Monitors

AOC P2779VC: 27” PLS Display with Qi Wireless Charging Base for $199
  • Comments are Closed

AOC P2779VC: 27” PLS Display with Qi Wireless Charging Base for $199

AOC has introduced a new 27” display that features Qi wireless charging for mobile phones in the base. The monitor uses a PLS panel and has standard characteristics for a mainstream device aimed at office environments. Despite this, the P2779VC is one of the first 27” displays with Qi wireless charging and it will make an appealing option for those who need both large screen and Qi, especially given its affordable price.

The AOC P2779VC is a 27” IPS monitor with a 1920×1080 resolution, 300 nits brightness, 178°/178° viewing angles, and a 60 Hz refresh rate (static contrast ratio is unknown). The display is listed as reproducing 16.77 million colors, enough for office workloads, and has a response time of 5 ms gray-to-gray, enough for videos and gaming. AOC does not confirm adherence to any particular color space in its spec sheet.

When it comes to connectivity, the AOC P2779VC is a fairly basic monitor with one D-Sub and two HDMI 1.3 inputs. Unlike some other mainstream displays, this one does not have built-in speakers or a USB hub which may be an advantage for tightly-packed corporate offices that have to deal with noise (minus speakers) and mind corporate security (minus USB). 

AOC P2779VC
  P2779VC
Panel 27″ PLS
Native Resolution 1920 × 1080
Maximum Refresh Rate 60 Hz
Response Time 5 ms (gray-to-gray)
Brightness 300 cd/m²
Contrast 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
Viewing Angles 178°/178° horizontal/vertical
Pixel Pitch 0.311 × 0.311 mm
Inputs 1 × HDMI 1.3
1 × D-Sub
Wireless charging Qi wireless charging base
Power Consumption Standby < 0.5 W
Maximum 23.5 W

Meanwhile, the key selling feature of the P2779VC is its base that features a Qi wireless charging pad in the base. As far as we could find, commercially, only Samsung has released two SE370 displays that support Qi and feature 23.6” and 27” PLS panels. As a result AOC’s monitor is not going to have too many rivals right now. Keep in mind that at present there are tens of smartphones and tablets with integrated Qi wireless charging technology (including those from ASUS, Samsung, Google, HP, Microsoft and other) and there are accessories that enable the tech on devices without integrated support (e.g., on Apple iPhone 6S).

The AOC P2779VC comes with a black or gold base and with the company’s standard three-year warranty. The price of the display is $199.99, which is a bit lower when compared to the price of the Samsung SE370 270 that is available for $213.80.

Related Reading:

Source of Images: Amazon.

Panasonic Develops IPS Panel with 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1000 Nits Brightness
  • Comments are Closed

Panasonic Develops IPS Panel with 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1000 Nits Brightness

Panasonic has developed a new type of IPS liquid crystal panel that has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, as well as a peak brightness of up to 1000 nits. Many LCD displays often advertise such contrast ratios which are measured against a dynamic backlight and are essentially meaningless, but in this case Panasonic is talking about the static contrast ratio of the display, which only reaches as high as 2000:1 on a typical IPS display. Little information is available about the technology at this point, but Panasonic claims that it is achieved by implementing pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity and that panels featuring the tech can be produced using contemporary LCD manufacturing facilities.

One of the key advantages that OLED displays have over LCD displays is extremely high contrast ratio that results in superior blacks. The reason why OLEDs can display deeper blacks is simple: such panels do not use backlighting and can completely switch pixels off when they need to display blacks. By contrast, LCDs use backlighting that cannot be turned off on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which is why in many cases blacks look like dark greys.

In the most optimal case, an LCD display will use full-array backlighting, where there are several LEDs placed directly behind the liquid crystal layer. This allows for a degree of control by performing local dimming of certain areas, which is how LCD televisions have managed to meet the standards required for HDR certification. However, the precision of the backlight control is not close to that of an OLED display which works at the pixel level. Even more common, especially in monitors and less expensive televisions, is the use of edge lighting where LEDs are placed along the edges of the display and the light is distributed across the panel using a guiding plate, which means you can really only control the overall brightness across the entire display.

