ips led lcd panel review for sale

For many years, TVs with LED backlights have dominated the market. Manufacturers release many LED models every year that have different features. You won"t get the same excellent dark room picture quality as an OLED but LED TVs have a few more advantages than OLEDs (check out our article about OLED vs. LED). LED TVs" biggest advantages are their brightness, which allows them to get brighter than OLEDs, and they"re immune to permanent burn-in. LED TVs are also sometimes called LCD instead; LED refers to the technology used to create the backlight, whereas LCD refers to the technology used to produce different colors and shades. As all LCD models currently on the market use LED backlights, the two terms are often used interchangeably.

We"ve bought and tested more than 300 TVs with LED backlights, and below are our recommendations for the best TVs with LED panels that you can buy. See also our picks for the best TVs, the best PS5 TVs, and the best TVs for Xbox Series X.

The Samsung QN90B QLED is the best TV with an LED panel we"ve tested. It"s an impressive TV with amazing picture quality and a great selection of gaming features. It uses a Mini LED backlight, with way more dimming zones than most LED TVs, which allows for greater control over the local dimming feature for better dark room performance, with less distracting blooming around bright objects. It also gets exceptionally bright, meaning it can handle lots of glare in a bright room.

Unlike most high-end LED TVs, it"s also a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image remains consistent when viewed at an angle thanks to Samsung"s "Ultra Viewing Angle" technology. It also has a great selection of extra features like a built-in Tizen smart interface that"s easy to use and has a ton of apps available to download, so you can easily find your favorite shows. It"s also excellent for gaming, as it supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the new-gen consoles, and it supports a variable refresh rate to reduce tearing.

The best LCD TV for a home theater is the Hisense U9DG. It"s a unique LED TV because it uses dual-panel technology. It means it has two LCD panels stacked on top of each other, delivering the equivalent of a local dimming feature with two million dimming zones; most other TVs only have a few hundred at most. This technology helps provide the TV with the best contrast ratio we"ve tested on any LED TV. The black level is nearly perfect, even in bright scenes, and there"s almost no blooming around bright objects.

This outstanding dark room performance with local dimming enabled results in an amazing HDR viewing experience. It displays a very wide color gamut for HDR content with great out-of-the-box accuracy, so colors appear how they should. Really small highlights pop the way the creator intended in HDR, but its overall HDR real scene peak brightness is just okay, and it"s not as good as the Samsung QN90B QLED. Still, the reflection handling is excellent, even if you"re watching movies in a room with a few lights around.

The best mid-range TV we"ve tested with an LED panel is the Hisense U8H. It"s an excellent TV overall, with fantastic contrast and an impressive Mini LED local dimming feature, delivering deep blacks in a dark room with very little distracting blooming around bright objects. It has exceptional peak brightness and reflection handling, ensuring it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It has worse processing overall than the Samsung QN90B QLED, though, so it"s a bit of a step down. There"s more noticeable banding in areas of similar color, and it has slightly worse motion processing as well.

The best LED TV we"ve tested in the budget category is the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. It"s a great TV overall, with superb contrast and fantastic black uniformity, making it a great choice for a dark room. It has a decent full array local dimming feature, but there"s a bit more blooming than there is on the Hisense U8H, and it"s not as bright. It has a wide color gamut, so colors look vibrant and realistic, and it displays HDR content the way the content creator intended.

If you"re shopping on a tight budget, the best cheap LED TV we"ve tested is the Hisense A6H. It"s an okay TV overall, but unlike the more expensive models on this list, most sizes aren"t well-suited for a dark room, as blacks look gray and washed out in a dark room. On the other hand, it"s a good choice for a kitchen or any room where you tend to move around with the TV on, as the image remains consistent when viewed from the side.

The Samsung QN95B QLED is an excellent TV that offers nearly identical performance to the Samsung QN90B QLED, but its inputs are all housed in an external One Connect box. It makes it easier to keep your cable management clean, but it"s not worth the price difference.

Replaced the Insignia F50 QLED with the Hisense A6H, as the Insignia is discontinued and very hard to find. Replaced the Hisense U6H with the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, as it"s a bit better overall. Added the Samsung QN95B QLED, TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED, and Insignia F50 QLED as Notable Mentions.

Replaced the Samsung QN90A QLED with the 2022 model, the Samsung QN90B QLED, and replaced the Hisense U6G with the 2022 Hisense U6H. Removed the Samsung QN85A QLED, as the Samsung QN90B is a better choice.

Restructured the article to better match user expectations. Added the Insignia F50 QLED as the "Best Cheap LED TV", and removed many out-of-date Notable Mentions.

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best LCD TVs to buy for most people in each price range. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn"t worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our LED TV reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

Key to this functionality is the U8H’s employment of mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, which allows this TV to produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This not only ensures impressive image contrast, it also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed down like a movie theater.

That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time. In fact, in our tests, the U8H bested last year’s upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90A, in certain scenarios: The intro to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix features the filmmaker against a pitch-black backdrop. Though last year’s QN90A failed to maintain perfect control over dimming elements during this scene (the black backdrop brightened distractingly once a sufficient amount of brighter content appeared on screen), the U8H did not. (For the record, the newer QN90B also passed this test.) The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

And thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, it’s easy to rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. Our measurements revealed that this mode has a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green is a bit oversaturated, but not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light). Additionally, the TV’s 120 Hz refresh rate means it can play Blu-ray discs at 24 fps without the judder that’s usually present on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.

