Recently my previous gaming monitor was showing clear signs that it was breaking (after warming up for a minute or two after being turned on, the picture would disappear for a second every 10-or-so seconds, for all input devices, regardless of which input it was connected to, ie. be it DisplayPort or any of the HDMI ports), so I decided to buy a new one.
The previous one was a pretty high-end IPS gaming monitor, 120 Hz, g-sync. Picture quality was very good, and I had nothing to complain about, but alas, it was breaking and unusable.
Researching a bit about possible replacements, I noticed a very noticeable sale on a very high-end Asus OLED gaming monitor, which normally costs 1200€, but was on sale in a local online shop here for just 800€. After considering a few alternatives, I decided to purchase it, as the sale was too good to pass.
On paper this monitor is far superior in every aspect: 240 Hz, 0.03 ms pixel response time (the old one was 4 ms), g-sync, and of course being an OLED panel, pretty much infinite contrast: Blacks are actually black, not a very dark gray.
However, I am a bit disappointed and regretting the purchase a bit.
Yes, the picture has higher contrast, and blacks are really black (which really shows in games like Elite Dangerous), but it's actually not all that mind-blowing and awesome as people make it sound. After a while I don't even notice the difference. Sure, maybe the picture looks a tad bit more vivid and high-contrast, if I pay attention to that, but it's not all that different in practice.
Also, I literally have no use for a 240 Hz refresh rate compared to a 120 Hz. It brings me no benefit whatsoever. Nothing. Likewise for the 0.03 ms pixel response time. I see no practical difference in practical games.
So why am I regretting this? It's not like those things are drawbacks. Is it the high price (even if it was greatly reduced)?
No, it's not that. I was completely ready to pay the same amount for a good high-end IPS monitor.
The problem is the OLED technology. Particularly, the problem with pixel degradation.
Asus provides a 3-year warranty for the monitor, but only if you run the "pixel cleaning" process every 8 hours of use. Which the monitor automatically reminds you of with an OSD popup.
It's a bit annoying to suddenly get that popup in the middle of an intense gaming session. And if you run the pixel cleaning process, the monitor is unusable for 6 minutes.
Yes, you can make the interval longer, but that doesn't really solve the issue. You can even disable the reminder, but you do that at the risk of Asus deciding you didn't run it often enough and thus voiding your warranty.
I used my old IPS monitor also for my work at home, which consists of programming. Which, of course, means completely static elements on screen for hours and hours on end. I'm not sure I dare to use this OLED display for that work anymore, because of the dreaded OLED burn-in problem, even with the "pixel cleaning" process every 8 hours. I'm kind of worried that doing 8-hour days of work, with the static stuff on screen for that long, day after day, week after week, month after month, will degrade the pixels far quicker than they should.
IPS does not suffer from this problem. You can have a static picture being shown 24/7 for literally years, and while in some older IPS panels it might have left a temporary "ghost image", it was always that: Temporary. It would go away in minutes (particularly if you used a completely black screen). In more modern IPS panels you don't get that almost at all.
So it's an actual hassle. I have two choices: Just keep using this OLED display in the same way as I used my old IPS display, and perhaps risk uneven pixel degradation and image burn-in (regardless of the regular "pixel cleaning"), or set up myself a separate working space using a different monitor for that work.
I'm regretting this purchase. I'm not convinced the minor increase in image quality is really worth the hassle. In retrospect I should just have purchased a modern top-of-the-line 800€ IPS monitor.
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