Upgraded to an OLED

[Hoonigan]

Hi everyone, it's killing me watching this place slowly dwindle away to nothing so I've been trying to think of a topic to potentially spark a small amount of life back into things.

So.. I've finally upgraded myself to an OLED gaming monitor, I got a fairly decent bonus this quarter at work, and rather than firing it into savings like I have been with previous bonuses, I decided to splash it on a Dell Alienware AW3423DWF. Managed to pick it up for £649 on Dell's site, though I see it's already back up to £929. I feel like I've got myself a steal. 3440 x 1440, 165Hz, 10-bit colour, near-instant response times, it's just magestic.

The difference to my previous monitor is ridiculous, I had the Acer Predator Z35P beforehand, with a VA panel. This thing is insane, cannot recommend it enough, genuinely in love with the thing after owning it for just a week.

Has anyone else made the jump yet, to either an OLED monitor or an OLED TV for the front room? I knew the difference was going to be big, but I didn't know it'd be this big!

[jimbouk]

I've been resisting because I'm cheap! TVs and monitors just don't break and I can't bring myself to get something better for the sake of it. Maybe I just need to give my boy a big stick in the living room and see what happens.

I must admit when I got a phone with an oled screen it quickly became a 'must have' for the next ones. I can imagine the same would be true for TVs and monitors...

[Rob_B]

I really want to go OLED but can't justify the price considering I'd want a big ultrawide as that what I use for work now (with a VA, eurgh) I've got a house renovation to pay off so treating myself isn't really an option.

That Dell looks nice, the 32" is more expensive !

[Jonj1611]

I have QLED, not the same thing but think the principle is similar. It's ok, wasn't as jaw dropping as I thought it would be

[Jonatron]

I use an OLED monitor in one place, and a 144Hz IPS monitor in another. Both "feel" nice because of the refresh rate / low response time. OLED has better blacks / colours, but the IPS has better whites (eg many web pages).

[cptwhite_uk]

It does seem like OLED is a realistic option for me in the near future. I doubt I'd want to pay more than £600 on the screen so we'll have to see what the market has to offer later this year. That said I'm very happy with my Gigabyte M28U, which is a 4K 144Hz 28" IPS panel. There's no real reason I need to move away from that, but the same could be said for the Dell 1440p 165Hz 27" IPS I had prior to that.

I think I want to experience 360hz fluidity, so I might regress to a 1440p monitor for my next purchase, I am a deal hunter though - the Gigabyte M28U I got second hand boxed like new for £250 at a time they were selling new for £500 ish.

[jimbouk]

I use an OLED monitor in one place, and a 144Hz IPS monitor in another. Both "feel" nice because of the refresh rate / low response time. OLED has better blacks / colours, but the IPS has better whites (eg many web pages).

Hmmm, so maybe better for TVs or a gaming focussed PC? Sadly my PC is 99% work use atm...

[ik9000]

We nearly went OLED for a TV last year but with a toddler in the house we decided it probably was more prudent getting something cheaper. I have to say the standard LED TV we did get is excellent. I wish we'd bought a 2nd one tbh

[DanceswithUnix]

I would love to upgrade our about 20 year old LCD tv in the living room to an OLED, but haven't managed to wear the wife's veto down yet.

Just last week I tried a "and while we're in the area, we could pop into Currys and get an OLED tv" and just got that look

[MrJim]

I've got an OLED TV in my living room which is fantastic; I can't imagine going back to any other display tech having used an OLED for a couple of years.

I've resisted the urge to go to OLED for PC use however, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the subpixel layout for the earlier OLED monitor panels was supposed to be quite poor for reading text. Secondly, I wanted to wait & see whether 'burn-in' would be a problem for the first few generations of panels. Most of the reviews I've seen seem to suggest that while OLED monitors are close to perfect for gaming & media 'consumption', they're not all that good for productivity work, which is probably 80% of what I use my PC for. From what I've seen, burn-in can be a bit of a problem in some circumstances, despite all the clever mitigation techniques used to try & reduce the issue.

For time being then, I'm happy sticking with my 165Hz 1440p IPS gaming monitor, which I can't really justify getting rid of just yet. In the longer term, I'm hoping that better mini LED (or even micro LED) monitors become available, or the problems with current OLED technology are resolved.

Just a side-note - has anyone heard from Saracen recently? He was always so active on Hexus, but I haven't seen him on here in quite a while. Actually there are quite a few people I haven't seen for a while on here! I certainly applaud any efforts to get the forum a bit more activity!

[ik9000]

that is a very good point about Saracen, I haven't. but then i dropped off the grid here for several months so it could just be life getting in the way. Hopefully he will update us all soon.

[Rob_B]

Last post end of June, so not ages ago

[Percy1983]

I love OLED but can't justify the cost, It seems my bargain monitors at £200 each are rather niche and hard to replace these days as I run dual 24inch UHD monitors, they are IPS and 'only' 60hz.

They are great for photography/videography and gaming works great if you not chasing higher frame rates and go for quality visuals, (I also have a long HDMI thought the walls so I can play on the TV downstairs).

[Output]

I like the idea of OLED, but I don't like the idea of burn-in, which seems like it would be way more likely on a monitor (or at least I highly suspect I'd end up with it in my usage).

As a result, when I found out in recent months about this 27" 1440p HDR1000 Mini-LED monitor (as I did want to have proper HDR, none of that 400/600 which I'd imagine wouldn't count to many people as HDR - I think my TV may be that 400 or 600 level too) that had a flat screen rather than being curved, I made sure to keep an eye on the pricing and snapped it up when it was reduced to the price again on a Prime Day Deal of £499 (which as I said in the Prime Day thread seemingly had a low take-up, so went on offer again without Prime exclusivity in the days following - although that deal is now over).

There was a cheaper model (£200 less) with VA rather than IPS screen, but I wanted the IPS and to be able to have the USB ports the more expensive model includes in case of any potential firmware upgrades and the fact that it's nice to have the option of extra USB ports.

I'm not a fan of how much its stand sticks out compared to the stand of my 27" Dell (or the monitor's pointless logo laser, which thankfully can be switched off), but it's something I can live with.

How much I'll actually use the extra functions/ability I have no idea, but it's nice to know it's there if I ever do want to.

On the subject of Saracen, I too hope he is doing OK.