What is the Perfect Monitor

Long time lurker, had to register to give my 2 penneth on this topic as it seems to have been started by an actual monitor manufacturer rep.

I would like to see more monitors with built in OS and GPU independent backlight strobing function, very much like the Eizo Foris FG2421. That was my favourite monitor in terms of features for a long while but just too small. I have a Z35 now which is a bit of a spiritual successor to the FG2421 but also falls short in some areas (mainly the crappy transitions from black which cause smearing - ULMB makes this more manageable).

I find 120Hz+ and backlight strobing to be ideal for my personal uses, which do not include extremely fast twitch gaming but more strategy/rpg type games along with various office tasks. I also do not like to be locked into Red or Green team and want the choice.

After the preamble here's what I would like to see in the near future:

34-35" 21:9 curved (can't imagine going back to 16:9 now)
3440x1440+
120Hz+
VA panel with better transitions from black and contrast ratio 3000+
Built-in, OS & GPU independent, backlight strobing a la Foris FG2421
No electrical noise! (My Z35 buzzes at higher brightness when ULMB is enabled - annoying)
Might as well slap Freesync in there as it's low cost and gives you a tick in the box but for me it's optional
£600
£700 with an absolute guarantee of no dead/defective pixels
 
Marak said:
Long time lurker, had to register to give my 2 penneth on this topic as it seems to have been started by an actual monitor manufacturer rep.
Click to expand...

Welcome, It must feel good coming out of the shadows :D
Marak said:
34-35" 21:9 curved (can't imagine going back to 16:9 now)
3440x1440+
120Hz+
VA panel with better transitions from black and contrast ratio 3000+
Built-in, OS & GPU independent, backlight strobing a la Foris FG2421
No electrical noise! (My Z35 buzzes at higher brightness when ULMB is enabled - annoying)
Might as well slap Freesync in there as it's low cost and gives you a tick in the box but for me it's optional
£600
£700 with an absolute guarantee of no dead/defective pixels
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And no light bleed on the top end IPS models.

I'm looking forward to 40" plus 21:9's with higher resolutions, Mind you I'd like to see AMD and Nvidia start supporting 21:9 VSR/DSR for gaming, The ability to choose the 21:9 4k equivalent would be nice.

I'd like to see the 40" plus 21:9's with Freesync 2 support.
 
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My perfect display using currently available technologies would be 4096x2160 @ 37.5" IPS panel with a 120hz refresh rate, true 10bit with 12bit dithering, freesync (with a more expensive g-sync version available for those who want it), FALD backlight and fully HDR10 compliant while using a T-AW polarising filter to minimize IPS glow. This would be a sturdy but nice looking display with an adjustable foot. Inputs would include 2xHDMI (1x 1.4b and 1x2.0), USB-C, DisplayPort 1.4 and for compatibility reasons a DVI-D port. The display would be made of metal and black matt plastic.

The display should have a pass-through mode that bypasses all the internal image processing for when one wants to game competitively (disabling FALD, any color adjustments, HDR etc.) and loweing the input latencies to 1ms or lower while enabling some sort of motion reduction backlight. The OSD would be bare-bones and simple with color adjustments and basic settings.

The technology is there to build it today, I'd be willing to pay about €1250 for it.
 
Samsung ue43ks7500 is around £800. Reduce this to 40" up the refresh to 100 & add gsync and you are pretty much at my perfect monitor. I would pay up to 1k for that.
 
The current LG ultrafine 4k needs a display port.

Then the rest of us (majority) non-2016 MacBook Pro users have a suitable extenal retina monitor.
 
I would like for 3440x1440 75hz to be a bit more budget friendly and the new norm instead of 60hz while also offering 100hz 3440x1440 and 2560x1080 in both 29 inch (also the 1440p btw) and 34 inch sizes.

For a 100hz 29inch 3440x1440 i would say around 5500 DKK
For a 100hz 34inch 3440x1440 i would say around 6500 DKK
For the 75hz 34inch 3440x1440 a price of 4000 DKK or lower if possible.

Common for all these are of course IPS, Adaptive sync(freesync for AMD) and the usually goodies that you currently use in your um88 monitor. Also a non whooply stand that doesnt tilt to much left or right and as little as possible backlight bleed or IPS glow.
 
