No one really enjoys flying cattle class unless they are an excited child or 5'5" tall." You have to put up with long lines, uncomfortable seats, (at best) average food, and poor in-flight entertainment. The latter is certainly better on more modern airliners, but the screens usually leave something to be desired.

Thankfully, that is slowly starting to change: according to Display Daily (via Ars Technica), Panasonic Avionics will begin rolling out the Astrova in-flight entertainment system. That means no more miserable low-resolution LCD screens with terrible contrast ratios, terrible color reproduction, and terrible viewing angles; 4K OLED screens with HDR, multi-channel audio, 100W USB-C charging ports, and built-in Bluetooth support are on the way.

I love it already. I'm tall at 194 cm, so I don't begrudge the recline of the seat in front of me, but even when I adjust the angle as much as possible, I often have to put up with the screen looking down on me from above. In some cases, the screen becomes difficult to see, so the use of a screen with an excellent viewing angle improves usability dramatically.

Switching to an OLED screen means much better color reproduction, contrast ratio, and less motion blur. It should be noted that crappy LCD screens do not handle well when the car is completely bright. The same is true when it gets dark. Simply adjusting the overall brightness does not produce amazing results. With deeper blacks, HDR should help balance day and night viewing. It gets better and better.

Astrova supports multi-channel audio and Bluetooth. Anyone who flies frequently knows how useful noise-canceling headphones can be. One time, while boarding an Airbus A330, I tore off the wired dual 3.5mm adapter and had to buy another pair while in transit. Another time I left the adapter on the plane; the direct Bluetooth connection saves me the money of buying an adapter.

I also love that it has a USB-C port capable of supplying 100W of power. This will be useful for powering a thirsty laptop or game console on the plane, or for powering wireless earbuds. These ports are supposed to be available throughout the flight, but we'll have to wait and see what individual flight attendants have to say about that.

The system will debut on Icelandair's Airbus A321 Neo LR aircraft. Passengers can expect 16-inch Astrova OLED monitors in business class and 13 inches in economy class. Australia's Qantas also plans to install this system on its ultra-long-haul aircraft. Such flights can last close to 20 hours of flight time, so even if passengers need to have their legs amputated at the end of a long flight in economy class, at least they can enjoy it before they do.