Today marks the long-awaited rerelease of the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo Switch. As was announced before the launch, the game supports widescreen. When I learned that, my first thought wasn’t “Oh, nice!” Rather, it was “OK, but what about the rest of the library?”

To be clear, there’s no easy way to make old 4:3 games fill up a modern 16:9 aspect ratio, and that’s not something I would recommend in this case. But the solution used by the rest of the library of old games running within the Nintendo Switch Online service—enclosing every game in horribly distracting and potentially destructive gray borders—is, well, awful.

So as Nintendo finally adds one of the most beloved Nintendo 64 games to Switch Online, allow me a moment to vent some frustration on behalf of many players.

Give players the choice

Players have been complaining about the mandatory gray borders since the launch of the Switch’s subscription-based classic game library back in 2018, but Nintendo has never done anything to change it.

While I have trouble imagining actually wanting those borders, choice seems key here. Players who enjoy the same NES, SNES, Genesis, and Nintendo 64 games in emulators on Windows or Linux PCs, Macs, Android phones, and other devices can choose whether to include a border or to simply display black letterboxing on either side of the image. Even among retro collections released by most other publishers, players are usually given a choice. For example, Sega’s recent Sonic Origins collection infamously did a lot of things terribly wrong on the emulation and presentation front, but it at least got this part right.

I’m often the first to defend the notion of a developer or artist’s intent with a game, but since this feature is used across numerous games from several developers, that’s not a factor here.

Part of the frustration stems from the fact that it seems like such an easy change to make. Granted, players often believe that issues in games can be easily fixed, even when that’s not true. Some gamers who don’t understand what goes into making games have taken to Internet forums to insist that it would take just “a day or two” to add multiplayer to any given single-player game. (That is definitely not the case.) But speaking as a developer myself, in this case, the requested change really would be easy.

To my knowledge, Nintendo has never shared its justification for this choice, but it’s surely at least that: a deliberate choice.

The OLED problem

For many people, the border comes down to personal preference, but for others, it’s a more pressing concern. Folks using TVs that rely on technologies that carry burn-in risk find Nintendo’s approach particularly frustrating. On modern OLED or older plasma TVs, there’s always a risk that static elements on the screen could permanently scar the TV’s image, even after different content is displayed. It takes a lot for that to happen on the latest OLEDs, but models from even a couple of years ago carry a higher risk.

The border is the same for every game in the Nintendo Switch Online catalog, so players who spend a lot of time on one of those TVs playing retro games on the Switch may find themselves anxious about doing damage to their expensive screens. OLED TVs make up anywhere from a third to half of premium TV shipments, depending on the region. That’s not a small number of TVs that are potentially at risk, and the market share is growing every year.

One of Nintendo’s Switch models even has a built-in OLED display, but it hasn’t been on the market long enough to determine if problems will arise. Plus, the borders undermine that model’s main advantage: perfect black levels.

A widescreen mode largely bypasses this problem for GoldenEye 007 on the Switch, but switching between that game and other Nintendo 64 titles just makes the borders in the latter stand out all the more.

So this is one more request, added to a mountain of pleas over almost half a decade: Nintendo, please let us get rid of that awful gray border on Switch Online retro games.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912743

TCL isn’t letting go of the QLED dream. TCL still hopes to sell LCD-LED TVs with quantum dots but also feature QLEDs in its lineup. Numerous companies announced new OLED TVs during CES 2023 last week, with some using purported next-gen tech. However, TCL affirmed plans to be one of the last TV makers still holding out on OLED—despite what you may have heard.

During CES, TCL announced it was making its first OLED TV. It even went as far as to commit to Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels, which would make it the third company to sell QD-OLED TVs, after Samsung and Sony. The announcement claimed that Mini LED and QD-OLED would “both hold premium positions in TCL’s 2023 TV lineup.” However, the TV maker known for budget and mid-range products told FlatPanelsHD today that this is false.

“A line in the TCL CES 2023 press release confirming plans to launch the brand’s first QD-OLED television this year was incorrectly included,” TCL told the publication.

TCL added that it is “focused” on Mini LED this year. At CES, TCL didn’t announce any specific OLED TVs but teased new Mini LED ones, like the 98-inch QM8, a 4K TV with over 2,300 local dimming zones. In TCL’s press release for CES 2023, Chris Hamdorf, senior vice president of TCL North America, said the company is looking to make bigger screen sizes with Mini LED and QLED technology this year.

