1:43 I'm pretty sure the dirty screen effect is not caused by matte coating, it's just panel uniformity issues, plenty TV's with glossy panels suffer from this.
I just bought the Asus monitor shown in your video. It's f'ing awesome. I think you're reaction understates it's strengths. I've played games with really dark environments such as Resident Evil 7 and it's absolutely stunning how flawless all the blacks and darks are. The ENTIRE screen is crystal clear. It's really quite something! Even in your video it appears obviously more clear from edge to edge.
IDK if you have heard of this but this monitor was reviewed by another youtuber, TheDisplayGuy, and they also found that this specific monitor does have some amount of grain not present on other glossy displays. That would probably explain why it didn't fix the oily look on the display fully.
His “reviews” are very biased. Everything is objectively good or awful with no In between. I would only watch him if i wanted to justify my own purchase to myself or to bash on someone else who has another opinion
@@lego_minifigagree, that guy is only interested in shoving his own opinion down others throats and getting people to buy things through his affiliate links....
I have the 32" 4K WOLED from LG with matt coating for two weeks now. The internet is going wild for it to have a non-glossy coating. I took several monitors here and all I can say that in the realm of matt coatings the LG has the best matt coating. My TV is a C1 so I do understand the appeal of glossy. I do agree that the difference is quite small.
I think matte coatings are horrendous in general. It's the reason why 1080P at 24.5 Inches is no longer the gold standard anymore. There has been plenty of great 1080P/240HZ monitors that basically went to waste. The sharpness on those displays would be perfectly fine otherwise if they had a glossy coating.
I did that too but only once because that white screen almost burned my eyes and i can't recognize anything for a while 😂at full brightness ofc because why not 😂
when i got my first lg oled display in 2020, i instantly fell in love with oled and the gloss finish...my fancy 38" 165hz uw ips g-sync monitor remained unused for pc games from that day until i could replace it with a 42" oled
Dawid for the love of god get them to put the shop on the north end of Miami. They won't get any staff putting it on the south end and the place will run like garbage. For those who don't know, South Miami shares it's workforce with the Keys because no one can afford to live on the islands. The keys pays them massively more than Miami does so unless Microcenter is hiring at $25/hour ONLY 9 to 5 they are going to have a bad time.
It's almost done (less than 60 days until open), of course it's gonna be in Doral due to proximity to the airport and all the freight forwarding that goes on down there.
I'm not really aware of the "dirty' screen. The glossy monitor looked warmer while the matte monitor looked cooler. If I was to turn my monitors overall brightness down then I might could see why it would look dirty, but the problem would be that it's just too dim making the white washed out a tad, or having a smudged effect instead of a true bright white. Could just overall screen brightness by the issue you are having? Of course there is also that fine balance between monitor brightness and contrast to think about as well.
As someone who has astigmatism that results in matte coatings turning all monitors into Vaseline, I approve of glossy monitors. It's nice to see that there are lower priced options than the 4k QD-OLED panels coming out.... but I think I'll keep my 4k 240Hz ;)
@@mirarid Sure can. In fact I used to have 3x27" monitors for years all on their stands, so the 49" is saving space... Place the printer, HDD enclosure and headphone amp etc behind it and they're out of the way too!
@@cenciende9401 Depends how big your desk is too, mine is only 100x60. Not everyone has huge desks though. The 42 inch C3 is barealy doable for me I guess
You know, there's a lot of disavantages about being mostly colorblind, but one thing I dont have to be picky about is the details of monitors like color accuracy or color bleed for blooming.
@@turrican4d599 But the difference isn't great. For example I see no difference between 1080 and 4k resolution. What's a natural colour to me is probably not a natural colour to you. The best explanation I have come up with for myself is that I only see the primary colours. All others are only different shades of these.
@@frederickclause2694 Sorry about the tone of my previous reply. What I was trying to say is, more people than not would appreciate a better monitor, with accurate colours, whether they can see the full range of them, or not. It's just so nice when a monitor actually has red, not just different shades of orange. I can fully recommend a good IPS panel if you ever need a new monitor. Unless OLED goes mainstream by then, of course.
Thanks micro centre for sponsoring a fellow Canadian cause apparently our Canadian stores don’t feel like it. Just sucks cause it’s too hot to pull my polar bear out and it usually takes a few days to get there riding 85 paws/hr.
The resolution of what you see in all those reflections is really impressive. And if the sun comes out it automatically adjusts your priorities in life. If thats what you want from gaming tech.
I bought both a glossy Qd Oled (Aorus) and a matte samsung. The glossy was better, blacks were deeper, colors more vibrant, and the matte had some greyish haze I didn't like in a bright room. I think you're missing out on some Oled benefits when buying a matte / semi matte oled display
I might be one of the few who really prefer matte screens over glossy. I've had both and fell back to a matte screen. I helped my sister buy a portable, it had a glossy OLED and sure it looked nice, but the reflections made me crazy. Still if she hadn't bought it I would happily bought it myself as it was the only OLED screen I had seen so far. But it's been years and I can't imagine the horror of having a glossy screen now. As I said I might be one of a smal group of users. I'm also older than most of those watching this channel, and it shows in my preferences being more for usability than rainbow LEDs and bling making your computer look cheap..
The only thing you're missing out on with a matte screen is eyestrain headaches. It is not as "murky" as Dawid is implying, nor does it fix the white issues. Do your health a favor and ignore how initially fancy the shinier screens look. The matte finish won't bother anyone unless they obsess over videos like this. Glossy = headaches.
Bought this montor today and can't wait for it to arrive. My dad even painted that image of the pillars of creation and you convince me that will be my screen saver.
I have been using Oled TV's as my display for going on 3 years now, before that I was using Qled. I think the problem with alot of these Oled "Monitors" is they are so heavily geared towards gamers that they jam a bunch of rubbish presets into them which make them really difficult to calibrate out of the box. You would think a TV has that problem but they really don't. I was using the 55" LG CS for a while but opted to go down to the LG C2 Evo 48" and the experience for me is far better as the pixel density is far better. In terms of colour accuracy, the C2 calibrates extremely well and for me as a 3d animator, vfx artist and Game environment and cinematic creator I am loving this display. The colour accuracy along with an incredible HDR experience when gaming really makes this screen pop. One thing I noticed in your video was when your Asus display was off (not even going to talk about the matt display as those just leave an ugly taste in my mouth) but when the display was off, it wasn't completely black like the LG Oled TV's I have. When my screen is off the panel is pitch black, it doesn't have that grey/brown look to it like yours did. I wander if that isn't some sort of filter on the display that is causing your dirty white effect as I don't have that issue on my screen at all? The colours are incredibly uniform.
