1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,020 I thought one of the most fair comparisons to help us assess just how 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:11,440 next-gen the ASUS PQ22U OLED monitor is, would be to take it and put it right beside 3 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:18,000 another conventional high-end ASUS display, the PQ27UQ. 4 00:00:18,580 --> 00:00:20,580 And the first thing you guys will notice, 5 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:26,380 especially if you're one of those dark mode all the things types, is how much deeper and 6 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:29,760 richer the blacks are. 7 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:34,420 This shouldn't really come as a surprise though, since it's the main claim to fame of OLED. 8 00:00:34,420 --> 00:00:39,220 You get much higher contrast because when the pixels are ordered to display black, 9 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:45,920 they really give you black rather than that glowy dark gray that you're used to on an LCD. 10 00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:49,120 But surely then there's got to be a downside, right? 11 00:00:50,780 --> 00:00:53,640 Yeah, there is. So let's talk about that. 12 00:00:54,500 --> 00:01:00,480 After I talk about today's sponsor, iFixit. The Marlin screwdriver set from iFixit features five specialty precision screws, 13 00:01:00,620 --> 00:01:04,220 and they're made for drivers. Check it out today at iFixit.com forward slash Linus. 14 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:18,650 In a nutshell, the reason that LCDs can't display true black is that they work by 15 00:01:18,850 --> 00:01:23,070 shining a backlight through a membrane of liquid crystals that twist or 16 00:01:23,470 --> 00:01:31,790 untwist to let the appropriate amount of light through. But displaying black doesn't make the backlight turn off. It just makes the liquid crystals 17 00:01:32,410 --> 00:01:39,130 reorganized to try and block the light. As you can see, some light always makes it through, either the crystal, 18 00:01:39,330 --> 00:01:42,050 membrane, or through the cracks between the pixels. 19 00:01:42,790 --> 00:01:44,790 OLED technology, by contrast, 20 00:01:45,330 --> 00:01:47,330 uses no backlight. 21 00:01:47,610 --> 00:01:52,070 Instead, applying electricity causes special organic phosphors to glow. 22 00:01:52,350 --> 00:02:00,550 So if you want black or the absence of light, you just turn off the electricity. And the results are, I mean, 23 00:02:00,550 --> 00:02:01,570 they're just incredible. 24 00:02:01,570 --> 00:02:08,950 I'm a huge fan of OLED technology, and the 3840 by 2160 resolution and inky blacks on this display make it 25 00:02:09,170 --> 00:02:11,170 just look so visceral. 26 00:02:11,690 --> 00:02:16,170 Much like the OLED screens that high-end phone buyers have been appreciating for the last few years. 27 00:02:17,190 --> 00:02:25,230 Also of note, and this is actually one of the things that I've been personally most excited about with this technology, is this displays 28 00:02:25,710 --> 00:02:32,430 incredible 0.1 millisecond pixel response time. Now, this demo here will be a familiar one for display nerds, and 29 00:02:32,990 --> 00:02:39,090 this is cool. Even through the camera, if you get close, you can really see the way that an 30 00:02:39,170 --> 00:02:46,210 OLED display can cut down on motion blur by the extra detail that you can make out on the alien's ship and face. 31 00:02:46,970 --> 00:02:48,970 Freakin' awesome. And, 32 00:02:49,130 --> 00:02:53,890 speaking of getting close, you shall. At just 21 and a half inches. 33 00:02:54,490 --> 00:03:01,690 This is about as small as modern monitors get, so I guess it was a smart move for ASUS to market this thing as a 34 00:03:02,310 --> 00:03:09,070 portable display for creators on the go. You see, the stand here is actually only held on by magnets, 35 00:03:09,570 --> 00:03:14,710 and the monitor can be easily folded and slipped into a bag, leaving you with a display that feels 36 00:03:15,030 --> 00:03:18,510 like, when you're holding it, kind of like an oversized tablet. 37 00:03:18,550 --> 00:03:26,510 It's only one and a half kilograms and eight and a half millimeters thick. It also comes with this magnetic screen protector 38 00:03:26,670 --> 00:03:30,050 slash stand that enables multiple configurations, 39 00:03:30,910 --> 00:03:32,910 including a vertical mount, but 40 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:38,220 honestly, it was a little hard to set up and too unstable to really inspire confidence. 41 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:45,700 So, if I were you, I'd probably stick with the metal stand, which does still offer about 20 degrees of tilt adjustment. 42 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:51,600 Oh, and one more thing. I'm sure many of you will appreciate the included stylish leather carry bag. 43 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:59,720 Although, for me, it mainly served as a reminder that 21 and a half inches is too small for my main workstation, 44 00:04:00,100 --> 00:04:03,900 but too big for me to just slip it into my backpack. And, 45 00:04:04,620 --> 00:04:08,620 actually, the portable design also affects it in other ways. 46 00:04:08,980 --> 00:04:15,300 Like the ports. All we get is a single micro HDMI and two USB-C ports, 47 00:04:15,300 --> 00:04:17,800 which carry both DisplayPort and power. 