lcd panel ips vs va brands

There’s an almost overwhelming amount of options in the display market: OLED, MicroLED, and TN panel types just to name a few. But if you’re looking for a gaming monitor or simply don’t want to drain your bank account on a display, IPS and VA are generally the best choices. In-plane switching (or IPS) is an LCD-based technology that is used in just about every kind of display, whereas Vertical Alignment (or VA) is a more niche LCD technology used in gaming monitors, gaming TVs, and wide displays.

Although IPS is much more popular than VA and is often seen as the more premium option, both panel types have strengths and weaknesses that you should consider before you buy.

IPS panels have traditionally been used for making displays that have high color accuracy and large coverage of wide color gamuts like DCI-P3 or Adobe sRGB. Not only do IPS displays usually look good, but they also look good from wider angles, so you don’t need to look exactly head on at an IPS monitor to get accurate colors.

Color accuracy and coverage can be good on VA displays (even at wide angles), but colors across VA displays aren’t always uniform. Depending on the viewing angle and the distance between the viewer and the display, the center of VA monitors often have more gamma than the edges of the screen, making colors less accurate.

Although IPS is generally better than VA when it comes to color accuracy and coverage, VA panels have perfectly fine color accuracy and coverage for the vast majority of users. Only professional photo and video editors could really be disappointed with a VA monitor that only covers 90% of the DCI-P3 color space, which is actually a very good amount of coverage for gamers and content consumers.

Contrast ratio is a metric that measures how dark the color black is depicted on a display, measured as a ratio of x:1. The higher x is, the better. Although IPS is very good with color accuracy in general, it really struggles with making the color black, and even the best IPS monitors and TVs can only show a very dark grey rather than true black. Most IPS monitors are rated at a 1000:1 contrast ratio, which isn’t terrible but isn’t great either. Some monitors can get up to around 2000:1 however.

Despite VA’s general color accuracy issues, it’s actually amazing at depicting black as truly black. Even the worst VA displays can easily muster a 2000:1 contrast ratio, and some can even achieve higher than 5000:1. In fact, VA is second only to OLED when it comes to contrast ratio, and OLED actually delivers perfect contrast ratios of ∞:1. Because of this, a VA display can look better than an IPS counterpart in darker scenes.

Some displays can boost contrast ratio by using local dimming and HDR. By using a more complex backlight with multiple LEDs that can be turned on or off, local dimming helps IPS and VA displays look even darker when it matters. On the other end of the spectrum, HDR boosts brightness for colors that need it. With these two factors combined, some displays can boost the contrast ratio significantly. However, these features aren’t going to make an IPS display’s contrast ratio as good as the average VA display’s, and poorly implemented local dimming can backfire by creating more visual problems than it solves.

Response time is the amount of time it takes to fully refresh the display and show a new image. This is an area where both IPS and VA struggle, but nowadays very good IPS displays have overcome traditional issues with response times, and VA displays have not shown the same amount of progress. There is no standard that display manufacturers adhere to when it comes to measuring response time, but according to BenQ, which makes both IPS and VA monitors and TVs, IPS has a response time of 1-2ms whereas VA can only achieve 4-5ms. The specific values here aren’t important because this is a best-case scenario. What’s really important is that VA is much slower.

Very high response times can result in very animated scenes looking blurry and smeared. This issue is called ghosting, and it’s particularly annoying for discerning gamers playing fast-paced games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Both IPS and VA displays have solutions and workarounds to avoid ghosting, the most important being overdrive. Overdrive that’s too aggressive can cause reverse ghosting, which is when the display tries to change a pixel’s color so quickly that it accidentally overshoots and ends up with the wrong color for a few frames. Ghosting and reverse ghosting both cause smearing, so if overdrive is too weak or too strong, the end result is similar: It looks bad.

Although the best IPS panels beat the best VA panels when it comes to response time, there are plenty of IPS displays that have very bad response times. It’s also worth noting that response time only needs to be equal to the refresh rate of the monitor for there to be no smearing. On a 60Hz display, for instance, it takes 16.66ms to show a new image, so a response time of 1ms doesn’t really do much. Response time matters much more at higher refresh rates, and even at 144Hz a response time of around 7ms is sufficient to avoid ghosting.

IPS is capable of significantly higher refresh rates than VA. IPS is capable of hitting 500Hz while VA caps out at 240Hz. However, the vast majority of VA displays are only capable of 144Hz or 165Hz; there are only a few VA monitors that can do 240Hz. For those wanting extremely high refresh rates, IPS is the clear winner.

Even if VA was capable of 360Hz however, it probably wouldn’t be very good because of its weakness in response times. A 360Hz display refreshes every 2.7ms, which is well below what VA is generally capable of.

While IPS displays are usually a safe recommendation for most people, sometimes there are very good reasons to buy VA monitors and TVs. VA has found its home in midrange gaming monitors, gaming TVs, and ultrawide displays, and many of the best gaming monitors use VA. If you’re shopping outside of these categories, however, you probably won’t have to worry about choosing between IPS and VA because VA is not very often used elsewhere.

If you do have the choice between VA and IPS, you’re going to have to evaluate what you prefer in a display, and you should definitely read some monitor reviews just to make sure if VA or IPS is going to deliver what you want in your next display purchase. After all, even an IPS display can have bad color accuracy or bad response time, so don’t assume IPS means quality and that VA means budget.

Many TVs use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panels that are lit by LED backlights. There are two popular types of LCD panels: In-Plane Switching (IPS) and Vertical Alignment (VA), and there are two main differences between each type. A VA panel usually has a high contrast ratio and narrow viewing angles. However, an IPS panel has low contrast and wide viewing angles. These are the main differences between each, and for the most part, panel type doesn"t affect other aspects of picture quality, like peak brightness, color gamut, or color accuracy.

For the purposes of this article, we"re going to compare two LED-backlit LCD TVs: the Sony X800H, which has an IPS panel, and the Hisense H9G, which has a VA panel. Due to their different panel types, there are three noticeable differences in picture quality: viewing angles, contrast, and black uniformity, so we"re going to look at each one.

