4K 27" Mini-LED with good local dimming and 144+ Hz refresh rate?

loafer87gt

Limp Gawd
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Feb 2, 2005
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I've been having a hard time trying to find a 4K panel upgrade for my graphics workstation / gaming box. I would like to go with Mini-LED as I don't want to have to worry about the burn in associated with OLED displays. I did have a look at some newer 32" displays, and I honestly think they would be too big for my workspace. I've seen a lot of great posts about the image quality of the Innocn 27M2V display, but I am concerned about some reports of firmware glitches and lack of end support should something go wrong. I am just wondering if there are any other displays I am missing that have 1152+ local dimming zones, good sRGB calibration out of the box, 27", 4k, and high refresh rate? Or are there any new displays on the horizon that meets these requirements? Thanks in advance for any info!
 
Thanks, and yes I had read through that thread. Seems like if a person is looking for a new Mini-LED with local dimming from a major manufacturer that 32" seems to be the only new options. Too bad as like I said 32" just seems physically too big for my own liking. Dough seems to have a 27" panel, but I've heard not great things about their customer service either.
 
I have had the Acer X27 since inception (2018) and have it alongside my XG321UG. Only 384 zones but I still use it about 50% of the time (mostly for browsing/productivity while I game on the larger display) because the larger display can be too big for productivity for me. I am still astounded at its quality even today, next to the other, and next to OLEDs that I have had as well (including 3rd-gen). The newer X27 S has 512 zones. People are so focused on the number of zones but research shows it actually does not correlate necessarily with image quality. Sony for example uses mini-LEDs which have less zones in their TVs but have superior image quality to other manufacturers using more zones in their mini-LEDs. It has more to do with how the firmware is dialed-in and overall quality of the panel and tech inside.
 
Innocn 27" 4k 160hz miniled....can be found on Amazon, ebay, or your local farmers market.

Make sure you get 160hz version and not their cheaper 60hz one
 
SoCali - I was looking at that display but several Reddit users reported having to return the panel as the anti-glare coating is so aggressive it made it text difficult to read. Pity more panel manufacturers don't offer a clear, glossy display!
 
The Innocn is epic...dont let the weird name fool you....also its AG is same as X27 and PG27 27"s...so basically nice AG.
The China part is pretty concerning, especially for warranty service. I loved my South Korean xstar dp2710 back in the day.
 
I suppose...ive had mine almost a year and its been bullet proof though....seems solid.

I've had mine for 14 months and no issues with it so far. I do tons of HDR gaming on it and it's still holding up despite no fan or anything.
 
Too bad you weren't okay with a little bit larger screen size like a 43 cuz I would have definitely recommended the qn90c for you. It's an absolutely stunning display and the HDR will blow you away, it's also priced well and can do 144 Hertz for gaming while having VR enabled with HDR and high refresh rate. Also most people that go with something larger like a 43 usually get used to it after a week or two and then never want to go back to anything smaller, but I understand your desk space could be an issue. I would just shove everything out of the way and make it fit LOL
 
Too bad you weren't okay with a little bit larger screen size like a 43 cuz I would have definitely recommended the qn90c for you. It's an absolutely stunning display and the HDR will blow you away, it's also priced well and can do 144 Hertz for gaming while having VR enabled with HDR and high refresh rate. Also most people that go with something larger like a 43 usually get used to it after a week or two and then never want to go back to anything smaller, but I understand your desk space could be an issue. I would just shove everything out of the way and make it fit LOL
Is the 43" equivalent to the larger sizes? At least in the past that was not the case as I recall, sometimes it wasnt even VA but IPS, at least in some parts of the world.
 
TBH I don't really think local dimming has made any positive progress since the PG27UQ/PG32UQX. Every monitor since is trying so hard to suppress bloom that it creates other issues like black crush and inverse bloom. The days of monitors having local dimming algorithms where content is displayed as intended is long gone. All of these modern FALD monitors dim small highlights to the point where they are no longer highlights and analyze content in desperation to prevent some minor bloom destroying all detail in the dark.

You can see here between that Acer P3 and Innocn:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVb7uuDbsKc

You can also see here how badly the Innocn crushes dark detail:

IMG-4136.jpg


If we could only have the Acer's HDR brightness and local dimming refinement with the Innocn's coating and zone count. I wish manufacturers started using hardware gsync modules again. Hopefully it's not abandoned by Nvidia and they'll put out a updated module with DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 when its ready.
 