The onboard Google TV smart platform is another feather in this TV’s cap. As usual, however, it will be much more satisfying to use if you have a Google account and already take advantage of Google’s connected services, like Photos. The experience of navigating the TV’s smart features—scanning QR codes to sign into apps, using the onscreen keyboard, and browsing your Google Photos to set a photo as a screensaver—was very satisfying in terms of responsiveness and speed. Powering on the TV and booting into an app took just seconds. The included Bluetooth remote is also equipped with a handy “Hey Google” button, allowing you to pull up Google’s assistant and use voice commands to search for content or set a reminder. If you have multiple users with their own Google accounts, you can designate separate profiles (attached to a Gmail account) so that each user can customize the experience to their liking, as well as access their own Google Drive or Photos. While some reviewers have reported instances of momentary freezing while using the U8H’s platform, I didn’t personally experience any instances of slowdown that were egregiously worse than with any other smart-TV platform.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV is primarily plastic, its bezels are lined with metal strips, providing a bit more durability in the long run. I moved it around my home, and it was no worse for wear, but we’ll know more after doing some long-term testing.

The Hisense U8H has some difficulties with banding, or areas of uneven gradation, where transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color (sometimes also called posterization). Like many current 4K HDR TVs, the U8H uses an 8-bit panel rather than a 10-bit panel, which affects the color decoding and color presentation process. This is usually relevant only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color on the screen. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay. Hisense has stated that it would address the problem in a future firmware update, but at the time of writing it was still present. This is a flaw that may give dedicated gamers pause, but we don’t consider it to be a dealbreaker for most people.

Finally, like most TVs that use vertical alignment (VA) LCD panels, the U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle, which may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick uses a special wide-angle technology to address this.

For gaming, use the game picture mode (the TV should switch into this mode automatically when paired with the newer game consoles), and then go into the Gaming submenu to make sure the right settings (VRR) are enabled. We recommend leaving the HDMI setting in “auto,” unless you notice that your game console is incorrectly identified.

Because OLED TVs are newer and generally more expensive, the average buyer is looking at LED/LCD TVs right now. And although there are several features and specifications to consider while shopping—the brand name, HDR compatibility, and refresh rate, just to name a few—there’s one important hardware spec that isn’t widely advertised: LCD panel type.

LED/LCD TVs are so called because of the two things that make up their displays: an LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlight and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for that backlight to shine through. LED backlights vary between a variety of implementations, but modern LCDs generally come in one of two panel technologies: IPS (In-Plane Switching) and VA (Vertical Alignment).

Unlike other hardware specifications (which are usually listed on the side of a TV box or on the manufacturer’s website), information about a TV’s LCD panel type is a bit more inside baseball. But panel type has a far greater impact on a TV’s performance than you might expect—it affects contrast, color, and viewing angle as well.

Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage. How the display arranges its crystals is part of what sets IPS panels apart from VA panels.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels are a common display type for both the best computer monitors and TVs. Without getting too far down the rabbit hole, let’s talk a little about how IPS panels distinguish themselves from other types.

Every non-OLED TV on the market today is an LCD TV powered by LED lighting. Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage—this is what produces color. An IPS panel aligns its crystals horizontally, parallel to the glass substrate.

IPS technology was developed in part to improve the color and wide viewing angle performance of a display. There"s also a range of variations under the IPS umbrella, including ADS, S-IPS, H-IPS, e-IPS, P-IPS, and PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching). But, while they all differ marginally from one another in operation, their core functionality (as compared to VA panels) is the same.

VA (Vertical Alignment) panels represent another common display type, used for both computer monitors and TVs, but especially for the latter where they greatly outnumber their IPS counterparts. Most LED/LCD TVs you"ll find on the market use a VA panel. While IPS panels align their liquid crystals horizontally, VA panels align them—you guessed it—vertically. They run perpendicular to the glass substrate rather than parallel to it. When met with voltage, the crystals tilt, letting light through and producing color.

This positioning changes how the liquid crystals behave. Without any voltage, the liquid crystals in a VA panel do not tilt, which is a better outcome if your goal is to block light and create image depth. Like with IPS, VA panels also come in a few varieties: PVA, S-PVA, and MVA, though again, their core functionality (as compared to IPS panels) is the same.

TN (Twisted Nematic) is an older LCD display type. They"re still relatively common display types for computer monitors—thanks to their lightning fast response times and excellent handling of motion blur. TN panels aren"t typically used in TV production anymore, though.

The cornerstone of picture quality, contrast ratio refers to the range between a display’s darkest black levels and brightest highlights. Because VA-style panels excel at producing deep, dark black levels, this is arguably their biggest strength. VA panels almost always feature deeper black levels than their IPS counterparts, and this goes a long way in creating a detail-rich picture. An IPS panel can mitigate this by serving up an exceptionally bright image to offset relatively shallow black levels.

A TV’s total viewing angle describes how much a viewer can move away from an ideal, head-on viewing position before the contrast and color of the picture begins to deteriorate. Due to the positioning of their liquid crystals, IPS panels excel in this department; they typically offer significantly more viewing flexibility than TVs with VA-style panels. In other words, IPS panels are more reliable for group viewings (or any situation where a viewer might need to sit at an off-angle).

While impressive color production is possible on both display types, IPS panels tend to offer wider colors, given the nature of their hardware. While a wider range of colors tends to spell better color accuracy, the advent of additional TV technologies like quantum-dot color have evened the playing field considerably. In other words, you’re far more likely to notice the benefits of an IPS TV’s wider viewing angle than you are to notice its tendency for wider color.

Here’s the final takeaway: IPS panels are significantly better than VA panels when it comes to viewing angle and somewhat better than VA panels when it comes to color. VA panels, however, almost always offer deeper black levels and better overall contrast. And because they block light better, TVs and monitors using VA panels tend to have better backlight uniformity regardless of LED backlight type.

Unfortunately, not only is it rare to find a TV’s panel type listed on a manufacturer’s website, but it’s increasingly rare for a brand to reveal a TV’s panel type at all—even when we contact brands directly for information. The reason for this caginess has everything to do with marketing; it’s better to keep shoppers focused on the bells, whistles, and impressive performance specs of a TV rather than its potential shortcomings.

