review. There is no such thing as a good monitor review if it doesn't mention VRR flicker.
Yeah, LCD can have burnin. Especially back in older days this was an issue, but it got to the point where it mostly is non-issue. Had LCDs that were showing static content for like half a day and no burnin. But it can happen, even if mostly people forgot about it. But I do remember in 2000s, can't remember year exactly, that it was part of research I was doing before buying LCD. Hence why I believe OLEDs in this or that way can make it to that point too, even if it is still a worry now.
@@Seth22087 It is technically not "burn in" or more accurate "burn out". Burn in was a CRT term when the cathode ray literally burned in an image on the phosphor layer behind the screens glas. Burn out is more the term when used with (old Plasma) and OLED techniques, where single Pixelcolors lose the ability to light in proper brightnes or even lose the color saturation itself (Plasma Subpixel cells due to phosphor coatings wear out, similar to CRT TVs of older age). LCDs though CAN get so called "stuck pixels" or "lazy pixels" who develope more "drag" and get "lazy" to adjust their alignment for certain brightnes levels. Because LC Cells are "light gates". That happened with older displays more often as well as TFT cells getting exposed to higher temperatures. Normally those shadowy retentions are reversible, sometimes in rarer cases it can reoccur more easily in shorter time periods again though. That happens because the transistors to align the crystals in the LCD Cells due to wear/tear are less sensible to voltages applied and so start to align more slowly or in restricted manner. That leads to a colorshift in a more permanent/reoccuring way or visible as shadowy retention images. Mostly happens when the voltage is to high for said transistors functioning range, so wear/tear happens faster or happens at all. (Aggressive Pixel Overdrive functions of the monitor itself may be at fault here?) The latter, when in warranty time, IS definitely a warranty case these days and normally should not happen for several years if at all for LCD based Displays of modern age.
@@KleinMeme I got feeling that burnin is becoming more of just familiar expression that doesn't just cover burnin. Something akin to floppy disk icon, like we still use it because everyone knows what they see, but most probably didn't use floppy disk for more than a decade now. Heck, you might even have people who never saw floppy disk in their life. :-D But still, thanks for nice explanation.
a very important reason why woled is so ineffective is that the white light leds are created by other colour leds that whose light is absorbed and reemitted and mixed to create the white light. In effect the white light leds that is used as a base is created somewhat like what the qd-oled does and thereafter filtered with colour filters.
WOLED has a fourth white subpixel that passes through unfiltered. See 2:54. The only problem that I have read is that when the white subpixel is enabled at a high brightness it can make the colors from the other subpixels appear less saturated.
me crying on the side owning a Mini-LED QHD monitor but still looking forward to improvements to this tech. Thanks for the insanely detailed explanation for these display tech.
@@reigngrifth I still use a diamond, my Samsung Syncmaster 955DF 19inch CRT from 2002. Owning such a high res CRT is extremely rare, 1856x1392 res and it destroys my 1080p LCD, the text and anything else is so much better and sharper lol. Fun fact, i game on a Samsung QD OLED S90C too and the image (color and contrast) is the same thing, basically 20 years of technology going backwards until we get the same image quality as 20 years ago...
@@OneDollaBill Standard LCDs have an even backlight that is always on, miniLEDs have sections of the backlight that can be turned off. It's between mainstream LCDs and OLEDs/MicroLEDs.
A very nice summary, fine work indeed! A power consumption comparison would have been nice, I've always been curious about that. And now with the energy prices increasing in Europe, it's even more important.
@@amoeba8888 ah yes calling things junk without actually seeing them, its $300, far cheaper than alot of competitors, and is actually decent from the few reviews the monitor got. There's a reason why people keep asking for reviews of the monitor under every video
DO NOT BUY VA. NEVER. The response time and smearing on VA's is AWFUL. Not unusable, but bad enough that you will see black smearing EVERYWHERE. Especially when web browsing and scrolling down web pages. Just get an IPS or a particularly good TN panel if you're gonna get an LCD. I will never buy a VA again after owning my XG49VQ (a $900 premium monitor) for about 3 years now. I swear to god, games look better at 60hz on one of my shitty secondary monitors (ASUS TN panels) than on my main at 144hz because the response time is *so bad*. Sure, the panel can refresh at 144hz, but the color of the individual pixels can't actually change color that fast, so you get smearing instead of a distinct picture. I bought a crappy 4k60 IPS monitor off of Amazon a few weeks ago for some on the side multi-media work (I really just needed the resolution) and right out of the box, this thing looked noticeably better than the VA. Way better color reproduction across the board and the decrease in response time is palpable. What's even FUNNIER, is that they advertise the deep blacks of VA panels as their strong suit, but 1) the black is no better than one of my aforementioned shitty ASUS TN's (both fully calibrated) and 2) the deeper the black (so ya know, taking full advantage of your monitor with correct calibration), WORSENS THE SMEARING. This is exacerbated even further if you play new games that leverage the awful AA tech that is TAA which makes everything even more blurry and smeary. It's genuinely awful. You can somewhat fix this by raising the black level, BUT THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF PAYING EXTRA FOR THE BETTER CONTRAST RATIO? I cannot suggest against VA panels more. They are literally useless. Can't wait for them to die.
@@Domi39 I'm on my second VA monitor (as far as I know) and have never been able to see black smearing. I've found videos of games that display it, and tried with scrolling, but don't see it. With one (Philips 40") I did notice some when I had some of the SmartResponse option on. I do productivity and watching videos.
I have been using VA 200$ monitor (Mi 34) for 3 years and I have only seen Black smearing a couple times in that period, while every other aspect of this monitor is wonderful. Sure, smearing is noticable on some Web pages with light Text on dark background, but it is usually not an issue in most games. And it is dedenitely much better than my old IPS panel, which I still use as second monitor, but it has 3 times less contrast (which is certainly noticable in every game) and only 60 HZ refresh rate. So I have been absolutely amazed by this VA performance, especially for this price.
Btw, Black smearing is worse on High Black levels, it is true, but even the medium levels of Black on VA (which doesn't cause nearly as bad smearing as 100%) is much better than most of IPS panel.
I've been pretty darn happy with my ultrawide curved VA monitor (Dell S3422DWG). I have noticed some of the VA smearing/ghosting, but really only during dark scenes with fast movement, and then only when I'm actually looking for it. My model seems to be one of the better VA panels in terms of not being terrible for ghosting at least back when I bought it. The thing that makes up for that for me is how the blacks are much more uniform and darker than my old IPS monitors. I remember hating seeing a dark loading screen and how one or two corners were much lighter than everything else.
thanks Tim 1 question about OLED burning in games if you have a static health bar or other Icon on the screen for a game that you play for hours at a time wouldn't they burn too?
Of course it will burn, this is Oled, you can't change it's rules. But you shouldn't worry, it's won't happen very soon, you can enjoy your monitor very long period.
Nope not an issue. I have QD-Oled Samsung G9 49" over a year now. I play and use display daily 8h+ with a lot gaming that has static bars in some games. New displays have screen pixel cycles and it clears any static element if it even has hint. The only way to burn something is if you have taskbar always shown and screen is on without doing anything for hours that changes. Or windows are always same places hours and days. So if you only work with OLED and nothing else, then its best to buy something else. If you do mixed usages gaming + work no issues at all. By time you see actual burn or color fading the monitor will be very old already and like every pc hardware at some point its time to upgrade.
If I didn't nave my c1 with great aggressive bfi I'd consider a crt for fighting games, due to locked fps there's only so much clarity you can get without crt or strobing
@@Juuythljgrrdwq don't doesn't make any panels, and the devices they sell they just add a sony tax for no good reason. If anything sony is the opposite
One annoying thing I've noticed with the IPS panels I've used-two admittedly old Dell laptops and two iPads-is very dark grays being indistinguishable from black. For example, RUclips currently has a bug that makes the text I'm typing now black even in dark mode, and on all four of my IPS screens it's completely invisible. On my crappy old TN monitor, it's at least readable. This can also make it impossible to see in dark areas in games. This is different from gamma, which only measures midtones and extrapolates from there. I don't know if IPS screens have gotten better about this in recent years, and I'm not aware of any official stat I can use to evaluate one sight unseen.
Great video Tim! Only thing missing (wonder how many comments have started with these three words then had completely different "only thing" following them up) for my pov is some mention of "backlight bleed" and/or IPS glow. As someone recently trying to play Alien Isolation on an IPS, it's been driving me to try and find an alternative, but it's hard to find conclusive info on relative monitor-to-monitor performance in this regard.
IPS for me. Backlight strobing on the XG2431 is unmatched. Also it's 24", something that OLED doesn't offer (yet?). Also potential burn-in on OLED... Eh.
@@drunkhusband6257 Perfect size IMO. I like small screens. A shame that phones have gone the same way as well. Zenfone 10 (with headphone jack) is still a little too big.
Mini led isn't a panel type, it's a backlight type. I understand what you mean, but fundamentally you can add minileds to any back light display. It's not really a display panel, I assume the scope of the video was display technologies. Because if we're talking about back lights - I want strobing and BFI talked about. As you can see it increases the scope a lot
@@karls.8193 in that case I want backlight strobing and bfi being included, as it directly impacts the clarity. I pretty much can't game anymore without strobing / bfi. It's just a blurry mess. But explaining bfi alone would add like 30 minutes to the video
@@GFClocked At least he mentioned backlight strobing in the video in contrast to mini-led. Don’t get me wrong I'm not interested in explaining it in detail, but in pointing out that it exists. I'm just saying that it would have been a good fit. Nevertheless, the video is well done.
I think this is an excellent video. Covers basically everything important (that I am aware of anyway), avoids mostly unnecessary details, and provides enough technical explanation to meaningfully understand the differences and make an appropriate choice - this would probably be my go-to video for sharing it with other people when they want to know the differences in those technologies, with a focus on a potential buying decision. I can really only think of relatively minor nitpicks - for example, the video of the two screens for the text clarity comparison wasn't very helpful, because one part was slightly out-of-focus, and the other part had too many moire artifacts. Then again, it's probably a bit difficult to get the right kind of very-slightly-out-of-focus setup for the comparison. Also, the burn-in demonstration probably requires a fairly good viewing setup to be able to see the difference - but then again, artificially amplifying the burn-in to show it might be more misleading overall, so I guess it's a reasonable compromise given the target audience (as in, people interested in buying a good screen likely already have a decent enough viewing setup for this).
The thing with OLED is, that even with its drawbacks, you can really get used to its blacks... what that means for example for me, that i would rather use an OLED, that is already burnt in, than go back to an IPS panel. After an OLED, you dont go back. Even if you need to compromise heavily in features, size, price, convenience.
True, my dad bought Lumia 520 back in the day and I got the taste on an OLED for the very first time in my life, never went back to LCDs (at least in Handsets, other displays are still too expensive for me 😢) [But to be honest, I hate both the QD-OLEDs and W-OLEDs, because I miss the True RGB OLEDs from early 2010s 😢😢😢😢]
I had to replace every screen I use in my life with oled as once you start seeing the back light bleed you can't unsee it. Doesn't help that most lcds are matte, where most oleds are glossy. I found glossy to be so much superior it's not even comparable.
