My Top 3 Favorite Monitors of 2024 So Far

welcome back to monitors unbox today it's time for a media update on my top three favorite monitors that I've tested in 2024 so far it's another year that has been dominated by old Leed gaming displays though mostly through new panel formats rather than upgrades to the old Leed technology itself still the onslaught of new releases has kept me pretty busy and there's been plenty of highquality products to enjoy like the video I made last year this video is a little different to the typical recommendation videos that we make on the channel when we make a best of video we consider a wide audience and look at what many prospective buyers with different use cases might like in a display this video however is a personal preference video I'm thinking about the products that I like the most the things I found the most interesting and base everything around my preferences the things I like especially as a product reviewer may not be the things that you like but anyway let's get into it it was pretty difficult to decide on the exact monitor that's my favorite so far but I do have a favorite panel type and that's 32-in 4K 240Hz QD OLED I've tested four of these displays in the first half of the year and every time I'm impressed by their quality and performance in fact it's pretty remarkable how well all of the Asus MSI Dell and gigabyte models have fed it's impossible to get a bad monitor from that Bunch that's mostly the re reason why I find it difficult to pick a specific monitor as my favorite though there are certainly some features and characteristics that I prefer for example I'm not a fan of the curved Alienware model simply due to its curve so that model wouldn't be my favorite nothing wrong with its performance and in many countries it's well priced but personally if I was spending over $1,000 us on a display like this I'd want it to be flat so the Asus MSI and gigabyte monitors are more my speed there aren't many specific features from each of these variants that catch my attention as a buyer the Asus PG 32 ucdm does include elmb black frame insertion but as it's locked to fixed 120 HZ gaming I'd never use it the gigabyte fo32 u2p packs display port 2.1 uhb 20 connectivity but I don't think this provides many real world benefits to Gamers over display port 1.4 with DSC the MSI 321 urx might be the cheapest model in the United States but here in Australia it's the same price as the gigabyte model and substantially more than the a ion Weare from what I have tested so far the things I really do like are the unlocked srgb mode on the PG 32 ucdm and the customizable OLED care features on the 321 urx not exactly Earth shattering differences but when the monitors otherwise deliver the same sort of experience these are the features around the edge that can change my preference given all of these Old Leeds generally have excellent Factory calibration I've enjoyed using the 321 urx as my productivity Monitor and it is quite a bit cheaper than the Asus model I think if I was forced to pick a favorite from this Bunch I'd give a very slight Edge to the MSI variant what's really impressed me though is the panel in general the higher pixel density and adjusted sub pixel structure have greatly improved text rendering to the point where it's not a major downside compared to similar LCD panels these monitors probably won't go the distance for heavy productivity use based on the early results of my burin test but between the text rendering and acceptable levels of SDR brightness I found 4K CIO Leed to work really well in my workstation setup better than I expected before I saw them in person the speed on offer is excellent for gaming and also leads to a great productivity experience thanks to smooth clear scrolling Lightning Fast Response times result in better motion Clarity than an LCD at the same refresh rate and the high 240 HZ refresh is not something I've been able to max out often in the single player titles I usually play these C leads look unbelievably good displaying today's HDR games thanks to their great HDR capabilities per pixel control and high resolution of course there are still areas that Samsung display need to work on before this is a perfect endgame sort of monitor the screen's tendency to reflect ambient light needs work and getting high brightness in high APL scenes is difficult under current configurations but in general I'd say these panels are a big step forward for the OLED gaming ecosystem as an honorable mention here I'll also throw in the LG 32gs 95 U this is a 32in 4K 240 HZ wed Monitor and while wed hasn't been quite as impressive in this category as QD OED in my opinion I really did like testing out dual mode functionality basically what this mode does is change the 4K 240 HZ panel into 1080p for 80 Herz providing much higher levels of motion Clarity for multiplayer games at the expense of resolution when I first heard about this technology I was skeptical as to how well it would work and what the downsides would be but after actually using it I was was very impressed with how seamless the experience is switching into 1080p 480 HZ preserves everything great about this display including its low input lag and HDR functionality it's a fast changeover and it really works well providing a genuine point of difference compared to QD OLED as I'm not a heavy competitive gamer I'm personally less interested in this feature compared to the advantages of QD OLED but as a product tester it was a very interesting feature to analyze [Music] my second favorite monitor of 2024 is the AOC q27 G3 xmn which I believe was actually launched in 2023 but I tested it this year so I mean that counts right the reason why I love this display is it shows that genuinely great HDR doesn't need to be restricted to expensive products the q27 g3xn is just $280 us and absolutely trounces most other LCDs in this price range in