Tackling climate change is a team sport, and we all have to be in it together if we want to win. So, not only should we hold companies to high standards as far as mitigating their environmental impact, we should also laud them when they make positive steps in the right direction. With almost 190 million laptops expected to ship throughout 2024, laptop manufacturers are some of the companies we should be forcing to do better — and fortunately, many of them already are. From using recycled cardboard for packaging and ocean-bound plastic in laptops themselves, to relying on renewable energy on company property and closed-loop industrial practices. Here’s what the top laptop manufacturers are doing to go green and help save the world. Dell Dell has been a household name in laptops for decades, having become one of the top five manufacturers by market share since the late 90s. The company expanded over time and acquired brands (like the gaming-focused Alienware), while also supplying some of the most iconic product lines in the industry (like its XPS line of premium laptops). As with many modernizing brands, Dell has taken on several eco-driven initiatives that help reduce its carbon footprint: the reduction of non-recycled and non-recyclable materials in laptop construction; improving the repairability of its devices; and making it easier to recycle its products once they’ve reached the ends of their lives. Dell continues to drive up the repairability of its devices, in an effort to extend their lifespans and reduce transport and manufacturing costs for new devices.Dell Dell incorporates several different sources for its recycled materials, too. Some of its laptops use plastics recycled from post-consumer devices, while others utilize recycled ocean-bound plastic, while still others use recycled steel, magnesium, and cobalt. Recycled materials don’t just reduce their impact on landfills and ocean-dumping, but cut down on the carbon output that goes into producing those materials (since metals and plastics don’t need to be harvested and refined to the same extent). Dell makes it easy to recycle your laptop as an individual and for businesses to do the same. It’s an incentivized scheme, too, which ensures destruction of sensitive company data and leads to money back on future purchases. Overall, it helps cut down on laptop e-waste. In the company’s sustainability brochure (PDF), Dell promises that “100 percent of [their] packaging and more than 50 percent of [their] product content will be made from recycled or renewable materials” by 2030. Lenovo By sheer volume of PCs and laptops sold, Lenovo has been the biggest computer manufacturer in the world for over a decade — so any eco-friendly initiatives by this company will not only have a huge impact, but could also encourage its competition to do the same. Like its contemporaries, Lenovo is utilizing more and more recycled materials in its laptop designs, including ocean-bound plastic, closed-loop post-consumer plastics, and recycled metals. Its goals aren’t quite as ambitious as Dell’s, but in Lenovo’s 2024 Sustainability Report (PDF), it has pledged to have 100% of its products contain some post-consumer recycled materials by 2025. It claims around 14.6 million net pounds of plastics containing recycled content were used in 2023. Lenovo continues to expand its renewable energy initiatives at its facilities to reduce its energy-based carbon footprint.Lenovo Lenovo also offers a “reduced carbon transport” service to business customers. They can also pay for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits, which helps offset the CO2 output by transporting the laptops and other devices to the customer. While that does rely on customers paying for the reduced carbon transport option, Lenovo is investing in that itself, too. As part of its net-zero-by-2050 commitment, Lenovo is utilizing more rail and sea freight as lower-carbon shipping options, as well as pushing for the use of SAF in Europe and South America. It also has targets to reduce transport costs in its repairs, with a pledge that by 2026 over 84 percent of all repairs of Lenovo products will take place at a repair shop, without the need to ship it to a service center. HP HP has one of the most ambitious green goals for its business, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions throughout its entire value chain by 2040 — that’s a good 10 years ahead of most of its competitors. In its 2023 sustainability report (PDF), HP claimed to have already reached a 27 percent reduction since 2019, with over 184,000 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions avoided in 2023 alone through its partnerships and energy efficiency programs. HP’s upper-tier laptops still feel luxuriously premium even as they rely on increasingly more recycled materials, proving that greener production can still be great.tech kiga / Unsplash The company is also innovating on its products, making them smaller and leaner with less wasted materials, all while using more and more recycled materials in their construction. Its newest print cartridges are 30 percent smaller while also using 35 percent recycled content. Some of its laptops, like the EliteBook 1040, are made from over 90 percent recycled magnesium and have 50 percent recycled plastics in its keycaps. Since 2019, HP claims to have used over a billion pounds of recycled plastics in its devices. