OLED Or Not OLED Gaming Monitors? That is The Real Question
February 4, 2023
A particularly important event for the technology industry took place from January 5 to 8, and after 20 days of its culmination we can already draw conclusions of what could be expected or not both from the industry and what will or will not become a trend.
CES 2023
The event we are talking about is CES, short for Consumer Electronics Show, which is held every year in January and brings with it a lot of new product announcements and launches.
This annual three-day event, which highlights current trends and the latest advancements in the world of consumer technology is held in Las Vegas. CES events are held at various locations around the city and attendees can keep track of them and locate showrooms using the show’s official app.
And one of the bigger conclusions with the clearest message, it is that the age of the OLED PC monitor has come. The real question now, it is whether it is time to upgrade your LED gaming monitor.
But… wait a minute, OLED?
What is OLED?
The OLED panel has been on the market for years, but it seems to consolidate as an ideal option for those looking for the best image quality. We will explain what it consists of, its characteristics and why it is the only one to offer pure blacks.
Its acronym stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. It is said to be organic because of the carbon film inside the panel, just behind the glass screen. This flat light-emitting technology is characterized by placing several organic films between 2 conductors; each pixel is individually illuminated.
Thanks to that, OLED panels emit their own light when the electric current passes, which gives way to a bright light. Unlike LCD-LED panels, it allows you not to need the famous “backlight” or backlight to get a decent brightness.
And the difference between OLED and LED is?
If you see a display described as ‘LED’ it is an LCD display with a backlight. This light serves to illuminate the pixels, whereas OLED pixels produce their own light, which means that the brightness of an OLED display can be controlled on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
Now that we are clear about the concepts.
Why OLED displays?
The PC monitors have a few advantages over both built-in laptop monitors and TVs:
- Size, unless you are away from your desk, laptop screens are too small for comfortable work.
- OLED TVs on the other hand, are always too big to use on a desk. They are fine for some gaming with a little distance from the screen, but for everything else will be a problem to your neck.
On the other hand, a 27-inch OLED monitor will appeal to an enormous number of gamers who consider this size the upper limit of optimal screen size. That is without considering the resolution and refresh rate are also much more flexible in the world of PC monitors.
Finally, having an OLED in PC monitor form means getting access to all the aspect ratios that are not 16:9 widescreen.
What About Image Retention Problem?
In the past think to use OLED technology for PC monitors was a bad idea thanks to OLED’s tendency to exhibit image retention. However, nowadays, the image retention is not a problem it was in the beginning of OLEDs.
So, although it is impossible to be sure yet, we expect none of these monitor manufacturers would release OLED PC monitors if they were not confident that the image retention issue was solved well enough for mainstream PC use.
So, to OLED or not to OLED?
If you have the budget to be an early adopter of PC OLED monitors, you should do it. An OLED monitor is certainly better than whatever LCD monitor you are currently using, and the monitor is the part of your computer you spend the most time staring at, so you will get instant returns on your investment.
However, let us be honest, now that OLED monitors experience the same price decreases that we have seen in the OLED TV market, we will be the first ones on taking the leap.
