OLED Monitor for Dev?

arty

arty

arty

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,826
Location
Cambridge
I'm thinking of replacing my dual 27" monitors with a single 34" OLED ultrawide (probably the Dell). However, I'm not sure that OLEDs are all that great for text rendering, particularly at lower resolutions, and as I deal with a lot of text when programming this is a concern for me. I also do some light gaming (up to a few hours a week, usually).

One of my 27" monitors is a 4K one, and I like the look of the text on there, but I'm pretty sure that a 3440x1440 would be lower PPI.

Does anyone here happen to do any general office work - or, ideally, coding - on an OLED ultra-wide? I'd be interested in your experiences and how you find the text :)
 
I use my AW3420DW for coding, along with a laptop screen as a 2nd screen. Its a great size for gaming and coding. I would be put off an OLED for dev work though with the fear of burn in and text rendering issues.
 
Thanks for your thoughts. I had been under the impression that OLED burn-in had been fixed by advances in the technology, but it sounds like I should look at a good LCD screen instead :)
 
arty said:
Thanks for your thoughts. I had been under the impression that OLED burn-in had been fixed by advances in the technology, but it sounds like I should look at a good LCD screen instead :)
Click to expand...
if you are getting it purely for dev coding (vscode etc) no otherwise then yes I would say it's advanced far enough for general usage where you are doing a bit of this and a bit of that sure
 
Last edited:
From what I've read (also considered an OLED for development and gaming), the sub-pixel layout impacts text rendering, and in general, OLED just isn't good for a lot of text. Definitely watch some reviews.
 
Tythus said:
if you are getting it purely for dev coding (vscode etc) then yes I would say it's advanced far enough for general usage where you are doing a bit of this and a bit of that sure
Click to expand...
It will probably be 90% gaming and general usage initially, but I am also expecting to drop into coding a bit more in future.
 
Would not use the Alienware oled for coding personally, the weird text rendering was my biggest gripe with it when I had it.
 
arty said:
It will probably be 90% gaming and general usage initially, but I am also expecting to drop into coding a bit more in future.
Click to expand...
yeah the more text work you do on it the less good it is if you want it for media consumption/gaming it's the best
 
I use that resolution for dev work. Can't see any reason I'd upgrade to an oled for that kind of work. Most the apps I'm using don't have 100% black as their background so that ability of oled would be wasted.
 
arty said:
It will probably be 90% gaming and general usage initially, but I am also expecting to drop into coding a bit more in future.
Click to expand...
Specs for gaming are very different from coding. Essentially, for coding you're not concerned in the slightest with refresh rate, response times, deep blacks. All you want is size and clarity.

A gaming monitor adds additional requirements that mean you're having to buy a much more expensive, higher specification monitor than if you were just doing Dev work on it.

Plus with increased resolution you're also increasing what's required of the gpu to be able to game without tanking your frame rate.
 
Last edited:
Bug One said:
Specs for gaming are very different from coding. Essentially, for coding you're not concerned in the slightest with refresh rate, response times, deep blacks. All you want is size and clarity.

A gaming monitor adds additional requirements that mean you're having to buy a much more expensive, higher specification monitor than if you were just doing Dev work on it.

Plus with increased resolution you're also increasing what's required of the gpu to be able to game without tanking your frame rate.
Click to expand...
Thanks, you’ve made some really good points. If only I had enough space for two set-ups! Sadly, I was hoping to get a single monitor which will suffice for everything :p

Will continue to have a look around. Thanks to everyone for thoughts.
 
keef247 said:
Surely oled is mad overkill for this usage/price bracket? And yeah the burn in aspect would be terrifying if that's all you're using it for 90% of the time.
Click to expand...

Not 'terrifying' with 3yr warranty for something that may never happen (on AW) model. The people who panic the most about it seem to be the people who don't own one.
 
Last edited:
My lg oled has been used non stop for dev and windows work, I leave it on same screen for hours on end half time with hdr on and brightness up, don’t be scared of burn in, I have none at all yet and I’ve had it nearly a year. Can’t beat the colours :)
 
I use an AW3423DW for dev work - full time WFH, so ~8hrs every weekday for the last ~14 months or so.

No concerns about text clarity etc. here, and the gaming performance absolutely makes up for any slight disadvantages.

Regarding screen burn, I probably would have been more hesitant getting it were it not for the 3 year warranty, however, so far no issues. I'm on my 2nd one as the first developed a line of bright pixels, but there were no signs of burn in on the original, and nothing on the current one either.

I do work in quite a dimly lit room though, so I have my brightness turned down quite far (crank it up for gaming though ;))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom