contrast ratio for lcd monitors pricelist
A monitor is a display device that interprets the graphical output signal from your computer’s graphics card and displays it on the screen. There are many types of monitors with different features. If you look at various tests and expert and customer opinion, you will conclude that the best choice depends only on your needs and preferences.
OLED is short for “Organic Light Emitting Diode“. This type of monitor is made of organic material (such as plastic, wood, carbon and polymers), that is used to convert electric current into light. It can be thinner or lighter with a higher contrast ratio than LCDs. Tests have shown that these monitors are the best for watching movies.
LED stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode’. This type is the latest innovation on the market. These types of monitors are panel displays that use light-emitting diodes for backlighting on the screen.
LCD is short for ‘Liquid Crystal Display’. This monitor is made of liquid crystals. It is the most used monitor worldwide. It requires less space, consumes less electricity, and in expert opinion produces less heat than an old CRT monitor.
PDP stands for Plasma monitor panel. These monitors are made of Plasma technology. This technology is one of the latest types of computer monitor technology. According to expert opinions and various tests, compared to LCDs this type of display offers superior performance time, a much wider viewing angle and a good response.
Monitors are very important compliments to computer units, regardless of whether they are used for work, leisure in general or gaming in particular. In either situation, it is important to take into consideration a few important criteria before making a final purchase. In this section, we leave you with one last set of criteria to evaluate in any product you choose.
This particular aspect will determine and highly influence which model you choose. For this reason, it is important to be clear about the use you plan to make of your monitor. Do you want it for a generic or specific use? If, for example, you work in photo or video editing, you should have a screen that most accurately reflects colors.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a screen to help you immerse in the world of gaming, various tests have shown that there will be other parameters you must consider. For instance, the monitor you choose should have a good dynamic contrast ratio and a high refresh rate. For film and series lovers, a monitor with good resolution will be important.
This may seem trivial, but keep in mind that the monitor you choose will be featured prominently wherever you choose to set it up. For this reason, it would be good for it to have an appealing design that fits in harmoniously in the environment it exists in. Colour and shape will be part of this consideration, however, thickness will likely play a more important role.
The thickness of your screen will be one of the main aspects to determine how much space it takes up. Fortunately, there are increasingly thinner models appearing on the market. Furthermore, you shouldn’t overlook the design of the edges of the screen. Manufacturers today keep making them smaller and smaller. This is a plus if, for example, you want to use several monitors together.
The resolution of a monitor, an aspect we described in one of the previous sections, is not a characteristic that should be overlooked. More important than the numbers of this spec, will be to find a balance between this value and the size of the monitor. The majority of monitors today, come with a resolution of at least 1920 x 1080 – Full HD.
Of course, you’ll be able to find monitors with higher resolutions, especially considering that the use of the 4K, i.e. 3840 x 1440, is becoming more and more popular. In order to enjoy the full benefits of these high resolutions, make sure to get a monitor that is at least 24”. Remember that the resolution you need is related to how you will use the screen.
In addition to the connection between the monitor and the computer, you can also look at other connections on the device. Audio output can be of use if you want to connect speakers to your computer. Some monitors have two HDMI ports, in the event that you want to connect another device to it, such as a Chromecast stick.
There is a wide variety of monitor sizes on the market. This parameter, alongside resolution, is going to be the main factor to influence the cost of the monitor. For this reason, we must first consider where we wish to place the screen. Will it be on a desk or attached to a wall? Monitors can be over 40” in size, so make sure you have space for the product you choose.
As for how stable the monitor will be, this will largely depend on the type of mount and support it has. An interesting feature for some users is that the mounting height can be adjusted. There is also the possibility of tilting it forward or backward. Even though in most cases, the mount is an accessory that is purchased separately, ideally you should choose a monitor that includes it.
Response time is particularly important with fast-moving images. If the monitor has a low response time, it will blur and distort fast-moving images and sudden movements. For gamers, this is a particularly important feature. When watching movies, it will also determine the quality of the experience. The top monitor models can reach a 1 ms response time.
Simply put, the resolution of a monitor is the number of pixels that a screen has the ability to represent. In the product selection of this article, you may have noticed that when we described the monitors and their quality, we wrote down two figures. These two figures, for example, 1920 x 1080, refer to the pixels the monitor is able to represent.
Let’s take these numbers, for example, 1920 would be the number of pixels that the monitor represents vertically. As you may have guessed, 1080 refers to vertical pixels the monitor can represent. Therefore, in the case of the LG monitor, the numbers varied most from the rest. Its resolution is 3840 x 2160 because it has a more panoramic display than the other models.
