2020 VISION

What’s hot and what’s not in screen tech in 2020? Jeremy Laird takes a deep dive into the PC monitor market

- Jeremy Laird 

SCREENS TODAY OFFER more innovation, wider choice, and better value than ever. But, by some metrics, PC displays are disappointing. By other measures, though, marketing madness is starting to take hold.

How so? On the one hand, you can now choose from a huge array of form factors, sizes, and aspect ratios, many of which are more affordable than ever. Innovations such as high refresh rates and adaptive sync have entered the mainstream. Support for HDR or high dynamic range content is becoming widespread, too. Connectivity solutions such as USB Type-C make it simpler than ever to hook up displays to PCs of all kinds. And panel tech is improving, with better contrast, lower response times, and technologies such as local dimming contributing to dramatic improvements in image quality.

On the other hand, some elements of screen tech refuse to move forward. The most obvious involves pixel density, an issue that’s related to screen resolution. But outright screen resolution is also stuck, with few monitors breaching the 4K barrier.

Even where there has been progress, the benefits are not always clear cut. Significant confusion surrounds the implementation of HDR support in PC monitors, for instance. That’s the polite way of describing a huge amount of HDR marketing FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). Likewise, refresh rates continue to escalate despite diminishing returns. And the price of USB Type-C connectivity remains painfully high.

In hindsight, it’s also disappointing that LCD technology remains dominant. Five years ago, you’d have put good money on OLED achieving at least some significant penetration into the PC monitor market. Save for some limited appearances in laptop PCs, it’s virtually non-existent.