LG unveils three gaming monitors, including a 48-inch 4K OLED with a 138 Hz overclocked...

[Tudor Cibean]

Editor's take: Hopefully, we're going to start seeing OLED monitors with smaller screen sizes as well soon, as not everyone has enough space for a 48-inch display on their desk. The only smaller options right now are LG's 42-inch LG C2 TV and Alienware's AW3423DW, which features an ultrawide aspect ratio.

LG has just announced a trio of gaming displays, including their first OLED gaming monitor. The 48GQ900 is a 47.5-inch OLED display with a 4K resolution that ships with a 120 Hz refresh rate but can be overclocked in the OSD up to 138 Hz. It's also advertised to feature 0.1ms G2G response times and is FreeSync and G-Sync compatible.

The monitor is almost certainly sharing the same panel LG's been using in their TVs for a few years now. The main difference, apart from the overclockable refresh rate, seems to be the connectivity. It features a DisplayPort connector (something most TVs lack), three HDMI 2.1, two USB ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Also new from LG is the 32GQ950, a 31.5-inch 4K Nano IPS panel. Its refresh rate is overclockable up to 160 Hz, and it is VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certified. Connectivity consists of one DisplayPort (no mention of what version), two HDMI 2.1, two USB ports, and a headphone jack.

The last monitor shown off today is the 32GQ850. It's a 31.5-inch display with a 2,560 x 1,440 Nano IPS panel that can be overclocked up to 260 Hz. It's also VESA DisplayHDR 600 and AdaptiveSync certified, and connectivity is identical to the 32GQ950.

Unfortunately, LG didn't announce pricing for these monitors, but they'll be available in Japan starting this month with other countries following after.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94714-lg-unveils-three-gaming-monitors-including-48-inch.html

 

[Dd663]

That's freaking huge for a monitor. Really just a TV with a DisplayPort and a higher refresh rate, though some TVs have the latter anyway.

I suppose another crucial difference would be the lack of "smart" technology, which is really just an excuse for TV makers to serve you ads in the TV's interface to subsidize the cost of the TV. Maybe that's why monitors seem to have a price premium over similar TVs.

 

[nodfor]

Α nice addition but they will probably price it too high so it doesn't cut in the rest of their monitor line up.

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, these are potentially interesting at the right price.

 

[rogueTempo]

just an excuse for TV makers to serve you ads in the TV's interface to subsidize the cost of the TV. Maybe that's why monitors seem to have a price premium over similar TVs.

Yikes, what brand of TVs have *you been subjecting yourself to?

 

[Dd663]

Yikes, what brand of TVs have *you been subjecting yourself to?

All smart TV OSes that I'm aware of include advertisements, and pretty much every TV is a smart TV nowadays. Let's check some brands on Rtings:

LG: Has ads.
Sony: Also has ads.
Samsung: Again, ads.
Hisense: Includes ads.
TCL: Surprise, surprise, has ads.
Vizio: Ads.
Toshiba: Guess what? Ads.
Amazon Fire TV: Last but not least, ads.

Note the wording on the last link:

Unfortunately, like almost every TV on the market, there are ads throughout the home interface and content store, and you can't disable them.

The only way to avoid these ads is by not connecting your TV to the internet at all, a significant limitation, or by going through a convoluted process using a Raspberry Pi and PiHole that's definitely beyond the average user's capabilities.

So my question for you is, what brand of TV are you using that doesn't have ads? And was it made in the last decade?

Perhaps you're thinking of ads like you'd encounter on a website? The ads on TVs typically involve only watchable content, not other products, but are nonetheless still ads.

 

[rogueTempo]

All smart TV OSes that I'm aware of include advertisements, and pretty much every TV is a smart TV nowadays. Let's check some brands on Rtings:

LG: Has ads.
Sony: Also has ads.
Samsung: Again, ads.
Hisense: Includes ads.
TCL: Surprise, surprise, has ads.
Vizio: Ads.
Toshiba: Guess what? Ads.
Amazon Fire TV: Last but not least, ads.

Note the wording on the last link:


The only way to avoid these ads is by not connecting your TV to the internet at all, a significant limitation, or by going through a convoluted process using a Raspberry Pi and PiHole that's definitely beyond the average user's capabilities.

So my question for you is, what brand of TV are you using that doesn't have ads? And was it made in the last decade?

Perhaps you're thinking of ads like you'd encounter on a website? The ads on TVs typically involve only watchable content, not other products, but are nonetheless still ads.

Interesting. I've only had personal experience with a Vizio, Samsung, and LG. The former 2 had ads in your face the moment you turn on the television set, but I haven't experienced any ads on my LG CX. Perhaps because it's an older model than the one you linked (though just barely..)?

Then again, by the same site you've cited, Vizio's same-year model as the LG CX has ads, but the more recent ones do not (according to their overall list). As far as I know, Vizio doesn't really have a foot in the market of "monitors" either, so there's definitely openings for ad-free TVs if you look for them as intently as you seemed to look for the ad-filled ones.

 

[Dd663]

Then again, by the same site you've cited, Vizio's same-year model as the LG CX has ads, but the more recent ones do not (according to their overall list). As far as I know, Vizio doesn't really have a foot in the market of "monitors" either, so there's definitely openings for ad-free TVs if you look for them as intently as you seemed to look for the ad-filled ones.

It wasn't hard to find TVs with ads. I simply clicked on their list of best TVs and clicked on one each for each brand in that list, then went and looked in other lists for any other TV brands I could find and clicked on the first ones I found. All of them had ads.

Afterward I did look at one or two of the Vizio models that Rtings claimed was ad-free, but it said it still had "suggested content" that you couldn't turn off, and to me that's advertisements, so I don't know why the site listed them as ad-free.

Regardless, precious few of the sets they've reviewed lack ads, even with their apparently sometimes somewhat forgiving definition of what an "ad" is. Of the 354 TVs 113 TVs they've reviewed with their most current methodology/testing suite, only ten are ad-free according to them (8.8%). Eight of those are Vizios with their "suggested content" (ads), one is a 1080p TCL that isn't a "smart" TV, and one is a Hisense with Android TV where they had this to say:

Update 02/25/2021: We still haven't seen any ads, even though they appear on the Hisense H9G. Let us know if you've noticed any ads on your H8G.

This TV is currently ad-free, but it's possible to include ads in the future, as seen on other Android TVs, such as the H9G and the Sony X950H.

If we count those Vizios as having ads (and we should), and disregard the TV that wasn't a smart TV, then only one smart TV was found to not have ads (the rest of the TVs they've reviewed are smart TVs).

So I think it's safe to say that ads in most smart TVs are widespread, bordering on universal.

Incidentally, the LG CX is also listed as having ads, though this is what they had to say about it:

The TV isn't ad-free as we did occasionally see them during testing, but we couldn't take a picture. They aren't always there either.

So perhaps you've gotten lucky in that regard? Who knows?

Edit: I made a mistake in my calculations. The table I was viewing was only showing TVs tested using their most recent methodology, of which there were 113. I thought it was showing all 354 TVs they've reviewed. My bad. It's been corrected.

Among TVs tested with their older methodology, there seems to be a somewhat higher percentage of TVs without ads (though still quite a few of them seem to be Vizios with their suggested content). For instance, some of the Sony TVs that are a few years old lack ads and have suggested content that can actually be disabled.