LG Ultragear 27" OLED 240hz 1440P 27GR95QE-B

[Comixbooks]

https://tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/lg-27gr95qe-oled






Started a thread because these are dropping on Jan 23rd 2023

 

[Comixbooks]

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gr95qe-b

 

[Comixbooks]

Reading the comments section for the above video the monitor can be adjusted in Win 11 HDR which is 20 percent by default which can make the monitor plenty bright.

 

[LigTasm]

I was ready to jump on this but I saw its a matte screen.. oh hell no. Nope. Uh uh.

 

[legcramp]

Is there something similar that's 120-144hz OLED but cheaper?

 

[Comixbooks]

This is the first Smaller high refresh monitor out there launches today a Asus Swift 27 inch is on the way assuming the same Panel. I'm just wondering if they will be instock today or if the button will show out if stock. Your paying for the tech not really the realestate. I'm sure the price will go down but not until demand goes down. LG couldn't sell a OLED TV worth a damn so they went with monitors.

 

[Chief Blur Buster]

I was ready to jump on this but I saw its a matte screen.. oh hell no. Nope. Uh uh.

LG is offering the desktop panel in a glossy format to monitor vendors that ask for glossy version.

Check for announcements of glossy OLEDs. Dough announced one for the Spectrum glossy 27" 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, there might be others soon too.

Petition your favourite monitor brand to ask for the glossy option.

 

[LigTasm]

LG is offering the desktop panel in a glossy format to monitor vendors that ask for glossy version.

Check for announcements of glossy OLEDs. Dough announced one for the Spectrum glossy 27" 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, there might be others soon too.

Petition your favourite monitor brand to ask for the glossy option.

Oh thats good to hear~!

I use the Gigabyte FO48U right now and its fantastic just a little too large for online FPS play, its just too much screen space to react fast enough to.

 

[sgupta]

Giving this one a go as I need something fairly immediately and haven't been thrilled with two 32"ers I've tried. Wish me luck =)

 

[kasakka]

Dough announced one for the Spectrum glossy 27" 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, there might be others soon too.

Just don't buy that one though. Dough is Eve which is pretty close to a scam. People are still waiting for their orders for their previous LCD model from last year.

 

[KazeoHin]

Yeah I'm in agreement that a matte coating on an OLED is rubbish.

A matte coating is for reducing reflections in a bright environment.
OLEDs are not great for bright environments.
Matte coatings demonstrably reduce contrast.
An OLED's largest strength is its contrast.

A matte coating literally kills every reason to own an OLED other than it's pixel response.

 

[Chief Blur Buster]

BTW, what I noticed that some of the OLED coatings are slightly semigloss, moreso than a typical esports LD.

Still matte but definitely way more glossy than LCD coatings I've seen. The Xeneon Flex seems to be far glossier than an old BenQ 144Hz monitor or ASUS 240Hz monitor (various monitors lying around my office), if you need a reference point. Those monitors need to survive the bright stadium esports lighting so they need to be way more matte, but I definitely agree OLED matte coatings need to be glossier. And it definitely is.

That being said, I need to compare more coatings, however, reviewers should do some tests on the coatings.

Most offices have intermediate lighting, e.g. a lamp that's on in the same room, behind the screen. So some models seem to aim for the Goldilocks Compromise (even if imperfectly).

For example -- My Corsair Xeneon Flex unit, sitting here on my desk (now that reviewers have posted reviews, I can talk a bit more without worrying about NDAs, given my current line of work is on 240Hz OLEDs), has stunning contrast in mildly-lit rooms. I have a window about 15 feet to the left, but the rest of the room has no windows, and I have two lamps turned on. My ambient light is less than a brightly lit office, but brighter than most esports cave. So I come from that angle, that the matte coating has some benefits through parts of the day, without sacrificing too much OLED contrast at night. However, I do adore glossy screens too, though know their pros/cons.

...Note: For those who ask, please know that I am not reviewing OLED monitors -- I'm actually working on other aspects (e.g. laboratory quality testing etc). I leave actual testing to review websites, many who are users of various Blur Busters invention, and it is not my business to compete with reviewers who use my tools....

...Note 2: Yes, I love the flat during Visual Studio work, and the curve during gaming. I'm not big on curved monitors, but this is a fantastic curved monitor for curved-haters. It's kind of crazy to have that option to add or remove a curve on the monitor. The curve is continual adjustable to any radius from perfectly flat to 800R, or any slight curve in between, to make sure my head is in the perfect sweet spot (center of the curved arc), based on my preferred viewing distance. I'm always in the sweet spot in Flight Simulator 2020. If you don't want a dedicated sim rig and you want something MUCH more convenient and reliable than multimonitor, this is an unorthodox chameleon option to turn an ordinary office/dorm/bedroom/tidy/neat computer desk (that isn't a dedicated rig) temporarily into something almost rig-worthy, then back to good old-fashioned clutter-free distraction-free office productivity, bringing out the Thrustmaster and then putting it away, resulting in a super-tidy office desk ready to continue mudaniety, in no time flat....

Regardless, assuming the ASUS uses a similar coating, I can say that the coating seems to be (mostly) a non-issue for me. The low DPI of a 45" 2560x1440 means high frames per second per square inch, and that is my priority -- I'll sacrifice a little dpi to get more framerate per square foot (or square meter) of display -- so I can get 240fps 240Hz "near 0ms GtG" strobeless motion blur reduction across all the 45" -- so the lower density pixels aren't smeared noticeably to my eyes by the semigloss antiglare. The two things (A) lower pixel density; and (B) semi gloss, eliminates a lot of the contrast-degrade disadvantage, which is usually more noticeable at higher pixel densities as lower pixel density reduce matte-coating-related contrast-reducing blooms around pixels, etc. In fact, photographs of subpixels are extremely visible without major contrast ratio reduction. But my room is not your room, and vice-versa. Just saying the antiglare coating doesn't seem to blast major disadvantage on my personal desk, for my specific room lighting, at least for the Corsair unit. Make sure you also have a lintfree cloth, the light semigloss antiglare is glossy enough picks up fingerprints easily.