To add to the confusion, it’s common for different sizes of the same TV series to mix and match display types; you might find that the 55-inch version of a TV features a VA-style display while the 75-inch model uses IPS.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to determine panel type if you have the proper equipment and you know what to look for. Certain test results and viewing characteristics act as tell-tale signs. This is why my colleagues and I make a point of discussing panel type in just about every TV review we publish, and why you should make a point of reading reviews before making a purchase.

Panel type is not the end-all-be-all for LED/LCD TVs. Many other factors, most of them related to the style and intensity of the LED backlight, can have a major impact on factors like contrast, viewing angle, and color intensity. Ultimately, you need to see a TV in person (and ideally in the space it’s going to live in) to get the best idea of how well it creates an image. But by knowing the core differences of IPS vs VA LCD panels, you can at least make some good guesses before you buy.

Unlike the best gaming monitors, IPS and VA TV panels are on an even playing field. TVs with both technologies are capable of high refresh rates of 120Hz, or occasionally 240Hz (although it usually comes at a premium).

If you’re buying a large screen and intend to host movie nights with friends and family, a TV with an IPS-style panel is far more accommodating thanks to its superior viewing angle. Just be aware that certain content—particularly dark content—won’t pop as much on account of the panel’s shallower black levels.

On the other hand, if you want the best possible picture overall, we recommend investing in a TV with a VA-style panel. They’re not always ideal candidates for group viewings, but the vast majority of the best non-OLED TVs you can buy feature this display type.

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There’s an almost overwhelming amount of options in the display market: OLED, MicroLED, and TN panel types just to name a few. But if you’re looking for a gaming monitor or simply don’t want to drain your bank account on a display, IPS and VA are generally the best choices. In-plane switching (or IPS) is an LCD-based technology that is used in just about every kind of display, whereas Vertical Alignment (or VA) is a more niche LCD technology used in gaming monitors, gaming TVs, and wide displays.

Although IPS is much more popular than VA and is often seen as the more premium option, both panel types have strengths and weaknesses that you should consider before you buy.

IPS panels have traditionally been used for making displays that have high color accuracy and large coverage of wide color gamuts like DCI-P3 or Adobe sRGB. Not only do IPS displays usually look good, but they also look good from wider angles, so you don’t need to look exactly head on at an IPS monitor to get accurate colors.

Although IPS is generally better than VA when it comes to color accuracy and coverage, VA panels have perfectly fine color accuracy and coverage for the vast majority of users. Only professional photo and video editors could really be disappointed with a VA monitor that only covers 90% of the DCI-P3 color space, which is actually a very good amount of coverage for gamers and content consumers.

Contrast ratio is a metric that measures how dark the color black is depicted on a display, measured as a ratio of x:1. The higher x is, the better. Although IPS is very good with color accuracy in general, it really struggles with making the color black, and even the best IPS monitors and TVs can only show a very dark grey rather than true black. Most IPS monitors are rated at a 1000:1 contrast ratio, which isn’t terrible but isn’t great either. Some monitors can get up to around 2000:1 however.

Despite VA’s general color accuracy issues, it’s actually amazing at depicting black as truly black. Even the worst VA displays can easily muster a 2000:1 contrast ratio, and some can even achieve higher than 5000:1. In fact, VA is second only to OLED when it comes to contrast ratio, and OLED actually delivers perfect contrast ratios of ∞:1. Because of this, a VA display can look better than an IPS counterpart in darker scenes.

Some displays can boost contrast ratio by using local dimming and HDR. By using a more complex backlight with multiple LEDs that can be turned on or off, local dimming helps IPS and VA displays look even darker when it matters. On the other end of the spectrum, HDR boosts brightness for colors that need it. With these two factors combined, some displays can boost the contrast ratio significantly. However, these features aren’t going to make an IPS display’s contrast ratio as good as the average VA display’s, and poorly implemented local dimming can backfire by creating more visual problems than it solves.

Response time is the amount of time it takes to fully refresh the display and show a new image. This is an area where both IPS and VA struggle, but nowadays very good IPS displays have overcome traditional issues with response times, and VA displays have not shown the same amount of progress. There is no standard that display manufacturers adhere to when it comes to measuring response time, but according to BenQ, which makes both IPS and VA monitors and TVs, IPS has a response time of 1-2ms whereas VA can only achieve 4-5ms. The specific values here aren’t important because this is a best-case scenario. What’s really important is that VA is much slower.

Very high response times can result in very animated scenes looking blurry and smeared. This issue is called ghosting, and it’s particularly annoying for discerning gamers playing fast-paced games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Both IPS and VA displays have solutions and workarounds to avoid ghosting, the most important being overdrive. Overdrive that’s too aggressive can cause reverse ghosting, which is when the display tries to change a pixel’s color so quickly that it accidentally overshoots and ends up with the wrong color for a few frames. Ghosting and reverse ghosting both cause smearing, so if overdrive is too weak or too strong, the end result is similar: It looks bad.

Although the best IPS panels beat the best VA panels when it comes to response time, there are plenty of IPS displays that have very bad response times. It’s also worth noting that response time only needs to be equal to the refresh rate of the monitor for there to be no smearing. On a 60Hz display, for instance, it takes 16.66ms to show a new image, so a response time of 1ms doesn’t really do much. Response time matters much more at higher refresh rates, and even at 144Hz a response time of around 7ms is sufficient to avoid ghosting.

IPS is capable of significantly higher refresh rates than VA. IPS is capable of hitting 500Hz while VA caps out at 240Hz. However, the vast majority of VA displays are only capable of 144Hz or 165Hz; there are only a few VA monitors that can do 240Hz. For those wanting extremely high refresh rates, IPS is the clear winner.

While IPS displays are usually a safe recommendation for most people, sometimes there are very good reasons to buy VA monitors and TVs. VA has found its home in midrange gaming monitors, gaming TVs, and ultrawide displays, and many of the best gaming monitors use VA. If you’re shopping outside of these categories, however, you probably won’t have to worry about choosing between IPS and VA because VA is not very often used elsewhere.

