Best 43 inch VA for work use

C

Convicted

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I'm still using a 2015 Philips 40 inch 4k monitor, which was the first affordable one in that size that ever came out. It's a VA panel, BGR, not particularly bright, and I'm very happy with it.. Except it's limited to 60hz, and every other screen I use - LG C1 TVs around the house and two gaming laptops - have much higher refresh rates, and I've starts to notice how sluggish this one is.

I'm not up for OLED as I do 50+ hours of computer work a week, typically gmail, docs, spreadsheets, zoom, slack, basically a bunch of stuff that will burn in. I'm also not up for a smaller size or an ultrawide as I really like my current setup. I'm totally used to a BGR VA panel so I assume I won't have the concerns that most people have about text clarity (unless somehow this 2015 panel is better than the current ones?)

I've watched and read the reviews of the current 43 inch VA options and it's super confusing which one is actually the best for work purposes. Rtings suggests that actually the Samsung Qn90b is the best. The G7 doesn't get much love. Some suggest the Aorus is the best, others say it's terrible. Assuming that I'm ok with the downsides of the 43 inch BGR VA panels overall, is there a forum conclusion for which one is best for work (not gaming / multimedia)?
 
I used a Aorus FV43U briefly as a 'work from home' monitor (which consisted mostly of spreadsheets and doc work). I didn't have much issue with it besides getting used to its size, plus the KVM features could be useful for work. This was only for a few days, not sure how well it'd perform long term.

I also think it handles PS5 games pretty good too, if that's your thing.
 
While that monitor was, as you say, the first of it's kind, by todays standard it is really bad. Also recall it had horrible PWM. So basically, if you are happy with that, get the cheapest monitor on the market with the same specs + higher refresh rate.
 
Convicted said:
I'm still using a 2015 Philips 40 inch 4k monitor, which was the first affordable one in that size that ever came out. It's a VA panel, BGR, not particularly bright, and I'm very happy with it.. Except it's limited to 60hz, and every other screen I use - LG C1 TVs around the house and two gaming laptops - have much higher refresh rates, and I've starts to notice how sluggish this one is.

I'm not up for OLED as I do 50+ hours of computer work a week, typically gmail, docs, spreadsheets, zoom, slack, basically a bunch of stuff that will burn in. I'm also not up for a smaller size or an ultrawide as I really like my current setup. I'm totally used to a BGR VA panel so I assume I won't have the concerns that most people have about text clarity (unless somehow this 2015 panel is better than the current ones?)

I've watched and read the reviews of the current 43 inch VA options and it's super confusing which one is actually the best for work purposes. Rtings suggests that actually the Samsung Qn90b is the best. The G7 doesn't get much love. Some suggest the Aorus is the best, others say it's terrible. Assuming that I'm ok with the downsides of the 43 inch BGR VA panels overall, is there a forum conclusion for which one is best for work (not gaming / multimedia)?
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I have used most of the 43"-50" except OLED for the same reason. Started with a CG437K to a FV43U and then a Qn90A and now on a QN90B and the fact that it's now on sale on Amazon for $817 is a deal that cannot be beat. The black level is much better and it has 360 backlight zone vs the 8 of the FV43U. I'm really happy with mine.
 
Wiz33 said:
I have used most of the 43"-50" except OLED for the same reason. Started with a CG437K to a FV43U and then a Qn90A and now on a QN90B and the fact that it's now on sale on Amazon for $817 is a deal that cannot be beat. The black level is much better and it has 360 backlight zone vs the 8 of the FV43U. I'm really happy with mine.
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Amazing, thank you. The price of the QN90B is great right now. I was tempted by the FV43U instead because I figured the additional backlight zones won't really make a difference to desktop work, and as a monitor it would turn on and off automatically with my computer. Sounds like that's the wrong call - have you had any annoying experiences with your QN90B where it's worse than your FV43U, eg having to manually turn it on and off, or having more discolouration towards the edges, or being too reflective? And are you tempted to upgrade to the QN90C?
 