To estimate the semi-glossiness of my OLED coating, if I put my smartphone lockscreen next to the If I hold up a smartphone 90-degree perpendicular against the display, smartphone left or right edge touching the display -- I can read the reflected image of the lockscreen clock! (digits are blurry but readable) I can't do that on any of my ASUS or BenQ LCD monitors (smartphone screen reflection is a complete blur even for the big lockscreen clock digits). So the Corsair Flex "semigloss matte" coating seems significantly glossier than a typical esports monitor. But that's just an observation, and I should caveat that my unit is not a mass-production unit...

People still notice OLED's improved contrast on both LG and Samsung, including the Alienware matte coating, so while a tradeoff, it's something that an end user has to decide for themselves.

Not all matte coatings are the same, and sometimes manufacturers try to do a compromise (semigloss matte). It also protects the OLED, given that OLED pixels are illuminating less than a millimeter away from my finger touching the monitor -- so protective coatings are useful insurance for a desktop monitor too. So kinda a compromise -- but it works out contrast-excellently for my specific room lighting regime.

That being said, I'm extremely glad there will be full glossy option(s) available for the need.

TIP: Always download Better ClearType Tuner on any OLED, regardless of LG or Samsung, and play around with the settings to optimize the quality of text, while viewing a few webpages of various color text. Out of box text can sometimes have problems, then it looks much better after tuned.

 

[sgupta]

Just my two cents on the matte coating: while I would have preferred glossy and am curious what ASUS and Dough will be doing, as someone who's just tried two (one edge-lit, one full array local dimming) 32's (and was underwhelmed by the local dimming sacrifices) and is coming from a 10+ year old Dell IPS 27" where the darkest it gets with the backlight is gray, I sincerely doubt it'll be an issue for me. The contrast is still gonna blow the pants off the others. That said, I haven't actually received it yet, and there are a lot of questions (if I'll be happy with the color presets out of the box or if the brightness will be enough for me in a usually dim room, for instance). Looks like it may come tomorrow! Definitely excited to give it a try!

 

[KazeoHin]

BTW, what I noticed that some of the OLED coatings are slightly semigloss, moreso than a typical esports LD.

Still matte but definitely way more glossy than LCD coatings I've seen. The Xeneon Flex seems to be far glossier than an old BenQ 144Hz monitor or ASUS 240Hz monitor (various monitors lying around my office), if you need a reference point. Those monitors need to survive the bright stadium esports lighting so they need to be way more matte, but I definitely agree OLED matte coatings need to be glossier. And it definitely is.

That being said, I need to compare more coatings, however, reviewers should do some tests on the coatings.

Most offices have intermediate lighting, e.g. a lamp that's on in the same room, behind the screen. So some models seem to aim for the Goldilocks Compromise (even if imperfectly).

For example -- My Corsair Xeneon Flex unit, sitting here on my desk (now that reviewers have posted reviews, I can talk a bit more without worrying about NDAs, given my current line of work is on 240Hz OLEDs), has stunning contrast in mildly-lit rooms. I have a window about 15 feet to the left, but the rest of the room has no windows, and I have two lamps turned on. My ambient light is less than a brightly lit office, but brighter than most esports cave. So I come from that angle, that the matte coating has some benefits through parts of the day, without sacrificing too much OLED contrast at night. However, I do adore glossy screens too, though know their pros/cons.

...Note: For those who ask, please know that I am not reviewing OLED monitors -- I'm actually working on other aspects (e.g. laboratory quality testing etc). I leave actual testing to review websites, many who are users of various Blur Busters invention, and it is not my business to compete with reviewers who use my tools....

...Note 2: Yes, I love the flat during Visual Studio work, and the curve during gaming. I'm not big on curved monitors, but this is a fantastic curved monitor for curved-haters. It's kind of crazy to have that option to add or remove a curve on the monitor. The curve is continual adjustable to any radius from perfectly flat to 800R, or any slight curve in between, to make sure my head is in the perfect sweet spot (center of the curved arc), based on my preferred viewing distance. I'm always in the sweet spot in Flight Simulator 2020. If you don't want a dedicated sim rig and you want something MUCH more convenient and reliable than multimonitor, this is an unorthodox chameleon option to turn an ordinary office/dorm/bedroom/tidy/neat computer desk (that isn't a dedicated rig) temporarily into something almost rig-worthy, then back to good old-fashioned clutter-free distraction-free office productivity, bringing out the Thrustmaster and then putting it away, resulting in a super-tidy office desk ready to continue mudaniety, in no time flat....

Regardless, assuming the ASUS uses a similar coating, I can say that the coating seems to be (mostly) a non-issue for me. The low DPI of a 45" 2560x1440 means high frames per second per square inch, and that is my priority -- I'll sacrifice a little dpi to get more framerate per square foot (or square meter) of display -- so I can get 240fps 240Hz "near 0ms GtG" strobeless motion blur reduction across all the 45" -- so the lower density pixels aren't smeared noticeably to my eyes by the semigloss antiglare. The two things (A) lower pixel density; and (B) semi gloss, eliminates a lot of the contrast-degrade disadvantage, which is usually more noticeable at higher pixel densities as lower pixel density reduce matte-coating-related contrast-reducing blooms around pixels, etc. In fact, photographs of subpixels are extremely visible without major contrast ratio reduction. But my room is not your room, and vice-versa. Just saying the antiglare coating doesn't seem to blast major disadvantage on my personal desk, for my specific room lighting, at least for the Corsair unit. Make sure you also have a lintfree cloth, the light semigloss antiglare is glossy enough picks up fingerprints easily.

