OLED screen tech is finally here, but I'm not feelin' it

IT'S BEEN A LONG WAIT for OLED technology to make the jump from HDTVs to the desktop PC.

- Jeremy Laird

Now it's finally happening, it turns out OLED isn't all it's cracked up to be, though not for the reasons you might expect. Among the slew of new OLED PC monitors announced at CES 2023, there's not one I'd want. So what's going on and why is OLED disappointing on the PC?

Burn-in, or the fear of it, isn't my issue with OLED. I've been running an Alienware laptop with an OLED panel for the last 18 months with no issues. However, it is a contributing factor when it comes to panel brightness and that's a problem with the first generation of OLED monitors. As with any new technology, OLED comes with novel metrics in terms of specifications and performance. Most notably, measuring OLED panel brightness is more complicated than with LCD monitors, including the latest mini-LED monitors with complex full-array dimming. OLED brightness varies depending on how much of the panel you are lighting up, with the net result that a single spec is no longer meaningful.