Monitors at CES 2020 – Faster, curvier and brighter
The CES is a fair where screens are in the spotlight. New TVs attract a lot of attention every year and this time there were also foldable PCs as eye-catchers. Monitors are less in the spotlight, but the developments in this product group are therefore no less interesting. This year at CES interesting new models were on display. We can roughly summarize the developments as ‘faster, more curved and brighter’. In this article we discuss the new models and techniques.
Faster
Until a few years ago, monitors for gamers had increasingly higher refresh rates, but developments in that area have now come to a standstill. Screens with a refresh rate of 240Hz have been available for more than three years and that is the maximum for the time being. Asus is changing that with the introduction of a 360Hz monitor to the ROG series, due for release later this year. The screen was developed in collaboration with Nvidia and is therefore also equipped with G-Sync.
Asus is not yet revealing all the details surrounding the 360Hz monitor. The screen will have a 24.5″ panel with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The panel is almost certainly from AU Optronics, because Asus works closely with that manufacturer. Which panel type is also unclear, but presumably is it a tn panel, just like the predecessor.
The new 360Hz monitor is the successor to the ROG Swift PG258Q , which has been on sale since 2017. That screen has a 24.5″ panel with a refresh rate of 240Hz. The big question is, of course, whether the difference between 240 and 360Hz is visible in practice. At CES we were able to compare the screens to get an impression.
Asus placed the new 360Hz monitor on its stand next to the old 240Hz model. A test was developed in collaboration with Nvidia and the website Blur Busters to show the difference. It was a demo where the image was scrolled at high speed with a display of Dota 2. And indeed, if you looked closely, you could see that the display at 360Hz looked a bit sharper. This was especially noticeable with the text, which was easier to read on the new screen. In the demo setup, the image could also be compared to lower refresh rates such as 144Hz and 60Hz. The difference was significantly larger.
The Dota 2 test didn’t really capture our imagination, because it’s not a hands-on test after all. The Nvidia booth also had demo setups where we could work with the 360Hz screen in combination with tests in CS:GO to test accuracy and response time. Nvidia put the new screen next to a 60Hz monitor. The difference turned out to be as great as between day and night.
In the reaction time test, we barely managed to hit the target on the 60Hz monitor, resulting in a score of 1 out of 10. Switching to 360Hz made hitting the target a lot easier and we got a score of 9 out of 10. However, this test in itself says nothing about the difference between a 240Hz monitor and the new 360Hz screen.
After some prodding, Nvidia changed the demo setup for us so that we could experience the difference between 144Hz and 360Hz in an accuracy-focused demo by taking headshots. The difference was clearly visible and playing on the 360Hz screen felt noticeably smoother, which also translated into a somewhat better score.
A field test to compare 240Hz to 360Hz was not provided; for that we had to make do with the Blur Busters view. Nvidia did say that its own tests showed that professional e-athletes score about four percent better on a 360Hz screen than on a 240Hz monitor in the reaction test. That may be a small difference, but it is relevant for that target group.
Increasing the refresh rate ultimately allows gamers to react faster by rendering frames earlier. With a 360Hz screen, a frame is displayed every 2.8ms. With a 240Hz monitor this is about every 4.2ms and with a 60Hz screen every 17ms. To take advantage of that, games need to run at very high frame rates. With competitive games such as CS:GO and Overwatch, this is possible with the current hardware.
For now, Asus is the only manufacturer to have announced a 360Hz monitor, but more will probably follow later. It is not yet known what the Asus screen will cost. An Asus employee told us that the screen will be a bit more expensive than the current PG258Q. That screen is currently for about 550 euros in the Pricewatch .
Krommer
In 2017, the first monitors with a 32:9 ratio appeared , including Samsung’s 49″ model. With such dimensions, a curvature is not an unnecessary luxury, and it comes into its own in games in particular. The first 49″ monitors still had a curvature of 1800R and now Samsung introduces a new version with a curvature of 1000R, equivalent to a circle with a radius of one meter. Samsung showed the screen with images of the game Overwatch. We sat down for a while and got pretty excited. The large curvature makes it easier to see the corners of the screen and the image closely resembles the human field of view.