TCL claims to have sold over 25 million TVs over the last four years, all without the most expensive, trendy, and premium option available to consumers. Rivals from LG and Samsung to Philips, Sharp, and Vizio all sell OLED options. Amazon-branded TVs have yet to start including OLED, but considering Amazon only started selling TVs in 2021 and its budget focus, that’s not as surprising. Even last week’s announcement of Roku-branded TVs included mention of an OLED reference design for TV partners.

It’s interesting, though, that TCL would namecheck QD-OLED tech specifically if it has zero plans to enter the OLED scene at this time. It’s reasonable to suspect that TCL plans to release an OLED TV eventually but can no longer commit to one coming out this year for some reason.

TCL and Samsung also have a history; they formed the QLED Alliance, along with Hisense, in 2017. Far from formidable, the short-lived team did little to make a name for itself, despite claiming a commitment to elevating QLED TVs over rival OLEDs. With Hisense starting to sell OLED TVs just a year later, it had little impact.

Samsung held off longer but started selling OLED TVs for the first time in a decade last year, thanks to the advent of Samsung Display QD-OLED. QD-OLED uses a color filter with quantum dots and a blue light source to claim a greater range of colors. Traditional OLED screens, by contrast, use yellow and blue to create a white light source that goes through a red, green, blue, and, sometimes, white subpixel filter.

2023’s OLED and QD-OLED TVs are supposed to include brighter options, with the biggest impact expected to come from highlights. But it looks like TCL will continue to hold out from the growing OLED trend, aiming for Mini LED as its premium tech, which has advantages in being brighter and typically more affordable.

It will be hard for TCL to avoid OLED long-term, though. Last year, analyst Omdia predicted that QLED TV sales would decrease for the first time in 2022 and by 3.1 percent. The analyst expected OLED TVs to represent 12.7 of the market and go from representing 35.7 percent of the premium market to 42.1 percent. QLED, meanwhile, was predicted to go from representing 39 percent of the premium market to 37.8 percent.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1909230

OLED TVs are the premium focal point of many modern-day home theaters, but they’re still imperfect technology. As usual, last week’s CES in Las Vegas featured a smattering of upcoming TVs, plenty of them OLED-based. We saw bigger sizes and increased competition among OLED panel makers; however, the most interesting development was claims of boosted peak brightness.

A dimmer screen has long been the weak point of OLED displays, especially compared to their cheaper LCD rivals. But while 2023’s upcoming OLED TVs largely trumpet improved brightness capabilities and present potential for unprecedentedly rich highlights, it’ll still be years before you want to put an OLED TV in your sun-filled living room.

OLED’s brightness problem

If you listed the drawbacks of an OLED TV compared to an LCD one, they’re typically price and dimness. Despite having inky, deep blacks, OLEDs are known to be noticeably dimmer than LCD displays. Dark blacks still help the screens deliver next-level contrast, and good OLED TVs can make highlights in HDR content pop dramatically. But less overall luminance makes it hard to enjoy the image on an OLED TV in a brightly lit room or positioned under a light.

Let’s take LG TVs as an example. According to FlatPanelsHD, the LG G2 from 2022 recorded full-screen brightness of 269 nits with SDR out of the box and 166 nits with HDR. RTINGS.com reported 199 nits with SDR and 177 nits with HDR. That’s a visible difference from LG’s most premium 4K LCD TV, the LG QNED90 The Mini LED TV hits 571 nits with full screen of white in SDR mode and 622 nits in HDR mode, according to RTINGs’ review.

Of course, there’s way more to image quality than a TV’s max full-screen brightness. When it comes to rich HDR highlights, the 2022 LG G2 has an advantage over the Mini LED QNED90 (976 nits versus 750 nits, respectively). And the OLED TVs’ deep black levels and greater dynamic range create more nuanced colors and details in dark areas.

But when it comes to selecting a TV for a bright room where people may view the screen from side angles, full-screen brightness capabilities are (or should be) a serious consideration.

The tough truth, even with the next-gen OLED TVs promised this year, is that OLED TVs are really much better geared for darker rooms. For an extremely expensive piece of tech, that can be a huge deal-breaker.

And while HDR with OLEDs is a sublime experience, some will opt for an LCD TB with advanced features, like Mini LEDs and local dimming backlights to have a bright picture in bright rooms and with SDR content and strong, but not OLED-level, contrast when it comes to HDR.

