The $1099 Innocn 48Q1V ticks a lot of boxes for me. It’s a 4K OLED PC monitor with DisplayPort and HDMI 2.1 inputs, a matte finish and a refresh rate that tops out at 138Hz – oh, and it’s gigantic at 48 inches. As a fan of OLED technology in the living room, I was eager to adopt one as a PC monitor – and find out if I could use it like a regular LCD without worrying about burn-in. One month in, I’ve got some preliminary results to share.
To test out the 48Q1V, I pulled no punches and used it as I would any other high-end PC gaming monitor – that means high brightness settings, no auto-hiding the taskbar, no dark themes and no blank wallpapers. The 48Q1V saw a lot of Adobe Premiere usage during these tests, with hours of static imagery, and I also tested a wide range of games in both HDR and SDR to assess its performance on that front. The results are overwhelmingly positive – but there are some definite caveats as well.
The 48Q1V is based around one of LG’s TV-sized OLED panels and comes in a TV-sized box, but the rest of the design is completely different with a speaker bar covered in soft gray fabric. Below that, there are five adjustment buttons and a power switch; a remote is also provided for changing settings. There’s a height-adjustable stand too, with tilt but no swivel, plus a 200×200 VESA mount via an adapter plate for wall-mounting. I did try attaching it to my Ergotron monitor arm, but of course it was too heavy to be supported.
The back of the monitor is similarly minimalist, with a DisplayPort 1.4 input, three HDMI 2.1 inputs, USB-A and USB-C ports (the latter with 65W Power Delivery), and a 3.5mm audio output. There is also a C5 power connector with a built-in power supply which is handy plus two RGB LED strips running along the left and right side of the display with multiple modes of illumination. It’s a nice-looking monitor but the permanently-attached speaker bar adds to the height and may not be to everyone’s tastes, although it does produce results that are vastly superior to typical built-in monitor speakers with reasonable clarity and even some low-end representation.