To estimate the semi-glossiness of my OLED coating, if I put my smartphone lockscreen next to the If I hold up a smartphone 90-degree perpendicular against the display, smartphone left or right edge touching the display -- I can read the reflected image of the lockscreen clock! (digits are blurry but readable) I can't do that on any of my ASUS or BenQ LCD monitors (smartphone screen reflection is a complete blur even for the big lockscreen clock digits). So the Corsair Flex "semigloss matte" coating seems significantly glossier than a typical esports monitor. But that's just an observation, and I should caveat that my unit is not a mass-production unit...

People still notice OLED's improved contrast on both LG and Samsung, including the Alienware matte coating, so while a tradeoff, it's something that an end user has to decide for themselves.

Not all matte coatings are the same, and sometimes manufacturers try to do a compromise (semigloss matte). It also protects the OLED, given that OLED pixels are illuminating less than a millimeter away from my finger touching the monitor -- so protective coatings are useful insurance for a desktop monitor too. So kinda a compromise -- but it works out contrast-excellently for my specific room lighting regime.

That being said, I'm extremely glad there will be full glossy option(s) available for the need.

TIP: Always download Better ClearType Tuner on any OLED, regardless of LG or Samsung, and play around with the settings to optimize the quality of text, while viewing a few webpages of various color text. Out of box text can sometimes have problems, then it looks much better after tuned.

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate your views on display tech so you've made me feel less concerned, but still not totally happy about matte coatings on OLEDs.

One thing that you mention that nobody else seems to acknowledge is that matte costings noticeably blur individual pixels and cause light bleed over a significant area around the pixel. This is my main (but not only) issue with matte coatings, as they almost have a FALD-like colour bleeding halo around bright areas. Nowhere near as bad as even the best FALD displays, but it's still an abject and measurable step backward from the sharpness that a glossy screen offers.

So many reviewers use the term 'apparent' or 'perceived' when talking about matte coatings disadvantages as if 'it's all in your head' but the truth is that even in a dark room with no light, the matte coating will measurably look worse than the gloss. And in bright environments, the matte will still look worse, but you won't have sharp reflections.

I always look at it as such: matte coatings make it easier to see a worse looking monitor.

 

[Comixbooks]

I just want a monitor with less eye fatigue I think I'll pick this up when it's officially instock. Just don't want to wait around a month for a preorder. Or either when NewEgg or Amazon has it instock.

 

[sgupta]

I just want a monitor with less eye fatigue I think I'll pick this up when it's officially instock. Just don't want to wait around a month for a preorder. Or either when NewEgg or Amazon has it instock.

Just FYI I ordered direct from LG's website (the pre-order option) on the 23rd and it just arrived today! Dunno if that situation has changed, but definitely no waiting on my end.

First impressions! (Keep an eye out for things marked "EDIT" as I'll add additional thoughts/findings as I have them.)

- After playing with two different 32" panels (an edge-lit ASUS ROG model around this price and a much pricier FALD ASUS ProArt model), both with issues (too much blooming, especially on the edge-lit, but I wasn't thrilled on the FALD either tbh...also lots of dead pixel/coming back from standby issues on the latter), it's going to take some getting used to to go back to the smaller size, but I think I'm really gonna like this thing.

- This panel is so thin and light compared to those (even smaller size aside). I've forgotten just how thin OLED is. Obviously the back with the LED's (and I'd assume cooling) sticks out a bit, but it's a really slick-looking design with a really solid stand. The ProArt wobbled when I typed (to be fair, it was choooonky and super heavy) and there's really not much appreciable as far as that with this one.

- I was a bit concerned with color out of the box since I don't believe this comes pre-calibrated like the ASUS. That said, on SDR using the sRGB mode, it looks quite pleasing to my eyes, and better than I liked either ASUS in sRGB mode. (To be fair, it may have a touch of extra saturation, which I tend to like, but it's definitely not overkill and reminds me a lot of the 27" Dell I'm originally coming from as far as how it feels [not a bad thing]). Gamer 1 and 2 don't look bad either, and if you're looking for the brightest settings, Calibration 1 and 2 appear a bit brighter to me, though also not as warm as sRGB (and the settings are locked out; I'm assuming changeable only with the calibration software). For now, I'm sticking with sRGB.

- As others have stated, Brightness out of the box is 100%. It's definitely not blindingly bright and certain modes are a bit dim. As I type this, I'm in a room environmentally lit (cloud covered day with a bit of sunlight peeking through), and it's fine (and very easy on the eyes, actually). I'd expect it'd be fine on a sunny day too. But most of my gaming, etc., is at night in a dark room, and I think it'll be bright enough for me. If you have a really bright room though, or if you like your picture very bright, it might be an issue. Normally I've calibrated monitors (not a full calibration - just brightness) down to ~160 nits (where my TV is also at as I do like a touch of brightness over reference), and with this, I'll just leave it at 100%, which feels somewhere around there without having tested it. Truthfully, would I like a bit more brightness headroom and set it a bit brighter maybe? Sure. But given the compromises of the other panels I experienced, I think this is one I can live pretty happily with for my use cases, especially given the perfect contrast.

- I don't have any issue with text clarity - seems like this will be more than adequate for me for work, etc. Maybe a smidge less clear than on the 32" IPS's, but hardly noticeable and very readable for me.

- I took a quick glance through three different full-screen slides (gray, white, and not very applicable but black too). Panel uniformity is exceptional, probably the best I've ever seen on any monitor/TV. At a glance, no dead pixels that I can tell. [I tend not to dwell on these things as I honestly don't hope to notice them if there is, but I like taking a quick glance where I'd see any major issues, so I just scrolled through the slides a few times and no major issues pop out.]
EDIT: Still very impressed by panel uniformity and stand by it being one of the clearest panels I've seen. However, I have noticed some slight vertical banding on a very dark gray background. It only seems to happen on a very specific shade, oddly, though I can remember something similar (though worse) on the only OLED TV I ever owned several years ago. Just something I noticed and not something I expect will bother me at all.