I have an OLED for a few weeks now and it's a significant improvement over IPS. Brightness is also no problem, it's plenty bright so I turned it down to 80%. It's even bright enough to have a very good HDR picture with the games I tested. And prices are also very affordable now, I only paid 599€ for the XG27AQDMG.
@@TheMysteryGamer1000 Well at that price I'd be hard-pressed to call it "decent" but yes you can get such a display for 200€ but I'd consider 600€ for an OLED to be relatively cheap. Hopefully we can see 3-400€ OLEDs sometime in the near future.
You must have had an old IPS panel then. It's not uncommon to find IPS displays now with far higher brightness than OLED and 200nits full window is pretty dim. To me I really just want one because of glossy displays. I really think matte panels ruin the amazing clarity of higher resolution content.
@@RELAX-jn7rg Most of the QD-OLED monitors are glossy. Realistically they all perform nearly identical beyond stand shape. Asus's has the most software features, but nobody really uses them outside of frame rate counters and the MSI model tends to be $300 cheaper. Personally I'm thinking of waiting till next year. They will still get brighter and I'm personally waiting on a 27 inch 4K panel. 32 inches is just way too big for my taste as I already thought 27 was pushing it. But hey, that's just my opinion.
After using an OLED and mini LED TV, going back to other technologies is like going back 20 years. I don’t understand why there are so few monitors with mini LED technology because a QD VA or IPS panel with mini LED would be a great choice. All ad panels are the best but still suffer from burning specially if you are using them on a monitor or PC context in a few years, they get pretty bad and unfortunately they also don’t get the same burning prevention mechanisms as on TVs. So at the moment unless someone really really wants to know that monitorI would advise against it. Perhaps a VA panel is a better compromise.
It's a fake none issue, been using them for years and have loads of static content and the built in protection features make it not a problem. OLEDs are just the best displays on the market, LG TVs are the best route, the 48" ones you can pick up for sub £1000 now and worth every penny.
@@vidiveniviciDCLXVI for tv use yes. I have slight burn-in on my AW3423DW monitor after 2 years of gaming/work use. Its just faint traces of the start menu icons, (that has been on autohide all the time) and is only noticeable on solid greys, BUT it is there.
its same as saying aio suck ass over time 5 years and it goes bad, there are thousands of ppl who invested in the very first aio prototypes 10+ years ago and it still serves them as good as they were initially purchased
Bought a 360hz QD-OLED this week and honestly I wish I switched earlier...(had a 1080p , 144hz before) A 240hz would have been sufficient for now ; but bought it to be "futureproof". If you have the money and love gaming. get an Oled.
once they cost less than the avg. rent in my country i'll think about it. tbf the cheapest 1440p oleds are slightly cheaper, but still, that should not be close at all. nevertheless, im happy for all of you.
@privatjetconnaisseur if you want something good it's gonna cost you. Same for everything in life. The oled monitor cost me more than my monthly salary, worth jt
The one that fits your usecase. As much as id like to Check out OLEDs, I work from home with a lot of static content, thus the burn in and Text clarity issues of OLED just dont allow me to get one.
Have you tried using one? I find text quality to be a complete non-issue. And as for your worry about burn-in... I work from home with a lot of static content, but I do use dark mode with a black wallpaper and auto-hiding task bar. Other than that I don't do anything special, besides using my desktop as... a physical desktop. On a physical desktop, you don't have your papers and other items exactly in the same spot the entire time, and you certainly don't fill up the entire desktop. That's exactly how I use my recently acquired open box 55" LG C2, and how I have used my previous used 55" LG B9, too. I let windows float and position and size them organically, most the time anyway. This avoids 'burning in' any noticeable lines or elements, as they are constantly in at least slightly different locations. I have had absolutely no signs of burn in over the years, despite my B9 being bought used and in constant use every day, with often no recovery time. Even proper burn-in testing hasn't shown any signs of burn-in, period. So, for me... WOLED actually suits my use case best (mostly static desktop use with a decent amount of RUclips and occasionally a little Netflix and (auto-)HDR gaming). I think it is the best display tech we currently have, without any real risk of burn in, UNLESS you use light mode, don't auto-hide the task bar and snap windows into place. Though even in light mode, I don't think there is much to worry about.
@@ziggs123 well i DO have the hardware, but do you seriously think that im gonna setup a whole nother desk with additional monitors and peripherals if i can just use my work laptop with my existing 3 monitor gaming setup?
@@Bentrudgill1 I’ve had the AOC Q27G3XMN for a few weeks now. Honestly, the black smearing isn’t too bad as long as you don’t use HDR for SDR content. I keep it at 170Hz because I noticed it gets worse at higher refresh rates. The VRR flicker, though, is definitely a pain. If my FPS doesn’t stay above 80, I just turn VRR off-it’s not worth it. And yeah, in games like WoW, alt-tabbing makes it even worse because the refresh rate shifts so much, and the flicker goes crazy. Kind of makes VRR unusable in those situations. That said, I personally think HDR is worth the hassle in the right games. It really makes a difference when the content is designed for it.
The only good VA for gaming is Samsung Odyssey g7, other ones have a lot of ghosting and black smearing. I tried like 5-6 IPS panels, all of them had backlight bleeding and terrible ips glow. If i would have to buy IPS (never gonna happen) i d get LG 27GP850-B. Most TNs are pretty bad. I got BenQ Zowie XL2540K and it's a great monitor. Out of box colors were terrible so i had to spend quiet some time calibrating and now it looks as good as TN can be and at the same time no ghosting, no black smear, no yellow corners ips glow. Gonna wait for another year or two for OLED technology to develop even further but what i see right is already very impressive.
The KTC H27E22 and H27E22S (both 27" 1440P 240Hz) have very similar low-blur VA panels to the G7 at a fraction of the price. Usually around $200 USD on sale at Amazon. I have had two of them for a couple of months and they have been fantastic. Not having to deal with vomit-inducing IPS glow when viewing dark content has been amazing. I have an OLED TV, so that is clearly better, but for the price and lack of burn-in concern, these monitors are tough to beat.
Yeah I got the odyssey g7 too and it's so goated it was way ahead of its time. Came from a slow 75hz 1080p va straight to the g7. Biggest upgrade ever. It's also made even better by the fact I live in a hot climate which makes vas even faster
This is a great way to compare monitors, in my opinion. People aren’t generally looking for a technology, in fact are literally completely ignorant of the technologies available, and that’s as it should be. What buyers really want is something they can see and describe and this, coupled with cost, does a better job of defining what they should buy.
I just bought a 4k 144hz IPS display that is a big disappointment in viewing angles because of a bad backlight design. It doesn't shift colors or lose contrast, it just loses brightness with angle but the viewing angle is so small that you'd have to sit too far from the screen in order for it to look uniform. If I had seen the monitor in a store instead of buying it online, I wouldn't have bought it. I'd like you to start noticing whether backlights are well designed apart from the rest of the experience.
VA is best allarounder. OLED is best if you are willing to risk burn in. IPS is good if you don't care about contrast and are always dead center. TN is history. Even the high refresh rate is achieved by others now.
cheap VAs are trash while cheap ips are generally fine. one should buy VA panel only after in person testing of the specific model in consideration. I had an experience with an extremely ghosty VA panel that was smearing blacks and grays in all sorts of content. thats why I would never recommend VA as a go to option for everyone
Check out the KTC H27E22 and H27E22S. Amazing 1440P 240Hz VA panels with very low blur, and they are usually some of the cheapest monitors 1440P 240Hz monitors available. IPS has good viewing angles if you are viewing very bright content, but as soon as you're trying to view black or dark gray, ESPECIALLY in a dark room, it's like someone is shining flashlights at you through the screen. Unless you have seen a good VA next to an IPS, it is hard to describe. It's very disappointing that reviewers like monitors unboxed aren't mentioning this. Huge missed opportunity to educate people and promote better technology.
Tn master race for gaming. I dont sit at 80 degree angle suspended above ky monitor, so thats ips not needed. I also dont want a map or ui elements burnt into my screen in a year or too.
I'll have to think hard next time I have to get a display. Buying a used LG B7 TV really impressed me with the black levels - they are just gorgeous. But it does have burn in from the previous owners. Newer OLEDs are said to be more resistant to burn in, but at the same time, newer LCDs are said to have much better black levels than old ones.
Quick guide for those in doubt, when it comes to a gaming monitor for best image quality/HdR experience: 1) QD Oled & Woled 2) High end mini led Samsung VA 3)IPS 4)Normal Va 5)TN When it comes to best E-sports competitive experience: 1)480hz Woled 2)540hz TN 3)500hz ips 4)360hz QD Oled 5)VA When it comes to mainly working/productivity with maybe some casual gaming. 1)IPS 2)High end Samsung VA 3)Normal VA 4)Woled/QD oled 5) TN (Yes I’m aware that Woled/QD oled have some risk of burn-in but I think in general that risk is something not using a TN panel in 2024)
No TN is the best for competitive if not 2nd best. The 500hz ips monitors are terrible and too slow for the refresh rate while the tn isn't and backlight strobed 540hz tn is still the clearest motion you'll get currently with oled 480hz 2nd.
@@Frozoken mate try and not be ridiculous would you? Once you have hitted 480hz, let’s remember that means 480 IMAGES IN 1 ONE SECOND, on an Oled with instant response time, there is no such thing as “utterly demolishing” Very improvement is a very small marginal barely noticeable improvement in the search of perfection. Majority of non-gamers o simple casual gamers can’t tell the difference between 120hz and 240hz on a blind test. (Hell I’ve seen people not being able to accurately tell 60 vs 120) Inside actual gamers, the majority isn’t able to tell the difference between 240hz and 360hz on a blind test and results would have been inconclusive, even I with my good eyesight and years of experience would be hard pressed to guess on a blind test of 240hz oled vs 360hz oled in 10 Chances, which is which right enough times to prove I see it clearly. 360hz vs 480hz oled, I assure there is only a handful of people in earth, than on a blind test, with no placebo involved, could easily say: this is 360hz And this is 480hz. Telling 480hz oled vs 540hz TN with backlight strobing. Even if there is someone capable he would laugh at hearing you say “it demolishes the 480hz oled” 99,9999999999999999% will take the oled for the huge increase in image quality in literally every other single aspect for an almost imperceptible fluidity hit.