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. HP’s certified refurbished systems provide cheaper and more environmentally friendly pathways for companies looking to upgrade their computer systems, too. The HP Device Life Extension program (PDF) offers corporations the option to have their devices cleaned and updated with newer and faster components, extending the life of existing hardware and reducing the need to buy entirely new systems. HP is also working to eliminate single-use plastics in its packaging, having reached a 62 percent reduction between 2018 and 2023, on track to reach 75 percent by 2025. That should coincide with a complete removal of all landfill waste solutions for HP operations that same year. Asus Asus offers tons of in-depth data on its carbon footprint reduction initiatives, so if you want to really dig into the numbers on what it’s done and what it’s doing, there’s loads to chew on. Want to see an exact breakdown of its CO2 emissions? It’s here. A breakdown of how it audits the recycling companies it uses for end-of-life devices? That’s here. As for its more digestible data points, Asus claims that over 11,600 tons of CO2 have been reduced by its use of recycled materials in its products since 2017. This includes ocean-bound plastics, post-consumer plastics, and post-industrial recycled magnesium and aluminum. Asus is pushing for more recyclable materials in its packaging and a greater recycling rate for all of its products, plus more responsibly sourced materials in general.Joachim Pressl / Unsplash The company has also managed to use 90 percent recyclable materials in its laptop packaging, while also prioritizing lighter packaging to help cut back on transport costs and fuel usage. Some of Asus’ goals for 2025 include: reaching 100 percent recyclable materials in its laptop packaging; reaching a 20 percent recycling rate for all Asus products; and expanding its use of responsibly sourced materials like cobalt to 100 percent. By 2030, Asus also plans to reduce company-wide global carbon emissions by 50 percent and reach 100 percent renewable energy usage in all Taiwan-based operations. Apple Apple stands among these companies taking aggressive action to reduce their carbon footprints. In its 2024 sustainability report (PDF), Apple claims a 55 percent reduction in overall emissions since 2015, and that doesn’t include carbon credits either. It’s all part of Apple’s ongoing drive to reduce the company’s global emissions to carbon neutrality by 2030 — by far the most ambitious of all emissions goals on this list. On the road to that lofty goal, Apple has: reduced emissions from transporting its products by 20 percent since 2022; cut back the energy use of its product ranges by as much as 70 percent since 2008; and increased its stock of refurbished devices to nearly 13 million globally. In 2023, Apple increased the quantity of recycled materials in its products, now using 100 percent recycled cobalt in the Apple Watch and iPhone batteries, as well as 25 percent recycled gold across all product lines. It also now uses 100 percent recycled aluminum in the chassis of its Mac, MacBook, and iPad lines. Apple helped pioneer the elaborate unboxing experience, and now it’s helping to drive out plastic with a 100 percent fiber-based Apple Watch packaging design.Apple By 2025, Apple will have 100 percent fiber-based packaging for all of its products, and the company will continue increasing the quantities of recycled metals and minerals in its various lines. Apple is also driving environmental changes up the chain, too. For example, Apple has secured over 320 suppliers who have committed to sourcing their electricity from renewable sources. Although Apple doesn’t expect to eliminate emissions entirely from its production and transportation lines, it will use carbon offsets to get the last leg of the way towards making Apple a carbon-neutral company by the end of the decade. Acer Acer has set its sights on 2050 to make its entire business carbon-neutral, innovating within and encouraging suppliers to join in on its ambitious climate goals. In Acer’s 2023 sustainability report (PDF), the company highlights several key achievements along this road so far, with plans to expand its initiatives as we head into 2025. So far, Acer has managed to reach a 48 percent usage of renewable electricity throughout its business, with a goal to reach 60 percent in 2025 and 100 percent by 2035. It has also managed to get 76 percent of its suppliers to agree to a similar goal, with ongoing efforts to get that number up to 80 percent of critical supplies in 2025. Acer is still playing catch-up to the other major laptop manufacturers