As it appears, Panasonic has found a way to substantially increase contrast ratio of IPS LCDs using a high-brightness backlight and a special layer of light-modulating cells that enable pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity. These cells are made of light-tolerant liquid crystal material that has different light-transmission properties compared to those used in the display cells. The layer of light-modulating cells is placed between the backlight and the LCD cells and thus can control light leakage. At a high level, one could think of them like gates placed behind each pixel on the display.

Panasonic does not reveal many details about its light-modulating cells, but since it uses the term “cells”, it clearly indicates that we are dealing with a relatively thick layer of liquid crystals, not a thin layer of quantum dots (you can see an illustration from Nanosys (a company that produces quantum dot films that are currently used on Samsung TVs and displays) to compare “cells” versus “quantum dots”).

Usage of a high-brightness backlight and a layer of light-modulating cells enable Panasonic to build display panels with up to 1000 nits brightness as well as a static contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. These figures mean that a black level of 0.001 nits should be possible, which is well beyond what even the best full-array backlit LCD displays can offer today.

Panasonic claims that the addition of the layer can be done using the existing equipment for LCD manufacturing, but it’s not clear how costly the technology will be to implement or if it requires further components to be added to the LCD stack. The company plans to offer displays featuring the new technology for various professional applications, such as video production, medical, automotive, engineering and so on. Given the positioning, it is obvious that the price of IPS displays with enhanced contrast will be well above that of mainstream monitors.

Panasonic intends to start sample shipments of its new monitors in January, 2017, so the commercialization of the technology will not be too far off.

Related Reading:

Panasonic Develops IPS Panel with 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1000 Nits Brightness
  • Comments are Closed

Panasonic Develops IPS Panel with 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1000 Nits Brightness

Panasonic has developed a new type of IPS liquid crystal panel that has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, as well as a peak brightness of up to 1000 nits. Many LCD displays often advertise such contrast ratios which are measured against a dynamic backlight and are essentially meaningless, but in this case Panasonic is talking about the static contrast ratio of the display, which only reaches as high as 2000:1 on a typical IPS display. Little information is available about the technology at this point, but Panasonic claims that it is achieved by implementing pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity and that panels featuring the tech can be produced using contemporary LCD manufacturing facilities.

One of the key advantages that OLED displays have over LCD displays is extremely high contrast ratio that results in superior blacks. The reason why OLEDs can display deeper blacks is simple: such panels do not use backlighting and can completely switch pixels off when they need to display blacks. By contrast, LCDs use backlighting that cannot be turned off on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which is why in many cases blacks look like dark greys.

In the most optimal case, an LCD display will use full-array backlighting, where there are several LEDs placed directly behind the liquid crystal layer. This allows for a degree of control by performing local dimming of certain areas, which is how LCD televisions have managed to meet the standards required for HDR certification. However, the precision of the backlight control is not close to that of an OLED display which works at the pixel level. Even more common, especially in monitors and less expensive televisions, is the use of edge lighting where LEDs are placed along the edges of the display and the light is distributed across the panel using a guiding plate, which means you can really only control the overall brightness across the entire display.

As it appears, Panasonic has found a way to substantially increase contrast ratio of IPS LCDs using a high-brightness backlight and a special layer of light-modulating cells that enable pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity. These cells are made of light-tolerant liquid crystal material that has different light-transmission properties compared to those used in the display cells. The layer of light-modulating cells is placed between the backlight and the LCD cells and thus can control light leakage. At a high level, one could think of them like gates placed behind each pixel on the display.

Panasonic does not reveal many details about its light-modulating cells, but since it uses the term “cells”, it clearly indicates that we are dealing with a relatively thick layer of liquid crystals, not a thin layer of quantum dots (you can see an illustration from Nanosys (a company that produces quantum dot films that are currently used on Samsung TVs and displays) to compare “cells” versus “quantum dots”).