The aspect ratio of a monitor is the ratio between the height and width of a monitor. This parameter is closely linked to the resolution component we mentioned above. With the wide selection of products available, you’ll find that there are also many different aspect ratios, however, the most common one is 16:9.
To explain a little more, a Full HD screen, i.e. 1920 x 1080 pixels, would have this aspect ratio. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of proportions. In other words, for every 9 vertical pixels, there are 16 horizontal pixels. Another aspect ratio, increasingly used, is 21:9; this is a more panoramic ratio.
It is important to note that the aspect ratio does not affect image quality. For instance, let’s consider a screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and another with 7680 x 4320. Both have a 16:9 aspect ratio. However, the second would have a higher image quality. Keep in mind that a 4:3 aspect ratio was popular years ago, but is now in decline.
The contrast ratio of a monitor is the difference between the brightest pixel and the darkest pixel. For example, a 1000:1 monitor contrast ratio means that the whitest pixel is a thousand times brighter than the darkest pixel. A higher proportion of these numbers will result in more contrasting and sharper images. It should be noted that there are two types of contrast ratio: static and dynamic.
In the first one, all the brightness of the screen changes at the same time. It is most ideal for working with still images. With dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) on the other hand, the brightness automatically adjusts as the video plays, to make the dark areas darker and the light spots brighter. This aspect heavily influences image detail and quality.
Making sure to buy a quality product, even at a restricted budget is very important. Why you may ask, keep in mind that through this piece of tech you will visualize all the activities you carry out with our computer. So whether you’re looking for a monitor for leisure or work, make sure to get the monitor that best suits your needs and budget.
When shopping around, you’ll find monitors that have great specifications. However, the larger monitor may not necessarily be the right one for you and your needs. Keep an eye out for when the resolution it offers is not commensurate with its size. As you can see, it will be important to carefully evaluate the product you choose before making the final purchase.
IPS stands for in-plane switching, a type of LED display panel technology. IPS panels are characterized as having the best color and viewing angles among the other main types of display panels. IPS displays incorporate a series of liquid crystals which work to prevent light leaking.
Simply put, an IPS monitor is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) with a back layer of LED bulbs. IPS-type panels are particularly suitable for images showing rapid movement. This technology prevents distortions, whether in a video game or a movie. However, keep in mind that IPS panels are also the most expensive ones on the market today.
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I got this for my son, to setup a multi screen work center for his game creation and learning. He has been ramping up production, but has suffered from not having enough screen space to work with. Now I have a three monitor setup, two of which are 24 inch monitors and this is the center 27 inch. There is no uniformity as it is concocted of screens I either replaced but still worked, or this one that I got to review.
First, colors are great on this screen out of box. I am not sure about accuracy but they do look amazing. It wouldn"t hurt to get it calibrated though if you do art. Second, the screen is a 1080p monitor this is coupled with the 27 inch size. Neither of which is a issue, but the 27 inch screen is the cusp of when you would also start to look for 1440p screens but also the top of what to look for when addressing 1080p screens. So price will be the factor here. Third, the refresh rate of 100 hz puts this in the VRR (variable refresh rate) territory. This means you will see AMD Freesync here, but may not be their Premium or Premium Pro. So you can game on this, and it will look good for most games, just not high paced games where I would suggest you look at 140hz or higher screen refresh rates. (I use a 165hz MSI 27 inch on my setup. I also have a 240hz 24 inch, and I couldn"t tell the difference between the two setups. I actually gave the 240hz 24inch to my son, and use a 22inch XP-Pen 22 artist 2nd gen for my secondary display as it gives me a accurate way to interact with my game making.)
I think it is time to talk about a couple annoyances though. First, I do not like the stand, it is dinky and barely brings it up from the base level of the table. You can mount this on a monitor shelf or a VESA arm to fix that, but I am disappointed in its" size. It is all metal though, and only requires a single screw to assemble the stand which then slots into the monitor with a plastic lock retainer. Second, it took me forever to set up the monitor, it just refused to recognize my computer. It was partially related to the computer too, and required that I reset my CMOS to get the GPU to recognize the monitor as much as the monitor the GPU. Sad thing was though, is that it would turn off almost immediately after powering on, so I couldn"t access any menu"s or functions before it would just power off again. Problem was solved, but I wish I could have adjusted settings without it just saying ,"nope" basically.
