Ahead of CES 2026 (and just before Christmas), LG Display announced on Tuesday a seemingly revolutionary development in the OLED world — at least as far as its own panels are concerned.
The company has achieved a striped, true RGB subpixel layout in one of its upcoming monitors, a 27-inch 4K display with a 240-Hz native refresh rate, doubled by dual-mode capabilities.
Even though the inherent luminance of the image is boosted, the color volume is hurt as a byproduct of what white subpixel essentially bleeding over the other colors. This is why Samsung's QD-OLED panels are touted for their superior color performance, since they don't have a white subpixel and instead emit blue light that passes through quantum dots to filter colors.
Now, getting rid of that white subpixel and reverting back to a true RGB structure does hurt brightness outright, at least in the first-gen implementation, but it could be a worthwhile tradeoff. That's why LG is quoting just 1,000 nits of peak brightness, with 250 nits full-screen APL, noticeably decreased from the 1,500 nits max their latest Tandem OLED panels can achieve.
That's one part of the equation; the other is that striped layout, which is just as important. Instead of putting the subpixels in a triangular or rectangular structure — or really any other pattern — LG places the red, green and blue subpixels right next to each other in a straight line, forming a "stripe." But, again, they've always had that white subpixel in the middle, creating a RG W B pattern instead.
What’s up with the variety of OLED sub-pixel arrangements we see today? What benefits does each provide? How can an iPhone reach 2,000 nits of brightness at 460 PPI, but OLED TVs and monitors struggle with 1,000 nits at much lower pixel densities? I have so many questions the more OLEDs I own. From r/OLED_Gaming
Therefore, this is the first time a high refresh OLED panel has had a true RGB stripe subpixel layout. This leads to reduced fringing and distortion in text, since the font engines rendering that expect a more conventional layout. LCDs and such have striped subpixel arrangements for ages, but OLEDs have suffered either because of the white subpixel or just a differently shaped layout altogether, such as in QD-OLED panels.
To be clear, OLEDs with this kind of a layout have existed before, but they're niche and limited to just 60Hz, as LG points out in its own press release, so achieving a 240 Hz refresh rate is quite impressive and nicely brings the tech into the modern day. Keep in mind that LG Display is a separate company from LG. This is just one gaming monitor, so it doesn't represent a broader shift away from WOLED from LG as a whole.
Speaking of, TFT Central reports that this monitor will be part of LG Display's 4th gen family, using a Tandem WOLED panel. The branding is a bit confusing, because the "W" in that WOLED doesn't mean it has a white subpixel; rather, the multi-stack method used by LG emits near-white light that is converted by color filters, which is what forms those RGB subpixels eventually.
Just to clarify, the other "Tandem OLED" designation is reserved for smaller format displays meant for phones, tablets, laptops and cars, and it's similar to LG's RGB OLED where each subpixel produces its own light instead of being filtered through a white base layer. That's what powers the new iPad Pros, but it's not meant for TVs or monitors.
All in all, combining 4K resolution at 27 inches with a 240 Hz refresh rate, on a panel with a striped true RGB subpixel layout that's powered by LG's Tandem WOLED tech — well, that's one heck of a combo and certainly fit for a next-gen flagship. We should learn more about pricing and availability as CES rolls around. Until then, you can check out Samsung's new monitors announcement as well.
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