New LG OLED TVs

At CES, LG made an announcement that sounds pretty good: brighter OLEDs. But how and when do the new TVs manage to squeeze out those extra nits?

LG’s 2023 OLED TVs include the G3 series of 55-, 65-, and 77-inch 4K screens that claim to be up to 70 percent brighter than traditional OLED TVs. The TVs have a Brightness Booster Max that uses an updated “light control architecture and light-boosting algorithms,” LG says, and it is unavailable on all other LG 2023 OLED TVs.

An LG spokesperson told FlatPanelsHD that the G3 series would be able to hit a peak brightness of around 1,800 nits, with the TV’s Vivid Mode possibly being brighter. Further, the publication said it saw a document suggesting that this mode will support 2,100 nits peak brightness; both numbers will only apply to highlights in HDR mode. According to LG Display, which makes the G3’s OLED panel, its updated OLED tech can achieve 2,100 nits in a 3 percent window.

Meanwhile, full-screen brightness can be expected to hit 235 nits, according to the document FlatPanelsHD saw.

With the TVs lacking any firm prices or release dates, though, these numbers can all be subject to change, and there’s still a lot to see and test. From what we’re hearing from early demos, LG Display’s 2023 OLED panels at least “look very bright” at first glance, per CNET. A YouTube video from HDTVTest examining an early production sample of the OLED tech behind LG’s G3 series said the panel reached 1,514 nits in a 10 percent window and 209 nits of full-screen brightness.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1908641

Like it or not, companies are set on making foldable PCs a thing. Asus’ Zenbook 17 Fold OLED turned out to be one of 2022’s most adventurous laptops, and Lenovo is planning its second foldable, the 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold for this spring. Assuming an operating system and apps that play well with the form factor, foldables excite multitaskers, workers, and creatives who can benefit from larger, yet still portable, display options, especially those who don’t need a keyboard and touchpad at all times.

But foldable PCs are very new and have their faults, from durability and compatibility concerns to the crease that can visibly run down the display’s middle. Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i announced today at CES in Las Vegas aims to boost pixel count in a way that feels both more and less obvious: replacing the keyboard and touchpad with another laptop-size screen.

It’s the dual-screen PC for people who want all the pixels but none of the fold.

Dual 13-inch OLED screens

Lenovo’s press release calls the Yoga Book 9i the “first full-size dual screen OLED laptop” among vendors selling at least 1 million units a year. Targeting creative consumers who also want a machine with strong productivity that’s also fit for entertainment, the laptop has two 13.3-inch OLED panels connected by the soundbar hinge that Lenovo has been using in its Yoga convertible lineup for a while.

Each OLED screen has 2880×1800 pixels in a 16:10 aspect ratio. That’s 255.36 pixels per inch (ppi) for each panel and 10,368,000 pixels total. That’s 12.5 to 25 percent more total pixels than a 4K screen, depending on whether it’s 16:9 or 16:10.

Each screen runs at a 60 Hz refresh rate and claims a max brightness of 400 nits. Each screen’s brightness is individually adjustable. Lenovo also claims 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage, and each screen supports Dolby Vision HDR.

Hands-on

I briefly played with a highly functioning prototype of the Yoga Book 9i, which I used as both a massive dual-screen laptop completely reliant on touch and in a more traditional form factor, by way of wireless and virtual keyboards.

The Yoga Book 9i will come with a physical Bluetooth keyboard that you can use detached from the system or magnetically docked to the bottom two-thirds of the lower screen. Alternatively, you can use a virtual keyboard on the southern screen.

With a physical or virtual keyboard docked, you can use the remaining top third of that display for Windows widgets, such as the Weather, News, and Sticky Notes. But if you don’t use Windows widgets, the area is kind of useless because you can’t use it for anything else, like a shrunken window.

With the virtual keyboard on display, I was also able to quickly bring up a virtual touchpad by sliding the virtual keyboard up with my fingers. If this touchpad works well, it’s a clever inclusion for times that you want more traditional navigation but don’t have a mouse on hand.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1907498

For many of us, a lot of the screens we view daily can easily be OLED. The iPhone in your pocket. The screen on the new laptop you finally bought. That luxurious 4K TV and even that beloved Nintendo Switch. But OLED awesomeness has far from proliferated computer monitors—especially if you’re not into gaming.