Outside of my surprisingly small complaint box, I do still think this is a good monitor. It"s value is questionable, but still solid. I would recommend this as a suggestion to others, but it would also be paired with selections from Acer, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Lenovo, ViewSonic, BenQ, and others. That means that this monitor gets lost in the shuffle of so many other companies with well established reputations. It does not stand out as a beautiful monitor in design, it does not stand out as a value winner which it is close too but doesn"t take the cake, and it is not the best display either even though the colors are beautiful out of box. I can even go as far to say it is a bit forgettable which is sad as it is a good start for InnoView, whom I have known as a great portable monitor company.
Dell announced two new models in its popular UltraSharp monitor lineup on Thursday. The displays have been a favorite of office workers, creatives, and—because of their USB-C connectivity—Mac users. Now, LG Display is introducing what it"s calling "IPS Black," which will come to Dell"s lineup in the UltraSharp 32 (U3223QE) and 27 (U2723QE) 4K USB-C Hub Monitors.
To understand IPS Black, a new type of IPS panel, it helps to have a basic understanding of IPS, or in-plane switching. IPS is one of the three types of LCD panels in PC monitors and TVs, alongside VA (vertical alignment) and TN (twisted nematic).
The three technologies work a bit differently, resulting in various pros and cons. IPS panels have better viewing angles, meaning it"s easier to see the on-screen image when looking at it from a side angle. They"re also known for their exceptional color reproduction, especially when compared to TN panels.
Simply put, IPS panels have liquid crystals aligned parallel to the glass surfaces sandwiching them. When an electric charge is applied, the crystals rotate; they maintain a parallel position but allow light to come through and create an image. The technology differs from the liquid crystals in a TN panel, which twist to 90 degrees to allow light through. TN panels have historically maintained faster refresh rates and response times, but we"re seeing IPS catch up in expensive gaming monitors.
IPS screens also differ from VA panels, which deliver better contrast ratios. VA panels have liquid crystals perpendicular to the glass substrates and tilt to let light pass through. As noted by monitor company ViewSonic, this makes them better at blocking unneeded backlight, resulting in deeper blacks and higher contrast ratios.
Just as QD-OLED promises to bring better performance to OLED screens, IPS Black is a new type of IPS that claims to provide better contrast than standard IPS monitors can produce. Advertisement
LG Display announced IPS Black in January but hasn"t shared much information about how the technology works. At the time, LG Display said the panels have a black level that is "35 percent deeper than existing IPS products," and it promised that the displays would deliver "extreme clarity and precise color accuracy."
The U3223QE and U2723QE UltraSharp monitors are the first IPS Black monitors available. Dell says the displays have a contrast ratio of 2,000:1—meaning that a black image looks 2,000 times darker than a white one. That"s two times greater than what most IPS monitors offer. For comparison, the UltraSharp 30 U3023E— also announced Thursday—uses a standard IPS panel and has a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. (All three monitors have been listed for a while, as reported by sites like Tom"s Hardware, but Dell is making its first formal announcement today.)
Further, the 31.5-inch and 27-inch IPS Black monitors each claim to cover 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and 100 percent of sRGB. For comparison, the 27-inch UltraSharp U2720Q, which has a high contrast ratio for an IPS monitor (1,300:1), covers 95 percent of DCI-P3 and 99 percent of sRGB.
LG Display"s IPS Black announcement also said the tech "significantly lowers the level of blue light." Dell doesn"t say that its new UltraSharps have any low blue light-fighting advantage beyond its hardware-based ComfortView Plus, which the company introduced in 2020.
LG Display also claimed IPS Black panels would allow for "a nearly borderless design." Considering the IPS Black-based UltraSharps continue the series" use of teeny-tiny bezels, we"d say that checks out.
Dell won"t be the only company to use IPS Black technology. LG Display sells to various companies, and LG plans to release its own IPS Black monitors. There"s still no word on if there will be IPS Black TVs.
In terms of Dell"s newly announced UltraSharps, all three claim to hit 400 nits brightness and have a 60 Hz refresh rate. The 27-inch IPS Black monitor has an MSRP of $725, but Dell already has it on sale for $625. For comparison, Dell"s 27-inch U2720Q, with a standard IPS panel, is currently $590. The 32-inch IPS Black monitor has an MSRP of $1,150 but is currently discounted to $920. And the non-IPS Black U3023E costs $1,050 but is going for $785 as of writing.
The Taiwanese brand Acer is one of the popular brands in India, it offers a wide range of Monitors that covers everything from basic home monitors to office usage and ultimate gaming monitors. Also, Acer brings good monitors with the best features and improved performance that can boost your productivity without burning a hole in your pocket.
