So you can welcome me to the club I guess… I'd like to share my experience with my purchase of the laptop in subj after my previous laptop's CPU went on fire.
Old laptop (purchased 2018): ASUS Zenbook Pro UX550VE-BN109R Intel Core i5-7300HQ/8Gb DDR4/512GB SSD PCIEG3x4 M2/15,6" FHD 1920x1080 IPS/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4Gb/WiFi/BT/Camera/Illum KB/Windows 10 Pro/1.8Kg /Black/Mouse+Bag
Panel: N156HCE-EN1 (Innolux) (review)
-- Great experience, no issues whatsoever , I never knew such problem existed.
Attempt #1 (2023, returned) : Asus Zenbook 15 UM3504DA-BN265 Full HD (1920x1080), IPS, AMD Ryzen 7 7735U, CPU: 8 х 2.7 Hhz, RAM 16 ГБ, SSD 512 ГБ, AMD Radeon 680M , no OS
Panel: NV156FHM-N6E (BOE)
-- Cannot concentrate on text (as if eye concentrates 1mm above the surface of text), too bright white color hits the eyes, trying to decrease brightness does not help as everything else becomes dim too. As a result you move brightness up and down, never finding a comfortable level. Also what I noticed is a strange 'dynamic moiré' effect when trying to film the scree from my phone. I assume this has to do with some film they insert into these new IPS panels that causes this dynamic moiré and potentially causes eye strain issues too.
Since I very much liked the model itself, it's just my kind of laptop, I decided to try the same model in OLED which I have not tried before.
Attempt #2 (2023, returned): ASUS ZenBook 15 OLED UM3504DA-MA305 2880x1620, OLED, AMD Ryzen 7 7735U, CPU: 8 х 2.7 Hhz, RAM 16 ГБ, SSD 1000 ГБ, AMD Radeon 680M , no OS
Panel: Samsung ATNA56AC02-1 (SDC4180) OLED (you can read more detailed review here)
-- This is the first time I tried to go with OLED and honestly it just did not work for me. First of all, this particular screen exhibits 240 Hz PWM on all brightness levels (despite being TUV flicker-free certified). Moreover, it flickers with 33% modulation at highest brightness (it would not be a problem and would even fit IEEE standard for flickering if it was under 10% modulation, but 33% is not within the 'safe' realm). Secondly, I observed that in dark theme, say, in Visual Studio Code or another IDE it exhibits some greater lever of flicker, which was clearly seen on camera. The screen basically starts to flash (invisible to an eye, but very visible on slow-mo camera mode, you would not see this effect on light theme). I think it may be connected to the fact that for OLED screens it's hard to display 'almost black/gray' color (and probably TUV measures flicker in some very ideal conditions, not in 'dark theme' in IDE). Finally, the glossy screen is just not the right fit for darker theme set-ups & code editing due to lots of reflection (it's ok when screen is bright but in dark mode not so much). As an observer though , I could sustain 8 hours in front of this screen with only mild pain and dryness in the eyes, at least in the first day, but who knows what it would get to if it was everyday. It's still much worse than good old 5-year old IPS in terms of eye comfort. and I just cannot use it in dark mode. So OLED is not for me.
Apart from sharing this experience with the community about these particular panels, I'd also like to ask for a piece of advise. Basically, I am now looking for a new laptop. Being always loyal to ASUS, I've been considering multiple ASUS models. But I notice that almost all of them are now using BOE matrices (in rare cases AUO, Innolux ONLY in low-tier models with ntsc 45% which also does not work). Here are some examples I am considering:
OPTIONS FOR ATTEMPT #3:
3.1) ASUS VivoBook 16X K3605VU-PL089 90NB11Z1-M003F0 16" WQXGA 2560x1600 400nit 144 Hz nVidia GeForce RTX 4050 [2023] (asus)
Panel: BOE NE160QDM-NX3 (I figured this out by asking on an ebay analogue a person who owns this laptop; interestingly, the info about this panel is not published on panelook, but a similar mode I suspect is this). I also found out that this matrix is used in Redmi Pro 16, which seems to be a new 'cheap chinese macbook' but available only on Chinese market.
3.2) ASUS VivoBook 16X K3605VC-N1110 90NB11D1-M005D0 16" WUXGA 1920x1200 300nit 120 Hz nVidia GeForce RTX 3050 .. or Asus Vivobook 16 Pro K6602ZC
Panel: BOE NE160WUM-NX1 (this I just found on panelook based on characteristics)
My question is: is there any chance that either BOE panel would work for me if attempt #1 was a failure, or am I screwed and better look for other options right away? Is it worth a try and which of the two has higher chances?
Unfortunately, I could not find any convincing reviews about either panel, but maybe someone could guide based on his/her experience. Thanks in advance!