euskalzabe
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- May 9, 2009
- Messages
- 1,478
Recently I got this nice little LG 29 WK600 monitor for $200 and thought I'd make a brief review on it, as I've found it is quite good value for the amount I paid. If you're looking for an ultrawide display that's easy for a midrange GPU to drive, and don't want a monstruous 34" display on your desk, consider checking this one out.
Specifications
You can check LG's website for more details, but the important stuff is: IPS (so, contrast ~1000:1), 2560x1080 (95 ppi at 29"), HDR10 signal support (not the same as being able to display it in its full glory), and 40-75 Freesync via HDMI or Displayport.
Design and Ergonomics
The "frameless" (aka thin borders all around) looks quite nice, since the frame is under the glass it does blend away and you kind of forget about it. The stand is wide but pretty "empty", so you still have space to put a few things around it on your desk (personally I hate wide/bulky bases where I can't put objects I need on my table).

Panel uniformity
Being an IPS, color reproduction is good (%99 RGB). The backlight is also quite well distributed. Subjectively, it's a uniform panel, but there is some moderate backlight bleed on the sides. This is not something that bothers me, but if you're sensitive to it you should take it into account. You can't really hold this against the panel at $200, considering there's many $600, $800 and up models that have this same issue.
Exaggerated bleed:

How it looks in real life:
Brightness and Contrast
It ships setup at %100 brightness - that's WAY too much for your eyes. I immediately took it down to %50 and that's great during the day, but keep in mind my desk is between two giant windows. If you're in a closed room, you may want to take it even lower. As for contrast, my previous VA definitely had inkier blacks, but you know what you're getting into if you buy IPS vs VA. Comparing to other IPS panels I've had, the black levels on this 29WK600 are quite good
Calibration
Colors were somewhat cold and bluish out of the gate, which is typical in most monitors that don't come color calibrated as blue light looks brighter than warm light. Once calibrated, greens became a bit muter, blues a bit better in their gradients, and reds a bit deeper. Overall the image is now warmer, in a good way - colors are more real-life like, which is the goal. I'm attaching my calibration profile in case that helps any other buyers (though keep in mind each monitor is a universe on its own, and my calibration may not be precise or accurate on your sample).




SRGB spectrum:

Viewing Angles
They're good, as it's an IPS panel. The only drawback I notice is on dark/mostly black screens, where looking at the display from the side creates a white/blue sheen. This is unlikely to be a problem as you don't normally view the monitor from an extreme angle, but it happens so you should know it. Colors themselves don't change, but that sheen is noticeable - it's most likely the anti-reflective coating picking light from the side and kind of bleeding through the panel. When it's off, sometimes I've thought it was actually on because the light from the other iMac in the room and from the windows was diffused through the panel, and it gave it that sheen. Again, not a problem in general use, just a quirk that I've noticed.
Left:

Right:

General use
Well, it's a 29" 1080p panel, so you know how much desktop space you have. I was using a 40" 4K TV before it, and at %150 scaling, I still had a bit more space to use the desktop. However, the ppi is enough to look detailed and crisp without looking pixelated, so it's fine - I don't think I'd like to go 34" 1080p, while workable, it'd be quite blocky (also there's no point on paying $100 more for the exact same panel just a bit bigger... if the panel doesn't improve, you shouldn't pay more for it). I mostly work on Excel, Word and Acrobat: Excel is great because you see many more columns. Word also works well because I zoom into the document when I'm working on something specific, but at %100 zoom I can view 3 full pages at once, giving me a more panoramic view of the document (keep in mind, I'm in the process of writing a 200+ page book... so this way of "mapping" the document without fully zooming out is very useful - you can see where you are in the document, while still being able to read the text). As for Acrobat, I enjoyed having the extra vertical space on 16:9 monitors to view scanned documents in a bigger size, but with this LG I can comfortably have 2 of them side by side, which was impossible before without the program having to zoom out the document and making it too small to read comfortably. So, in the case of PDFs, you win some and you lose some with this LG.
Gaming
It's wonderful, as long as you're looking for the ultrawide aspect ratio. I used to force-res 21:9 on my 16:9 4K TV, but the low response time on the monitor and the 75hz refresh rate make a big, big difference. Smoothness is quite noticeable, even if a small step up from 60hz it's obvious and welcome. I'm using a 1060 3GB to power it, so I haven't been able to enjoy Freesync yet, but I'm planning to get a Navi GPU in the spring, thus improving the value of this purchase.
ACU

