Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Call me harebrained , but I deal thebest gaming monitormoney can bribe .
I ’m talking about theAlienware 34 QD - OLED , of course , which I bought about a yr ago . I ’ve been in making love with it ever since , immediately recognise why it ’s wide considered one of themost important play monitorsreleased in the last few years . The most recent holiday outpouring of raft got me , though , and I sold the monitoring gadget , which often tops lists and review charts , in exchange for something completely dissimilar .
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
I pick up theKTC G42P5 . I understand if you do n’t know who KTC is — I did n’t , either — but I rolled the die on the display after I found an Amazon deal that was too right to pass up . I ’ve had the monitor for about a week now , and I ’ve already put it through its pace . And I ’m ball over .
Hitting the right price
Let ’s start with why I chose this particular reminder , though . It ’s a 42 - inch OLED display , which , yes , I recognize go like a massive sizing for a electronic computer monitor . It is , but I ’m certainly not the first one to put a 42 - in display in front of my personal computer . And in practice , a 42 - inch 16:9 monitor isa lot nearer in sizeto a 34 - column inch 21:9 monitor like the Alienware 34 QD - OLED than it sound .
There are several reason I wanted to switch back to 16:9 . I want to be able to run console game on my main exhibit without black bars , and I want to be able to take 4 kibibyte screenshots for the execution guidebook I pen here on Digital Trends . More than anything , though , I was just done mess around with the problems 21:9 brings .
The Alienware 34 QD - organic light-emitting diode is smashing , but I was prey up with playingElden Ringwith pitch-dark Browning automatic rifle or getting suck out ofAlan Wake 2whenever a cutscene roleplay . At the same sentence , I did n’t want to give up the perfect calamitous degree of OLED or the massive covert real estate the Alienware 34 QD - OLED offer me . The KTC G42P5 check all of my loge , and at a price I could in reality justify .
There are a few other option if you ’re interested in this form component . It expend an LG OLED panel , so by nature , you could pluck up the 42 - inch LG C3 OLED . There are a couple of job compare to KTC , though . For newcomer , it ’s a TV , so it lack DisplayPort , and it ’s more expensive . I spent $ 800 on the KTC display , while the LG TV sells for $ 1,000 , or $ 900 on sale . The LG has some upsides like image processing if you ’re not worried about latency , but that did n’t tippytoe the plate for me .
The independent competition is the Asus ROG Swift PG42UQ . It ’s a 42 - inch admonisher just like the KTC , and it ’s overclocked to 138Hz ( also just like the KTC ) . It ’s a near - utter monitor , but there ’s one heavy problem . It ’s $ 1,400 . Even during holiday gross sales , I ’ve never seen it deal for cheaper than $ 1,200 — that ’s a full $ 400 more than what I spend on the KTC for what is basically the same display .
Those are your only two options if you want this form ingredient . Older LG TVs like theC2 OLEDare uncommitted , but for above $ 1,000 , and the Gigabyte Aorus FV43U is inexpensive , but it ’s not OLED . I picked up the KTC G42P5 on sale for $ 800 , but even now , it ’s available for $ 1,000 at the time of writing . That ’s still $ 400 cheaper than the Asus display at listing price .
The natural question is , why ? If this is the same instrument panel with the same feature of speech , why is it so much meretricious than the competition ? There are really a couple of reason .
Why is it cheaper?
I ’ll assume you ’ve never heard of KTC . It ’s a Formosan company that started pushing out displays in 2021 , and the brand has only lately started gain the rounds on Amazon . KTC as a company , though , is n’t new . KTC enunciate it ’s been around for 27 age , serving as a manufacturing business of display for companies like Samsung , ViewSonic , and LG . You probably have n’t seen a KTC - branded admonisher , but there ’s a enough chance you actuallyhaveseen a KTC monitor lizard .
The estimation here is that the middleman is becoming the seller with KTC , which pushes down cost a little bit . That ’s not a crazy idea in the earth of tech . Even AMD , Intel ’s biggest competitor in the world of processor , started out as a supplier for Intel before break off into its own standalone brand .
There ’s a practical reason for this particular varan being cheaper than the competition as well : It does n’t let in a pedestal . It ’s easy to forget how expensive a upstanding outdoor stage for a 42 - in exhibit can be — $ 125 , at least for KTC ’s G42P5 bandstand — and KTC cuts that be out .
That could be a downside depending on what you ’re wanting to do with the showing . For me , it was a positive . I was able to salvage some money because I already had a monitoring equipment arm — about $ 50 on Amazon — and for a showing this large , there ’s a good chance you ’re survive to mount it on your wall . There are also boob tube remain firm available for the 100 x 100 VESA mount for about $ 15 . disregarding , there are several situation with a display this large where you might not use the include stand , and at least you have the option to vamoose it with the KTC G42P5 .