Down below we have mentioned every key feature and specs of Acer monitors such as their build quality, display type, screen resolution, and usable ports including HDMI, Display port, DVI, VGA, etc for better connectivity.
Here you view all the Acer monitors price lists that you can sort according to your preferred budget. Also, use our tools to compare Acer monitors with another which would potentially help you select the best-suited monitors for you.Acer Monitors Price List in IndiaMonitorPriceAvailable FromAcer EK220Q 21.5-inch Full HD Monitor₹6,299Jul, 2021
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Color gamut is a measure of how many colors can be represented on a display. The higher the color gamut, the more colors represented, making color more rich and saturated. While no display can come close to what is seen with the human eye, a 100% color gamut panel is the best available in PC display. When a panel is 100% color gamut, it’s typically described as Adobe RGB. The XPS 15 4K Ultra HD display is factory color measured and color coordinates are saved onto the panel so you can reproduce color accurately. They are vivid, show more shades, higher saturation and more colorfulness. The user sees a more pleasant, colorful and accurate image. The XPS 15 and 17 are the only laptops that are true 100% minimum Adobe RGB, meaning the panel can represent all color in the Adobe color space without compromise. Professionals are able to get a full color representation of their content in the field - they can take a photo with an RGB setting on their camera, use Adobe software, and see that image on their display with exactly the same colors represented.
View updated prices of 15 Inches to 20 Inches Monitors in India as on 21 January 2023. The Price List includes a total of 54 15 Inches to 20 Inches Monitors for online shopping. Find lowest prices in India along with product specifications, key features, pictures, ratings & more. Most Popular product in this category is Acer V196HQL 18.5 inch LED Backlit LCD Monitor (Black). Lowest prices are obtained from all major online stores like Mirchimart, Naaptol, Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart for an easy price comparison. 15 Inches to 20 Inches Monitors Price list in India (January 2023)
The price of 15 Inches to 20 Inches Monitors vary when we talk about all the products being offered in the market. The most expensive product is Wacom flexible pen-tablet - Cintiq 13HD, black priced at Rs. 71,599. Contrary to this, the lowest priced product is Zebronics 15.4 LED HD Monitor available at Rs.1,999. This variation in prices gives online shoppers a range of affordable to premium products to choose from. The online prices are valid across all major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, NCR etc for online purchases.
Gaming monitors are designed to make the output of your graphics card and CPU look as good as possible while gaming. They"re responsible for displaying the final result of all of your computer"s image rendering and processing, yet they can vary widely in their representation of color, motion, and image sharpness. When considering what to look for in a gaming monitor, it"s worth taking the time to understand everything a gaming monitor can do, so you can translate gaming monitor specs and marketing into real-world performance.
Resolution is a key feature of any monitor. It measures the width and height of the screen in terms of pixels, or “picture elements”, the tiny points of illumination that compose an image. A 2,560 × 1,440 screen, for example, has a total of 3,686,400 pixels.
Common resolutions include 1,920 × 1,080 (sometimes called “Full HD” or FHD), 2,560 × 1,440 (“Quad HD”, QHD, or “Widescreen Quad HD”, WQHD), or 3840 × 2160 (UHD, or “4K Ultra HD”). Ultrawide monitors are also available with resolutions such as 2560 x 1080 (UW-FHD) and 3440 x 1440 (UW-QHD), 3840x1080 (DFHD), and 5120x1440 (DQHD).
Sometimes manufacturers only reference one measurement for standard resolutions: 1080p and 1440p refer to height, while 4K refers to width. Any resolution higher than 1,280 × 720 is high definition (HD).
Upscaling is a way to scale lower-resolution content to a higher resolution. When you play a 1080p video on a 4K monitor, the monitor needs to “fill in” all of the missing pixels that it expects to display (as a 4K monitor has four times as many pixels as 1080p). A built-in scaler interpolates new pixels by examining the values of surrounding pixels. HDTVs often feature more complex upscaling than PC monitors (with line-sharpening and other improvements), as the latter often simply turn one pixel into a larger block of the same pixels. The scaler is likely to cause some blurring and ghosting (double images), especially if you look closely.
Monitors can also change resolution. Modern screens have a fixed number of pixels, which defines their "native resolution" but can also be set to approximate lower resolutions. As you scale down, onscreen objects will look larger and fuzzier, screen real estate will shrink, and visible jaggedness may result from interpolation. (Note that it wasn’t always this way: older analog CRT monitors can actually switch between resolutions without interpolation, as they do not have a set number of pixels.)
