How should I choose a monitor? It's enough to read this article

There are currently three mainstream display panels:

TN panel, VA panel, IPS panel.

In the past, TN panels were the first choice for e-sports players because of their high refresh rate and extremely fast response speed. The response time is generally referred to as "grayscale response time", which means that after the host inputs a signal to the monitor, the pixels of the monitor will be different in light and dark, How long does it take for the color to show up. Generally speaking, the shorter the response time, the better. If it is too long, it will cause smearing on the screen.

Ordinary monitors generally have a response time of more than 5ms, while TN screens generally have a response time of 1ms, which is very suitable for playing fast scene switching games such as FPS. For professional e-sports players, TN screens can make every millisecond count.

Of course, fast response also comes at a price. The disadvantages are low visibility, average color and contrast, slightly whitened screen, and the daily look and feel is not as good as the other two panels.

VN panel features soft material and is suitable for curved screens and hairtail screens. VN also has the advantage of high contrast, which can present purer black and white, making it a good experience when watching movies or playing landscape-oriented games such as Red Dead Redemption. The disadvantage is that the response speed is average.

As for IPS panels, the current mainstream ones are Nano-IPS and Fast-IPS. The Fast in Fast-IPS means fast response. Nano-IPS is LG's technology. Although the contrast ratio is somewhat reduced compared to traditional IPS, the screen transparency and color are better. It can be regarded as the ceiling panel among current IPS.

In general, the emergence of Nano-IPS and Fast-IPS has improved the shortcomings of insufficient response time of previous IPS panels, and continued the advantages of IPS panels with good color, accurate color, and wide viewing angle, which are relatively versatile.

To summarize, when the prices are close, the relationship between the three panels is as follows:

Color, color accuracy: IPS > VA > TN

Response time: TN > IPS > VA

Viewing angle: IPS > VA > TN

Contrast: VA > IPS > TN

If you are not a serious FPS player, or if you are pursuing other needs such as curved surfaces, it is recommended that you give priority to IPS panels.

In addition, it should be noted that the monitor cannot only look at the panel, because we also have other needs. For example, if we want anti-reflection, we can choose a matte screen, and if we want a sense of transparency, we can choose a mirror screen.

For another example, backlights are also divided into LED, miniLED, and OLED. LED is the most mainstream choice, because miniLED is not yet mature, and OLED has high manufacturing costs, but OLED has fast response, high contrast, and excellent HDR effect. The high price is not its problem, but our problem~

In addition, we also need to pay attention to the interface specifications. Only HDMI2.1 can handle 4K 120 on the host side. DP 1.4 means that you can open 2K 165 10bit at the same time. The Type-C interface can be used for charging. If the wattage is high, it can be connected to a laptop or Switch for screen expansion.

Also, does the monitor come with a built-in speaker? This is helpful in scenarios such as university dormitories where there is insufficient desktop space, and the speaker power is preferably no less than 3W, so that you can at least listen.

In addition, there are indicators such as color gamut coverage, color gamut switching, color accuracy, etc., which are beneficial to post-retouching.

Please don't take it too much trouble. If you want to buy a monitor of your choice, these are the things you must know.

To put it simply, look at the panel first, then the size, then the screen resolution, refresh rate, color gamut coverage and other related parameters. This is the basic idea when choosing a monitor.