I'm 45, so when I saw shades of green, my first thought was "That's weird that they did a Game Boy mode." Then you were like "Night Vision Mode" and I was like "Oh, yeah." And, the funny thing is, I was in the Army 20 years ago, so I've used NVGs.
@@bluenexus1212 Makes sense if the military still has surplus from the old ones, might as well use them on something. Shame though, the ones I got were something like 2500 on a sale and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Being able to see the sky in perfect clarity at night is amazing.
Apparently this monitor has a glossy coating on top of a matte coating (LG isn't making the panel without the matte coating), so you get the reflections of glossy with the graininess of matte combined. edit: people are saying this is a different panel than the matte WOLED and ASUS so far is the only one using it. It's certainly not the same glossy coating LG is using on their TVs, so I'm not sure what to believe.
nope it is a true glossy coating, HDTVTEST's Vincent explained that MLA+ panel 's diode 's arrangment is different from their previous Evo panel. thus the distortion of light would look different. the only Woled which had glossy on top of a matte Coating is Dough only.
Qd oled makes eyes tired. Had aw dwf and my eyes were red from 9-5 work. Had no issues with the lg 27 oled. Now trying g80sd. Lets see if they have fixed that problem
I noticed this same thing with my corsair Xenon Flex. Unless there is some other color up, the white looks almost like its dirty. I think its supposed to do that as a way to save the OLED screen from having some burnin issues quickly. Its like it intersperses pixels on/off to prevent burn in as well as flash-blinding someone. I was playing pubg and I was literally blinded by a flashbang because the screen got so bright.
not sure why the LG came with the white set to a weird color... i just set it to 6500 Kelvin in lg calibration studio and it is now white and not blue.
I think that the problem you are trying to solve is not related to the monitor finish. It's because of the brightness limiter of OLED panels. You can turn it off. It might be in the User Menu. But you might have to access the Service Menu. The display is crushing the White, and it's dynamic. It does it more the larger the solid white area. You need to turn this off. Every brand and model is different, so where the setting is can vary a lot. But if you turn it off, that grainy effect will go away on both monitors.
Man I just got the MSI 271 QRX and the picture blows me away. So glad I went for glossy instead of all these horrible matte coatings around. I just bought a big pair of blackout curtains and boom, zero glare or light on the monitor.
I swapped from a 4K TN Panel with matte finish to a 40 inch 4K TV with Gloss finish. Yes the 4K Monitor was really sharp on 28 inches compared to the 40 inch one. But tbh. at 110ppi I don't see much of an issue to just use an 40 inch screen. But what I realized is that many things appeared more clearer and more "sharpish", when I swapped to a gloss screen. Something on the monitor made it always look like it had extreme softness on the edge.
I find that something about glossy displays gives me eye strain in a way that doesn't happen with matte displays. I found this out on accident when I switched displays without really paying attention to the gloss level, and my eye strain problems, which had been an issue before that, vanished. I'll only use matte displays now.
interesting, i wish we collected the anecdotes and looked into the issue, i remember hanging out on reddit when Alienware launched the qdoled's and many reported eye strain. maybe some of them are the glossy finish and the eye starts to focus on the reflections, or the flicker on some monitors is prevalent. could be many things, these new oled's are so technically complex that the software/firmware behind it cause issues, and the huge amount of hardware and software features shipped with these monitors has to be difficult to manage.
@@sudd3660 I also might just be an edge case. My eyes are terrible. Terrible distance vision, they don't focus together on up close things, increased sensitivity to light... But I do think that something that causes me eye strain might have a less noticeable but still present effect on someone else.
As a guy that grew up with tech when glossy was still normal, I have no idea why people have been romanticizing it in recent years. Gloss was a peeve of mine and I was stoked when matte finishes became a standard. I understand that there are going to be specific use cases for it like photography or for RUclips reviewers in closed studios with easy to control lighting. For most people out there though, an open window, a light bulb that someone else in the house is using, even colors that are too bright from the monitor itself leave you staring at yourself half the time you’re playing. RIP to anyone playing a game with a moderately dark color palette while wearing a white T shirt.
I originally wanted an Glossy Oled Monitor but they didnt have the Alienware in stock so i decided to grab the samsung g60sd and im keeping it. Absolutely no glare! and the picture is absolutely stunning. That being said if i had a room with less light i probably would have gone with the Glossy monitor! Both amazing monitors.
Personally I would only want a glossy monitor if it's actual glass like what Apple has. Glossy plastic scratches so easily and visibly, you have to be careful when cleaning or transporting these. I guess maybe there is no demand for glass panels for gamers, but I wish there were.
Gonna have to disagree considering I have my old 12 year old glossy IPS monitor setting on the floor in a corner as a backup (was one of three back when I used it), multiple moves just placed on the back seat of a car, cleaned with a regular rag and some windex etc. Still flawless, way easier to clean than the matte monitor I have now!
I love the Shop Mode on TVs and Monitors, A Colorful Picture And a Black so deep like the Deep-Space itself. Who cares about the Electricity bill :D The Asus Monitor is just Perfect. As Always Thank you for that Video.
Exactly the reason why I prefer to have a glossy screen on the Steam Deck OLED too. The image looks sharper and allows all the HDR to punch me in the face.
The layout of my apartment forces me to put my tv screen 3' away from a giant window that gets direct sun for 4 hours/day. A glossy screen would be almost unusable because of the reflections. Semi-matte finishes are much less bothersome even if a glossy screens makes colours pop a bit more.
I gamed on my QN90B for a month last year. It was a great experience, but glossy is pretty distracting to me. That’s purely my standpoint though. My screen was facing away from the window and I generally game with my curtains closed. IMO matte is crucial for PC screens.
Well the dirty screen effect is not caused by the coating because the lg tvs in the past years have had glossy panels but still had the dirty screen effect.