Players sit or stand close to their monitors, often within 20”-24”. This means that the screen itself fills much more of your vision than an HDTV (when seated at the couch) or a smartphone/tablet. (Monitors boast the best ratio of diagonal screen size to viewing distance among common displays, with the exception of virtual reality headsets). The benefits of 1440p or 4K resolution are more immediately perceptible in this close-range situation.
Basically, you want to find a screen where you never perceive an individual pixel. You can do this using online tools that measure pixel density (in pixels per inch), which tells you the relative “sharpness” of the screen by determining how closely pixels are packed together, or the alternative pixels per degree formula, which automatically compares its measurements against the limits of human vision.
A monitor"s aspect ratio is the proportion of width to height. A 1:1 screen would be completely square; the boxy monitors of the 1990s were typically 4:3, or “standard”. They have largely been replaced by widescreen (16:9) and some ultrawide (21:9, 32:9, 32:10) aspect ratios.
Most online content, such as YouTube videos, also defaults to a widescreen aspect ratio. However, you"ll still see horizontal black bars onscreen when watching movies or TV shows shot in theatrical widescreen (2.39:1, wider than 16:9), and vertical black bars when watching smartphone videos shot in thinner “portrait” mode. These black bars preserve the original proportions of the video without stretching or cropping it.
UltrawidesWhy opt for an ultrawide screen over regular widescreen? They offer a few advantages: They fill more of your vision, they can provide a movie-watching experience closer to the theater (as 21:9 screens eliminate “letterboxing” black bars for widescreen films), and they let you expand field of view (FOV) in games without creating a “fisheye” effect. Some players of first-person games prefer a wider FOV to help them spot enemies or immerse themselves in the game environment. (But note that some popular FPS games do not support high FOV settings, as they can give players an advantage).
Curved screens are another common feature on ultrawide monitors. These can correct one typical issue with larger ultrawides: Images at the distant edges of the screen look less distinct than those in the middle. A curved screen helps compensate for this and provides a clearer view of the extreme edges of the screen. However, its benefits are most noticeable on larger screens over 27”.
When viewing two monitors side-by-side, it"s sometimes easy to see which has more brilliant hues, deeper blacks, or a more lifelike color palette. It can be harder to put the picture together in your head when reading specifications, however, because color in monitors is evaluated in many different ways. There"s no one spec to focus on: Contrast ratio, brightness, black level, color gamut, and more all come into play. Before moving on to larger color features, let"s define these terms one-by-one.
Contrast RatioContrast ratio, one of the most basic measures of a monitor"s performance, measures the ratio between the extremes of black and white that the screen can display. A baseline contrast ratio like 1,000:1 means that the white parts of the image are 1,000 times brighter than the dark parts.
When it comes to contrast ratios, higher numbers are better. A high contrast ratio, like 4,000:1, means bright highlights, inky blacks, and dark areas where details are still perceptible. A contrast ratio of 200:1, on the other hand, means that the blacks look more like grays, and the colors look faded and indistinct from each other.
Use caution when LCDs advertise very high “dynamic contrast ratios”, which are achieved by changing the behavior of the backlight. For gaming or everyday use, the standard “static” contrast ratio discussed above is a better marker of the monitor"s quality.
LuminanceBrightness is often measured in “luminance”, a precise measure of how much light is emitted by the screen. It"s given in candelas per square meter (cd/m2), a unit which is also called a “nit”. For HDR displays, the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) has standardized a suite of tests for luminance using specific test patches. When comparing luminance specs, check to make sure they use this consistent test platform, rather than a proprietary metric.
Black LevelIn all LCD screens, light from the backlight inevitably leaks through the liquid crystal. This provides the basis for the contrast ratio: For example, if the screen leaks 0.1% of the illumination from the backlight in an area that"s supposed to be black, this establishes a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. An LCD screen with zero light leakage would have an infinite contrast ratio. However, this isn"t possible with current LCD technology.
“Glow” is a particular issue in dark viewing environments, which means that achieving low black levels is a major selling point for LCD monitors. However, an LCD screen can’t reach a black level of 0 nits unless it’s completely turned off.
Color DepthMonitors need to display many subtle shades of color. If they can"t smoothly transition between slightly different hues, we see onscreen color “banding” — a stark shift between two different colors, creating visibly lighter, and darker bands where we should see a seamless gradient. This is sometimes referred to as “crushing” the colors.