@@lawyerlawyer1215 No it quite literally does watch this video from monitors unboxed "540Hz LCD vs 360Hz & 480Hz OLED" and go to the 11:11 timestamp and compare the 2nd and 3rd collum. For extreme high refresh rate standards, that is easily what you could call destroying in favour of the lcd. The response times arent the issue it's the sample and hold nature of only 480 updates a second especially in 1440p where your pixels of motion blur is increased relative to 1080p. Lets say someones moving across your screen from left to right in one second. Thats 1440 pixels and at only 480 updates a second thats 3 pixels of motion blur. For context with backlight strobing on the 540hz monitor the image is only shown for 0.25ms which is effectively 4000hz. If you do the same test you get 1080 pixels/4000 for only 0.25 pixels of motion blur
Excellent and informative as always. Except for one thing,... LCD displays can absolutely fall victim to burn-in. As a personal reference, my second display is a cheaper LCD that I use mostly for things like performance graphs and more static content, and there are VERY noticeable strips of burn-in on the right edge and top right edge where my Afterburner hardware monitor window sits. That window is a black background with white text and the title bar and scroll bars are white when not directly selected, thus putting a high contrast edge where those bars meet the window or background. LCD displays absolutely can be burned-in.
Agreed, I've suffered the same fate. But not on PC monitor tho. My old Samsung's TV will shows a semi permanent burn in. Especially after 3 or 4 hours of usage, and my Android phone also shows a semi permanent burn in. But it goes away after being turned off for some amounts of time.
I have everything except TN, being in the Seattle area, I pretty much have my choice of whatever I want for whatever I want to pay for it on the local market. For general purpose/content creation I generally go with high end 4K IPS screens, for TV/Gaming/Other content consumption I typically go with OLED... I also have a couple VA panels I happened to end up with that I use for the random generic purpose here and there
it would be nice if for OLED (and LCD to a lesser degree) you would take a reading of the effective contrast but in a light room and the sensor not stuck to the screen to see what is the real world contrast vs perfect pitch black of the sensor, OLED have a theorical infinite brightness but introduce light in the room and it is not infinite, even more for QD-OLED where it manifest in a purple haze or grey (aka reduced contrast as the grey itself is not that noticeable but the lost of contrast is) The QD-OLED problem is a pretty good argument for some of us to go to the WOLED side even if the color depth is lesser
What infinite contrast stands for is probably just reassurance of a better (perceived) contrast across various viewing conditions. Quirks of QD-OLED might explain why it's mainly present in TVs and bigger displays where viewing distance and ambient light are drastically different.
The problem with your suggestion is that it entirely depends on how exactly the room is lit. Every room you test will give different results. Even things like if the light is behind the screen or in front would change this entirely. They already give examples in the video with the ccfl light so you can see intuitively how the monitor reacts to ambient light. Putting a number on this would be useless. It all sounds good until you take a breather to really think it through. Best way to get any good dynamic range will always be to turn off the lights and use blinds, no matter the monitor or panel.
@@GFClocked But when playing bright HDR content it's best to use some light in the room. So it would be good to have some test to measure the effect on black levels in a more realistic situation.
@barryjones2366 I play in a dark room. So as you can see since everyone has different setup it would be impossible to test. They'd have to test a bunch of different lighting conditions and you'd have to hope one of them is close to yours and... Then what? What is it exactly going to tell you. Nothing more than what the waving light portion of the video already does. This entire concept is flawed. Everyone plays in different conditions and this kind of testing would double or triple the testing time of each monitor for no gain
@@GFClocked Maybe use a 5 nit light behind the monitor, copy classy techs lighting setup. He is probably using reference lighting for HDR watching. Then the minimum black level will be higher especially with qd-oled monitor coatings/layer. Won't be perfect but still closer to real world performance than nothing I think. Not too much extra effort at all.
Good timing. I'd just started to research this. I have an aging 10 year old LG ultrawide IPS display that I use for productivity and gaming. Would love an OLED but I'm scared of burn in but I want something with better colours.
@Dude-xv4os I do have a habit of leaving desktop or photoshop and games in the menu overnight. Sometimes for a couple days 😬 this is my main worry 😂 but I guess there will be screen settings to "go to sleep"?
Wonderful. I read a lot of these but it was like 8 years ago. Nice to have an accessible update. I think my next monitor will be an IPS LCD just like I have now but then with at least 120Hz instead of my current 60Hz.
Ah man, you read my mind! I'm looking to buy a new ultrawide next month, and am really struggling to decide with which tech to go: fast switching local dimming LCD or QD-OLED, and here you are with the explainer! As I said, I'm looking into ultrawides (34"), and the primary use case will be office use (loads of development, and enterprise reporting apps with gauges and graphs, so static screens). But at nights and on the weekends my laptop workhorse makes room for my gaming PC and I love big AAA HDR titles, so I really want a good quality monitor for that too. At the moment I have an LG UltraWide (34WN80C), which has a curved IPS panel that does 5ms GtG on paper, but doesn't support VRR and only does 60Hz. So that has to go, and I'm looking at either the MSI MPG/MAg OLED ultrawides, but I'm fearing the colour fringing on text and of course the burn in issues, or the AOC AGON Pro AG344UXM (1100+ local dimming zones). which looks quite excellent in person to me. But I might go for the Acer Predator X34 miniLED, which has over 2300 local dimming zones, but I've yet to see it in real life... If anyone could review that, I'd be grateful ;) Choices... what a dilemma!
Thankyou for this basic primer to video display types. I wonder if I picked out a good match before seeing this? A pair of 60Hz IPS Dell S2721QS for $220 a piece. Mosty for the size upgrade from 24 inch and I knew that IPS panels were generally better than other LCD type for my office work work-load with only occassional gaming.
If anyone is interested in 4k / 144 hz monitors, I found a 32" HDR G-Sync compatible IPS for $329 on Amazon right now! I've been looking for over a year, and it's been impossible to find a 32" 4k IPS with above 60 Hz refresh rate for under $450. You might find a TN panel right at $400, but most are 27 inches. Never heard of the brand (CRUA), but they had high review scores, so I gave it a try. Highly recommend it you want 4k above 60 fps gameplay.
Damn, that 540hz strobed TN panel was absolutely insane on motion clarity, I have never seen something so close to the reference image except for the ghosting which the OLEDS obviously lack. It’s also interesting the ULMB strobe looks better on the medium brightness background by a lot, and the DYAC looks terrible on the middle one, but the DYAC looks WAY better on the light background than the ULMB does!
19:11-19:14 was very confusing and distracting when you swapped the QD-OLED and WOLED halves of the screen. It made me question the next scenes with the additional comparisons.
As someone who games and works on my desktop, IPS just feels too good for production to give up. Once OLED's get a bit better and come down in price though, I might consider a second monitor exclusively for gaming. OLED's are for sure the best for the living room TV aswell.
For me it doesn't matter. Final specification is what it's all about. As there can be VAs with amazing response times and TNs that ghost or IPS with good contrast
Well done. Btw. You missed the reversed qoled subpixel structure which flares out text.. making os compensation like ttf aa etc not working. Mac has some workarounds
mini LED is the best of all words and is criminally underrated....an IPS Mini LED FALD will have fantastic color accuracy (often better than OLED), very good black levels and contrast, very high brightness, and no burn in.
no micro led is. Mini led contrast ratio still is significantly worse than oled so clearly not the best nor do they have the extremely good response times of them. Microled however is brighter, doesnt burn in, is even faster than oled and has even better viewing angles and colours
@@Frozoken Have you heard about NEDs (Samsung QNED displays)? Per pixel like OLED ones, they are coming before MicroLED. They are smaller than MicroLEDs but brighter than OLED much more efficient LEDs called NEDs.
Samsung sold its patents for LCD technologies to TCL towards the end of 2022, including the exclusive magical doohickery they did to make the Neo G7 and G8 such good VA panels. This is now being sold to other manufacturers/brands via TCL CSOT and branded things like "Rapid VA" in MSI's case. Worth looking out for new high quality VAs hitting the market, especially ones that try to stand out with branding like that, as they have the potential to match or hopefully exceed the 2022 Odyssey Neo products from Samsung, especially if it's confirmed they are using TCL CSOT panels in particular. It's not exclusive to Samsung anymore but I haven't really seen much come from it yet on the level of the Neo G7 and G8.
something that never gets discussed is that oleds don't have to worry about backlight going bad and plaguing your screen with uniformity issues and dirty screen effect. i lost like 3 screen in the last 15 years to this. another aspect of oled that gets overlooked and to me is more important than burn-in, are dead pixels. oled tend to develop lots of dead pixels near the very edges of the screen over time. not that big an issue on 4k screens, and the fact it's like at most 10 pixels from the edge helps a lot, but it's something that happens. both my b9 and c1 tvs have it. the b9 has like hundreds! the c1 has a couple dozen. but it's such a small issue that i forget about it for months at a time even though i use it as my computer screen. btw nearing 10k hours on my c1, still pristine from burning in
Only thing i would get rid of is the standard deviation bit. Reminded me of undergraduate statistics classes for studying experimental methodology. Rather a median mean mode presentation would make sense visually would help with a scattergram.
I have had plenty TN and IPS and my TV is OLED and this matches my experiences too. I’ve always found viewing angle matters a lot, but contrast ratio is really a useless metric if you exist in a room with any light - a mild backlight easily overcomes any issues with black level. Brightness and HDR matter a ton to me, and ghosting or poor response time is unforgivable. TN still has value, but OLED is growing on me.
I had the ASUS 32" OLED for 2 weeks. BEST of the BEST in many tests. I didn't like it at all. For me it had so many drawbacks. But mainly, it was buggy, it went black randomly (in-game or out), sometimes came back after a few seconds, most of the times it didn't and you would have to turn it off or reinsert the cable, many people have this issue and on the forum (where I got blocked now by the mods) there was no response from ASUS on this. Also it became pretty hot at the back of the screen, it scratched VERY easily, uses a lot of energy, burn-in danger (stress), and when switching from 4K to a lower resolution it seems to struggle a bit/took some time. For me it was a pretty useless thing and was glad I could return it. Much happier with my 300 dollar/Euro 32"/180hz 1440p IPS now without all those drawbacks mentioned above. I would say OLED/4K is hugely overrated and has lots of drawbacks. But that is just my opinion and in my kind of usage of my monitor :)
I've had every type over the years, except for VA and QD-OLED (though I've seen the former IRL and it's not bad). And I still prefer IPS over everything else. It's not perfect, but gives a good balance. My current setup consists of a 4K IPS and 1440p WOLED, both 27". Contrary to what I've read online, IPS is still my favourite. Yes, the greys in dark(er) scenes can be annoying, but at least I don't have to worry about burn-in and text clarity is a non-issue (and it's not just the resolution, even my old 23" IPS 1080p monitor had better text clarity).
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The fact that I thought these were coupon/redemption codes instead of monitor models
Inconsistencies on 'Hertz', SI Unit. It should be 'Hz', and never 'HZ' at 10:53 and 11:11. A great video, though.
I’m searching a QHD or 4K monitor with a fast Samsung VA panel! Which one would you advise?
@@monitorsunboxed it seems the first monitor (39GS...) longer has a discount. The other products still have discounts.
@@monitorsunboxed It seems the first 39 inch monitor doesn't have a discount 3 hours in.