48 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:24,940 I'll get back to those in a bit though, because right now, I have some burn-in questions to answer about the elephant in the room. 49 00:04:25,540 --> 00:04:27,350 Image retention. 50 00:04:27,350 --> 00:04:34,270 Commonly called burn-in, image retention is one of the two main reasons why OLED monitors haven't already become mainstream, 51 00:04:34,670 --> 00:04:37,470 with the other one being their overall shorter lifespan. 52 00:04:38,190 --> 00:04:38,730 Basically, 53 00:04:38,730 --> 00:04:44,010 burn-in is caused by pixels displaying the same thing for long periods of time. 54 00:04:44,070 --> 00:04:48,510 So, news station logos, sports scoreboards, video game HUDs, 55 00:04:48,510 --> 00:04:53,050 I mean, really anything that stays on the screen without changing or moving. 56 00:04:53,110 --> 00:04:58,190 It was the bane of plasma TVs, and it's the worst nightmare of any OLED owner. 57 00:04:58,190 --> 00:05:02,330 I mean, I personally go to great lengths to ensure that my OLED TV 58 00:05:02,670 --> 00:05:07,070 never gets used for long gaming sessions or streaming music, for example. 59 00:05:07,710 --> 00:05:08,670 The issue, 60 00:05:08,670 --> 00:05:15,230 is that on a PC, there are a lot of things that always stay in the same spot, like taskbars, 61 00:05:15,610 --> 00:05:17,610 buttons, and toolbars, and 62 00:05:18,010 --> 00:05:20,730 there's no real way to avoid them all together. 63 00:05:21,370 --> 00:05:27,030 So, how then does the PQ22U overcome these challenges? Has there been a 64 00:05:28,030 --> 00:05:33,130 technological advancement that's allowed us to finally have OLED monitors without worrying about burn-in? 65 00:05:34,780 --> 00:05:35,940 No. 66 00:05:35,940 --> 00:05:37,160 No. 67 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:39,700 The PQ22U actually uses 68 00:05:39,820 --> 00:05:44,280 fundamentally the same countermeasures that OLED TVs have been using for years, 69 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:49,200 like shifting the whole image over by a few pixels when it detects static content, or 70 00:05:50,220 --> 00:05:56,880 simply dimming the screen, which this one does with the help of a human sensor right over there. 71 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:04,460 Now, that is supposed to detect whether the monitor is actively being used by looking for someone sitting in front of it, but 72 00:06:05,260 --> 00:06:09,680 honestly, I ended up turning it off completely because I guess it was registering me as a lizard person, 73 00:06:09,820 --> 00:06:13,460 or something, and turning the screen off when I was in the middle of doing something 74 00:06:14,180 --> 00:06:16,320 extremely annoying. With all of that said, 75 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,320 even if they didn't help with burn-in, 76 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,780 technological advancements did still play a role in bringing this monitor to market. 77 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:29,340 So the PQ22U uses an OLED panel made by a relatively new company, 78 00:06:29,780 --> 00:06:38,340 Joled, a joint venture between Sony, Panasonic, and Japan Display established in 2014. And while their OLED panels use full 79 00:06:38,380 --> 00:06:39,080 RGB subpixels, 80 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:44,960 like the AMOLED screens made by Samsung, Joled is using an inkjet printing 81 00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:53,220 manufacturing process to make their panels 30 to 50% cheaper than those produced with the conventional evaporation method. 82 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,760 So then that's pretty great. 83 00:06:55,920 --> 00:07:02,560 Affordability at last! And, I mean, big-screen OLED TVs are popular, handheld devices with OLED screens are popular, 84 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:04,980 why not then go after the market in the middle? 85 00:07:05,990 --> 00:07:09,410 Well, this is where we get into the problems. 86 00:07:09,790 --> 00:07:14,590 For one thing, 21 and a half inches is what I refer to as a tweener size. 87 00:07:15,010 --> 00:07:17,010 It's too big for tablets and laptops, 88 00:07:17,350 --> 00:07:25,310 but smaller than the 23 to 24 inch size that has become really entry-level for the desktop. And then for two, if 89 00:07:25,630 --> 00:07:29,150 their inkjet process has contributed to making this thing a lot cheaper, 90 00:07:29,150 --> 00:07:36,230 I don't even want to know how much it was gonna cost if they made it the conventional way, because ASUS is charging 91 00:07:37,990 --> 00:07:39,430 4,000 for this thing. 92 00:07:39,630 --> 00:07:45,730 And no, not ringgit or yen or rupees. I'm talking four thousand freedom dollars! 93 00:07:45,730 --> 00:07:49,970 So to put that in perspective, at that price, I could buy a 94 00:07:50,850 --> 00:07:52,010 55-inch 95 00:07:52,010 --> 00:07:54,010 LGB8 4K OLED TV, 96 00:07:54,630 --> 00:07:57,770 burn it into oblivion and then buy a new one. 97 00:07:58,760 --> 00:07:59,740 Whew! 98 00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:05,660 So okay, but like hold on a second then. I mean, lots of products are expensive. 