I went for AW3225QF and have literally zero regrets. Hands down the best monitor I owned - I replaced LG C2, and it's a proper upgrade, even though it's a smaller monitor. 🙂
@@bootchoo96 Yeah, I don't understand why it's the cheapest 32" 4K O,LED here in EU! In US I think the cheapest is the MSI model, but I wouldn't want to buy it as I don't like the design and wanted that curve. I wanted a curved monitor ever since I had Samsung Oddysey G7 which had a massive 1000R curve... I would like this one to have it too, but hey.. it's the only curved 32" OLED so I'm not complaining 🙂
You gotta try the alienware ultra wide QD OLED or a variation of it (but i think alienware's execution is the best, definitely not because i own one) So the AW3423DWF Ultra wide, QD OLED, semi glossy? finish. And i really cant find any issue with white but maybe i just got used to it
I have the same monitor, and was just going to say I never noticed the issue with whites. Still can't see it, but maybe my eyes are not sensitive to it.
Oh my god, i thought i was the only one with the dirty screen effect, but i finally found someone else with this issue and it indeed has to do with the crappy matte coating that LG uses on their displays. It essentially looks a little grainy and whenever there's something white on the screen or just a brighter colour in general, you can clearly see it being like that and it annoyed me so much that i just RMA'd the monitor.
I think my preference may be matte for laptops and glossy for desk monitors. My problem with glossy finishes on laptops is when you get an imprint of your keyboard smudged into the surface of the screen every time you close the lid. And like you said, I don't think the colors are all that different between displays that are actually properly color calibrated in my experience. The colors on a laptop with a good-quality screen and a matte finish is still going to look way better than a glossy laptop with a junk screen with low color gamut.
I scored the OLED Swift rog monitor😊 today off of eBay for $425 out the door. It was from a liquidation company it wasn't opened or anything was open to take a picture and put it right back in the box....😎
A long time ago I bought a cheap-ish lcd monitor to replace my crt one, might’ve been still 4:3 too. Anyway, it was glossy and looked so vibrant! Unfortunately it had a cluster of permanently red pixels towards the center. I brought it back, and the shop owner pointed out that some pixels can be faulty, it wasn’t covered by the warranty… then he tried turning it on, made a “ah, ffs!” face and agreed to swap it with a different one.
Set to sRGB if you dont want the oversaturation. Monitors colorspace goes beyond rec706 which most games, movies, youtube etc does not go past without HDR.
@@jackalneck You're obviously not very smart. The monitor isnt in "SDR colorspace unless in HDR". The monitors colorspace is always in Rec2020 (hdr). Its why every color gets oversaturated, especially on qdoled. Unless you set the monitors colorprofile to sRGB.
I have had a lg oled for about a year now and yes, that void like black is just crazy. Before the lg i had a Dell ultrasharp ips that has the weird medium grey blacks so going from the murky grey to the dark blacks of the oled were quite impressive. i have also noticed the screen door effect of the brighter colors but forgive it because I dont think their is a better display right now. I think the screen door appearance has to do with LG's pattern of sub pixel pattern compared to the traditional layout.
the problem is open a window that lets the sunligth enter in the room so you cant see the monitor, only the reflection of you and the rest of the room those glossy screens are great until there is a second source of ligth in the room
literally this. I own an LG TV and the gloss is great at times, but seeing my entire room behind me can be a bit ridiculous for daytime viewing. You won't "see" the matte coating with nothing else in the room to compare to, but you will always notice reflections. IDK what I'd go with tbh if I was going for a monitor.
Nope, completely depends on the location and angle of the light. Why would you have a window directly behind you anyway? I'd rather be able to take a look outside!
@@cenciende9401 damn yeah now you mention it, i should perform some alchemy, move my window from behind me and place it next to me into my neighbors house to reduce the reflection. im sure they wouldnt mind seeing me game will they are trying to sleep.
that is a w oled, not the clearest of the oled tech, put it next to a qd oled and the dirty screen effect is almost gone, all oled struggle with the pixles in the dark gray area. but w oled is horrible with that on top of the dirty screen effect. or you can call the dirty screen effect the over look, and the two causes: bad gray uniformity and the panel coating/lens array.
I find it interesting that companies think a matt screen in nesessary for gamers when all us actual gamers do is game in a dark room 24/7 because it's our cave.
you should consider testing for peak brightness aka the nits value of both monitors to measure how well the monitors are handling white just looking at them saying they are more or less the same, maybe one is better, is kinda keeping it real but some of us appreciate numbers ;-)
Microcenter needs to open a store in Maine damnit. All these chains seem to forget about us up here in Vacationland. They'd make a killing opening a store in Portland Maine. Come on Microcenter.
I dont think the white problem is glass type. Its probablly APL = Average Picture Level and its kind dimming white color when its on big surface of the screen. More white it will dim it more. Try to make smaller window with white ond see if white is accurate. You should also update Asus monitor. I tried almost every OLED monitor before 32 inch 4k, high refresh rate ones and last one was that same Asus model you have and its actually not that glossy. LG's mat finish was deal braker for me. Alienware 34 inch was good one. And i tried C3 42 inch and maaaaan i cant change it now. Quality is amazing!!!!
I have the exact lg monitor. the problems he is talking about are so minimal its almost not noticeable, especially when played in a dark room. My only gripe is that this oled panel has ruined every non oled panel for me. Also anyone else with this monitor, the brightness can be improved with a service remote (can be found on amazon) makes the whites pop a little more.
I'm not clear - is the LG also an OLED or is it an IPS? I'm trying to move up and away from a 24" TN panel - but it would be a bummer to have to look at a 'dirty white page' effect. Can one really and truly get used to that, as you say? If the dirty white screen thing is due to the screen coating - and it is present in IPS and in OLED displays, then this needs to be addressed. We need a brainiac to fix this, yeah? BTW i looked at the glossy ASUS you have there and it's called a WOLED or white OLED. What's that about? Cheers
Can you test how OLED compare to LCD monitors when having dark scenes in games? Like how is it when in Counterstrike an enemy sits in a dark corner, is he hidden because OLED produced dark blacks were on LCD I can see him?
I bought the Samsung 32in 4k variant and returned it for the Alienware. Matte screen made me feel like it was a TN panel and proprietary power plug killed it for me. I have a cat that likes to chew on things. I DON'T think he would kill the cable, but just in case he did, I do not want to sit on the phone with Samsung trying to get a monitor cable.
The only experience I have had with an Oled (and I'm ashamed to say it given my many years involved with personal PC's) is my current laptop the ZenBook Pro Duo Oled with 2 x 2.8K 120Hz touchscreens. Together with an i9-13900H and RTX 4060, gaming on it is just pure pleasure. Cost an arm and a leg but it'll last a couple years and the 2nd screen is spot on for Excel and other work.
