By Alex Jensen
Following on from my recent anticipation of how CES 2023’s tech highlights will progress from show floor promise to daily reality, it seems LG Display’s Gaming OLED is among the top innovations set to do exactly that.
Consider that against the backdrop of the already rising popularity of OLED displays among gamers, we can now add LG Display’s other major breakthrough to the gaming experience – META Technology. Both of the displays that the company demonstrated in its “Game Room” at CES are included in the full lineup benefiting from LG Display’s third-generation OLED technology.
Also being applied to a range of TV panels, META Technology boasts 60% brighter images than conventional OLED displays, more detailed and vivid images through enhanced HDR, and 30% wider viewing angles – not to mention 22% improved energy efficiency at the same level of brightness. While I have gone into more detail here, let me just briefly reiterate that those advantages are delivered by billions of invisible (to the naked eye) convex micro lenses that make up META Technology’s Micro Lens Array (MLA) along with META Booster algorithmic support. In the context of gaming, that means even more of a dramatic and realistic contrast between the deepest blacks and brightest colors that so often feature in the same scenes as games become more lifelike.
What’s so interesting now is that META Technology is surely also going to be a boost for a gaming trend that is already in full flight. For instance, Korean media cited market researcher Omdia’s Jan. 23 estimate that shipments of OLED panels for monitors are expected to grow sharply from 770,000 units this year to 3.25 million units by 2027. This forecast is supported by another market research firm, DSCC, which predicted on Jan. 31 that OLED panel shipments for monitors would increase by 95% every year until 2026, as referenced by another Korean article.
So, even before the application of META Technology to dedicated gaming monitors, OLED was being prized by gamers for its exceptional performance. We’re talking silky smooth, rich gameplay backed up by a 0.03ms response time and 240Hz refresh rate. OLED displays are also perfect for eye comfort when those gaming sessions stretch into the night – as well as featuring the lowest emissions of blue light in the industry, they are proven to be flicker-free. As a result, OLED panels have received Qualified Superior Gaming Performance and High Gaming Performance certifications from Intertek and TUV Rheinland.
Going forward, I’m particularly interested in the 45-inch Ultra-Wide Curved OLED we saw at CES. Not only does it benefit from the brilliant color accuracy of self-emissive OLED pixels and a layer of micro lenses boosting brightness and viewing angles, but we have already seen how Bendable OLED has been declared the best kind of gaming display. The flexibility of OLED’s ultra-thin panels allows them to bend in accordance with game genre preferences – all the way up to 800R, which is considered the optimal curvature for racing games, for example.
With gamers requiring the best possible hardware to go with their experience, Gaming OLEDs are in a great place to meet that demand – having only been first released on the market in 2020. It’s been a meteoric rise that’s only going to accelerate with the advantages now being made possible by META Technology.
