What is the Perfect Monitor

Associate
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Hi Everyone,

Right, straight too it - I want to know what you look for in a monitor and the money you would be prepared to pay for this piece of visual perfection?

I know you want a 34" curve g-sync for £99 - but this is not realistic in regards to spec and price.

Of course, I know you want it to not have BLB or dead pixels, but I am more wanting to know spec

let me know!
 
Associate
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20 May 2012
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149
My perfect monitor would be a 32" version of samsungs 43ks7500 but flat.
So 32" 4K with HDR with a couple of HDMI's for PS4 and Xbox and some speakers for the odd occasion I need them.
And would like this for under £750ish.
 
Caporegime
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  • 21.9
  • at least 100HZ (native)
  • 34" 3440x1440 (anything more is too big/wide imo)
  • with a gentle curve, not a drastic curve like what samsung are using on their 34" screen

  • VA/IPS (of course preferably OLED/QLED but we all know this won't happen any time soon) so that leads onto my next point for IPS/VA
  • Full array local dimming zones (this will allow screens to reach very good contrast ratios as well as black depth) and as a result, this leads onto the next point
  • "true" HDR support (not a big selling point for me though, especially if it is going to add a hefty £££ price tag on)

  • low input lag
  • very good response times i.e. great motion clarity

  • better freesync support i.e. lower min range, at least down to 40fps or whatever is required in order to meet the low frame compensation requirement for AMD freesync


Also, it would be nice to see some high spec 30-32" 21.9 monitors (with all of the above).


I personally think monitors are a rip of considering the price of your OLED 55" 4k HDR TV (can often be had for £1600 and for a top end LCD TV, about £800-1000) so there is no way would I spend more than £600 on current 34" monitors.... If all the above was included though, then I could push to £800/900 (the latter if QC was spot on)



EDIT:



FORGOT TO SAY

No glossy plastic or white finish!!!! Use a matte black finish or/and gun metal/black/grey brush metal finish.

As for stand, I want to see something that doesn't take up most of the depth of the desk and I also want something small clean/minimal looking, I rather like the look of this LG stand:

K9H4Gpv.jpg

With regards to the clear plastic so the display looks like it is floating although I would probably prefer something along the lines of a metal stand with height adjustment controls (that could go very low)

Also, I don't know about the vast majority of people but on here I imagine most never use built in speakers so forget about them and put the time and money saved into the areas above instead.

With the money saved there, you could add some nice ambient lighting.
 
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Associate
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Sheffield
34" 21:9 1440p HDR10. No curve, or just a gentle one if you must. Professional-looking. Black, matt plastic. Nothing showy. Frankly, I like Dell (or NEC or Eizo, but I can't afford those) monitors, so that's the feel I'm after. I'd pay a lot for a quality (minimal BLB, good dead pixel warranty) monitor like that. Say up to £1200, though lower is better obviously! :p
 
Soldato
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Until the arrival of QLED/OLED, the ideal for me would be 21:9, 1440P, 34-35" above 100Hz (if that's even possible currently?), slight curve, adaptive sync. As for the panel tech, I can deal with IPS glow easier than VA smear/blur... I guess it depends on QC being stepped up also e.g. dead pixels, excessive bleed, glow, blur etc etc.

Furthermore, I'm 41 years of age. So please, monitor companies, enough with the garish gamer aesthetic.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say that I'd be willing to pay the current rates, if QC was improved to the point where we could buy with confidence. At the moment, it's a crapshoot buying a new panel, although other manufacturers are more guilty of this I think.
 
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Soldato
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Free. With lifetime supply of beer and money.

32-24" ultra wide
3440x1440p
Built in decent scaler (unless it's better for GPU to do it?)
Excellent blacks- similar to my Pioneer Kuro
No backlight blotches or uneveness
100hz at least
Freesync with decent range
Calibrated
10 bit
Low input lag
Low response
Black surround, matt
Decent heavy stand, height adjustable
Two HDMI and two display port inputs
Auto input select. If switch off Display port machine (gaming PC) it'll automatically switch inputs to the next active (or preset) Input HDMI #1
Adjustable from phone app or via computer (full control)
Comes with colour meter to calibrate (option) built in auto calibration and saves to ICC profile
 
Associate
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I'm currently on curved 29" 2560x1080 (LG ;)) and would like a little higher DPI without being too big. So for me in order of importance:-

  • 21:9 curved
  • 30-34" 3440x1440
  • Thinest bezel possible
  • Minimalist looking tilt and swivel stand but also VESA wall mount holes
  • Some kind of built in speakers (nothing fancy)
  • Oh and a 3 pin kettle power input so I can run it off a UPS instead of having external AC adapters and cables everywhere!
  • While I'm at it, some kind of RGB LED lighting built into the back that can be customised, or even like Philips Ambilight. (With an option to turn it off when required of course).

And sorry but it'd have to be something very special for me to pay more than £500 for a monitor. Super thin OLED 4K maybe!
 
