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LG 34UM88-P with some backlight bleed, return or keep?

3K views 10 replies 3 participants last post by  Astreon 
#1 ·
As title says i purchased this ultawide monitor and i want your opinion if i should return it to amazon or keep it with that amount of backlight bleed, notice that in photograph it appears slightly worse than the human eye sees it. Anyone else have past experience with amazon and returns? Can i choose another monitor or even refund me?
viewing from an angle

Sitting w 30% brightness

Sitting w 100% brightness

browsing dark room
 
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#2 ·
Personally, I would return it because that's far beyond my threshold of tolerance for bleed. That said, do you use your monitor in the dark? Do you watch movies with dark scenes or view 16:9 content regularly for that bleed to be enough of a distraction to you? I ask that because it doesn't look that bad with actual content on the screen, even with a darker-colored background like the Overclock.net home page. It's also possible that depending on your usage, you might find a white screen to be a more relevant test, but few people take pictures of that in comparison to a black screen in the dark.

Amazon is great with returns in general, though I've never returned a monitor to them. Returns for defective products are paid by Amazon. If you ship the monitor back via UPS with the Amazon prepaid label, once it's scanned by UPS at a dropoff location such as a UPS Store, you should get an immediate credit to your account if you take a refund in the form of an Amazon gift card.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for the reply, really appreciated!
Using the monitor with a bit of light, never full dark. Also i watch alot of content 16:9. Testing it for a day now and while working i cant notice the bleeding, but when i wanna watch something darker like a youtube video or a movie i notice it. I think i will go ahead and return the monitor for a refund and proceed to buy another monitor, if you have any suggestions to make please feel free to do so... not just IPS ones.
 
#4 ·
No problem. What are your purchasing criteria? What do you want in terms of flat/curved screens, resolution, aspect ratio, adaptive sync, refresh rate, price, etc? What led you to choose the 34UM88-P in the first place?

I was considering the LG 34UM88-P early on when I was monitor shopping, but the reports of the backlight uniformity and bleed caused me to back away from it, especially since it appears to be noticeably worse than the 34UC88 on average. However, I did find the combination of a flat screen and adaptive sync appealing. Being one of the most affordable 34" ultrawides was initially a selling point for me as well.
 
#5 ·
I bought it on prime day on a flash deal, about 470€, the price of it was the reason i went with it as it was very cheap compared to similar ones, also I haven't tried a ultrawide monitor in the past. I didn't have enough time to make a proper research about the monitor but i believe at this price it was a good bargain to gamble on the backlight bleeding.I'm interested in a future proof monitor with as little money as possible for example: full hd with 144hz-244hz or 2560x1440-3440x1440 75hz+.
 
#6 ·
I mean, you got it for a nice price. If the backlight bleed isn't as bothersome in real-world use as it is in the pictures, keeping it wouldn't be a bad decision if you like the physical dimensions and screen resolution. You'll find it very difficult to find another brand new 3440x1440 monitor at that price.

Also, consider what brightness setting represents typical use for you. If your pictures are fairly close to what you see in real life, that LG backlight is so excessively bright that I would have the brightness turned down even lower than 30. This is my Acer X34 at 30 brightness and it's pretty much what I see in real life:

http://www.overclock.net/g/i/3054328/a/1636965/acer-predator-x34-owners-club/sort/display_order/

If you do decide to return, since you're in Europe, I can't say for sure whether Amazon's return policy is the same as it is in the US. Either way, I would consider excessive backlight bleed a defect that should be just cause for them to provide prepaid return shipping.

When I was shopping a few months ago, I was primarily looking at adaptive sync 34-35" 3440x1440 monitors. For 2560x1440, I only looked at 32" screens because I wanted to fill all my remaining desk space and 27" was too small. At the time, my only 32" 2560x1440 option was the HP Omen 32, which didn't excite me. For 3440x1440, I looked at the LG 34UM88(C)-P, LG 34UC88, AOC Agon AG352UCG, Acer Predator X34, and Asus PG348Q. I ended up with a factory recertified Acer X34 for $670 or 575€, which made me feel a lot better about the monitor not being perfect, because I was not going to pay the regular $1100+ retail price.

I'm not the best one to seek advice from for high-refresh FHD monitors. Since your budget will definitely allow for 2560x1440, I would go for the extra pixels. While I don't think FHD will become obsolete in the very near future, support for higher resolutions will always be welcome going forward.

One other thing to consider is how you plan on using the monitor. Gaming at 3440x1440 at mid-high settings while staying comfortably above minimum adaptive sync range in the most graphically intense games will require at least a GTX 980 Ti or 1070, or an RX Vega if you're looking for AMD/FreeSync compatibility. Otherwise, 2560x1440 or 2560x1080 (21:9) will be more forgiving with video cards below the 980 Ti level for mid-high detail in the latest games. For any other purpose including less graphically intense games, 3440x1440 is great with most recent video cards.
 
#7 ·
In EU you can return an item for no reason at all and you're expected to be fully refunded for it - within 14 days after the purchase. Amazon actually extends this to 30 days, IIRC.

You can also claim it's defective and return it for that reason - the BLB looks excessive.
 
#11 ·
Greece is in EU. You're entitled to return any product you want within 14 days after the purchase, even if the only reason you have is no reason.

Create a ticket and ask the support whether they will refund you 70 euro for shipping, that's quite a lot and they may not want to, but it's worth a try.
 
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