This year’s Double Eleven is here, and many people around me are preparing to buy a good monitor. Besides the price discounts during Double Eleven, the popularity of this year’s “Black Myth: Wukong” and the upcoming “GTA6” next year have made this year’s Double Eleven monitor market particularly lively.
Especially the Thunderbird U9 series Mini LED monitors, which gained a lot of attention after its release on the 15th of this month, and many friends, including myself, are considering purchasing one.
However, since it was just released, everyone wants to know how this monitor performs, so I will analyze the advantages of the Thunderbird U9 series Mini LED monitor and whether it is worth buying. Let’s comprehensively analyze the advantages of the Thunderbird U9 and provide purchase recommendations.
How to Choose a Mini LED Monitor?
When choosing a Mini LED monitor, the first thing to consider is the type of panel. Generally speaking, the commonly seen VA and IPS panels in the market each have their advantages and different applicable scenarios.
Advantages of IPS Panels:
IPS panels perform better in viewing angles and color reproduction, and their response speed is also faster.
Advantages of VA Panels:
The advantage of VA panels mainly lies in their contrast and brightness, which are usually higher than those of IPS panels. Especially with more local dimming zones, they perform even better, maintaining excellent display effects in complex lighting environments, with better halo control, and VA panels are very suitable for ultra-wide curved screen designs, providing a stronger immersive experience.
However, many manufacturers have optimized and upgraded the shortcomings of VA panels. For example, the Thunderbird Mini LED monitor uses the Fast HVA panel from Huaxing Optoelectronics, which improves the high latency and poor color performance of traditional VA panels.
Compared to traditional VA or IPS panels, the Fast HVA panel not only retains the high contrast of VA panels but also compensates for the shortcomings in response time and color performance. Therefore, in my opinion, the Fast HVA panel can be considered the first choice among Mini LED monitors.
How is the Thunderbird Monitor?
Let me briefly talk about the Thunderbird brand. Thunderbird is a brand under TCL, which has a good reputation and cost-effectiveness in the television field. Although it has not been in the monitor field for long, it still provides a good user experience at a more affordable price thanks to the support of TCL and Huaxing Optoelectronics’ technology and supply chain.
The previous generation U8 monitor from Thunderbird carved out a path in the monitor market due to its picture quality performance and cost-effectiveness, receiving many positive reviews from users.
The newly released U9 series further enhances key parameters such as the number of zones, refresh rate, and contrast, especially doubling the number of zones to over 2000, but the price has only increased by a few hundred yuan, which is still very attractive. Many friends are eager to purchase one.
How does the Thunderbird U9 Series Mini LED Monitor Perform?
After discussing so much, let’s comprehensively analyze the performance of the newly released U9 series Mini LED monitor from several aspects: picture quality performance, panel advantages, color performance, practical functions, and appearance and interfaces to see how it performs and whether it is worth buying!
Picture Quality Performance: 2304 Local Dimming Zones Doubled
The biggest upgrade of the Thunderbird U9 this time is the increase in the number of local dimming zones, which has doubled from the original 1152 of the U8 to 2304, combined with 4K resolution and a peak brightness of up to 1600 nits, allowing the Thunderbird U9 to achieve the highest standard certification from VESA HDR. Not only is there a significant improvement compared to the previous generation U8, but even when compared to monitors of the same price and level, its number of zones is also the most competitive.
The increase in the number of zones allows the Thunderbird U9 to adjust the brightness of the picture more precisely, enabling users to experience subtle transitions in dark areas and transparency in bright areas, resulting in a more stunning visual effect. Whether it’s the starry sky scene in a movie or the fog effect in a game, the detail performance is distinct and immersive.
At the same time, the increase in the number of zones also means more precise backlight control, especially in scenes with light and dark transitions, reducing the halo effect commonly seen in traditional LED monitors, making edges clearer and more natural, resulting in a more realistic visual experience.
Panel Advantages: Fast HVA Screen for Ultimate Experience
Earlier, we mentioned that VA panels have some inherent defects, the most impactful being the response speed issue. The Thunderbird U9 adopts Huaxing Optoelectronics’ high-end Fast HVA panel, inheriting the high contrast advantage of VA panels. The contrast has further improved to 4000:1 while overcoming the slow response speed of traditional VA panels, achieving a GTG gray response speed of 1ms.
In actual gaming, the details of gunfire and environmental explosions are clear and without ghosting, allowing every detail in battle to be accurately presented, with almost no blurriness due to delay, providing an excellent experience.
The refresh rate has also been increased to 165Hz, which can meet most viewing and gaming needs, and supports Free-Sync and G-Sync technologies, effectively eliminating screen tearing. Whether playing shooting games like “CSGO” and “PUBG” or racing games like “Horizon 4”, a smooth visual experience can be obtained.
Color Performance
The Thunderbird U9 series has a display capability of 1.07 billion colors, covering 95% of the DCI-P3 color space and 99% of the sRGB color space. Coupled with QD quantum dot wide color gamut technology, the color reproduction and detail performance are also very good, not only meeting daily office and gaming needs but also easily handling professional color requirements for movies, image editing, and video editing.
Practical Features: Split Screen, KVM, and Eye Protection Mode
In addition to excellent picture performance, the Thunderbird U9 also has many practical features that greatly enhance the user experience. For example, it supports PIP (Picture in Picture) and PBP (Picture by Picture) dual-screen display, allowing easy switching between office and entertainment on the same screen, making it very convenient to view documents while working or play games while watching dramas.
The KVM function makes desktop connections simple, allowing control of multiple devices with one set of keyboard and mouse, with one-click switching for users operating on multiple platforms. Additionally, there is a low blue light eye protection mode designed for long-term office users, which significantly reduces blue light stimulation, making the screen’s brightness and color softer, making it more suitable for prolonged screen use, greatly reducing eye fatigue.
Appearance and Interfaces
Finally, regarding the appearance, many people chose the Thunderbird U8 because of its aesthetics, so the U9 continues the design of the U8, still in white, equipped with RGB colorful lighting effects, making it very stylish and visually appealing.
The monitor’s angle can be tilted, vertically, rotated left and right, and vertically rotated, with a very flexible adjustment range, suitable for multiple usage scenarios. In addition, the U9 series also offers 90W fast charging, reverse charging, and built-in speaker functions, making it suitable for users with limited desktop space.
Conclusion
Overall, the Thunderbird U9 series Mini LED monitor excels in picture quality, response speed, color performance, and functionality. Backed by TCL and Huaxing Optoelectronics, although the parameters are impressive, they can still control the overall cost well. It is almost difficult to find competitors in the same price range in the market, making it a highly cost-effective Mini LED monitor and definitely a worthwhile choice during the Double Eleven period.
If the budget allows and you want to experience an ultra-wide monitor, the 57-inch ultra-wide curved version of the Thunderbird U9 is also a great choice! The 32:9 ultra-wide view is equivalent to the width of two 27-inch 4K monitors, suitable for racing, flight simulation, and other games, providing a more immersive experience. During office work, multiple windows can run in parallel smoothly without the need to switch between dual screens, and you can also enjoy a cinema-level viewing experience, making it highly recommended for purchase.