If you do have the choice between VA and IPS, you’re going to have to evaluate what you prefer in a display, and you should definitely read some monitor reviews just to make sure if VA or IPS is going to deliver what you want in your next display purchase. After all, even an IPS display can have bad color accuracy or bad response time, so don’t assume IPS means quality and that VA means budget.

The Hisense U8H"s price drops mean that it"s kind of unbeatable in the mid-range – you get the brightness and impressive contrast of mini-LED for a very affordable budget.

The best TVs in this guide are all excellent, representing the pinnacle of what"s possible in smart TV tech. Each of our choices below are packed with detailed 4K (or 8K) screens, powerful HDR, and robust features, including HDMI 2.1 connections with support for 120Hz input and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for next-gen game consoles and PCs.

As the latest smart TVs from the best brands in the business, including LG, Samsung, Sony and TCL, are released, we"ve been reviewing them. We"ve been testing groundbreaking new OLED, mini-LED, and even the new QD-OLED technology over the last few months.

If you"re willing to consider a slightly older model than the very latest 2023 sets, your possibilities expand quite considerably. It means you might be able to pick up one of the best OLED TVs, or that you can afford to get one of the best 75-inch TVs instead of one of the best 65-inch TVs. If there"s one thing we like more than getting a new TV, it"s knowing we got a good deal on it.

The TVs we"ve recommended here cover all kinds of display technologies and include the best 4K TVs and best 8K TVs. Our experienced reviewers have put all of these TVs through their paces to discover the best of each kind, so whether you"re looking for the very latest tech or the very best value you"ll find the perfect TV right here.

Why you can trust TechRadarOur expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

After dropping a few spots in 2021, LG"s C2 OLED is right at the top spot on our list of the best TVs. That"s due to a number of improvements LG has made to the current model compared to the LG C1 OLED.

In addition to those improvements, the C2 OLED carries forward the four separate HDMI 2.1 ports that it inherited from the C1 OLED, meaning it"s the perfect companion for the PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

The LG C2 isn’t flawless, however. Off-axis color saturation does diminish a bit when you move to the left or right of the screen when compared to the new QD-OLED models and LG doesn"t support either the IMAX Enhanced or HDR10+ format.

The U8H series’ chief claim to fame is its mini-LED backlight, a feature first implemented in LCD TVs by rival TCL that was quickly adopted by Samsung, LG, and Sony in their own sets. A major benefit to mini-LED is high brightness – something the U8H series readily delivers.

But high brightness isn’t the only thing about the U8H that impresses. It uses a Quantum Dot filter for enhanced color, and the 504 local dimming zones on the 65-inch model deliver deep and detailed blacks. Some backlight blooming – a typical artifact with LED-backlit TVs that feature local dimming – can be seen with challenging material, but that’s the exception rather than the norm.

Vizio"s OLED TV is a cheaper alternative to the more premium screens that LG and Sony have been producing for the past few years. For folks who don’t want to spend a fortune, the Vizio OLED has most of the same key features and it offers largely similar performance as other OLEDs for hundreds of dollars less.

Of course, as an OLED screen, the Vizio OLED has both some big advantages (and a few flaws) worth pointing out up front. In the former category we have exceptional black levels and extremely thin chassis, the other benefits of OLED being the exceptional contrast and wider viewing angles that most folks can appreciate. The downside is that OLEDs in general aren’t as bright as their LED-LCD counterparts, and Vizio’s OLED in particular is dimmer than most.

Compounding the problems of this flatscreen TV is Vizio’s SmartCast platform, which is missing a few key apps and can be a bit slow after startup. We also feel that the upscaling on the Vizio OLED isn’t as strong as LG or Sony’s upscaling algorithms as we spotted a heavy grain on HD sources on more than one occasion.

8K might feel a bit like overkill to some, but there"s no doubt in our mind that the Samsung QN900B Neo QLED 8K TV is on another level of performance. Samsung"s Mini LED-sporting QN900B Neo QLED 8K TV offers stunning picture quality, exceptional color and brightness, terrific sound and outstanding blacks – all in a package that"s unmatched in terms of design.

For the uninitiated, Samsung"s "Quantum" Mini LEDs are 1/40th the thickness of a regular LED, meaning thousands of smaller LEDs can be packed together in a much tighter fashion, allowing for far more accurate dimming zones and black levels that are practically indistinguishable from an OLED.

As the LEDs are far smaller, they"re able to achieve far more precision and less blooming, so the act of seeing bright areas of the screen unnaturally bleed over into darker spots should be greatly reduced or not evident at all. And because it takes advantage of Samsung"s Multi-Intelligence AI upscaling, the QN900A is consistently able to produce images that looked better than their source.

If price isn"t a concern for you and you simply want the best TV you can buy at any price point – well, then you want the LG G2 OLED. The OLED65G2 uses its extra brightness to make pretty much every frame of any source you care to mention look even more sublime than it has on any LG OLED before.

Although the G2 OLED shares the same ‘Gallery’ design name as its GX and G1 predecessors, it actually looks completely different: gone is the dark frame and chamfered edges, in is a nifty two-layer effect where a thin black rear ‘slab’ sits proud of and slightly narrower than a chunkier front tier housing the screen that’s encased in a very fetching and opulent-looking silver metal coat.

The quality of the G2 OLED’s connections is beyond reproach. In particular, all four of its HDMI ports are capable of handling the maximum 48Gbps of data supported by the HDMI 2.1 standard. This means that hardcore video gamers could simultaneously attach an Xbox Series X, PS5 and cutting-edge PC graphics rig to enjoy full-fat 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rates and automatic low latency mode switching from all of them. That, plus you"ll still have one HDMI left for adding a 4K Blu-ray player or streaming box.

To anyone familiar with LG’s OLED TVs over the years, the impact made by the extra brightness the heat sink unlocks is instantly obvious: the extra brightness gives colors more volume and punch, regardless of whether you’re talking about a very vibrant, rich tone, or a subtle, mild one.