I actually like the Asus stand. I can multitask between phone video calls and conference calls with it. Just the angle is obv way too low for the phone 😅
C'mon Dawid, you keep forgetting to use the Spyder, calibrating both monitors would have been a better comparison than choosing the closest picture profile!
watching this on an ASUS XG27AQDMGZ, yes there was a difference between the monitors on camera, yes the reflections with bad lighting can be apparent (you can see your own face jumpscare you in a dark loading screens very clearly). The settings on the monitor are vast so games like valorant/genshin look good with the punchy vibrancy on "scenery mode" imo and tarkov/cod on "fps mode" makes it playable to see players in dark corners imo. If you love picture quality over high refresh rate and there isn't a bright light in the room the XG27AQDMGZ is by far goated if you can't control lighting maybe get a matte monitor and tank some picture quality or buy blackout curtains. edit; if anyone worried about the oled flicker compaints? I haven't delt with any so far and I've played a weeks worth of games with the "oled anti flicker" feature on "medium" 4070 ti super | i9 12900k over 400fps in valorant | 85fps in tarkov & no noticeable flicker
The perception of reflections is not limited to their visibility, but also to "how" it is visible. In the left image, the reflection is sharp-edged, and these sharp-edged reflections cut through the actual image, which is simply more disruptive. On small Displays reflections however isnt a big problem, I couldnt live with that on a 55inch TV. Sun and light is then everywhere, not easy to hide. And I dont want to watch TV in a bunker.
A glass display is the ultimate gloss. I used to have a 55" tv with gorilla glass on it and it was expensive but it was the true form of gloss. Cause you can wipe it and not worry about scratching it. But a glossy plastic would be bad also it can be ruined from sunlight exposure
i got the asus one for 2 day and i reconiced that the colors and quality is better when i am looking from the side, from the front it doesnt look like that good. Why?
I use an Alienware AW3423DWF. Great monitor with excellent color calibration. Although I did change the color gains from 100% on everything to 92% red, 93% green and left blue at 100% because I've never been a fan of overly warm/red default color profiles where even when I'm looking at a pure white image, it still looks oddly reddish orange. A trend I've always seen on virtually all monitors I've ever used (except one), not just OLED. I love the color vibrancy of OLED, but I also like a more neutral color profile where colors look like their supposed to and not have everything skewed toward red because someone thinks it makes the image feel "warmer". White should look white. Not red, not blue and not green (most monitors I've used tend to favor red out of the box, but I did have one that oddly enough tended to favor greens). Anyway, that's enough of that rant, the Alienware AW3423DWF uses a bit of weird coating. It's not quite completely matte, but also not quite completely glossy either. It's a little of both and I've been really happy with it. I know the guy at Hardware Unboxed has had some reservations regarding the coating Dell uses, but I've never noticed nor had any issues with it in use and I think Tim even admitted mostly the same experience. And I've actually been really surprised with it in all light conditions. I mostly use it in a dim or dark room, but even with full sunlight in the room, this has been the best monitor I've ever used with excellent image quality with pretty much no glare that I've ever noticed in use.
I wish you'd put model numbers in your video description!
should increase his view count a little bit too from people searching for reviews and information on the monitors
yep , also price , wasting time
@@eugene4950 Wasting time? Isn't there a Link to the display for sale?
@@OrRaino there is indeed dudes just blind
@@OrRaino I get message on that link to microcenter "Forbidden 403"
1:43 I'm pretty sure the dirty screen effect is not caused by matte coating, it's just panel uniformity issues, plenty TV's with glossy panels suffer from this.
Matte coating does reduce picture but it is very uniform all over a display - DSE issues are more often visible because they are not uniform
I just bought the Asus monitor shown in your video. It's f'ing awesome. I think you're reaction understates it's strengths. I've played games with really dark environments such as Resident Evil 7 and it's absolutely stunning how flawless all the blacks and darks are. The ENTIRE screen is crystal clear. It's really quite something! Even in your video it appears obviously more clear from edge to edge.
Black friday'd this monitor for $550 and I'm very excited for it to arrive...in 2-3 weeks for reasons I'm guessing are related to holiday buying.
@@David-ln8qh 550 Dollars is an absolut no brainer for this monitor!
IDK if you have heard of this but this monitor was reviewed by another youtuber, TheDisplayGuy, and they also found that this specific monitor does have some amount of grain not present on other glossy displays. That would probably explain why it didn't fix the oily look on the display fully.
His “reviews” are very biased. Everything is objectively good or awful with no In between. I would only watch him if i wanted to justify my own purchase to myself or to bash on someone else who has another opinion
@@lego_minifigagree, that guy is only interested in shoving his own opinion down others throats and getting people to buy things through his affiliate links....
I have the 32" 4K WOLED from LG with matt coating for two weeks now. The internet is going wild for it to have a non-glossy coating. I took several monitors here and all I can say that in the realm of matt coatings the LG has the best matt coating. My TV is a C1 so I do understand the appeal of glossy. I do agree that the difference is quite small.
Hello ! do you think it's worth it the new lg 4k matt coating released this year ? or just I go with the asus ?
@@gabrielripw0lf293 for me it was also either the Asus or the LG. I could get the LG for 300 euro less so that's what made the decision.
@@detmer87 ohh okey and did you use the 480 hz on competitive games ? how does it feel
I think matte coatings are horrendous in general. It's the reason why 1080P at 24.5 Inches is no longer the gold standard anymore. There has been plenty of great 1080P/240HZ monitors that basically went to waste. The sharpness on those displays would be perfectly fine otherwise if they had a glossy coating.
Samsung's matte coating is far superior
My favourite part of the video is Dawid looking at two white things and deciding which one looks better
It's just like every Canadian on a dating app
“Borderline inappropriate feelings toward them”! Lmaooo
I did that too but only once because that white screen almost burned my eyes and i can't recognize anything for a while 😂at full brightness ofc because why not 😂
@@theanglerfish You gotta do full brightness. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff i had to do it 🤣
when i got my first lg oled display in 2020, i instantly fell in love with oled and the gloss finish...my fancy 38" 165hz uw ips g-sync monitor remained unused for pc games from that day until i could replace it with a 42" oled
Dawid for the love of god get them to put the shop on the north end of Miami. They won't get any staff putting it on the south end and the place will run like garbage. For those who don't know, South Miami shares it's workforce with the Keys because no one can afford to live on the islands. The keys pays them massively more than Miami does so unless Microcenter is hiring at $25/hour ONLY 9 to 5 they are going to have a bad time.
