Short answer: IPS glow changes when you move your head. Backlight bleed doesn’t. Glow is common to IPS panels as a type, while bleed varies from one unit to the next, so a bad case of bleed is worth returning. If you bought online in the EU, you have 14 days to send a monitor back without giving any reason, so test it in the first evening, not the second week.
The 30-second test
- Darken the room and put a full-screen black image on the monitor at your normal brightness.
- Sit where you normally sit and note any bright corners or edges.
- Move your head up, down and sideways, or tilt the screen. RTINGS’ black uniformity guide describes the same check: move the screen or look from different angles and see whether the corners change.
If the bright patches shift, grow or fade as you move, it’s IPS glow. If they stay in the same place and the same shape from every angle, it’s backlight bleed, or clouding if the patches sit away from the edges.
| IPS glow | Backlight bleed / clouding | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Corners | Edges, corners, or patches across the screen |
| When you move your head | Changes | Stays put |
| Which panels | IPS | Any LCD: IPS, VA, TN |
| Cause | Seeing the panel at an angle | Uneven backlight, which varies between units |
| Our call on an exchange | Rarely worth it | Worth it if you see it at normal brightness |
Why glow appears and how to reduce it
RTINGS explains IPS glow as the corners getting brighter because you see them at an angle. If the top of the screen is at eye level, you look at the bottom of the screen from below, and the bottom corners glow. Its advice is to sit with your eyes level with the centre of the screen. Even then the corners are at an angle, which is why some glow stays on any IPS panel.
Which panel type has the evenest blacks
RTINGS measures black uniformity on every monitor it buys: it displays a white cross on a black screen, photographs it, and calculates how far the result deviates from an ideal display (lower is better). Its averages by panel type:
| Panel type | Monitors tested | Average deviation |
|---|---|---|
| OLED | 41 | 0.203% |
| VA | 83 | 2.030% |
| IPS | 195 | 2.357% |
| TN | 28 | 2.995% |
The real gap is OLED against everything else, about ten times lower. Between LCD types the averages sit close together, 2.0% to 3.0%, and RTINGS’ standard deviation within each type is about one percentage point. On top of that, “uniformity varies between units”, so two monitors of the same model can differ. A VA monitor isn’t a cure for bleed. What it does avoid is IPS glow, one reason to look at a VA model like the one in our AOC Q27G42XNE review if you play in the dark.
What to do if your new monitor bleeds
- Bought online from a shop in the EU: you can cancel within 14 days of delivery without giving a reason. You usually pay the return postage, unless the seller offers to cover it or didn’t tell you about the cost before you bought. You don’t have to argue that the bleed is a defect.
- After 14 days: you’re relying on the two-year legal guarantee. That covers faulty goods, but there’s no agreed threshold for when bleed counts as a fault (see below), so expect to argue your case with photos taken at your normal brightness, not at maximum.
- Bought from a private seller: neither right applies. Ask to see the screen on a black image before you pay.
- Before you return it: lower the brightness to where you actually use it. Bleed that’s only visible at 100% in a pitch-black room may not be worth a swap that comes back with a different flaw.
Our verdict
Mild IPS glow is the price of IPS colours and viewing angles. Accept it, or buy VA or OLED if you mostly play dark games at night. Backlight bleed you can see from your seat at your normal brightness is a unit problem: return it while the 14-day window is open. If deep blacks matter more than budget, OLED is the only panel type that removes both problems. Our QD-OLED text fringing guide covers the trade-off OLED brings instead, and our best gaming monitor under €200 picks are for tighter budgets.
What we could not verify
We searched for LG, Dell and ASUS backlight-bleed policies and found no published numeric threshold, only user forum threads describing individual support cases. So there’s no number to quote to a shop. Treat any “allowed amount of bleed” a seller mentions as that seller’s policy, not a standard.