There"s little doubt in our mind that, for gamers, the Sony X90J is one of the best televisions out there. It has excellent image quality, thanks in part to a new Cognitive XR processor rolled out to Sony"s top 2021 sets, making for excellent upscaling and contrast control. The X90J also sports the new Google TV smart platform, for easy setup and broad app support as well as the perks of Google Cast from Android devices. There"s Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio packed in too.

When it comes to gaming, the X90J has a 120Hz panel with 4K resolution and two full-spec HDMI 2.1 ports for your Xbox Series X and PS5, with VRR (variable refresh rate) and ALLM (auto low latency mode, for sub-10ms lag) to really up your gaming experience. Just be sure to head into the picture settings and switch on "Enhanced format" for your selected HDMI port, otherwise you won"t get the benefit of its 2.1 specification.

By combining Sony’s premium OLED picture performance with a powerful and direct sound system, the Sony A90J OLED TV manages to be a compelling TV option for serious home cinema fans.

It carries Sony’s top-line Cognitive Processor XR, Sony’s Pixel Contrast Booster (for more intense image highlights), and a new OLED version of the X-Motion Clarity feature Sony initially developed for its FALD LCD smart TVs.

The Samsung QN90A was one of the first 4K screens in 2021 to use the company’s hyped-up Neo QLED panels that sport a higher count of light emitting diodes per square inch than previous generations. The result is a brighter TV than before, if that’s even possible with Samsung, and one that can display a deeply satisfying array of colors.

All Neo QLED TVs sport the higher-end Neo Quantum Processor 4K that uses a neural network to analyze images for better HD upscaling and Motion Xcelerator Turbo+ for better motion handling – all of which has really paid off for Samsung’s flagship screen.

Beyond gaming, M-Series QX TVs feature an LCD panel with a Quantum Dot layer for enhanced color and a full-array LED backlight with local dimming. And while they’re not the brightest TVs in Vizio’s lineup – you’ll need to step up to its pricier P-Series models for that, brightness, contrast, and color performance are all impressive for a budget TV.

When we discovered that the TCL 6-Series 2020 QLED (R635) would use Mini LED, we were shocked. That’s because, just a year prior, that same technology came to the high-end 8-Series and cost hundreds of dollars more than the ultra-affordable 6-Series.

It"s not the end-all, be-all LED-LCD we were dreaming it would be due to its limited brightness and poor motion handling, but it truly is an exceptional value and one that we"d recommend to nearly everyone.

THE BEST TV under $1,000: FAQHow to choose the best TV for youWhat TV technology is best? Which is the best LCD TV? Which screen size is best for your living room? What"s the difference between LCD and LED TVs?

There are dozens of brands out there but we generally only recommend Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, Panasonic, TCL, Philips, and Hisense. Each have different product ranges encompassing different prices and features.

If you"re on a budget then a cheaper TV brand like Hisense or TCL is a good bet thanks to both brands offering good features at very good prices. However, if you"re looking for a high-end OLED then something from LG, Sony or Panasonic is a better option. The latter of which tends to offer better built-in audio than any other OLED TV maker out there.

Obviously, there is a level of subjectivity that goes into the review process, however we strive to maintain fairness across brands by testing the same type of content on each screen (HD/SDR, 4K/HDR, games, movies and music) and reporting what we"ve found the experience to be like.

Like our readers, our writer"s and editor"s room layouts differ and may cause slight disparities in testing, however we make every attempt to question our assumptions and trouble-shoot our issues with performance in every review.Round up of today"s best deals

Make your gaming system stand out with this 27-inch Lenovo Legion monitor. WQHD gives you four times the resolution of standard HD for the best viewing experience. In extreme mode, a 1 ms response time and 165 Hz refresh rate support minimal lag. Adjust, swivel and pivot this 27-inch Lenovo Legion monitor for comfortable gaming from any angle. 2K Quad HD 2560 x 1440 resolution Expand your gaming performance in line with the power of your graphics card. 1 ms response time Delivers ultra-fast performance, minimizing lag and time-to-screen. 165 Hz refresh rate Delivers powerful performance so that you can get the most out of your games and videos. 27" LCD monitor The efficient screen type uses LEDs to provide precise backlighting to pixels. HDMI and DisplayPort inputs Allow you to set up DVD players and other AV sources for a clear, high-quality audio and video signal. 178 horizontal and vertical viewing angles Allow you to view the screen from a wide range of angles. 1000:1 contrast ratio Ensures images are crisp and clear with deep blacks and bright highlights. 350 cd/m brightness Ensures images are clear and can be seen across the room.

Break free from bulky designs, and prepare for a frameless experience. An ultra slim 6.6 mm panel and a thin 2.2 mm bezel, delivering an incredible visual experience.

With SuperClear IPS panel technology, enjoy accurate and vivid colours with consistent levels of brightness whether you are looking at the screen from above, below, the front, or the side.

After all, the best touch screen monitor will add an extra, more ergonomic form of user input, so must be better, right? Well, it"s not quite that simple. At the bottom of this page, you"ll find tips on what to look for when buying a touch screen monitor, including connectivity, size, and that all-important image quality.

Marketed at commercial and educational settings as well as home use, the TD2230 boasts a 7H hardness-rated protective glass for extra scratch protection and durability. Super-thin screen bezels give the panel a modern, sleek look, plus there are integrated stereo speakers for added versatility.

The ViewSonic TD2230 boasts upmarket image quality thanks to its IPS LCD display that provides better color and contrast consistency, regardless of your viewing position, while the 1920 x 1080 screen res is high enough for crisp image clarity when spread across the 21.5-inch panel size. 250 cd/m2 max brightness and a 1000:1 contrast ratio are pretty typical, while HDMI, DisplayPort and analog VGA connectors ensure you"ll be able to hook this monitor to pretty much any computer running Windows 10, Android or Linux.