Viewing angle refers to the angle at which you can watch the TV without seeing a noticeable drop in picture quality. IPS TVs are the clear winner here, as the image remains accurate when viewing from the side - you can see the differences in the videos above. This is their main advantage over VA panels. Most VA panel TVs have a noticeable loss in image accuracy when viewing from the side. The narrow viewing angle of VA-type TVs is also problematic when the TV is used as a PC monitor from up close since the edges of the display look washed out.

VA panels are far superior to IPS panels when it comes to this, so if you tend to watch movies in the dark, you likely want to get a TV with a VA panel. Most TVs use VA panels due to this main advantage, and high-end models may have a local dimming feature that further enhances black levels. On the other hand, IPS panels normally have low contrast, so blacks look closer to gray, but you may not notice the difference in contrast in bright environments.

Our black uniformity tests determine how well a TV displays a dark scene with a bright image in the center. Ideally, you want to see a completely black screen with the center cross being the only part that"s lit up, and this is important for people watching movies. No LED TV has perfect uniformity, and unlike viewing angles and contrast, the panel type doesn"t completely determine its black uniformity. However, most VA panels that we"ve tested have good black uniformity, while most IPS panels have sub-par black uniformity. This doesn"t mean that every VA panel TV has good uniformity, as this can change between units, and you can also improve uniformity using the local dimming feature.

LCDs function by having liquid crystals in little groups to form the pixels. These crystals react and change position when charged with electricity and, depending on their position, they allow a certain color of light to pass through.

IPS displays have their crystals aligned horizontally at all times. When charged, they turn to allow light through. VA displays have their crystals aligned vertically. When charged, they move to a horizontal position, allowing light through. When current isn"t sent through them, however, their vertical alignment blocks light far more efficiently, creating better blacks and giving better contrast.

There"s also another type of IPS panel, called Plane-to-Line Switching (PLS), which can be seen with the Sony X800H. This panel type was designed by Samsung and technically performs the same as an IPS panel. When you compare the pixels visually, IPS panels look like chevrons, VA looks like very straight rectangles, and PLS looks like round-edged capsules. You can learn more about pixels here.

The way the pixels are laid out can also affect text clarity. Many IPS panels, like the ones on the Sony X800H or the LG SK9000, use RGB sub-pixel layouts, while many VA panels have a BGR layout, like on the Hisense H9G. The sub-pixel layout doesn"t directly affect picture quality unless you"re using it as a PC monitor. Some applications may expect an RGB layout, so if you have a BGR sub-pixel layout, text may not look clear. You may need to increase the text scaling to read it properly, but this issue isn"t common with an RGB layout. You can learn more about it here.

TV manufacturers have come up with ways to improve LED TVs to increase picture quality. There are competing technologies, like OLED, which also present their own unique characteristics.

Unlike LED TVs, OLEDs don"t use a backlight and instead have self-emitting pixels. This allows the pixels to individually turn on and off, resulting in perfect blacks. This means that they also have perfect black uniformity as there"s no blooming around bright objects like on some LED TVs. They also have wide viewing angles, sometimes even wider than some IPS panels, so OLEDs are a good choice for wide seating arrangements.

However, the one major downside to OLEDs compared to LEDs is their risk of permanent burn-in. This could be problematic if you constantly watch content with static elements, like the news, or if you use it as a PC monitor. We don"t expect it to be an issue for people who watch varied content, but if you"re truly worried about it, LED TVs appear to be immune to burn-in.

Samsung released quantum dot TVs in 2015, which they later labeled as QLED in 2017. These TVs include a quantum dot layer between the LED backlights and the LCD panel to achieve a wider color gamut. Other companies like Vizio and TCL also use this quantum dot technology on their TVs. Adding this extra quantum dot layer doesn"t change the characteristics of the panel type; the VA panel on the TCL 6 Series/S635 2020 QLED still has a high contrast ratio and narrow viewing angles. Although most QLED TVs use VA panels, you can easily use an IPS panel as well.

Manufacturers have tried different techniques to improve the viewing angles on VA panels over the years, aiming to produce a perfect LCD panel with both wide viewing angles and high contrast. While they have yet to achieve that goal, a few TVs have hit the market that try to combine the best of both panel types. The first TVs with this viewing angle technology came out in 2018, and only a few high-end models like the Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED and the Sony X950H had this technology in 2020. These TVs are a bit unique, delivering noticeably better viewing angles than their pure VA counterparts, but still worse than true IPS panels. This comes at the expense of a lower contrast ratio, as these TVs have worse native contrast than most VA panels, but they"re still better than IPS panels. Combined with their local dimming features, they still produce deep blacks.

Between IPS and VA panels, neither technology is inherently superior to the other as they both serve different purposes. In general, IPS TVs have wide viewing angles suitable for when you want to watch the big game or your favorite show in a large seating arrangement. They"re also beneficial for use as a PC monitor since the edges remain accurate if you sit up close. However, VA panels are a better choice for watching content in dark rooms, as their improved contrast allows them to display deep blacks. Choosing between the two is a series of trade-offs and qualities, so choosing the best TV for your needs depends on your usage.

Again, IPS is the clear winner here. The vertical viewing angles are very similar to the horizontal ones on both IPS and VA panels. Unfortunately, this is one area where TN panels are usually much, much worse. TN monitors degrade rapidly from below, and colors actually inverse - resulting in a negative image that can be distracting. For this reason, if you decide to buy a TN monitor, look for one with an excellent height adjustment, or consider buying a VESA mounting arm, as you should mount TN monitors at eye level. Even when mounted properly, larger TN displays can appear non-uniform at the edges.

There"s usually not much difference between VA and IPS panels in terms of gray uniformity. It"s rare for monitors to have uniformity issues, and even on monitors that perform worse than average, it"s usually not noticeable with regular content. TN monitors tend to perform a bit worse than usual, though, and the top half of the screen is almost always darker than the rest, but that"s an artifact of the bad vertical viewing angles.

Black uniformity tends to vary significantly, even between individual units of the same model, and there"s no single panel type that performs the best. It"s rare for monitors to have good black uniformity, and almost every monitor we"ve tested has some noticeable cloudiness or backlight bleed. IPS and TN panels can look slightly worse due to their low contrast ratios, as the screen can take on more of a bluish tint when displaying dark scenes. Like with contrast, black uniformity issues usually aren"t very noticeable unless you"re looking at dark content and you"re in a dark room. If you only use your monitor in a bright environment, generally speaking, you don"t need to worry about black uniformity.