- Coating is fine for me. Glossy might have been preferred, but I don't feel like this coating should be too much of an interference personally. That said, apart from an OLED TV I had way back and a plasma TV before that, every monitor I've ever had (outside of CRT's) has been matte, so it could be a case of not knowing what I'm missing.

- Controls via the monitor are just a single button. You press it once to cycle or hold it for "OK". It's a little obtuse feeling, but fortunately it comes with a nice little remote you can quickly access things with. The battery installation is a bit of a pain tho (screw and little included screwdriver, which I couldn't get to budge so actually used my own screwdriver for better torque lol).
EDIT: Also, I just realized only some controls (input, brightness, volume) are available via the button. However, if you do lose the remote, LG does have software that allows control of the monitor through the PC using a mouse and program as well that seems to work well.

- Automatic Brightness Limiting isn't super noticeable in SDR, but it is very noticeable in Windows 11 HDR, mainly because highlights in HDR are brighter. (For example, the text as I'm typing here is much brighter in HDR mode, but if I go to say a full-screen white Google page, I really notice it dimming down [fast but dramatic and you definitely see it happen]). HDR has fewer modes and only has Gamer 1, Gamer 2, FPS, RTS, and Vivid. Gamer 1 and 2 look pretty good to me (albeit quite a bit different; Gamer 1 seems the most natural/pleasing to my eyes; 2 bumps up the saturation and adds sharpness - it seems cooler as well). Settings are largely locked out on the HDR modes and even a lot of the SDR modes, but Gamer 1 and 2 in SDR allows setting some stuff (gamma, temperature, etc.); they don't appear to allow you to change those variables in HDR mode for some reason.

- My initial plan was to use HDR mode in Windows 11, and that's what I was doing on the other monitors. However, after playing around with it, I think I'll stick with SDR (probably in sRGB mode, though I may look into what I'd need for the Calibration modes) because of the Automatic Brightness Limiting, which I don't notice hardly at all in SDR. I may play with HDR in select games, though. I do feel like HDR pops more and is definitely more effective on monitors that can go brighter than most OLEDs.

- Popped into a game in both SDR and HDR to compare. It looked quite good in both and honestly would be a tough call, though I definitely didn't feel nearly as much impact as I did on the local dimming monitors or I do on consoles on my Sony FALD TV. I could also detect the ABL a bit more on HDR, though not nearly as dramatic as in Windows.
EDIT: After playing with it a bit more in the one HDR game I tried (Genshin Impact), I do think colors are more vibrant/impactful in HDR, so would probably play with it on, at least in this game. I'll probably still take it on a case by case basis.
EDIT 2: So I realized something I didn't know before. Win11 Auto HDR is pseudo-HDR for games that don't support it, and apparently Genshin Impact doesn't support HDR natively on PC. (This confused me because it DOES support native HDR on Playstation 5, so I just assumed). I do think the effect in Genshin is good, but another game I try that supports the "Auto HDR" is Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, and I didn't like those results. I plan to try a native HDR game to see what that's like. I'll probably stick to what games support.
EDIT 3: So I just played around quite a bit with Cyberpunk 2077, which has native HDR, and I gotta say...it looked awesome! I did take a while dialing in settings (set maximum brightness to about 700 nits, as that's where the sun started to get washed out if I went higher, paper white to 160 nits, and then tone mapping to 1.30 for some nice contrast, and it looks darn good). I am pretty impressed - highlights looked very good, and I didn't notice a whole lot of ABL.

- Playing a game in 240 Hz feels unbelievably smooth. I can't say I notice that much difference over 120, but it sure feels buttery.

- EDIT Additon: Comes out of standby nice and quick (decided to use DisplayPort). One of the issues I had with the ProArt was it was super slow to come out of Standby and once just refused to without unplugging/replugging.

- This is a FIRST first impression as I only got this set up hours ago and am still evaluating. That said, I feel much happier with this than I have been with the compromises on the 32's. The main compromises here are 1.) Risk of burn-in, which is why I avoided OLED for a long time, and 2.) The limit in brightness, especially for HDR. I've decided as far as OLED risk, this is much cheaper than most FALD options (G8 aside, which I also considered but didn't try since I think it would have similar issues to the other FALD I tried), so even if I HAD to replace it (and I'm told burn-in is much less common than in the old days), it'd be cheaper than going with a display I'm just not happy with. As far as brightness, I know HDR in general is a mixed bag, so I'll take it on a game-by-game basis, but I think for many games, I'll be happy with really nice SDR.

- Bottom line/TLDR is, I think I'm pretty happy, as long as I can get accustomed to the limited brightness.

 

[LittleBuddy]

sgupta I've read online that this display having low brightness is only because EcoMode is on by default, can you confirm?

 

[sgupta]

sgupta I've read online that this display having low brightness is only because EcoMode is on by default, can you confirm?

Just looked into this. I didn't see it before because for sRGB, which is what I primarily use, the "SMART ENERGY SAVING" option (2nd scroll down under General) was grayed out so not selectable.

It IS available on other SDR modes like Game 1, Game 2, Calibration 1, and Calibration 2 (haven't checked the others but if there's a mode you want me to look at, let me know), and I set it from High to Off. I'm in a fairly dark room at the moment and noticed hardly, if any, difference, so it may have some effect, but I know in the mode I use (sRGB), nothing has changed, and it didn't seem to significantly brighten the other modes at all when I toggled it off. (Seems universal as well since toggling it off on Game 1 seems to have stuck for all the other modes). When HDR is enabled, this setting is also grayed out, so I don't think it applies to HDR.

So, it is a thing, but I don't think it has a drastic effect on brightness from what I can tell, at least not in a dark room. Good call to take a look into it, though!