when it comes to carbon neutrality, but it’s making steady progress.Raphael Brasileiro / Unsplash Acer is slowly introducing more and more recycled materials into its products, too. Its 2024 Aspire Vero 16 used 60 percent recycled plastics, representing a doubling since the 2021 model. The kinds of innovations that make this possible are set to be introduced in other Acer product lines going forward as well, with a goal to reach 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastics in all Acer products by 2025. As much as 90 percent of Acer’s packaging is now made from recycled pulp, which is itself entirely recyclable, but the company hasn’t quite eliminated the use of plastic in all packaging yet. Acer also continues to expand its device recycling operations, with over 61,000 tons of e-waste recycled between 2018 and 2022. A greener future for laptops Some companies are certainly working harder than others in their efforts to reduce their impact on the global environment, with Apple and HP apparently the most aggressive in their goals so far. There’s plenty of room for those other companies to catch up, though. Ultimately, fighting climate change is a goal that the entire world needs to work towards together. To that end, it’s always nice to see giant megacorporations doing something even if they could be doing more. Read...

I’ve been reviewing monitors for almost 20 years, so believe me when I say this: 2025 will be the best year to buy a new monitor, ever. Today’s most attractive and feature-rich monitors command high prices compared to what was typical a decade ago, which has moved some monitor shoppers up-market. In turn, this has given monitor makers an incentive to pursue new trends in panel technology, video inputs, and image processing, among other features. Also, the growing proliferation of OLED is a huge boon for monitors, and not just because OLED looks great and delivers smooth motion. While pricing on high-end, cutting-edge monitors is still up, pricing on monitors with OLED panels is edging towards a freefall. Here are the key trends you should be aware of as far as monitor tech is concerned as we head into 2025 and beyond. Expect to see a lot of displays packing these latest, greatest advancements in the spotlight at CES 2025 next week! Related: The best monitors worth getting right now OLED monitors dip below $500 In the run up to the Black Friday sales period, we saw several 27-inch 1440p OLED monitors — like the MSI MAG 271QPX — dip a cent below $500. Innocn, a budget brand, had an even more outrageous deal: a 27-inch 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor for $429.99. These deals have expired by now, but they’re a strong signal of where OLED pricing is headed. Deep Black Friday discounts in 2024 prove that OLED monitors are now being produced in high enough volumes that monitor makers have excess stock to clear out, even if that means dropping prices to hundreds below MSRP. The Gigabyte MO34WQC (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry For now, those prices are still sale prices. But unless we experience some kind of global supply shock (which, unfortunately, can happen), the volume of OLED panels is only going to increase from here — and higher volume means more supply and lower prices. This trend goes far beyond the computer monitor market. Display market analysts predict that we’re only at the start of OLED’s rise to mainstream dominance. OLED is already popular in premium consumer electronics but, if current trends continue, we’ll see it replace LCD in all but the least expensive budget displays. That’s not to say all OLED monitors will be cheap. On the contrary, I expect high-end pricing to surge just as “entry-level” OLEDs drop. While 27-inch 1440p and 32-inch 4K OLED monitors are common, many other display sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios remain untapped. In 2025, expect monitor makers to cater to big spenders with new OLED options that push boundaries on resolution, sizing, and features. IPS Black goes mainstream LG introduced a new In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel technology called IPS Black in late 2021, then shipped the new tech in monitors starting in 2022. While it didn’t receive much public attention, it’s a big deal. IPS Black roughly doubles the contrast ratio of a typical IPS panel, from 1000:1 to 2000:1. Though that’s still way short of OLED, it’s a significant upgrade that helps IPS panels deliver deeper, more immersive images. It’s especially ideal for office and productivity monitors, which are a huge chunk of the monitor market (even if less glamorous). The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE (Amazon)Matt Smith / Foundry Despite that, IPS Black monitors have been hard to come by since LG was the only company producing this type of panel. But that’s changed now. BenQ’s RD320U, a truly excellent monitor for productivity and programming, has a 32-inch 4K IPS panel with a contrast ratio tested at nearly 1910:1 — but that one isn’t an LG IPS Black