True 10-bit monitors are rare — many monitors use forms of internal color processing, such as FRC (frame rate control), to approximate a greater color depth. A “10-bit” monitor could be an 8-bit monitor with an additional FRC stage, often written as “8+2FRC”.
Some inexpensive LCD panels use 6-bit color along with “dithering” to approximate 8-bit color. In this context, dithering means the insertion of similar, alternating colors next to one another to fool the eye into seeing a different in-between color that the monitor cannot accurately display.
Monitors sometimes feature a Look-Up Table (LUT) corresponding to a higher color depth, such as 10-bit color. This helps speed up color correction calculations that take place within the monitor as it converts color input to a color output appropriate for your screen. This intermediate step can help create smoother color transitions and more accurate output. These are usually reserved for more professional grade monitors than general consumer and gaming displays.
Your eye can see a much wider spectrum of color than current displays can reproduce. To visualize all visible colors, a standard called CIE 1976 maps them to a grid, creating a horseshoe-shaped graph. The color gamuts available for monitors appear as subsets of this graph:
Common, mathematically defined color gamuts include sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3. The first is a common standard for monitors (and the officially designated color space for the web). The second, wider standard is mostly used by photo and video editing professionals. The third, DCI-P3, is even wider, and is commonly used for HDR content.
Monitors advertising "99% sRGB" are claiming the screen covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, which is often considered indistinguishable from 100% when viewed with the naked eye.
In LCD screens, the backlight and color filters determine the color space. All of the light created by the backlight passes through a color filter with red, green, and blue spots. Narrowing the “band-pass” of this filter restricts the wavelengths of light that can pass through, increasing the purity of the final colors produced. Although this lessens the screen"s efficiency (as the filter now blocks more of the backlight"s output), it creates a wider color gamut.
HDR monitors display brighter images with better contrast and preserve more detail in both light and dark areas of the screen. Using an HDR monitor, you might be better able to spot something moving down a dark corridor in a horror game, or see more dramatic shafts of sunlight in an open-world title.
Though they work best with HDR content (which only some games and movies support), these monitors typically support 10-bit color depth and backlights that support a wide color gamut, which will also improve standard content (SDR). (Note that HDR monitors are often not true 10-bit color, but rather 8+2FRC displays that accept a 10-bit input signal).
For LCD displays, a high-end backlight feature called local dimming is critical to HDR quality. Dimming zones for the backlight behind the screen control the brightness of groups of LEDs; more dimming zones means more precise control, less “blooming” (where light areas of the image brighten dark ones), and generally improved contrast.
The DisplayHDR standard is more reliable than specs that are advertised as "Typical", as that wording allows manufacturers to list results that are true averages. Look for monitors that meet the minimum specification for different levels of DisplayHDR.
On the higher end, a DisplayHDR 600 screen needs a brightness of 600 nits, 90% of the DCI-P3 color gamut (providing a wider color space), 10-bit color depth, and some form of local dimming.
Refresh rate is the frequency at which your entire screen refreshes the image. Higher refresh rates make onscreen motion look smoother, because the screen updates the position of each object more rapidly. This can make it easier for competitive players to track moving enemies in a first-person shooter, or just make a screen feel more responsive as you scroll down a webpage or open an app on your phone.
Response rates are measured in hertz: A response rate of 120Hz, for example, means that the monitor refreshes every pixel 120 times per second. While 60Hz was once the standard for both PC monitors and smartphones, manufacturers are increasingly adopting higher refresh rates.
A higher refresh rate makes it easier to track moving objects with your eye, makes sharp camera movements feel smoother, and reduces perceived motion blur. Online communities are divided about the improvement provided by monitors over 120Hz. If interested, it"s worth checking one out in person to see how much of a difference it might make for you.
Response times must be fast enough to keep up with the refresh rate. On a 240Hz screen, for example, a new frame is sent to the screen every 4.17 milliseconds (1000/240 = 4.17).
Manufacturers often list "gray-to-gray" response time — the time it takes for a pixel to change from one shade of gray to another. The quoted number often indicates the manufacturer"s best-case result from a battery of different tests, rather than a reliable average.
Players sometimes confuse response time with input lag, a measurement of the delay before your actions appear onscreen, similarly measured in milliseconds. Input lag is felt rather than seen, and is often a priority for players of fighting games and first-person shooters.
VSync (vertical sync) provides one solution to this issue. This in-game feature reduces the speed at which frames are drawn in order to match your monitor"s refresh rate. However, VSync can cause stuttering when the frame rate drops below that cap. (For example, the GPU may suddenly drop to 30fps when it can"t deliver 60fps). The increased load on the GPU can also result in input lag.
