Any experience with OLED monitors for work?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Called Night Shift on the Mac.

To block blue light on a Mac, you can use the built-in Night Shift feature. Night Shift is available on most Mac models running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later. You can access it by going to System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift. Here, you can manually turn on Night Shift or set it to turn on automatically based on your schedule or sunset and sunrise times.

Alternatively, you can adjust the color temperature of your display to a warmer setting, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted. This can be done in the Display settings within System Preferences.

You can also use third-party apps like Iris Mini or F.lux, which offer additional features and customization options for blue light filtering. Iris Mini, for example, automatically adjusts the color on your monitor based on the time of day, while F.lux adjusts the screen’s color temperature based on your location and time of day.

22

The LGs will do that only when you turn the monitor off.

I do too.

23

Also, the LG OLEDs will dim the display somewhat if there has been no activity for a certain period of time. Not nearly enough that the screen is not visible or hard to see at all, but it’s dimmed just a bit. It springs back to full brightness when there is any keyboard input or mouse movement.

There’s also a routine that causes everything on the screen to move over one pixel. I can’t spot this happening at all and have no idea when or how often this happens.

I run my C3 at 4K resolution, HDR and 120 Hz refresh rate. Of course I needed a decent video card for that. I purchased an MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060.

In all, I have been very pleased with the LG C3 and the brightness and sharpness of the display. I like this one so much that I also purchased the 83" C3 for my living room.

24

Thank you all again for the feedback!

Update: I spent several more days researching and comparing, and ended up buying a super-ultrawide Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED. It has a 5120x1440 resolution, which is what I wanted for work.

It’s the wide red box in this diagram:

It has one fewer megapixel than a true 4K monitor (wider but shorter, essentially the equivalent of two QHD monitors side-by-side). That made more sense for work since it can comfortably display multiple windows at once:

I have really mixed feelings about it…

On the plus side, it’s the perfect setup on paper. The superultrawide is what I really wanted in order be able to work with multiple windows & browers open at once without having to use multiple monitors (which is really problematic on Macs, like in this other thread: Technical: Splashtop, multi monitors, recurrent Thunderbolt shutdown on MBPro). The OLED absolutely blows the Dell’s display out of the water. The contrast is incredible — I’d never seen blacks like that before — and more than offsets the limited peak brightness, even in a bright room. I no longer have to blast the monitor at full brightness just to make out the contrasts, like I did on the Dell’s IPS panel. The colors are awesome. While I didn’t buy this for gaming, of course I had to try it once I got it, and I don’t think I could go back to a regular 16:9 screen ever again. You see so much more of the game world (to the point where some games now ban this aspect ratio because it gives you an unfair field-of-view advantage). If everything worked as it should, this would be a keeper for sure… if.

But, sadly, it doesn’t.

This is by far the most unreliable monitor I’ve ever had — and I’ve had a lot of unreliable ones. To be fair, probably a lot of this is due to me trying to use it with a Mac. But whereas the Dell was 100% reliable and dead-simple plug-and-play from the first minute till the last, never giving any issues ever… this Samsung has been a nightmare from the beginning. (The Dell was a true Thunderbolt monitor, though. This one is just DP alt mode & HDMI).

Out of the box, the VESA mounting hardware (to connect it to my desktop stand) had misaligned mounting holes and the screws wouldn’t go in right, requiring some manual forceful boring of the holes. It was a common enough manufacturing defect to have its own reddit thread with workarounds, thankfully.

The software is the most obnoxious I’d ever seen in a monitor, more like a smart TV, full of ads and nonstop popups. It wouldn’t let me update the firmware without signing up for a Samsung account. The settings I need to get to are buried many layers in, and the UI is extremely laggy, with the remote prone to jumping across too many menu items since the screen lags 300-400ms behind the button pushes. The Dell’s UI was a simple overlay and lag-free. Samsung tried to squeeze in some sort of half-baked shitty smart TV UI into this thing, and it’s a worse product for it.

The QD-OLED has noticeable color fringing around text, especially white on black text. It was very bad on Windows with ClearType on. Macs use a different subpixel rendering algorithm so it’s not quite so bad, but it’s definitely there. Altogether doesn’t bother me a whole lot, thankfully.

