Rising costs of monitors

[Russinating]

It always shocks me when I build or upgrade a new PC for our office every so often. I expect to pay the same for most peripherals as technologies get faster, more efficient and with inflation.

But monitors.... what?! We've got 4x Acer CB240HYK 24" IPS 4K monitors that we bought around the same time in Oct 16 for £200 each. Now the cheapest 4K monitor Overclockers sell is £290 and it's not even as good; lower brightness, non-adjustable. The cheapest height adjustable one - pretty much a requirement for an office - is a whopping £360 and it's not even an IPS nor as bright.

How has there been an 80% price increase in 2 years with absolutely no/very little change in the actual screen specs, or in this case a reduction?!

 

[Daniel - LG]

i would assume there are many factors that could have gone into this

Firstly £200 for a 24" IPS 4K is very cheap indeed - this looks 99.99% like it was a deal done as it doesn't reflect the market price. Also the $ rate crashed a while ago - albeit there has been some recovery.

but from what I can see (and if its an IPS display its come from the LG display factory so I am possibly better versed than others to comment), £200 each is remarkably cheap knowing what the panel costs.

so I think the rise you have seen mainly will be down to your superior buying prowess the first time round!

 

[Nexus18]

Yup it is a joke. My 29um65 except for a slightly updated panel i.e. overclocked to 75, different stand and freesync costs more than what I paid 4+ years ago lol......

And at the time the top end 34" 1440 cost around £800, now, they are over a £1000 a lot of the time (although the standard 34" 1440 60HZ have dropped in price a lot since)

I got fed up with it in the end and just got an OLED TV and what makes it even more amusing is that I only paid £1099 for the LG 55E7, that much for 55", full 4k, full PROPER HDR support, OLED, native/true 120HZ @ 1080P AND a very good built in soundbar (not really a soundbar, just front firing speakers), even the other deals where they are usually around £1350 is a bargain.

Gibbo posted a while back that one of the reason costs have gone up is due to all the RMAs/returns for backlight bleed etc., he said it was either that or they starting deducting up to 25% from people, pretty **** move, not the customers fault if manufacturers can't get their QC sorted and if retailers choose to sell items that are faulty, then they only have themselves to blame.

My advice, cough up and pay the extra or just get a TV instead like what many are doing these days, assuming you have the room. Prices won't come down any time soon, not when the monitor market is incredibly small especially for the "gaming" monitors.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Looking at the albeit limited data available for other 24" 4k models on a price tracking website (source was a certain uk part picking website that aggregates price data for components) from LG, Dell, Samsung, AOC and Asus show most of them in the range of £300+ over that period - with a jump in pricing in early 2017 for some of them

I think that particular model was probably one of the cheapest 4K monitors on the market (Acer had another less capable model at a similar price point) and whilst representing very good value wasn't a general indicator of pricing across the market at the time.

However I do agree that there is very little progress in the monitor market - it operates on very different timescales than other technologies and the general trend has been for very small incremental upgrades and large increments in pricing - in short it sucks

 

[Russinating]

Yeah, think we're going to have to suck it up and get two LG 27UD68P's; cheapest adjustable 4K IPS @ £400 .

 

[eddiew]

Gibbo posted a while back that one of the reason costs have gone up is due to all the RMAs/returns for backlight bleed etc., he said it was either that or they starting deducting up to 25% from people, pretty **** move, not the customers fault if manufacturers can't get their QC sorted and if retailers choose to sell items that are faulty, then they only have themselves to blame.

I get that RMAs cost them money and that tighter QC means each unit costs more in the store, but if they want to pump prices in the name of QC, it would be nice if we were actually seeing the results of that action. Premium prices are supposed reflect a premium product, but QC feels no better now than last year.

That aside, if all screens cost 25% more but were also flawless, I'd be fine with that. Nobody likes increasing prices and decreasing quality however. The internet does not forget last year's products and will not fail to compare them to the current crop.

 

[Hayte]

I feel like there is no money in the consumer desktop display space. The consumer desktop display hasn't evolved a business model that convinces hundreds of millions of people to throw away their monitor every 2-3 years and buy a new one. So if you owned a piece of Samsung or LG or had a say in how either company is run, why would you care unless its a mega global OEM like Apple who is asking you to build them?

