Best large format displays of 2021: top large screens for your business
Buying the best large format display (LFD) that your budget can stretch to can pay dividends when it comes to promoting your business.
Not only do the best large format displays you’ll find on this page help you display adverts and branding for your company, they can be used to display information for your customers, and this can be especially important if that information changes regularly, which makes large format displays a wiser investment than traditional printed posters.
The best large format displays can also make any shop, office or restaurant feel modern and vibrant.
So what are large format displays? They aren’t just super-sized monitors, but high definition displays that range from 32-inches to over 100-inches, and they often have super-thin bezels that surround the screens. This allows single LFDs to show off images, footage and more without wasting any space, and it also allows you to link together multiple LFDs to create one super-large display as well.
Buying the best large format display for your business can be a tricky process, so let us show you the top LFDs on sale.
Most of the best large format displays aren’t cheap, but they offer a premium experience that brings out the best of content thanks to dazzling panels, a wide range of connectivity options and useful integrated online services.
We picked out the best large format displays for companies that won’t want to compromise, and for those that do, we’ve also thrown in a few budget or two.
Download Installation 2021 Pro AV Tech report for free
Professional AV magazine, Installation, has just released a market outlook report on the application of AV systems and tech in the corporate, education, residential, and retail & hospitality sectors, (plus an audio tech focus) which is aimed at both integrators and users. Download it now for free for in-depth analysis and insights.View Deal
Best large format displays – at a glance
- Sony FWD-85Z9G 85-inch 8K Smart Commercial IPTV
- NEC MultiSync X981UHD-2 98-inch 4K
- Sharp 8MB70AUU 70-inch 8K Commercial Monitor
- LG 84WS70B 84-inch 4K UHD
- NEC MultiSync E905 SST E Series 90” LED
- Samsung QM85D 85” 4K Ultra HD LED
- iiyama ProLite LE8640UH-B1 86” LED 4K Ultra HD
- BenQ CP8601K DuoBoard 86-inch 4K UHD Interactive Flat Panel
Spanning 85 inches, this mammoth large format display is pretty while also costing a pretty penny. It justifies its premium price tag as it uses the latest 8K screen tech, which flaunts four times the number of pixels as 4K and 16 times that of a regular 1080p TV.
This stunning display is optimized for professional display applications and uses Sony is X1 Altimus image processor combined with 8K X-Reality PRO to display high-contrast HDR images packed with detail, rich color and exceptional contrast. It runs Android 8.0, so you can display content from other devices using its inbuilt IPTV service or integrated Chromecast capabilities.
Boasting a giant 98-inch display, this model opt for a more sensible 4K resolution, rather than 8K, which lends it a greater degree of compatibility with content that’s out in the wild. Designed for use in control rooms or large training rooms where ultra-high definition is required, it is also compatible with a range of NEC solutions.
They include the company’s NEC MultiPresenter Stick, its wireless presentation solution for NEC Displays, and it also supports multiple simultaneous connections on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
If you are looking for a large format display that doubles down on image quality, this sizeable screen sports high color gamut coverage which makes it ideal for streaming video services.
The secret sauce here is its high dynamic range (or HDR), which expands the contrast ratio and color pallet to display a more realistic and natural image. With a maximum brightness of 400 nits, it’s not going to blow you away, but it’s more than adequate for showing content in anything but the brightest of rooms.
LG has been making top-tier displays for years, many of which have appeared on smartphones and, more recently, virtual reality headsets. This 84-inch 4K large format carries over that quality to deliver high-contrast, true-to-life images.
The display totes high-color-gamut coverage, which combined with HDR is ideal for streaming a range of video services. The 84WS70B also packs impressive sound which can be fine-tuned for the environment, allowing you to choose from Standard, Music, Cinema, Sports and Games modes.
There aren’t many large format displays that have multitouch, which makes the NEC MultiSync E905 SST an interesting option. It’s hardly a small screen at 90-inches across the diagonal, but it can be interacted with up to 6 simultaneous touch points thanks to NEC’s ShadowSense technology.
