MSI's sensible new QD-OLED display fixes one of many greatest points with OLED gaming displays

The brand new MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 has an completely appalling title for an extremely interesting monitor. Our Jeremy spent the Christmas week testing the brand new gaming display that includes the very newest fifth Gen Samsung QD-OLED panel, and has come out the opposite aspect giving it an ed’s decide award and a excessive rating of 92%.

Evaluate

“This MSI is a implausible demonstration of Samsung’s newest QD-OLED tech. The HDR expertise is stupendous, the ambient mild absorption concern is usually totally solved and the subpixel construction has been sorted. It is simply wants just a few extra pixels to be completely good for each gaming and each day computing.” -Jeremy Laird

Learn our full MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 assessment.

And he isn’t a straightforward individual to please in relation to gaming displays, particularly these with truly comparatively low resolutions and pixel density figures. In any case, the brand new MSI show is a 34-inch ultrawide with a 3440 × 1440 native decision and due to this fact a 110 ppi density metric.

With each different QD-OLED I’ve examined and touched with my eyeballs, that mixture would have us all retching uncontrollably. Font fringing. That is the issue, and it makes all these previous 34-inch panels—and mainly something with a local res underneath 4K and/or display measurement larger than 32-inches—severely disagreeable to make use of for something outdoors of pure gaming.

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If you’ve bought a recreation loaded up fullscreen, and also you’re fragging away with homosexual abandon, then you definately’ll discover not a factor and be questioning why I am making sick cat noises round your 1440p OLED monitor. However as quickly as you exit and attempt to learn just about any little bit of textual content rendered in Home windows you may see what I imply and the dry heaving will start.

With out getting too technical, the problem is all the way down to the subpixel structure of earlier QD-OLED panels which used a bizarre triangular construction. The design is totally advantageous for a TV you are going to be sat on a settee watching, much less so for a smaller panel that is going to be positioned a few toes (at most) out of your nostril.

The outcome was an vague edge to fonts and colored fringing across the outdoors. With the brand new RGB stripe structure—primarily simply the purple, inexperienced, and blue subpixels organized left to proper—that concern is all however totally eliminated. Take this to a 27-inch 4K panel and it will likely be fully gone, I would wager.

Proper now, it is solely obtainable on this 34-inch 3440 × 1440 Samsung panel, however additional panel configurations will grow to be obtainable all through the approaching 12 months.

But it surely’s not simply mounted the font fringing drawback, the MSI monitor additionally encompasses a semi-glossy coating and panel layer that enhances mild absorption. Put a Samsung QD-OLED and LG WOLED side-by-side, shine a lightweight on each, and you may see a barely purple tinge come to the floor. With this new PureBlack layer that is far much less noticeable. There’s nonetheless a distinction between the 2 OLED panel applied sciences, however you have to be firing a extremely robust mild on the panels to actually see it.

LG WOLED left, this new QD-OLED on the appropriate. A really vivid LED mild exaggerates the issue, however the mild absorption concern hasn’t been completely solved. (Picture credit score: Future)

What about peak brightness? Effectively, that is not precisely a game-changer, with the brand new panel providing a fullscreen common brightness of 300 cd/m2. That is higher than the earlier 250 and 275 cd/m2 scores of older QD-OLED generations, however we actually wish to be getting as much as 400 cd/m2 for OLED brightness to be successfully a solved factor.

Nonetheless, with some efficient MSI tuning, the MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 delivers the very best HDR expertise, each in darkish scenes with pin sharp highlights and in vivid out of doors scenes, too. That is a primary for PC OLED gaming displays.

The brand new panel can be out very quickly, with a ~$1,100 price ticket. However MSI has lengthy been extremely aggressive in relation to panel pricing, so I’d count on to see that drop someday all year long. If solely the {hardware} to drive it might do the identical.