Numerous hurdles limit OLED monitor adoption, including concerns about screen burn-in. But one thing we’re hoping to see in 2023 is a greater selection. Right now, you can count the number of OLED monitors that aren’t 42-inch-plus juggernauts or push refresh rates that require serious GPUs on one hand. OLED monitors that focus on productivity, photo editing, or HDR get minimal love.

By the time 2023’s done, we hope there’s more than a handful of OLED monitors available to interest non-gamers. We don’t expect homes and offices to become flooded with them, but 2023 could be a big step to OLED monitors having the variety and availability that OLED TVs and other devices have enjoyed for years.

Waiting for OLED monitors’ breakout year

First, let’s tamp down expectations. OLED monitors are far from mainstream among PC displays, and that won’t shift dramatically next year. In September, market researcher Trendforce predicted that OLED monitors will represent 2 percent of the monitor market in 2023. That’s far from mainstream. IPS monitors, for instance, represented 43 percent of monitors shipped in 2021.

Business consultant and market researcher UBI Research, via OLED-Info, estimated that OLED tablets, monitors, and laptops for “IT applications” will increase from 9.5 million units this year to 48.8 million units by 2027.

So, if we had to bet on what type of monitor any given person was buying in the next year or two, our chips would be on LCD.

And with supply and demand closely tied together, desktop-sized OLED monitors remained a rarity this year, with options being even skimpier if you want a non-gaming display under 42 inches. Here’s the dizzying list of four:

1. Asus ProArt Display OLED PA32DC ($3,500 MSRP)
2. LG 27EP950 ($3,000 MSRP)
3. LG 27EQ850-B ($2,000 MSRP)
4. LG 323P950-B ($3,000 MSRP)

Computer users had plenty of OLED laptops to consider this year, though, from the HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 to Dell’s flagship XPS 13 Plus clamshell ultraportable. But considering the association between OLED laptops, high prices, and lower battery life, there’s a reason to get an OLED from a dedicated monitor instead.

New year, new OLED monitors

Most OLED monitors are in the 40-inch class with ultra-high resolutions, attaching a size-related premium to an already expensive technology. But the end of this year already promises greater variety in terms of monitor size, resolution, and price.

LG will start selling its first OLED monitors with high refresh rates on December 12, The Verge reported this week. The 26.5-inch, 2560×1440 LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B will have a $1,000 MSRP, and the 45-inch, 3400×1440 LG 45GR95QE-B is $1,700.

MSI also plans to announce a new ultrawide OLED monitor at the CES trade show next month, but we don’t know much about it other than it’s ultrawide, curved, and 240 Hz.

It’s also possible we’ll see the release of a bendable OLED monitor next year. Corsair hasn’t confirmed when its Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 will come out or for how much, but it teased the 45-inch, 3440×1440 gaming monitor in September.

The 27-inch Philips 27E1N8900 4K video editing monitor was supposed to release in the US for around $1,070, which would be a competitive size and price, a What HiFI report said in May, but we’ve yet to hear from Philips.

Further, we could see OLED monitors next year or beyond with even smaller designs. LG Display is reportedly working on 20-inch OLED panels that could be used in small monitors.

With any luck, we’ll hear about 2023 OLED monitors over the next few weeks and during CES.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1901593

LG continues to show a commitment to diversifying OLED monitor options. And that’s particularly exciting when it comes to users seeking smaller sizes and lower prices. The company recently listed a 26.5-inch OLED monitor for $1,000 that offers more speed than most people need but adds variety to today’s scant selection of desktop-size OLED monitors.

As spotted by a few sites, including Wccftech on Sunday, LG has listed the 26.5-inch UltraGear 27GR95QE-B; however, it doesn’t seem available to purchase online in the US yet. We reached out to LG about US availability and will update this article if the company responds.

The monitor prioritizes pushing frames over pixel count, sporting a 2560×1440 resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate. LG’s gaming monitor also has an aggressively fast 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, plus Nvidia G-Sync Compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium for fighting screen tears. This is a screen built for gamers who would rather have fast-paced action that looks super-smooth than the sharpest display. And if you’re not convinced of this screen’s gamer heritage, just check out the hexagonal RGB lighting area on the monitor’s backside:

Other specs include a claimed 98.5 percent DCI-P3 coverage and a mysterious brightness spec of “TBD.” We reached out to LG about this as well, but OLED monitors tend to have less max brightness than similarly priced LCD options. LG’s pricier ($2,000 MSRP) UltraFine 27EQ850-B 4K OLED monitor, for example, claims 200 nits.

