I can't seem to make up my mind between IPS and VA. Do anyone have any experience with the difference between these, and their general reliability? Or just general monitor purchasing advice?
My previous 24'' TN monitor lasted nearly 10 years, but a friend of mine's IPS lasted only 2 years.

The thing that worries me about IPS: blacks don't appear black enough. Eye strain?
The thing that worries me about VA: black smearing. Eye strain?

I understand that the top of the line Samsung VA panels don't have the black smearing problem, or at least it's only minor. But unfortunately that is outside of my price range.

All I do know is that I want to go for a QHD monitor with Freesync and VESA mount, and that for now 75Hz is enough. I only have an HDMI1.4 port in any case, and don't know if I will upgrade my system this year.

One I'm currently considering (reliable site don't worry):
https://www.wootware.co.za/lg-27qn600-27-qhd-2560-x-1440-75hz-5ms-ips-amd-freesync-gaming-desktop-monitor.html
On the VA side of things there's this one:
https://za.aoc.com/product/CQ27G3S
and this one:
https://www.dell.com/za/p/dell-s2722dgm-monitor/pd?ref=PD_OC

I doubt any modern monitor has any issue with blacks, especially IPS or VA.
I've used TN's with VA's for years and there's no obvious difference.
If I had spare money to buy a new set of monitors I'd probably buy a few AOC 24G2's.
They make 75hz for consoles, get 144hz, you won't regret it. Even browsing/desktop work is significantly better with 120+.

If you're worried about a monitor dying in a couple years then you shouldn't be looking at that LG, it has a 1 year warranty which is pathetic compared to the market. The AOC has 4 years, and probably the best dead pixel warranty. Last I checked they also included both HDMI and DP cables, which you should check to factor into cost etc.

Eye strain? Maybe if you set the brightness too high in a dark environment, but the blackness level doesn't cause it.
VA has better contrast but it still isn't like CRT or OLED.

For some reason most VA monitors are curved. I get it for an Ultrawide, but I wouldn't want it for a 16:9 screen.

Afaik, reliability isn't different because the panel type (TN/IPS/VA) is different.

I like the Dell Ultrasharp series (I have a U2715H currently). They're still 60 Hz I think, but I don't mind.

I used CRT monitors until just a couple years or so ago, but the first flatscreen I replaced my second monitor with was a Phillips. Broke after 1 year and a day. Warranty expired day before. Talk about planned obsolescence.

My current two monitors are Asus VG2278Q (TN) as main gaming screen, and a Lenovo L27i-28 (IPS) for movies.
They both work flawlessly after 2 years, so I can recommend those.

if you need to work on it get 2 or a wide one

I've been using LG tech for monitors for decades now. Usually the cheaper models, 150 - 200 euro's range. I enjoy their colour palette and reliability. This actually became a bit of a thing throughout my family, seeing as I managed the whole software thing for years. So no complaints about LG whatsoever. This of course does not mean that the other products mentioned are not better. Just stating, you know, i'm happy with my ultragear atm

You shouldn't get eye strain with either especially if you get a flicker-free one (they change the brightness by varying the voltage instead of pulsing on / off). The only other thing that causes eye strain is if you buy too high a resolution on too small a screen size then end up straining to see the very small text (eg, 4K 27" unscaled), but 1440p should be fine. The rest of the "basket of compromises" that you described though is still unfortunately true:-

TN - Cheapest & fastest response times but worst colour accuracy, viewing angles & colour shifting

IPS - Best colour accuracy & viewing angles, but can suffer from "IPS Glow" (yellow-grey blacks visible in a dark room)

VA - Best contrast ratio, decent viewing angles but can suffer from black-smearing (poor grey to grey transition times) and "black crush"

All of them still have issues with manufacturing quality, ie, the dead pixel / backlight bleed / IPS glow lottery as well as 10 year vs 2 year lifespan are usually entirely random, and differ even within two units of the same batch & model. There's just no predictable pattern to it based on model or brand, the best you can do is buy from a place with a decent return policy.

No eyestrain whatsoever, regardless of panel type or manufacturer. It's a trade-off really, they all have pros and cons.
TNs have the best response time (1ms, so less ghosting) and less backlight bleed than VA or IPS, but washed out colours, low contrast ratio (similar to standard IPS), gamma shift and poor viewing angles.
VAs have higher contrast ratio which results in deeper blacks, good representation of colours, better viewing angles compared to TN, but more ghosting (response time is advertised at 4-5ms). Prone to backlight bleed/glow/gamma and contrast shift. Since you're interested in a curved VA, you might want to look up the so-called batman effect.
IPS... Lower contrast ratio than VA panels, but good colours overall. When it comes to viewing angles, IPS is second to none. Still, there's risk of backlight bleed and glow (which is even more obvious in darker rooms).

