Is LED backlit worth it?

[SkyRenderX]

I'm trying to decide between the following two displays:

Samsung P2570HD (4ms, 25")
Samsung XL2370 (2ms, 23", LED BACKLIT)

Both displays are around $300. I'm interested in something good for both work and gaming. The XL2370 looks tempting with it's 2ms response time and LED backlighting. Would this provide the best gaming experience, or should I go for the P2570HD with it's extra 2inches of display space even though it has a 4ms response time?

I've never seen an LED backlit desplay before, so it's hard to judge if the LED backlighting will make a big difference in image quality.

 

[Nielo TM]

All the advantages offered by LEDs are obscured by the outdated standards and poor implementation of certain features (e.g. backlight scanning/strobing to improve motion resolution by reducing hold-time)

So atm, the advantages of LEDs are restricted to aesthetics and energy efficiency. In the long run, it should be cheaper (compared to CCFL) as it doesn't need to additional components to power the LEDs. However, by then, OLEDs would have taken over.


PS: The new CCFL based Samsung series 5 LCDs can produce blacks of <0.02cmd2 @ 120 cmd2 (white) whiles the LED brothers can only produce ~0.03. So don't be so quick to dump CCFL panels. Also. quoted response times means absolutely nothing.

 

[RadXge]

Read this
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/lcd-monitor-buyers-guide-spring2010_3.html

Summing it up, you should only deliberately look for a LED-based monitor if you care about power consumption. Otherwise, you should base your choice on other parameters, ignoring the type of backlight altogether.

 

[Sycraft]

LEDs are useful only in a few situations:

1) Power savings. As others noted, they can use less power in the case of edge lit, white LED monitors. Those are real popular in laptops for that reason.

2) Wider gamut. RGB LED displays can get real wide gamuts (though so can many CCFLs) so if you have a need for that, it might be a reason to get it.

3) More even backlight on a large display. This applies to big screen TVs only, not computer monitors. They put LEDs in an array behind the display which leads to a more even backlight, as well as allows for the possibility of local dimming.

4) Faster warmup time. LEDs will reach their peak brightness in less time than CCFLs.

So while I certainly wouldn't avoid LED displays, they are plenty good, I wouldn't seek them out either in most cases. If you want a given monitor, and it happens to have LED, great. However don't mark it down as a feature to get without a reason.

Plenty of high end panels are still CCFL. NEC's new PA professional series monitors are CCFL as na example.

 

[danesii]

My new XL2370 looked great compared to my old Samsung T220. The colors where more vivid and the contrast was better, but however, after almost 2 weeks the XL2370 started to flicker slightly on some colors, so i had it replaced. The new one had the same problem also after 2 weeks.
So i recommend you to wait a lil bit before buying a led display. This is the first generation so it might be flawed.

 

[Nielo TM]

3) More even backlight on a large display. This applies to big screen TVs only, not computer monitors. They put LEDs in an array behind the display which leads to a more even backlight, as well as allows for the possibility of local dimming.

Not true I'm afraid

Uniformity has nothing to do with LEDs. It's how the light from the backlight is distributed across the panel and on an Edge-lit system, it is done via LGP (Light Guide Plate).

So far, only LG has the superior model. Samsung LED-LCDs still suffer from uniformity issues while most of their new CCFL S-PVAs don't.

 

[Sycraft]

Not all large TVs are edge lit. If you look you'll find some of them that have a "local dimming" feature. What that means is they can try and increase contrast ratio by turning down the backlight in areas that are dark. Only way they can do that is with an array of LEDs behind the display. I've never had a chance to look at one in a good, controlled condition (only in a bright store) but I'm told (and it makes sense) they do a real good job on uniformity.

Not saying that the CCFL TVs are bad, I love my Samsung 630, but saying that these exist and are said to help, in particular on the really large (like 60"+) screens. It does not exist on a computer monitor, best that I know, and I can't see it being useful if it did.

 

[Nielo TM]

Only a few LCDs are locally dimmed as it destroys shadow-detail. Samsung gave-up on local dimming moved towards edge-system. So far, only LG and Sony [Sharp Panel] have local dimming feature. Panasonic should be introducing their version (dubbed NeoLCD) soon.

However, locally dimmed or static direct-LCD do not improve overall uniformity at all. They only improve black uniformity.

 

[phide]

4) Faster warmup time. LEDs will reach their peak brightness in less time than CCFLs.

This is probably the one aspect of LED-backlit displays I've been most impressed with. Before I had seen an LED-backlit display, I hadn't really been able to discern how slowly it would take for my CFL-backlit display to reach 'full' brightness. When comparing an LED-backlit display to a CFL-backlit display side-to-side, the difference is pretty staggering.

 

[Sycraft]

This is probably the one aspect of LED-backlit displays I've been most impressed with. Before I had seen an LED-backlit display, I hadn't really been able to discern how slowly it would take for my CFL-backlit display to reach 'full' brightness. When comparing an LED-backlit display to a CFL-backlit display side-to-side, the difference is pretty staggering.

Ya makes a difference for sure. Some CCFLs do an ok job though, the NEC displays have an internal light sensor and adjust voltage levels to compensate and warm up quicker and maintain a stable level. Still don't get on quite as fast as LEDs though.

I'll take an LED display when I can get it for sure but only when it is in a monitor I already want.