Soldato
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Matte finish. Don't want any glossy plastic anywhere.

Other than that. All I want is high refresh, with the colours, black levels and viewing angles of crt/plasma. Also want to be able to use it in the dark without any sort of bleed.
 
Caporegime
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That is largely where having full array local dimming zones would be a big advantage, not just for overall IQ/blacks/contrast ratio but it also "should" hopefully reduce the likelihood of back light bleed happening, certainly not to the same extent anyway!
 
Soldato
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4,142
Something quite realistic:
27"
4k
IPS/VA
HDR
Glass front
g sync
vesa mount.
Most likely pay £650 but would have to be spotless and excellent warranty too.
 
Caporegime
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25,659
I'm happy enough with the 29" UW (LG) I have so I'd love to see more done at this screen size. G-Sync, decent black levels and maybe even HDR would be nice.
 
Associate
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Finland
37-42"
1920x1080/1200
VA/IPS
AG/matte screen surface (matte bezel preferable, as well)
fast pixel response time (no smearing)
low input lag
8bit colors (no dithering), standard gamut
100Hz+
FreeSync, with LFC and good range (30-100Hz / 40-144Hz)
Curved (1800R is enough, not sure whether 1500R would be too drastic)
AmbiLight or similar (preferably dynamic, but if IP rights are a problem, then static is OK, as well)
PWM-free (both backlight and ambient light)
Ergonomic stand (no portrait necessary, though)
DisplayPort + HDMI
800€ (/£700)

I currently have the Acer XZ321Q, which includes quite a lot of these. So I'd say 800€ should be fairly doable, considering it will take a while before you would get the new monitor out, so it will be a different market then.

Few additional notes/clarifications:
------------------------------------

Panel type:
Either IPS with improved blacks and no glow, or VA with faster pixel response time. Of the current offerings, I would be inclined to go with VA. But for obvious reasons, LG is most probably looking at IPS. In which case, try to develop a better IPS with less glow and deeper blacks. Otherwise I'll just stick to VA, with its slightly inferior pixel response time. Likewise VA's viewing angles are currently good enough, especially with a curved screen.

Resolution and aspect ratio:
Personally, 1920x1080/1200 is more than enough for me (I used to have 42" 1080p, which was a good combo), but I understand most people would prefer more for bigger sized panels. And 16:10 would indeed be nice, as I prefer more vertical space over excess horizontal. But I understand this would bring extra costs, so I'm content with 16:9. (would pay ~100€ extra for 16:10)

Things of no concern:
First and foremost: chassis depth/thinness is not a concern! The change from CRT to LCD was enough. Anything thinner than 15cm is good enough. No need to go overboard, especially if it affects other areas (like backlight bleed, screen uniformity, etc.). Although, THIN bezels are nice, but still not worth any extra compromises, though. Not that bothered with HDR, but might be willing to pay up to 200€ more for it, if it were included. Don't care about speakers, you can leave them off, too. You can also scrap the VGA connector.

As for local dimming:
In theory: yes, a nice feature. Just make sure the transition phase is fast enough, so that we can't see the left-over white backlight from an earlier bright scene, showing up as grey on the dark scene. If you can't manage this, then I'd rather take a fixed backlight with better blacks (like VA). Technology is only as good as its weakest link. So don't try to over-achieve something expensive if you're just fumbling it with a crappy implementation.
 
Associate
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32" , 4k (ultra-wide & curved 5120 × 2160 ) , 144Hz, HDR, G-SYNC.

£1200

Probably could only get playable frames on 3440 x 1440 on SLI 1080 Ti, but would be nice to try....

may i ask why you want to know ?
 
Caporegime
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Posts
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Things of no concern:
First and foremost: chassis depth/thinness is not a concern! The change from CRT to LCD was enough. Anything thinner than 15cm is good enough. No need to go overboard, especially if it affects other areas (like backlight bleed, screen uniformity, etc.). Although, THIN bezels are nice, but still not worth any extra compromises, though. Not that bothered with HDR, but might be willing to pay up to 200€ more for it, if it were included. Don't care about speakers, you can leave them off, too. You can also scrap the VGA connector.

As for local dimming:
In theory: yes, a nice feature. Just make sure the transition phase is fast enough, so that we can't see the left-over white backlight from an earlier bright scene, showing up as grey on the dark scene. If you can't manage this, then I'd rather take a fixed backlight with better blacks (like VA). Technology is only as good as its weakest link. So don't try to over-achieve something expensive if you're just fumbling it with a crappy implementation.
+1!!!!

Also forgot to mention the bit depth, definitely want at least true 8 bit as well.


And yes, current UW IPS anti-glare finishes are superb as they are atm, although still room for improvement ;)
 
Associate
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12 Sep 2006
Posts
758
And a decent warranty on it. I don't mind a two year on a £200 monitor but if I'm being asked to spend 1k why is the warranty not longer like on almost all decent TVs?
 
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