HP Pavilion 27 Quantum Dot - First QDOG, out this month

[euskalzabe]

I was recently asking here about the importance of 144hz vs 10 bit color, and in the past week I've learned quite a lot from doing research online. Some important conclusions:

- 144hz is not super important if you're not playing fast paced FPS games.
- bit-depth and color gamut are related but completely different things.
- color experience varies widely depending on display technology

I started a search for DCI P3 capable monitors, which tend to be 10bit anyway. Many of them are IPS, and my recent experience has taught me that my eyes and IPS don't get along and my conclusion is that lower contrast (vs VA panels) is to blame.

I found this HP Pavilion 27 Quantum Dot 27-inch Display that is about to come out and I'm intrigued, as my research was pointing me to a Samsung H711 QLED curved monitor. The HP uses a newer version of quantum dots, QD On Glass (QDOG) instead of an enhancement film (QDEF) added onto the panel (the latter is pretty much every QLED TV on the market). All this has to do with development from Nanosys (the main company selling QDs to manufacturers).
Why the interest in this HP? QDOG implements the QDs by replacing the QDEF and plastic layer that filters the backlight by a glass one that combines both, with a purer and more defined light. From reviews of people using Samsung QLEDs, you can conclude that QLEDs look different, because the light is different. The HP combines DCI P3 coverage with a 10bit panel, and the QDs make for a more well defined light source that allows for higher saturation. It's a PLS panel, which is Samsung's version of IPS, but I'm willing to give it a try because of the QD difference in how the backlight is treated - QD allows more light through, which means you don't need as strong a backlight, which means that brights can be just as bright while darks can be darker - because there's less light being filtered to begin with. I'm unclear on whether it supports HDR10 or not because I've seen conflicting reports.

This is one interesting panel to keep our eyes on, as it's the first QDOG monitor available, and the first QD monitor that isn't made by Samsung 2 years ago. Considering LG keeps insisting on charging close to $1000 for their NanoIPS panels (basically their version of QD), at $400 HP's panel is changing a lot about the available options at this price point.

 

[Luke M]

It's a PLS panel, which is Samsung's version of IPS, but I'm willing to give it a try because of the QD difference in how the backlight is treated - QD allows more light through, which means you don't need as strong a backlight, which means that brights can be just as bright while darks can be darker - because there's less light being filtered to begin with.

QD has no effect on contrast ratio, it just allows for greater efficiency and/or wider color gamut.

 

[euskalzabe]

QD has no effect on contrast ratio, it just allows for greater efficiency and/or wider color gamut.

Very true. The backlight does behave differently, however, so the effect on the eyes may be completely different. The HP is intriguing to me, though I might be more interested in Samsung's CH711 which is a VA panel + QLED.

 

[partikl]

If you end up trying one definitely do let us know how it goes in terms of eye comfort.

I think it can't be stressed enough that we should try things for ourselves, despite what the internet says.

I followed through with my hunch of trying and comparing different display types (IPS, TN, VA) to see how they affect eye fatigue, and it paid off. Dominant internet wisdom said IPS. My eyes told me that was wrong for eye fatigue, over and over again during my comparing. VA worked well for me.

The internet also says that a 4K display isn't good for gaming and that a high refresh rate is pretty much a necessity for gaming these days. Finding out for myself told me that both of those bits of internet wisdom are wrong. Games running at 2560x1440 on a 4K display look good, with just barely any noticeable difference from running games at native 4K resolution, only when really looking for the difference. The benefit of 4K being that outside of gaming, everything is sharper, which really benefits text clarity. And a display running at 60 hz is really fine for gaming. It's a big jump in frame rate smoothness going from 30 hz to 60 hz, but far less so going from 60 hz to 100 hz, 120 hz, or 144 hz. I did lots of comparing. I can perceive the difference going from 60 hz to 100+ hz, but it just isn't a big deal at all to me. And I would bet that it wouldn't be a big deal for most people. And for what it's worth, I also involved somone in my comparing who does play lots of fast paced fps games, and he couldn't tell the difference between 60 hz and 144 hz.

I also found from discussion here that I don't need gsync or freesync for gaming to prevent tearing. Turning on fast sync in my gpu settings gets rid of tearing without huge lag. Or capping my gpu refresh rate just above my monitor refresh rate gets rid of the ugliest of tearing without any other penalty. I had not read on the internet about either of these options for gaming. The dominant internet wisdom is that you need gysnc or freesync. Wrong again.

Another bit of internet wisdom is that if you are experiencing eye fatigue from computer monitors that adding 'bias lighting' behind your monitor is needed. Again, my eyes told me that is wrong. Good overall room lighting (especially natural light) makes a noticeable difference for eye comfort, as long as everything is set up to avoid glare. But adding lighting behind my monitor has done nothing positive for me.

And someone reading my experiences here may have different experiences. And that's what it's all about. Trying things for yourself and involving yourself in back and forth discussion with other people, rather than passively taking in what the internet says is true.

 

[euskalzabe]

And someone reading my experiences here may have different experiences. And that's what it's all about. Trying things for yourself and involving yourself in back and forth discussion with other people, rather than passively taking in what the internet says is true.

So true. I've also often gone against conventional "wisdom" because my experience was clearly telling me that wasn't working.

- VA/IPS/TN - I'm also clearly more comfortable with VA.
- 4K is great, but nowhere as noticeable as better contrast.
- 144h is great, but depending on what you game, 60hz is just fine.
- VSYNC works perfectly fine if you maintain 60hz. If you don't, Freesync is great. Then again I've spent years gaming between 30-60hz without adaptive sync and I was perfectly content. I will concede that my Freesync monitor definitely looked wonderfully smooth, but I wouldn't have kept it at the expense of my burning eyes due to IPS.
- Bias lighting just made everything worse for my eye comfort. Much better to turn on room lights.

At this point I've read extensively about QLED displays, and I went to best buy yesterday to see a Samsung monitor, but then again that was a VA QLED panel, and the HP is PLS, which makes me nervous since I know IPS panels hurt my eyes (as I said before, this alone might be reason to just go with the Samsung H711 VA QLED). When you read about causes for eye discomfort, many solutions involve higher resolution, higher refresh rate and curved displays. Samsung's CHG70 checks all three boxes and interests me for that reason. Then again, LG, HP and Viotek all check different boxes and if I can save a couple hundred bucks finding which of the solutions works better for me, that's worth the money saved.

So, still interested in the HP due to the different backlight, but it's annoying that there's such little information on it both on websites or youtube, considering it comes out in a couple weeks.

 

[euskalzabe]

Well, I'll backtrack a bit - I just bought a Philips 328E9FJAB: 32" QHD VA, "only" 75hz but a pretty extended %122 sRGB which is the same that Samsung's CH711 2 year old QLED would've given me, because the Philips uses one of the newer VA panels.

Why did I just buy it? Because as I was perusing different stores, I saw Newegg has a %17 discount and it's selling for $289 right now... that's quite a big discount from the $330 Amazon charges. Ended up paying $310 with tax, would've cost me $350 on Amazon, so all in all, pretty good deal. I would've preferred to wait until the end of summer, but hey, if there's a good sale, I'm there for it.