I see no other settings for EcoMode/Power Consumption apart from "Deep Sleep Mode" and "Automatic Standby", and neither of those from their description should affect power brightness when actually using it.

After a few days with the monitor, I still think for me it's bright enough. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't enjoy just a touch more brightness headroom, BUT I'm still very pleased with my monitor and it's a keeper. I have noticed in general (even before the energy tweaks) Calibration 1 and 2 seem brighter. I downloaded the software but unfortunately don't have a colorimeter that is compatible (Damnit SpectraCal - I have a C6 HD2000 I used to calibrate my TV a few years ago, but it's ONLY compatible with CalMan and their stuff), so I'm looking into potentially getting something and running a calibration with LG's free software to see how it comes out. Unfortunately their directions are very outdated so I'm trying to find a for-sure compatible colorimeter for a reasonable price since none of the models they list in the FAQ for their calibration software exist exactly as listed (there are upgraded models, company name changes, etc., so I want to be sure before I buy).

Any other questions I can answer, I'm more than happy to!

 

[Comixbooks]

Does the HDR or SDR slider in Windows 11 do anything for brightness?

 

[LittleBuddy]

sgupta How it the VRR experience? I see people talk online about OLEDs not doing VRR very well because it causes flicker. Is this really noticeable?

Also, is the screen bright enough to be calibrated at 120 Nits, this is typically what I use since I do some Graphic Design, so I typically calibrate my screen at that brightness. Not necessarily a big deal for me since I do have a ProArt as well on my other PC that I mainly do graphic design on, but sometimes I do like to do some stuff on my gaming rig.

I'm considering ditching my FALD 4K Display and buying this to use for a few years until 4K OLED equivalents come out.

 

[Ray2097]

LG is offering the desktop panel in a glossy format to monitor vendors that ask for glossy version.

Check for announcements of glossy OLEDs. Dough announced one for the Spectrum glossy 27" 1440p 240Hz OLED monitor, there might be others soon too.

Petition your favourite monitor brand to ask for the glossy option.

You just made my day, Chief... So good to have you here 👍🏻

 

[sgupta]

Does the HDR or SDR slider in Windows 11 do anything for brightness?

As far as I know, there isn't an SDR slider for brightness in Win11 per se, at least not in the same place the HDR slider is when it's enabled. (I know there is a Calibrate Display Color tool for Windows, and I honestly haven't tried that yet as I've been so pleased I haven't felt the need. I should play with it tho').

As for the HDR slider (which only appears when HDR is on, and it affects only how SDR content is displayed in HDR "mode"), yes, it does have an effect, but it may not be the desired one. For me, it makes highlights much brighter than viewing in the SDR sRGB mode - for example, the HardOCP text here is super bright in HDR with brightness cranked up. BUT, say you pull up a full screen white Google page - then it's similar brightness to what you'd see in sRGB mode because of the Auto Brightness Limiter kicks in and dims it down. In general, I found this pretty distracting for standard Windows use, and I think the display just looks better in sRGB for SDR (where if ABL is doing anything, I haven't noticed it at all), so I've elected to stick with that and only turn on HDR when I want to play an HDR game. Now my time in the only HDR-native game I've tried [Cyberpunk 2077] didn't seem to exhibit any of these issues and the HDR seemed gorgeous (and truthfully better than I expected). Why Windows/monitors can't do what consoles can and just kick native HDR games or videos into HDR mode and leave SDR alone as SDR is beyond me.

This is a contrast from the FALD IPS I tried, where I thought it genuinely looked better in HDR mode all the time, but then there's no ABL there so it could get BRIGHT. HOWEVER, the flipside is I found the local dimming in Windows extremely distracting and would have had to turn that off when working I think, and as a whole, prefer toggling HDR only for games to that. So the OLED still wins for me.

Hope this helps answer your question.

 

[sgupta]

sgupta How it the VRR experience? I see people talk online about OLEDs not doing VRR very well because it causes flicker. Is this really noticeable?

Also, is the screen bright enough to be calibrated at 120 Nits, this is typically what I use since I do some Graphic Design, so I typically calibrate my screen at that brightness. Not necessarily a big deal for me since I do have a ProArt as well on my other PC that I mainly do graphic design on, but sometimes I do like to do some stuff on my gaming rig.

I'm considering ditching my FALD 4K Display and buying this to use for a few years until 4K OLED equivalents come out.

I haven't noticed flicker myself on the OLED with the VRR engaged, either in SDR or HDR. Actually, one of my criticisms with the FALD IPS was it seemed to flicker at times, especially at lower frequencies. The OLED seems more constant to my eyes. I should note for SDR I'm still using sRGB mode, which turns off DAS Mode (though Adaptive-Sync is still listed as on). Truthfully, though, I can't tell a difference in smoothness. One game I played (SDR) has a FPS/input lag counter. I can't guarantee accuracy as it's a beta for something not yet out, but it uses Unreal, so I'm guessing it's part of that. Anyways, I was getting ~240 before I enabled GSync and after it was reading in the 300's (I presume that meant GSYNC was working) and input lag for the Gamer modes (with DAS on) vs. sRGB mode was the same (between 3-4 ms generally).

I haven't officially measured nits from the screen. That said, my TV I know is calibrated to 160 nits, and I would say this is almost as bright, so while it's an estimate, I have a hard time believing 120 nits would be a problem. I think it can go a bit higher. I remember seeing somewhere it's supposed to be able to do 200 nits, but I can't remember the source now. I know you can set targets in the LG Calibration Studio and once I get a colorimeter, I was actually going to try at 160 nits to see if it could get there. But yeah, I'd be *really* surprised if it can't do 120.