Historically, TN panels used to have the worst colors, as many of them were cheaper models that only supported 6-bit colors or used techniques like dithering (FRC) to approximate 8-bit colors. Most displays today, including TN models, are at least 8 bit, and many of them are even able to approximate 10-bit colors through dithering. New technologies, like LG"s Nano IPS and Samsung"s Quantum Dot, add an extra layer to the LCD stack and have significantly improved the color gamut of modern IPS and VA displays, leaving TN a bit behind. Between them, NANO IPS is slightly better, as it tends to offer better coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Although the difference is minor, IPS panels still have a slight edge over VA and TN displays.

Although TN panels have caught up a bit in the SDR color space, they"re far behind when it comes to HDR, so if you"re looking for a good HDR color gamut, avoid TN panels. Between VA and IPS panels, the difference isn"t as significant; however, IPS panels still have a slight edge. The best VA panels top out at around 90% coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content. IPS panels go as high as 98% coverage of DCI P3, rivaling even some of the best TVs on the market. Due to the very high coverage of DCI P3 on both VA and IPS, the difference isn"t that noticeable, though, as most content won"t use the entire color space anyway.

Although not necessarily as noticeable to everyone as the differences in picture quality, there can also be a difference in motion handling between IPS, VA, and TN displays. TN panels historically offered the best gaming performance, as they had the highest refresh rates and extremely fast response times. Manufacturers have found ways to drastically improve the motion handling of VA and IPS panels, though, and the difference isn"t as pronounced.

LCD panel technology has changed drastically over the last few years, and the historical expectations for response time performance don"t necessarily hold anymore. For years, TN monitors had the fastest response times by far, but that"s started to change. New high refresh-rate IPS monitors can be just as fast.

VA panels are a bit of a strange situation. They typically have slightly slower response times overall compared to similar TN or IPS models. It"s especially noticeable in near-black scenes, where they tend to be significantly slower, resulting in dark trails behind fast-moving objects in dark scenes, commonly known as black smear. Some recent VA panels, such as the Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T, get around it by overdriving the pixels. It results in much better dark scene performance but a more noticeable overshoot in brighter areas.

Within each of the three types of LCD we mentioned, other related panel types use the same basic idea but with slight differences. For example, two popular variants of IPS panels include ADS (technically known as ADSDS, or Advanced Super Dimension Switch) and PLS (Plane to Line Switching). It can be hard to tell these panels apart simply based on the subpixel structure, so we"ll usually group them all as IPS, and in the text, we"ll usually refer to them as IPS-like or IPS family. There are slight differences in colors, viewing angles, and contrast, but generally speaking, they"re all very similar.

There"s another display technology that"s growing in popularity: OLED. OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is very different from the conventional LCD technology we"ve explored above. OLED panels are electro-emissive, which means each pixel emits its own light when it receives an electric signal, eliminating the need for a backlight. Since OLED panels can turn off individual pixels, they have deep, inky blacks with no blooming around bright objects. They also have excellent wide viewing angles, a near-instantaneous response time, and excellent gray uniformity.

OLED panels aren"t perfect, though. There"s a risk of permanent burn-in, especially when there are lots of static elements on screen, like the UI elements of a PC. There aren"t many OLED monitors available, either, but they"ve started to gain popularity as laptop screens and for high-end monitors, but they"re very expensive and hard to find. They"re also not very bright in some cases, especially when large bright areas are visible on screen. The technology is still maturing, and advances in OLED technology, like Samsung"s highly-anticipated QD-OLED technology, are promising.

As you can probably tell by now, no one panel type works best for everyone; it all depends on your exact usage. Although there used to be some significant differences between panel types, as technology has improved, these differences aren"t as noticeable. The two exceptions to this are viewing angles and contrast. If you"re in a dark room, a VA panel that can display deep blacks is probably the best choice. If you"re not in a dark room, you should focus on the other features of the monitor and choose based on the features that appeal to your exact usage. IPS panels are generally preferred for office use, and TN typically offers the best gaming experience, but recent advancements in VA and IPS technology are starting to change those generalizations. For the most part, the differences between each panel type are so minor now that it doesn"t need to be directly factored into your buying decision.

Because OLED TVs are newer and generally more expensive, the average buyer is looking at LED/LCD TVs right now. And although there are several features and specifications to consider while shopping—the brand name, HDR compatibility, and refresh rate, just to name a few—there’s one important hardware spec that isn’t widely advertised: LCD panel type.

LED/LCD TVs are so called because of the two things that make up their displays: an LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlight and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for that backlight to shine through. LED backlights vary between a variety of implementations, but modern LCDs generally come in one of two panel technologies: IPS (In-Plane Switching) and VA (Vertical Alignment).

Unlike other hardware specifications (which are usually listed on the side of a TV box or on the manufacturer’s website), information about a TV’s LCD panel type is a bit more inside baseball. But panel type has a far greater impact on a TV’s performance than you might expect—it affects contrast, color, and viewing angle as well.

Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage. How the display arranges its crystals is part of what sets IPS panels apart from VA panels.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels are a common display type for both the best computer monitors and TVs. Without getting too far down the rabbit hole, let’s talk a little about how IPS panels distinguish themselves from other types.

Every non-OLED TV on the market today is an LCD TV powered by LED lighting. Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage—this is what produces color. An IPS panel aligns its crystals horizontally, parallel to the glass substrate.

IPS technology was developed in part to improve the color and wide viewing angle performance of a display. There"s also a range of variations under the IPS umbrella, including ADS, S-IPS, H-IPS, e-IPS, P-IPS, and PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching). But, while they all differ marginally from one another in operation, their core functionality (as compared to VA panels) is the same.

VA (Vertical Alignment) panels represent another common display type, used for both computer monitors and TVs, but especially for the latter where they greatly outnumber their IPS counterparts. Most LED/LCD TVs you"ll find on the market use a VA panel. While IPS panels align their liquid crystals horizontally, VA panels align them—you guessed it—vertically. They run perpendicular to the glass substrate rather than parallel to it. When met with voltage, the crystals tilt, letting light through and producing color.