DOOM

WD2

Movies and Video
16:9 video with black sidebars looks... fine. I thought it would bother me more (I'd rather have upper-lower black bars than sidebars), but you kind of forget about it. When watching Netflix/Hulu/Youtube I prefer this to my secondary, older 16:9 IPS because the LG's contrast and colors are much, much better. 21:9 video looks amazing, obviously, as you get the full size that would be letterboxed in a 16:9. Obvious thing is obvious
but buttom line is - colors, motion and lack of blur make this a decent display for video. Even playing PS4 on HDR, or Youtube HDR videos, the image looks fantastic. Fantastic, for $200. It's nowhere near the color gamut, contrast ratio and punch of my Vizio P55-F1, but that's a $1000 HDR1000 TV and this is a puny 300nit $200 monitor. For what it can display and what it costs, HDR on this thing looks good (certainly better than my "older" Samsung KU6290 4K TV that could process HDR10 but couldn't display it fully, that never looked good in HDR, unlike this LG).
Youtube HDR:





And here's are a couple videos while gaming:
And, while not ideal, still doable multi-monitor:
Overall, positive, but of course I'm keeping the $200 price tag constantly in mind. You can get bigger, better displays, but you'll also be paying double or triple the money. At that point, you're certainly getting diminishing returns. Personally, my goal was to get an HDR600 monitor in 2019, but as we're seeing the first of those models come out, the prices are a bit obnoxious ($700 for a 27"? $1000+ for a 32"? No thanks). Seeing that I'm going to have to wait a few years until HDR600 displays go down to around $500, this LG 29WK600 seemed like a good compromise: decent ppi, good refresh rate, useful for productivity and immersive for gaming; all while costing just $200 and doing all the monitor "basics" (brightness, contrast, color, response, adaptive sync) perfectly well. If that's what you're looking for, something to hold out until actual technological innovation becomes affordable, this is one good option. I was tempted by 34" ultrawides but I prefer to have a dual monitor setup, with a 16:9 screen that can work independently for other things without affecting the main ultrawide display (usually, the 16:9 displays my weekly calendar most of the day). Frankly, until 10bit panels with 1billion colors and 600nits go under $500, there's really NO point on paying more for panels like this LG that haven't really changed or improved much in the past 10 years. Pay little, get some good use out of it, and wait until actual advances become affordable. That's my 2 cents!
Specifications
You can check LG's website for more details, but the important stuff is: IPS (so, contrast ~1000:1), 2560x1080 (95 ppi at 29"), HDR10 signal support (not the same as being able to display it in its full glory), and 40-75 Freesync via HDMI or Displayport.
Design and Ergonomics
The "frameless" (aka thin borders all around) looks quite nice, since the frame is under the glass it does blend away and you kind of forget about it. The stand is wide but pretty "empty", so you still have space to put a few things around it on your desk (personally I hate wide/bulky bases where I can't put objects I need on my table).

Panel uniformity
Being an IPS, color reproduction is good (%99 RGB). The backlight is also quite well distributed. Subjectively, it's a uniform panel, but there is some moderate backlight bleed on the sides. This is not something that bothers me, but if you're sensitive to it you should take it into account. You can't really hold this against the panel at $200, considering there's many $600, $800 and up models that have this same issue.
Exaggerated bleed:

How it looks in real life:

Brightness and Contrast
It ships setup at %100 brightness - that's WAY too much for your eyes. I immediately took it down to %50 and that's great during the day, but keep in mind my desk is between two giant windows. If you're in a closed room, you may want to take it even lower. As for contrast, my previous VA definitely had inkier blacks, but you know what you're getting into if you buy IPS vs VA. Comparing to other IPS panels I've had, the black levels on this 29WK600 are quite good
Calibration
Colors were somewhat cold and bluish out of the gate, which is typical in most monitors that don't come color calibrated as blue light looks brighter than warm light. Once calibrated, greens became a bit muter, blues a bit better in their gradients, and reds a bit deeper. Overall the image is now warmer, in a good way - colors are more real-life like, which is the goal. I'm attaching my calibration profile in case that helps any other buyers (though keep in mind each monitor is a universe on its own, and my calibration may not be precise or accurate on your sample).