panel. It’s actually produced by another manufacturer. (BenQ wouldn’t say who.) That’s a positive signal for the future of IPS and I’ll be keeping an eye out for improved panels at CES 2025. I expect we’ll see more announced. Odd display sizes proliferate Back in 2022, LG made a weird monitor announcement at CES: the LG DualUp, a 28-inch monitor with a 16:18 aspect ratio. I worried it would be a gimmick, but my opinion changed when I reviewed it. As it turns out, the unique aspect ratio proved useful for many different needs. The same LG DualUp is still on the market today and its pricing has remained stable at its typical MSRP of $699.99 and sale price just south of $600. That’s a hint that this monitor is seeing good demand. The BenQ RD280U (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry Other monitor makers seem to have noticed. In 2024, BenQ moved in with the SW242Q (an entry-level photography monitor with a 16:10 aspect ratio) and the RD280U (a programming monitor with a 3:2 aspect ratio). Dell and Asus also debuted 24-inchers with 16:10 aspect ratios. In part, panels with unusual aspect ratios are examples of display manufacturers “using the whole hog.” Often, display panels are produced in large sheets and then cut down to an appropriate size — so these panels with unusual aspect ratios may actually be byproducts of other, larger panels. It’s an interesting geometric puzzle for display manufacturers. Unusual aspect ratios offer more ways to solve this puzzle. And now that it’s clear people will buy monitors that aren’t 16:9 or ultrawide, I expect more manufacturers will market monitors with odd aspect ratios as productivity and content creation displays. New year, new ports Apple’s release of the new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 5 makes it clear that this new connection standard is about to have its moment in the limelight. While PCs technically got to it first, early adopters have experienced issues. For most people, Apple’s inclusion of Thunderbolt 5 will be the first they’ve ever heard of it. To be sure, Thunderbolt 5 monitors won’t be flooding the market. Thunderbolt is already a niche connection for monitors. Still, Thunderbolt 5’s vastly increased bandwidth opens up options for better monitors with built-in hubs. These monitors will be able to support “daisy chain” connections to high-resolution monitors and/or handle multiple fast external drives. I think the PC market will see Thunderbolt 5 first on a new 5K or 6K display from Dell, LG, or BenQ. The Sony Inzone M10S (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry In addition to Thunderbolt 5’s arrival, you can expect to see some new adoption of DisplayPort 2.1 (which first arrived in 2024’s Sony Inzone M10S. HDMI 2.1, meanwhile, will become more-or-less the default on all but the cheapest monitors. These standards promise better handling of high resolutions and refresh rates. It’s not all good, though. Thunderbolt 5, DisplayPort 2.1, and HDMI 2.1 all have complicated, tiered specifications. Cables that conform to these specifications offer varying data rates and feature support, so monitor shoppers will need to look closely at a monitor’s connection specifications before making a purchase. More AI (but maybe it will be useful?) The first so-called AI features, like Asus ROG AI Assistant and MSI Gaming Intelligence, appeared in 2024… but those features felt half-baked. As we head into 2025, AI will no doubt play a bigger role — and monitor makers will show off AI features that have had enough time in the oven. Skeptical? I don’t blame you. But AI could be useful in monitors. For example, televisions have used machine learning for years to upscale images and smooth out motion. Monitors haven’t offered the same tech for several reasons: the chips that make it possible were costly; the input latency was unacceptable; and the typical use case for a monitor wasn’t a great fit for what machine learning algorithms could accomplish thus far. But the monitor market of 2025 is a lot different than the one from 2015. Modern monitors are more expensive, and that means there’s room to roll out premium features — like AI image processing. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry In fact, this already happened in 2024, though in a limited way. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 line included an NQ8 AI Gen 3 processor that supports AI image upscaling. However, it only functions when viewing content through Samsung’s TizenOS, like Netflix or cloud gaming services. It doesn’t function with PCs or external consoles. That, I suspect, is going to change. Premium monitors are under a lot of pressure to justify their $1,000+ price tags, and AI image upscaling or motion clarity features seem like obvious selling points to put on a box. I expect this will be dicey territory because concerns like input lag won’t go away, but AI image processing could be a good fit for less input-sensitive games and streaming content. Further reading: The best 4K monitors worth premium price Read...