You managed to get a broad overview of almost everything in the monitor market in just over 20 minutes. Extremely impressive!
I agree, this video is gold
The content of the video, the accuracy and the exhaustiveness of the explanations (typical Tim style) are fantastic. We must applaud the impeccable video editing, which adds an extra gear to content, which is already excellent. You're a wonderful team, guys!
Excellent summary. I have all these LCD technologies, and yes, all have their place, though it's unlikely I'll ever buy another TN panel. I think your viewers would benefit from a sort of how-to video on monitor calibration, at least including the consumer-level tools available and how they work. Seems like maybe you did one years ago, but a refresh would be great. Even though you're in Australia, Happy Thanksgiving, US-style!
He did one just a year ago: ruclips.net/video/Sq3_XvjvQCE/видео.html
@@CloudyMcCloud00 Thanks. I'll check it out.
Outstanding work at packing this much of information! Not too dense nor too surface-level, specially with those many graphs and backlight zoning examples, just perfect, and that B roll is *chef kiss*.
As someone who needs to use one monitor for work and gaming, the stagnation of mini LED options is depressing. My office workflow would wreck an OLED.
Same, I've been waiting for years for a productivity use OLED and it seems to always be a few years away..
Mini-led didn't work for productivity ?
@@mickaelb3382 They mean there is very little choice of mini-LED for their office I guess
@@RennieAshaoc has mini led. I just got mine yesterday
Agreed. I've bought and returned a few great OLED monitors because I can't get myself to stick with them for mixed use. It's just too stress inducing to manage around it when you can get a top-tier IPS and get a good all-around experience that you don't have to worry about.
When someone asks me about the differences in these technologies, I'll send them this video.
that would leave them even more confused. if they ask for the difference, they most likely want use cases, since they know nothing about the tech.
@@H786... Fkin noobs
To bad he always forget to tell people about one of the biggest drawbacks regarding OLEDs: VRR Brightness flicker, granted it depends alot on the game, the fps you get with your setup and other factors,but yeah,it can be pretty annoying. "VRR Flicker Problem In Monitors" on RTings if anyone is interested in what it is. I sometimes wonder if Tim actually plays games on an OLED or just reviews static content considering he never mentions this.
Brain rot ridden generation.
@@H786...he does cover use cases in this video. Just letting you know since you clearly didn't watch it
As of yesterday I am a proud owner of a 3rd-gen QD-OLED gaming monitor. Also it's my first HDR monitor. And I must say wow, it's incredible. No ghosting no overshoot no halos . All I have to do now is figure out how to properly work with icc profiles in Windows 10.
Bro I have the greatest bridge that ever lived to sell you
Now it's time for devs to improve their games by not using TAA that introduces motion blur/ghosting because as of now playing new unreal engine 5 releases is horrible and pretty much any monitor with better motion clarity you're mainly paying to see TAA blur at a higher definition as of recently.
@CrunchyTire Don't get me wrong I am totally aware of all the shortcomings of this kind of monitor. Potential for burn-in, self-adjusting brightness, not being bright and advanced enough to achieve HDR10+ level of certification, VRR flicker which can be fixed with FPS limiter, pixel shift, oled care mandatory cycles. Also I am limited to HBR3 bandwidth but with the latest firmware update I can turn off DSC and drive the monitor at native 1440p RGB mode with 10 bit color at a pretty decent 200 Hz refresh rate with no compression. I say that's plenty.
@@demonfedor3748 if only FPS limiters worked… If the game wants to stutter or produce erratic frametimes - it will despite any limiters and then you’ll get flicker
name of 3rd gen qd oled monitor?
RUclips recommended with the rare 1 minute ago upload.
37 minutes for me. Too slow.
Yeah I don't even subscribe but recommended under 1 hour upload
You've run out of your instant recommendations quota. Now you'll only get 13 year old videos recommended.
This is the arc im in right now 😂😂 short form 15 year old videos lol@@DivyanshBalchandani
21 hours not even subscribed😂
Thanks for doing this. Been using monitors since I was a kid in the 80's and I feel that the most noticeable attributes are: 1. Anything that degrades the experience--color, ghosting, angles, text, max brightness, and responsiveness--if it feels bad or it can't be tuned, pass on it immediately. 2. Anything less than 120 Hz. 3. Brightness, gamma, and contrast. 4. Color gamut and accuracy 5. Is the HDR experience real or just hacked together/weak or minimal performance.
This is the best explanation I have seen on this topic! Well done!
One thing I noticed based on someone elses comment below is that it would be good to compare the contrast of WOLED vs VA with 300/500+ zones vs VA with 1000+ zones vs IPS (same zones as the VA ones), vs QD-OLED in a bunch of scenes with some light in the room. The HDR spec says to always use some light, 5 nits, so your eyes don't get too effected when there is some sudden bright flash or scene, that's why SDR starts at 0 nits and HDR starts at 0.005 nits I believe. This would also more realistically test the black level on the OLEDs which can look raised with some light on in the room. Making the comparison closer to LCDs than we might first think.....
Also I disagree with the whole OLEDs have infinite contrast, since there are some LCDs that do turn off the back-light. So it would be more accurate to say OLED gives you a higher contrast more consistently compared to LCDs which can vary more between scenes. But especially in HDR since it starts at 0.005 nits, the contrast can't ever really be considered infinite in HDR at least. For SDR they seem even closer since on a LCD at 100 nits it doesn't struggle as much to control the back-light at lower max light levels.
Just an idea maybe for a future video or to incorporate as part of your future testing methodology since HDR should always be watched with some light on in the room. 😃
Go make your own video if you want to misinform people. This guy did a fine job, and nobody is going to change their wording for an entire product line up because 1 or 2 models possibly do something different from the rest.. you’re a clown, whos highly uneducated and has wayyyy to much time on his hands
Yeah, these are good points - I also find the "infinite contrast" statements a bit questionable... as in, there will always be some tiny light leakage due to the way those semiconductors work, reflection/refraction between panel surface layers, etc... Now, I suppose it is mostly "academically interesting" whether the real contrast is around 1:20k, or 1:100k, or even higher, but still: I wouldn't be surprised if there were relevant differences between different models, as in, some do noticeably better at displaying pictures of a starry sky, for example, where you would easily be able to tell the difference between 20k and 100k contrast (assuming the room is relatively dark).
But yeah, it might be a bit much effort for them to get the right kind of measurement equipment, with relatively niche use, so... it makes sense for them to not prioritize this.
@@highdefinist9697 that is cope. Oled is so dark that to see the faintest light coming from the blacks you need to not have ANY other source of light. to the point where a single status led from anything in the room will seem like searing sunlight in comparison. i turned off all lights in my room and the blacks on my oled don't differ from the black borders for like 3 minutes, and even when my eyes were fully adapted, the difference was like f#000000 to f#010101. it's effectively infinite because it's beyond the range we can even sense even at our most sensitive pupil dilatation when there is ANY contrast at all on the image. if there's anything on the screen that is not full black, it'll be enough to drag your eyesight floor levels above what the oled screen blacks, making the blacks infinite again. the oled on my galaxy s3 had a pretty elevated floor and i could concede your point in that case, but none of my more recent oleds have that issue including my "monitor".
I tried taking a 10 second exposure picture with my phone at ISO 3200 from a tripod, it couldn't tell the difference between the black bezel and the screen. it's going to take a minute of exposure to see anything, probably. unfortunately my phone doesn't do that.
if you could measure it, contrast would easily be over 10 million to one. the contrast between oled black and lcd black is way larger than lcd blacks vs their peak white.
be aware of Dark Level Smearing on cheap VA panels, I know it got a lot better in recent years/models, but depending on where you live and budget, you can get a dud
Even expensive one have them. Can’t stand it. Not worth it.
Had very expensive Samsung 240hz va panel for testing purposes it had bad smearing on it. Va panels sucks so much
I sure hope that "MicroLED" can soon be listed here aswell.. ;)
I do believe MicroLED at the moment are huge and expensive. I guess maybe in a few years they might be available in reasonable sizes and prices.
In all likelihood, MicroLED will be surpassed by QDEL - quantum dots that emit their own RGB light, eliminating the backlight entirely. They're also much easier to manufacture than OLEDs or MicroLEDs since they don't need a vacuum chamber, meaning monitors may be some of the first products to launch, rather than having to wait until TV panels can be shrunk. It's quite likely that prototypes will be shown at CES.
@@drkevorkian2508I think Digital Trends was shown very early prototype last CES.
QDEL is the future.
@@drkevorkian2508I think Digital Trends was shown a very early prototype last CES.
When I was younger chosing the monitor was not a big deal: better refresh rate or better colors. Nowadays it requires a PhD on Panel Engineering lmao. I have plans to change my monitor by 2027 so let's see how the market evolves. For now, i'd still choose IPS as durability is a must for high end PCs unless u're rich.
Thank you again. I ended purchasing the Alienware 34DWF based on your recommendations, and cannot believe the picture I am looking at...amazing colors.
I too, bought the alienware, about a year ago now. the image is mind blowing. as was warned, being a mmo player, meaning static hud elements, I do have some burn in, despite regular pixel and full panel refresh cycles. completely advised and warned, I expected this. honestly, the quality of the image, makes it worth it. if say 3 years in, become a significantly greater issue, Ill replace with whatever is best then. and if I'm honest with myself, I generally replace main displays after 3 years regardless. so, yes, I think it's worth it. the in game image quality is superior to everything else Ive ever used.
@@DonaldTurnerhow much time have you played on it? That’s crazy I haven’t got any burn in
@@fawneight7108 daily, 10+ hours a day. I have switched the hud around regularly, but still, some of the most static elements can be seen on black screens. it's not a problem, I have to look for it, but Im sure it will get worse.
VA panels are great for work stuff and bright environments. I have one in my workshop with 450 cd/m" brightness and (as far as i remember) 3500:1 native contrast. It's always readable. For CAD (mostly wireframe) and boring business tasks, response time does not really matter.
Try scrolling through a website with white text over a black background then come back and tell me response time don't matter
@@AverageDoomer69 In this case, i use read mode. Or i pivot the monitor and read the website as a whole, which works in 4K. But to be fair, the VA panel i have is not that bad with this.
Since I tried VA, I just can't go back to IPS. Because of the deep, articulated blacks and contrast. Sure, for a designer you would want IPS color accuracy. But for single player gaming or movie watching, casually dark scenes VA is the life saver. Eye saver. Since VA I have never had trouble with dark games and "you should barely see this" tests at the start of many.
Looking forward to OLED soon. My guess is it should go down in price for 1/3 or so within a year or two. Even though I could afford one right now, that would be premature investment. Better tech at cheaper price to come. And TN is just trash budget range. Angles and everything.
Technically you could do professional work on a calibrated TN if it has the color gamut you require, like mentioned in the video. So if you get a VA you could pay someone to calibrate it or buy one that's already factory calibrated, not that it's worth it for stuff like gaming.
