China’s BOE Technology is racing to steal a march on Samsung and TCL and become the first to launch an 8K/120Hz panel for computer monitors, with hopes to launch its first such product within this year.
The panel in question is a 32-inch 8K LCD display that will feature a 120Hz refresh rate – and it’s a pretty big deal. While Dell launched an 8K monitor as long ago as 2017, the panel it used only supported 60Hz refresh rates. The lower speed unfortunately had a pretty big impact, causing blurry details even when there was only moderate motion on the screen. So it’s far from ideal for any fast-paced action games.
BOE is competing against TCL CSOT, which provides the LCD panels for all of Samsung’s computer monitors these days. The two companies have teased an 8K 120Hz Mini-LED panel as early as January 2024, but there is no word on when it might become available. Samsung’s display-making arm, Samsung Display, is also said to be working privately on an 8K QD-OLED panel for monitors that would support 120Hz, but that effort is also expected to need more time before it can be commercialised.
Surprisingly, the update didn’t come from BOE itself, but rather the 8K Association, which penned a blog post about the latest 8K display exhibits at the SID Display Week exhibition last month.
According to the 8K Association, BOE showcased a “very good looking 31.5-inch 8K LCD monitor panel” that supports refresh rates of 120Hz, and can also run at 240Hz when resolution is limited to 4K. It’s said to feature a contrast ratio of 3,000:1 and cover 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.
“The firm told us that it expects some mass production later this year,” the 8K Association’s Bob Raikes said.
BOE is the world’s biggest manufacturer of LCD panels, supplying its products to brands such as Acer, Asus, Dell and LG Electronics, and so it will be up to those companies to decide when to actually launch 8K 120Hz monitors. If BOE can make its panel available to them soon enough, it’s possible that we could see the first such monitors arrive in time for Christmas, but there are no guarantees yet that this will happen.
Any computer gamers who are salivating at the prospect of 8K graphics needs to be aware that they’ll also need to invest in a graphics card capable of supporting the higher resolution display. In addition, they’ll also need to ensure their computer has a compatible connection, such as DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.2 or Thunderbolt 5, so it could require a fairly substantial investment.
Given these expected requirements, it’s more likely that the first 8K 120Hz monitors will find applications among graphics designers and video editors, rather than gaming.
