- The first 8K 120Hz monitor recently shown off at Display Week event
- Real-world use for 8K monitors still feels far out of reach though
- Display makers keep building while the market remains unconvinced
At the recent Display Week 2025 event, Chinese firm BOE showed off the first-ever 31.5-inch 8K monitor capable of running at 120Hz.
The CR3000 offers a contrast ratio of 8000:1, a color gamut of 99% DCI-P3, and also supports 240Hz in 4K mode.
BOE, which is the largest panel maker in the world and was also a sponsor of the show, told 8K Association it expects to begin mass production later in 2025, although details on pricing and final product integration are still unknown.
Other 8K panels on show
Display Week often serves as a glimpse into where display tech may be headed rather than where it currently is. That pattern continued this year with a number of other 8K panels on show.
TCL/CSOT brought an inkjet-printed OLED 8K TV panel, a project built partly from its acquisition of JOLED, and SEL surprised attendees with an 8.3-inch 8K LCD panel that offered over 1,000ppi, making it the sharpest full-color LCD shown to date.
As well as its 8K 120Hz beast, BOE had a number of other products on show. These included the latest version of its miniLED UB Cell 4.0 ADS Pro TVs, which aim to challenge OLED with deeper contrast and better efficiency, and an 85-inch 4K panel with an RGB backlight system running in a filterless mode that could one day reduce power usage and complexity, especially in 8K applications.
It also had a 3D display prototype with eye-tracking based on a 16K development. Although still early-stage, the image quality and parallax control impressed those who got to see it in action.
Still ahead of its time
BOE’s CR3000 panel arrives at a time when the broader market is still catching up to high refresh 4K gaming, let alone 8K.
While PC gamers have begun to see mainstream GPUs offer stable 4K60 gameplay, pushing that four times over in resolution and double in refresh raises some difficult questions. Upscaling and frame generation may be more of a necessity than a feature if such a panel is to be usable for gaming or creative work.
While I can’t help but be impressed by BOE’s 8K 120Hz monitor, it feels like it’s ahead of its time. The hardware to drive it effectively doesn’t exist at scale, and most buyers likely aren’t ready for what would surely be a high-cost niche product.
8K monitors were expected to hit the mainstream a few years ago, but that didn’t happen. This latest panel might be technically impressive, but I for one am not convinced the world is ready for it.
