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Hardware New PC monitor

Teal'c

Teal'c

Shriekbat
The title leaves little doubt, I need to buy a new monitor (to replace my old one which is starting to give problems) and not being an expert as I'm sure most of you are, here I am invoking help.

As I said, my old fullHD monitor is starting to give problems and I would like to replace it with a 4K one in view of the next Nintendo console (I also need it to connect my PC).

  • A key point is that it doesn't cost a kidney, 350€ or so, I can raise the budget a bit but without exaggerating.
  • max 28"
  • It must have a nice panel with similar fidelity colour to Switch OLED, but without being Oled because they cost too much 🥲
  • At least two HDMI, to connect PC and a port replicator to connect Switch and Switch 2
  • A reliable brand, although unknown to me. I trust your judgement.
  • Do the monitors have upscaler like TVs? if yes, I would like it to have it, the one on my Samsung TV is great.
  • Audio jack output to connect my soundbar.
  • HDR, refresh rate and other things? I don't understand much, please advise me.


p.s. I probably forget important things when choosing a monitor. If yes, please let me know.

p.p.s. sorry for bad english
 
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Are you sure you need 4K? 4K is extremely difficult for PCs to drive, and I don't think getting a 4K monitor for an unannounced console is necessarily a good idea. It also tends to be more expensive, so for your budget, I think you'd be better off getting brightness, color gamut and color accuracy.

To answer some of your other points: 2 HDMI inputs shouldn't be too difficult to find (although you could consider using Display Port for your PC, which is often better), upscaling is relatively uncommon in monitors (since the primary use case is a PC, which can do that much better), and in your price range you will likely get a perfectly reasonable refresh rate but no HDR.
 
hologram said:
Are you sure you need 4K? 4K is extremely difficult for PCs to drive
Click to expand...
for gaming. If hes not using his PC for gaming, then no.
Im so happy for my 4k monitor and use a XPS13 5 year old laptop.

On Topic:
its rather... broad. There are probably 2-3 dozend displays that are in the race.

What do you use your pc for? Whats your PC, is display port also an option?
(Some monitors have HDR only over HDMI, others over both, some over DP only... its weird. DP 1.4 supports 4k60HDR, HDMI2.0b is fine, if possible HDMI 2.1 would be better for future proofnes if it can do 120Hz, if not ignore HDMI 2.1, but then again i don't expect switch2 to support it.)

Display type: if not OLED (and i would recommend it for standard PC use) i would say IPS is the way to go. The alternative is VA, but in my experience the off axis color reproduction is worse, and for PCs you usually sit close, so the edges have a bigger distance / are more off angle then the center. For me, that was a problem on VA, but im also using a 32 inch screen (30 would be the sweet spot for me).

If you are looking for HDR, don't go under Vesa HDR600, HDR400 is not really that satisfying. Panel should be 10bit for hdr, but 8bit with FRC can work to. If it is JUST 8bit, then it cant reproduce HDR, and only can read and understand HDR signals.

They have ubscaling functionality (they have to, what should they do if they get a signal thats not native resolution), but your milage may vary, upscalers are a really subjective thing it seems, and while you like your samsung one, others would may hate it. Here the only way to decide it, since they dont write that stuff down, is to test it with a display that otherwise checks all other boxes.

Brightness: as sad, HDR600, but: not under 350nits brigtness is what i would say. Years ago 250nits was the standard office display,
and if you have a window next to you or behind you, it could get hard to see if its lower. 350nits will not be enough for HDR, so keep that in mind.

Additional features to look out for:
speakers -> ignore
120Hz -> hard to find 4k 120 for a reasonable price, so its probably either 1440@120 or 4k@60, depending on your preferences
usb c -> here we are at a mine field. There are displays that support Display port over USB-C, some a whole hub integrates, so that if you use a laptop you can connect drives, printers, gamepads to your screen, and if you connect your laptop to the Screen everything is connected.
There you also have to look out for PD (Power delivery), some have that feature over the USB C Port, but it differs (from 45-100W there are many variants, and only you know how much your laptop would need)
hardware callibration -> ignore it, for that you would also need callibration tools
vesa mount -> yeah, here we are somewhere where only you know,
do you have a vesa stand? do you want to keep using that?
Or do you just want it to come with a standard stand? how much movement do you need in that? there are displays without vesa mounts,
its hard for them to find alternative stands, but there are also many that have a vesa mount and come with a basic display stand thats discardable for a better one that you chose specifically, or some that come with a better one but are the same monitor essentially (LG had had some lines where with price increase only the connectivity and the stand improved, so i chose the cheapest of the line for my usecase)

Generally i can recomend LG. But there arent that many panel manufacturers (LG, Samsung, and...Sony i think?) and rtings is a good page for checking. Its not a "cool" market, so there aren't that many sited that do good display testing, and often they only test 1 or 2 from a whole range.
 