LG’s UltraGear 27GR95QE-B also comes with two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, two USB 3.0 downstream ports, one USB 3.0 upstream port, a 3.5 mm jack, and an S/PDIF port, according to the product page’s incomplete spec sheet.

With all those specs under consideration, there are plenty of users, like creatives, programmers, office workers, and anyone who wants more than 110.8 pixels per inch, who will have zero interest in this monitor.

And that’s a good thing.

Even if we have no interest in an OLED monitor with this speed and resolution, it’s the cheapest MSRP for a desktop-size OLED monitor we’ve seen yet. It also addresses a different use case than other OLED monitors.

Take the aforementioned UltraFine 27EQ850-B 26.9-inch OLED monitor that LG released for $2,000 earlier this month. With 4K resolution at 60 Hz and VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, it’s for a totally different audience than the QHD 27GR95QE-B.

And that variety is just the spice of life OLED monitor selection needs. These 27-inch-class options are among the smallest OLED desktop monitors available today. There’s also the 31.5-inch LG UltraFine 32EP950-B ($4,000 MSRP) and 26.5-inch LG UltraFine 27EP950 ($3,000 MSRP). LG’s newer options bring lower prices and greater selection in terms of specs and features to a market mostly filled with 48-inch-plus choices and portable monitors.

Besides LG, Asus makes the 31.5-inch ProArt PA32DC 4K OLED monitor, but at $3,500, it remains out of reach for many users.

With OLED TVs now offered in various prices and sizes, we hope LG and other monitor vendors will continue to present contrast-obsessed computer users with OLEDs in more form factors.

LG Display, which makes display tech for various companies, is supposed to be working on 20-inch OLED panels, possibly for monitors and TVs.

Wherever the variety ultimately comes from, more choice is good for consumers. Considering the fact that consumers seeking desktop OLED monitors have been comparatively limited, it would be nice to have more options.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899505

LG has released an OLED computer monitor with a more accessible size and price than most. The LG UltraFine 27EQ850-B represents one of the few 27-inch OLED panels available and has a competitive MSRP (for an OLED monitor) at $2,000.

LG recently listed the 27EQ850-B, as spotted by sites like DisplaySpecifications and KitGuru. It’s a 4K, 60 Hz screen with a claimed 200 nits of brightness and 99 percent DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color coverage.

USB-C connectivity with 90 W power delivery puts the monitor on par with other USB-C monitors, like the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE; although there are monitors, like the Apple Studio Display, with greater power delivery (96 W).

Additionally, there’s a pair of DisplayPorts, three USB-A ports, and HDMI. The monitor also supports HDR10 and is VESA DisplayHDR 400-certified. Note that that’s the lowest tier in VESA’s DisplayHDR certification program, which goes up to DisplayHDR 1400, but it’s better than nothing. The monitor forgoes VESA’s True Black certification for OLED screens, but LG and panel-maker LG Display, as the primary maker of OLED panels, at least have strong reputations in the OLED realm to bolster confidence.

Before LG listed the 27EQ850-B, its only OLED options under 48 inches were the 32-inch LG UltraFine 32EP950-B, with a $4,000 MSRP, and the 27-inch LG UltraFine 27EP950 with a $3,000 MSRP. The only obvious difference between LG’s pricier 27-inch OLED and the recently listed 27EQ850-B is that the former claims an additional 50 nits of brightness on its spec sheet.

The introduction of smaller and lower-priced OLED monitors helps make display options for computer users more on par with televisions, where you can find OLED screens of various sizes and at much cheaper prices than a smaller OLED monitor these days. And while there are many more OLED desktop-size monitors to choose from than there were a couple of years ago, the majority, outside of portable monitors with OLED, still fall in the high-refresh, high-price category.

Another rare exception is the Asus ProArt PA32DC, a 31.5-inch OLED monitor released this year for $3,500. In addition to its larger size, the monitor claims to earn its higher price tag with its integrated motorized colorimeter.

And there’s hope for more variety when it comes to OLED display sizes. Earlier this year, Kang Won-Seok, LG Display’s vice president, reportedly said the company is working on offering 20-inch OLED panels, which could be fit for even smaller monitors or TVs, to partners, (including, potentially, LG) by the end of 2022. That means we may not see any relevant products available to buy until next year. So, if you’re in immediate need of a contrast-rich OLED monitor in a smaller package, LG’s 27EQ850-B is one of your few options.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1895930

If you’ve been watching display tech lately, you may have noticed an interesting feature: bendable displays. Yes, monitors and TVs that you can bend to be either flat or curved are purportedly coming out soon. The feature is meant to appease those who can’t settle on flat or curved, and most upcoming products feel similarly indecisive, exhibiting identity crises that make it hard to see where they fit… literally. Does something like this belong in a living room, office, or gaming den?