TBH I don't really think local dimming has made any positive progress since the PG27UQ/PG32UQX. Every monitor since is trying so hard to suppress bloom that it creates other issues like black crush and inverse bloom. The days of monitors having local dimming algorithms where content is displayed as intended is long gone. All of these modern FALD monitors dim small highlights to the point where they are no longer highlights and analyze content in desperation to prevent some minor bloom destroying all detail in the dark.

You can see here between that Acer P3 and Innocn:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVb7uuDbsKc

You can also see here how badly the Innocn crushes dark detail:

View attachment 645392

If we could only have the Acer's HDR brightness and local dimming refinement with the Innocn's coating and zone count. I wish manufacturers started using hardware gsync modules again. Hopefully it's not abandoned by Nvidia and they'll put out a updated module with DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 when its ready.


That's just the tradeoff that needs to be made. I still have my Acer X27 and compared to that, I much prefer the InnoCN because I find blooming to be far more distracting than black crush. I'll settle for 700 nits highlights with no bloom on the InnoCN over 1200 nit highlights with bloom on the Acer.
 
That's just the tradeoff that needs to be made. I still have my Acer X27 and compared to that, I much prefer the InnoCN because I find blooming to be far more distracting than black crush. I'll settle for 700 nits highlights with no bloom on the InnoCN over 1200 nit highlights with bloom on the Acer.
Yeah I prefer the opposite. It makes no sense to me putting LCD's biggest advantage to waste in the name of contrast because it will never come close to OLED with current FALD zone counts. Even with an aggressive algorithm that dims highlights, bloom is bloom and I'd much rather take the boosted impact/color over mitigating bloom by x %.
 
Why would a good bloom suppression algo crush detail in large low contrast parts of the scene with no bloom?

The days of monitors having local dimming algorithms where content is displayed as intended is long gone.


Isn’t the situation we’re in because thats basically impossible? You can have your preferences for strategy for dealing with an image you can’t actually show, but if any real device could physically show anything “as intended” in hdr the whole thing wouldn’t be as janky as it is and we wouldn’t be seeing the skill/refinement gap so readily between different product teams and price brackets (and gsync modules)
 
Yeah I prefer the opposite. It makes no sense to me putting LCD's biggest advantage to waste in the name of contrast because it will never come close to OLED with current FALD zone counts. Even with an aggressive algorithm that dims highlights, bloom is bloom and I'd much rather take the boosted impact/color over mitigating bloom by x %.

Eh for me blooming can either be very subtle or extremely distracting, it's not all equal in my book. I personally don't see the point in pushing maximum brightness if the amount of bloom you get along with it is out of wack. I originally switched off the Acer X27 and went to an LG CX purely because of how distracting the blooming alone was and only switched to the InnoCN because the blooming on it was now at a level that didn't distract the hell out of me while still offering better brightness than the CX. It's the best balance I've found for my personal tastes so far, other monitors that push the brightness harder will only end up having more distracting blooming too.
 
This one seems to check all the boxes! The TCL 27R83U. Likely just marketing speak, but they are claiming this is a QD-MiniLED integrating technology from OLED panels into a MiniLED display. I'd definitely take that with a grain of salt, but will be interesting to see some reviews!

https://tftcentral.co.uk/news/tcl-e...essional-monitors-and-some-interesting-claims

Interesting...it has VESA HDR1400 certification as well as a fast VA panel. Will be keeping an eye on this one. Thanks!
 
Eh for me blooming can either be very subtle or extremely distracting, it's not all equal in my book. I personally don't see the point in pushing maximum brightness if the amount of bloom you get along with it is out of wack. I originally switched off the Acer X27 and went to an LG CX purely because of how distracting the blooming alone was and only switched to the InnoCN because the blooming on it was now at a level that didn't distract the hell out of me while still offering better brightness than the CX. It's the best balance I've found for my personal tastes so far, other monitors that push the brightness harder will only end up having more distracting blooming too.
I've literally never seen blooming on the QN90B. I have quite a lot of gaming done on it too. I've never noticed it on any content. The only exception is when the screen is completely black for some reason and using the mouse you can see a halo around the mouse pointer. I realistically don't know what game should have a pitch black screen with something as small as a mouse pointer that could expose this as I don't think I'll ever see this because I've never seen it over the course of a few years now lol maybe different panels have different implementation of mini led but I can say on my QN90B it's amazingly good.
 