This positioning changes how the liquid crystals behave. Without any voltage, the liquid crystals in a VA panel do not tilt, which is a better outcome if your goal is to block light and create image depth. Like with IPS, VA panels also come in a few varieties: PVA, S-PVA, and MVA, though again, their core functionality (as compared to IPS panels) is the same.

TN (Twisted Nematic) is an older LCD display type. They"re still relatively common display types for computer monitors—thanks to their lightning fast response times and excellent handling of motion blur. TN panels aren"t typically used in TV production anymore, though.

The cornerstone of picture quality, contrast ratio refers to the range between a display’s darkest black levels and brightest highlights. Because VA-style panels excel at producing deep, dark black levels, this is arguably their biggest strength. VA panels almost always feature deeper black levels than their IPS counterparts, and this goes a long way in creating a detail-rich picture. An IPS panel can mitigate this by serving up an exceptionally bright image to offset relatively shallow black levels.

A TV’s total viewing angle describes how much a viewer can move away from an ideal, head-on viewing position before the contrast and color of the picture begins to deteriorate. Due to the positioning of their liquid crystals, IPS panels excel in this department; they typically offer significantly more viewing flexibility than TVs with VA-style panels. In other words, IPS panels are more reliable for group viewings (or any situation where a viewer might need to sit at an off-angle).

While impressive color production is possible on both display types, IPS panels tend to offer wider colors, given the nature of their hardware. While a wider range of colors tends to spell better color accuracy, the advent of additional TV technologies like quantum-dot color have evened the playing field considerably. In other words, you’re far more likely to notice the benefits of an IPS TV’s wider viewing angle than you are to notice its tendency for wider color.

Here’s the final takeaway: IPS panels are significantly better than VA panels when it comes to viewing angle and somewhat better than VA panels when it comes to color. VA panels, however, almost always offer deeper black levels and better overall contrast. And because they block light better, TVs and monitors using VA panels tend to have better backlight uniformity regardless of LED backlight type.

Unfortunately, not only is it rare to find a TV’s panel type listed on a manufacturer’s website, but it’s increasingly rare for a brand to reveal a TV’s panel type at all—even when we contact brands directly for information. The reason for this caginess has everything to do with marketing; it’s better to keep shoppers focused on the bells, whistles, and impressive performance specs of a TV rather than its potential shortcomings.

To add to the confusion, it’s common for different sizes of the same TV series to mix and match display types; you might find that the 55-inch version of a TV features a VA-style display while the 75-inch model uses IPS.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to determine panel type if you have the proper equipment and you know what to look for. Certain test results and viewing characteristics act as tell-tale signs. This is why my colleagues and I make a point of discussing panel type in just about every TV review we publish, and why you should make a point of reading reviews before making a purchase.

Panel type is not the end-all-be-all for LED/LCD TVs. Many other factors, most of them related to the style and intensity of the LED backlight, can have a major impact on factors like contrast, viewing angle, and color intensity. Ultimately, you need to see a TV in person (and ideally in the space it’s going to live in) to get the best idea of how well it creates an image. But by knowing the core differences of IPS vs VA LCD panels, you can at least make some good guesses before you buy.

Unlike the best gaming monitors, IPS and VA TV panels are on an even playing field. TVs with both technologies are capable of high refresh rates of 120Hz, or occasionally 240Hz (although it usually comes at a premium).

If you focus on single-player gaming, or your multiplayer gaming happens online, the excellent contrast of VA is the way to go. The most gaming benefits you’ll see will come from extra features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), or cloud game capabilities.

If you’re buying a large screen and intend to host movie nights with friends and family, a TV with an IPS-style panel is far more accommodating thanks to its superior viewing angle. Just be aware that certain content—particularly dark content—won’t pop as much on account of the panel’s shallower black levels.

On the other hand, if you want the best possible picture overall, we recommend investing in a TV with a VA-style panel. They’re not always ideal candidates for group viewings, but the vast majority of the best non-OLED TVs you can buy feature this display type.

When it comes to thebest gaming monitors available on the market, the dizzying array of sizes, resolutions, refresh rates, response times, FreeSync versus G-Sync and panel types can make purchase decisions difficult. Our job is to make the buying process easier for you, so in this article, we"re going to look at two of the popular panel types used in today"s best gaming monitors: IPS and VA.

VA stands for vertical alignment, in which liquid crystals are aligned vertically, perpendicular to the substrate surface. As a result, these panels tend to have greater viewing angles than TN panels (but lower than IPS) and excellent contrast ratios and excel at providing incredible levels of detail in gaming (or movie) scenes.

Pixel response time refers to how fast a monitor can shift from one color to another (typically black to white or gray to gray) and is measured in milliseconds. But what does a low response time mean for gamers in the real world? A lower response time will garner less motion blur and allow for a clearer picture with fast-moving scenes in games. Of the two, IPS panels tend to have the lower response times, typically at 1 to 3 ms for the fastest panels (some even going as low as 0.5 ms).

On the other hand, the many gaming monitors with VA panels are advertised with a 4ms or lower (GTG) value for gaming monitors. In fact, we"ve seen some VA monitors spec"d as low as 1ms GTG with overdrive. However, those lower response times can come at the expense of inverse ghosting, leaving bright artifacts behind fast-moving objects on a screen.

IPS panels can be had from the standard 60 Hz up to 360 Hz on the fastest 1080p panels (like theAsus ROG Swift PG259QN). For a long time, 4K IPS panels were stuck at a maximum of 144Hz. However, that changed recently with the introduction of theViewSonic Elite XG320U, which overclocks to 150Hz (at the expense of Adaptive-Sync).

While neither IPS nor VA panels can match the "infinite" contrast ratio of newOLED panels, VA does have the upper hand. A good VA panel can exhibit a static contrast ratio of 2,000:1 to 3,000:1. However, the very best panels can crank that figure to 4,000:1 and beyond (for example, theAOC C32G2ZE can hit 4,000:1). The advantage that VA panels hold over IPS in contrast ratio is even more pronounced in darkened rooms, where "IPS glow" can be a serious problem.