Wiz33 said:
I have used most of the 43"-50" except OLED for the same reason. Started with a CG437K to a FV43U and then a Qn90A and now on a QN90B and the fact that it's now on sale on Amazon for $817 is a deal that cannot be beat. The black level is much better and it has 360 backlight zone vs the 8 of the FV43U. I'm really happy with mine.
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One needs to be a bit carful about the smaller Samsungs though as I recall that depending on the market, they can actually be different from their larger version. Some even sported IPS panels, at least in the EU, even though carrying the same name as the larger ones using VA panels. Does the QN90B in 43/50" come with the ultra wide viewing layer or whatever it is called?
 
I'd go with something like the Samsung 43" Q60C. You don't need high refresh rates or inky black levels for work. I used the 43" Q60B for 3 years as a work monitor. Colors were good and text was super sharp. I switched to the 43" QN90B about 9 months ago. It's good for work and gaming. I'm still not quite ready to trust OLED for a monitor.
 
improwise said:
One needs to be a bit carful about the smaller Samsungs though as I recall that depending on the market, they can actually be different from their larger version. Some even sported IPS panels, at least in the EU, even though carrying the same name as the larger ones using VA panels. Does the QN90B in 43/50" come with the ultra wide viewing layer or whatever it is called?
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That's true until the QN90B. That's one reason I have a 50"QN90A instead of a 43" but it ultimately was a bit big for the desk space and my seating distance. The wide viewing layer was never a concern for me as a solo use monitor.
 
Convicted said:
Amazing, thank you. The price of the QN90B is great right now. I was tempted by the FV43U instead because I figured the additional backlight zones won't really make a difference to desktop work, and as a monitor it would turn on and off automatically with my computer. Sounds like that's the wrong call - have you had any annoying experiences with your QN90B where it's worse than your FV43U, eg having to manually turn it on and off, or having more discolouration towards the edges, or being too reflective? And are you tempted to upgrade to the QN90C?
Click to expand...

I have always physically turn off my display rather using the sleep function so he display not going to sleep when I put the PC to sleep or turning it off is not really a big deal. If the price difference was much more than the current $120. I would say the FV43U is perfectly fine. But the QN90B is just so much more. I do like to take a break here and there even when I work so it being a Smart TV allows me to do some quick streaming or watch some short clips on YouTube and the quality is noticeable better than the same content on the FV43U. As to viewing angle and the darker corner. It all depends on the seating position and viewing distance. I see darker corner on ever model I have used but not to the point of being distracted and the QN90B has the smallest dark area of the 4. as to reflections, you'll probably want to us shades during the brightness hour of the day. I have a large window 2ft to the left of my display and I can work with the shades open during the early morning and the later afternoon but I would have to close the shades during peaking brightness hours but I have to do the same with the FV43U also. With the current low price, I would say order one and try it out as you're the one that will be using it everyday.
 
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Wiz33 said:
That's true until the QN90B. That's one reason I have a 50"QN90A instead of a 43" but it ultimately was a bit big for the desk space and my seating distance. The wide viewing layer was never a concern for me as a solo use monitor.
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And you know this fore sure for all markets as Samsungs are usually different in different markets despite carrying the same modelname?
 
Here is cheap o Wal Mart 43" 4K Roku TV that I use for a PC display, $228 it works well having a build in game mode for consoles being 60Hz plus the X Box game bar, it will make Starfield look way better at 1080p Low.

It does a lot of crazy stuff for me like playing a 1080p game being upscaled with FSR 2.2 and allowing Re Live to record this video in 4K as I see it,


View: https://youtu.be/_maDYJpjNJY?si=r3hYMTAwbfktueUL
 
I used a 43" 4k 60hz Samsung 6900 VA on the side and eventually two of them in portrait mode, one on each side of my 48CX for a few years. Probably not the best possible 43" screen but they looked great to me for desktop/apps and smaller stacked media windows. $350 to $400 each on sale when I bought each.. They are around 6100:1 contrast but they aren't FALD or anything, not HDR etc. Plenty of ok contrast and black depth (compared to non-FALD ips/tn), good saturation and 4k real-estate mainly. I wasn't using them for any kind of color accuracy.