Samsung’s new Odyssey G9 monitor is impressive in more ways than one. The 49″ panel again has a resolution of 5120×1440 pixels, just like its predecessor, but the refresh rate is now up to 240Hz and the response time is 1ms. The screen is based on a VA panel with a layer of quantum dots and suitable for HDR display with a maximum brightness of 1000cd/m² The screen has FreeSync 2 support and is therefore also compatible with G-Sync.
The appearance of the monitor is also impressive and that is not only due to the dimensions. At the back is a round hole with LEDs in it. Combined with the glossy white finish, this gives a futuristic look. When Samsung’s monstrous gaming monitor will be released and what it will cost is not yet known. The predecessor with a 120Hz panel and a curvature of 1800R currently costs around 1200 euros.
MSI also brought a monitor with a curvature of 1000R to CES. It concerned the Optix MAG342CQR, a 34″ monitor with a 21:9 ratio and a resolution of 3440×1440 pixels. This screen has a somewhat narrower aspect ratio, so the curvature is less noticeable. However, this monitor is considerably more curved than other 21 :9 screens, which were previously available with a curvature of 1800R or 1500R, MSI is also targeting gamers with its screen, featuring a 144Hz refresh rate and a gray-to-gray response time of 4ms.
brighter
Last year at CES at Asus we saw the first monitor with a mini LED backlight . That screen had a maximum brightness of 1200cd/m² and about a thousand dimmable zones. By placing many small LEDs behind a screen panel, the manufacturer enables high brightness and good HDR reproduction, because the image can be made locally light or dark. This year, various new monitors with a mini LED backlight were at the fair, and we saw models with more dimmable zones and a higher maximum brightness.
At Asus, we took a seat behind the ROG Swift PG32UQX. That is a 32″ monitor with an IPS panel, a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels, a refresh rate of 144Hz and a G-Sync Ultimate module. The mini LED backlight can dim the screen to 1152 different zones and the screen has a DisplayHDR 1400- certificate, so it can display up to 1400cd/m² In the dark room the screen was in, the HDR display looked impressive.
An Asus employee told us that the panel and backlight are based on the previously announced PA32UCG from the ProArt series. This is a 4k120Hz monitor that reaches a maximum of 1600cd/m², also with 1152 dimmable zones. When the game monitor will be released and for what price, it is not yet known. We do know that Asus’ first monitor with mini LED backlight, the ProArt PA32UCX, is now for sale for about three thousand euros.
Acer has announced a similar monitor with the Predator X32. This is also a 4k model with a 144Hz panel, a mini LED backlight and a G-Sync Ultimate module. Acer speaks of a maximum brightness of 1440cd/m² and says that the monitor will be released in the second quarter of this year, with a retail price of 3299 euros.
It is striking that both Asus and Acer announced monitors with mini LED backlight for gamers more than half a year ago at the Computex fair, but have not yet released them. At the time, these were 27-inch variants with also a 4k resolution and 576 dimmable zones. Asus planned to release its model at the end of 2019, but that did not happen.
At CES, Dell showed its first monitor with a mini LED backlight. It was a 31.5″ model aimed at designers. The maximum brightness at 1000cd/m² is less than what we see with Asus and Acer, but Dell promises 2000 dimmable zones, almost double what the competition now offers has.
Laptops with mini LED backlight
We conclude with a literal look behind the scenes at Asus. The manufacturer showed a prototype of a laptop screen with a mini LED backlight from AUO, showing the mini LED backlight, without the screen panel. The demo setup also showed a full laptop with backlight and screen. The image was synchronized to show how the mini LED backlight works.
This was a 17.3″ screen with a 4k resolution, a refresh rate of 120Hz and a brightness of up to 1000cd/m². The mini LED backlight consists of thousands of LEDs, but with the current timing controllers for laptop screens, a maximum of 240 zones are on Asus is therefore not putting this screen in laptops for sale yet. Perhaps that will happen in the future. Incidentally, MSI has announced a laptop with a miniLED screen and similar specifications. The company may use the same supplier.