It ’s deserving note that , even with the point of view , the G42P5 comes in $ 200 cheaper than the ROG PG42UQ , so the preservation are n’t only reliant on the stand .
The monitor itself
Now , we need to talk about the monitor itself . The KTC G42P5 utilise an LG OLED RGBW panel , which is the same panel in recent version of the LG C2 . All of that is to say , it looks neat . OLED offer perfect black tier for innumerous contrast , while luminousness , althoughlow compare to LCD , is still enough to get over most ambient lighting conditions .
Digging into the numbers , I measure brightness at around 400 nits for 10 % of the screen in SDR , and that shot up to above 600 nits for a 3 % windows in HDR . Those numbers do n’t sound gamy , but think of that this is a 42 - inch covert . You do n’t want it smash 1,000 nit at you as a computer monitor .
In practice session , I have two window straight pour Christ Within into my office , and I ’ve never shinny with luminosity issue , and that ’s while running the panel at 30 % of its maximum . Unless you have super undimmed ambient inflammation conditions , the brightness of the proctor should n’t be an progeny .
For colors , this OLED panel offers a wide gamut . That means it exceeds 100 % of the sRGB gamut , pushing into wider gamut like DCI - P3 . In that color space , I evaluate an excellent 97 % .
colour accuracy was a unlike thing . KTC calibrates each reminder at the mill and includes a story , but the calibration is off , specifically for the DCI - P3 and Adobe RGB coloring material modes . I measured a color error of 6 for Adobe RGB and 4 for DCI - P3 , neither of which is bully . On the standard mode , the color error was over 3 . Ideally , you need to see a colouring material error of under 2 .
That ’s nothing a small calibration ca n’t fix . Using the free DisplayCal , I graduate the monitor , and it was able to achieve a color error of 0.6 , which is very good .
It ’s always gracious when colors are perfect out of the loge , but at least you could pull the KTC back if you want heavy color truth . That does n’t always matter in recitation , though . for certain , the coloration were off out of the box seat , but the display still take care large for game and moving picture before standardisation .
Some downsides
There are some downside here . For starters , the OSD ( on - screen display ) is n’t heavy . All of the options are there , but it attend a little janky . For representative , “ overclock ” is “ over clock ” in the menu , and some setting just willy-nilly do n’t capitalise letter . None of this actually weigh for the performance of the monitor , but it for certain makes it feel like you ’re getting a cheaper mathematical product .
The bigger issue is the Auto - Brightness Limiter ( ABL ) . If you ’re unfamiliar , all OLED displays have an ABL that limits the luminousness when you attain certain threshold . In practice , this work out as the monitor promptly slur itself when you draw out up something very shining like a white web page , and it gets bright when you pull up something darker , such as a website in dark manner .
Ideally , ABL should be invisible on a exhibit as it was on my Alienware 34 QD - OLED , but it ’s very strong-growing on the G42P5 . I constantly see the display light up and bound itself as I ’m swap between web browser app tabs . It ’s particularly annoying when I pull up the Windows hunt bar with a website open , as the screen immediately lights up with my dark mode Windows theme .
This would unremarkably be a passel - breaker , but there are a duet of reasons it ’s not for me . First , it only put on with HDR . There are n’t issues in SDR , even if I crank the concealment to its maximum luminance . ABL still give up in , but it ’s far less obtrusive , and it ’s fast enough that you wo n’t fascinate it most of the time .
secondly , it ’s never become an issue in games or movies . There are situations where ABL can quetch in and become distracting in media , but it ’s not rough-cut enough to become a trouble . Based on my examination , it looks like ABL kicks in when about 60 % of the screen is whitened , dimming to its lowest gunpoint when pure whitened reaches about 70 % of the screen . It ’s not enough to turn me off of the G42P5 , but it ’s my bountiful complaint come from the Alienware 34 QD - OLED .
The last issue is the OLED maintenance feature , but it ’s more of an annoyance than a trouble . It quetch in automatically , turn over you a 20 - second countdown before the pixel freshen offset . This has already caught me a yoke of times , locking me out of using my microcomputer for a few min . gratefully , you may turn off the automatic picture element brush up if you require .
Trading the best
The KTC G42P5 is a everlasting answer for me . As much as I loved the Alienware 34 QD - OLED , I ’ve been feeling the credit crunch of 21:9 for a while , but I could n’t justify pass $ 1,400 on the PG42UQ or over $ 1,000 on a 42 - inch OLED from LG . The KTC G42P5 hit the veracious cost with the correct features , and with little in the way of forfeiture .
It ’s not as seamless as the Alienware 34 QD - OLED , with disappointing color truth out of the boxwood and annoying ABL in HDR . Thankfully , those issues are easy to correct , make the KTC G42P5 a desirable replacement . It nails the screen real land and the excellent picture you get out of OLED , and it comes in at a price that puts monitoring machine like the PG42UQ to shame .