I checked out the product page for the TCL: https://www.tcl.com/global/en/monitors/27r83u

They are actually advertising it as HDR 1600! Combine that with a fast VA panel that could potentially have no smearing/blooming and I think we have a real winner on our hands. Of course gonna have to wait for some reviews to see if it really is as good as it sounds. The LG GR95UM MiniLED looked great on paper but ended up being a hot mess in reality.

1712347142821.png
 
Found out on Reddit the Chinese version of the TCL 27" has been released and reviews are up. It is called the 雷鸟U8 and has the same bezel stand / and panel as the TCL 27" 4k unit. Reviews seem great! Black blacks. Little to no haloing with the HVA panel using local dimming. Vibrant color and improved contrast due to the use of a quantum dot film instead of phosphor, and little smearing with the new TCL Fast HVA panel! Plus peak brightness is 2182 nits! The Chinese version is also price very cheap at about $550 USD. Could be a winner! The attached screenshot shows the TCL HVA panel next to an IPS. Very impressive looking black levels!

雷鸟U8 (Get your translators working!)

https://post.smzdm.com/p/al82zxqg/

https://www.zhihu.com/tardis/zm/art/690442459?source_id=1003

https://post.smzdm.com/p/aeq0l5o3/pic_22/
 

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Holy crap 2,200 nits? So something finally going to de-throne the PG32UQX in HDR. Think I will definitely have to try one.
 
Found out on Reddit the Chinese version of the TCL 27" has been released and reviews are up. It is called the 雷鸟U8 and has the same bezel stand / and panel as the TCL 27" 4k unit. Reviews seem great! Black blacks. Little to no haloing with the HVA panel using local dimming. Vibrant color and improved contrast due to the use of a quantum dot film instead of phosphor, and little smearing with the new TCL Fast HVA panel! Plus peak brightness is 2182 nits! The Chinese version is also price very cheap at about $550 USD. Could be a winner! The attached screenshot shows the TCL HVA panel next to an IPS. Very impressive looking black levels!

雷鸟U8 (Get your translators working!)

https://post.smzdm.com/p/al82zxqg/

https://www.zhihu.com/tardis/zm/art/690442459?source_id=1003

https://post.smzdm.com/p/aeq0l5o3/pic_22/

Where are you finding 2200 nits? I searched for "2182" in all 3 links but came up with nothing. I'm kinda suspecting that it was taken at a higher than 6500k whitepoint but nonetheless this is still looking mighty impressive.
 
The 2182 maximum nits It was on one of the Chinese review sites that tested the maximum peak brightness at different window sizes. I'll see if I can find the page again, but it had a chart going from 100% to 50% window size I believe. When searching for reviews, google this: 雷鸟U8 评论 and it should bring up a plethora of reviews and blogs of the unit. Overall seem very positive save for some concerns regarding viewing angles and a slight reddish cast to the display. If I am able to find the page with the nits chart I will share in this thread. This is one of those times when I wish I had Edge saving my browsing history so that I could easily find the page again!
 
Let's see what it does in actual content. All these modern FALDs blown up test patterns but that same 5-10% highlight in real content gets no where as bright.

KTC M32P10 is a great example.
 
Let's see what it does in actual content. All these modern FALDs blown up test patterns but that same 5-10% highlight in real content gets no where as bright.

KTC M32P10 is a great example.

Ya one reason I passed on the Sammy 57", real scene brightness was "meh".
 
Another review of the Chinese branded Thunderbird 雷鸟U8 using the same panel. Their conclusion? The best 4k monitor currently on market. I'm relieved to see that the HVA panel seems to have addressed the smearing typically associated with VA panels. Excited about this one, I just wish there was more information on when TCL is releasing this to the US market. I've called and emailed every department they have, as well as tried messaging them on their social media sites and absolutely none of their departments or support numbers have any clue about their recently announced PC monitor products which is very frustrating.

https://bendi.news/wxnews/clukueqmj000acvmnqj4o58xg

Seems like GTG response time is about 1ms as measured below.

https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2597149-1-1.html
 
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Anyone heard of release date in US?
Nope. Even TCL seems to have no idea when it is going to be released in North America. Apparently French retailers have the 34" display listed for sale for 1100 Euros.
 
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