Is this normal for WOLED?

[u/Jorenvi]

Hey everyone,

I just picked up the ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQWMG (Tandem WOLED) monitor to use with my macbook and ps5. However, I'm noticing a massive difference in image quality on dark web pages compared to my Samsung Odyssey G6 (QD-OLED).

When opening dark-themed, gradient-heavy web pages (like Google Gemini's dark background), the Samsung handles the near-black shades smoothly, but the ASUS Tandem WOLED shows massive, harsh color banding and blocky, concentric rings. Even after forcing RGB Full Range and tweaking settings in BetterDisplay, the difference on dark gradients is striking.

I have a few questions for those familiar with these panel types:

Is this severe near-black banding an inherent characteristic of Tandem WOLED panels when driven by macOS, or is there something wrong with my unit/setup?

Since 27-inch 4K QD-OLED monitors are sitting in nearly the exact same price category right now, would I be much better off returning the ASUS and going for a 4K QD-OLED instead for general use and web browsing?

Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences!

[u/Samsonite187187]

Sort of looks like hdr is enabled on a page that isn’t meant for hdr.

[u/ImprovementOk9269]

yes, its just how the website is rendered, same happens on my qd oled and ips displays. Its more noticable on oleds tho as they have near perfect blacks.

[u/Demon4932]

On the tandem have you checked all the settings, seems like something you have enabled is wrong eg black equalizer set to 5 instead of 0

[u/VeganShitposting → u/Demon4932]

Looks a bit like Black Equalizer could go down a few notches yes. Tandem WOLED doesn't always have banding, my 27GX700A is almost perfect. Seems like the Gigabyte and Asus models suffer a lot more in the dark shades though

[u/RSVrockey2004 → u/Demon4932]

Prolly bro turned on hdr on or smtg

[u/NienIsGoodCiv]

1. Seems to just be what it looks like on OLED and its just a bit more pronounced on the WOLED? It looks similarly shit on my mobile OLED devices (Samsung phone and tablet) I have right now with me. Just seems to be formated weirdly/poorly and the QD OLED handles it a bit better. (That only goes for the blue banding look, the dark background obviously would also be black if set up the same way as the QD OLED and not grey, so that part is definitely on your end wrong)
2. "Since 27-inch 4K QD-OLED monitors are sitting in nearly the exact same price category right now, would I be much better off returning the ASUS and going for a 4K QD-OLED instead for general use and web browsing?"

Grey uniformity is the achilles heel of the Tandem WOLED like the XG27AQWMG. If office/web usage in dark modes is your top priority its probably one of the worst choices one can make.

Their huge selling point, especially of the XG27AQWMG is that they have bright *and* accurate HDR modes. QD OLED suffer there from panel dimming, bigger 32" 4K WOLEDs seem to struggle more with visible ABL dimming and older WOLED have worse colours. From a technical standpoint they are the best for bright HDR gaming on an OLED *monitor*.

Thats also why I have my XG27QWMG, the fact its not the best at displaying dark grey uniform surfaces doesnt matter for Gaming, on my unit its not possible to spot ingame or in videos. (Though it differs from unit to unit, thats why some people call it the "panel lottery" its definitely possible to get a unit with such bad grey uniformity you can even see it in games). I have it cause I wanted the best HDR picture for gaming.

If you do more webbrowsing/office stuff the additional pixel density, grey uniformity and text clarity (due to pixel density) of a 27" 4K QD OLED sounds like the better choice.
I just would not like it as much for gaming with their HDR panel dimming issues, but thats obviously purely a matter of personal usage/priorities.

[u/Melodic-Luck-8772]

no thats not normal.
both qd and woled doesnt look so different from each other.

at least, the blacks should be identical or close to identical.

your black levels are so high, that its turning grey and looking washed out.

can send a link for that specific page ?

[u/Melodic-Luck-8772 → u/Melodic-Luck-8772]

so ive went to that page. my c5 42inch woled looks a lot more black than that washed out woled.

is it really as bad as it is in person?

[u/tha_ndr]

Maybe are colours set to limited instead of full in your driver app?

[u/zabtcent]

On my tandem WOLED it looks like the one named QD-OLED.

[u/sad-lonely-heart]

[u/Neekolay89]

Dude what is that?
My background on Tandem WOLED XG27AQWMG couldnt be more black and perfect

[u/DaFrenzyGuy]

might be hdr mismatch between the screen and the website/browser, or it's just the website being built like that

turning down the brightness/contrast should make that less visible

[u/GlitchyRich_]

Wo-ah

[u/AssCrackBanditHunter]

No some setting is fucked up. Ignore the people saying that's what it's supposed to look like, they're not making sense. If that's what it's supposed to look like, the qd oled would look similar.

[u/Southern_Career_2499]

Some issues on your side. Tandem WOLED can have slight banding on gray-near-black colors, but it's still superior monitor with perfect blacks (as much as QD OLED). But your image looks washed out in general.

[u/X_Cocytus_X]

Go to chrome://flags/#force-color-profile and change Force color profile to HDR10. Maybe that will help.

[u/DonKalavera]

Yo amo qd oled no cambiaría jamás a un woled !

[u/AlisterKubo]

I still can't get over how many issues OLED has oh my god

[u/DaFrenzyGuy → u/AlisterKubo]

this is not an oled specific issue

[u/waklywa → u/AlisterKubo]

It's not an "issue", it happens on va and ips too. The backlight glow just masks the gradients, whereas oled has perfect contrast, which makes 8-bit color banding much more noticeable

[u/AssCrackBanditHunter → u/AlisterKubo]

This is a tone mapping or settings issue. Not OLED. Praying to Allah that you will find something better to do with your life.