I swapped my mini-LED display for a $1,300 OLED monitor. Here’s what happened

For as long as I’ve owned a gaming PC or console, I’ve spent hours sitting in front of what can only be described as a series of subpar monitors. From the tiny 19-inch TV that I bought with my Xbox 360, to the 21.5-inch LG monitor that accompanied my first PC build, I’ve often skimped on my display in favor of hardware elsewhere. A practice I’m sure you’ll agree is asinine.

After all, what’s the point in spending thousands of dollars on a gaming PC, or hundreds on a console, only to spend your life bashing up against a 60Hz refresh rate and screen tearing? So, earlier this month, I convinced my Wife to let me buy a $1,300 OLED gaming monitor on a spur-of-the-moment basis. I managed to find a deal so good that it took a lot less cajoling than I thought it would — I’m based in the UK, and managed to snipe one through the Samsung Employee Discount portal for just £764, a massive saving that actually made the 32-inch model I bought cheaper than its smaller 27-inch counterpart. So what did I buy? And how has it changed my life?

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8, dubbed the G81SF, now sits atop my workspace in pride of place, alongside my relegated BenQ PD322OU, a tremendous mini-LED display for the discerning Mac user who likes to edit photos. As you can imagine, the price you pay gets you a host of exciting tech, and the tale of the tape looks promising. The 4K OLED panel boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 support, HDR10+ Gaming support, 0.03ms (GTG) response time, and a maximum frame rate of 240Hz. Also in town is Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support. Around the back, you get DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, a couple of USB ports, and a headphone jack.

I knew switching to OLED would be a pretty colossal shift, but I wasn’t really ready for just how much switching to the tech would elevate my gaming (and productivity) experience. After just a few days with my shiny new OLED monitor, here’s what I’ve learned.

Everybody hertz, sometimes

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

I was mostly excited for the lighting tech OLED provides, those inky, deep blacks and excellent contrasts. They haven’t disappointed, for sure, but I was actually more surprised by my huge boost in refresh rate, which has been one of the most noteworthy upgrades so far. Even just running Windows 11 in 240Hz after a lifetime at 60Hz has been an astonishing improvement, and has actually taken some adjustment. It never occurred to me that Windows 11 in 60Hz was janky or sluggish until I realized just how fast and smooth it could be a 240Hz. It reminds me of the first Pro Display XDR iPhone I bought; the jump from 60Hz to 120Hz is seismic, and you can never really go back. Gaming, too, of course, is noticeably better, and I’m finally seeing the 4K 120Hz glory of my Xbox Series X and my RTX 3070 for the very first time.

Dynamic picture quality

As noted, the switch to OLED lighting has been an enormous breath of fresh air, I’m seeing colors and contrasts in games, movies, and work that I’ve never seen before. You don’t really realize how not black your average LCD or even mini-LED display is until you see the true black performance of OLED. Even menus like the Xbox home screen are a delight to look at, wallpapers and games pop like never before.

I’m obsessed with burn-in

OLED tech has been around for a while, and burn-in controls are better than ever, but the prospect of the limited lifespan of an OLED panel is probably the thing that put me off making the leap for so long. The idea that some OS artifact or fixed element could be permanently branded on my extremely expensive display was a real turn-off. Now I’ve bitten the bullet, I’m obsessed with protecting my display against burnout. After about 10 minutes, I hid all my Windows desktop icons, enabled auto-hide on the Task Bar, and have stopped using Windows in full screen. Now, my windows are constantly moving and shifting. Am I enormously overreacting? Almost certainly, but it keeps me on my toes, and I’ve rediscovered my great love of finding excellent 4K desktop wallpapers, adding to my collection of images that my PC now cycles through to ensure regular pixel turnover.

Just the beginning