I was very excited to try FALD. In fairness, I LOVE my FALD TV, but I think a lot of that is because it's a much bigger screen with more zones, I'm sitting a lot farther away from it, and I'm not using a mouse, chatrooms, or web interfaces that can really make local dimming apparent. (As an example, I pulled up my calendar, which is usually in dark mode, on the FALD display, and there were dime sized light spots around every single calendar date - things like Discord were also a mess). Games looked great, but Windows was far less appealing. Since I do as much (well, more if I'm being honest) desktop stuff as I do gaming, I was really disappointed by how distracting the blooming was for me. FALD on a monitor was something that in concept sounded great, but in reality had too many compromises that bothered me too much to keep it. So I'm sort of with you. For me, I've found every single monitor technology out there right now has some downsides, and this OLED happens to have the ones I'm happiest living with. I'm very excited to see what they can do with brightness on panels like this in the future, but this feels like a really good fit for my needs right now.

 

[sgupta]

Got a treat for y'all. Got my hand on an X-Rite i1Display (I can't keep it so this was a one-time thing) and was able to run the LG Calibration Studio tool! I have to say I'm quite pleased with the results.

I calibrated Calibration 1 to sRGB at 160 nits, 6500K color temperature, and 2.2 gamma (I know a lot of you prefer 2.4, but I've always preferred 2.2 so I can see a tad better; 2.4 is an option, tho').

I calibrated Calibration 2 to P3-D65 at 160 nits, 6500K color temperature, and 2.2 gamma.

(I primarily only use sRGB but figured it might be the most useful other mode plus it's something to compare against.)

Calibration takes less than 15 minutes (might be closer to 10; I didn't formally time it) for each. Validation probably takes another 5-10 minutes (shorter than calibration itself). It worked flawlessly and I'm impressed with the results. I will say out of the box sRGB is pretty darn close, BUT, if brightness is your goal, it can definitely get brighter on the Calibration modes.

The other thing this verifies is 160 nits is definitely achievable! Caibration 1 was set to a brightness of 83 (out of 100) to get to the target. After it was done I bumped it up a notch to 84 (I generally aim for one step up from 160, and it was just under). Similar story for 2 with it set to 83 - didn't get quite as close so I bumped that one up to 86 after.
Long story short I divided 160/83 to determine how many steps I needed to get just over 160.

I've attached the results of both calibrations that you get after validation just in case you're curious.

 

[Comixbooks]

How bad is the text on this thing on the LG website people are saying the text isn't readable not sure if they have cleartype enabled ect..
Could you take a picture of the monitor up close with a game loaded?

 

[daveop]

How bad is the text on this thing on the LG website people are saying the text isn't readable not sure if they have cleartype enabled ect..
Could you take a picture of the monitor up close with a game loaded?

I have both that and the AW3423DW at home currently. I am sending the LG back because of the brightness, but I didn't have any issues with the text like I do with the AW. I had ClearTypeTuner setup for the AW before even plugging in the LG, maybe those settings carried over? I don't want to unpack it again, but it was basically IPS like for me in terms of clarity on the LG.

 

[sgupta]

How bad is the text on this thing on the LG website people are saying the text isn't readable not sure if they have cleartype enabled ect..
Could you take a picture of the monitor up close with a game loaded?

Text looks great to my eyes and I haven't found readability to be any problem whatsoever. If you get super close you can notice fringing but honestly I can't see it hardly at all in normal use. I took a few shots of the screen with my phone for some examples. (Keep in mind you'll see some moire artifacts simply because of the phone - it isn't apparent IRL). I did check Cleartype settings - it is enabled, but I didn't modify them at all from the default.

Dunno if things are different in Windows 10 than 11. Text might be *slightly* clearer on the IPS panels I had, but real-world I can't tell you I feel it's much of a difference. Honestly I found the local dimming issues with the IPS more distracting than any fringing here.

Attached some pictures to show you - the camera introduced some moire artifacts that aren't actually there, but it gives you an idea of the text.

As far as a game closeup, what are you looking to see? I'm happy to try. However, I have a brand new PC as well, and I've suddenly had a ton of crashing issues (worked flawlessly the first couple weeks and just started this 2 days ago) so I think I might have a bad GPU and contacted support about it (get a black screen and GPU fan ramps up to 100%). Sometimes I can get in a few minutes and'd be happy to try, but no promises since this seems to be happening more than not, and I have to do a hard reset when it does. [EDIT: Looks like there was a bad batch of PSU -> GPU cables that are exhibiting the behavior I'm having, so they're going to overnight me a replacement tomorrow - hopefully that's it and gaming will be an option again.]

 

[sgupta]

Since calibration, I have noticed some minor Auto Brightness Dimming on a full-white screen in SDR. It's still relatively minor. I tested regular sRGB mode and it happens there too but may be a touch less noticeable. Still not a dealbreaker at all, just an observation. I'm quite pleased with the picture calibrated!

 

[Comixbooks]

LG Displays adopts its MLA technology to its new gaming monitors​

Last month LG Display announced its META technology, which is a micro-lens array (MLA) that increases OLED brightness by around 60% and viewing angles by 30%. The MLA technology was first adopted in LG's high-end TV panels.

According to reports from Korea, LGD is now applying MLA to its gaming monitors, as it sees the growing gaming market as an important one for its future growth.LGD explains that the micro lens array is a layer of micrometer-sized convex lenses that maximizes light emission from the OLED panel and enhances energy efficiency by 22 percent compared to that of the same brightness. LG Display’s third-generation 77-inch 4K OLED TV panel, for example, based on META technology, has a total of 42.4 billion micro lenses, approximately 5,117 micro lenses per pixel, which work to emit even the lost light due to internal reflections to produce the clearest and most detailed pictures.LG has also developed an exclusive brightness enhancing algorithm (branded as META Booster) that improves both screen brightness and color expression by analyzing and adjusting the brightness of each scene in real time. This innovative algorithm enhances HDR (High Dynamic Range), which represents brighter lights and deeper darks, to express more detailed and vivid images with the most accurate color expression to date.LGD recenetly started to produce 27" 2560x1440 240Hz 0.3ms (GtG) response time OLED monitor panels. The first products to use this panels have already been announced, for example LG's UltraGear 27GR95QE-B and Asus' ROG Swift PG27AQDM.


https://www.oled-info.com/lg-displays-adopts-its-mla-technology-its-new-gaming-monitors

 

[LittleBuddy]

 

[Comixbooks]

I'm reading the reviews on LGs store page some of the complaints seems pretty legit low brightness being the major complaint. Which is the problem I have with almost any IPS I ever bought using a VA now. I think I'm going to wait it out as much as I want it don't want to get stuck with a bomb. I asked on the Dead space forums on Steam if people had issues with Brightness in the game some guy owned the Alienware and had no problem said there are no crushing black but I would have to see it in person.