Once I finally got everything connected, then the real problems started. Over USB-C and DisplayPort, the monitor would randomly crash — as in the entire screen would become a garbled, flickering rainbow, multiple times within several minutes. It would work fine for a few minutes at a stretch, but then become garbled again any time the mode switches or seemingly any time it has to adjust refresh rate or resolution. Variable refresh rate is particularly crash-prone. HDR doesn’t work at all, despite me trying every permutation of monitor x OS settings I could find. I tried connecting it both via a dock and directly to my computer. Game mode would randomly reset. The resolution would randomly change. Out of desperation, I turned off all the extra features and locked it to 120 Hz (half of what it should support). That improved stability somewhat, but it would still crash on sleep & wake and require a restart and manual reconfiguration of the resolution. The screen would randomly get vertical banding, as in alternating interwoven mosaics of light and dark vertical stripes. Some of this may be a DisplayPort cable/bandwidth issue; I’ll see if I can find a USB-C to DP 2.1 cable (they’re not common).

I also tried with a new HDMI cable, and that was somewhat more stable, but it had its own share of issues, like a permanent green 1-pixel line across the bottom of the screen — another common issue, apparently. And my other computer doesn’t have a HDMI port at all.

It’s too bad. I suspect Samsung, like most manufacturers, don’t really care about Mac users and never did much testing with them. Too bad Apple itself doesn’t make anything superultrawide or even ultrawide.

This setup was good in theory, but in practice it’s been a nightmare. In the 3 hours I’ve had it, I spent 2 of those troubleshooting and rebooting and updating and configuring… all to no avail. Too bad. If a new DP cable doesn’t help the situation, I’ll probably have to return and exchange this for a LG 3440x1440 WOLED, which should have fewer issues (since it’s a much more common and less demanding resolution). The WOLED might help with the text clarity too. This was my first, and probably last, Samsung product… good idea but just terrible execution all around =/

25

Too bad you’re having those issues. I’d definitely look into the cable, though. Maybe try reducing it to 60 Hz just to help diagnose the issue. Beyond that, I’d get the shortest, fattest cable you can. At that resolution/refresh, it’s not something you can skimp on.

26

I agree.

Cables matter in this realm of performance. Length matters, quality matters (but to not ever buy cable from Best Buy…huge markups in price and bullshit marketing).

DisplayPort 2.1 Cables: With this updated DisplayPort standard, new cabling is required to unlock the additional bandwidth with new cables such as DP 40 (DisplayPort 40Gbps) and DP 80 (DisplayPort 80Gbps). Cable length is important to consider DP40 cables can go as far as two meters in length and DP 80 cables one meter in length. We recommend using VESA-certified cables that will typically be marked either DP 40 or DP 80 on the cable itself. - SOURCE

Make sure the cables are not too long and from a reliable brand. Then start at 60Hz and work your way up.

27

I have a cable being shipped to me (nobody local had one), and will report back once I try it.

But what I don’t understand is, if it really is a cable issue, why are the issues sporadic? Shouldn’t the cable either have enough bandwidth… or not? It’s a digital signal. Why would it work 70% of the time and fail randomly?

I’ve used this same cable with other monitors without issue (that was 3440x1440 at 144Hz, though).

The panel itself is fine (when I use its own smart TV OS, it’s all good).

But then DisplayPort has one set of issues and HDMI another.

Shrug.

I think the OLED display tech overall is worth it, even with the risk of burn in. It’s just such a dramatic upgrade from IPS and VA that the risk might be worth taking. It’s significantly more comfortable for my eyesight, both with and without blue light filtering / warmer color tones. Just being able to selectively display white pixels on top of completely off black pixels means I don’t have to blast the backlight to improve contrast, which was my original issue. So in that regard, this was a very worthwhile experiment.

However, maybe the super-ultrawides are a bit too ahead of the curve right now. Even when the monitor works, the curvature isn’t strong enough to make the peripheries easy to see and read. And in games (just as an aside), the UI elements like chat boxes and health bars are often so far aside that my field of view can’t easily detect changes in them. Many games also weren’t designed for them, so interfaces can have bugs too. It is very nice for showing three windows at once, though.

If the new cable doesn’t work, or maybe even if it does, I’ll probably exchange this for a less super, regular ultrawide OLED. Probably a LG. I bet all the problems would go away then.

28

Attenuation.

As a signal moves along a wire it loses strength. All digital cables will have a max run length before the signal needs to be boosted again.

But, it is not an all or nothing thing. Some signal may be readable while some may be too attenuated to be understood at the receiver. Some signal will be just too much outside of readable but some signal might manage to be discerned.

Your monitor, being as big as it is, needs a lot of data sent to it reliably. It will be more sensitive to disturbances in that signal.

So, you can get flaky results (assuming this is the issue…I do not think we know that yet). I’ve gone over the recommended lengths without much trouble but only a little. And, not all cables are made to the same standards. There is always someone trying to be cheap. Check out Monoprice.com for cables at very fair prices and check out the reviews.

