p.1 #1 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
I'm about to buy a new laptop. What is the best type of screen for photography work - OLED or IPS? Sites that review laptops often do this from a gamer's or office worker's perspective - but what's best for a photographer?
I'm considering to buy an HP Zbook Studio G8. They are available with OLED and IPS screens, both with good colour gamut and resolution.
These laptops are not available to view where I live, so I would like to hear your experiences with OLED and IPS screens.
p.1 #2 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
OLEDs offer two major advantages:
1. Low power consumption for pixels that are dark (because black = off = no power)
2. High contrast due largely to the very deep blacks
If your interest is viewing photos then a good OLED screen is very nice so long as the surface is not too glossy, and you can control the colours and tones. If it is glossy then you'll see reflections stand out on those deep black areas.
If your interest is seeing how prints will look then you don't particularly need deep blacks. Nor very bright whites for that matter.
Until OLED came along, IPS LED screens were potentially the best to get. However, both screen types can be set up to look crappy - and often are. Marketers think it looks great and maybe it does to most people, but I prefer realistic to dynamic.
Presumably, both can be calibrated and profiled to look better, but I don't know what your intended computer will let you do in that regard.
You might even find that the screen handles modern high dynamic range video output as one of its defaults, but not the AdobeRGB colour space that is better suited to photos.
p.1 #3 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
OLED still suffer from burn in and different aging of the organic color emitting compounds which in the long run may render the screen rather poor at reproducing the high contrast it once could and even let it fall outside the range of a decent calibration...
p.1 #4 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
Thanks for your replies!
I'm also hesitating between matte and glossy screens. With the laptop I'm looking at, 100 % Adobe RGB is only available with a glossy screen. What are your experiences here? Is matt or glossy better for photo editing?
With a glossy screen, will I see reflections of myself when I'm editing darker photos?
p.1 #5 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
I asked about OLEDs not too long ago and got what I felt were unsatisfactory, anecdotal responses. OLEDS do have some burn in on some types in some applications but no one had direct experience with the current run of OLEDs on laptops. They continue to be offered on a wide range of laptops with expanded offerings. They've been offered for several years now and unlike a particular "monitor" which was removed from sale, they still offer them, still sell them and I'm not seeing frantic discussions of how bad they are. It may be there's a wide range of using communities with different standards. I liked the ones I looked at but that was in a range of different commercial display environments.
I ended up going with a Dell with a 3840x2400 res display so an OLED isn't available in that series. Mine is a touch screen "anti-reflective," (which is also how they refer to the OLED screens) they also have "anti-glare" and there are differences. I think there might be different meanings to those terms depending on brand, etc., too.
I happen to have a glossy OLED tv set next to an older matte ips monitor. I don't use it as a monitor for much computer work. It's definitely glossier but while I can see some reflectivity, there are times were the monitor is essentially unusable and the tv is fine. I would avoid glossy but not sure what the combinations of screen types might be in a particular laptop.
p.1 #6 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
If you enquire about high-end monitors for photo work you'll find they are all matte, with some being more matte than others. The matte surface diffuses reflections greatly but has a very small effect on the displayed image too. Not enough to be an issue. Glossy screens are more like mirrors in that the reflections from them are in focus and the source is recognizable.
Be aware that matte is rubbish for touch screens because it shows fingerprints so well and is relatively hard to clean without spoiling the surface, but it's great for viewing photos. So if you will be using a touch-screen interface on the computer then your choice is made for you; go glossy, or perhaps semi-glossy.
Reducing ambient light will improve apparent contrast and reduce reflections, but nothing eliminates recognizable reflections from glossy screens. Even the screen itself will light up you and the stuff nearby.
To be fair, it could be that I am just more attuned to details and seeing irritating reflections than most people are. Then again, if I wasn't fussy I would probably not bother editing my photos.
Some people recommend using a lens hood. So do I, depending on where the light source is in relation to the monitor. They don't help much if the light has a direct path from source to screen, bypassing the hood.
About OLEDs. Burn in is probably common only because most people use them at or near full brightness and saturation, just as they saw at the shop. That's not the way to use a screen for photo editing; it's dramatic but not sensible or even plausible (even if you do happen to like it). You should not be wearing sunglasses to watch a photo of a beach scene taken on a sunny day, but that's way TVs are typically set up at the shops. Also, when editing you are sitting much closer to a computer screen than you typically would be to a TV. Something in the range of 90-120 cd/m2 would be optimal brightness for computer work; not the 400-1000 that people use on TVs.
p.1 #7 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
charlyw wrote:
OLED still suffer from burn in and different aging of the organic color emitting compounds which in the long run may render the screen rather poor at reproducing the high contrast it once could and even let it fall outside the range of a decent calibration...
I think that depends on the quality of the OLED panel. I have an LG OLED TV that got absolutely horrible burn in after 16 months. I have an Lenovo OLED screen on my P1 Gen2 laptop that I use daily for nearly two years now and it still looks absolutely fantastic covering 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut. I do most of my editing on a 32" Lenovo 4k (P32u-10) monitor because of the size of course but I find the OLED panel easier on my eyes (that's very subjective naturally). If there was a 32" OLED 100% monitor that didn't cost $$$$$ I would go for it!
p.1 #8 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
Termite wrote:
I'm about to buy a new laptop. What is the best type of screen for photography work - OLED or IPS? Sites that review laptops often do this from a gamer's or office worker's perspective - but what's best for a photographer?
I'm considering to buy an HP Zbook Studio G8. They are available with OLED and IPS screens, both with good colour gamut and resolution.
These laptops are not available to view where I live, so I would like to hear your experiences with OLED and IPS screens.
Is burn-in still a problem with modern OLEDs?
I'm using the Lenovo X1 Extreme ... I've always used IPS on my previous Thinkpads. I now have an 4K, OLED (touch), with this X1 Extreme, and it's been good.
I wondered about the glossy vs. matte for fingerprints / reflection issues when I was deciding. Mine is what I'd call "glossy, minus", rather than matte. It does pick up swipe marks from touch, etc., but they only show in just the right conditions. Slight reposition of the display or angle of the rig and they're never a bother.
Three years and no sign of burn in, etc.
BTW, the touch, pinch zoom is a blessing for editing.
p.1 #9 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
RustyBug wrote:
BTW, the touch, pinch zoom is a blessing for editing.
Absolutely, I didn't think I would utilize the touch features very often but they make things just a little more efficient. Using a pen on the screen is amazing for retouching as well...
p.1 #10 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
There are techniques to reduce burn in on OLED screens but at the end of the day it is inevitable. Laptops tend to have a shorter life span than desktop monitors which is likely why 1) manufacturers continue to sell them on laptops 2) no one complains about them on a laptop since they use the laptop for 4 years instead of 10.
Are OLED the best display technology available today? Yes.
Do they have known problems? Yes.
You know the risks and the benefits.
For what its worth, if there was a 32" OLED monitor that wasn't outrageously expensive, I would consider it. Right now i'm waiting for micro LED displays or for this new 42" LG OLED. I have owned an OLED TV for 3 years and have no noticeable burn in but am pretty regimented about turning it off when not actively using it and do not use it as a display for static elements (desktop)
p.1 #11 · IPS or OLED - your experiences and recommendations?
Thank you for all your answers! After weighing the pros and cons, talking to some experienced people, doing some more research, I've decided to get an IPS screen.