Most IPS panels feature horizontal/vertical viewing angles of up to 178 degrees. This means if you"re viewing content off-center, there isn"t much color-shifting or a dramatic drop in picture quality until you reach the extreme edges of the viewing angles.

While VA panels have made great strides over the years in viewing angles, they are still not entirely up to par compared to IPS panels. VA panels are typically a bit weaker with respect to color/contrast shifts when viewing content off-center. However, for gamers who are likely to be sitting dead-center in front of the screen and not moving along the periphery of a monitor"s optimum viewing angle, this is likely less of an issue.

IPS panels, in general, have greater color gamut performance, leading to richer colors for your games. Most IPS monitors can hit a higher percentage of the DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamuts. Higher color gamut scores generally lead to greater accuracy and more vibrant color representation.

VA panels are slightly behind the curve on color accuracy compared to IPS, but for typical gaming scenarios, they are well suited for the job. They particularly shine when it comes to shadow and highlight detail in games, and make a good choice when you"re watching movies in your downtime due to the deeper blacks. But when you weigh the advantages that VA panels have with contrast ratio and black levels versus the more accurate color performance of IPS panels for gaming, it more or less comes down to your personal preference.

While it may look like IPS is the winner based on its technical merits, it’s not that easy. When we’re talking about things like how responsive a monitor is or how it looks to the eye, a lot of it comes down to personal preference. You might prefer VA over IPS based on not only your gaming preferences but also productivity apps when it’s time to get work done.

And while you may enjoy having a fast 360 Hz IPS display for your twitchy eSports games, someone else might have a different panel in mind for a slower-paced RTS game. In the end, if it is all possible, we’d suggest that you try to get some “eyes on” time with a monitor before you plunk down your cold, hard cash at a brick and mortar electronics retailer. And if that’s not possible, pore over our vast back catalog of monitor reviews to help you make an informed decision.

Whether to pick a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel or IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel depends on your intent. These two panels have two primary differences. VA offers a high contrast ratio with limited viewing angles, while IPS comes with a lower contrast but wider viewing angles.

Both these panels have their highs and letdowns. The most straightforward way to determine your pick is by deciding which attributes are the most important for you.

If your display serves diverse functions like competitive gaming (see this affordable Dell review), office work (see best monitors for trading here), photo and video editing (see the touch screen monitors review), programming, etc., it might be a bit challenging to decide. Fortunately, I will take you through what to expect from them, having tested various VA and IPS panels myself. Also, you can go through our earlier posts on various monitor types such as "best monitor with speakers" post, or "best monitor for CAD" article. Now, dive in!

Key TakeawaysYour purpose will determine whether you choose an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel or a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel. There are two main distinctions between these two panels

Image quality is a broad topic that encompasses multiple details. I will focus on the colors that IPS and VA panels have, how the two panels contrast light and dark areas, and the viewing angle of the two panels.

I love IPS panels because they have one of the highest color gamut performances, much higher than VA panels. For this reason, IPS panels display a game"s graphics better than VA panels. These screens represent the graphics of your games more realistically and 40 inch 4K monitors are now top of the range.

An IPS gaming monitor provides wide viewing angles that offer sharp pictures even when sitting a bit far from your screen (see our Acer XR382CQK review). As I enjoy multiplayer games with pals, sitting away from the screen while getting a great picture quality is something I consider crucial in winning demanding titles.

What I enjoy more when using VA gaming monitors is the intensity of their contrast ratio. I love how defined the difference between dark and light areas is and how this may aid in the quick identification of situations that may jeopardize your winning chances.

What I least like about IPS displays is that they typically have a lower refresh rate than 75Hz. Being unable to play the most action-packed games with a higher frame rate is a bummer to most enthusiasts.

VA monitors may not offer you a TN panel"s performance as well. And while I may not like the average refresh rates of IPS monitors, VA panels are a bit more restrictive when it comes to supported games.

While low response times are common in IPS panels, most IPS gaming monitors have about four milliseconds. This level is not much of a problem for most games. However, I"m not too fond of it when playing racing and fast shooter games because of ghosting.

A VA panel is slightly slower than an IPS panel. Therefore, you will notice slightly more motion blur when playing your games. Like IPS panels, some options offer you a one-millisecond response time for image sharpness.

If you need a monitor with an amazing contrast ratio, look into VA panels. And with the provision of VA monitors with a slower response time, you can find screens that offer a good gaming experience in most games.

Different Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel types have their advantages and disadvantages, and selecting an IPS vs VA TV depends on what use you have in mind. So, which of these panels should you use for movies?

IPS TVs have a better viewing angle than their VA counterpart. Their image accuracy remains fairly high even when I"m watching my movies from the side.

VA panels have better contrast ratios between the two panels. I like their deep blacks when watching movies in the dark. If you geek over late-night shows, go for VA as it provides more definition.

IPS TVs generally have lower contrast. When using them, I tend to see blacks displayed as gray because of IPS glow. However, the difference is hardly noticeable in brightly lit conditions.

Unlike contrast and the viewing angle, the panel type doesn"t exclusively dictate a screen"s black uniformity. Regardless, most of the VA panels I use have better black uniformity between the two panels.

This doesn"t immediately paint VA panel TVs as the winner, and you may find a better-displaying IPS. Besides, you can enhance the screen"s uniformity using the dimming function.

Displays with great color accuracy and extensive coverage of wide color gamuts like DCI-P3 or Adobe sRGB are typically made using IPS panels. You don"t necessarily need to gaze directly at an IPS monitor in order to see realistic colors because IPS displays typically appear beautiful from wider angles as well.

Although color accuracy and coverage on VA displays (even at broad angles) can be outstanding, colors aren"t always consistent. The center of VA monitors frequently has greater gamma than the screen"s edges, reducing the accuracy of colors depending on the viewer"s perspective and the distance from the display.

VA panels have completely adequate color accuracy and coverage for the great majority of users, despite the fact that IPS is typically superior to VA in these areas. A VA monitor that only covers 90% of the DCI-P3 color space is actually a very good amount of coverage for games and content consumers, with the exception of professional picture and video editors.

LCD panels function using liquid crystals which, when charged with electricity, react and change location. Based on the position, the crystals display a particular color.