After going through VA (Samsung) and TN (BenQ Zowie), I chose a BenQ IPS, 24-inch, FHD, 75hz, 5ms... Very low backlight bleed/glow, freesync, accurate colours, 1000:1 contrast ratio (same as Zowie), wide viewing angles, HDRi and surprisingly good speakers. It lacks a display port though, but it makes up with 3 HDMIs. I'm content with it for the moment.

Are you going to use it for something specific or is it meant to serve a general purpose? Is colour accuracy critical to you?

I'll suggest to get something >75Hz, because when you go 100Hz+ it is a completely different story.

60-75Hz - 120-144Hz is night and day experience for the most people. 75Hz monitor is probably not the most practical buy and definitely not a future-proof one in 2022, until you need something ultra cheap.

In 100Hz+ everything becomes smoother and much more easy on the eyes, even just a simplest tasks like mouse movement and browsing. I'm not even talking about games. You can physically benefit from higher refresh rate and low motion blur because there gonna be much less motion sickness.

To summarize, when you go 100Hz+ you most likely never want to go back, it's that good.
I personally don't mind to even stick with 1080p as long as it's 100Hz+.

BTW, high-end CRT monitors back in the days was 100Hz, it was amazing.

Current jack of all trades in terms of convenient gaming/productivity is gonna be something like: IPS/27"/1080-1440p/144Hz/FreeSync|GSYNC.

Essential resources before buying:
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/best/by-usage/gaming
https://blurbusters.com/faq/120hz-monitors/

I went from a TN 24" 1080p monitor to an IPS 27" 1440p 144hz Gsync monitor some years ago. I still of course use the TN one as a secondary monitor and I can see it side-by-side here.

All I can say is that TN->IPS is night and day. Colours and contrast ratio are way better on the IPS one. Going from 60hz to 144hz is also an incredible leap in gaming - I'd rather have a high refresh rate monitor than a higher resolution one.

I realise your GPU might not handle it, but if you're spending that much money on a new monitor anyways, consider your upgrade path in the future. You'd just need to stick in a new GPU with the spanking new monitor. Though, with the current market, easier said than done.

Edit: Oh I forgot about VRR - if you want smooth gaming, go for this definitely! This is a quality of life change mostly, and once you've experienced it, you won't be able to go back.

...

howtogeek.com/773229/what-is-a-qd-oled-display/


Wait for these if you can. They will hopefully lower the prices of the current Monitors when they start coming through atleast.


I bought an LG 27GL850 back during 2020, they were exclusive for over a year and were really hard to get unless you ordered outside the UK, thankfully i managed to snag on from the store OCUK before they sold out again.

tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/lg_27gl850


Other than that best bet is to check out the reviews on this tftcentral, they are pretty decent.

tftcentral.co.uk/

Bear in mind that 1440 doesn't scale to 1080 proportionally. So in case you ever need to dial back the resolution of a game to 1080, you'll have to deal with very unpleasant blurriness or use an image upscaler (haven't tried them, can't tell if those are a good solution).

As a buying advice, I'd suggest 1080p and +100Hz refresh rate for 24"-27" monitors (which could probably be around the same price as a 24" QHD 75Hz), or 4K for 27" and above if you enjoy high pixel densities.

Thank you for all the responses so far! And apologies for the late replies (had to go and buy trousers for work...) Ah yes thank you for pointing that out, didn't catch that at first. Yes then the LG is off the table :\ Even if its 27'' ? Is it uncomfortable/jarring in some way? The curve isn't that extreme from what I've seen, and most everywhere I read that people enjoy the curve effect, for either work or gaming. I will also be using a VESA arm mount to position the monitor into a perfect position, so I should be able to take full advantage of the curve if I end up getting a monitor with one.

Right thank you I will then definitely make sure that I get a flickr-free one. And based on this video I'm now concerned with the black smearing effect, especially since I prefer blackish/dark backgrounds for coding work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34bqY7CToHg

IPS does mean more expensive though so I won't be chuffed it end up being a 2 year purchase. I'm not sure exactly why a monitor would stop working though. I'm thinking I should invest in an APC ups with power filtration. Perhaps periodic spikes/dips in the voltage from the outlet gradually damages the sensitive electronics over time I have an extremely reliable Phillips electric shaver though. But perhaps its just asking too much of a company to have both a reliable shaver and computer monitor range :) General purpose: coding, creating documents and gaming. I don't know about colour accuracy necessarily, but I'd like to at least have more vibrant colours compared to my old 24'' monitor. The difference in image quality was quite striking when compared to my 2017 acer laptop.

Gaming for the time being are just things like openttd and Caesar 3, but I would like the monitor to at least do the migration with me when I go for a more powerful system hopefully later in the year. For now my 14'' laptop monitor is just too small.