An advanced optical position sensing technology, it uses high-performance sensors to provide high performance, stability, and accuracy. The display also sports an anti-reflective coating to reduce reflections to a minimum, which makes content displayed on it easier to read.
Samsung’s QM85D is a large format display that sports an impressive 120Hz refresh rate, which makes movements across the display – whether that’s dragging windows and other content or watching a video – appear much smoother while reducing stutter.
This model also packs UHD upscaling, which is useful for displaying full HD content in 4K. Another handy feature is the QM85D’s ability to divide the entire screen into four quadrants using PIP (Picture-in-Picture) mode, allowing you to share content from up to four different devices.
This ProLite model is a large format display with a sharp 4K resolution. It features a slim design with hardly any noticeable bezel, which allows content on its IPS LED panel to shine when combined with its exceptional colors and image performance.
Plus, it comes with iiyama’s iiSignage content creation and management software, which is a boon for businesses who want to get their messages across to clients. Its built-in expansion slot supports the Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) standard, which simplifies the installation of a plug-in PC for digital signage applications.
More than a display, the BenQ CP8601K DuoBoard IFP is unlike any other meeting room display on the market. It features all the hardware and tools meeting participants need — HD video camera, speakers, a six-microphone array, video conferencing, and cloud-based screen sharing, annotation, and collaboration features — without hassling with separate, incompatible software and systems.
This all-in-one hub allows multiple meeting participants to access files from any software or cloud service such as Google or Dropbox and share the screen with up to four other people with simple to use annotation tools. Participants can collect, categorize, edit, and share notes between the IFP and their mobile devices or laptops from anywhere and save them to their cloud storage.
Get compelling out-of-the-box features that benefit not only in-person and remote teams but also IT and tech managers. Perhaps our most favorite feature allows organizations with robust meeting and visualization needs to combine two DuoBoards together for double the collaboration space.
What Is an Interactive Flat Panel?
We queried Claire Mc Lin, Senior Product Manager for Enterprise Collaboration Solutions & Google Jamboard at BenQ America Corp, about the ubiquitous Interactive Flat Panel and how it differs from other large format display on the market.
An interactive flat panel (IFP) is to the meeting place what the smart device is to everyday life: convenient, easy to use, and a veritable Swiss Army knife of capabilities. These displays are engineered to bring more interactivity and collaboration to meetings. Meetings joined from an IFP allow participants — whether they’re remote or in person— promote the smooth, unlimited exchange of ideas.
The appeal of these displays is that they parallel the ease at which people use smart devices such as a cell phone or a tablet, while providing a large enough picture to be visible to everyone. Leading models range from 55 inches up to 86 inches and feature up to 20 points of touch allowing more than one person to work at the screen simultaneously.
What sets apart one IFP brand from another is their capabilities. Ideally, they’re as intuitive as using a smart device. Advanced IFPs include cloud-driven collaborative tools that boost innovation and productivity while cutting down or eliminating help desk calls.
Typical features include digital whiteboarding and annotation. From there they might include customizable screen capture of apps, websites, or videos; pens with different color “ink”; and handwriting recognition that converts hard-to-read handwriting into text.
IFPs also help keep the meeting room flexible. For example, options such as two-way mirroring enables users to present to the screen using their personal laptop or smart device from anywhere without connecting to HDMI cables. Two-way touch control allows certain devices to be controlled directly from the IFP.
In addition, IFPs create dynamic, scalable collaboration onscreen with the ability to share multiple screens simultaneously; some brands permit as many as four screens to be presented at once. For work environments where more screen space is needed, some innovative panels can be mounted side-by-side and their work surfaces combined for twice the collaboration space.
Furthering the flexibility, users don’t need to bring a device to the room in order to present. Instead, they can directly access content from the network or cloud applications such as Google Drive and Dropbox by simply logging in. Some models make this step incredibly simple with user badges that can be scanned at the screen.
IFPs are also designed with IT and technology management advantages. Centralized remote control and monitoring capabilities lower the cost of ownership and energy consumption. Updates that can be done over-the-air (OTA) are an efficient way to roll out new firmware and keep them running smoothly. What are IFPs? They’re the future of meetings and collaboration.