When IPS displays get charged, their crystals let light through by aligning horizontally. Without current, this vertical alignment (click here for best vertical monitors) efficiently bars light and offers deeper blacks.

PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) is a type of IPS used on Samsung monitors (check out also Benq monitors) which perform similarly but with round-edged pixels. On the other hand, VA pixels appear like straight rectangles.

IPS panels have an RGB sub-pixel arrangement, whereas numerous VA panels feature a BGR layout. The sub-pixel layout doesn"t outrightly affect image quality, provided it"s not a PC monitor.

Some applications require an RGB arrangement. When I use a BRG VA panel in such cases, I see some slight blurriness on the text. However, adjusting my text scaling eases readability. Overall, RGB layouts don"t have this issue as much as BRG.

The majority of IPS panels offer viewing angles up to 178 degrees horizontally and vertically. Accordingly, if you"re viewing content off-center, you won"t notice much color shifting or a noticeable decrease in picture quality until you get to the very edges of the viewing angles.

Even though VA panels have improved significantly over the years in terms of viewing angles, they still fall short of IPS panels in some respects. When viewing content off-center, VA panels are often a little weaker in terms of color/contrast shifts. This is probably less of an issue for gamers, who are more likely to be seated directly in front of the monitor and not move around the monitor"s ideal viewing angle.

You"ll notice that manufacturers are trying out multiple techniques to enhance VA viewing angles while achieving a high contrast. Although this goal is a work in progress, several TVs are now available that try to encompass both these crucial attributes.

The first sets to feature a broad viewing angle got announced in 2018. Several pricey models also came out with this technology in 2020, for instance, the Sony X950H and the Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED (see our Quantum Dot vs IPS post).

While I love their recognizable improvement in viewing angles over pure VA TVs, they are still yet to achieve the level of performance you get with a pure IPS panel.

As they solve one problem, the upgraded VA panels present you with another issue. Options like the Sony X950H have noticeably lower contrast ratios than typical VA panels.

Nevertheless, I appreciate their native contrast still being higher than regular IPS panels. With their dimming feature, I still can get a deep black convenient for night movies.

Neither panel technology is inherently better because they have different functions. IPS displays are suitable for watching big games or a show across a wide sitting arrangement.

Selecting between the two panels means you"ll give up particular features. Depending on your movie needs, I believe you can decide which panel suits you.

You probably now know the most suitable panel to get, given the different specifications. As in most instances, the higher your budget (see the best budget picks), the better the panel. Here is a simple guide on the ideal panel depending on your usage:

Editing footage and pictures:IPS monitors are more favorable given their better color reproduction. Some VA panels offer wide color ranges, though they typically have motion blur

Contrary to what you may think, not all LCD TVs are built around the same core panel technology. They can actually have at their hearts one of two really quite different technologies: VA or IPS.

Each, as we’ll see, has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages – so much so that we personally think the type of panel a particular TV uses should be presented right at the top of its specifications list, rather than typically left off altogether. Especially as some brands have been known to actually mix and match VA and IPS panels at different screen sizes within the same TV series.

The VA initialism stands for Vertical Alignment. This name is derived from the way VA panels apply voltage to vertically aligned liquid crystals that have been mounted perpendicularly to the panel’s glass substrate, making them tilt as required to let the necessary amount of light through for each image frame.

The main advantage of VA panels is contrast. Their perpendicular crystal alignment provides greater control over the light passing through each pixel, meaning dark scenes and dark areas look less grey / enjoy better black levels.

The extent to which this strength is exploited can vary greatly between different manufacturers, and depends on any number of secondary factors. The type and position of LED lighting a particular VA screen might be using can have an impact, for instance. There are multiple variations on the VA theme available from different manufacturers, too. As a basic principle, though, black levels and contrast are consistently and often considerably better on LCD TVs that use VA panels.

Because of their ability to control light better, high-end VA panels generally deliver more brightness in real world conditions than IPS ones do. This further enhances their contrast capabilities, and arguably makes them more consistently able to do fuller justice to the wider light range associated with high dynamic range technology.

Being able to deliver dark scenes with relatively little overlying low-contrast greyness additionally means that VA panels tend to achieve more consistent colour vibrancy and toning.

VA panels for use in LCD TVs come from a number of panel manufacturers, including Samsung Display (which makes a so-called SVA variant) and AU Optronics (which makes an AMVA variant). TV brands are able to buy in panels from these and other VA panel manufacturers as they see fit.

Samsung Electronics is the most consistent user of VA panels in its LCD TVs. In fact, until recently pretty much every Samsung TV at every price level used a VA panel. For the past couple of years, though, IPS panels have unexpectedly cropped up in one or two parts of Samsung’s TV range, including 2021’s high-end QN85 series.

Sony predominantly uses VA panels on its most premium TVs, but it also habitually mixes IPS and VA panels across its wider mid-range and entry level LCD ranges. The same goes for most of the other big brands, too, including Panasonic and Philips.

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching. Like VA panels, IPS panels work by manipulating voltage to adjust how liquid crystals are aligned. Unlike VA, though, IPS panels orient their crystals in parallel with (rather than perpendicular too) the glass substrates present in every LCD panel, and rotate their crystals around to let the desired amount of light through rather than tilting them.

By far the biggest and most talked about advantage of IPS technology is its support for wider viewing angles. In fact, one way of identifying IPS panels has traditionally been to look for quoted viewing angles of 178 degrees.

When we talk about wide viewing angle support in relation to LCD TVs, we’re talking about how much of an angle from directly opposite the screen you can go before the picture starts to lose contrast, colour saturation and, sometimes, brightness.

With VA panels the angle you can watch them before the picture starts to deteriorate sharply can be really quite limited – as little as 20 degrees off axis. While we’d say the 178-degree claims for regular IPS panels are rather exaggerated, you can typically sit at a significantly wider angle than you can with VA and still enjoy a watchable picture.

We’ve even seen occasional evidence of the edges of really big (75-inch plus) VA screens suffering from the technology’s viewing angle limitations when viewed straight on, whereas this never happens with IPS technology.