SRGB spectrum:

Viewing Angles
They're good, as it's an IPS panel. The only drawback I notice is on dark/mostly black screens, where looking at the display from the side creates a white/blue sheen. This is unlikely to be a problem as you don't normally view the monitor from an extreme angle, but it happens so you should know it. Colors themselves don't change, but that sheen is noticeable - it's most likely the anti-reflective coating picking light from the side and kind of bleeding through the panel. When it's off, sometimes I've thought it was actually on because the light from the other iMac in the room and from the windows was diffused through the panel, and it gave it that sheen. Again, not a problem in general use, just a quirk that I've noticed.
Left:

Right:

General use
Well, it's a 29" 1080p panel, so you know how much desktop space you have. I was using a 40" 4K TV before it, and at %150 scaling, I still had a bit more space to use the desktop. However, the ppi is enough to look detailed and crisp without looking pixelated, so it's fine - I don't think I'd like to go 34" 1080p, while workable, it'd be quite blocky (also there's no point on paying $100 more for the exact same panel just a bit bigger... if the panel doesn't improve, you shouldn't pay more for it). I mostly work on Excel, Word and Acrobat: Excel is great because you see many more columns. Word also works well because I zoom into the document when I'm working on something specific, but at %100 zoom I can view 3 full pages at once, giving me a more panoramic view of the document (keep in mind, I'm in the process of writing a 200+ page book... so this way of "mapping" the document without fully zooming out is very useful - you can see where you are in the document, while still being able to read the text). As for Acrobat, I enjoyed having the extra vertical space on 16:9 monitors to view scanned documents in a bigger size, but with this LG I can comfortably have 2 of them side by side, which was impossible before without the program having to zoom out the document and making it too small to read comfortably. So, in the case of PDFs, you win some and you lose some with this LG.
Gaming
It's wonderful, as long as you're looking for the ultrawide aspect ratio. I used to force-res 21:9 on my 16:9 4K TV, but the low response time on the monitor and the 75hz refresh rate make a big, big difference. Smoothness is quite noticeable, even if a small step up from 60hz it's obvious and welcome. I'm using a 1060 3GB to power it, so I haven't been able to enjoy Freesync yet, but I'm planning to get a Navi GPU in the spring, thus improving the value of this purchase.
ACU

DOOM

WD2

Movies and Video
16:9 video with black sidebars looks... fine. I thought it would bother me more (I'd rather have upper-lower black bars than sidebars), but you kind of forget about it. When watching Netflix/Hulu/Youtube I prefer this to my secondary, older 16:9 IPS because the LG's contrast and colors are much, much better. 21:9 video looks amazing, obviously, as you get the full size that would be letterboxed in a 16:9. Obvious thing is obvious
Youtube HDR:





And here's are a couple videos while gaming:
And, while not ideal, still doable multi-monitor:
Overall, positive, but of course I'm keeping the $200 price tag constantly in mind. You can get bigger, better displays, but you'll also be paying double or triple the money. At that point, you're certainly getting diminishing returns. Personally, my goal was to get an HDR600 monitor in 2019, but as we're seeing the first of those models come out, the prices are a bit obnoxious ($700 for a 27"? $1000+ for a 32"? No thanks). Seeing that I'm going to have to wait a few years until HDR600 displays go down to around $500, this LG 29WK600 seemed like a good compromise: decent ppi, good refresh rate, useful for productivity and immersive for gaming; all while costing just $200 and doing all the monitor "basics" (brightness, contrast, color, response, adaptive sync) perfectly well. If that's what you're looking for, something to hold out until actual technological innovation becomes affordable, this is one good option. I was tempted by 34" ultrawides but I prefer to have a dual monitor setup, with a 16:9 screen that can work independently for other things without affecting the main ultrawide display (usually, the 16:9 displays my weekly calendar most of the day). Frankly, until 10bit panels with 1billion colors and 600nits go under $500, there's really NO point on paying more for panels like this LG that haven't really changed or improved much in the past 10 years. Pay little, get some good use out of it, and wait until actual advances become affordable. That's my 2 cents!
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