Question What has changed with panels in the last 5 years

[Rebel_L]

I have been using IPS panels for as long as I can remember. For the last 6 years or so I have been using 3 dell U2410's. While I do enjoy the wider resolution, the support even in just windows is terrible for tripple monitors and I am at the point where I want to swap to a decent 34inch 3440 x 1440 panel and give that a try for a while.

I dont do any fps type gaming, rpg's and mmo's are more my style, and have never been bothered by the higher input lag of ips in the past. While my eyes were sensitive to refresh rates way back in crt days I have never really noticed any of that type of flickering in LCD's I've owned. I usually cant notice anything in video's about screen tearing and my eyes handle low frame rates rather well so that I usually dont think things are a choppy until things drop somewhere bellow 20fps. I have always ended up with IPS panels for the overall color and picture quality without complaints about what it looked like in games.

Tech however is always changing and I have been out of the loop on monitors for some time. Does anyone here have any thoughts on changes in panel tech and perhaps what brands are ones to really avoid atm when it comes to monitors?

 

[HutchinsonJC]

I ain't a screen expert, but in my estimation the biggest things to happen in the last 5 years are better accessibility (price) to 100hz + refresh rates, better accessibility (price) to various color specifications, DisplayHDR spec, maybe some availability on OLED displays, maybe a bit more options for curved displays, and Nvidia made moves to supporting freesync better.

 

[Leeea]

the upgrades are incremental

that said, if viewing angles are not an issue, VA typically has much better contrast then IPS

TN typically has faster response time on cheaper panels, same response on expensive ones


oLEDs are around the corner, and for some people may be superior

 

[CP5670]

One big change is OLED TVs are now suitable as PC monitors, which was not true 3-4 years ago (60hz only, input lag, no VRR/BFI/etc.), and make the best gaming monitors in many ways.

Among dedicated monitors, there is probably better availability of high refresh rates and large/ultrawide sizes. The LCD panels and image quality haven't changed much. I prefer VA over IPS but they are not that common.

 

[biostud]

Really not that much. Incremental better specs, but more or less the same.

 

[mnewsham]

Nothing revolutionary in the consumer space, as others have mentioned, specs are creeping up and price is creeping down, but the panels themselves are more or less the same.

You've got some FALD LCDs that probably weren't available back then, but realistically those are just stop-gap measures until microLED, dual-layer LCD, or affordable OLEDs.

 

[SAAA]

Biggest thing happening in the last couple years is aspect ratios outside 16:9 finally becoming commonly available, like 21:9 and larger, or even squarer ones that were dying off.

I'm talking about some incoming 3:2 monitors that make me salivate at the idea: there's already out a Huawei at 3840*2560 for 28.2" IPS, only 60Hz refresh rate but I guess it would be phenomenal for every day use like web browsing or common apps.

I guess if you aren't a fan of FPS and 240Hz CS-GO or such it would work decently for gaming too, especially RTS and MMO where the ultra-wide isn't exactly useful VS much more vertical content visible at that resolution.

I'm actually waiting for the bigger brother if it ever gets released, supposedly a 32" at 4500*3000 (and 90 Hz)... that's some desktop space!

As for incoming tech micro-leds and anything OLED, that's definitely the next stage, smartphones have had OLEDs for years while PC users were left with TV-sized things or expensive panels in the $3000+ range as choice... prices need to come down some 10x to become mainstream tech.