It's almost done (less than 60 days until open), of course it's gonna be in Doral due to proximity to the airport and all the freight forwarding that goes on down there.
I'm not really aware of the "dirty' screen. The glossy monitor looked warmer while the matte monitor looked cooler. If I was to turn my monitors overall brightness down then I might could see why it would look dirty, but the problem would be that it's just too dim making the white washed out a tad, or having a smudged effect instead of a true bright white. Could just overall screen brightness by the issue you are having? Of course there is also that fine balance between monitor brightness and contrast to think about as well.
I love that water analogy. Made complete sense, and really helped me understand
That microcenter deal might be the best they have ever done.
I vote to rename the NightVision mode to the PCW512 mode!
This is probably the best video on the glossy vs matte debate
What about the crushed blacks? I keep reading about it but no reviews say anything about it at all
As someone who has astigmatism that results in matte coatings turning all monitors into Vaseline, I approve of glossy monitors. It's nice to see that there are lower priced options than the 4k QD-OLED panels coming out.... but I think I'll keep my 4k 240Hz ;)
not sure what astigmatism has to do with it, all matte coatings look worse for anyone
Man I love your videos I mean youre not the most cientific testing youtuber wich I mostly prefer but youre so fresh
I watch Dawid and I feel like everything is right with world, thanks Dawid!
49inch lg c1 , the best thing I've bought for gaming ever.
Yeah I have one as well, but it can't really go on a desk
@@mirarid no not really. I have two 27's on the desk and the oled hanging from the roof, re-inforced above the celing.
@@mirarid Sure can. In fact I used to have 3x27" monitors for years all on their stands, so the 49" is saving space... Place the printer, HDD enclosure and headphone amp etc behind it and they're out of the way too!
@@cenciende9401 Depends how big your desk is too, mine is only 100x60. Not everyone has huge desks though. The 42 inch C3 is barealy doable for me I guess
way too big for PC use Xd
This is my first time with a matte screen monitor and I'm loving it. LG UltraGear OLED 39" curved 39GS95QE 3440X1440 240hz .03 refresh
You know, there's a lot of disavantages about being mostly colorblind, but one thing I dont have to be picky about is the details of monitors like color accuracy or color bleed for blooming.
Uhh, no. When you are colorblind, you still want to see natural colors on screen.
@@turrican4d599 But the difference isn't great. For example I see no difference between 1080 and 4k resolution. What's a natural colour to me is probably not a natural colour to you. The best explanation I have come up with for myself is that I only see the primary colours. All others are only different shades of these.
@@frederickclause2694 You having terrible eyesight doesn't mean that everyone else should be content with a washed out 1080p TN monitor, though.
@@bara555 I don't recall saying they should.
@@frederickclause2694 Sorry about the tone of my previous reply. What I was trying to say is, more people than not would appreciate a better monitor, with accurate colours, whether they can see the full range of them, or not. It's just so nice when a monitor actually has red, not just different shades of orange. I can fully recommend a good IPS panel if you ever need a new monitor. Unless OLED goes mainstream by then, of course.
Thanks micro centre for sponsoring a fellow Canadian cause apparently our Canadian stores don’t feel like it.
Just sucks cause it’s too hot to pull my polar bear out and it usually takes a few days to get there riding 85 paws/hr.
The resolution of what you see in all those reflections is really impressive. And if the sun comes out it automatically adjusts your priorities in life. If thats what you want from gaming tech.
I bought both a glossy Qd Oled (Aorus) and a matte samsung.
The glossy was better, blacks were deeper, colors more vibrant, and the matte had some greyish haze I didn't like in a bright room.
I think you're missing out on some Oled benefits when buying a matte / semi matte oled display
I might be one of the few who really prefer matte screens over glossy. I've had both and fell back to a matte screen. I helped my sister buy a portable, it had a glossy OLED and sure it looked nice, but the reflections made me crazy. Still if she hadn't bought it I would happily bought it myself as it was the only OLED screen I had seen so far. But it's been years and I can't imagine the horror of having a glossy screen now.
As I said I might be one of a smal group of users. I'm also older than most of those watching this channel, and it shows in my preferences being more for usability than rainbow LEDs and bling making your computer look cheap..
The only thing you're missing out on with a matte screen is eyestrain headaches. It is not as "murky" as Dawid is implying, nor does it fix the white issues. Do your health a favor and ignore how initially fancy the shinier screens look. The matte finish won't bother anyone unless they obsess over videos like this. Glossy = headaches.
QD-OLED isn't fully glossy though, it's semi glossy.
@@Simon_Denmark everything looks "semi-gloss" next to an LG display. LG went heavy gloss and vantablack level blacks.
Bought this montor today and can't wait for it to arrive. My dad even painted that image of the pillars of creation and you convince me that will be my screen saver.
I'm thinking about buying it myself. How is it so far?
I have been using Oled TV's as my display for going on 3 years now, before that I was using Qled. I think the problem with alot of these Oled "Monitors" is they are so heavily geared towards gamers that they jam a bunch of rubbish presets into them which make them really difficult to calibrate out of the box. You would think a TV has that problem but they really don't. I was using the 55" LG CS for a while but opted to go down to the LG C2 Evo 48" and the experience for me is far better as the pixel density is far better. In terms of colour accuracy, the C2 calibrates extremely well and for me as a 3d animator, vfx artist and Game environment and cinematic creator I am loving this display. The colour accuracy along with an incredible HDR experience when gaming really makes this screen pop.
One thing I noticed in your video was when your Asus display was off (not even going to talk about the matt display as those just leave an ugly taste in my mouth) but when the display was off, it wasn't completely black like the LG Oled TV's I have. When my screen is off the panel is pitch black, it doesn't have that grey/brown look to it like yours did. I wander if that isn't some sort of filter on the display that is causing your dirty white effect as I don't have that issue on my screen at all? The colours are incredibly uniform.
I'm 45, so when I saw shades of green, my first thought was "That's weird that they did a Game Boy mode." Then you were like "Night Vision Mode" and I was like "Oh, yeah." And, the funny thing is, I was in the Army 20 years ago, so I've used NVGs.
lol yep, even my consumer grade night vision goggles are blue. No one uses green anymore unless they're larping splinter cell.
@@setcheck67ehh the shit tier pvs14’s use black and green and the Pvs 7’s do too, at least those are the ones they give shit units
@@bluenexus1212 Makes sense if the military still has surplus from the old ones, might as well use them on something. Shame though, the ones I got were something like 2500 on a sale and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Being able to see the sky in perfect clarity at night is amazing.