Want a larger than average touch screen monitor? This 27-inch offering is our pick, as it"s based around an IPS LED-backlit display. That translates more dependable color accuracy and contrast that won"t shift depending on whether you"re viewing the centre of the screen or the corners.

If you can get past the uninspiring black plastic design of the Philips 242B9T, this touch screen monitor has a lot to offer. It should be easy to connect to pretty much any computer, thanks to its full array of HDMI, DVI, VGA and DisplayPort connectivity and included cables for all but DVI. It"s even got its own built-in 2W stereo speakers, while the clever Z-hinge stand allows a huge -5 to 90 degrees of tilt adjustment, making it extra-ergonomic when using the 10-point capacitive multi-touch display.

If you"re after a larger-than-average touch screen monitor, the T272HL is a reasonable choice, but there are compromises to be made. For starters, this is still a 1920 x 1080 Full HD monitor, so while it may be physically larger than a 23/24-inch Full HD display, images will simply look larger, not more detailed.

At 21.5 inches, the Asus VT229H is one of the smaller touch screen monitors on this list, but it still sports the same Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution as larger 24 and even 27-inch touch screen displays, meaning you get more pixels per inch and slightly crisper image quality. This is also an IPS LCD, with wide 178 x 178-degree viewing angles and reliably consistent color and contrast, regardless of your viewing angle.

Most touch screen monitors are just that: a monitor, with a touch interface. But this 21.5-inch display also adds a pair of 2W stereo speakers for sound output, along with dual-array microphones and a built-in webcam for video conferencing. The IPS LCD display panel ensures decent color and contrast uniformity, while the Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution is easily enough to for crisp image quality on a screen this size.

It"s not just outright screen resolution where touch screen monitors can fall short of their non-touch alternatives. Top-end screens designed for image and video editing are often factory color calibrated: they use LCD displays that can display a huge range of colors, or feature fast refresh rates for smoother video playback and gaming. However, touch screen monitors aren"t intended for color-critical image or video work: they tend to be all-purpose displays designed for more general applications like web browsing and basic image viewing.

Not all LCD monitors are created equal. LCD displays use three types of construction - IPS (In-Plane Switching), VA (Vertical Alignment), and TN (Twisted Nematic). Each one of these three LCD types exhibits noticeably different image quality characteristics, clearly visible to the average user.

For image and video editing, TN-based monitors should really be avoided. These are the cheapest to manufacture and deliver compromised image quality thanks to their restrictive viewing angles. This results in highly uneven color and contrast across the screen, effectively hiding shadow and highlight detail in your images. IPS-based monitorsare the gold standard for image quality. These produce color and contrast that doesn"t shift depending on which part of the screen you look at, making image editing much more precise. Most of the touch screen monitors on this list are IPS-based, and the rest are VA-based monitors. These can"t quite match the image quality of an IPS monitor but are much more color-accurate than a TN screen.Round up of today"s best deals

The Dell U3223QE looks like any past Dell Ultrasharp monitor. But this one has a trick up its sleeve: It’s among the first monitors to use LG’s new IPS Black panel technology. IPS Black is a new iteration of IPS panel tech that promises to boost contrast by lowering the deepest, darkest shade of black the panel can achieve.

The Dell U3223QE is part of the company’s Ultrasharp line of business and professional monitors. Ultrasharp is not the very best Dell offers in this field—that honor goes to Dell’s far less common Ultrasharp PremierColor line—but it’s a high-end display by most metrics. It has a 31.5-inch, 4K panel that promises to deliver up to 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

The on-screen menu is laid out in simple, logical groupings, and the joystick control feels intuitive when scrolling through options. Dell has a clear edge over competitors like Viewsonic and LG, which tend to have more opaque menu groupings. BenQ is the only brand that has Dell beat. Some BenQ monitors, including the DesignVue monitors that directly compete with Dell’s Ultrasharp, have a bundled remote.

The U3223QE has an Ethernet port, supports Gigabit Ethernet speeds, and even has a LED light that indicates whether a connected device is operating at 1000Mbps or 100Mbps speeds.

Alright, let’s get into the meat of it. The USB-C hub is excellent, but this monitor’s defining feature is the IPS Black panel. Dell’s U2723QE and U3223QE are the first to bring the technology to the North American market.

The first test, brightness, is not an area IPS Black promises to improve, but the U3223QE does well all the same. It hit a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 449 nits. This is an excellent result for SDR and among the highest I’ve observed in a monitor with a conventional edge-lit LED backlight.

Of course, contrast is the test monitor enthusiasts have been waiting to see, and it’s good news. IPS Black does what it claims to. The monitor achieves a maximum contrast ratio of 2,190:1. That’s roughly double what the best conventional IPS desktop monitors can provide.

I recorded a minimum luminance of .9 nits with the monitor at 50 percent of its maximum brightness. Most conventional IPS panel monitors display a luminance between .16 and .28 in similar conditions.

There is just one significant weakness to note: luminance uniformity. Despite all its strengths, this is still an edge-lit LED panel, and that means the edges of the display are notably brighter than the middle in dark scenes. My review unit also had a couple minor blotches of brightness, a problem typical of IPS monitors.

To its credit, the IPS Black panel seemed to make these spots dimmer and less distracting, but they’re still there. This is an area where Mini-LED and OLED alternatives will put the U3223QE to shame.

Yes, the monitor can achieve an excellent maximum brightness of 507 nits. And yes, it has the color gamut to provide some extra oomph to HDR content. The IPS Black panel’s added contrast should also, in theory, be helpful.

Don’t buy this monitor for HDR. For now, those who want great (or even decent) HDRmust turn to a more expensive Mini-LED monitor like the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX or Viewsonic XG321UG.

The Dell Ultrasharp U3223QE is a great debut for IPS Black technology. It promises improved black levels and contrast, and that’s exactly what it delivers. It also retains the great color performance high-end IPS panel monitors are known for, and, to sweeten the deal, provides crisp 4K resolution.

