Asus launches new gaming monitors with two completely different 'RGB stripe' OLED panel technologies

Asus has wheeled out some sweet new OLED panels at the CES. The most interesting is a pair of gaming monitors with so-called "RGB stripe" subpixel technology. Where things get confusing is that these two monitors in fact use completely different OLED panels.

To cut a long story short, Asus has a new 34-inch ultrawide that sports Samsung's latest QD-OLED panel technology. Meanwhile, Asus is also announcing a 27-inch 4K model, this time with LG's newest panel tech. And what both panels share is RGB stripe subpixels.

Previously, Samsung's QD-OLED panels have used RGB—or red, green and blue—subpixels, but arranged in an unusual triangular pattern instead of the vertical "stripes" seen in pretty much all LCD monitors.

LG's OLED tech has actually used vertical stripe subpixels, but with an additional white subpixel, hence the "WOLED" branding. In both cases, not using a standard RGB stripe subpixel arrangement can cause problems whenever subpixel addressing is used for rendering, most obviously with text and fonts.

Anywho, with all that squared away, let's get to those new monitor models. The Asus ROG Swift PG34WCDN is the 34-inch ultrawide model with the Samsung QD-OLED panel. Indeed, it's the very same panel as seen in the new MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 that I reviewed earlier this week. And it's a seriously good panel.

The basic specs of this Asus are pretty much the same. So, along with the RGB stuff, there's improved full-screen brightness of 300 nits, 1,300 nits peak HDR brightness and 360 Hz refresh. Like the MSI monitor, the Asus ROG Swift PG34WCDN also has a new panel filter that helps to minimise the contrast problems that QD-OLED tech has thus far had with strong ambient light.

Next up is the ROG Swift PG27UCWM. This is the 27-inch 4K model with the LG panel tech. Confusingly, it appears that LG, who makes the panel, still refers to this new panel as "Tandem WOLED". Apparently, the "W" refers to the underlying white OLED source lights, which are passed though colour filters for each subpixel, and so no longer references the use of a white subpixel.

For now, Asus isn't quoting full specifications. It will be a 240 Hz 4K panel, with a 480 Hz 1080p alt mode. However, Asus has yet to reveal brightness specifications. One source claims that LG rates the panel at only 250 nits full screen, which is perhaps understandable given that LG has dropped with white subpixel that it previously used to boost brightness.

It may also be the case that when (as we assume) LG transfers this new tech to a panel with lower pixel density, like the 34-inch ultrawide form factor, the panel may be capable of greater brightness.

Anywho, the battle is on between LG and Samsung when it comes to RGB stripe OLED panel tech. My guess is that Samsung will have the edge. It's been using pure RGB tech, albeit not in vertical stripes, from day one. And now that it has mostly mitigated the ambient light problem, I suspect that QD-OLED will have the subjective edge when it comes to punchiness.

That said, I would be very happy to be proven wrong and to date at least part of the reason why LG WOLED panels can look just a touch wishy-washy versus QD-OLED is the reliance on that extra white subpixel, which is now a goner.

How soon either of these new panel techs will roll out to other form factors and resolutions isn't known. But the sooner the better, certainly in the case of the QD-OLED version which is really excellent. All we've heard is that 32-inch 4K panels using the new Samsung QD-OLED tech will be later in the year.

Just to round things out, Asus also announced the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Gen 3. That's a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel with the new ambient light filter, branded BlackShield by Asus, but without the new RGB stripe subpixel tech. It's a sort of halfway house between Samsung's previous QD-OLED panel tech and the very latest version in the new 34-inch panel, which is all a bit complicated.

In fact, it's all pretty complicated now and any notion of keeping up with all these panel types with various "Gen" monikers has essentially gone out of the window. In short, you'll need to look at the specs of any new OLED monitor very carefully indeed.