OLED stands for organic light-emitting diodes. This is a type of display panel technology that’s more colorful than LCD (TN, VA, IPS) panels. OLED panels offer more contrast, better viewing angles and a wider color gamut than LCD panels. They also require less energy and are thinner and lighter. However, OLED panels also tend to have lower refresh rates.
OLED technology is newer than LCD technology and is rare in PC monitors. Dell debuted the Dell UP3017Q OLED monitor in April 2017, but it’s no longer available. In January 2018, Asus announced that its ProArt PQ22UC OLED monitor would arrive this year but has not specified when or pricing. Sony’s U.S. website currently has six OLED monitors, but they’re all professional-grade monitors and pricey, starting at $3,895 for the PVMA170, a 17-inch Full HD (FHD) monitor, and going up to $36,288 for the BVM-X300 V2, a 30-inch 4K monitor.
There is also a small number of laptops with OLED monitors available:
- Alienware 13 R3 OLED (13.3 inches)
- Samsung Galaxy Book (12 inches)
- Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 1 (2-in-1)
- Samsung Galaxy TabPro S (2-in-1)
- HP Spectre X360 OLED (2-in-1)
This article is part of the Tom's Hardware Glossary.
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