The price was right for my usage at the time. They are dated now so there are better options, (and even when I got them they were decent performance budget models). These are the screens

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/nu6900
 
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elvn said:
I used a 43" 4k 60hz Samsung 6900 VA on the side and eventually two of them in portrait mode, one on each side of my 48CX for a few years. Probably not the best possible 43" screen but they looked great to me for desktop/apps and smaller stacked media windows. $350 to $400 each on sale when I bought each.. They are around 6100:1 contrast but they aren't FALD or anything, not HDR etc. Plenty of ok contrast and black depth (compared to non-FALD ips/tn), good saturation and 4k real-estate mainly. I wasn't using them for any kind of color accuracy.

The price was right for my usage at the time. They are dated now so there are better options, (and even when I got them they were decent performance budget models). These are the screens

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/nu6900
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I bought my little girl a 43" 4k Samsung from Best Buy around 2019 for sale, she uses it as TV / PC monitor and she like playing The Sims on it.
 
Wiz33 said:
That's true until the QN90B. That's one reason I have a 50"QN90A instead of a 43" but it ultimately was a bit big for the desk space and my seating distance. The wide viewing layer was never a concern for me as a solo use monitor.
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Also have a QN90A (USA).. love it. Main monitor for a few years now.. doing some house redecoration so I'm passing it along to be a proper 4K TV, but server great was a monitor (esp ever full time enabling VRR and then going into service menu, turn off auto dimming).

To the OP - the later revisions of the Gigabyte FV43U (think the hardware is the same, but the bios out of box is updated - fixes a lot of issues) is great. Switched from the QN90A to this and I can't complain.
 
pbassjunk said:
Also have a QN90A (USA).. love it. Main monitor for a few years now.. doing some house redecoration so I'm passing it along to be a proper 4K TV, but server great was a monitor (esp ever full time enabling VRR and then going into service menu, turn off auto dimming).

To the OP - the later revisions of the Gigabyte FV43U (think the hardware is the same, but the bios out of box is updated - fixes a lot of issues) is great. Switched from the QN90A to this and I can't complain.
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That is very good to know, thank you. I've been trying to track down the QN90B in the UK, but they're all sold out, and the QN90C which is available is expensive and has a dodgy stand. Whereas the FV43U is well priced and easy to buy on Amazon. Are you using yours for work stuff?
 
As the owner of such a VA display for home use I have to ask - why VA for work only?
I would personally choose an IPS display for pure work use.
 
sethk said:
As the owner of such a VA display for home use I have to ask - why VA for work only?
I would personally choose an IPS display for pure work use.
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I don't believe there are any IPS 40 / 43 inch 4k 120hz displays. It's all the same VA panel, or an OLED
 
Convicted said:
I don't believe there are any IPS 40 / 43 inch 4k 120hz displays. It's all the same VA panel, or an OLED
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Which is unfortunate, as you either suck up the burn in risk on OLED or the pixel interference flaw on all 43 inch VAs.
 
I missed the 120hz requirement (wouldn’t think that’s critical for work, but I can understand wanting it). LG does make reasonably priced 60hz IPS 42” monitors.
 
Got a Microcenter nearby? I just picked up a Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 43" (144Hz) at Microcenter. They had it on sale for $500. They also had a Gigabyte Aourus 43". Didn't look much different and was an extra $200. Up side with the Gigabyte was an integrated KVM switch. Up side with the Samsung is their mini-LED backlight. The Samsung is basically a TV dressed up as a monitor. Lose the tuner, add an AG coating and a DisplayPort connector and keep the smart TV stuff. Yeah, it can play stuff off Netflix, etc. without being hooked up to a computer, etc. I'm not pitching the Samsung as being better than whatever else, but it seems fine so far. I bought it because it was cheap and I could get it at my local Microcenter.
 
Update. FV43U arrived, connected it up. Silky smooth refresh rate. Good brightness and decent blacks in SDR Windows desktop. No issue with text. Initially all good. However I then had two issues.

