How to Choose a Mini LED Monitor?
When choosing a Mini LED monitor, the first consideration is the type of panel. Generally, the commonly seen VA and IPS panels each have their advantages and are suitable for different scenarios.
Advantages of IPS Panels:
IPS panels perform better in viewing angles and color reproduction, and they also have faster response times.
Advantages of VA Panels:
The main advantages of VA panels are that their contrast and brightness are usually higher than that of IPS panels, especially with more local dimming zones, they perform exceptionally well in complex lighting environments, maintaining excellent display effects, 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, Thunderbird’s Mini LED monitor uses the Fast HVA panel from Huaxing Optoelectronics, which improves upon 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, making the Fast HVA panel the current first choice among Mini LED monitors.
Thunderbird is a brand under TCL, which has a good reputation and cost performance in the TV field. Although it has not been long since entering the monitor field, it still manages to offer a good user experience at a more affordable price, relying on the technology and industrial chain support from TCL and Huaxing Optoelectronics.
Thunderbird’s previous generation U8 monitor carved out a niche in the monitor market with its picture quality and cost performance, receiving many positive reviews from users.
The newly released U9 series further enhances core parameters such as the number of zones, refresh rate, and contrast, especially doubling the number of zones to over 2000, with only a slight price increase, making it a very appealing option.
The biggest upgrade of the Thunderbird U9 is the increase in the number of local dimming zones, which has doubled from the original 1152 of the U8 to 2304, combined with a 4K resolution and peak brightness of up to 1600 nits, allowing the Thunderbird U9 to achieve the highest standard certification of VESA HDR. This is a significant improvement over the previous generation U8, and even compared to monitors in the same price range, its number of zones is the most impressive.
The increase in the number of zones allows the Thunderbird U9 to adjust the brightness of the picture more precisely, enabling users to experience delicate transitions in dark areas and transparency in bright areas, resulting in a more stunning visual effect. Whether it’s the starry sky scenes in movies or the smoke effects in games, the details are distinct and immersive.
At the same time, the increase in the number of zones also means more precise backlight control, especially in scenes where brightness transitions occur, reducing the common halo effect seen in traditional LED monitors, making the edges clearer and more natural, resulting in a more realistic visual experience.
As mentioned earlier, VA panels have some inherent deficiencies, with the most impactful being the response speed issue. The Thunderbird U9 adopts the high-end Fast HVA panel from Huaxing Optoelectronics, inheriting the high contrast advantage of VA panels, with the contrast further increased 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 combat to be accurately presented, with almost no blur from latency, providing an excellent experience.
The refresh rate has also been increased to 165Hz, which meets the needs of most viewing and gaming scenarios, and it 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”, users can enjoy a silky smooth visual experience.
In terms of color performance, the Thunderbird U9 series has a display capability of 1.07 billion colors, covering 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 99% of the sRGB color gamut. Coupled with QD quantum dot wide color gamut technology, its color reproduction and detail performance are also very impressive, meeting not only daily office and gaming needs but also easily handling professional color requirements such as movie, image editing, and video editing.
In addition to excellent picture performance, the Thunderbird U9 also has many practical features that greatly enhance the user experience. For instance, it supports PIP (Picture-in-Picture) and PBP (Picture-by-Picture) dual-screen display, allowing seamless switching between work and entertainment on the same screen, making it convenient to work while watching materials or playing games while binge-watching shows.
The KVM function makes desktop connections simple, allowing control of multiple devices with a single set of keyboard and mouse, enabling one-click switching. This is especially useful for users who operate across multiple platforms. Additionally, there is a low blue light eye protection mode designed for users who spend long hours working, significantly reducing blue light stimulation, and the screen brightness and color softness are more suitable for prolonged viewing, greatly reducing eye fatigue.
Finally, regarding the appearance, many people chose the Thunderbird U8 for its aesthetics, so this time the U9 continues the U8’s design, still featuring a white color scheme and RGB lighting effects, making it very stylish and visually appealing.
The monitor’s angle can be tilted, vertically rotated, and horizontally rotated, providing a very flexible adjustment range to adapt to multiple usage scenarios. Furthermore, the U9 series also offers 90W fast charging, reverse charging, and built-in speaker functions, making it a versatile solution 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 specifications are impressive, it manages to control the overall cost well, making it hard to find competitors at the same price point in the market, making it a highly cost-effective Mini LED monitor that is definitely worth considering during the Double Eleven shopping festival.
If the budget allows, and you want to experience an ultra-wide monitor, the 57-inch ultra-wide curved screen version of the Thunderbird U9 is also a great choice! The 32:9 ultra-wide field of view is equivalent to the width of two 27-inch 4K monitors, suitable for racing, flight simulation games, providing a more immersive experience. During office work, multiple windows can run parallel efficiently and smoothly without needing to switch between dual screens, while also enjoying a cinema-level viewing experience, making it highly recommended.