IPS-Black seems like they have no compromise over traditional IPS save for cost.
i also dont understand the "IPS is just better than VA" thing.
like who is using their 24-27 inch monitor with 4 ppl or sth, so that u actually notice the viewing angles. it might be a different story when ur a designer or do some sort of art related, creative work, where u need that colour accuracy from all angles.
when gaming, the contrasts are more important and if a leaf at the edge of my screen is a slightly brighter green than it should be, how the fck would i even notice that?
yes there are response times, but... u dont have to get a 20ms VA, a 1ms VA will be very close to a 1ms IPS and still be a LOT cheaper.
so for gaming and watching movies, its cheaper and looks better.
so long as its not your TV in your living room and u have seats at a 45 degree angle or sth.
and indeed, oled is way too expensive. im also waiting for it to drop, either by time, QDEL/micro LED being the new high end thing or by more 120-144Hz 1440ps, amybe with response times not as low as 0.03, who knows if there is a way cheaper OLED technology next year that "only" achieves 0.2ms but are way cheaper.
a monitor just shouldnt cost more than a lot of ppls RENT
@@privatjetconnaisseur My problem with VA panels is the very prominent dark smearing which is immediately obvious and very distracting to me, the viewing angles are fine
@@mechkg oh yeah i wanted to write that as well but forgot about it when i moved on to the next part xD my bad.
its more of a preference thing, since to me, due to the contrast, the blacks are better than on an IPS, but for others like u, IPS gives better blacks due to less smearing.
if i had 2 exact same monitors just beign different by the panel, i would buy the cheaper one.
A power consumption comparison would have made the video perfect. Good job.
Graphs and infos on screen are outstanding in this sum-up. If you did them, Tim: Extremely well done. Otherwise, give that praise to Balin, please!
The best video of its kind out there. It's obvious that you know what you're talking about and you present everything the way it should without being partial at all. That's coming from someone who has done a very extensive research on the matter and has experienced all display types. I would love to have seen a NanoIPS and QD-VA, QD-IPS inclusion though mentioned separately, but overall fantastic work.
I recently purchased three Dell S3222DGM screens for my triple screen sim rig. I often race in the dark and wanted better contrast in low light situations. They are only $200 US right now. I never thought I could pay $600 for 32" triple screens. The monitors aren't anything special, but based on what I read they do the basics very well for a VA panel. I hope to see these monitors through for a few years and hope OLED drop in price enough to eventually go 3x32" OLED for the sim rig. Cheers.
I like seeing Monitors Unboxed really taking off Tim. 😉
I've always felt this was an area that needed it's own Hardware Unboxed/Gamers Nexus styled coverage and there really aren't any other channels that seem to do the *work* to get there. (Outside of RTINGs & HDTVTest)
I'd say your coverage is a step above either of those channels IMO, although I do like the way HDTVTest sets up his *dark room* side by side presentations. While still limited by what the camera can capture, as well as the panel you're watching the video on, you can see obvious differences in quality between panels by doing this.
At 13:55 you state that OLED performance doesnt change at different refresh rates. According to rtings the Samsung g60sd has worse performance at lower refresh rates. Is it correct or do rtings simply not understand how to read the measurements correctly? Thanks for great vids
Nice video.
A couple of things.
1. I have seen many lcd panels suffer from burn-in. Often confused with image retention. For one example, one car insurance company sent us about 30 monitors under warranty with their staticly displayed software burned into the panel. I did not see this issue on these monitors from other businesses or consumers. Just this one company with a static display. This is just one example of many.
2. Not a single word on the scurge of modern monitors...VRR flicker.
I have sold off two ultrawide monitors with vrr flicker over the last few years. Nothing could be done to eliminate it and it's definitely a deal breaker. Vrr flicker is unacceptable. If I had known about it before the purchase I would never have purchased those monitors.
Basically vrr flicker is a thing on some VA and OLED panels. If causes the brightness to flutter or flicker and can happen anywhere, in game, during cutscenes, in menus and even on the desktop. Always caused by variable refresh. On both those ultrawides I had to shut freesync off and use fastsync in the nvidia control panel. This worked well until I could sell those monitors.
After that I went with a Samsung CRG9 49" SUW with a VA panel and quantum dots. Best VA panel I have ever used. Edge lit unfortunatelty but still did local dimming and HDR. Very bright and...VRR flicker. I was crushed. I was going to return it but found a firmware update that had a osd setting that eliminated vrr flicker completely. Turned out to be an excellent monitor.
Now, thanks to a black friday sale, I have an MSI 49" OLED SUW. I did vrr research on this before purchase. No results. On facebook one guy said he had a 32" MSI OLED and it would flicker if the fps went below about 60. I don't usually see anything under 80 with one exception so I bought the 49". I have not seen any VRR flickr on it in any games.
Very disappointed that this channel did such a great video on panel types with no mention of VRR Flicker.
I would like to see lists of what monitors suffer from this issue and I would like to see it mentioned in EVERY monitor review.
There is no such thing as a good monitor review if it doesn't mention VRR flicker.
So true. My alienware aw3225qf seems to have this issue on my ps5. So sad for such an amazing screen otherwise.
@@oh_yes_1offentlig451 My G2 suffers from flicker with my Series X. Funny thing is that the C1 I had before it didn't have it anywhere as noticeable.
Yeah, LCD can have burnin. Especially back in older days this was an issue, but it got to the point where it mostly is non-issue. Had LCDs that were showing static content for like half a day and no burnin. But it can happen, even if mostly people forgot about it. But I do remember in 2000s, can't remember year exactly, that it was part of research I was doing before buying LCD. Hence why I believe OLEDs in this or that way can make it to that point too, even if it is still a worry now.
@@Seth22087 It is technically not "burn in" or more accurate "burn out". Burn in was a CRT term when the cathode ray literally burned in an image on the phosphor layer behind the screens glas.
Burn out is more the term when used with (old Plasma) and OLED techniques, where single Pixelcolors lose the ability to light in proper brightnes or even lose the color saturation itself (Plasma Subpixel cells due to phosphor coatings wear out, similar to CRT TVs of older age).
LCDs though CAN get so called "stuck pixels" or "lazy pixels" who develope more "drag" and get "lazy" to adjust their alignment for certain brightnes levels.
Because LC Cells are "light gates".
That happened with older displays more often as well as TFT cells getting exposed to higher temperatures.
Normally those shadowy retentions are reversible, sometimes in rarer cases it can reoccur more easily in shorter time periods again though.
That happens because the transistors to align the crystals in the LCD Cells due to wear/tear are less sensible to voltages applied and so start to align more slowly or in restricted manner.
That leads to a colorshift in a more permanent/reoccuring way or visible as shadowy retention images.
Mostly happens when the voltage is to high for said transistors functioning range, so wear/tear happens faster or happens at all. (Aggressive Pixel Overdrive functions of the monitor itself may be at fault here?)
The latter, when in warranty time, IS definitely a warranty case these days and normally should not happen for several years if at all for LCD based Displays of modern age.
@@KleinMeme I got feeling that burnin is becoming more of just familiar expression that doesn't just cover burnin. Something akin to floppy disk icon, like we still use it because everyone knows what they see, but most probably didn't use floppy disk for more than a decade now. Heck, you might even have people who never saw floppy disk in their life. :-D But still, thanks for nice explanation.
a very important reason why woled is so ineffective is that the white light leds are created by other colour leds that whose light is absorbed and reemitted and mixed to create the white light. In effect the white light leds that is used as a base is created somewhat like what the qd-oled does and thereafter filtered with colour filters.
WOLED has a fourth white subpixel that passes through unfiltered. See 2:54. The only problem that I have read is that when the white subpixel is enabled at a high brightness it can make the colors from the other subpixels appear less saturated.
Yeah but it the only dual type monitor that’s out rn so…
me crying on the side owning a Mini-LED QHD monitor but still looking forward to improvements to this tech. Thanks for the insanely detailed explanation for these display tech.
Have you checked out Xiaomi's 27 inch 1440p 180hz MiniLED monitor? It looks really quite good.
@@Nekrosmas that's the exact monitor i'm using and the 1st monitor i bought without HUB's review.
@@reigngrifth I still use a diamond, my Samsung Syncmaster 955DF 19inch CRT from 2002.
Owning such a high res CRT is extremely rare, 1856x1392 res and it destroys my 1080p LCD, the text and anything else is so much better and sharper lol.
Fun fact, i game on a Samsung QD OLED S90C too and the image (color and contrast) is the same thing, basically 20 years of technology going backwards until we get the same image quality as 20 years ago...
Isnt mini led just lcd with led baclight
@@OneDollaBill Standard LCDs have an even backlight that is always on, miniLEDs have sections of the backlight that can be turned off. It's between mainstream LCDs and OLEDs/MicroLEDs.
A very nice summary, fine work indeed!
A power consumption comparison would have been nice, I've always been curious about that. And now with the energy prices increasing in Europe, it's even more important.
Xiaomi G Pro 27i 27inch IPS Quantum Dot 180hz Miniled 1152 local dimming zones 360 eur in my country, can we please get a review? Thanks!
Second this, a review would be great!
vote for it on the rtings website so we can hopefully get a review from them on the monitor too
Agree! We should get more Xiaomi monitor reviews. The G34WQi is also an interesting VA ultrawide monitor for its price.
@@amoeba8888 Reviews so far are very positive, not junk at all.
@@amoeba8888 ah yes calling things junk without actually seeing them, its $300, far cheaper than alot of competitors, and is actually decent from the few reviews the monitor got. There's a reason why people keep asking for reviews of the monitor under every video
the strings over the logo on his shirt always make me think he's wearing the black ops iii logo
Cool, VA for me then! OLED is stupidly expensive and it wont last long the way i use monitors. Best VA sounds pretty good to me.
DO NOT BUY VA. NEVER. The response time and smearing on VA's is AWFUL. Not unusable, but bad enough that you will see black smearing EVERYWHERE. Especially when web browsing and scrolling down web pages. Just get an IPS or a particularly good TN panel if you're gonna get an LCD. I will never buy a VA again after owning my XG49VQ (a $900 premium monitor) for about 3 years now. I swear to god, games look better at 60hz on one of my shitty secondary monitors (ASUS TN panels) than on my main at 144hz because the response time is *so bad*. Sure, the panel can refresh at 144hz, but the color of the individual pixels can't actually change color that fast, so you get smearing instead of a distinct picture. I bought a crappy 4k60 IPS monitor off of Amazon a few weeks ago for some on the side multi-media work (I really just needed the resolution) and right out of the box, this thing looked noticeably better than the VA. Way better color reproduction across the board and the decrease in response time is palpable.