Some people can hardly remember the time before YouTube. The video host was founded in 2005, and year after year the platform got bigger and bigger. As early as 2006, around 100 million clips were viewed there every day. By 2010, this figure had risen to more than two billion per day. Today, users upload around 500 hours of video material every minute. No wonder, really. The largely free service offers almost endless entertainment, how-to and tutorial videos, music, and much more. Of course, users also have the opportunity to upload videos themselves, collect followers, and earn money with them. However, even passionate users often don’t know all the tricks for an optimal streaming experience. You can find such tips in this article: How to use YouTube perfectly on your PC, smartphone, smart TV and co. Further reading: I block every ad on YouTube and I’m not ashamed to admit it General YouTube tips These settings and tricks promise a better YouTube experience across all devices. Create GIFs from YouTube videos You can create GIFs from YouTube videos free of charge – flexible settings included.Foundry Did you know that you can create a compact GIF from a YouTube video with just a few clicks or swipe gestures? It’s even free: Visit the GIF generator at makeagif.com and insert the YouTube link to the relevant video. You can then specify the desired output quality (maximum medium for free use), determine the GIF length, and adjust the playback speed. Note: Free users must tolerate watermarks and a lower resolution. Use dark mode A small setting with a big effect. Dark mode makes YouTube more enjoyable, and not just in the late evening hours. It is particularly pleasant and useful to switch to dark mode when using the app for long periods of time, as it reduces eye fatigue and saves battery power. On the PC, we simply click on our profile picture and then on “Display.” Here you can now select the dark design. Dark mode is also available in the official YouTube app (Settings->General->Display). Variable playback speed In the playback options (gear icon), you can gradually adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos. This allows clips to be played back at twice the speed or up to four times slower. This is super handy if a YouTuber doesn’t want to get to the point in their videos, or if you want to watch a step in a tutorial in detail. Show subtitles If you’ve ever watched a video from the American South or a Seitenbacher advert, you’ll know the problem. Sometimes you can’t understand a word. However, the solution to such language barriers is easy to find, you can simply activate subtitles in many YouTube videos. The button for this can be found directly next to the small cogwheel below the video when using the browser, for example. More fun with YouTube on your smartphone or tablet These tricks and tips make YouTube even more fun on mobile devices. Play YouTube videos in the background on your mobile device (with Android or iOS) You can also play videos in the background on your smartphone with Firefox if you install a free plug-in.Foundry There is one small restriction on YouTube that can be really annoying. If you watch videos on your smartphone where you are only interested in the audio track (such as music or radio plays), you always have to keep the display activated and play the video in the foreground. As soon as you switch to another tab or deactivate the display, the playback also stops–quite annoying. The workaround for Android: A free plug-in is available for the Firefox mobile browser (Android | iOS): “Video playback in the background.” You can find this in the browser menu (three dots) and then under “Extensions” (see image). It also works on iPhone: First, start the video in the browser and then switch to the desktop version of the website in the settings. (You can skip this step on the iPad). Now, leave the website using the iPhone’s home button and open the quick settings using the usual swipe gesture (top right corner). Here you can now simply restart the video with the play button, it will then play in the background and you can hear the sound normally, even if the display is off. Tips and tricks for better YouTube on your PC MP3 download, keyboard shortcuts, or editing playlists together. If you enjoy browsing YouTube on your PC, you should know these practical tricks: Download YouTube music and save it locally as an MP3 You can convert YouTube videos to audio files (MP3) in a flash.Foundry Even beyond YouTube Music, the classic video host has plenty of music to offer from all genres and pretty much every decade since the invention of the sound carrier. And although YouTube itself doesn’t like it that much, you can convert such tracks with various web services in no time at all and save them locally as MP3s. You can do this here, for example. Use keyboard shortcuts There are many practical keyboard shortcuts available for YouTube