Unlocking Full Potential: The 2-Year OLED Monitor Life

Quick Links

• Unmatched Picture Quality
• True HDR Experience
• Instant Response Time for Gaming
• Most OLED Monitors Include Burn-In Warranty
• OLED Monitors Aren’t as Expensive as You Think

Key Takeaways

• OLED displays offer superior HDR experience and picture quality with true black levels and infinite contrast ratios; no LCD monitor even comes close.
• You can forget about ghosting in video games after upgrading to an OLED monitor, thanks to their near-instant response times.
• Most OLED monitors come with a multi-year warranty that covers screen burn-in. You can find several OLED monitors today for under $1,000.

Are you on the fence about buying an OLED monitor? Since 2022, I’ve been using an OLED monitor as the main display for my PC, and I can confidently say I can’t go back to an LCD monitor anymore. Here’s why you should go for it.

1. Unmatched Picture Quality

Hamlin Rozario/MakeUseOf

The first thing you’ll immediately notice after upgrading to an OLED monitor, especially if you’re coming from a standard LCD monitor, is the picture quality.

OLED displays can shut off each pixel individually, and this makes a huge difference when it comes to black levels. The blacks you see on OLED displays during a dark scene are true blacks because the pixels shut off, and as a result, you get an infinite contrast ratio.

LCD displays, on the other hand, have a backlight that remains on even while showing pitch-black content. Take a look at the image above, for example. You can immediately tell the monitor on the left uses an LCD panel due to its backlighting.

And if that’s not enough, I want to point out that the monitor on the left has a 4K resolution, whereas the OLED monitor on the right is 1440p. I still prefer watching videos on the OLED monitor despite the lower resolution due to its superior picture quality, no matter what angle I look at it from.

Even if I look at the monitor from the side, the colors never appear washed out, and the picture quality remains consistent. If you prefer a display with a wide viewing angle, you should consider buying an OLED TV or monitor, as these displays are unmatched in that aspect.

2. True HDR Experience

Hamlin Rozario/MakeUseOf

Several LCD monitors in the market today advertise HDR support, but how can they truly support HDR content when most of them offer peak brightness levels around 600 nits?

OLED monitors can go up to 1,000 nits when viewing HDR content, even though their peak SDR brightness is far lower than that of LCD monitors. That’s because the pixels can shut off individually, which gives these displays a huge advantage in a 10 percent window (i.e., 10 percent of the display shows a white screen while the rest is black).

It’s worth noting that OLED monitors are indeed no match for mini-LED displays or VA monitors in terms of HDR brightness levels. The latter can exceed 1,000 nits in some cases. However, the unmatched black levels and infinite contrast ratio of OLED monitors give them the edge; they offer better visual immersion, especially in a dark room.

3. Instant Response Time for Gaming

Hamlin Rozario/MakeUseOf

If you’re a gamer, a high refresh rate OLED monitor will give you a better experience than most LCD gaming monitors. That’s because OLED displays have a near-instant pixel response time of 0.03ms. In comparison, the fastest TN LCD monitors advertise a 0.5ms response time. But what does this mean in real-world use?

In fast-motion scenes, OLED monitors will appear clearer, as they leave no trails behind moving objects. This means you don’t experience “monitor ghosting” — an issue that plagues almost all LCD monitors, even at higher refresh rates.

Simply put, the lower the monitor’s response time, the less ghosting you’ll experience. However, most gaming monitors have a response time between 1ms and 3ms, which is no match compared to OLED displays.

Many gaming monitors have a pixel overdrive feature to lower the response time and minimize ghosting. However, this causes another issue known as inverse ghosting, where the pixel changes colors quickly and overshoots what the target color is supposed to be, creating a ghost image on the screen. You won’t experience any of these issues on an OLED display.

4. Most OLED Monitors Include Burn-In Warranty

It’s no secret that screen burn-in is one of the biggest cons of OLED displays . This is mostly why people hesitate to buy an OLED TV or monitor. While it’s true that screen burn-in is unavoidable in the long term, I haven’t seen image retention on my OLED monitor despite using it daily since 2022.

Sure, if you display a static screen on an OLED monitor for hours daily over a long period, you will eventually see image retention. Fortunately, most OLED monitors in the market today offer OLED panel care features like pixel shift, pixel refresh, and panel refresh. As long as you utilize them, the chances of screen burn-in are minimal.

If you’re still concerned, we’re happy to let you know that most OLED monitors are backed by a two- or three-year warranty, which includes coverage for screen burn-in. For example, Dell and MSI back their OLED monitors with a three-year warranty, whereas Asus offers a two-year burn-in warranty. But be sure to check the warranty details on the monitor’s specs page.

5. OLED Monitors Aren’t as Expensive as You Think

Considering all their benefits, you’d be quick to assume that OLED monitors cost well over a grand, but that’s not always the case. Sure, they used to be expensive in 2022 when the technology was new in monitors, but in 2024, you can find several OLED monitors for under $1,000.

MSI’s flagship 4K/240Hz QD-OLED monitor, the MSI MPG 321URX , has an MSRP of $950. Likewise, you can find older 2023 models like the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM and LG 27GS95QE for under $900 on Amazon.

As you can see, you don’t have to burn a hole in your wallet while shopping for an OLED monitor. If anything, they cost a couple hundred dollars more than high-end LCD gaming monitors. So, what’s stopping you from upgrading to an OLED monitor today?