99 00:08:06,180 --> 00:08:09,700 That doesn't necessarily mean that they're a terrible value. 100 00:08:09,700 --> 00:08:12,460 So let's imagine for a moment. Let's play a little game 101 00:08:13,100 --> 00:08:18,460 Money's no object and then while we're at it you you love the the totable 102 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:26,760 21 and a half inch size if those things are true. Are you getting the premium performance that the price tag implies? 103 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,050 Okay, so 104 00:08:32,150 --> 00:08:39,070 ASUS is marketing this display towards creators and they include a factory calibration report boasting of its 105 00:08:39,530 --> 00:08:41,290 fantastic color accuracy 106 00:08:41,290 --> 00:08:46,780 Thanks, and indeed it has great coverage of the sRGB 107 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:51,640 Adobe RGB and DCI p3 color spaces, which is great 108 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:56,560 The problem is that when it comes to actually reproducing these billions of colors 109 00:08:56,860 --> 00:09:04,560 It fails and I mean like really fails like harder than the cheapest Walmart monitor that we checked out recently 110 00:09:05,300 --> 00:09:07,780 But how can that be possible? 111 00:09:08,140 --> 00:09:11,140 So here's what we discovered 112 00:09:11,220 --> 00:09:13,000 We could get much 113 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:19,200 Improved color accuracy and act like really accurate if we measured just a small part of the screen 114 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:24,960 Rather than the entire thing we're talking Delta ease under one. That's basically perfect 115 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:32,720 the problem is that we can't get this kind of performance across the entire screen and it's because the screen just 116 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:40,400 Isn't bright enough suggesting that there's a power issue when it just isn't getting enough juice through its USB type-c port 117 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:42,880 so in sRGB mode the bright 118 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:50,320 Brightest white is under 80 nits, and they locked the brightness, so you can't even turn it up like you can in their 119 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:58,040 Best buy showroom standard mode which makes me wonder then about the HDR experience now this monitor 120 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:00,520 supports HDR 10 121 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:08,140 HLG and Dolby vision it's actually one of the world's first displays to do so it's just that it only has a peak brightness of 122 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:12,840 335 nits and a sustained brightness of 140 nits 123 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:18,540 Now that is a far cry from the brightness levels that are required for good HDR 124 00:10:19,710 --> 00:10:26,730 Thing is it's an inherent characteristic of OLED technology that increased brightness 125 00:10:27,230 --> 00:10:33,570 Means increased risk of burn-in so bottom line then should you buy this monitor remember? 126 00:10:33,570 --> 00:10:37,310 We're playing a little game you like the portability and money is no object 127 00:10:39,310 --> 00:10:44,470 Honestly the answer is still no the price would be absurd even if the product wasn't 128 00:10:44,630 --> 00:10:47,770 As rough around the edges as this one is and the portability 129 00:10:48,510 --> 00:10:50,690 Even though we're playing this game where you like it 130 00:10:51,030 --> 00:10:56,390 Just feels like kind of a tacked-on gimmick to make up for the fact that the screen is too small 131 00:10:56,970 --> 00:11:01,010 Making matters worse it doesn't even have its own internal battery like other 132 00:11:01,410 --> 00:11:08,010 Cheaper portable monitors with all of that said though as a tech demo for the concept of OLED monitors in general 133 00:11:08,310 --> 00:11:10,310 I'm still excited 134 00:11:10,780 --> 00:11:12,220 but also 135 00:11:12,220 --> 00:11:14,940 kind of getting worried about whether this is ever going to 136 00:11:14,980 --> 00:11:22,740 Take off I mean the price is gonna have to drop by a factor of four or five which is possible over time 137 00:11:23,180 --> 00:11:27,660 But it's really clear to me that manufacturing volume has to ramp up 138 00:11:28,300 --> 00:11:35,460 significantly to make that happen and the risk then is that by the time that happens OLED could be replaced by 139 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:42,380 Emerging technologies like micro LED which if all goes according to plan is gonna have all the benefits of OLED 140 00:11:42,380 --> 00:11:44,960 So those fast response times and perfect black 141 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:50,980 But with none of the drawbacks and that is the degradation that comes from using 142 00:11:51,540 --> 00:11:57,340 Organic substances do you need to create a beautiful website without the hassle? 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