videos, which promise more convenient operation and can save a lot of time, especially for frequent viewers. Note: If the shortcuts do not work, click on the video once (this will bring the player back into focus). ShortcutsShortcut functionSpace barPlay / PausekPlay / PausemMute videoleft / right arrow keyfast forward or rewind 5 secondsUp / down arrow keyVolume up or down (5 % each)jrewind 10 secondslfast forward 10 seconds.With paused video to the next frame,To the previous frame when the video is pausedShift key .Accelerate playbackShift key (Shift) ,Slow down playbackNumbers 1 to 9Jump to 10 to 90 % of the videoNumber 0Jump to the beginningfFull screen modecSelect subtitles (if available)Shift key (Shift) nNext videoShift key pPrevious videoPOS1 keyJump to the beginning of the videoEND keySkip to the end of the video Link to the exact playback position of a video You can quickly create a link to any playback position.Foundry You want to show a friend a funny moment in a YouTube video, but the clip is 15 minutes long? No problem. You can easily create a link to the exact position of the current playback. To do this, simply rewind to the point you want to link to and right-click on the video. Then click on “Copy video URL at this point” in the small window. The link will then be copied to the clipboard and can be inserted at any time by right-clicking and pasting or by pressing CTRL V. Edit playlists together with friends You can invite friends to edit playlists together.Foundry If you would like to allow friends or acquaintances to collaborate on your YouTube playlists, this is not a problem. First, open the playlist that you would like to share for editing. Note: If the list is not yet public, you still need to select/set this. Now you can select the “Invite employees” function via the Share button and generate a link that you can then forward to contacts. Make sure that the “Edit together” and “Allow new collaborators” functions are activated in the window. Play adverts 16 times faster with Chrome or Edge Gone again: This Chrome extension allows you to play adverts 16 times faster.Foundry If you’re sometimes annoyed by adverts on YouTube, we can understand that: The provider regularly places intrusive adverts in front of us before a video and often in the middle of it. Added to this is YouTube’s increasingly rigid approach to ad blockers. The solution (at least for Chrome users) is called “Ad Speedup – Skip Video Ads 16X Faster” and is available as a free extension for Chrome and Edge. It automatically plays ad sequences at 16x speed and skips them in no time at all. Useful YouTube tips for your smart TV Naturally, YouTube really comes into its own on the TV. The large display offers space for all the details and you can sink into the couch and relax while watching. These tips will make the video service even more fun on your Smart TV. Show or hide subtitles If you don’t know how to show or hide subtitles for YouTube on your Smart TV, it can be quite annoying. Fortunately, the function is very easy to access: Firstly, we pause the video and press the up button on the TV remote control. Here we now select the settings (usually on the far right; cogwheel symbol). In the following window, we can now select subtitles if they are available. In case of playback problems: Use an Ethernet cable This is not just a tip for YouTube, but a useful solution to problems when streaming is jerky or clips are slow to load (and also helps with problems with Netflix and the like). If you connect your smart TV to the internet via Wi-Fi, you sometimes have to deal with connection problems or slow data transfer, depending on the distance to the router. The solution? Lay an Ethernet cable from the router to the Smart TV, then the full bandwidth and unclouded video enjoyment is available there. Avoid adverts with YouTube Premium Google doesn’t exactly make it easy for us to install ad blockers with the app for the Smart TV – after all, this contradicts the business model of the free service. The remedy is to switch to YouTube Premium. This currently costs $13.99 per month (for individuals), deactivates all adverts, and allows uncomplicated background playback and offline music. More options: Stream to the TV via smartphone instead of the YouTube app There are a few advantages to streaming YouTube to your TV using your smartphone. You can also display comments or post them yourself (writing only on your smartphone). You can read how to set up such a stream here. For families: Activate parental control To prevent children from watching inappropriate content on YouTube on the TV (of which there is plenty), you can filter such content directly in the app. To do this, first go to the app settings on the smart TV, search for the “Restricted mode” entry, and activate the function. The majority of content that is not suitable for children should then no longer be accessible via the TV. Read...

