[slurmsmckenzie]

I was specifically interested to know if any owners of the ASUS PG27AQDM, LG 27GR95QE, Corsair Xeneon 27QHD240 or Acer X27U had previously had a 4K screen and if so how they found the transition to 1440p? Particularly interested if it was a FALD IPS screen, as it seems that a lot of the “wow factor” of moving to OLED is about the black levels and contrast – something you do get (to a degree) with FALD IPS so might not be so much of a factor if you’re already accustomed to this.

I’ve been reading a lot about these 27″ OLED monitors in recent days and keep coming back to the LG as being the best choice for me on balance, this thread in particular is very helpful and I must have read and re-read it about 10 times 🙂

I currently have an Acer X27P and have enjoyed the SDR local dimming experience in terms of deeper blacks and better contrast, and whilst I notice blooming it isn’t too bad considering. I also like the 4K experience and excellent text clarity, and enjoy light gaming at 120Hz (e.g. Forza Horizon). I’m trying to figure out how much of an “upgrade” the LG 27GR95QE would be for me – or indeed how much of a “downgrade” in certain respects. I currently have my SDR backlight at 173 nits and don’t use HDR much so I’m not worried about brightness on the LG, and I read some comments on Reddit which suggested that OLED is better than FALD IPS in terms of picture clarity and contrast at lower brightness specifically – not sure if this sounds right for the OLED owners out there?

Realise I might be asking a niche question here but if anyone did happen to have moved to one of the 27″ 1440p OLEDs from a 27″ 4K FALD IPS and was able to give their impressions that would be most appreciated!

[PCM2]

I’ve moved this over to its own thread to see if it catches more attention, so others can share their thoughts.

This is of course highly subjective, but based on my own experiences I do greatly appreciate the pixel density of 27″ ‘4K’ UHD models compared to QHD models of a similar size. It makes a significant difference for me even when gaming, with that ‘distant clarity’ and definition that’s described in our article on the topic. This isn’t something that an OLED panel makes up for, but of course these benefits have to be weighed against the OLED advantages. There is certainly a significant advantage in terms of dimming precision, comparing a 27″ OLED with effectively ~3.7 million dimming zones to a 27″ LCD with 384-zone local dimming. It’s commonly considered an advantage that is particularly noticeable where very bright and dark shades intermingle, as you don’t get a ‘halo’ or ‘blooming’. But the advantages are broader than that. The vastly superior level of precision on the OLED means it’s able to display fine bright details beside fine dark details, with excellent distinction of fine details for shades between those two extremes. This applies even if the brightest shades are only 173 nits. Furthermore, local dimming on LCDs relies on algorithmic control and under SDR there’s limited tone mapping precision. When you combine these two things, you’ll often find that at relatively low brightness SDR local dimming will dim medium-dark and medium shades significantly more than they should be. Or there will be ‘halos’ around bright shades with medium backgrounds, due to a bright biasing of the local dimming there. These are compromises we talk about in our review of the Acer X32 FP, for example.

Personally I’d love to have both experiences married together and it’s something to look forward to in the not too distant future. I personally own both a AW3423DW and 27GR95QE, so I’m clearly a fan of OLED technology. But an important part of the experience on the 240Hz OLEDs is actually the 240Hz refresh rate. If you just consider 120Hz gaming, I don’t personally feel they’re worth the premium over a good LCD of similar price but higher resolution – but some would be happy to pay for the ‘OLED advantages’ even without making use of the full refresh rate. I personally prefer the AW3423DW’s ultrawide QD-OLED experience for reasons mentioned briefly in the conclusion of the LG review. I find myself using the QD-OLED a lot and accepting the pixel density being ‘lower than I’d personally like’ because of the other benefits, for immersive gameplay and because I find it more pleasant on the desktop. I actually use it in preference over the LG so much that I’m consider selling the LG – it’s hard to justify keeping hold of the LG just as a reference monitor when much cheaper LCDs plus the AW3423DW can be used for that task. 🙂

[slurmsmckenzie]

Thank you very much for the comprehensive thoughts and info PCM2! It does sound like it comes down to compromises one way or the other, I’d be gaining in some areas but losing in others if I made that switch, hoped it would be more clear cut 😉

I too would love to have both 4K high refresh and 27″ panel size married together, I do hope it isn’t too distant! I’m not pinning any hopes on earlier than Q4 2025 based on what I’ve seen, and then there is the few months to wait until reviews come in, so it feels like 2026 – no idea if that is way off the mark? If it is that long to wait then I feel like it would be worth upgrading for the intervening period – like Tim from Monitors Unboxed says in this Q&A, buying one of the current 27″ or 34″ ultra-wide OLEDs is going to give you the benefit now rather than perhaps longer term!

I have also come close to buying the Alienware QD-OLED but ended up feeling that the 27″ WOLEDs would make more sense for me, mainly because my use-case is ‘mixed’ rather than gaming-focused. Some of the benefits of an ultra-wide format seemed to go against trying to prevent burn-in – for example snapping two windows side-by-side – and I’ve also been left with the impression that QD-OLED might actually have slightly more risk of burn-in for desktop usage. Also I read quite a lot of Reddit posts about the Alienware QC being poor and even the packaging being substandard to the point that it damages the screen in shipping. The fact that it isn’t available from as wider set of retailers as the WOLED options means that buying from Dell direct makes most sense, yet I’ve read many complaints about the products received and the way they have handled returns / issues – for example people getting a defective or damaged brand-new monitor only to be shipped an open-box refurb covered in greasy fingerprints as a replacement.

The pontification continues!

[PCM2]

I would add that I’ve been using the AW3423DW fairly extensively (though not as my sole monitor, admittedly) for ~16 months including a lot of side by side window desktop work and don’t have any burn-in to report. Actually I have side by side windows most of the time on 16:9 monitors as well, I love to ‘multi-task’. Of course this is a sample size of one and it isn’t used exclusively as my only monitor – part of the joy of using it longer term is to see how it fares over time in this respect. The monitors are very popular and people are more likely to complain on Reddit etc. than they are to post positive experiences, so it can give a skewed idea about how common issues actually are. Then again the 27GR95QE does seem to be very solid in that respect based on user feedback (and relative lack of negative feedback), is well packaged and may indeed alleviate some of those burn-in concerns you have.

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