29

There is no such thing as a digital signal, especially at these frequencies. It’s more like a radio signal going through a wire. So it’s sensitive to all sorts of things that could degrade it. And two different devices could behave differently even with the same cable and other characteristics.

No joke, my monitor loses signal almost every time I get up from my chair because the hydraulic cylinder puts out an electromagnetic pulse. It’s tiny, but just enough to disrupt the DisplayPort synchronization.

Like Whack-a-Mole said, this may not be the issue… but it is a reasonable bet. So it’s worth some experiments to rule that out.

30

Roger roger. That all makes sense. I’ll report back after the new cable then. Hopefully it was just that.

31

Any chance you have a 2.4 gHz router in the house.
That’s a sure fire way to mess up monitor connections on a Mac.
Known issue.
Took me a while to figure out what was going on.

Not entirely sure why you are willing to give up your pixels …just buy a 50" OLED screen for use with the Mac. Ultrawides have been problematic for years.

The fact it’s erratic problem points to BT or 2.4gHz intermittent interference due to the humidity level in the area.
There is a Widget called Wireless Grapher that will show when interference starts …

32

Update:

The improved cable (a CableMatters USB-C DisplayPort 2.1 cable, since Monoprice doesn’t seem to make one) seems to have helped… mostly? It was a noticeable and immediate improvement over the old one, and I was able to use full-resolution 5120*1440px 240 Hz on both computers for far longer than before. Previously, I was getting glitches after 10-15 minutes, but this time it lasted about 4 hours without issue. I also managed to get HDR working (turns out that was a separate and unrelated Chrome settings issue, oops).

Everything looks fantastic… I didn’t expect to care about games, but my god, they are gorgeous with HDR on; it’s a totally different experience using HDR with OLED than the local backlight on regular LCD TVs. It is really, really beautiful, and makes me want to keep fighting to make this work.

It also works great for productivity. Having three windows side-by-side is a game changer. On a PC I’d just do that with 3 separate smaller monitors, but that is not easy on a Mac.

Sadly, it still crashed after a few hours… actually caused a kernel panic and force-restarted the whole computer with zero warning :frowning: The Thunderbolt 4 hub it was connected to felt warm to the touch when that happened, so I wonder if maybe it’s overheating. Or maybe something to do with VRR (variable refresh rate), which seems buggy with certain versions of macOS. I had to use BetterDisplay to even get the right resolution to show up on one of the Macs. Anyway, all the standard peripheral functionality that “just works” on Windows… rarely does on a Mac, lol. I’ve turned off VRR and if that still doesn’t fix it, I’ll try bypassing the Thunderbolt dock completely and just connecting to the Mac directly and maybe lowering the refresh to 120 Hz (60 Hz is too laggy)… sigh. If that still doesn’t work, I really will just have to return this, but I’ll be much sadder about it now that I can see how gorgeous it is, both for work and play.

All the specs on paper should be able to support the necessary bandwidth for this configuration (the computers, the hub, the cable), especially now with the better cable (but the old one should’ve been able to, too). Thunderbolt has never been all that reliable for me… sigh. Normally I wouldn’t even fight this hard for a stupid monitor, but it really is beautiful… when it works.

Is there a specific article or post that talks about this? For sure I have 2.4 GHz wifi in the house (along with 5 GHz). I have to keep it that on because many other devices require it (doorbells, thermostats, etc. that don’t support 5 GHz). I also have other 2.4 GHz non-wifi devices, like the microwave, probably the garage door opener, etc. “Cleaning” the spectrum isn’t really a realistic option :frowning: However, the Mac itself is not connected to the 2.4 GHz. It’s hardwired ethernet.

I’m not sure what you mean here? It’s not the physical dimensions that I really care about, but the aspect ratio. A 5120x1440 screen has nearly the same amount of pixels as a 4K screen, but at a more useful aspect ratio that allows me to have three windows side-by-side. They’d be longer/taller on a regular 16:9 4K screen, yes, but too narrow to be useful.

Indeed, but 3440x1440 (which I previously had) is common enough now and mostly problem-free. I’ve been using that for a few years with minimal issues, and it’s a lot more useful for both productivity and gaming than 16:9. It’s the super-ultrawide (32:9 instead of 21:9) that’s relatively new.

This monitor is already 49" measured diagonally. A 50" 16:9 4K screen would have marginally more pixels, but they’d be mostly vertical instead of horizontal. It would also need slightly more bandwidth than this monitor (at the same refresh rate).

Is there something about Thunderbolt, DisplayPort over USB-C, or OLED that specifically causes issues with 2.4 GHz? That would require some sort of weird attenuation of that particular frequency in the cabling or monitor, wouldn’t it…? Like are you saying it’s acting as an antenna and 2.4GHz is causing noise and interference? Not impossible, just sounds like likely than cable bandwidth issues…?