 

[Comixbooks]

Someone just posted a yellow vertical line showed up 12 days later really waiting this out problems are similar to LCDs. Wonder if the line has something to do with how the monitor is mounted on the back.

 

[sgupta]

I'm reading the reviews on LGs store page some of the complaints seems pretty legit low brightness being the major complaint. Which is the problem I have with almost any IPS I ever bought using a VA now. I think I'm going to wait it out as much as I want it don't want to get stuck with a bomb. I asked on the Dead space forums on Steam if people had issues with Brightness in the game some guy owned the Alienware and had no problem said there are no crushing black but I would have to see it in person.

I honestly think it's going to be one of those things that is going to depend a lot on personal preferences and what a person can live with as far as compromises, since there's still not a perfect display technology without a compromise somewhere. There are plenty of people who swear by the FALD monitors like I tried, but I just couldn't live with the local dimming performance in desktop applications (not to mention pixel defects and issues coming out of standby on the expensive ProArt). I honestly can't see myself going back to an IPS panel (so long as burn-in doesn't become a problem quickly, which might be the one exception). And VA I haven't tried but don't think I could be happy with the colors.

For me, the LG has a fantastic picture, great colors, great viewing angles, and I'm just overall really happy. While brightness would be an issue in some situations, particularly in a bright room, for my situation where I have a good deal of light control, it's perfect, and I was pleased I could calibrate to where I usually like things (160 nits). I only played a little bit with HDR, but it seemed more impressive than I expected in Cyberpunk (after dialing in the settings).

I can't attest to Dead Space, but one of the games I tested before my GPU zonked out (a private beta, so I can't really talk about it in detail or share screenshots unfortunately) is SDR-only at the moment (not sure if they'll implement HDR) and had a lot of darker areas and shadows and I didn't have any problem with crush. It actually looked a lot better than on the IPS panels because of the extra contrast. I'm guessing Dead Space probably supports HDR, so that'd be interesting to see too - it does seem like there are a LOT of really dark areas there.

Quite distressing about the line that showed up - that said, there are bound to be lemons in any product no matter the quality. I remember my mom had an OLED TV that developed similar horizontal lines (albeit after few years). Hopefully it doesn't end up being a widespread issue. It's definitely a risk of being an early adopter of a new (and in this case first-of-its-kind) model. One benefit you might get by waiting is seeing what ASUS does/if their model will get any brighter. I know Dough (though I know nothing about them) may be releasing a glossy option too. And of course if any widespread issues do crop up, you'll have fair warning.

I just needed something right away and couldn't afford to wait, and after trying the two IPS models I was eyeing and being disappointed with both, it was either try this or the G8, and I really felt like this was a better fit for me, and so far I'm not disappointed.

 

[Bigmonitorguy]

I honestly think it's going to be one of those things that is going to depend a lot on personal preferences and what a person can live with as far as compromises, since there's still not a perfect display technology without a compromise somewhere. There are plenty of people who swear by the FALD monitors like I tried, but I just couldn't live with the local dimming performance in desktop applications (not to mention pixel defects and issues coming out of standby on the expensive ProArt). I honestly can't see myself going back to an IPS panel (so long as burn-in doesn't become a problem quickly, which might be the one exception). And VA I haven't tried but don't think I could be happy with the colors.

Why would you enable local dimming in desktop applications? Also, why not go with the PG32UQX or XG32UG instead of the ProArt? Those don't have the standby issue of the ProArt, and they are better and less expensive for "non-professional" use.

 

[sgupta]

Why would you enable local dimming in desktop applications? Also, why not go with the PG32UQX or XG32UG instead of the ProArt? Those don't have the standby issue of the ProArt, and they are better and less expensive for "non-professional" use.

It's true I could have gone into the menu and disabled/enabled local dimming every time I switched from a game to the desktop. That wouldn't have been ideal but could have worked. I still wasn't thrilled with the contrast without it, though - it's certainly not as important in Windows, but it still would have been nice, and I just didn't anticipate how much I'd notice the dimming algorithm in desktop usage. For the price, I was kind of hoping I could use it universally. And on the ProArt especially HDR was basically broken with Local Dimming off, so I would have needed to use SDR and switch to HDR and turn on Local Dimming each time I wanted to play an HDR game. (To be fair, I still have to turn on HDR for HDR-enabled games on the LG as I don't like the aggressive ABL in desktop HDR mode, but it's still one less step and the interface is much snappier).

As far as the PG32UQX, I did consider it, but I also knew there was a new version of it coming right around the corner (if anything, I would have gotten something cheaper and waited for that, which was the plan if I didn't like the LG), and I thought on paper that ProArt was the better bet (tighter calibration since I really like accurate color, so that along with the higher peak brightness were selling points). It seemingly had all the features I wanted (and was available for not too much more than the QX when I got it). I knew there was a bit of a panel lottery, but I wasn't aware of the standby issues from the material I had read (I saw one report of that, but IIRC they were using a Mac). I think you're right that it was a miscalculation on my end, though; if anything, I should have probably tried the QX instead. (Or the XG32UG, which I honestly hadn't really looked into). Even so, I wasn't super happy with viewing angles either (at the 32" size, it was a lot more apparent than at 27" with my old monitor, even looking straight on if you were fairly close). Basically, for something a lot more expensive than the LG (even if I'd gone for the QX), I'd have been dealing with more compromises...better brightness and a bigger screen size, and it looked good in several areas, but in the end those benefits ended up not being worth the price for me with the other issues present.