In the case of the LG OLED Flex LX3 4K TV announced Wednesday (no price or release date), the most obvious answer is the living room. It’s a 42-inch TV with a tuner, LG’s webOS, and even LG Display’s OLED Evo technology used in the LG C2 TV. The primary difference from every other TV is that this one has buttons (including buttons on the remote) for changing the screen from flat to a 900R curvature across 20 steps. That provides the potential for an extremely curved TV.

The thing is, you probably don’t want to watch curved television. Vendors tried making this a thing years ago, but as we wrote back then, curved TVs mostly accommodate people sitting pretty close to and directly in front of the TV. That’s not how most people gather ‘round the heart of the living room. Living room TVs are frequently shared, with people sitting at various distances from the screen and at varying angles. But up close and centered sounds awfully similar to how most people use monitors.

A Switching Hub is supposed to make it easy to use the TV’s microphone and USB-connected peripherals with an HDMI-connected PC. A dedicated button on the stand toggles between TV and HDMI input. HDMI supports version 2.1, which means the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S can connect and use the TV’s 4K, 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also lots of Adaptive-Sync compatibility, and you can even adjust the viewable screen size down to 27 inches.

These days, gaming is the most popular use for curved screens, as players sit close to the display and feel the virtual world enwrap them. But many living room setups won’t accommodate that sort of setup. Someone with a lot of flexibility may be able to roll a gaming chair up to the TV for an intense gaming session, but we wouldn’t bet on that driving massive sales of bendable TVs that are sure to come at a premium.

A bendable monitor, too

The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 monitor announced last week (price and availability should be announced this year), meanwhile, seems to target PC gaming dens based on specs. It’s a 45-inch monitor with 3440 x 1440, 21:9 resolution, up to an 800R curve, and a W-OLED panel from LG Display. Gray-to-gray response time is reportedly 0.03 milliseconds. Clearly, this is for serious gamers for whom a curved ultrawide monitor with supremely limited motion blur is the ultimate display.

So why put tacky handles on the monitor that let you bend it curved or flat? Surely it can’t just be for the nauseating feeling that must come with physically manipulating a 45-inch OLED panel that you paid for with your own money. No, it must be for versatility. Many people prefer productivity and other types of computing on a flat panel (although I’ve known some obsessively dedicated workhounds to use curved ultrawides to wrap themselves up in work as well), and the 45WQHD240 should make it so you don’t need multiple monitors for work and gaming.

However, the 45WQHD240’s gaming specs and its likely high price will make it most fitting for extreme gamers who also like ultrawide curved monitors. Users will need a powerful PC with a beefy graphics card to push 4,953,600 pixels at 240 frames per second. The extremely fast video motion processing is made for hardcore players who take the battlefield seriously. And for such players, gaming is a top priority, increasing the chances of the 45WQHD240 mostly being used as a curved ultrawide gaming monitor.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1877958

Lenovo is giving the foldable PC a second shot. The upcoming Lenovo 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold announced today attempts to improve on 2020’s ThinkPad X1 Fold with a bigger screen, more powerful specs, and an operating system better suited for multitasking across the bendable OLED touchscreen.

I tried out the Windows 11 PC ahead of its expected November launch, and it improved upon the weaknesses of the original 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold.

The new Fold folds up more securely than before, its OS is more accommodating to dual screens, and enhanced specs give it greater potential for business use. Lenovo may finally have the pieces needed for a desirable, natural-feeling foldable Windows experience.

Bigger foldable screen

Lenovo’s next foldable PC has a screen measuring 16.3 inches diagonally when fully open with 2024×2560 pixels. The original ThinkPad X1 Fold used a 13.3-inch, 2048×1536 OLED screen.

Compared to the 13.3-inch screen, the 16.3-inch display immediately gave me more flexibility when displaying multiple windows. The extra screen space was also nice for watching videos, though the 4:3 aspect ratio meant decently thick black bars with most modern video content.

Using magnets, the foldable’s optional, but sometimes necessary, stand seemed like it had a secure connection to the PC, whether the system was fully open in landscape or portrait mode.