33

It’s a big topic and there is lots to find online. The symptoms point to increasing interference that slowly overloads the ability of the system to remain stable.
This idea is reinforced by the fact that it is improved by the better shielding on the new cable but still happens. Is it possible to turn off your 2.4gHz devices as a test.

34

It seems weird to me that a WiFi signal would interfere with a wired monitor connection.

35

Yep - sorry for the wall of text…maybe some nuggets in there :star:

Yes, 2.4 GHz wireless signals can interfere with external monitor displays on Macs, particularly when using a monitor with Adaptive Sync technology. This interference can cause flickering or visual artifacts. To mitigate this, you can try turning off variable refresh rate in your display settings, using a 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection if available, or ensuring your display is compatible with Adaptive Sync.

Here’s a more detailed explanation:

  • Adaptive Sync Interference:

Adaptive Sync (also known as FreeSync or G-Sync) is a technology that synchronizes the refresh rate of your monitor with the GPU, reducing screen tearing and stuttering. However, it can be sensitive to 2.4 GHz interference, especially when your Wi-Fi connection is also using that frequency.

  • Mitigation Strategies:

    • Turn off variable refresh rate: If you’re experiencing flickering, try disabling variable refresh rate in your display settings or your monitor’s settings. This may resolve the issue, but it will come at the cost of smoother, tear-free visuals.
    • Use 5 GHz Wi-Fi: If your router supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi, switch to that network. 5 GHz has less interference with other devices, including external monitors, and provides faster speeds.
    • Ensure display compatibility: Check if your external display is compatible with Adaptive Sync, and ensure you’re using the latest drivers for your display and graphics card. Some displays may not be compatible with Adaptive Sync or may have specific settings that need to be adjusted to prevent interference, says Apple Support [7, 9].

  • Other potential interference:

    • Other 2.4 GHz devices: Besides Wi-Fi, other devices that operate on 2.4 GHz, like cordless phones, microwave ovens, and even other Bluetooth devices, can cause interference.
    • Physical obstructions: Metal objects or walls can also weaken the signal and cause interference.

  • Troubleshooting:

    • Restart your devices: Restarting your Mac and the external display can sometimes resolve temporary interference issues.
    • Check for updates: Make sure your Mac’s operating system and display drivers are up to date.
    • Contact manufacturer support: If you’re still experiencing problems, contact the manufacturer of your display or your Mac for further assistance.

  • How To Stop Bluetooth Interference From Messing With Other …

7 May 2021 — The Problem. To communicate between your devices, Bluetooth sends signals over a 2.4GHz radio frequency. This becomes pr..

  • Items that can interfere with a Wi-Fi network - Apple Support

Any of the following items can interfere with a Wi-Fi network signal: Microwave ovens. Direct Satellite Service (DSS) radio freque…
Apple Support

  • Wi-Fi specifications for Apple devices

Apple platforms supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E can join Wi-Fi 6E networks that are discoverable on 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz channels, and…

Wifi weakens when external monitor is connected

Apple Support Community
https://discussions.apple.com › thread
](Wifi weakens when external monitor is con… - Apple Community)

9 July 2018 — Some USB 3 devices can generate radio frequency interference that can cause Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices operating in the 2.4GHz band to have …

36

See if you can find tha Widget.

37

I just wanted to post one last update about this situation, in case anyone’s interested, or considering a similar one.

I spent a few more days tinkering with the monitor to no avail. Nothing I did could keep it stable, even with the new cable, unless I locked it to 120 Hz. Everything else (higher refresh rates, VRR, etc.) would cause intermittent crashes. And I had to get a special service remote with a secret button that opens up a service menu in order to turn off the annoying popups… even then, the interface was still super laggy and annoying and spammy.

I ended up getting a LG 3440x1440 WOLED just for comparison, and I’m going to keep that one instead. The LG is the smaller one at the top:

Compared to the Samsung on the bottom, the LG is a physically smaller monitor with a narrower field of view (too bad), but it worked right out of the box and has been entirely problem-free so far. No VESA mounting issues, no crashes, the user interface is super quick and smooth, and altogether, it “just works” compared to the endless nightmares of the Samsung. Probably the Samsung would’ve been great if I had a proper gaming PC with a discrete graphics card and DisplayPort, but over Thunderbolt/USB-C it just wouldn’t work right no matter what I did. It’s too much money to spend on something that only kinda sorta works.

(Note: The red tinge on the Samsung is a camera artifact… although it’s noticeably less white than the WOLED in real life, it does not appear red like that, just slightly dimmer and less “pure”.)

