I'm looking, ideally, for a monitor or a similarly high quality and low latency TV with 8k resolution in 16:9 aspect ratio (7680x4320), or less preferably, but probably more realistic in the coming years, 6k (5760x3240 or 6144x3160 or somewhere in that vicinity). The intended usage scenarios are playing modern video games with realistic and pixel art graphics, semi-professional video and image editing, programming (aka reading a bunch of text for long hours).
Must have features:
- 16:9 ratio or approximate within reason, but not a thin "wide"/"surround" type nearing 32:9 ratio, vertical resolution is more desirable than horizontal;
- Diagonal for 6k at least 48", preferable around 72-76", and for 8k around 98";
- // there are a couple 27" and 32" 8k PC monitors out there, but the extra resolution is impossible to fully make use of at this pixel size, so I'm going off of FullHD (1920x1080) at 24", 2560x1440 at 32", 3840x2160 at 48", so 80 horizontal resolution pixels per inch of diagonal general scaling rule;
- Low input lag to make it suitable for gaming;
- Full RGB color mode support, without chroma subsampling, so that the text is not any blurrier than on any common monitor;
- Full RGB panel subpixel layout (no pentile subpixel cheating);
- Colors and viewing angles are not significantly worse than an average IPS display panel;
- Should work with a modern GPU over DisplayPort and HDMI connections (multiple cables requirement acceptable);
- At least 59Hz refresh rate.
Would be great to have:
- 120Hz+ refresh rate support;
- no flickering in high refresh rate mode (strobe light feature);
- affordable price of below 2000 USD (at these specs it's more of a wish, but still one can dream);
- repair availability - if something happens to a thing that expensive it would be cool to not just throw it in the trash;
- no smart TV options - the dumber it is, the better, in my opinion. If it's unavoidable, well alright, maybe it can be disabled or "Pi-holed" somehow;
Optional:
- Curved display panel;
- HDR support;
- local area dimming zones;
- high refresh rate pixel overclocking;
- OLED/QLED panel - it is not clear if it's going to be an advantage for general PC use with lots of static pixels burning into the panel. Even video games have static heads-up display elements like health bars and soul counters;
TVs have been known to lie about their true resolution and upsample lower resolution to their display panel's physical resolution, so that is of course unacceptable. All pixels should be there. Also, certain TVs with "gaming modes" which have indeed lower input lag than a default or other modes, sometimes resort to interlacing, chroma subsampling, framerate limitations and such - this is very undesirable, but not completely off the table.
At the time of writing, these devices with specs similar to desirable are seen online when searching "8K monitor|tv", prices taken mostly from official manufacturer sites:
- Dell UltraSharp UP3218K - 31.5" for $5k - way too small to get any use out of the extra pixels;
- Sony KD-85ZG9 - LCD - 85", 98" - price is ~7-14k GBP for 85" and reportedly insane 85k GBP for 98";
- Sony Z9G (could be same model as above) - LCD - 85" $8-13k;
- Samsung QE75Q950R - QLED - 55", 65", 75", 82", 98" - price ~4k GBP for 75", QLED panel might not be a plus in the long run and in general for use with PC;
- Samsung Q800T - QLED - 82" $6-7k;
- Samsung Q900 - QLED - 98" $60-100k??;
- Samsung Q900TS - QLED - 85" $8-9k;
- Samsung Q950TS - QLED - 85" $12-13k;
- LG Z9 - OLED - 88" $30k;
- LG ZX - OLED - 88" $30k;
- LG NanoCell 99 - 75" $4300-5000;
In additions to models I've found on sale above, I also found some more info about major display panel manufacturers with news of them manufacturing 8k panels (at the time of writing):
- AU Optronics lists 85" 60/120Hz panels at 8k resolution, and no 8K monitor panels;
- BOE seems to have presented various 8k TVs in recent years but I couldn't find purchasable models with worldwide shipping;
- Sharp seems to advertise its 8k TV tech, but I couldn't find any models in shops;
- Toshiba - same story;
It seems like 6k is not a common display resolution, but some professional video camera manufacturers are advertising cameras with such resolution, and some tech news sites are posting rumors about 6k being a more reasonable potential upcoming "intermediate" option for budget buyers who also don't have the hardware to output the full 8k image from a computer at full refresh rate. At the time of writing, I haven't found any monitor models with such res. It's all either 4k or straight to 8k.
I realize 2020 may still be too early for high quality monitors or TVs at affordable prices, but I figured I'll post now and await responses for the years to come.
