Answer:
IPS glow is characterized as visible glowing around the corners of an IPS panel monitor. The glowing is more obvious in dark rooms when watching dark content at a high brightness setting.
It’s an expected drawback of the IPS technology, and it can be reduced by adding ambient lighting to your room, reducing the monitor’s brightness and changing the distance and angle you’re looking at the screen.
Looking for a way to reduce IPS glow?
Having second thoughts about buying an IPS monitor because of all the concerns regarding IPS glow?
In this article, you’ll find out what exactly IPS glow is, and what you can do to reduce it.
In short, IPS glow is a normal and expected drawback of IPS panel monitors and TVs caused by the excess light passing through the panel.
It shouldn’t be confused with backlight bleeding, which occurs in all LED-backlit panels and involves light leaking around the edges of the screen as the monitor’s bezel isn’t entirely blocking it.
How To Fix IPS Glow
First of all, we’ll address the majority of photos online depicting IPS glow.
If you crank up the display brightness to 100% in a pitch-black room with a dark background on-screen and then take a photo of it, not only will the camera make the glow look worse than it is, but it’s also not the proper way to measure IPS glow.
In the image above, you can see an example of IPS glow under unrealistic conditions. The image below is taken at a distance of around 1 meter with a brightness set to 120-nits from our BenQ PD3220U review.
As we have previously mentioned, glowing is expected to be visible in this scenario.
Luckily, you won’t be, or at least shouldn’t, looking at the screen under these conditions (high brightness in a pitch-black room) as it’s bad for your eyes.
Therefore, we recommend that you reduce the brightness if you are in a dark room, and increase it when looking at the screen during the day with plenty of sunlight in your room.
Further, IPS glow is usually more noticeable at certain angles, which is why it’s usually a bigger concern with larger IPS displays.
Try to tilt or adjust the height of your monitor so that the glowing is less visible from your viewing position. You can also try sitting a bit further away from the monitor.
Lastly, you can add more ambient lighting to your room. A standard desk lamp or some RGB LEDs behind your desk can greatly decrease the visibility of IPS glow.
Note that IPS glow varies across different units of the monitor due to panel variance, even if it’s the same model in question. In all but most extreme cases though, it’s manageable.
Some of LG’s newer IPS panel monitors feature an ATW polarizer that helps reduce IPS glow, including the LG 32GQ950, the LG 32GQ850 and the LG 32UQ85R.
Key Takeaways
- IPS glow is an expected drawback of IPS technology
- Its intensity can vary from unit to unit, so even if you have two same monitor models, they can have different levels of IPS glow
- Most images of IPS glow are exaggerated due to too high camera exposure and taking the image in a dark room with the monitor showing a dark background with a too high brightness setting
- To minimize IPS glow, ensure you’re looking at the screen at an optimal angle and viewing distance, lower the screen brightness if you’re in a dark room, and/or add ambient lighting behind your monitor
- If you don’t want to deal with IPS glow, consider an OLED panel as they’re free from all LED-backlit related visual artifacts, including backlight bleeding, IPS/VA glow, gamma shift, haloing, etc.
