How far have TN panels come?

[AdamR]

Once upon a time, 10ish years ago, I bought an Apple Cinema Display 23". At the time, it was a great monitor. The backlight was nice and bright/white, as well as the 16:10 resolution. Unfortunately, the backlight has seen better days, and is turning yellow since it's CCFL. Anywho, I've been getting into PC gaming lately, and want to pickup a new monitor since this yellow backlight is becoming an annoyance, the contrast ratio is rather lacking, as well as the appalling gray to gray response time. 16:10 just doesn't fit well with games in my opinion either. Originally, I was going to pickup a Korean IPS 1440p panel, since their quality control doesn't seem to be much better than something like Acer/ASUS. Then I discovered G-SYNC and how well it removes screen tearing. All the IPS panels with G-Sync are of terrible quality, having terrible IPS glow. This is where my idea of a TN panel comes into play. Years ago, I remember TN panels being notorious for horrendous viewing angles, however I was looking around at a Microsoft Store (the microsoft store is seriously dead, but that's beside the point) and saw a Dell S2716DG. Looked great, I mean it looked a little strange from an oddball angle, but nothing like I remember old TN panels being like. If quality control is so terrible for these "gaming" IPS monitors, is TN not that big of a step down?

I had no clue finding a good monitor was this hard in 2016.

 

[Nenu]

Depends who makes it and the particular model, there is crap as well as good.
A lot of TNs have terrible colour accuracy and are not simple to calibrate.
I bought a Dell 22" TN monitor (Dell S2209Wb) many years ago that was very close in colour accuracy to my Panasonic Plasma TV without any calibration, I was surprised how good it is.
(Good job it doesnt need any calibration cos it has a fault where all the settings are locked inaccessible!)
I bought it after production had ceased based on user feedback.
I still use it for watching TV when the projector isnt on, it is excellent.

Viewing angles will always be an issue, just sit within the arc that works best.
But there are so many different models now and so few published reviews or experiences due to the dilution that its hard to know what is the best bargain unless you can test in person.
Yep, it can be tough buying a new monitor these days.

 

[AdamR]

Perhaps a better question I might should ask is... Am I downgrading going from a yellowing 23" ACD 10 year old IPS panel to a brand new TN panel? 16:10 was great while it lasted, but everything is going towards 16:9.

Here's a video of the infamous TN color shift, which doesn't look bad at all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CPU0qvF18s