The ASB`s third quarter regional economic scoreboard gives top marks to Otago, followed by Canterbury and Southland. Read...

An intense front is expected to move north up from the south today. Read...

Drivers are being urged to take extra care on South Island roads, and warned that roads could close, as heavy rain and wind warnings spread orange and yellow across the MetService map. Read...

I’ve been reviewing monitors for almost 20 years, so believe me when I say this: 2025 will be the best year to buy a new monitor, ever. Today’s most attractive and feature-rich monitors command high prices compared to what was typical a decade ago, which has moved some monitor shoppers up-market. In turn, this has given monitor makers an incentive to pursue new trends in panel technology, video inputs, and image processing, among other features. Also, the growing proliferation of OLED is a huge boon for monitors, and not just because OLED looks great and delivers smooth motion. While pricing on high-end, cutting-edge monitors is still up, pricing on monitors with OLED panels is edging towards a freefall. Here are the key trends you should be aware of as far as monitor tech is concerned as we head into 2025 and beyond. Related: The best monitors worth getting right now OLED monitors dip below $500 In the run up to the Black Friday sales period, we saw several 27-inch 1440p OLED monitors — like the MSI MAG 271QPX — dip a cent below $500. Innocn, a budget brand, had an even more outrageous deal: a 27-inch 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor for $429.99. These deals have expired by now, but they’re a strong signal of where OLED pricing is headed. Deep Black Friday discounts in 2024 prove that OLED monitors are now being produced in high enough volumes that monitor makers have excess stock to clear out, even if that means dropping prices to hundreds below MSRP. The Gigabyte MO34WQC (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry For now, those prices are still sale prices. But unless we experience some kind of global supply shock (which, unfortunately, can happen), the volume of OLED panels is only going to increase from here — and higher volume means more supply and lower prices. This trend goes far beyond the computer monitor market. Display market analysts predict that we’re only at the start of OLED’s rise to mainstream dominance. OLED is already popular in premium consumer electronics but, if current trends continue, we’ll see it replace LCD in all but the least expensive budget displays. That’s not to say all OLED monitors will be cheap. On the contrary, I expect high-end pricing to surge just as “entry-level” OLEDs drop. While 27-inch 1440p and 32-inch 4K OLED monitors are common, many other display sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios remain untapped. In 2025, expect monitor makers to cater to big spenders with new OLED options that push boundaries on resolution, sizing, and features. IPS Black goes mainstream LG introduced a new In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel technology called IPS Black in late 2021, then shipped the new tech in monitors starting in 2022. While it didn’t receive much public attention, it’s a big deal. IPS Black roughly doubles the contrast ratio of a typical IPS panel, from 1000:1 to 2000:1. Though that’s still way short of OLED, it’s a significant upgrade that helps IPS panels deliver deeper, more immersive images. It’s especially ideal for office and productivity monitors, which are a huge chunk of the monitor market (even if less glamorous). The Dell UltraSharp U3223QE (Amazon)Matt Smith / Foundry Despite that, IPS Black monitors have been hard to come by since LG was the only company producing this type of panel. But that’s changed now. BenQ’s RD320U, a truly excellent monitor for productivity and programming, has a 32-inch 4K IPS panel with a contrast ratio tested at nearly 1910:1 — but that one isn’t an LG IPS Black panel. It’s actually produced by another manufacturer. (BenQ wouldn’t say who.) That’s a positive signal for the future of IPS and I’ll be keeping an eye out for improved panels at CES 2025. I expect we’ll see more announced. Odd display sizes proliferate Back in 2022, LG made a weird monitor announcement at CES: the LG DualUp, a 28-inch monitor with a 16:18 aspect ratio. I worried it would be a gimmick, but my opinion changed when I reviewed it. As it turns out, the unique aspect ratio proved useful for many different needs. The same LG DualUp is still on the market today and its pricing