BIG-SCREEN DEBUT

Never before has the high-end PC monitor market been so vibrant and innovative. Allow JeremyLaird to help you solve this particular paradox of choice

A WINDOW INTO YOUR COMPUTING WORLD. That’s what a PC monitor is. The question is, do you want your view to be a miserable, letter-box glimpse, or a broad, expansive, and liberating vista?

OK, that’s a loaded way of posing the problem of screen choice. It ain’t all about size. In fact, at the high end, generous proportions are a given. So it’s all the rest that you need to worry about: panel type, native resolution, and pixel pitch, for instance.

But that’s just the basics. The PC monitor market is more complex than ever. That begins with a much broader choice of shapes and sizes. You can go seriously big these days. You can also go seriously wide, thanks to 21:9 aspect ratio panels. And you can go curved for a wrap-around experience.

Meanwhile, several spectacular new imageenhancement technologies have emerged over the last two years. It wasn’t that long ago that refresh rates for LCD monitors were stuck at 60Hz. Now you can go up to 160Hz. Gamers can also opt for dynamic refresh rates synched with the output of their video card. Then there’s the widespread adoption of far higher resolutions, such as 4K or UHD.

Even more recently, there’s been a revolution in colors and contrast. HDR, or high dynamic range, is the latest technology to hit the display market. It’s already pretty much taken over the high-end HDTV segment. Now it’s beginning to assimilate monitors. However, the process will be more complicated on the PC, as if the practicalities of implementing HDR weren’t already complex enough. Point being, you’ll be able to pick and choose between various aspects of what has become known as HDR.

An example is quantum dot technology. It’s a color enhancement feature that isn’t strictly associated with increasing dynamic range, but it’s part of the broader HDR toolkit that’s finding its way into PC monitors. So, let’s dissect the high-end PC display market.

LET’S TAKE A TOUR around the recent history of the high-end PC monitor. Remember when a 24inch widescreen monitor with a 1920x1200 native resolution constituted high end? We’re thinking 2004, and the Dell 2405FPW. You can get something close to that for about 100 bucks today. Incredible.

About three years later, Dell shook things up again with the 3007WFP, a 30-inch 2560x1600 beast that was so spectacular at the time, it was hard to imagine anything bigger. But a further five years down the road in 2017, and the 3007 is toast.

Screen tech is advancing at breakneck speed. One moment you’re marveling at the latest superwide curved monitor, the next you’re having your entire field of view saturated by staggering HDR visuals courtesy of a 55-inch UHDTV, and every monitor you’ve ever used before suddenly seems tiny.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Choices must be made. You can’t have everything in one monitor. For instance, let’s say you wanted a 4K screen with 160Hz refresh, and 40-inch-plus diagonal. It can’t be had. So, you need to be clear on your priorities.

Let’s look at gamer-centric tech, including ultrahigh refresh rates. High refresh on the desktop is nice. It’s hard to go back to a 60Hz panel once you’ve experienced 120Hz-plus. But, arguably, anything above 120Hz for the desktop is redundant. Adaptive refresh technology, including Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync, is even more gamer-centric. If you don’t game much, you can probably ignore it.

Now let’s move on to size and shape. Your options are extensive and the choice subjective. It is also intimately related to native resolution. For starters, bigger isn’t always better. The UHD or 4K pixel grid of 3840x2160 sounds impressive. On a 32-inch monitor, it gives a nice, tight pixel pitch, crisp fonts, and loads of detail. On a 50-inch panel, it’s a whole different ball game. At least, it is at normal PC monitor viewing distances. You can move further away with a larger panel, but if the apparent size is then the same, what’s the point? Likewise, is a screen hooked up to a PC while you sit on a couch 15 feet away a monitor or a TV? Similarly, it’s possible to go too big in terms of panel viewability. Beyond 40 inches, a screen situated at conventional monitor viewing distances requires a whole lot of head craning.

That said, many people who thought 30-inch panels were too big 10 years ago are probably happily running 32-inch or 34-inch monitors today. What feels unwieldy at first, can soon make reverting to a smaller screen seem restrictive. On a similar note, where do projectors fit in? A projector can never be a direct replacement for a PC monitor, yet nothing can compete with their sheer cinematic scale.

POINTS OF VIEW

Aspect ratio is another consideration. Superwide 21:9-aspect monitors are gaining traction. They’re fantastic for movies. They work great with games. They can be thoroughly ergonomic for viewing multiple documents or web pages at the same time, too. But they’re also restrictive in terms of vertical resolution and desktop space. So, while you may be able to view documents side by side more easily, your view of each is more limited, which means more scrolling. The 21:9 aspect is also distinctly sub-optimal for standard 16:9 HDTV video content.

Curved versus flat is yet another geometric conundrum. In our experience, this is a question of personal preference. Some people love curved screens, others think they look ridiculous. We argue that the bigger a screen is, the more sense a little curve can make. But just remember, not all screens sport the same curve. Some are curvier than others. So, head down to your local store, and get a feel for the various radii of curve on offer.

All of which brings us to plain, old image quality. Partly, that’s a Above from left to right: The Asus PA329Q has advanced quantum dot technology, but it’s the purist’s choice. The Dell UP3017Q is one of the first OLED PC monitors to arrive—but it costs a fortune. LG’s 38UC99 is the latest superwide curved-screen wonder. This HDTV is big and beautiful, but do you really want a 50-inch screen as a PC monitor? Below: 4K tech has now come to projectors, too.

question of panel choice. At this end of the spectrum, it’s unlikely you’ll be considering a TN panel, though some gamers prefer TN at any price, thanks to its superior pixel response. For everyone else, it’s a choice between IPS and VA panels, plus closely related variants thereof, such as Samsung’s PLS tech, which is essentially IPS by another name.

Ultimately, the traditional divisions here remain. IPS is the best choice for color accuracy and viewing angles, while VA delivers the best contrast and color saturation. So, you’ll want IPS for a super-precise pro-style monitor, or VA for the ultimate in visual pop and punch. That said, those traditional categories are blurring. An IPS display with quantum dot backlight technology can have colors with even more pop than VA with a conventional LED backlight.

What’s more, the emergence of HDR, or high dynamic range, technology is complicating matters, a subject we covered in depth in our January issue. Long story short, HDR uses technologies, including local backlight dimming, to dramatically increase the range of brightness a screen can display. The new HDR standards also bring with them an expansion in color spaces, and support for up to 12 bits of color per channel—in the past, even high-end monitors have been limited to eight bits per channel.

A true HDR monitor is capable of much greater highs and much lower lows than a conventional screen. The results can be spectacular, but HDR may not be for everyone. A 32-inch 4K IPS monitor with quantum dot technology is a very different proposition from something like a large 4K TV with HDR capability, to the point where it’s more a case of what fits your needs than necessarily determining which is better. You pays your money. You takes your choice. And the end result is a stunning screen.