ThundeRobot’s Gorgeous QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Flexes 240/480Hz Mode Switching
A Chinese company called ThundeRobot is readying a bodacious QD-OLED gaming monitor that is one of a rare (and newer) breed of displays that feature dual refresh rates. The dual mode display falls under its 'Silver Wing' lineup of gaming monitors, and offers gamers the option to play at 4K resolution (3840x2160) with a fast 240Hz refresh rate, or at Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) at a blistering 480Hz.
Yes, the monitor you're using right now is more than likely capable of running at different refresh rates. However, it was not until recently that modern displays started to appear that allowed for cranking up the refresh rate when dropping below the panel's native resolution.
It's a clever solution to having decide between a higher resolution display with a slower refresh rate, versus a lower resolution monitor that can run faster, which be important in competitive esport matches. The new crop of dual refresh rate monitors, which the VESA standards body recently took under its wing with an update to its official adaptive sync specification, is like having two displays in one. Gamers can play at 4K/240Hz when they want to take in the visuals, and switch to 1080p/480Hz when playing a less demanding esports title. Incidentally, we spent some hands-on time with this feature in gaming laptop form with the Razer Blade 16 we reviewed earlier this year.
ThundeRobot's entry into the real of dual refresh rates consists of a 31.5-inch QD-OLED display equipped with a 10-bit panel. Beyond the refresh rate and resolution combos available to gamers, the company's latest Silver Wing also impresses with a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, which is eye-searing territory, along with a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio.
It also features 98.5% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space with a Delta E of less than 2, a nearly non-existent response time of 0.03ms, and both HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity (no DisplayPort 2.1, sadly), along with a 90W USB-C port.
ThundeRobot is following in the footsteps of ASUS and LG, both of which have announced dual refresh rate OLED monitors with similar specs—ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDP and UltraGear 32GS95UE, respectively. Our hunch is that they're all using the same panel, though we have not confirmed this.
As far as we know, none of these dual refresh rate displays are actually shipping to customers yet, though LG's UltraGear 32GS95UE is at least available to preorder for $1,399.99. We suspect the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDP will be priced around the same. As for ThundeRobot's upcoming Silver Wing model, it will debut at 9,999 Chinese Yuan, which is around $1,410 in US currency.
