Samsung's new OLED tech is the surprise gaming monitor upgrade I need
Anti-reflective displays are getting big
The pace of change when it comes to high-end PC gaming is generally a little frightening, especially if you're coming from a console background and you're used to a platform staying the same for six or seven years between generations. In the PC world, companies seem to rip the rulebook up every year.
I'm not going to go overboard and suggest that Samsung's done just that with the new gaming monitor tech it's unveiled, but it's certainly a welcome upgrade that might just indicate how it and others on the market are trying to win people over to upgrading their monitors.
After all, the slow spread of OLED panels has been interesting to observe, but if you have an OLED right now then are you really in any need of an upgrade in the next few years from a picture quality perspective?
Well, Samsung's answer might just be its newly announced QuantumBlack display tech, which apparently cuts reflections by 20% compared to its previous system, while making the display harder and therefore more durable. The film is applied on top of Samsung's displays, so this presumably should debut on forthcoming models very soon.
That boost to hardness shouldn't be overlooked before we move on to reflections, though. Cleaning your gaming monitor can be a stressful affair, and it gets more stressful the more you've spent on it – so knowing that it's properly scratch-resistant should make it far less of a burden.
Plus, of course, there are the immersive benefits to those dulled reflections, which should ensure that you can see everything on your monitor more easily, regardless of lighting conditions. That's huge for anyone seeking to get more competitive at a game online, but also great if you're just wanting to remove distractions while immersed in single-player gaming.
Samsung isn't saying when this new film will actually start to roll out on its monitors, for now. In fact, I wouldn't be totally surprised if it keeps the tech for its next big unveil, possibly even at CES next year. However, it clearly wanted to get the news out that it's working on anti-reflective tech, since it knows this is the direction of travel in gaming monitors right now.
I've got a lovely Sony Inzone M9 II on my desk right now, and it's impressively sharp and accurate. It's also one of the least reflective monitors I've yet used, but even then, if you offered me an upgrade with 20% less reflectivity, I'd hardly turn it down.
