Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
It’s not fair to compare the Zion Pro to gaming monitors as it lacks Adaptive Sync and runs at 60 Hz. But I’ll include my response and lag tests, so you’ll know what to expect when gaming on this portable panel. And as you already read above, I was pleasantly surprised by its performance in practice.
The comparison group includes the other two OLEDs I’ve reviewed, Aorus’ FO48U and Alienware’s AW5520QF. I also added three very high-contrast screens: Philips’ 559M1RYV, Asus’ XG43UQ and Acer’s CM3271K, which is another 60 Hz model.
Pixel Response and Input Lag
Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.
16ms is a typical draw time for a 60 Hz LCD, but the Acer is a bit slower than that. The Zion Pro shows soft edges around moving objects with a slight black ghosting artifact. But it is smoother than a 60 Hz LCD panel in that motion does not stutter. Overall control lag is 69ms, which means you won’t be winning any frag contests unless your opponents are casually skilled like me. Exploring first-person environments is best done at a walking pace so you can enjoy the incredible color and contrast. Rapid movement is not the Zion Pro’s forte.
Viewing Angles
While OLED panels typically have better viewing angles than LCDs, the Zion Pro’s AMOLED screen looks more like a premium IPS monitor. You can see a slight red and green color shift with a 20% drop in brightness. Detail remains clear with no apparent change in gamma. The vertical plane is where OLED’s advantage is clear. Brightness is reduced by around 20% and there’s a barely visible color shift, but gamma remains accurate, preserving image detail.
The Zion Pro couldn’t quite keep up with the other two OLEDs in the screen uniformity test. Like those monitors, I had to measure a 10% gray field since blacks are too low for my meter to register. I observed slight hotspots on the left side of my sample panel. These were not visible in content. It seems that OLED’s greater contrast makes flaws like this harder to spot. Color uniformity was visually perfect at all brightness levels.
Dubious $4,349 audiophile network switch runs at slow 100 Mbps for 'lower operating noise' — Innuos Phoenix switch ignores reality
Leaker says Sony expects PS5 Pro specs to surface this month, as dev kits make their way to game studios
TCL intros dome-shaped monitors for simulator gaming, teases new X-Intelligence AI model for displays that 'exceeds ChatGPT 4'