Usage of a high-brightness backlight and a layer of light-modulating cells enable Panasonic to build display panels with up to 1000 nits brightness as well as a static contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. These figures mean that a black level of 0.001 nits should be possible, which is well beyond what even the best full-array backlit LCD displays can offer today.

Panasonic claims that the addition of the layer can be done using the existing equipment for LCD manufacturing, but it’s not clear how costly the technology will be to implement or if it requires further components to be added to the LCD stack. The company plans to offer displays featuring the new technology for various professional applications, such as video production, medical, automotive, engineering and so on. Given the positioning, it is obvious that the price of IPS displays with enhanced contrast will be well above that of mainstream monitors.

Panasonic intends to start sample shipments of its new monitors in January, 2017, so the commercialization of the technology will not be too far off.

Related Reading:

Samsung Acquires Quantum Dot Tech Company QD Vision
  • Comments are Closed

Samsung Acquires Quantum Dot Tech Company QD Vision

Earlier this week Samsung confirmed that they have acquired QD Vision, the US-based provider of quantum dot technology for consumer displays. According to sources cited by SamMobile, the deal was confirmed ahead of its official announcement next week by Jung Chil-hee, the head of Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology.

No details about the price of the acquisition are available yet, but from an observer’s point of view it makes sense that Samsung would want to acquire companies working in the field of quantum dots. Samsung has been heavily pushing quantum dots in their newest televisions in order to increase their color gamut without having to make use of backlights with multi-color LEDs. With Ultra HD content being mastered in the DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020 color spaces, this has become a necessary feature in high end televisions and monitors for content creation.

QD Vision’s technology works in a different manner from the technology Samsung currently uses in their televisions. In order to support HDR, televisions need to use full array backlighting so regions can be dimmed locally, and employing quantum dots in this situation requires a film layer between the backlight and the LCD array, which can be quite costly for larger displays. QD Vision’s technology works with edge-lit displays and places tubes of quantum dots between the LEDs and the guide plate that distributes light across the display. I took a look at a monitor that uses QD Vision’s technology earlier this year. It’s not clear where Samsung plans to utilize QD Vision’s technology, but the technology could play a big role in bringing wide color gamuts to lower cost displays, and QD Vision’s technology and patents related to quantum dots would also have value to Samsung for further development of the technology in general.

Samsung Acquires Quantum Dot Tech Company QD Vision
  • Comments are Closed

Samsung Acquires Quantum Dot Tech Company QD Vision

Earlier this week Samsung confirmed that they have acquired QD Vision, the US-based provider of quantum dot technology for consumer displays. According to sources cited by SamMobile, the deal was confirmed ahead of its official announcement next week by Jung Chil-hee, the head of Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology.

No details about the price of the acquisition are available yet, but from an observer’s point of view it makes sense that Samsung would want to acquire companies working in the field of quantum dots. Samsung has been heavily pushing quantum dots in their newest televisions in order to increase their color gamut without having to make use of backlights with multi-color LEDs. With Ultra HD content being mastered in the DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020 color spaces, this has become a necessary feature in high end televisions and monitors for content creation.

QD Vision’s technology works in a different manner from the technology Samsung currently uses in their televisions. In order to support HDR, televisions need to use full array backlighting so regions can be dimmed locally, and employing quantum dots in this situation requires a film layer between the backlight and the LCD array, which can be quite costly for larger displays. QD Vision’s technology works with edge-lit displays and places tubes of quantum dots between the LEDs and the guide plate that distributes light across the display. I took a look at a monitor that uses QD Vision’s technology earlier this year. It’s not clear where Samsung plans to utilize QD Vision’s technology, but the technology could play a big role in bringing wide color gamuts to lower cost displays, and QD Vision’s technology and patents related to quantum dots would also have value to Samsung for further development of the technology in general.