While improvements to VSync (such as NVIDIA"s Adaptive VSync*) have been made, two monitor technologies provide alternative solutions: NVIDIA G-Sync* and AMD Radeon FreeSync*. These technologies force your monitor to sync up with the GPU, rather than vice versa.
G-Sync monitors use NVIDIA"s proprietary G-Sync scaler chip to match monitor refresh rates to GPU output, as well as predict GPU output based on recent performance. It also helps prevent stutter and input lag, which can result from duplicate frames being drawn as the first one waits to be displayed.
AMD Radeon FreeSync monitors operate along similar lines, matching the display to GPU output to avoid screen tearing and stutters. Rather than using a proprietary chip, they"re built on open Adaptive Sync protocols, which have been built into DisplayPort 1.2a and all later DisplayPort revisions. Though FreeSync monitors are often cheaper, the trade-off is that they aren"t subject to standard testing before release, and vary widely in quality.
Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) is a general term for technologies that sync up your monitor and GPU. Adaptive Sync is an open protocol included in DisplayPort 1.2a and later revisions. Recent Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA graphics technologies can all work with Adaptive Sync monitors.
Both LCDs and OLEDs "sample and hold", displaying moving objects as a series of static images that are rapidly refreshed. Each sample remains onscreen until it"s replaced with the next refresh. This "persistence" causes motion blur, as the human eye expects to track objects smoothly rather than see them jump to a new position. Even at high refresh rates, which update the image more often, the underlying sample-and-hold technology causes motion blur.
Motion blur reduction features use backlight strobing to shorten the time that frame samples are displayed onscreen. The screen turns black after every sample before displaying the next, reducing the time that a static image is held onscreen.
This mimics the operation of older CRT monitors, which worked differently than current LCD technology. CRT screens were illuminated by phosphors that rapidly decayed, providing brief impulses of illumination. This meant that the screen was actually dark for most of the refresh cycle. These quick impulses actually created a smoother impression of motion than sample-and-hold, and motion blur reduction features work to replicate this effect.
These backlights should only be enabled for gaming and fast-moving content, as they will deliberately cause the backlight to flicker, which may be annoying during day-to-day tasks. They also can typically only be used at a fixed refresh rate (like 120Hz), and won"t work at the same time as VRR.
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)These boxy computer monitors were common from the 1970s until the early 2000s, and are still prized by some players today for their low input lag and response times.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)In TFT LCDs (thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays), a backlight shines light through a layer of liquid crystals that can twist, turn, or block it. The liquid crystals do not emit light themselves, which is a key difference between LCDs and OLEDs.
Older LCDs used Cold-Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFLs) as backlights. These large, energy-inefficient tubes were incapable of controlling the brightness of smaller zones of the screen, and were eventually phased out in favor of smaller, energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
LCD panels are available in a range of technologies and can vary widely in color reproduction, response time, and input lag, especially among high-end options. However, the following generalizations about panels usually hold true:
Oldest and most affordable LCD panel type. High refresh rates and response times for high-speed gaming such as first-person shooters or fighting games.
Restrictive viewing angles caused by the method of twisting light. Typically lack true 8-bit color depth. Typically low contrast ratios of 800:1 or 1,000:1.
Widest viewing angles. Most stable image quality. Deeper blacks and better contrast ratios than TN panels. Most are 6-bit+2, but 8-bit and 8+2 panels exist. Often highly rated premium panels.
Pale glow, known as “IPS glow” visible when viewing screens in dark rooms from off-center angles. Response times usually worse than TN panels, but better than VA panels. Lower contrast ratio than VA panels.
Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED)OLED screens are emissive, meaning they create their own light, rather than transmissive screens that require a separate light source (like LCDs). Here, the application of electric current causes a layer of organic molecules to light up on the front of the screen.
Backlights may be imperfectly blocked by the liquid crystals in an LCD, causing black areas of an image to appear gray. Because OLEDs have no backlight, they can achieve “true black” by simply turning off a pixel (or at least 0.0005 nits, the lowest measurable brightness).
OLEDs therefore boast very high contrast ratios and vibrant color. The elimination of the backlight also makes them slimmer than LCDs. Much as LCDs were a thinner, more energy-efficient evolution of CRTs, OLEDs may prove a thinner evolution of LCDs. (They can also be more energy-efficient when displaying dark content, like movies, but less energy-efficient with white screens, such as word processing programs).