It was definitely the long way around, but I think I found the right fit for me and it encouraged me to give OLED another try (after a poor experience with an early OLED TV). I'll take the LG's slightly limited brightness over the issues I had with the ProArt or the cheaper ROG model (with edge-lit local dimming) I had tried. Plus it gives me wide viewing angles and perfect blacks in everything, not just games. Time will tell if burn-in becomes an issue or if brightness in HDR games will end up being problematic (but my initial impressions are HDR in games seems plenty bright in highlights). I think those IPS's are probably perfect for people who mostly game and need the extra brightness. I thought they'd be the best choice for me too, but in trying them just discovered I think OLED fits me better right now, and significantly cheaper than sticking with something I wasn't totally happy with.

 

[sgupta]

Just a quick followup about text clarity. I was playing around with HDR settings and noticed some of them default to a Sharpness of 70. If your sharpness is too high, readability of text is going to suffer, especially on an OLED (it looks a little clearer but somehow also harder to read, especially smaller text). I noticed in SDR, Sharpness is locked out on modes like sRGB and Calibration 1 and 2. From testing other modes and playing with the Sharpness, I can confirm Sharpness must be set to 50 for the locked-out calibrated modes, meaning that should be the setting where no additional sharpening is added and the most accurate. So that's where I set Gamer 1 under HDR mode to and it compares 1:1 on the desktop on text. (I think Gamer 1 defaults to 50 anyways, whereas Gamer 2 defaults to 70 and also has added saturation and a brighter gamma, so based on my tests, Gamer 1 is the closest to accurate settings-wise). Using a higher sharpness like 60 or 70 does seem to improve detail in some things (ie. hair texture), but at the cost of extra artifacts and jaggies elsewhere, like you can see the pixels and also more of the border issues with text, so I think the slightly softer 50 looks more natural in the long run.

Also, got the replacement PSU->GPU cable and that seems to have fixed my gaming crashes, so if anyone would like any in-game screenshots of anything, let me know.

 

[Comixbooks]

Can you take a photo of DeadSpace? If you own the game? Or any Dark game or a game with a Night Sequence. I asked on the Steam forums about Deadspace seems fine on other Oled monitors but wasn't sure about this one. Maybe take a photo of 50 percent brightness and 100 percent. I still want this monitor or the ASUS.

 

[sgupta]

Can you take a photo of DeadSpace? If you own the game? Or any Dark game or a game with a Night Sequence. I asked on TY he Steam forums about Deadspace seems fine on other Oled monitors but wasn't sure about this one. Maybe takea photo of 50 percent brightness and 100 percent. I still want this monitor or the ASUS.

Was gonna pick it up at some point anyways. Sure:

Note that this was running with HDR enabled on the Gamer1 preset. (No other settings have been changed. I did do the HDR calibration for Windows when I first set up HDR using the free app from Microsoft, which just steps you through certain screens to set brightness and such.

First two images are at the default brightness 50%. Third image is so you can see the brightness setting in-game, which was perfect at default (any darker and the symbol on the left does disappear completely even though it doesn't really look like it would). Note that because I'm taking these pics with an iPhone, you're going to see a lot of moire pattern artifacts, etc. NONE of that is present in the actual image - it's pristine in person. Also, the reason moire so pronounced for the second image is the sun (and HDR elements in general) are BRIGHT. I caught myself flinching at a few scenes like this one and when some sparks fly.

For the last 6 images, there's a similar shot done at the 50% brightness (as shown in the screen), and then again at 100% brightness (where all the three symbols look similarly bright). 100 is very washed out in comparison and clearly not how the game is designed/meant to be played. If someone hated the dark or had an actual phobia, it would certainly be playable, but IMO the default 50% setting is the way it's meant to be played. You could raise it a few notches if you found it preferable. Another way to go would be using the Gamer2 HDR preset, which raises the overall gamma a good bit and increases color saturation as well (I didn't take comparison pics of that, but I did try it just to see).

[EDIT: Grrr...it messed up my order when I viewed the post, but you can go by file name and I'm sure tell the difference.]

It is a dark game, and there are areas you can't see well, but by design (such as blackouts). Once you get a weapon, you also get a flashlight. Personally speaking, I think it looked gorgeous on this display, and brightening it up multiple ways (in-game setting or different mode on the monitor) is certainly more than possible if that's your preference. Obviously, just my opinion, but being the second native HDR title I've tried (the first being Cyberpunk 2077), I've been impressed by both. The only HDR I've been disappointed with so far is the "Auto HDR" feature of Windows 11, where it tries to convert SDR games to HDR, and I think that's the tech involved, not the monitor (I tend to like SDR in SDR anyways). The SDR games I've tried are looking great in the Calibrated mode (and looked very good in sRGB out of the box too).

On a sidenote, I did discover in Windows 11 there's an XBOX Gamebar toggle where you can quickly switch between SDR and HDR - it's Windows Key + Alt + B.

 

[Comixbooks]

Thanks for posting those screenshots I usually run my monitors dark so was wondering what it would look like at 50% Brightness.

 

[sgupta]

Thanks for posting those screenshots I usually run my monitors dark so was wondering what it would look like at 50% Brightness.

Are you saying 50% brightness on the monitor instead of set in the game?

I don't think for HDR they ever recommend anything other than 100% or it sort of defeats the purpose of HDR. That said, brightness settings for HDR modes is enabled, or I could take a look in SDR if you prefer (but 50% is gonna be pretty dark IMO).