Well I'm probably an outlier here, because what I think would make a perfect monitor is:

A quality and satisfaction guarantee that covers BLB, brightness banding, and dead pixels. All dead pixels. Dark, or bright.
Because I want to know that you believe your tech is good. Nobody out there is offering this promise, and as such I can't believe that any of you expect your units to be good enough to satisfy us. Please help us end the panel lottery and make a screen that is as good as a screen can be, rather than racing to the bottom on price. Buying a new monitor shouldn't leave us with a sense of dread about how many returns it's going to need this time.

That aside, let's talk specs :)

Short version (order of importance)
  1. 32"; 16:9 or 16:10
  2. QHD; 1440p or 1600p
  3. 100% sRGB and ideally 98% or more of Adobe RGB, with good accuracy
  4. Flicker-free
  5. 75Hz or better
  6. G-sync + Freesync options
  7. input + response times less than 20ms combined
  8. FALD + HDR
Long version
  1. Size: everyone likes big things. But not too big. It's for a desk, not a TV stand after all ;) I prefer a normal aspect ratio because not all things are ultra-wide... I will also work on this screen, and watch videos. Plus there's more pixels per diagonal inch in a taller screen.
  2. Res: 4k is too high for most people. Many of us don't want to spend £600 on a GPU, and some of us have older eyes that don't appreciate tiny pixels. QHD can be driven with more mainstream hardware. QHD at 32" is roughly the pixel density of a 24" 1080p/1200p, which a lot of people are perfectly comfortable with.
  3. Colour: because you want to see things as they were intended to look. Most content creators have a well calibrated and accurate screen; so should consumers.
  4. Flicker: gives me headaches. Gives a lot of people headaches. PWM or strobing backlights absolutely write off a monitor for me, even if all other things were flawless.
  5. Frequency: 75 is easy to attain, but has more dividers than 60, such that even without adaptive sync, you have a better chance of getting some sort of reasonable smoothness.
  6. Sync: if it's at all possible to put BOTH into the same screen, that would be marvellous. If not, produce the same screen with two models.
  7. Lag: because that's 100 fps
  8. FALD + HDR: they seem to go hand in hand. Nice, but imho, not vital.

Prepared to pay: £1000, maybe a little more
Honestly, you could have my money for a unit that covers points 1-4 and any one of the others, plus the satisfaction guarantee.

It is literally this last point that is blocking me from purchasing and has done for the last 12 months. Stand by your products and let us know that you expect them to be perfect and will work with us until we have a unit on our desks that makes us happy every time we sit down!
 
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My ideal requirements? Probably something like..

  • Flimsy plastic stand, ideally a different colour to the monitor so it stands out
  • Shiny plastic bezels, angled so they catch the light
  • Ports on the back at all different angles
  • Labels on the bezel showing the features, that leave sticky residue behind
  • Power cable too short and a bulky external power brick that doesn't rest on a surface well due to the cable length
  • Backlight bleed, ideally a different amount in each corner and some in the middle
  • Glossy screen that reflects any windows in the room
  • A slight buzz when in use

Hopefully one day they make the monitor of my dreams :D
 
  • 27" IPS (2560x1440) - Semi Gloss
  • G-Sync
  • 144hz
  • No BLB
  • Zero/Minimal IPS glow (with Polarizer?)
  • High quality control
  • £500.00

No too much to ask surely?
;)
 
Yup if you are going to insist on using a basic IPS panel and not trying to further improve the blacks etc. via some local dimming or whatever, then at least start using polarizer's of some kind again. It significantly reduces IPS glow, even in its most problematic conditions i.e. viewing from an angle in a dark room

SEFnIh9.jpg
 
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27" (RTS, MOBA is not possible to do on anything bigger IMO), UHD certified, 5ms response times, high end VA panel to sort out the blacks (yet to see this on an IPS but would love to be proved wrong) and vsync. Whilst 120 htz would be nice, would be happy just to get the former.

I would say OLED but it just is not going to be affordable any time soon.
 
Well I'll give my two cents.

As a preamble I feel it's really odd that so many people are giving such concrete answers such as "It needs to be 144hz" as if that is some kind of universally optimal refresh rate. I imagine what they actually mean is something more along the lines of "144Hz is sufficient but ideally make the refresh rate as high as possible without compromising IQ or sending the price through the stratosphere".