When I set the 16.3-inch device vertically, it provided a uniquely long-view fit for ongoing news or social media feed. It fit an impressive amount of on-screen text when I viewed a newspaper-like document on it.

Despite having a 22 percent larger screen than its predecessor, Lenovo’s 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold didn’t feel much more cumbersome to carry. In fact, it felt much less clunky than carrying around the typical clamshell laptop in this size class.

The new PC has a 25 percent thinner chassis than the 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold. It’s 0.34 inches (8.6 mm) thick when open and 0.69 inches (17.4 mm) thick when folded, compared to 0.5 inches (11.5 mm) and 1.1 inches (27.8 mm), respectively, with the first Fold.

The 16.3-inch screen also allows for a 12-inch clamshell experience, where the foldable is bent in half, and the lower half is covered with Lenovo’s magnetically attached ThinkPad keyboard.

Usage of a larger foldable screen required a redesign of the hinge and the panel, which is now attached to the spine, allowing it to flatten underneath the chassis when unfolded.

Lenovo’s announcement described a bell-shaped hinge system that “allows the foldable OLED panel to be folded flat in both open and closed scenarios resulting in a thinner system.” More than 200 parts reportedly move simultaneously when folding and unfolding the PC.

In action, the hinge felt sturdy and required a healthy amount of force to shift the PC’s positioning. It didn’t seem like it would budge unless I wanted it to. How well that hinge can withstand heavy use will, of course, be a large factor in how successful this foldable is. Lenovo said it uses MIL-STD-810H testing standards for the PC.

“A new display interface was developed, which folds the non-active area, enhancing durability and enabling thinner bezels,” Lenovo’s said in its announcement. The display’s bezels are “no more than” 0.39 inches (10 mm), according to the vendor.

“The hybrid shutter frame was also redesigned with the multiple benefits of thinness, more room for antennas, and simplifying field servicing.”

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1876903

LG plans to introduce a 20-inch OLED panel by the end of the year, and unlike most other offerings in this size, it will be used in consumer devices.

LG is the leading manufacturer of OLED panels for several other device categories, and the company has been making panels for watches, TVs, and smartphones—but this will be the first time the company will make OLEDs suitable for computer monitors or smaller televisions.

The news comes from South Korean electronics news site The Elec, which reported details from a speech to the Korea Display Industry Association by LG Display Vice President Kang Won-seok.

The executive also said the company is working on OLEDs for mixed reality devices, a new 77-inch transparent OLED size, and bendable OLEDs where the user can adjust the amount of curve on the fly.

It’s unknown when the 20-inch panels might make their way into devices you can buy, though. The statement that the panels will be ready at the end of 2022 likely means they’ll be available to consumer electronics companies that want to use them in their products, but it could take many months for those new products to reach store shelves.

If the panels have the same qualities as those that LG makes for televisions, though, this development could be big news in the computer monitor business.

Judging from objective testing by Rtings and other display tech reviewers, LG’s OLED TVs far outclass most desktop computer monitors on the market in all sorts of measures of picture quality, from contrast to gray uniformity. And recent LG OLEDs have competitive response times and refresh rates that make them good gaming displays, too.

Currently, most of the market for high-end computer monitors is either focused on color accuracy for creative professionals or ultra-fast response times and refresh rates for dedicated gamers—often at the expense of picture quality, in the latter case. The picture quality and consistency of most computer monitors are quite poor by TV and smartphone display standards.

For example, most computer monitors use LED technology but lack the local dimming tech in high-end LED TVs. This means that contrast ratios are comparatively low, and backlight bleed is a common problem. OLED sidesteps these issues. Further, PC gamers playing on desktop monitors usually miss out on the full effects of HDR (if it’s even supported), as few computer monitors can deliver the bright highlights that LED or OLED TVs can.

There have been some OLED monitors in laptops, and the past year has started to see some OLED desktop displays from others besides LG. The early signs are promising. As of this year, LG ships a 42-inch version of its OLED TV that has been popular with some high-end PC gamers. But that’s still too large to be practical for many people looking for a screen to use in that context.

Compromises may be made to manufacture the panels in these sizes, though, so we’ll have to wait until (likely) sometime next year to see what we’re getting. And this could just be the beginning. While 20-inch OLED panels would be suitable for some users, many will be holding out for larges sizes like 23, 24, or 27 inches.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873435