Yea, this is the reason there aren't any OLED PC monitors (unless you count that one portable one that's overpriced and has terrible color reproduction)
Unfortunately it seems there are no longer any OLED computer monitors on the market, with Dell having discontinued theirs. So if you want such a display you're forced to buy a smart TV (disregarding very expensive professional reference monitors).
There are probably three or four orders of magnitude fewer OLED displays in the world than LCDs. Pretty much the only place you'll currently find an OLED screen is on a Samsung phone.
OLEDs are great for computers if you're one of those tech review youtube channels who can afford to completely replace a $3000 monitor every few years because you often have to buy stuff to review it anyway.
My problem isn't the price, it is that there is no actual OLED PC monitor. There are OLED handhels, OLED mobiles, OLED tablets even OLED TVs, but no OLED PC monitors. Dell was planning to release one, but a) it was way too big (30") and b) they cancelled it.
So in terms of CRT comparison, CRT at the moment still wins when it comes to colors and latency (since OLED doesn't exist yet for PC) and the ability to support multiple resolutions. OLED (or any other *LED) will solve the first two, but i doubt it'll solve the last one unless perhaps if we go to 500+ DPI where the inaccuracies of fractional scaling wouldn't be visible. Assuming Nvidia and AMD finally gives us the ability to scale without bilinear filtering, of course.
Sure, a bottom of the barrel TV vs a highly rated PC monitor is going to have a different outcome - no surprise, since that’s not a fair comparison.
Compare high end models in similar price ranges (as I have) and you’ll see what I’m talking about. For example: Compare an LG OLED in a dark room to any modern PC monitor, and I would be surprised if you were anything but blown away by the OLED, and appalled by how expensive these gaming monitors are compared to what a similarly priced OLED is capable of (especially now that LG OLEDs are capable of 120hz and variable refresh rate with input lag lower than many gaming monitors).
Of course, the main reason we don’t see everyone using OLED PC monitors are concerns about burn in effects from long term use. But for most people for TV and movie viewing, it’s not a concern. My 3 year old LG B6 OLED is still going strong with no signs of burn in, and has picture quality that still puts the best of the best non-OLED TVs to shame.
I’m simplifying here, but essentially no one has figured out how to make OLED panels affordable at a reasonable form factor for monitors yet. The type of panels used in phones (and tablets/laptops) are very different from those used in TVs. LG is making inroads with their 42 C2s, but those will also have a high price and is still way too big for normal monitor use cases.
When I heard about the 4k OLED 120Hz Dell monitor from last year, I immediately thought that that was the perfection of display technology for me.
OLED seems to have the best of all worlds:
- high refresh rates
- fast response times
- deep blacks
- good contrast
- wide viewing angles
The only issue that I've seen brought up about OLEDs is possible burn-in, but hasn't that issue been solved? Seems like Samsung and LG are confident in their OLED offerings.
Why hasn't this technology come to the PC? I know for a fact that the demand exists. Enthusiasts and gamers would absolutely fall over for an OLED display like the Dell UP3017Q.
I'm not part of the industry or well-read on it so I can't well explain why, but if I had to guess this is due to the dramatically smaller volumes involved.
There's far fewer desktop monitors and laptops being shipped than phones or TVs, and the majority of desktop and laptop panel sales are tied up in basic office-grade econoscreens and gaming monitors focused on high refresh rates and low input latency. Midrange/affordable laptop/desktop OLED panels fit neither of these categories and as such haven't received nearly as much investment and R&D.
OLED isn't super useful on computer screens where elements stay in a static location for a long time due to burn in.
Also the amount of bright colors used in computer interfaces would cause some significant discomfort.
And I'm not sure how legitimate this claim is, but I've read before that OLED suffers from dead pixels at a higher rate than other screen types, but don't take that too seriously without proof.
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