Garbage stand, OK monitor if you get it on sale
review by
alphac
Depending on how much you pay for this monitor it could be a good deal or a bad one.
My father bought one of these and I helped to configure it. I advised him to get an ultrawide for productivity but since his i7 quad core laptop did not have HDMI 2.0 or Displayport 21:9 , 2560x1080 is one of the few options (besides 2560x1600). Keep in mind a 29" ultrawide 2560x1080 is roughly equal pixel pitch in comparison to 23" to 23.8" 1080p.
Firstly, it is nothing amazing in terms of quality. It's about on par with any decent $120-150 1080p IPS monitor built in the last couple years with 5 ms GTG. No blurring was observed when I ran stuff on youtube at full resolution even when auto racing footage was displayed. No flicker was observed ; it likely does not use a PWM controlled backlight.
The monitor is advertised as "dynamic action sync" with low input lag. Some spec sheets I have seen state it is 14ms response time.
From tftcentral 14ms pixel response+5ms GTG panel display lag would be a class 2 lag but almsot class 1 (gaming grade).
Quote:
Originally Posted by TFTCENTRAL?
Class 1) Less than 16ms / 1 frame lag at 60Hz - should be fine for gamers, even at high levels
Class 2) A lag of 16 - 32ms / One to two frames of lag at 60Hz - moderate lag but should be fine for many gamers. Caution advised for serious gaming and FPS
The bezel is minimal, a few millimeters at best. However the panel is not edge to edge so you have about half a centimeter of black space. The panel is supposedly the LM290WW1-SSA3 .
The colors are rather accurate, it is claimed to have 99% sRGB and it comes with the calibration paper from the factory. There are several modes set intot he monitor for FPS/RTS but they are a bit vague in what they do, presumably the brightness and color contrast is altered judging by toggling through the modes.
The matte antiglare coating is slightly aggressive but anyone that has used a recent monitor such as a Ultrasharp with an LG panel will find this is less thick.
LG's Screensplit works similar to the old ATI Hydravision application. It can split the monitor exactly in half , one third, or 16:9 (i.e. it uses normal 1080 for one window and the rest for another one (say Skype, Steam, Teamspeak or other window that is narrow), for your windows which is very useful for multimonitor.
The brightness is set to 100% out of the box (300 cd/m2 rating), you may want to adjust it down to 50 or 70% for a more moderate brightness.
The sound is okay for a monitor.
The monitor controls and power button are the same, the button is used as a joystick for the menus.
Display inputs include 2 HDMI (picture in picture is possible but I didn't test this) , Displayport (preferable if using Freesync), DVI. I would have liked to see some USB ports but that is not a problem.
CONS
The stand leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike a Dell Ultrasharp monitor which just snaps in it requires setting up the bottom of the stand with two small pan head bolts. The back of stand requires two additional phillips bolts that are coated black and then a plastic cover fits over that. Because the tilting function is built into the location where the bolts fit in, you need to find something to rest your monitor on (a soft nonabrasive is a good choice) and screw the stand from the back of it. It's very cumbersome so I'd invest in a 75x75 VESA mount which it has a VESA pattern on the back for. There is no height adjustment , rotation (portrait mode , which is rare for ultrawide) or pivot. If you VESA mount it be aware the input ports are pointed coming out from the back and not downwards.
No displayport 1.2 cable included. A cheap looking "High speed" HDMI cable without gold plating was including though.
Presumably old versions of the Screensplit software expose you to a security risk because it disables UAC (User account control) on Windows. Download the software fromt he internet and/or update the software and it should be a nonissue. After I installed the program I had no issues with UAC being disabled so it may just be people with old versions of the software.
The retail price is high, I would say this monitor is worth $250 tops.
Only 1 year warranty , 2015 monitor.
Product specs:
http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-29UM67-P-ultrawide-led-monitor
Pros | Cons |
---|
color calibrated at factory & 99% sRGB, 5ms GTG response , freesync, IPS , flicker & blue light minimization , Screensplit application | extremely high brightness out of the box, cumbersome stand, 60Hz |
Ratings