8K (Wide) MiniLED Monitors To Appear at CES 2023
In a recent announcement by AMD of its RX7900 series, Samsung teased us with the news of a new 8K wide monitor to be shown at CES 2023. (we’ve linked to the appropriate moment in the video here). The writer believes this will be a 32:9 49″ unit with a resolution of 7680 x 2160. That seems the most likely configuration as a 32:9 49″ unit is effectively the same as two 27″ 3840 x 2160 monitors side by side.
Why Might Samsung be Going to Super-wide?
One of the significant advantages of 8K resolution is the increased immersive feeling if you have a big enough display and are close enough to it. Dr. Jon Peddie highlighted this when we spoke to him about gaming with 8K. With a wide format, you can also curve the display, increasing the feeling of immersion. A curved display makes it more comfortable to be close to the screen.
What About QD-OLED?
Initially, we had thought (hoped?) that Samsung Display Corp (SDC) might be using the QD-OLED panel that is winning so many plaudits in TV reviews and is being used in 34″ 3440 x 1440 monitors from several brands. However, the new monitor is advertised as a Neo G9, and Samsung typically uses the Neo tag to signify an LCD with a miniLED multi-zone backlight. We presume that the model name will not just be the Neo G9 as there is already a model with that moniker – but with ‘just’ 5120 x 1440 resolution.
If SDC were to make a QD-OLED with the 49″ size and in 32:9 format, we would expect it also to have the 5120 x 1440 resolution. That’s because the pixel design of such a monitor would match the one used for the 34″ 3440 x 1440 21:9 monitor sold by Samsung, Dell, and others. Effectively, 3440 x 1440 21:9 34″ monitors were extended versions of 27″ 2560 x 1440 monitors, and 49″ 5120 x 1440 is a further stretch.
Creating a new pixel design is a complex, challenging, and expensive task, so it would be unlikely for SDC to do that just for what is bound to be a very niche product at the high end of the gaming market. However, the Neo G9 has to use a very difficult-to-make backlit LCD, which is curved to R1000. Samsung Electronics has been the best at making curved LCDs for monitors or TVs. Still, we can imagine that Samsung Electronics (which makes the monitor) would probably instead use a QD-OLED, which is much easier to curve than an LCD.
The 8K monitor with a high framerate will be able to support DisplayPort 2.1, which has a much higher bandwidth than earlier versions. (see our previous article on that topic here). Acer, Asus, Dell, and LG will also have DisplayPort 2.1-enabled displays starting in ‘early 2023’. Watch out for other brands that are taking advantage of this fast new interface to deliver seriously high frame rates, resolution, and color depth simultaneously.