What's even FUNNIER, is that they advertise the deep blacks of VA panels as their strong suit, but 1) the black is no better than one of my aforementioned shitty ASUS TN's (both fully calibrated) and 2) the deeper the black (so ya know, taking full advantage of your monitor with correct calibration), WORSENS THE SMEARING. This is exacerbated even further if you play new games that leverage the awful AA tech that is TAA which makes everything even more blurry and smeary. It's genuinely awful. You can somewhat fix this by raising the black level, BUT THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF PAYING EXTRA FOR THE BETTER CONTRAST RATIO?
I cannot suggest against VA panels more. They are literally useless. Can't wait for them to die.
@@Domi39 I'm on my second VA monitor (as far as I know) and have never been able to see black smearing. I've found videos of games that display it, and tried with scrolling, but don't see it. With one (Philips 40") I did notice some when I had some of the SmartResponse option on. I do productivity and watching videos.
I have been using VA 200$ monitor (Mi 34) for 3 years and I have only seen Black smearing a couple times in that period, while every other aspect of this monitor is wonderful. Sure, smearing is noticable on some Web pages with light Text on dark background, but it is usually not an issue in most games. And it is dedenitely much better than my old IPS panel, which I still use as second monitor, but it has 3 times less contrast (which is certainly noticable in every game) and only 60 HZ refresh rate. So I have been absolutely amazed by this VA performance, especially for this price.
Btw, Black smearing is worse on High Black levels, it is true, but even the medium levels of Black on VA (which doesn't cause nearly as bad smearing as 100%) is much better than most of IPS panel.
I've been pretty darn happy with my ultrawide curved VA monitor (Dell S3422DWG). I have noticed some of the VA smearing/ghosting, but really only during dark scenes with fast movement, and then only when I'm actually looking for it. My model seems to be one of the better VA panels in terms of not being terrible for ghosting at least back when I bought it. The thing that makes up for that for me is how the blacks are much more uniform and darker than my old IPS monitors. I remember hating seeing a dark loading screen and how one or two corners were much lighter than everything else.
thanks Tim 1 question about OLED burning in games if you have a static health bar or other Icon on the screen for a game that you play for hours at a time wouldn't they burn too?
Of course it will burn, this is Oled, you can't change it's rules. But you shouldn't worry, it's won't happen very soon, you can enjoy your monitor very long period.
Nope not an issue. I have QD-Oled Samsung G9 49" over a year now. I play and use display daily 8h+ with a lot gaming that has static bars in some games. New displays have screen pixel cycles and it clears any static element if it even has hint. The only way to burn something is if you have taskbar always shown and screen is on without doing anything for hours that changes. Or windows are always same places hours and days. So if you only work with OLED and nothing else, then its best to buy something else. If you do mixed usages gaming + work no issues at all.
By time you see actual burn or color fading the monitor will be very old already and like every pc hardware at some point its time to upgrade.
@supremeboy thanks for letting me know, dont work on it but emails and web stuff youtube lol but mostly Gaming.
For me the biggest drawbacks of oled monitors are the non standard pixel layouts and VRR flicker.
Still using a Trinitron CRT as my gaming monitor
If I didn't nave my c1 with great aggressive bfi I'd consider a crt for fighting games, due to locked fps there's only so much clarity you can get without crt or strobing
Damn bro gaming with zero lag
I tape two of them to my face for extra immersion.
Sony FTW
@@Juuythljgrrdwq don't doesn't make any panels, and the devices they sell they just add a sony tax for no good reason. If anything sony is the opposite
One annoying thing I've noticed with the IPS panels I've used-two admittedly old Dell laptops and two iPads-is very dark grays being indistinguishable from black. For example, RUclips currently has a bug that makes the text I'm typing now black even in dark mode, and on all four of my IPS screens it's completely invisible. On my crappy old TN monitor, it's at least readable. This can also make it impossible to see in dark areas in games. This is different from gamma, which only measures midtones and extrapolates from there. I don't know if IPS screens have gotten better about this in recent years, and I'm not aware of any official stat I can use to evaluate one sight unseen.
Great video Tim!
Only thing missing (wonder how many comments have started with these three words then had completely different "only thing" following them up) for my pov is some mention of "backlight bleed" and/or IPS glow. As someone recently trying to play Alien Isolation on an IPS, it's been driving me to try and find an alternative, but it's hard to find conclusive info on relative monitor-to-monitor performance in this regard.
Look into the KTC H27E22 and H27E22S. Easily the best budget monitors on the market if you want low-blur VA panels and want to get away from IPS glow.
@ozzuneoj Thanks for the recommendation! Doing more research now, including I think stumbling across a Reddit comment from you too :)
Tbh I think the lack of backlight bleed/IPS glow is the biggest difference when I upgraded to an OLED from an IPS.
IPS for me. Backlight strobing on the XG2431 is unmatched. Also it's 24", something that OLED doesn't offer (yet?).
Also potential burn-in on OLED... Eh.
24" IPS lol what is this 2005 still?
Not everyone wants a bigger display. Specially for competitive gaming where you are running lower resolutions. @@drunkhusband6257
@@drunkhusband6257 Sorry, not everyone wants a TV as a monitor.
@@griffin1366 24" is WAY too small
@@drunkhusband6257 Perfect size IMO. I like small screens. A shame that phones have gone the same way as well. Zenfone 10 (with headphone jack) is still a little too big.
thank you for your consistent, deep dive, explanation and reviews.
Nice video. It would be great to mention mini-led monitors as well.
Mini led isn't a panel type, it's a backlight type. I understand what you mean, but fundamentally you can add minileds to any back light display. It's not really a display panel, I assume the scope of the video was display technologies.
Because if we're talking about back lights - I want strobing and BFI talked about. As you can see it increases the scope a lot
@ You‘re right its not a panel type. But it would have been great to mention it because it lifts up the IPS/VA performance.
@@karls.8193 in that case I want backlight strobing and bfi being included, as it directly impacts the clarity. I pretty much can't game anymore without strobing / bfi. It's just a blurry mess. But explaining bfi alone would add like 30 minutes to the video
@@karls.8193 they should just make a separate video for backlight
@@GFClocked At least he mentioned backlight strobing in the video in contrast to mini-led. Don’t get me wrong I'm not interested in explaining it in detail, but in pointing out that it exists. I'm just saying that it would have been a good fit. Nevertheless, the video is well done.
I think this is an excellent video.
Covers basically everything important (that I am aware of anyway), avoids mostly unnecessary details, and provides enough technical explanation to meaningfully understand the differences and make an appropriate choice - this would probably be my go-to video for sharing it with other people when they want to know the differences in those technologies, with a focus on a potential buying decision.
I can really only think of relatively minor nitpicks - for example, the video of the two screens for the text clarity comparison wasn't very helpful, because one part was slightly out-of-focus, and the other part had too many moire artifacts. Then again, it's probably a bit difficult to get the right kind of very-slightly-out-of-focus setup for the comparison.
Also, the burn-in demonstration probably requires a fairly good viewing setup to be able to see the difference - but then again, artificially amplifying the burn-in to show it might be more misleading overall, so I guess it's a reasonable compromise given the target audience (as in, people interested in buying a good screen likely already have a decent enough viewing setup for this).
The thing with OLED is, that even with its drawbacks, you can really get used to its blacks... what that means for example for me, that i would rather use an OLED, that is already burnt in, than go back to an IPS panel. After an OLED, you dont go back. Even if you need to compromise heavily in features, size, price, convenience.
I can confirm this. Just recently switched from IPS to OLED and im never going back.
True, my dad bought Lumia 520 back in the day and I got the taste on an OLED for the very first time in my life, never went back to LCDs (at least in Handsets, other displays are still too expensive for me 😢)
[But to be honest, I hate both the QD-OLEDs and W-OLEDs, because I miss the True RGB OLEDs from early 2010s 😢😢😢😢]
I had to replace every screen I use in my life with oled as once you start seeing the back light bleed you can't unsee it. Doesn't help that most lcds are matte, where most oleds are glossy. I found glossy to be so much superior it's not even comparable.
So it's true. Once you go black you can't go back.
Mini LED has something to say about that
165hz tn gaming monitor as my main, 60hz ips office monitor in a portrait orientation for my side. works like a charm. with the best of both worlds.
I have an OLED for a few weeks now and it's a significant improvement over IPS. Brightness is also no problem, it's plenty bright so I turned it down to 80%.
It's even bright enough to have a very good HDR picture with the games I tested. And prices are also very affordable now, I only paid 599€ for the XG27AQDMG.
I wouldnt call 600€ "affordable", considering a decent 1440p 144hz IPS can be had for 200€
@@TheMysteryGamer1000 Well at that price I'd be hard-pressed to call it "decent" but yes you can get such a display for 200€ but I'd consider 600€ for an OLED to be relatively cheap. Hopefully we can see 3-400€ OLEDs sometime in the near future.
You must have had an old IPS panel then. It's not uncommon to find IPS displays now with far higher brightness than OLED and 200nits full window is pretty dim.
To me I really just want one because of glossy displays. I really think matte panels ruin the amazing clarity of higher resolution content.
@@Skylancer727 What model would you buy for gaming with a glossy screen finish?
@@RELAX-jn7rg Most of the QD-OLED monitors are glossy. Realistically they all perform nearly identical beyond stand shape. Asus's has the most software features, but nobody really uses them outside of frame rate counters and the MSI model tends to be $300 cheaper.
Personally I'm thinking of waiting till next year. They will still get brighter and I'm personally waiting on a 27 inch 4K panel. 32 inches is just way too big for my taste as I already thought 27 was pushing it. But hey, that's just my opinion.
After using an OLED and mini LED TV, going back to other technologies is like going back 20 years. I don’t understand why there are so few monitors with mini LED technology because a QD VA or IPS panel with mini LED would be a great choice. All ad panels are the best but still suffer from burning specially if you are using them on a monitor or PC context in a few years, they get pretty bad and unfortunately they also don’t get the same burning prevention mechanisms as on TVs. So at the moment unless someone really really wants to know that monitorI would advise against it. Perhaps a VA panel is a better compromise.
Burn-in is the only reason I haven't made the jump to OLED. Makers fix that and I'm sold.
It's a fake none issue, been using them for years and have loads of static content and the built in protection features make it not a problem. OLEDs are just the best displays on the market, LG TVs are the best route, the 48" ones you can pick up for sub £1000 now and worth every penny.
@@vidiveniviciDCLXVI for tv use yes. I have slight burn-in on my AW3423DW monitor after 2 years of gaming/work use.
Its just faint traces of the start menu icons, (that has been on autohide all the time) and is only noticeable on solid greys, BUT it is there.
My 5 years old oled is still running great and no burn ins
Non issue for years now
its same as saying aio suck ass over time 5 years and it goes bad, there are thousands of ppl who invested in the very first aio prototypes 10+ years ago and it still serves them as good as they were initially purchased
Still using my first flat screen display ASUS VG248QE TN panel. It has performed flawlessly and I don't have to worry about burn in.
Bought a 360hz QD-OLED this week and honestly I wish I switched earlier...(had a 1080p , 144hz before)
A 240hz would have been sufficient for now ; but bought it to be "futureproof".