I tried everything I could do get HDR to work well in Baldur's Gate 3 and it just doesn't look good at all. I'm using the HDR1000 setting on the monitor, and then playing around with the internal settings in the game. No comparison to my LG OLED.

Then I thought meh, I don't really game that much on this screen anyway, I bought it for work, so gave it a go for a couple of hours. And that's where I spotted the thing that's making me send it back. The side-angle blurriness is crazy high, much much worse than my 7 year old Philips 40 inch VA panel that I've now swapped back to. I keep my Slack window in the top right, and glance up at it across the day. On my old monitor, there's a bit of a colour change because I'm looking at it at an angle. On the FV43U it's not just a colour change, it's actually very noticeably blurry. Basically all the corners of the screen are unusable for work purposes. Have I got a dud, or is that actually what happens with this new 43 inch VA panel?
 
Convicted said:
Update. FV43U arrived, connected it up. Silky smooth refresh rate. Good brightness and decent blacks in SDR Windows desktop. No issue with text. Initially all good. However I then had two issues.

I tried everything I could do get HDR to work well in Baldur's Gate 3 and it just doesn't look good at all. I'm using the HDR1000 setting on the monitor, and then playing around with the internal settings in the game. No comparison to my LG OLED.

Then I thought meh, I don't really game that much on this screen anyway, I bought it for work, so gave it a go for a couple of hours. And that's where I spotted the thing that's making me send it back. The side-angle blurriness is crazy high, much much worse than my 7 year old Philips 40 inch VA panel that I've now swapped back to. I keep my Slack window in the top right, and glance up at it across the day. On my old monitor, there's a bit of a colour change because I'm looking at it at an angle. On the FV43U it's not just a colour change, it's actually very noticeably blurry. Basically all the corners of the screen are unusable for work purposes. Have I got a dud, or is that actually what happens with this new 43 inch VA panel?
Click to expand...

Glad I didn't try that after rejecting the Odyssey Neo G7 I had for about a week. Microcenter has the FV43U, and it's what I would have tried next if I hadn't bought an OLED instead. I think it's the same VA panel in both. Unless I was looking at the middle portion of the monitor the image was not great on the Neo G7. Still, I thought it was quite usable for work. It went back because it wouldn't wake up from sleep when connected via DisplayPort and would briefly go blank occasionally on HDMI. I tried a few cables and bought a new, certified HDMI cable couldn't get it to behave, so I returned it. The monitor sales rep at Microcenter said the DisplayPort issue is a common problem with Samsung screens. I actually think the text is better overall on the 48" LG 48GQ900 OLED I replaced it with. The text fringing thing is only bothersome with certain color combinations, and even then it's a minor annoyance. Text on the Neo G7 is better than the OLED towards the center, but at off angles it's better on the OLED. HDR on the Neo G7 was borderline unusable on the desktop. Doom Eternal looked ok. The G7 looked quite a bit better at "TV distance" but that defeats the purpose of getting one of these things for programming work. I want scaling off for max real estate. If I sit back everything is too small, so I have to turn scaling on, and at that point I might as well just get a smaller screen.

Personally I think I'd just put up with 60Hz. I've got a 43" 4k Dell IPS screen that's about 4 years old. 60Hz, no HDR, etc. but it's great for programming. Easily beats the OLED and the Neo G7 on text. Also has better color and general image quality than the Neo G7 at the desktop. I'd keep things simple and just use the OLED full time if they didn't suffer from burn-in, but alas they do so I'm putting my old screen back in service and rearranging my office to accommodate two big monitors.
 
I just saw that the PG38UQ has come out, and it's an IPS. I wanted to go bigger not smaller, but maybe this will be the one, at least for the moment. I love the OLEDs, but I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with the burnin situation quite yet. Otherwise I think you're right, just put up with 60hz for a couple of years.
 
My corners are not blurry although that’s a sample size of 1. Without pictures I’m not sure what you’re seeing but i wonder if it’s a panel installation issue (center is bowed in or out from mounting) or a manufacturing issue because I don’t remember anyone mentioning off-center bluriness before.
 
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