Aether said:
for gaming. If hes not using his PC for gaming, then no.
Im so happy for my 4k monitor and use a XPS13 5 year old laptop.
Click to expand...
Very true, good point.
Aether said:
If you are looking for HDR, don't go under Vesa HDR600, HDR400 is not really that satisfying. Panel should be 10bit for hdr, but 8bit with FRC can work to. If it is JUST 8bit, then it cant reproduce HDR, and only can read and understand HDR signals.
Click to expand...
Certification is one part of HDR, but not really the most important part. E.g. on my monitor (Alienware QD-OLED), there's two main HDR modes: HDR400 and HDR1000. The HDR1000 version gets brighter, but the HDR400 is generally the better pick.

Much more important factors are color gamut and, above all (IMO), contrast. You're only going to get HDR-appropriate contrast in an OLED or an LCD with FALD, whereas any monitor at the OP's price point is going to be an edge lit LCD which will have pretty garbage HDR. Just doesn't feel worth it to me.
 
Thanks a lot crepuscule, Aether and hologram, I'm already finding out several things and eliminating some monitor choices.

Regarding the resolution, yes I will get it 4K because later on I plan to do a small upgrade for the PC which will be a mix of work/gaming, but that's another topic... 🤣

I was considering this LG model

LG 27UK500-B 27UK500-B Replacement for LG 27UL500-W 27UL500-W | B&H Photo Video

Shop B&H's in stock, large inventory for fast shipping, great service and everyday low prices on LG 27UK500-B 27UK500-B Replacement for LG 27UL500-W 27UL500-W. For more info, please call 800-947-4415
www.bhphotovideo.com www.bhphotovideo.com

But I understand it's not a good model, HDR10 and 300nits might be a problem as my location is actually near a window. I'm ruling it out, looking for something brighter.

I don't need the vesa mount and usb-c with PD... hope I don't reconsider in the future 😁

I'd really like an Oled, I love their colour rendering, but I doubt I'll be able to afford it (maybe with a giga discount 🤔)

Really, thanks again 🙏
 
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hologram said:
Certification is one part of HDR, but not really the most important part. E.g. on my monitor (Alienware QD-OLED), there's two main HDR modes: HDR400 and HDR1000. The HDR1000 version gets brighter, but the HDR400 is generally the better pick.

Much more important factors are color gamut and, above all (IMO), contrast. You're only going to get HDR-appropriate contrast in an OLED or an LCD with FALD, whereas any monitor at the OP's price point is going to be an edge lit LCD which will have pretty garbage HDR. Just doesn't feel worth it to me.
Click to expand...
Oh, for sure. But lets be honest, reading and understanding those graphs is hard and a time investment, many reviews don't really have them, some don't even have good test equipment, if its not factory calibrated its hard to replicate those results at home, and if they provide a profile to embed, that does not help for games (only for windows, and windows is a mess for color management), and replicating the settings of review sites also only works to a degree, since there is variation between different batches.

What i want to say is: higher certifications from VESA cover lower ones, and its a passable factor to check if a monitor is even close to some HDR experiences without going to deep down the Rabbit hole.

And yeah, only FALD and OLED will deliver true HDR benefits...
but then were at at least double the price. HDR600 is passable for "my first HDR" and will already be a step up from standard SDR.

(Contrast: there are 2 standard values, VA with 2000 and IPS with 1000, thats pretty much what you get, and i prefer the later over the former simply because it has better color reproduction and less off axis change)


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Color perception is really an individual thing,
but in my book my IPS is not really better or worse then the OLED on standard (nont vivid), the kontrast is definitely worse, but that mostly plays into my experience in a dark room, and you will never reach OLED in that scenario. The moment you play in a moderatly lighted room, a solid IPS display with the right settings should not feel like a step down to OLED.

Thats also the reason why i never was that hyped for the Switch OLED, since my display looks better then the standard switch display, so the jump would not be that big for me.
 
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I saw the LG 27GP850P UltraGear which despite going 100€ or so over my budget, having a nanoIPS panel (by the way does it bring real advantages?) and having HDMI 2.0 (I don't know if 'b') only has HDR 400.
Is it just a matter of research or is HDR 600 hard to find and probably out of my budget?

maybe it could be my first compromise 🤔
 
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