The VA/IPS viewing angle situation is muddied a little by the introduction into a few high-end VA TVs of wide angle technologies based around filters or sub pixel manipulation. These technologies can be associated with other problems, though, such as reduced resolution, and can still struggle to suppress backlight blooming around stand-out bright objects with LCD TVs that use local dimming backlight systems.

Traditionally IPS panels have been associated with – on high-end screens, at least – wider colour gamuts than VA panels can readily manage. They retain this colour gamut better, too, when viewing the screen from an angle. This is why many professional designers, for instance, have tended to prefer IPS technology to VA. There can be some pretty extreme variance in the range of colour supported across different IPS price points, though, and improvements in premium VA solutions – especially the widespread use of Quantum Dot technologies – have largely evened things up, at least at the premium end of the VA market. In fact, with dark scenes, at least, IPS’s issues with black levels and ‘grey wash’ effect can give good VA panels a colour advantage.

There was a time when IPS technology was considered to have an edge over VA when it comes to response time, leading to less motion blur and improved gaming reaction times. These days, though, we’re seeing pretty much identically low input lag measurements (between 9.4 and 10.4ms) from both VA and IPS TVs.

As with VA, there are different variations on the basic IPS theme made by different panel manufacturers. LG Display is by far the biggest manufacturer of IPS LCD panels for TVs, but AU Optronics also makes them, as well as, more surprisingly, Samsung – though some of the non-LG Display IPS products seem to be more focused on PC monitors than TVs.

Given how dominant LG Display is in manufacturing IPS LCD panels, it’s not surprising to find that pretty much every LCD TV LG Electronics makes features an IPS panel at its heart. Other TV brands that use IPS panels on at least a few of their TVs each year include Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Hisense. In fact, the only big brand that has tended to shun IPS is Samsung (perhaps because of arch rival LG Display’s dominance of the IPS market).

As noted earlier, it can be frustratingly difficult to determine whether a TV is using VA or IPS technology. Sometimes it is mentioned in the specifications list on a manufacturer’s website – but more often it is not.

If you’re able to actually get your hands on an LCD TV, try knocking gently on its screen. If it’s an IPS panel it will feel solid and the picture will only be slightly affected – or completely unaffected – by the impact of your knocks. If it’s a VA panel, the picture will distort quite noticeably around points of impact.

It’s tempting to assume that any TVs with obviously low contrast are IPS while any screen with a narrow viewing angle is VA. As well as depending on having a wide experience of lots of panels, though, there’s just too much variation in the high and low-end fringes of each technology for this approach to be reliable.

Arguably your best bet is to check out a TV model you’re interested in on an industry website called Displayspecifications.com(opens in new tab), which includes usually reliable information on the core panel of pretty much every TV released.

You might want to consider IPS TV if your room layout means one or more viewers regularly find themselves having to watch the screen from a wide angle (though don’t forget that a small number of high-end VA TVs feature wide viewing angle technology). IPS’s black level limitations tend to be less obvious in bright rooms too, if that fits with the sort of environment your TV is likely to be used in for the majority of the time.

Our long experience of testing VA and IPS TVs, though, has led us to conclude that in general, the sort of person most likely to be turning to us for buying advice will be happier with an LCD TV based on VA technology.

VA’s ability to deliver typically much deeper, more convincing black levels and more HDR-friendly contrast helps them deliver a much more consistent and immersive modern AV experience. Especially if you’re the sort of person who likes to dim the lights for serious movie or TV viewing nights.

When buying a TV with LED technology, we can find different screen technologies. Choosing a TV with one type of screen or another is a factor that will influence the image quality significantly. Mainly two types of panels are manufactured: IPS and VA panels. As we will see now, depending on the use you are going to give to your TV, you may be more interested in a TV with VA panel or IPS panel.

Next, we are going to explain the differences between IPS panels and VA panels. In this way, we hope to help you choose the best TV for your particular use.

First of all, comment that the name IPS comes from the fact that the liquid crystals of the panel are aligned horizontally (In-Plane Switching). These crystals are parallel to the glass substrates allowing the orientation to be changed by rotating the liquid crystal molecules in the same plane.

This is the technical explanation, but the interesting thing is to know, what performance this type of panel is going to give us and what pros and cons it offers.

An IPS panel offers as a great advantage, wide viewing angles. This means that even if the TV is viewed from a side angle, contrast and color are maintained.

Some IPS panels offer lossless viewing angles up to 178°. Thanks to this, a TV with an IPS panel can be viewed correctly from the sides. The good thing about this is that color saturation and contrast will remain almost lossless when viewed from the side.

So, you may be interested in buying an IPS panel TV if you are going to watch it from different points or if you are several in the family and there are some of you who watch the TV from a more foreshortened position.

Their response time is usually somewhat lower than those offered by VA panels. The time it takes for the pixels to change is somewhat less and they can deliver moving images with a little more clarity.

As weaknesses, their contrast is usually quite low. The contrast values of any IPS panel are always poorer than those offered by a VA panel. In this type of panels, the black level achieved is very low and are usually dark grays instead of blacks.

The black level, however, can be improved in Full Array TVs with Local Dimming and in Mini LED models. The models with this system use more LED bulbs and with the possibility of adjusting the illumination by zones, achieving better black values. The downside is that as a general rule, IPS panels tend to have more light leakage problems than VA panels, although this varies from unit to unit and the type of backlight used.

Generally, they are not the best choice for movie buffs as a lot of information is lost in dark scenes. Compared to a VA panel, this problem is noticeable.

It is also common, that they have more reflections compared to VA, although this depends on each model and if it includes any added filter to reduce reflections.

IPS panels are widely used in monitors, thanks to what we have said about their better response time and better color reproduction and are especially recommended for photo editing.

The main manufacturer of IPS panels is LG. Some Sony and Panasonic models carry IPS panels, and these are mostly manufactured by LG Display. Although recently LG announced that it was cutting back on LCD panel manufacturing.

Within IPS panels there are different variants with different names but which are based on the same concept and obtain very similar performance. The best known are the PLS and ADS panels, which are mounted in some current Samsung TVs.

Unlike an IPS panel, a VA type panel has an alignment of liquid crystals in a vertical plane to the glass substrate and which tilt when a voltage is applied to let light through.