Speaking of whites, as a bonus, the subpixel rendering on the WOLED is MUCH better than the QD-OLED… dramatically so! Text is crystal-clear now instead of being blurry rainbows like before. The QD didn’t really bug me, but the WOLED is quite a bit more readable, and since this is primarily for office work, that wins out over the slightly more saturated colors of the QD.

The WOLED on the left displays pure white text with some greyscale subpixel fringing. The QD-OLED on the right can’t display pure whites so has to composite it out of RGB subpixels, resulting in text that looks like it has slight chromatic aberration. It makes a small but noticeable difference in readability, especially side-by-side with both monitors in dark mode (white text on black backgrounds).

With pictures, the LG looks a little less saturated, but it’s still beautiful, and better than a LCD. And the pure whites really make up for it, IMHO.

Alas, the Samsung is going back to the store.

But thank you all for the advice and input here… although it took some convincing at first, I’m really glad I got an OLED in the end. Hopefully LG will make a super-ultrawide (32:9) monitor in the future… I like their panels and overall user experience much, much more than Samsung’s.

Hope all this info is useful for someone else, especially anyone on a Mac.

And just to address this briefly:

Sadly, my dumb Google router doesn’t allow me to turn off just the 2.4 GHz portion :frowning: And Wireless Grapher (if I found the right one) doesn’t seem to work on newer Macs/OSes. And I don’t really want to just sit there for hours watching the graph and waiting for the next crash anyway. Even if I could find convincing evidence that it’s the 2.4 GHz causing the issues, the outcome would still be the same… I’d still just return the monitor. Turning off 2.4 GHz forever isn’t an option; I have too many legacy wireless devices that only work on that frequency.

I never had problems with 2.4 GHz before this, and the LG is working fine even with it. (So was the Samsung, for that matter, as long as I capped it to 120 Hz).

Altogether it just seemed more like a bandwidth (and potentially Thunderbolt controller/hub overheating) issue than a wireless interference one. But good tip on that nonetheless; I never would’ve known that could be an issue at all!

38

hope you have a fast mouse :scream: lot of real estate to cover. Mind you one of my clients had 6 large monitors working on his MacPro tho it took a while to boot up all the screens.

I had promised myself an OLED when they dropped under $1k and now can’t afford that on a pension.
Scored my current 55" Samsung Series 6 for $170 no remote - guy was moving the next day and had no box. Been flawless except for iffy on BlueTooth function at times…drops the the pairing all the time for my Sennheiser headphones ( wonderful ) tho once connected is solid for a long ways from the set.
Now waiting on an OLED to come into the $300 range…used. There is nothing like the blacks and “no bloom” of an OLED tho you need a good source which I have …select 4k Blu Ray.
50" is my size limit for my set up so I can hope.

39

I hope they come down in price too. There are sometimes used ones on Best Buy for closer to $600, but that’s still a lot of money for a monitor.

In my case, I only justified the purchase by considering it a legitimate work and health expense (I have poor vision and needed something with good contrast and text clarity, not just a strong and blinding backlight). It’s something I am in front of ten hours a day, nearly every day. And my employer helped pay for it.

By contrast, the TV we use for entertainment is several years old and bought for less than $300ish. It looks much worse than the OLED but we don’t really care; it does the job. Similarly, video game colors look better on the Samsung QD-OLED than the LG WOLED, but that was not a primary consideration.

For work, I’m even more excited for more eye-friendly displays like eink monitors and transflective LCDs that can be used in direct sunlight. They are not very popular right now. OLEDs have innate appeal because of their entertainment value, and so have that advantage. Nobody thinks a black and white monitor for displaying documents and text is sexy :slight_smile:

The mousing doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Maybe I’m just used to it? I think the OS scales it anyway regardless of display resolution and DPI, so it’s not like you need a bigger mousepad to traverse a bigger monitor. Keyboard shortcuts help a lot too, but I guess that’s easier for innately text based work like mine (programming) than graphics or video editing.

PS FYI you might be able to get a Bluetooth dongle that plugs into a headphone port on the TV and establishes its own connection to your headphones. Those can be more stable than the built in ones in TVs. I’ve had good luck with Avantree ones with aptX Low Latency support (so it doesn’t cause lag and lip sync issues), but your headphones have to support that too. And/or you can get a cheap Google TV dongle or used Apple TV that has its own built in Bluetooth, usually better than the TV’s.

40

You do if it is 5k pixels across - screen size is immaterial, my Apple Watch is an OLED.
It’s the number of pixels that counts and that can be a long trek across a 5k monitor at full res tho if the acceleration is turned up it can work fine.