> HEAD TO HEAD < LCD PANEL TECH

WE PIT COMPETING TECHS IN A HEAD-TO-HEAD BATTLE TO DECIDE WHICH ONE IS SUPERIOR.

Choosing a panel type used to be simple. You chose TN if you were cheap or wanted to game, or IPS for almost everything else. Now, it’s not so easy. The best TN tech has improved dramatically, though the benefits have only touched a minority of monitors. Meanwhile, IPS panels have become far cheaper, and VA tech keeps throwing in that high-contrast curve ball, thus offering a flawed but compelling alternative. Meanwhile, the PC is now so capable that the range of uses and applications, not to mention screen sizes and resolutions, are so varied that the pros and cons of the three main panel techs are more nuanced than ever. So let’s settle this once and for all. In a three-way Mexican standoff between TN, IPS and VA, which comes out on top?

Round 1 GAMING

If there’s a single application type you can rely on to hammer your PC into whimpering submission, it’s gaming. No surprise, therefore, to find that it’s gaming that makes for quite the conundrum when it comes to choosing panel tech.

On the one hand, you want zingy colours, plus plenty of pop and contrast in your games, right? VA it is, then. Of course, colour accuracy also counts, especially when it comes to picking out enemies in shadowy, low-contrast scenes. Better make it IPS. But hang on, you also want zippy pixel response, the highest possible refresh rates and the absolute minimum of input lag. Can we change that to TN, after all?

Whatever you go for will be a compromise. For instance, the latest IPS monitors aimed at gamers have begun to adopt refresh rates of 120Hz and more. Likewise, panels of all types can be had with frame-synching and performance-smoothing Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync tech. But in the end, the most rewarding gaming screens are the ones that handle motion best. And that undeniably means TN.

The good news is that TN has come on a lot in terms of colours and contrast of late. So it’s not the bum steer it used to be by those broader metrics.

TN Round 2 VIDEO PLAYBACK

You could argue that any LCD technology is doggie-do when it comes to video playback. Shining a light through a huge number of imperfect shutters is a pretty dumb idea compared to an OLED panel, say, where each pixel is its own light source. And yet LCD technology has developed to the point where it has very nearly — but not quite — shaken off its inherent shortcomings.

For watching video, that means a number of things. Colours and contrast are super-important for pure visual pizzazz, and VA, with its super-high contrast capability, scores heaviest and delivers the most superficially impressive results with video. IPS technology has closed much of the gap when it comes to contrast, but the specs do not entirely lie. VA panels with static contrast capability of 3,000:1 or more are now common. That is simply beyond the capabilities of IPS tech.

However, accuracy also counts, especially if you like a more natural vibe with your video and movies. In that scenario, IPS tech works best. Of course, pixel response is also important, given that video involves motion. But the downsides that TN brings to video in pretty much all other regards rule it out of the running in this category.

TIE: IPS and VA Round 3 CONTENT CREATION

Of all the categories here, content creation is probably the only one for which the preferred panel technology is a near 100% nailed-on certainty. It’s IPS you want. That’s because IPS is comfortably the most accurate LCD panel technology available.

The point is that IPS gives you the best chance of ensuring that whatever content you’re producing at your end looks right when it’s consumed at the other end. If you want to colour correct for print, for instance, it’s the obvious choice. Admittedly, if some of your audience insists on using substandard viewing devices — perhaps a PC with a wonky TN panel — there’s only so much you can do. But the point remains: IPS is the way, the truth and the light for accuracy.

If there are exceptions, the first would involve cost. Aside from accuracy, having a high native resolution is desirable in terms of being able to view large images and high-definition video within the bounds of an editing app. And that can be expensive with an IPS panel. At least, it used to be. The cheapest 27-inch 4K IPS monitors are now roughly only 10% more expensive than a TN equivalent. IPS is pretty much a no-brainer, therefore.

IPS

“It’s actually when you put all the objective tests to one side and simply absorb the look of a screen that IPS scores most heavily.”

Round 4 GENERAL DESKTOP USE

Want a horse? Then you’d better know the course. And so it is for choosing a panel for general desktop use. Much depends on your preferred mix of apps, your viewing environment, and your budget.

Not too long ago, cheapskates could find great value in something like a 4K TN panel. TN tech in that format offers surprisingly good colours and contrast, and the 4K resolution provides oodles of space for juggling app windows. More recently, however, IPS and VA prices have tumbled, and the price delta has dwindled to decidedly insignificant proportions. And so the choice narrows to IPS and VA.

For general use, though, IPS has the edge. That’s primarily down to superior viewing angles. It’s not that VA viewing angles are poor per se, but the consistency of IPS makes for a more pleasant general computing experience. It just feels right, while VA, on the other hand, is superficially punchier, yet ultimately less pleasing to the discerning eye. The exception might be using a panel in extreme ambient light conditions, be that exceptionally bright or dark. In both cases, you might then lean toward choosing VA. In bright conditions, the extra pop is welcome; while in a very dark environment, you’ll appreciate the reduced backlight bleed.

WINNER: IPS Round 5 WEB AND OFFICE

For web and office work, it’s all about the pixels — or, more specifically, how many of them your screen has. It’s actually a more complex question than you may at first consider, given that you have to factor in both the actual resolution in horizontal and vertical pixels, and then the panel size. Together, that determines the pixel pitch.

The problem, in this particular context, is that the world of computing isn’t yet entirely, you might say, DPI agnostic. In other words, much of the web, and even some bits of the Windows GUI, are based on static bitmaps, which scale poorly if you bump the Windows DPI setting away from 100%. That can make for problems with very high DPI screens. Go for, say, a 24-inch 4K screen, and you’ll be forced to choose between wonky Windows elements and blurry bitmaps on the one hand, or stupidsmall fonts and icons on the other.

The final reckoning for this category doesn’t map terribly well to panel type. However, if you can afford it, the accuracy of IPS, combined with high resolution at the right panel size, is the optimal choice. But both VA and TN technology can make for pleasant enough web and office partners.

IPS

And the winner is... If there can be only one winner, then it has to be IPS. It’s not the best panel tech by each and every metric — VA panels offer superior contrast and superficial pop, while TN screens are faster — but IPS’s overall balance of qualities simply cannot be beaten.

Indeed, it’s actually when you put all the objective tests to one side and simply absorb the look of a screen that IPS scores most heavily. Monitors using other panel technologies often have a certain wow factor —for instance, the punchy colours or deep contrast of a big VA panel — but if you discover the APC crew huddling around the latest LCD marvel, and quietly muttering, “By Azura, that’s lovely!” it’s almost always an IPS panel.

Of course, there are exceptions. If speed is critical, TN still rules. Likewise, at any given price point and form factor, there may be conspicuous bargains that push the value proposition toward either VA or TN. However, as pricing continues to converge, that’s less often the case.

As Principal Rooney said, “Les jeux sont faits for other screen techs.”

(Translation: Choose IPS.)