terms of HDR performance many of which don't offer genuine Hardware capable of displaying HDR imagery what AOC did right with this monitor is pairing a mainstream class VA LCD with an entry level 336 Zone backlight and offering that at an entry level price Nothing Fancy no ridiculously inflated MSRP just a nice combination of hardware for those that want to experience HDR gaming without spending huge amounts of money this really should have been possible years before now but for some reason manufacturers wanted to squeeze every last dollar out of crappy edgelit panels the HD experience with the q27 g3x MN isn't as good as you get from a higher end LCD or an OLED which is perfectly fine in this price tier but with real world brightness exceeding 1300 nits and decent dimming providing a good contrast ratio this monitor gets your foot in the door and delivers a notable improvement over SDR only displays I think it's great for games like cyberpunk 277 and Allen wake 2 My Hope Is that this type of monitor sets a new standard for the $300 price point and manufacturers will continue to evolve around it for example the q27 G3 xmn main weakness is response times which on a VA LCD they aren't amazing if that could be tuned better in a new version or improved to the level of an IPS LCD this class of display would be taken to the next level again and I honestly think that's possible given I've also seen decent Zone count IPS LCDs come down in price the disappointing aspect of this AOC monitor is mostly its availability I'm really puzzled as to why this product isn't available absolutely everywhere because I think it would sell well in most regions it's basically impossible to get in Australia without importing one with AOC mostly focusing on the US market that just doesn't make any sense AOC should be pumping these out and flooding the market worldwide and rounding out my top three monitors for the first half of 2024 is something I've recently tested the Asus Rog STS XG 27 AQ DMG what I really like about this product is it shows Asus have been listening to user feedback and providing what the buyers want they saw that people liked the 27in 1440p 240 HZ W olded panel used in the pg27 aqm but weren't a huge fan of the matte screen coding and higher price point so they solved both of those issues in the one go with a special exclusive version the main point of difference to the EXT G27 AQ DMG is its glossy screen cating which genuinely looks great it produces deeper blacks than QD OLED when viewed in brighter environments and offers the clarity without coating grain that glossy enthusiasts love its mirror reflection handling isn't quite as advanced as Samsung's cded coding or even what LG uses for their OLED TVs but the balanced approach to glossy ends up working very well and provides something different to other OLED gaming monitors with OLED pricing continuing to drop over over the last 12 months I also really liked how Asus didn't attempt to raise prices back up to where they were with their new exclusive glossy W OLED debuting in the 700 to $750 range is exactly where this sort of product should be slotting perfectly into the existing price structure established by older monitors like the AOC a276 qzd and lg27 g95 QE I was also impressed with the performance characteristics particularly HDR brightness while it isn't always as bright as the pg27 aqm the newer XG 27 AQ DMG is typically much brighter than older cheaper Weds that it directly competes with at the same price it even exceeds the latest 360 HZ qds especially for higher APL scenes which are a weakness for Samsung's technology this makes the XG 27 AQ DMG an excellent choice for all but enthusiest competitive Gamers that crave the highest refresh rates and lowest input lag while this display is still at 240 HZ compared to 360 HZ with qid Alternatives 240 HZ is plenty fast enough for many types of gaming especially single player titles of course there are still some downsides to this type of w olded monitor especially for text rendering as it's still using an R wbg sub pixel layout and a relatively low pixel density Asus attempted to compensate for this with their clear pixel Edge feature that doesn't work overly well similarly I wasn't that impressed with their solution to OLED flicker which was to Simply r ra the minimum refresh rate to variable refresh functionality what I hope we continue to see is price is trending downwards for these types of old Leed monitors this is undoubtedly a great choice if you want to jump into 1440p HDR gaming however $700 is still pretty expensive for most Gamers especially those that usually stick to mid-range Hardware or lower but with releases like this I can see a future where oleds start at $500 and honestly I don't think that's too far away that will continue to put pressure on LCDs and encourage manufacturers to produce more HDR capable LCDs like the q27 g3x mn2 which is only a good thing for everyone so those are my top three favorite monitors from the year so far it's been a jam-packed first half with a crazy amount of releases far more than we usually see in the early parts of the Year brought about by quite a few new OLED panel releases we're still expecting more to come in the second half of the year including more dual mode W OLED releases and new formats such as 1440p 480 HZ Le so stay tuned for all of that anyway if you do want to support monitors unbox in the testing we do here then please do consider supporting the channel via our patreon or float plan accounts links are in the description below if you sign up you'll gain access to some cool benefits like our Discord Community our monthly live streams BTS videos and all sorts of good stuff so thanks for watching and I'll catch you in the next one [Music] [Music]

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 94,464

Keywords:

Id: DFKWVnuJYRk

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2024