@@setcheck67even in splinter cell the night vision is a heat map.
Funny enough most modern Night Vision is full color unless its lidar
Apparently this monitor has a glossy coating on top of a matte coating (LG isn't making the panel without the matte coating), so you get the reflections of glossy with the graininess of matte combined.
edit: people are saying this is a different panel than the matte WOLED and ASUS so far is the only one using it. It's certainly not the same glossy coating LG is using on their TVs, so I'm not sure what to believe.
Yeah he needs to try one of the new QD-OLEDs to see some real glossy
Why would LG do this
False. LG makes this glossy finish at the factory and ASUS has exclusivity for now.
@Alvin853 So you're saying if you buy this monitor you get the disadvantages of both? At least with ASUS you get great warranty suppor...
Oh NVM
nope it is a true glossy coating, HDTVTEST's Vincent explained that MLA+ panel 's diode 's arrangment is different from their previous Evo panel. thus the distortion of light would look different. the only Woled which had glossy on top of a matte Coating is Dough only.
You should check out the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14inch. Its got a 2.8k OLED. Would be interesting to see how it stacks up against the Asus one
Now you need to try a glossy QD-OLED!
i returned it. oled is too heavy on eyes..
@@Creationseed9wtf does that even mean 😂
@@Creationseed9 Too heavy on your eyes lol what?
Qd oled makes eyes tired. Had aw dwf and my eyes were red from 9-5 work. Had no issues with the lg 27 oled. Now trying g80sd. Lets see if they have fixed that problem
@@drunkhusband6257 he means that he sold his eyes to buy one
I noticed this same thing with my corsair Xenon Flex. Unless there is some other color up, the white looks almost like its dirty. I think its supposed to do that as a way to save the OLED screen from having some burnin issues quickly. Its like it intersperses pixels on/off to prevent burn in as well as flash-blinding someone. I was playing pubg and I was literally blinded by a flashbang because the screen got so bright.
@David Does Tech Stuff The Glossy Asus is HDMI 2.0 Correct?
I feel dumb, but loved the over saturated colors out from the box. Need to check these profiles on my monitor today.
Great Video, thank you!
I’m happy with this monitor. Blacks are awesome no purple fringing and whites look white instead of light blue
not sure why the LG came with the white set to a weird color... i just set it to 6500 Kelvin in lg calibration studio and it is now white and not blue.
The moba filter is for those that are colorblind. Should have multiple versions for different versions of colorblindness
I think that the problem you are trying to solve is not related to the monitor finish. It's because of the brightness limiter of OLED panels. You can turn it off. It might be in the User Menu. But you might have to access the Service Menu.
The display is crushing the White, and it's dynamic. It does it more the larger the solid white area. You need to turn this off. Every brand and model is different, so where the setting is can vary a lot.
But if you turn it off, that grainy effect will go away on both monitors.
5:40 Generally on Asus monitors "Racing mode" is most calibrated and accurate mode. I don't know why.
Buying this right now as we speak
...So what about VRR flickering?...
Man I just got the MSI 271 QRX and the picture blows me away. So glad I went for glossy instead of all these horrible matte coatings around. I just bought a big pair of blackout curtains and boom, zero glare or light on the monitor.
how is the QD OLED vs the W OLED?
Also, how is the lighting in your room? I know you have the natural light blocked out now, but how is everything else?
Try one of the QD oleds. Maybe tittle it “My Dream Monitor” or something because 4k 240hz Oled is insane.
@@ELpeaceonearth hz is a refresh rate...not a frame rate. It still refreshes 240 times a second regardless of fps.
@@ELpeaceonearth I have 2 240hz oled monitors, not this specific one though
I like your review, I suppose if I went for glossy monitor I would want my room lights positioned and full controlled.
I swapped from a 4K TN Panel with matte finish to a 40 inch 4K TV with Gloss finish. Yes the 4K Monitor was really sharp on 28 inches compared to the 40 inch one. But tbh. at 110ppi I don't see much of an issue to just use an 40 inch screen. But what I realized is that many things appeared more clearer and more "sharpish", when I swapped to a gloss screen. Something on the monitor made it always look like it had extreme softness on the edge.
I find that something about glossy displays gives me eye strain in a way that doesn't happen with matte displays. I found this out on accident when I switched displays without really paying attention to the gloss level, and my eye strain problems, which had been an issue before that, vanished. I'll only use matte displays now.
interesting, i wish we collected the anecdotes and looked into the issue, i remember hanging out on reddit when Alienware launched the qdoled's and many reported eye strain.
maybe some of them are the glossy finish and the eye starts to focus on the reflections, or the flicker on some monitors is prevalent.
could be many things, these new oled's are so technically complex that the software/firmware behind it cause issues, and the huge amount of hardware and software features shipped with these monitors has to be difficult to manage.
@@sudd3660 I also might just be an edge case. My eyes are terrible. Terrible distance vision, they don't focus together on up close things, increased sensitivity to light...
But I do think that something that causes me eye strain might have a less noticeable but still present effect on someone else.
@@purplecat4977 i like dark mode for everything and reduced brightness.
As a guy that grew up with tech when glossy was still normal, I have no idea why people have been romanticizing it in recent years. Gloss was a peeve of mine and I was stoked when matte finishes became a standard. I understand that there are going to be specific use cases for it like photography or for RUclips reviewers in closed studios with easy to control lighting. For most people out there though, an open window, a light bulb that someone else in the house is using, even colors that are too bright from the monitor itself leave you staring at yourself half the time you’re playing.
RIP to anyone playing a game with a moderately dark color palette while wearing a white T shirt.
I feel like the best use case for a matte screen is always going to be a laptop, where you routinely have it in less than ideal lighting situations.
I originally wanted an Glossy Oled Monitor but they didnt have the Alienware in stock so i decided to grab the samsung g60sd and im keeping it. Absolutely no glare! and the picture is absolutely stunning. That being said if i had a room with less light i probably would have gone with the Glossy monitor! Both amazing monitors.
I would assume the sRGB mode would be the most accurate in terms of picture quality.
Personally I would only want a glossy monitor if it's actual glass like what Apple has.
Glossy plastic scratches so easily and visibly, you have to be careful when cleaning or transporting these. I guess maybe there is no demand for glass panels for gamers, but I wish there were.