has remained stable at its typical MSRP of $699.99 and sale price just south of $600. That’s a hint that this monitor is seeing good demand. The BenQ RD280U (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry Other monitor makers seem to have noticed. In 2024, BenQ moved in with the SW242Q (an entry-level photography monitor with a 16:10 aspect ratio) and the RD280U (a programming monitor with a 3:2 aspect ratio). Dell and Asus also debuted 24-inchers with 16:10 aspect ratios. In part, panels with unusual aspect ratios are examples of display manufacturers “using the whole hog.” Often, display panels are produced in large sheets and then cut down to an appropriate size — so these panels with unusual aspect ratios may actually be byproducts of other, larger panels. It’s an interesting geometric puzzle for display manufacturers. Unusual aspect ratios offer more ways to solve this puzzle. And now that it’s clear people will buy monitors that aren’t 16:9 or ultrawide, I expect more manufacturers will market monitors with odd aspect ratios as productivity and content creation displays. New year, new ports Apple’s release of the new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 5 makes it clear that this new connection standard is about to have its moment in the limelight. While PCs technically got to it first, early adopters have experienced issues. For most people, Apple’s inclusion of Thunderbolt 5 will be the first they’ve ever heard of it. To be sure, Thunderbolt 5 monitors won’t be flooding the market. Thunderbolt is already a niche connection for monitors. Still, Thunderbolt 5’s vastly increased bandwidth opens up options for better monitors with built-in hubs. These monitors will be able to support “daisy chain” connections to high-resolution monitors and/or handle multiple fast external drives. I think the PC market will see Thunderbolt 5 first on a new 5K or 6K display from Dell, LG, or BenQ. The Sony Inzone M10S (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry In addition to Thunderbolt 5’s arrival, you can expect to see some new adoption of DisplayPort 2.1 (which first arrived in 2024’s Sony Inzone M10S. HDMI 2.1, meanwhile, will become more-or-less the default on all but the cheapest monitors. These standards promise better handling of high resolutions and refresh rates. It’s not all good, though. Thunderbolt 5, DisplayPort 2.1, and HDMI 2.1 all have complicated, tiered specifications. Cables that conform to these specifications offer varying data rates and feature support, so monitor shoppers will need to look closely at a monitor’s connection specifications before making a purchase. More AI (but maybe it will be useful?) The first so-called AI features, like Asus ROG AI Assistant and MSI Gaming Intelligence, appeared in 2024… but those features felt half-baked. As we head into 2025, AI will no doubt play a bigger role — and monitor makers will show off AI features that have had enough time in the oven. Skeptical? I don’t blame you. But AI could be useful in monitors. For example, televisions have used machine learning for years to upscale images and smooth out motion. Monitors haven’t offered the same tech for several reasons: the chips that make it possible were costly; the input latency was unacceptable; and the typical use case for a monitor wasn’t a great fit for what machine learning algorithms could accomplish thus far. But the monitor market of 2025 is a lot different than the one from 2015. Modern monitors are more expensive, and that means there’s room to roll out premium features — like AI image processing. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (Amazon)Matthew Smith / Foundry In fact, this already happened in 2024, though in a limited way. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 line included an NQ8 AI Gen 3 processor that supports AI image upscaling. However, it only functions when viewing content through Samsung’s TizenOS, like Netflix or cloud gaming services. It doesn’t function with PCs or external consoles. That, I suspect, is going to change. Premium monitors are under a lot of pressure to justify their $1,000+ price tags, and AI image upscaling or motion clarity features seem like obvious selling points to put on a box. I expect this will be dicey territory because concerns like input lag won’t go away, but AI image processing could be a good fit for less input-sensitive games and streaming content. Further reading: The best 4K monitors worth premium price Read...

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