VA panels achieve much higher contrasts than IPS panels. Their major advantage is the reproduction of deep blacks and better detail in shadow areas, so that not as much information is lost as in IPS type displays.

The contrast levels of a VA panel, can be up to 300% higher than that of an IPS panel. The black tones it achieves are always much deeper. This is very noticeable in dark scenes in movies. Therefore, it is the best choice for moviegoers.

However, new versions of these panels are being produced and the angles are improving, especially in the high end, and in some cases are equal to the angles offered by IPS.

The main manufacturer of VA panels was Samsung and their own TVs mainly mounted panels manufactured by themselves. However, like LG, they have greatly reduced production and it is now very common for them to carry panels from other manufacturers such as BOE, AUO, etc.

The other manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic have long since stopped making panels and carry panels made by companies such as Chi Mei, Sharp or AUO. In any case, the fact that a brand does not produce its own panels, does not mean in any case, less image quality.

We leave you with a summary of the advantages offered by each type of panel for you to value which is the option that suits you best according to the use you give to the TV.

Here the winner is IPS panels by offering better viewing from extreme angles. Colors and contrast are best maintained when viewed at angles greater than 35°..

It is recommended that you choose a TV with IPS screen, if you are going to watch it from an armchair located in a far corner, if you have a TV hanging on the wall and you watch it from very low or very sideways or if you are several in a family and not everyone can see it more or less from the front.

In VA screens, there is usually a loss of contrast quite pronounced from about 35-40 ° looking a more washed out image. Also the colors begin to lose saturation and flatten out, losing detail in the colors and looking more uniform.

Anyway, there are some TVs with VA panel, which incorporate a filter that improves the viewing angle. An example is the Samsung’s top-of-the-line QLED models. and the X95K and Z9K from Sony.

In summary, especially in the low and mid ranges IPS panels provide a better side view than VA panels, so they are better if you view them from different points.

The winner in this field is VA panels. The contrast is much higher than that offered by IPS panels, which are far inferior in this respect. Blacks tend to be purer on VA panels than on IPS panels.

The difference between IPS and VA panels is usually quite noticeable in this aspect reaching up to 300% in some cases. Therefore, they are always much more recommendable for users who like movies.

In the contrast variant, the brightness level also comes into play. In this aspect, an IPS or VA panel can reproduce a similar brightness, but having a better black level, the contrast ratio of a VA panel is usually much higher than that provided by an IPS.

It is unusual for burn-in or retentions to occur on LCD displays whether they are IPS or VA type. This problem occurs when an image is left static for a prolonged period of time. However, the risk is higher for IPS type displays.

In any case, the risk is minimal and not as likely as it can happen in OLED TVs, although also in these, the risk is very low today if used at home and not in a store.

VA panels are more recommended for watching movies and series in dark rooms and in a location that is quite in front of the TV. They give us the highest contrast values and allow us to see better details in the dark parts of the image. Also, although it depends on each specific model, they usually have less reflections.

IPS panels on the other hand, are the best option, if the location from where you sit is not fully frontal to the TV and you usually watch it in a brightly lit room. Colors and contrast are maintained with less variation when viewed from the sides.

2022 models2021 modelsQNED96, QNED91, QNED86, QNED80: VA or IPS depending on inchAll the range mounts IPS panel except in 50 and 70 inches which is VA.

As you can see, each type of panel has its advantages and disadvantages. With this comparison, hopefully the differences between IPS and VA panels are clear to you. Moreover, these panels are not only found in televisions, but are also manufactured for monitors and cell phones.

For viewing in dark or very dimly lit rooms, the best choice is a TV that mounts VA screen, as it will provide better blacks as well as less blooming and light leakage.

If in your case you are going to be viewing the TV from a fairly foreshortened angle, IPS panels are going to offer you a better angle than VA panels. The colors will maintain better saturation as well as the contrast will be maintained, making the picture look less washed out.

As we have seen, it depends on each situation, but generally in the absence of assessing other important aspects such as the image processor, refresh rate, etc., we recommend a TV with VA panel. They are the most recommended for watching movies and series due to their better contrast and detail in the dark parts.

It depends on the models we compare, but usually the highest picture quality today is going to be provided by a TV with OLED technology, thanks to being a self-emissive technology. This means that each pixel is the light source and can be switched on and off independently, giving a pure black, which LED TVs cannot achieve.

Recently, TVs with Mini LED technology have been launched, which still use an LCD panel with backlighting by LED bulbs, but now the size of these is much smaller. In this way, they can have many more bulbs, so that the backlighting is more accurate, improving blacks and reaching a higher peak brightness. In this last aspect of brightness, Mini LED TVs are superior to OLED models.

Even after the introduction of newer display technologies, LCDs still remain relevant even today.LCD displays are used for multiple purposes (TV, Monitor, Mobile Phones, Laptops, Automobiles, etc.) and one single configuration cannot satisfy all the purposes. So, LCD displays come with two different panels – VA (Vertical Alignment) and IPS (In-Plane Switching) to satisfy the different viewing needs of consumers.

A VA panel offers a superior contrast ratio but a narrow viewing angle. Contrarily, an IPS panel offers a wide viewing angle but a low contrast ratio.

As mentioned earlier, displays with VA Panels provide a great contrast ratio. You can find VA panels that typically come with contrast ratios of 3000:1 or 6000:1. A comparable IPS panel will only have a contrast ratio of 1000:1.

VA panels have narrow viewing angles. You will only be able to have an immersive experience when you sit straight opposite the display. The wider angles will not provide you the same experience.

In this, the liquid crystals are arranged parallel to the glass substrate instead of the perpendicular alignment. Furthermore, the structure of crystals and the placement of electrodes differ from the one used in VA panels. The electrodes occupy more space that results in lower contrast and brightness of the screen.

With the IPS panels, you can view the TV / monitor from a wide-angle and still get an impressive picture quality. Unlike VA panels, you will notice very little difference in color reproduction when you sit at a wide-angle from the display.

But when it comes to black uniformity, the IPS panels are sub-par. These panels do a poor job in displaying a bright image in the center of a completely black screen.

One more major drawback with the IPS panels is that they exhibit a distinct phenomenon called ‘IPS Glow’. You will notice some light patches on the corners of the screen. This happens when excessive