Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Samsung and LG Display are teeing up to battle for the panel in your varan .
ordinarily , you do n’t need to think about the instrument panel inside your monitor . You seem at the blade , measure the features , attempt out an sovereign review , and make your buying determination . ForOLED gaming monitors , however , the panel could n’t be more important , as LG and Samsung Display tackle the develop showing engineering science in very unlike means .
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
After a soft launching in 2023 , the competitiveness is heat up this twelvemonth as these two mammoth display makers fight it out — and thing are about to getveryinteresting .
The LG angle
Let ’s verify we ’re all on the same page here first . LG Display and Samsung Display are not LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics . They ’re completely unlike companies . It does n’t make sensation , I know , but I ’m talking about LG Display and Samsung Display here . They make panels , not monitors , and the electronics company they share a name with are merely considered married person , not subordinate or parent companies .
With that net up , LG ’s up first . For 2024 , LG has a range of WOLED panels for gaming monitor . These use a snowy subpixel — hence the “ W ” — that emits blank light . This is pass through a color filter that , standardized to an LCD display , convey some luminosity away in the process . WOLED monitors are n’t traditionally as undimmed or colour accurate as QD - OLED technical school , which I ’ll get to next . We see that in action with some LG Display panels last year , such as the one featured in theAsus ROG Swift PG27AQDM .
There are two main panel for gamers coming in 2024 . The first is a 4 K adaptation with a 240Hz refresh charge per unit that has aunique three-fold refresh rate feature . It allows you to swap to a 1080p resolution with a staggering 480Hz refresh pace with a individual clit . We ’ve already visualise several version of this display , from LG Electronics , Asus , and MSI , to name a few .
The other is the killer , however . It ’s a 1440p panel that can hit a 480Hz refresh rate . It appearsAsus is the only brandthat has admission to this panel at the minute , but I suspect other brands will have variations once Asus ’ monitor launch . The refresh pace is staggering considering we only had 240Hz refresh rate monitors last twelvemonth , such as theLG UltraGear OLED 27 .
Outside of the two 16:9 panel , LG Display also has a 34 - inch and 39 - inch panel with a 21:9 facial expression ratio and a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 . We ’ve seen similar variations of this type of panel before , such as on theAlienware 34 QD - OLED , but the 39 - column inch size is new for 2024 .
The big deal for all of these displays is that we ’ve seen peak brightness claims of 1,300 nit — the highest brightness claim ever for an OLED monitor . That ’s due in no little part to the fact that these panel use LG Display ’s Micro Lens Array ( MLA ) technical school . This essentially puts a bed of microscopic lenses in front of the organic material used for OLED . It provides a massive boost to brightness in the cognitive process , helping LG trance up to QD - OLED tech .
The Samsung angle
Samsung Display is tackle the OLED problem in a far different way . It leverage QD - OLED , or Quantum Dot OLED , tech to accomplish theoretically better color and brightness liken to LG Display ’s more traditional advance . There are some technical details here , but they ’re important for understand how Samsung ’s approach shot is different .
QD - OLED uses just grim OLED material . Those blue pixels are split up into thirds , however , with one constituent going to a green quantum dose and another going to a red quantum dot , so you get a true RGB layout . The cock-a-hoop difference here is that there is n’t a color filter . The coloring filter works against cleverness and color accuracy , so QD - OLED is brighter and more color accurate than the WOLED plan of attack ( at least without MLA tech ) .
Samsung Display has two new dialog box this year , and they are n’t as exciting as what LG Display is offering . We have a 4 K panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1440p panel with a 360Hz refresh rate . That ’s it ; no fancy two-fold refresh pace feature or anything like that .
The large remainder compared to LG is that we ’ve in reality tested these panels — read ourAlienware 27 QD - OLED reviewandAlienware 32 QD - OLED review — and they ’re stunning . They mail the best color truth we ’ve ever recorded for a gaming reminder , and reached the true 1,000 nit of peak brightness level that the panel is capable of . Samsung Display may not have any flashy newfangled features , but its two QD - OLED panels are standouts .
This is the third generation of QD - OLED panel from Samsung Display , and they treat one of the primal publication with the first two iterations . Due to how the panels split the blue pixel , the subpixels are n’t all the same size of it . This , in previous versions , has created color fringing on okay item like inglorious text on a whitened background .
It ’s not completely gone , but it ’s very tough to notice any fringing on text in these third - gen QD - OLED panels . It was one of the key reservations we had about former versions , and Samsung Display has mostly addressed the trouble .
Who will come out on top?
The fight between Samsung Display and LG Display is just starting to fire up up , and we ’ve only had a chance to see one side of the fight . The early offerings from Samsung Display are very telling , but LG has some key details working its favour .
light is the mai factor we ’ll be look at this year . LG Display is take a crap gamy brightness claims , but we ’ll have to see how those really play out in practice . Brightness is the main criticismof all OLED gaming Monitor mighty now — be it WOLED or QD - OLED — so whoever wins the luminance battle will likely come out on top .
LG certainly has the upper hand in the fight here , considering it ’s sporting refresh rates beyond anything we ’ve seen before for OLED monitors and its interesting threefold refresh pace lineament . For now , it ’s just a waiting game to see if LG Display can deliver on brightness and color accuracy , which have been nuisance points for the panel in the past .