All the really amazing consumer display panels are in phones, portables/AIOs (i.e. Apple) and TVs because the scale is there. They make a panel in 1 or 2 sizes only with pretty fixed specs and ramp production to eye watering levels, making them impossibly cheap to produce. The phone business model is tied to carrier contracts so the idea of tossing a phone every 2 years is normal. Everyone and their dog has a phone - there's literally 4 or 5 billion of them in use right now.

LG is kinda busy pushing OLED in the living room so they are willing to pass the cost savings of ramped OLED production onto the consumer (for now).

Consumer desktop displays just don't seem to rate in comparison. Its much lower volume and the specs are all over the place. Long time Windows users like me are so used to 96 PPI TN trash panels that until MS Surface, I legit believed Windows font rendering was inherently bad. After picking up a Surface Pro 4, I now know that Windows font rendering is actually MacOS decent but I never saw it because I was forever using garbage monitors with Windows PCs. I've been consuming crap for so long, the Big 3 could serve up curved ultrawide dog turds and I'd still think "hey, it still looks nicer than what I was using 5 years ago...".

That leaves specialist, low volume stuff for professionals in film production and medical imaging. These dudes will pay 10 to 15k per 19" rackmount reference monitor, so going low volume for them is not that risky.

I just don't see the state of consumer desktop monitors improving in the near future. The only thing I can see is JOLED's inkjet printed OLEDs become cost effective enough to kill the super high end small/medium format consumer desktop monitor and LG going 40-43" OLED TV and killing the large format consumer desktop monitor. Comprehensively so if TV image processing can be bypassed. Otherwise, it just seems like more of the same old dead end tech that has been doing the rounds for years except with bolt-on gimmicks to justify the higher price tag.

 

[4K8KW10]

The consumer desktop display hasn't evolved a business model that convinces hundreds of millions of people to throw away their monitor every 2-3 years and buy a new one.

Err?

Hundreds of millions people probably still sit on 10-year-old 1376x768 screens and are never planning to change their screens THAT often. And I think it would be wise if no one expects them to do so.....

So, where is my <100 pounds decent 24" 4K monitor?

 

[deFiniLoGy]

Err?

Hundreds of millions people probably still sit on 10-year-old 1376x768 screens and are never planning to change their screens THAT often. And I think it would be wise if no one expects them to do so.....

So, where is my <100 pounds decent 24" 4K monitor?

Joking a side, u might be able to buy one from China

 

[4K8KW10]

Joking a side, u might be able to buy one from China

Ok It's fine since everything is manufactured in China anyways. Can you post links and brands, please?

 

[deFiniLoGy]

Ok It's fine since everything is manufactured in China anyways. Can you post links and brands, please?

Just go to the rainforest equivalent in China and search 4K, the cheapest i see was ~£80 for a 4K TV which u can probably use as a display.

I’m NOT recommending to buy those lol I’m just saying that you COULD find one if u want to, but I can’t guarrantee they won’t blow up

 

[Smokey Deza]

Monitor prices are shameful. Still using a 24" from 2009 :|

 

[jaybee]

Monitor prices, RAM prices, GPU prices. I mean what's actually gone down in price?

 

[NZXT30]

Many of us have moved on to 40" 4k tvs. You get a lot for your money, see here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/mini-review-samsung-40ku6400-as-a-monitor.18756127/

 

[Stu]

However I do agree that there is very little progress in the monitor market - it operates on very different timescales than other technologies and the general trend has been for very small incremental upgrades and large increments in pricing - in short it sucks

Sounds a lot like Intel CPU progress!!!

 

[mattx2]

Was just going to post moaning about this was looking at getting an ultrawide but both the x34a and cf791are up 100ish in the last month or so. I don't mind paying top prices for the latest tech but these monitors are based off 2 or 3 year old tech. Might as well wait for the new lg screens

 

[Stu]

^^ This

I'm waiting on the upcoming LG 35GK950G, but it pains me that it will be > £1000.

 

[AWPC]

Right now LG Super Nano Cell HDTVs with 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision + 4 other HDR modes are way better VFM than PC monitors!

 

[Nexus18]

TBH, in some ways I am thankful the monitor market went to **** as if it hadn't, I probably still wouldn't have bought an OLED display, instead I would STILL be stuck on basic ancient LCD tech! Not to mention, if I had bought a relatively expensive g/free sync 100+HZ display, I would feel like I would have to invest money into the PC more often.....

 

[Stu]

I can't imagine a 55" OLED TV on my desk, 2 feet away, while I play Overwatch