LG announces 480 Hz OLED monitor
Image courtesy: LG

LG Display has announced a new 27-inch OLED gaming display with a super fast 480 Hz refresh rate. The new screen is going to be showcased by LG at CES 2024 in Las Vegas next week.

Who is LG Display?

LG Display is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of TFT-LCD, OLED and flexible panels. The company was formed in 1999 by LG Electronics and Philips to develop LCD screens. However, Philips sold its shares in the company in 2008. In addition to televisions and monitors marketed under the LG brand, LG Display makes display panels for other companies including Dell, NEC, ASUS and Apple.

480 Hz OLED display

Gamers prefer monitors with higher refresh rates as they can deliver a smoother viewing experience and potentially higher FPS. However, up till now, OLED panels have been limited to a maximum refresh rate of only 360 Hz. LG’s new 480 Hz screen is a 27-inch model with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. You can currently get some monitors with refresh rates as high as 540 Hz, however, these screens aren’t OLED and are only 1080p resolution.

Meta Technology

OLED screens have a large color gamut (95% to 100% P3), almost infinite contrast and fast pixel refresh of 0.03 ms. However, OLED screens don’t use a backlight which means that darker areas of the screen can have limited tonal range. To improve this with the 480 Hz screen, LG has developed Meta Technology. This feature uses a layer of on-pixel microlenses to concentrate the light from each pixel. As a result, the new screen should be able to deliver more tonal detail in the darker parts of the displayed image.

What we think

 It looks like OLED monitors are going to be the headline products at CES 2024. Yesterday we revealed details of Samsung’s new screens and now LG has announced a new display as well. While these new OLED monitors are primarily aimed at gamers, the extra shadow detail delivered by LG’s Meta Technology will make them ideal for video editing.

Pricing and availability

LG Display has said that it will release a 27-inch, 480 Hz 2,560 x 1,440 OLED gaming monitor by the end of June 2024. However, the company hadn’t given any pricing details at the time of writing.

Pete Tomkies is a freelance cinematographer and camera operator from Manchester, UK. He also produces and directs short films as Duck66 Films. Pete's latest short Once Bitten... won 15 awards and was selected for 105 film festivals around the world.