If you have the money and love gaming. get an Oled.
Welcome to the oled club
Did the same. 360 Hz is plenty
once they cost less than the avg. rent in my country i'll think about it.
tbf the cheapest 1440p oleds are slightly cheaper, but still, that should not be close at all.
nevertheless, im happy for all of you.
@privatjetconnaisseur if you want something good it's gonna cost you. Same for everything in life. The oled monitor cost me more than my monthly salary, worth jt
No future proof because in future it will be burnt in
The one that fits your usecase.
As much as id like to Check out OLEDs, I work from home with a lot of static content, thus the burn in and Text clarity issues of OLED just dont allow me to get one.
Pro tip: dont use it for work
@ziggs123 well... Aint gonna build a whole secodary setup just to use a damn monitor.
@maxzett I don't know why you would use your private system for work, any decent company should provide necessary hardware
Have you tried using one? I find text quality to be a complete non-issue.
And as for your worry about burn-in... I work from home with a lot of static content, but I do use dark mode with a black wallpaper and auto-hiding task bar. Other than that I don't do anything special, besides using my desktop as... a physical desktop. On a physical desktop, you don't have your papers and other items exactly in the same spot the entire time, and you certainly don't fill up the entire desktop. That's exactly how I use my recently acquired open box 55" LG C2, and how I have used my previous used 55" LG B9, too. I let windows float and position and size them organically, most the time anyway. This avoids 'burning in' any noticeable lines or elements, as they are constantly in at least slightly different locations. I have had absolutely no signs of burn in over the years, despite my B9 being bought used and in constant use every day, with often no recovery time. Even proper burn-in testing hasn't shown any signs of burn-in, period.
So, for me... WOLED actually suits my use case best (mostly static desktop use with a decent amount of RUclips and occasionally a little Netflix and (auto-)HDR gaming). I think it is the best display tech we currently have, without any real risk of burn in, UNLESS you use light mode, don't auto-hide the task bar and snap windows into place. Though even in light mode, I don't think there is much to worry about.
@@ziggs123 well i DO have the hardware, but do you seriously think that im gonna setup a whole nother desk with additional monitors and peripherals if i can just use my work laptop with my existing 3 monitor gaming setup?
Just the video I needed! About to buy a monitor. You guys rock
The AOC VA is also good in motion. AOC Q27G3XMN
I keep hearing bad things about the black smearing though, and also with VRR flicker? Those things are putting me off currently.
@@Bentrudgill1 I’ve had the AOC Q27G3XMN for a few weeks now. Honestly, the black smearing isn’t too bad as long as you don’t use HDR for SDR content. I keep it at 170Hz because I noticed it gets worse at higher refresh rates.
The VRR flicker, though, is definitely a pain. If my FPS doesn’t stay above 80, I just turn VRR off-it’s not worth it. And yeah, in games like WoW, alt-tabbing makes it even worse because the refresh rate shifts so much, and the flicker goes crazy. Kind of makes VRR unusable in those situations.
That said, I personally think HDR is worth the hassle in the right games. It really makes a difference when the content is designed for it.
This is so so incredibly helpful. Thank you MUB
I've been such a fan of my MSI G274QPX I got last year, that I got a second one this week with the Black Friday sales going on :)
why oled's black crush was not mentioned? is this an ad?
The only good VA for gaming is Samsung Odyssey g7, other ones have a lot of ghosting and black smearing. I tried like 5-6 IPS panels, all of them had backlight bleeding and terrible ips glow. If i would have to buy IPS (never gonna happen) i d get LG 27GP850-B. Most TNs are pretty bad. I got BenQ Zowie XL2540K and it's a great monitor. Out of box colors were terrible so i had to spend quiet some time calibrating and now it looks as good as TN can be and at the same time no ghosting, no black smear, no yellow corners ips glow. Gonna wait for another year or two for OLED technology to develop even further but what i see right is already very impressive.
The KTC H27E22 and H27E22S (both 27" 1440P 240Hz) have very similar low-blur VA panels to the G7 at a fraction of the price. Usually around $200 USD on sale at Amazon. I have had two of them for a couple of months and they have been fantastic. Not having to deal with vomit-inducing IPS glow when viewing dark content has been amazing. I have an OLED TV, so that is clearly better, but for the price and lack of burn-in concern, these monitors are tough to beat.
Yeah I got the odyssey g7 too and it's so goated it was way ahead of its time.
Came from a slow 75hz 1080p va straight to the g7. Biggest upgrade ever.
It's also made even better by the fact I live in a hot climate which makes vas even faster
This is a great way to compare monitors, in my opinion. People aren’t generally looking for a technology, in fact are literally completely ignorant of the technologies available, and that’s as it should be. What buyers really want is something they can see and describe and this, coupled with cost, does a better job of defining what they should buy.
Hola - oh wait, it's English now!
I just bought a 4k 144hz IPS display that is a big disappointment in viewing angles because of a bad backlight design. It doesn't shift colors or lose contrast, it just loses brightness with angle but the viewing angle is so small that you'd have to sit too far from the screen in order for it to look uniform.
If I had seen the monitor in a store instead of buying it online, I wouldn't have bought it.
I'd like you to start noticing whether backlights are well designed apart from the rest of the experience.
VA is best allarounder.
OLED is best if you are willing to risk burn in.
IPS is good if you don't care about contrast and are always dead center.
TN is history. Even the high refresh rate is achieved by others now.
Samsung g6 240hz VA version is the best monitor I've ever used. It's like an IPS with high contrast. I can't see any smearing.
cheap VAs are trash while cheap ips are generally fine. one should buy VA panel only after in person testing of the specific model in consideration. I had an experience with an extremely ghosty VA panel that was smearing blacks and grays in all sorts of content. thats why I would never recommend VA as a go to option for everyone
👌
Dude IPS has better viewing angles than VA, what you talking about? 😂
Check out the KTC H27E22 and H27E22S. Amazing 1440P 240Hz VA panels with very low blur, and they are usually some of the cheapest monitors 1440P 240Hz monitors available. IPS has good viewing angles if you are viewing very bright content, but as soon as you're trying to view black or dark gray, ESPECIALLY in a dark room, it's like someone is shining flashlights at you through the screen. Unless you have seen a good VA next to an IPS, it is hard to describe. It's very disappointing that reviewers like monitors unboxed aren't mentioning this. Huge missed opportunity to educate people and promote better technology.
Ok, but what about CRT and E-INK 😅
Tn master race for gaming. I dont sit at 80 degree angle suspended above ky monitor, so thats ips not needed. I also dont want a map or ui elements burnt into my screen in a year or too.
I'll have to think hard next time I have to get a display. Buying a used LG B7 TV really impressed me with the black levels - they are just gorgeous. But it does have burn in from the previous owners. Newer OLEDs are said to be more resistant to burn in, but at the same time, newer LCDs are said to have much better black levels than old ones.
Quick guide for those in doubt, when it comes to a gaming monitor for best image quality/HdR experience:
1) QD Oled & Woled
2) High end mini led Samsung VA
3)IPS
4)Normal Va
5)TN
When it comes to best E-sports competitive experience:
1)480hz Woled
2)540hz TN
3)500hz ips
4)360hz QD Oled
5)VA
When it comes to mainly working/productivity with maybe some casual gaming.
1)IPS
2)High end Samsung VA
3)Normal VA
4)Woled/QD oled
5) TN
(Yes I’m aware that Woled/QD oled have some risk of burn-in but I think in general that risk is something not using a TN panel in 2024)
No TN is the best for competitive if not 2nd best. The 500hz ips monitors are terrible and too slow for the refresh rate while the tn isn't and backlight strobed 540hz tn is still the clearest motion you'll get currently with oled 480hz 2nd.
@ you are somewhat right, I’m going to edit it(definitely not best though, 480hz oled trumps it)
@lawyerlawyer1215 overall yes but the 540hz with strobing absolutely demolishes it
@@Frozoken mate try and not be ridiculous would you? Once you have hitted 480hz, let’s remember that means 480 IMAGES IN 1 ONE SECOND, on an Oled with instant response time, there is no such thing as “utterly demolishing”
Very improvement is a very small marginal barely noticeable improvement in the search of perfection.
Majority of non-gamers o simple casual gamers can’t tell the difference between 120hz and 240hz on a blind test. (Hell I’ve seen people not being able to accurately tell 60 vs 120)
Inside actual gamers, the majority isn’t able to tell the difference between 240hz and 360hz on a blind test and results would have been inconclusive, even I with my good eyesight and years of experience would be hard pressed to guess on a blind test of 240hz oled vs 360hz oled in 10 Chances, which is which right enough times to prove I see it clearly.
360hz vs 480hz oled, I assure there is only a handful of people in earth, than on a blind test, with no placebo involved, could easily say: this is 360hz
And this is 480hz.
Telling 480hz oled vs 540hz TN with backlight strobing. Even if there is someone capable he would laugh at hearing you say “it demolishes the 480hz oled”
99,9999999999999999% will take the oled for the huge increase in image quality in literally every other single aspect for an almost imperceptible fluidity hit.
@@lawyerlawyer1215 No it quite literally does watch this video from monitors unboxed "540Hz LCD vs 360Hz & 480Hz OLED" and go to the 11:11 timestamp and compare the 2nd and 3rd collum. For extreme high refresh rate standards, that is easily what you could call destroying in favour of the lcd.
The response times arent the issue it's the sample and hold nature of only 480 updates a second especially in 1440p where your pixels of motion blur is increased relative to 1080p. Lets say someones moving across your screen from left to right in one second. Thats 1440 pixels and at only 480 updates a second thats 3 pixels of motion blur.
For context with backlight strobing on the 540hz monitor the image is only shown for 0.25ms which is effectively 4000hz. If you do the same test you get 1080 pixels/4000 for only 0.25 pixels of motion blur
Excellent and informative as always. Except for one thing,... LCD displays can absolutely fall victim to burn-in. As a personal reference, my second display is a cheaper LCD that I use mostly for things like performance graphs and more static content, and there are VERY noticeable strips of burn-in on the right edge and top right edge where my Afterburner hardware monitor window sits. That window is a black background with white text and the title bar and scroll bars are white when not directly selected, thus putting a high contrast edge where those bars meet the window or background. LCD displays absolutely can be burned-in.
Agreed, I've suffered the same fate. But not on PC monitor tho. My old Samsung's TV will shows a semi permanent burn in. Especially after 3 or 4 hours of usage, and my Android phone also shows a semi permanent burn in. But it goes away after being turned off for some amounts of time.
The facts, just the facts, nothing but the facts, no opinions here, just the facts.