Gaming monitors often include a mount with adjustable height, tilt, and degree of rotation. These help you find an ergonomic position for your monitor and help it fit in varied workspaces.
VGA (Video Graphics Array): Older monitors may feature this legacy port, a 15-pin analog connection introduced in 1987. It transmits only video, at resolutions up to 3840 × 2400.
Single-Link DVI (Digital Visual Interface): The oldest display interface found on many modern monitors, this 24-pin digital connection dates back to 1999. It transmits only video and can connect to VGA or HDMI with an adapter. It supports resolutions up to 1920 × 1200.
HDMI: This ubiquitous interface transmits video and audio, and will also connect to game consoles. Cables labeled “High-Speed HDMI” should work with every revision of HDMI before HDMI 2.1.
DisplayPort: High-bandwidth ports that transmit video and audio. All DisplayPort cables work with all DisplayPort versions up to 2.0, which requires active cables (cables that include an electronic circuit) for full bandwidth. Revisions 1.2 and later allow you to link multiple monitors together via “daisy chaining” (though this also requires compatible monitors).
USB: These common ports transfer both data and power. Many monitors let you connect keyboards and mice to them to free up USB ports on your PC. USB Type-C ports feature a reversible design and can double as DisplayPorts.
Input: 3.5mm jack for connecting an audio cable from your computer, allowing you to play sound over the monitor"s internal speakers. Note that HDMI and DisplayPort cables also transmit audio, and are a simpler solution for many users.
Figuring out what to look for in a gaming monitor depends heavily on the choices you"ve made about the rest of your computer. Modern monitors can generally help you avoid the dropped frames, input lag, and visual artifacts common in older technologies, but the value of increased resolution, color depth, and motion smoothing features will vary from player to player. It"s down to you to separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves.
Panasonic has developed a new type of IPS liquid crystal panel that has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, as well as a peak brightness of up to 1000 nits. Many LCD displays often advertise such contrast ratios which are measured against a dynamic backlight and are essentially meaningless, but in this case Panasonic is talking about the static contrast ratio of the display, which only reaches as high as 2000:1 on a typical IPS display. Little information is available about the technology at this point, but Panasonic claims that it is achieved by implementing pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity and that panels featuring the tech can be produced using contemporary LCD manufacturing facilities.
One of the key advantages that OLED displays have over LCD displays is extremely high contrast ratio that results in superior blacks. The reason why OLEDs can display deeper blacks is simple: such panels do not use backlighting and can completely switch pixels off when they need to display blacks. By contrast, LCDs use backlighting that cannot be turned off on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which is why in many cases blacks look like dark greys.
In the most optimal case, an LCD display will use full-array backlighting, where there are several LEDs placed directly behind the liquid crystal layer. This allows for a degree of control by performing local dimming of certain areas, which is how LCD televisions have managed to meet the standards required for HDR certification. However, the precision of the backlight control is not close to that of an OLED display which works at the pixel level. Even more common, especially in monitors and less expensive televisions, is the use of edge lighting where LEDs are placed along the edges of the display and the light is distributed across the panel using a guiding plate, which means you can really only control the overall brightness across the entire display.
As it appears, Panasonic has found a way to substantially increase contrast ratio of IPS LCDs using a high-brightness backlight and a special layer of light-modulating cells that enable pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity. These cells are made of light-tolerant liquid crystal material that has different light-transmission properties compared to those used in the display cells. The layer of light-modulating cells is placed between the backlight and the LCD cells and thus can control light leakage. At a high level, one could think of them like gates placed behind each pixel on the display.
Panasonic does not reveal many details about its light-modulating cells, but since it uses the term “cells”, it clearly indicates that we are dealing with a relatively thick layer of liquid crystals, not a thin layer of quantum dots (you can see an illustration from Nanosys (a company that produces quantum dot films that are currently used on Samsung TVs and displays) to compare “cells” versus “quantum dots”).
Usage of a high-brightness backlight and a layer of light-modulating cells enable Panasonic to build display panels with up to 1000 nits brightness as well as a static contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. These figures mean that a black level of 0.001 nits should be possible, which is well beyond what even the best full-array backlit LCD displays can offer today.
Panasonic claims that the addition of the layer can be done using the existing equipment for LCD manufacturing, but it"s not clear how costly the technology will be to implement or if it requires further components to be added to the LCD stack. The company plans to offer displays featuring the new technology for various professional applications, such as video production, medical, automotive, engineering and so on. Given the positioning, it is obvious that the price of IPS displays with enhanced contrast will be well above that of mainstream monitors.
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