GADGET GURU

Avoid monitor misconceptions, become a dog breed detective and weed out weak ereaders

AELIOT WISE, JERSEY

Guru can’t control what you do in the privacy of your own home. You’re welcome to use just about any screen as a monitor. The question isn’t one of ‘can I do it?’, but ‘should I do it?’; mostly, Guru would recommend against using non-monitors as monitors, because monitors are meant to be used as monitors whereas non-monitors are not.

TVs are built to be enjoyed from across a room, playing content from distinctly non-PC sources. In the case of OLED, though, things aren’t quite so cut and dried. The precision and speed of its pixel updates tends to be vastly superior to that of LCD-based TVs, particularly in newer models like LG’s CX series TVs, which is great for PC gaming. It leads to what can be imperceptibly low latency, although you may find that LCD’s slower pixel response gives you what feels like a smoother experience.

Problem is, for all manufacturers’ efforts, burn-in is still a thing, which

The optimal viewing distance for a set this size? 0.5 miles makes a TV a poor choice for using in a desktop capacity. What’s more, OLED TVs go from big to bigger, which is an ergonomic nightmare when you’re right up close – particularly if they have a thick rear construction that prevents them from being set right back on a desk.

All this aside, let it be known that Guru makes at least two calls a day to LG’s offices to encourage the company to make OLED screens small enough to be used as a monitor without GaGu’s neck feeling like it’s going to fall off. No results yet – but the company has put a new factory online for its 48-inch panels, so we’ll see what happens.

For all manufacturers’ efforts, burn-in is still a thing, which makes a TV a poor choice for using in a desktop capacity