Gonna have to disagree considering I have my old 12 year old glossy IPS monitor setting on the floor in a corner as a backup (was one of three back when I used it), multiple moves just placed on the back seat of a car, cleaned with a regular rag and some windex etc. Still flawless, way easier to clean than the matte monitor I have now!
@@cenciende9401 what monitor is it?
Great review!
I love the Shop Mode on TVs and Monitors, A Colorful Picture And a Black so deep like the Deep-Space itself. Who cares about the Electricity bill :D The Asus Monitor is just Perfect.
As Always Thank you for that Video.
Exactly the reason why I prefer to have a glossy screen on the Steam Deck OLED too. The image looks sharper and allows all the HDR to punch me in the face.
The layout of my apartment forces me to put my tv screen 3' away from a giant window that gets direct sun for 4 hours/day. A glossy screen would be almost unusable because of the reflections. Semi-matte finishes are much less bothersome even if a glossy screens makes colours pop a bit more.
I gamed on my QN90B for a month last year. It was a great experience, but glossy is pretty distracting to me. That’s purely my standpoint though. My screen was facing away from the window and I generally game with my curtains closed. IMO matte is crucial for PC screens.
So if I use an aggressive blue light filter setting will I notice 🤔
what about vrr flicker?
Well the dirty screen effect is not caused by the coating because the lg tvs in the past years have had glossy panels but still had the dirty screen effect.
I went for AW3225QF and have literally zero regrets. Hands down the best monitor I owned - I replaced LG C2, and it's a proper upgrade, even though it's a smaller monitor. 🙂
Same thing, I love the sight curve and lower price :)
@@bootchoo96 Yeah, I don't understand why it's the cheapest 32" 4K O,LED here in EU! In US I think the cheapest is the MSI model, but I wouldn't want to buy it as I don't like the design and wanted that curve. I wanted a curved monitor ever since I had Samsung Oddysey G7 which had a massive 1000R curve... I would like this one to have it too, but hey.. it's the only curved 32" OLED so I'm not complaining 🙂
You gotta try the alienware ultra wide QD OLED or a variation of it (but i think alienware's execution is the best, definitely not because i own one)
So the AW3423DWF
Ultra wide, QD OLED, semi glossy? finish. And i really cant find any issue with white but maybe i just got used to it
I have the same monitor, and was just going to say I never noticed the issue with whites. Still can't see it, but maybe my eyes are not sensitive to it.
I like agressive flux anyway / warmth so the yellow is a plus haha, good black is more important than good white
Oh my god, i thought i was the only one with the dirty screen effect, but i finally found someone else with this issue and it indeed has to do with the crappy matte coating that LG uses on their displays. It essentially looks a little grainy and whenever there's something white on the screen or just a brighter colour in general, you can clearly see it being like that and it annoyed me so much that i just RMA'd the monitor.
I think my preference may be matte for laptops and glossy for desk monitors. My problem with glossy finishes on laptops is when you get an imprint of your keyboard smudged into the surface of the screen every time you close the lid. And like you said, I don't think the colors are all that different between displays that are actually properly color calibrated in my experience. The colors on a laptop with a good-quality screen and a matte finish is still going to look way better than a glossy laptop with a junk screen with low color gamut.
I scored the OLED Swift rog monitor😊 today off of eBay for $425 out the door. It was from a liquidation company it wasn't opened or anything was open to take a picture and put it right back in the box....😎
A long time ago I bought a cheap-ish lcd monitor to replace my crt one, might’ve been still 4:3 too. Anyway, it was glossy and looked so vibrant! Unfortunately it had a cluster of permanently red pixels towards the center. I brought it back, and the shop owner pointed out that some pixels can be faulty, it wasn’t covered by the warranty… then he tried turning it on, made a “ah, ffs!” face and agreed to swap it with a different one.
Set to sRGB if you dont want the oversaturation. Monitors colorspace goes beyond rec706 which most games, movies, youtube etc does not go past without HDR.
This comment: "Monitors are SDR until they are HDR." Thanks for clearing that up, chief.
@@jackalneck You're obviously not very smart. The monitor isnt in "SDR colorspace unless in HDR". The monitors colorspace is always in Rec2020 (hdr). Its why every color gets oversaturated, especially on qdoled. Unless you set the monitors colorprofile to sRGB.
The "racing mode" is the most accurate color wise
I have had a lg oled for about a year now and yes, that void like black is just crazy. Before the lg i had a Dell ultrasharp ips that has the weird medium grey blacks so going from the murky grey to the dark blacks of the oled were quite impressive. i have also noticed the screen door effect of the brighter colors but forgive it because I dont think their is a better display right now. I think the screen door appearance has to do with LG's pattern of sub pixel pattern compared to the traditional layout.
the problem is open a window that lets the sunligth enter in the room so you cant see the monitor, only the reflection of you and the rest of the room
those glossy screens are great until there is a second source of ligth in the room
literally this. I own an LG TV and the gloss is great at times, but seeing my entire room behind me can be a bit ridiculous for daytime viewing.
You won't "see" the matte coating with nothing else in the room to compare to, but you will always notice reflections.
IDK what I'd go with tbh if I was going for a monitor.
Nope, completely depends on the location and angle of the light. Why would you have a window directly behind you anyway? I'd rather be able to take a look outside!
@@cenciende9401 damn yeah now you mention it, i should perform some alchemy, move my window from behind me and place it next to me into my neighbors house to reduce the reflection. im sure they wouldnt mind seeing me game will they are trying to sleep.
that is a w oled, not the clearest of the oled tech, put it next to a qd oled and the dirty screen effect is almost gone, all oled struggle with the pixles in the dark gray area. but w oled is horrible with that on top of the dirty screen effect. or you can call the dirty screen effect the over look, and the two causes: bad gray uniformity and the panel coating/lens array.
all oled is good oled
@@H786... oled sure has more benefits and smaller drawbacks for my use. even a low resolution woled is worth it.
I find it interesting that companies think a matt screen in nesessary for gamers when all us actual gamers do is game in a dark room 24/7 because it's our cave.
I have a MASSIVE bay window right behind my glossy display and nowhere else to put it 😢
Ahhh that’s a bummer 😅
Thanks for the review, for about the same price do you recommend this over the alienware aw2725df?
please review the benQ programming monitor, since you like to game on stuff not intended for it
Add costs for a coating process only to make the image worse. Makes sense.
That's not how it works
At 4:32, what type of remote are you using to control the OCD?