But there’s more to the U3223QE than the panel. It’s also a fantastic business, productivity, and professional monitor loaded with image-quality options and a king’s buffet of connectivity. You can plug in a high-end laptop over USB-C and gain instant access to five more USB-A ports, DisplayPort-out, and ethernet.

Even after the introduction of newer display technologies, LCDs still remain relevant even today.LCD displays are used for multiple purposes (TV, Monitor, Mobile Phones, Laptops, Automobiles, etc.) and one single configuration cannot satisfy all the purposes. So, LCD displays come with two different panels – VA (Vertical Alignment) and IPS (In-Plane Switching) to satisfy the different viewing needs of consumers.

A VA panel offers a superior contrast ratio but a narrow viewing angle. Contrarily, an IPS panel offers a wide viewing angle but a low contrast ratio.

As mentioned earlier, displays with VA Panels provide a great contrast ratio. You can find VA panels that typically come with contrast ratios of 3000:1 or 6000:1. A comparable IPS panel will only have a contrast ratio of 1000:1.

VA panels have narrow viewing angles. You will only be able to have an immersive experience when you sit straight opposite the display. The wider angles will not provide you the same experience.

In this, the liquid crystals are arranged parallel to the glass substrate instead of the perpendicular alignment. Furthermore, the structure of crystals and the placement of electrodes differ from the one used in VA panels. The electrodes occupy more space that results in lower contrast and brightness of the screen.

With the IPS panels, you can view the TV / monitor from a wide-angle and still get an impressive picture quality. Unlike VA panels, you will notice very little difference in color reproduction when you sit at a wide-angle from the display.

But when it comes to black uniformity, the IPS panels are sub-par. These panels do a poor job in displaying a bright image in the center of a completely black screen.

One more major drawback with the IPS panels is that they exhibit a distinct phenomenon called ‘IPS Glow’. You will notice some light patches on the corners of the screen. This happens when excessive light is passed through the screen.

Initially, IPS panels are mainly used in TVs due to their wide viewing angles, as we can watch TV in our living room from anywhere. But due to their better quality, color accuracy and response time, LCD panels gradually occupied the high-end computer monitor and laptop screens

IPS:These panels have the highest color range. You will be able to enjoy a realistic gaming experience. Besides, they have better viewing angles. So, you won’t notice any drop in picture quality even when you are not sitting in front of your TV / monitor.

VA:Even though the color range is not as great as the IPS panel, it does a pretty good job in showing the color variations. But the viewing angle is narrow. So, you have to sit straight opposite the TV / monitor.

VA panel compensates for its decent color range with an impressive contrast ratio. You will be able to see great detailing in the difference between light and dark colors.

IPS:IPS panels have one of the highest refresh rates. While you easily find an IPS panel with a refresh rate of 144Hz, some of the latest ones come with a refresh rate of 360Hz. If you are a serious online-gamer, digital artist, or video editor, then you have to go with the highest refresh rate within your budget.

VA:VA panels have lower refresh rates than IPS panels. Most VA panels come with a refresh rate of 120Hz. If you want to have a higher refresh rate, then you have to be willing to spend extra. VA panels have a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz.

IPS:IPS panels generally come with a response time of 4 milliseconds. This would suffice for watching TV or playing most games. But, if you are playing racing games or first-person shooting games, you need to have a response time of less than 2 milliseconds.

VA:VA panels generally have a slower response time than IPS panels with 5 milliseconds. So, there is a higher chance for you to experience motion blur. But, some of the VA panels that come with an expensive price tag have faster response times.

IPS:When it comes to the viewing angle, IPS panels far outweigh the VA panels. They have wider viewing angles. You will experience no drop in picture quality even if you sit and watch the TV from an extreme angle.

VA:The VA panels have a very narrow viewing angle. You have to sit as close to the straight axis of the TV to enjoy the picture quality. If you sit wider, there will be a significant loss in the picture quality.

IPS:IPS panels do a decent job in the contrast ratio segment but they are nowhere close to that of VA panels. An IPS panel offers a contrast ratio of 1000:1. When you watch a black color environment in an IPS panel, the black color will be slightly greyed out.

VA:VA panels offer a superior contrast ratio of 6000:1 that is very impressive. It has the capacity to show dark environments as darker. So, you will enjoy the picture detailing shown by the VA panels.

IPS:IPS panels are not really great at displaying the uniform black color throughout the screen. Due to the low contrast ratio, the black color will appear slightly greyed out.

VA:VA panels have a good black uniformity. But it also depends on the TV model you go with. Not all TV models with a VA panel have good black uniformity. But it is safe to say that in general, VA panels have better black uniformity than an IPS panel.

To put it short, the main difference between the panels lies in the alignment of the liquid crystals. The alignment results in the differences in the performance and picture quality of the panels.

The VA panels are ideal for office/study use, high-end PC games, and online games. If you are looking for a panel for mixed usage, the VA panel should still suffice your needs.

Back in the day, there was only one display technology – the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). CRT TVs are bulky and draw a lot of current. But the introduction of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TV sets changed all that. TVs became more compact and the impact on the electricity bill was less.

The viewer sees a picture when an LCD screen is backlit by Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFLs), which are placed on the edges or behind the LCD panel. CCFL-backlit TVs have now been replaced with LED-backlit TVs. The advantage with LED-backlit TVs is lower power consumption, longevity of the backlight and a generally brighter picture.

When LCD TVs began to gain popularity from about 2000 onwards, it had only one main competitor – the Plasma Display Panel (PDP). However, PDP TVs faded away as LCD TVs were much cheaper.

A Thin Film Transistor (TFT) display is a type of LCD but the former had better contrast. Apart from TV sets, TFT LCD screens are used in smartphones, handheld devices, calculators, car instrument displays among others.

In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology is another type of LCD TV technology. These panels are more accurate in their picture reproduction and show more accurate colour from narrow viewing angles. In simple terms, IPS was better than LCD.

