I've been watching the monitor market for many years now when I wanted to upgrade my old 150 EUR 60Hz TN panel from 2010 to something significantly better. In 2019, when I ended up buying and trying six different monitors with different sizes and panel types, I'd hope tech evolved so much I would get an amazing monitor for just a bit more than for those 150 EUR I paid in 2010. Twelve fucking years ago. Look at how smartphones and tech generally has evolved since that, yet PC monitors? A fucking disgrace. So from those six monitors I've tried, none felt even "very good", let alone amazing. I kept a 144Hz G-Sync compatible TN Panel for just slightly above 300 EUR. It was an upgrade for sure, not worrying about v-sync anymore, but for that price tag I still expected more and it's just "okay", but for the lack of said significant update options, I said fuck it and kept it.
Now, three years later, and after playing a year on consoles on my LG OLED, I wanted to check again what happened at the market and after spending days on rtings, reading reviews elsewhere and checking videos back and forth I conclude that it is as disappointing as it was roughly four years ago.
We still mainly have three common panel techs:
VA looks good with its contrast and colours but even at 27'' you already see a shift in brightness and/or colours at the corners because of the narrow viewing angles. Also, every model I've tried, even high refresh rate ones, had smearing issues when movement happens on the display. The only VA display that hasn't got this issue was some weird brand called "AntGamer" and it was a 400 EUR 21:9 monitor I friend of mine ordered, and I've tried it and was quite impressed because I've tried even 800 EUR monitors that didn't look that good. Unfortunately it's not available anymore. Darn.
I haven't tried IPS personally, but seeing pictures and videos of the backlight bleeding, it seems, at least with black levels, it's no better than VA when I look into corners or at the top or bottom and see a shift in brightness due to BLB. Since contrasts are at TN niveau at worst but better in most scenarios, I wouldn't mind go for a IPS, but I don't want any glowing in dark games/movies.
(My) TN panel doesn't have BLB, but worst contrasts (which is somewhat okay for me, personally) but also narrow viewing angles, hence shift in colours and brightness at corners and top and bottom, visible even at 27 inch, which is really annoying when playing games like Resident Evil or, in general, dark games. It has ultra fast response times, though and has no ghosting or smearing on movement.
So in fact, none of these options are inherently better or worse then the next. It's so disappointing that it practically doesn't matter. I don't need the ultimate contrast ratio of an OLED, I "just" want its stable viewing angles and good blacks (doesn't have to be power-off-like blacks) without shifts in brightness. Owning a LG OLED BX9 I'm really blown away and I practically want that as a monitor in 32'' and 1440p for my PC.
Closest thing though is the LG 48CX which seems to blow any available monitor to dust and makes me question the entire monitor market (amazing viewing angles, perfect contrasts and black levels, 120Hz, VRR, no BLB, fast response times, no smearing... now also add HDMI 2.1 so I could use my PS5 if I wanted to and good luck, try finding that in a PC monitor). And all of that for just 840 EUR for 48 inch. Unfortunately it's way too big. I once used an 40 inch Samsung LED TV as a monitor which was cool and the maximum size I'd want on my desktop... having like 20cm more diagonally would be too much.
So if you want 120Hz, VRR, or a good image in general on a PC monitor you're practically fucked... for years now.
Then there's this new Dell Alienware Ultrawide screen Q-OLED monitor, but it costs 1.300 EUR here and has some teething problems that I wouldn't wanna see on a 1.3k device.
Seriously, what the hell is going on? Why keep they pushing absurd Hz numbers, like +300Hz but don't care about picture quality? Why do the market/audience settle for this and is okay with that?
Rant over.
Recommendations welcomed. (+100Hz, VRR/G-Sync compatible, good viewing angles, no BLB).
Now, three years later, and after playing a year on consoles on my LG OLED, I wanted to check again what happened at the market and after spending days on rtings, reading reviews elsewhere and checking videos back and forth I conclude that it is as disappointing as it was roughly four years ago.
We still mainly have three common panel techs:
VA looks good with its contrast and colours but even at 27'' you already see a shift in brightness and/or colours at the corners because of the narrow viewing angles. Also, every model I've tried, even high refresh rate ones, had smearing issues when movement happens on the display. The only VA display that hasn't got this issue was some weird brand called "AntGamer" and it was a 400 EUR 21:9 monitor I friend of mine ordered, and I've tried it and was quite impressed because I've tried even 800 EUR monitors that didn't look that good. Unfortunately it's not available anymore. Darn.
I haven't tried IPS personally, but seeing pictures and videos of the backlight bleeding, it seems, at least with black levels, it's no better than VA when I look into corners or at the top or bottom and see a shift in brightness due to BLB. Since contrasts are at TN niveau at worst but better in most scenarios, I wouldn't mind go for a IPS, but I don't want any glowing in dark games/movies.
(My) TN panel doesn't have BLB, but worst contrasts (which is somewhat okay for me, personally) but also narrow viewing angles, hence shift in colours and brightness at corners and top and bottom, visible even at 27 inch, which is really annoying when playing games like Resident Evil or, in general, dark games. It has ultra fast response times, though and has no ghosting or smearing on movement.
So in fact, none of these options are inherently better or worse then the next. It's so disappointing that it practically doesn't matter. I don't need the ultimate contrast ratio of an OLED, I "just" want its stable viewing angles and good blacks (doesn't have to be power-off-like blacks) without shifts in brightness. Owning a LG OLED BX9 I'm really blown away and I practically want that as a monitor in 32'' and 1440p for my PC.
Closest thing though is the LG 48CX which seems to blow any available monitor to dust and makes me question the entire monitor market (amazing viewing angles, perfect contrasts and black levels, 120Hz, VRR, no BLB, fast response times, no smearing... now also add HDMI 2.1 so I could use my PS5 if I wanted to and good luck, try finding that in a PC monitor). And all of that for just 840 EUR for 48 inch. Unfortunately it's way too big. I once used an 40 inch Samsung LED TV as a monitor which was cool and the maximum size I'd want on my desktop... having like 20cm more diagonally would be too much.
So if you want 120Hz, VRR, or a good image in general on a PC monitor you're practically fucked... for years now.
Then there's this new Dell Alienware Ultrawide screen Q-OLED monitor, but it costs 1.300 EUR here and has some teething problems that I wouldn't wanna see on a 1.3k device.
Seriously, what the hell is going on? Why keep they pushing absurd Hz numbers, like +300Hz but don't care about picture quality? Why do the market/audience settle for this and is okay with that?
Rant over.
Recommendations welcomed. (+100Hz, VRR/G-Sync compatible, good viewing angles, no BLB).
