[PCM2]

Our review of the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 is now live. This is a 26.5″ 2560 x 1440 (QHD or 1440p) glossy QD-OLED monitor with support for a 500Hz refresh rate, alongside HDMI 2.1 support for console compatibility. The usual QD-OLED experience was provided, alongside slightly restricted but fairly well-tuned emulation settings for sRGB, DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB. The monitor also provided complete to near complete coverage of all three colour spaces. So colour vibrancy and contrast potential are both exceptional. The 500Hz panel provides some brightness improvement compared to other QD-OLED panels, upping maximum SDR brightness to ~320 cd/m² (from ~260 cd/m²) and increasing HDR brightness levels at various APLs (Average Picture Levels), including with ‘real scene’ testing, by ~50 – 75 cd/m². That can make a difference if you’re starting from a lowish base (e.g. outputting ~325 cd/m² instead of ~250 cd/m² for full screen white or ~430 cd/m² instead of ~360 cd/m² for 25% white.

The monitor offers 3 distinct HDR settings, with two high brightness modes offering distinct compromises. The ‘Peak 1000 nits’ setting is the usual QD-OLED experience for such a setting, providing excellent small bright highlights and good representation in low APL scenes. But dimming medium shades in higher APL scenes. I wasn’t all that impressed with the alternative high brightness ‘EOTF Boost’ setting as it was extremely inconsistent and couldn’t be calibrated appropriately to avoid significant high APL scene highlight crushing without compromising brightness levels in lower APL scenes. Some people may see utility in the setting depending on sensitivity to highlight crushing and the content they’re observing. I actually found the ‘True Black 500’ setting (VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified mode) noticeably brighter than the more usual ‘True Black 400’ style modes. The luminance was ~70-80 nits higher at various APLs and this translated into a noticeable boost. Overall I enjoyed using this as my ‘go to’ HDR setting on the monitor, but switched to ‘Peak 1000 nits’ when I craved some dazzling smaller highlights, typically for shorter sessions.

The 500Hz refresh rate was also something I noticed quite readily – even on the desktop. But I wouldn’t say it translated to a meaningful difference in how I performed in games or in most cases substantially increased my overall enjoyment. The visual and felt fluidity where you’re able to get suitably high frame rates (ideally 500fps) was exceptional, but it’s not realistically achievable for many titles and systems. With my RTX 5090 I was able to use Nvidia frame generation (2x) on Battlefield 6 to extrapolate from ~200 fps to double that – so visually things looked like ~400Hz. I could’ve lowered graphics settings to get closer to 500fps, but for me a bit of eye candy is more enjoyable on that title than the extra refresh rate. This monitor is priced quite aggressively in my view and is a model I really enjoyed gaming on. Sensitivity to motion performance varies, but it’s a good option for competitive gamers or even those itching to try a really high refresh rate OLED. I also feel the step up in brightness from other QD-OLED panels (i.e current non-500Hz modes) could be a compelling reason for some.

[sblantipodi]

thanks for the review Adams,
is this the 4th gen QD-OLED?

do you think that we will see this brighter QD-OLED in a 32 inch format in 2026?

[PCM2]

Samsung Display doesn’t really use panel generations officially, so the “generations” can be a bit of a confused concept. Some people will call it ‘3rd Gen’, but the panel was released after the so-called ‘4th Gen’ 26.5″ UHD panels so that doesn’t really make sense to me. There are no brighter higher pixel density QD-OLEDs currently in the pipeline and I wouldn’t like to speculate on what they’ll release in 2026, but I would expect them to boost the brightness of their UHD panels at some point.

[Author]

Posts