• 21:9 Aspect ratio
• Using a display technology which can achieve true blacks. Whether that is OLED, Emissive QDot or something else isn’t important. This is one of my highest priorities.
• If it must use a backlight – make it a full array or don’t bother trying to make the perfect monitor.
• Within reason the highest resolution possible, with a floor of 3440x1440. A ceiling would be something like 5040x2160 as greater resolutions would be too expensive and no GPUs could handle it in the near future. The closer to the ceiling the better, especially if the display is large. I don't want the pixel density getting too low.
• Curved display. But I don't know what the curvature sweet spot is so I won't bother listing one.
• Smaller 21:9 displays end up being very short which I dislike. I want extra horizontal space vs my 24’’ 16:9 monitor without losing anything vertically. So a minimum of 30’’ to a max of 38’’ – beyond which it becomes hard to see the edge. So I’d say my ideal would be 34’’ but preferences probably vary on this one.
• True 10 bit panel and full HDR support
• Excellent colour accuracy and gamut. I’m no expert but let’s say aim for 98%+ Adobe RGB
• Either factory calibrated or with the ability for the user to do it
• Both Gsync HDR and Freesync HDR Support. (It’s annoying this is the case, but that’s proprietary tech for you). If I had to choose one – Gsync, but just because I have an Nvidia GPU.
• High refresh rate (100hz+) and very low input lag & response comparable or beating current high-end gaming monitors.
• It needs to actually have the connectivity to run at its max resolution & refresh rate.
• Bezel as thin as possible
• VESA mount
• Ships with an unobtrusive stand. Don’t take up more desk space than it needs to be stable.
• Said stand should support tilt, pivot & swivel
• No glossy materials.
• Monitor body should be black – it’s easier to ignore that way.
• Professional / Clean design. I don’t want RGB LEDs stuck all over it like it’s some tacky Christmas tree. I don’t want xXxGAMINGxXx written on it anywhere.
• Fast boot time. My BENQXL2420T takes an age to start up and it’s very annoying.
• Light matte screen coating
• An OSD and controls that aren’t garbage.
• 3+ Year Warranty

Things I don’t care about so much / Negatives:

• I really don’t care if fitting all this stuff in makes the monitor thick (within reason – 12 feet is probably too much). A thin display is one of my lowest priorities.
• Speakers are also a very low priority. I have headphones which will sound better than whatever you put in. I also have speakers that sound better. If you can fit some in, great, but I really don’t care.
• I have never used the USB pass-through on my display. I wouldn’t care if there wasn’t one.
• 3D Support. I have used Nvidia 3D Vision on my monitor, but only a couple of times. Years ago. Ultimately the glasses were annoying both to wear and due to the flickering in the lenses. If it doesn’t support 3D it won’t negatively impact my purchasing decision.
• If there are dead pixels I send it back. If there is backlight bleed (if not OLED/Emissive QDot) I send it back.


On cost. If this were released today I’d probably pay a maximum of £2k for it. And I’m still without a job after finishing my Masters. So if I were earning that might go up to £2.5k. But of course, the monitor won’t exist in isolation. The longer it takes for this monitor to be released, the better the competition will get and the less I will be willing to pay for it.
 
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Ay caramba!

With so many people willing to pay four figure sums for a monitor, I get the feeling the only feedback that will end up filtering through from this thread to LG HQ is... increase prices! :p
 
TNA said:
Ay caramba!

With so many people willing to pay four figure sums for a monitor, I get the feeling the only feedback that will end up filtering through from this thread to LG HQ is... increase prices! :p
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I'd only be willing to pay so much because I expect said monitor would last me something like 10 years.
 
Sampsy said:
I'd only be willing to pay so much because I expect said monitor would last me something like 10 years.
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No need to justify how you spend you money. But yeah I suppose if you are going to use it that long, I can see why you may be willing to pay for so much :)

I personally never keep a monitor more than 3 years, once warranty is gone I get rid of it and buy new tech. Plus I enjoy buying new tech and trying different things out. I think £500-600 is plenty of money for them to make a nice profit on a Freesync 2 4K monitor.
 
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