Is the samsung G60SD at $100 less on sale (matte 1440p 360Hz) a better deal than the ASUS monitor? Is it worth to pay extra for gloss for reduced RR?
you should consider testing for peak brightness aka the nits value of both monitors to measure how well the monitors are handling white
just looking at them saying they are more or less the same, maybe one is better, is kinda keeping it real but some of us appreciate numbers ;-)
Microcenter needs to open a store in Maine damnit. All these chains seem to forget about us up here in Vacationland. They'd make a killing opening a store in Portland Maine. Come on Microcenter.
I dont think the white problem is glass type. Its probablly APL = Average Picture Level and its kind dimming white color when its on big surface of the screen. More white it will dim it more. Try to make smaller window with white ond see if white is accurate. You should also update Asus monitor. I tried almost every OLED monitor before 32 inch 4k, high refresh rate ones and last one was that same Asus model you have and its actually not that glossy. LG's mat finish was deal braker for me. Alienware 34 inch was good one. And i tried C3 42 inch and maaaaan i cant change it now. Quality is amazing!!!!
I have the exact lg monitor. the problems he is talking about are so minimal its almost not noticeable, especially when played in a dark room. My only gripe is that this oled panel has ruined every non oled panel for me.
Also anyone else with this monitor, the brightness can be improved with a service remote (can be found on amazon) makes the whites pop a little more.
I think you’re looking for a QD-OLED panel to fix your white balance issue.
I'm not clear - is the LG also an OLED or is it an IPS? I'm trying to move up and away from a 24" TN panel - but it would be a bummer to have to look at a 'dirty white page' effect. Can one really and truly get used to that, as you say? If the dirty white screen thing is due to the screen coating - and it is present in IPS and in OLED displays, then this needs to be addressed. We need a brainiac to fix this, yeah?
BTW i looked at the glossy ASUS you have there and it's called a WOLED or white OLED. What's that about?
Cheers
Can you test how OLED compare to LCD monitors when having dark scenes in games? Like how is it when in Counterstrike an enemy sits in a dark corner, is he hidden because OLED produced dark blacks were on LCD I can see him?
me with my tn monitor
never heard of color accuracy
They have massive differences in hdr ane brightness. Not sure if you had the right settings as you stated there is not much difference between them.
I bought the Samsung 32in 4k variant and returned it for the Alienware.
Matte screen made me feel like it was a TN panel and proprietary power plug killed it for me. I have a cat that likes to chew on things. I DON'T think he would kill the cable, but just in case he did, I do not want to sit on the phone with Samsung trying to get a monitor cable.
go with the PG32UCDM, QD-OLED has far better panel uniformity. Nothing to do with the coating
The only experience I have had with an Oled (and I'm ashamed to say it given my many years involved with personal PC's) is my current laptop the ZenBook Pro Duo Oled with 2 x 2.8K 120Hz touchscreens. Together with an i9-13900H and RTX 4060, gaming on it is just pure pleasure. Cost an arm and a leg but it'll last a couple years and the 2nd screen is spot on for Excel and other work.
The only comparison I can trust. Finally Dawid
I actually like the Asus stand. I can multitask between phone video calls and conference calls with it. Just the angle is obv way too low for the phone 😅
Which finish does Anna like best?
C'mon Dawid, you keep forgetting to use the Spyder, calibrating both monitors would have been a better comparison than choosing the closest picture profile!
I’ve been using an Alienware Oled monitor for over a year. Still recommend it, highly! I am thinking of getting a wider display though, maybe
watching this on an ASUS XG27AQDMGZ, yes there was a difference between the monitors on camera, yes the reflections with bad lighting can be apparent (you can see your own face jumpscare you in a dark loading screens very clearly).
The settings on the monitor are vast so games like valorant/genshin look good with the punchy vibrancy on "scenery mode" imo and tarkov/cod on "fps mode" makes it playable to see players in dark corners imo. If you love picture quality over high refresh rate and there isn't a bright light in the room the XG27AQDMGZ is by far goated if you can't control lighting maybe get a matte monitor and tank some picture quality or buy blackout curtains.
edit; if anyone worried about the oled flicker compaints? I haven't delt with any so far and I've played a weeks worth of games with the "oled anti flicker" feature on "medium" 4070 ti super | i9 12900k over 400fps in valorant | 85fps in tarkov & no noticeable flicker
The perception of reflections is not limited to their visibility, but also to "how" it is visible. In the left image, the reflection is sharp-edged, and these sharp-edged reflections cut through the actual image, which is simply more disruptive. On small Displays reflections however isnt a big problem, I couldnt live with that on a 55inch TV. Sun and light is then everywhere, not easy to hide. And I dont want to watch TV in a bunker.
Any reviewer talking about the noise these monitors give off?
New gen LG Oleds have fans, along with the signature LG Coil-whine etc
A glass display is the ultimate gloss. I used to have a 55" tv with gorilla glass on it and it was expensive but it was the true form of gloss. Cause you can wipe it and not worry about scratching it. But a glossy plastic would be bad also it can be ruined from sunlight exposure
If you use a color kalibrator, was the white then good?
i got the asus one for 2 day and i reconiced that the colors and quality is better when i am looking from the side, from the front it doesnt look like that good. Why?
I use an Alienware AW3423DWF. Great monitor with excellent color calibration. Although I did change the color gains from 100% on everything to 92% red, 93% green and left blue at 100% because I've never been a fan of overly warm/red default color profiles where even when I'm looking at a pure white image, it still looks oddly reddish orange. A trend I've always seen on virtually all monitors I've ever used (except one), not just OLED.
I love the color vibrancy of OLED, but I also like a more neutral color profile where colors look like their supposed to and not have everything skewed toward red because someone thinks it makes the image feel "warmer". White should look white. Not red, not blue and not green (most monitors I've used tend to favor red out of the box, but I did have one that oddly enough tended to favor greens).
Anyway, that's enough of that rant, the Alienware AW3423DWF uses a bit of weird coating. It's not quite completely matte, but also not quite completely glossy either. It's a little of both and I've been really happy with it. I know the guy at Hardware Unboxed has had some reservations regarding the coating Dell uses, but I've never noticed nor had any issues with it in use and I think Tim even admitted mostly the same experience. And I've actually been really surprised with it in all light conditions. I mostly use it in a dim or dark room, but even with full sunlight in the room, this has been the best monitor I've ever used with excellent image quality with pretty much no glare that I've ever noticed in use.