TV sets with Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays are better than traditional LCD TVs that are backlit by CCFLs or LEDs. This is because OLED TVs do not need any backlighting. Therefore, these panels produce very deep blacks and this gives very good contrast. This, in turn, means better picture quality. This is good when it comes to future technologies like 4K picture resolution. They are power efficient too.

Quantum LED (QLED) is another technology that Samsung is pursuing actively. OLED TVs are known to be better in terms of sharpness and back levels than QLED TVs but the gap is narrowing.

Normal LED-backlit, OLED and IPS panel TVs are all generally safe bets. Getting too deep into these technologies before buying a TV will lead to confusion. Any company will obviously say that their product is the best with a lot of jargon thrown in.

Computer monitor technology has long had a champion, and it’s called In-Plane Switching, or IPS. This display panel technology has often been praised because it is capable of fixing many issues found in cheaper TN panel monitors.

Yet IPS also comes at a price, and as the technology has filtered down to less expensive monitors, some disadvantages have been exaggerated. The decision to buy an IPS monitor for your next display is no longer as clear.

A common problem among LCD displays of every type, ghosting or blurring is essentially what it sounds like. It’s an image defect that causes objects moving on-screen to leave a unwanted trail behind. Both terms refer to the same problem.

Ghosting is a possible issue on almost all modern monitors and HDTVs, but it’s particularly prevalent on IPS panels. High-end displays usually do a good job of taming the problem through the use of high-quality panels and through the use of firmware features that compensate for blur.

In cheaper monitors these features may not be available, or are of much lower quality. Reviews mention this frequently, but you can see it yourself by visiting your local electronics retailer. Your sensitivity to this effect may vary, so it’s a good idea to check it out for yourself.

Not every cheap IPS monitor suffers from this effect equally. For example, the LG Flatron IPS226V has received some praise for its particularly good response times and lack of ghosting. It’s currently an exception, however – many other options, including other LG monitors, have been cited as having moderate to major ghosting issues.

There is no disputing that a display using IPS will have some advantages over TN. A wider color gamut is usually available, and display angles are almost always significantly better. However, these two benefits are all you can count on. Everything else is up in the air. Backlight quality depends on the types of lighting elements used and their location. Colors are impacted by the display’s finish, the backlight, and other factors.

The details are where cheap IPS displays from companies like LG and ASUS tend to fall short. Take the LG Flatron D2342P as an example. Though equipped with an IPS panel, it falls short of the best TN monitors in image quality. LG made a big deal of its new IPS monitors at CES 2011, and I’m sure the first round of geeks who bought them thought they were getting an awesome deal – but it turns out it actually is possible to make IPS look inferior to TN.

When you stuff an expensive panel into a display that is supposed to sell for between $200 and $300, something has to give. And usually that something is connectivity, build quality, or both.

Take the ASUS ML239H as an example. For about $189.99 you can have IPS, but you can’t have DVI (you’ll need to use an adapter). You also only receive swivel and tilt adjustments, there’s no VESA mount support, and there are no built-in speakers.

To be fair, you don’t usually find height adjustment on cheap TN monitors, either. It is common to find at least three video inputs for that price, however. Speakers are also common. By going cheap in your quest for IPS, you’re sacrificing features that you may need more than you think.

When the latest wave of inexpensive monitors boasting IPS became available in 2011, I was hopeful that we were beginning to see a new revolution in inexpensive monitors. Instead, buyers received what they paid for – cheap displays. Sure, viewing angles were better, but that was the only consistent benefit. These inexpensive displays were often lacking in other areas.

If you want to buy IPS, you should do it right the first time. Remember, monitors tend to be a durable purchase. Usually they’ll last at least five years, and some kick around for ten or more. In addition, they are not quickly made obsolete. Save your pennies and buy a high-quality, expensive monitor instead of a budget model. You’ll thank yourself over the coming years.

Picking the best gaming monitor is of the utmost importance for any PC builder. Why spend so much on your gaming PC if you"re not going to game on it with a quality screen? What constitutes a quality screen will vary from builder to build—some required a great high-fps 1080p panel, while others will want to push their graphics card to the max with a 4K or ultrawide option. Whatever you"re after, the gaming monitor you buy should be the best at it.

After all, it"s the window to your PC"s soul. Well, the window to your games anyways. And if you"ve spent a lot of money to make sure they play as well as they possibly can, the least you want is to have a screen that makes them look their best, too. There"s no point having an RTX 4090(opens in new tab) if you"re still rocking an old 60Hz 1080p panel. Nor is it worth buying a cheap 1440p display that suffers from horrific ghosting when the gaming gets tough.

To get the most for your money, you want to match your monitor choice with your PC specs. A 4K monitor with a high refresh rate would be overkill if your rig is only packing a GTX 1060. If you"ve had the cash to drop on an RTX 40-series or a high-end AMD RX 7900(opens in new tab) series GPU, you can take your pick of 4K panels. Those sitting somewhere in the mid-range of things—with, say, an old RTX 2070 Super—are better off looking at 1440p displays. Even high-end PC owners might consider skipping 4K, though: 1440p is the sweet spot right now.

Why you can trust PC GamerOur expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

OLED has truly arrived on PC, and in ultrawide format no less. Alienware"s 34 QD-OLED is one of very few gaming monitors to receive such a stellar score from us, and it"s no surprise. Dell has nailed the OLED panel in this screen and it"s absolutely gorgeous for PC gaming. Although this monitor isn’t perfect, it is dramatically better than any LCD-based monitor by several gaming-critical metrics. And it’s a genuine thrill to use.

What that 34-inch, 21:9 panel can deliver in either of its HDR modes—HDR 400 True Black or HDR Peak 1000—is nothing short of exceptional. The 3440 x 1440 native resolution image it produces across that gentle 1800R curve is punchy and vibrant. With 99.3% coverage of th