Cold hard facts !!!
my man just spillin fax over here
I have everything except TN, being in the Seattle area, I pretty much have my choice of whatever I want for whatever I want to pay for it on the local market. For general purpose/content creation I generally go with high end 4K IPS screens, for TV/Gaming/Other content consumption I typically go with OLED... I also have a couple VA panels I happened to end up with that I use for the random generic purpose here and there
it would be nice if for OLED (and LCD to a lesser degree) you would take a reading of the effective contrast but in a light room and the sensor not stuck to the screen to see what is the real world contrast vs perfect pitch black of the sensor, OLED have a theorical infinite brightness but introduce light in the room and it is not infinite, even more for QD-OLED where it manifest in a purple haze or grey (aka reduced contrast as the grey itself is not that noticeable but the lost of contrast is)
The QD-OLED problem is a pretty good argument for some of us to go to the WOLED side even if the color depth is lesser
What infinite contrast stands for is probably just reassurance of a better (perceived) contrast across various viewing conditions. Quirks of QD-OLED might explain why it's mainly present in TVs and bigger displays where viewing distance and ambient light are drastically different.
The problem with your suggestion is that it entirely depends on how exactly the room is lit. Every room you test will give different results. Even things like if the light is behind the screen or in front would change this entirely.
They already give examples in the video with the ccfl light so you can see intuitively how the monitor reacts to ambient light. Putting a number on this would be useless.
It all sounds good until you take a breather to really think it through.
Best way to get any good dynamic range will always be to turn off the lights and use blinds, no matter the monitor or panel.
@@GFClocked But when playing bright HDR content it's best to use some light in the room. So it would be good to have some test to measure the effect on black levels in a more realistic situation.
@barryjones2366 I play in a dark room. So as you can see since everyone has different setup it would be impossible to test. They'd have to test a bunch of different lighting conditions and you'd have to hope one of them is close to yours and... Then what? What is it exactly going to tell you. Nothing more than what the waving light portion of the video already does.
This entire concept is flawed. Everyone plays in different conditions and this kind of testing would double or triple the testing time of each monitor for no gain
@@GFClocked Maybe use a 5 nit light behind the monitor, copy classy techs lighting setup. He is probably using reference lighting for HDR watching. Then the minimum black level will be higher especially with qd-oled monitor coatings/layer. Won't be perfect but still closer to real world performance than nothing I think. Not too much extra effort at all.
Good timing. I'd just started to research this. I have an aging 10 year old LG ultrawide IPS display that I use for productivity and gaming. Would love an OLED but I'm scared of burn in but I want something with better colours.
Just send it on the oled, bro burn in is a non issue unless you leave it on the desktop overnight for weeks on end
@Dude-xv4os I do have a habit of leaving desktop or photoshop and games in the menu overnight. Sometimes for a couple days 😬 this is my main worry 😂 but I guess there will be screen settings to "go to sleep"?
TN monitor users, stand up!
if i do the screen wont look so good!
Wonderful. I read a lot of these but it was like 8 years ago. Nice to have an accessible update.
I think my next monitor will be an IPS LCD just like I have now but then with at least 120Hz instead of my current 60Hz.
Ah man, you read my mind! I'm looking to buy a new ultrawide next month, and am really struggling to decide with which tech to go: fast switching local dimming LCD or QD-OLED, and here you are with the explainer!
As I said, I'm looking into ultrawides (34"), and the primary use case will be office use (loads of development, and enterprise reporting apps with gauges and graphs, so static screens). But at nights and on the weekends my laptop workhorse makes room for my gaming PC and I love big AAA HDR titles, so I really want a good quality monitor for that too.
At the moment I have an LG UltraWide (34WN80C), which has a curved IPS panel that does 5ms GtG on paper, but doesn't support VRR and only does 60Hz. So that has to go, and I'm looking at either the MSI MPG/MAg OLED ultrawides, but I'm fearing the colour fringing on text and of course the burn in issues, or the AOC AGON Pro AG344UXM (1100+ local dimming zones). which looks quite excellent in person to me.
But I might go for the Acer Predator X34 miniLED, which has over 2300 local dimming zones, but I've yet to see it in real life... If anyone could review that, I'd be grateful ;)
Choices... what a dilemma!
1:05 why did you go from the top type for lcd straight to the bottom I've for oled, skipping past mini LED?
Thankyou for this basic primer to video display types. I wonder if I picked out a good match before seeing this? A pair of 60Hz IPS Dell S2721QS for $220 a piece. Mosty for the size upgrade from 24 inch and I knew that IPS panels were generally better than other LCD type for my office work work-load with only occassional gaming.
i like that you showed burn in test but youtube compression made it in posible to see proper diffirance.
Tim, have you seen or tested an S-PVA monitor from 20 years ago? How were they able to have those viewing angles and contrast back then?
Don't forget about ips glow, that can make or break an ips monitor
If anyone is interested in 4k / 144 hz monitors, I found a 32" HDR G-Sync compatible IPS for $329 on Amazon right now!
I've been looking for over a year, and it's been impossible to find a 32" 4k IPS with above 60 Hz refresh rate for under $450. You might find a TN panel right at $400, but most are 27 inches.
Never heard of the brand (CRUA), but they had high review scores, so I gave it a try. Highly recommend it you want 4k above 60 fps gameplay.
Damn, that 540hz strobed TN panel was absolutely insane on motion clarity, I have never seen something so close to the reference image except for the ghosting which the OLEDS obviously lack.
It’s also interesting the ULMB strobe looks better on the medium brightness background by a lot, and the DYAC looks terrible on the middle one, but the DYAC looks WAY better on the light background than the ULMB does!
You forgot to compare PWM, I heard oleds have issues in that regard which can lead to eye strain and headaches
thanks for helping me to re value my current monitor, and i will keep it for another year.
19:11-19:14 was very confusing and distracting when you swapped the QD-OLED and WOLED halves of the screen. It made me question the next scenes with the additional comparisons.
As someone who games and works on my desktop, IPS just feels too good for production to give up. Once OLED's get a bit better and come down in price though, I might consider a second monitor exclusively for gaming. OLED's are for sure the best for the living room TV aswell.
For me it doesn't matter. Final specification is what it's all about.
As there can be VAs with amazing response times and TNs that ghost or IPS with good contrast
An IPS with good contrast isn't going to happen.
Well done. Btw. You missed the reversed qoled subpixel structure which flares out text.. making os compensation like ttf aa etc not working. Mac has some workarounds
Great overview. Thank you
mini LED is the best of all words and is criminally underrated....an IPS Mini LED FALD will have fantastic color accuracy (often better than OLED), very good black levels and contrast, very high brightness, and no burn in.
no micro led is. Mini led contrast ratio still is significantly worse than oled so clearly not the best nor do they have the extremely good response times of them.
Microled however is brighter, doesnt burn in, is even faster than oled and has even better viewing angles and colours
@@Frozoken problem is MicroLED doesn't exist yet......for monitors to actually buy.
@@barryjones2366 Yes i know. It's still the only best of all worlds panel
@@Frozoken Have you heard about NEDs (Samsung QNED displays)? Per pixel like OLED ones, they are coming before MicroLED. They are smaller than MicroLEDs but brighter than OLED much more efficient LEDs called NEDs.
@@Frozoken microLED isnt happening buddy...it was invented 20 years ago and there still isnt any real microLED displays for sale
Samsung sold its patents for LCD technologies to TCL towards the end of 2022, including the exclusive magical doohickery they did to make the Neo G7 and G8 such good VA panels. This is now being sold to other manufacturers/brands via TCL CSOT and branded things like "Rapid VA" in MSI's case. Worth looking out for new high quality VAs hitting the market, especially ones that try to stand out with branding like that, as they have the potential to match or hopefully exceed the 2022 Odyssey Neo products from Samsung, especially if it's confirmed they are using TCL CSOT panels in particular. It's not exclusive to Samsung anymore but I haven't really seen much come from it yet on the level of the Neo G7 and G8.
This is such a valuable content piece! Accurate and information dense, very impressive! Thanks, Tim.
I needed this refresher
something that never gets discussed is that oleds don't have to worry about backlight going bad and plaguing your screen with uniformity issues and dirty screen effect. i lost like 3 screen in the last 15 years to this.
another aspect of oled that gets overlooked and to me is more important than burn-in, are dead pixels. oled tend to develop lots of dead pixels near the very edges of the screen over time. not that big an issue on 4k screens, and the fact it's like at most 10 pixels from the edge helps a lot, but it's something that happens. both my b9 and c1 tvs have it. the b9 has like hundreds! the c1 has a couple dozen. but it's such a small issue that i forget about it for months at a time even though i use it as my computer screen.
btw nearing 10k hours on my c1, still pristine from burning in
TN Daddy Tim delivering an updated, well-detailed rundown of current market display technologies. 22:30 catch me Daddy Tim
Very informative. Thanks for the video.
Monitors Unboxed has been going HARD and I'm here for it.
Only thing i would get rid of is the standard deviation bit. Reminded me of undergraduate statistics classes for studying experimental methodology. Rather a median mean mode presentation would make sense visually would help with a scattergram.
It's like every video you're making right now is curated to my exact questions lol
I have had plenty TN and IPS and my TV is OLED and this matches my experiences too. I’ve always found viewing angle matters a lot, but contrast ratio is really a useless metric if you exist in a room with any light - a mild backlight easily overcomes any issues with black level. Brightness and HDR matter a ton to me, and ghosting or poor response time is unforgivable. TN still has value, but OLED is growing on me.
This video was both fantastic and timely. I'm actually shopping for a tv and this also helped me understand the differences. Thank you.
Hi. Have you reviewed portable OLED monitors? It would be great help, thanks.
I had the ASUS 32" OLED for 2 weeks. BEST of the BEST in many tests. I didn't like it at all.
For me it had so many drawbacks. But mainly, it was buggy, it went black randomly (in-game or out), sometimes came back after a few seconds, most of the times it didn't and you would have to turn it off or reinsert the cable, many people have this issue and on the forum (where I got blocked now by the mods) there was no response from ASUS on this.
Also it became pretty hot at the back of the screen, it scratched VERY easily, uses a lot of energy, burn-in danger (stress), and when switching from 4K to a lower resolution it seems to struggle a bit/took some time. For me it was a pretty useless thing and was glad I could return it.
Much happier with my 300 dollar/Euro 32"/180hz 1440p IPS now without all those drawbacks mentioned above. I would say OLED/4K is hugely overrated and has lots of drawbacks. But that is just my opinion and in my kind of usage of my monitor :)
Thanks for tech knowledge refresh. Sounds like I should stick to IPS for my mixed use case until OLED burn-in is mitigated.
I've had every type over the years, except for VA and QD-OLED (though I've seen the former IRL and it's not bad). And I still prefer IPS over everything else. It's not perfect, but gives a good balance. My current setup consists of a 4K IPS and 1440p WOLED, both 27". Contrary to what I've read online, IPS is still my favourite. Yes, the greys in dark(er) scenes can be annoying, but at least I don't have to worry about burn-in and text clarity is a non-issue (and it's not just the resolution, even my old 23" IPS 1080p monitor had better text clarity).
for your 4k ips what made you decide to keep it to 27"? cause from what i gather it's not very obvious the difference for 4k at 27" compared to 32"