LG 27GL850-B 27 Inch Ultragear QHD Nano IPS 1ms NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor, Black

I write this review as the former owner of 3 Asus PG279Qs and one PG279QZ. I was drawn to this realm of the monitor market because I do not believe that 4K displays are worth it at this particular point in time. As far as I see it, the majority are a compromise as the bandwidth requirements for running 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, an extended color gamut, a refresh rate of 144 Hz and beyond, and a resolution of 3840×2160 all at the same time will be much better served by DP 1.5 or HDMI 2.1 (proper HDR wouldn’t hurt either). Although it could be argued that achieving 144 frames at 1440p is more resource intensive than 60 frames at 2160p, I believe the experience to be the most immersive, at least until 144+ frames becomes viable at 4K. Unfortunately, based on the price to performance ratio trend of the current generation of graphics cards (Nvidia’s in specific), it is going to be a long, long time until that is achievable at a reasonable price. All things aside, I can state with confidence that I’ve found my sweet spot for monitors in the form of LG’s 27GL850. It has addressed all of the quality control concerns that I’ve experienced throughout my quest of trying to obtain a high refresh rate, 1440p IPS-type display. Seeing as this is an LG product, the monitor can rightfully be referred to as having an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel as this is their proprietary term for the technology that produces the wider color gamut and viewing angles.I did not buy this display because I am a hardcore gamer; I bought it because I wanted a quality monitor with good color reproduction, a uniform panel, and good response time. My purchase was based solely on the off chance of LG producing a monitor where quality control wasn’t an after-thought. Now that it has finally arrived, I am proud to report that this monitor delivers. The display has zero backlight bleed and excellent uniformity, contrast, and response time. White uniformity is even across the entirety of the screen while the factory calibrated colors appear accurate even next to my calibrated Dell. Outside of sRGB mode, the colors do come off as over-saturated, although some may prefer the added vibrancy of the Nano IPS technology (I did not). Black levels are on par with most other IPS-type displays that I’ve used despite the specified measurement coming in at a somewhat lower figure than similar displays. As for response time, it seems universally accepted by the monitor community that the fast setting is adequate in preventing overshoot. The faster and fastest settings produce undesirable artifacts known as coronas. Despite this monitor not having variable overdrive, I have had no perceivable issues when it comes to gaming as I do tend to binge on CS:GO from time to time.If I had to nit-pick, and I do because this is a review where transparency informs prospective buyers, I will say that the strength of the presence of IPS glow on my display falls on the moderate end of the spectrum. This could be due to the fact the panel is 27 inches, which is a decent amount of real estate for this phenomenon to occur. It is also important to keep in mind that this is something that varies on a per panel basis. Without a doubt, it is a consequence of choosing to utilize an IPS panel for one’s computing purposes. Regardless, it is nothing unexpected or anything that cannot be addressed by adjusting the brightness level as well as the viewing distance, height, and angle. Besides simply turning down the brightness, placing the monitor further away is one way to remedy the matter. Another way to minimize the glow is to position the screen in such a way that one’s gaze meets the center of the screen as IPS-type displays fare better when the height of the top bezel is of equal height or greater in relation to one’s eyes. A final tip is to manipulate the screen’s tilt angle as oftentimes angling it upwards reduces glow.By applying these adjustments, I can easily say that this is overall the best monitor that I’ve used to date. I will not sit here and bash Asus’ most recent iteration of their high refresh rate, 1440p IPS-type display, the PG279QZ, as one can refer to the top review of the PG279QZ to see what types of problems plague those monitors. What I will say is that it’s a breath of fresh air to see that quality control still exists in consumer-grade monitors. Realistically, no manufacturing process is going to produce near perfect monitors all of the time; however, this purchase has instilled confidence in me when it comes to the LG brand. I imagine that this model will provide all disillusioned monitor buyers a glimmer of hope when it comes to having a fighting chance at obtaining a quality monitor in this realm of the market.***As per a request in the comments, I’ve attached pictures of the monitor at brightness of zero, 50%, and 100%. I also managed to track down another monitor from Micro Center, so I posted the same array of shots for this sample too. The results were very similar; however, a small circular area of bleed does exist in the top left corner. It is somewhat noticeable on a black screen unless I increase the height of the stand. To identify the pictures of the second monitor, please see the pictures without the headphones in them. Despite trying several approaches and platforms, the photo uploader refuses to retain the sequence in which I had originally ordered them).***

Disclaimer for fair context here:This is my first true 144hz, 1440p, IPS panel experience. Up until now, I’ve only ever had descriptions and seen photos (on less than ideal monitors) of what to expect. So my review here may almost certainly be biased in terms of extremes for both pros and cons.With that out of the way, let me just say.. wow, being my first experience with an IPS, I was absolutely blown away with just how much the colors explode off the screen compared to a TN panel. You get used to it very quickly but you definitely have those moments where you’re just like “Damn, that looks really good.”The exact same can be said about the refresh rate. If you’re coming from 60hz, the difference is absolutely staggering. It’s noticeable the moment you slide the cursor across the screen. It’ll give you goosebumps at first. And again, it’s something you’ll get used to very quickly but will repeatedly be reminded of how smooth any and all motion appears at the most seemingly benign places. Especially with Windows 10 and it’s very quick but subtle flow to almost any menu and interaction. Simply opening up the start menu or action center will just appear to glide in as though it was never on the screen but just floating above it.And finally the jump from 1080p to 1440p was much nicer than I had anticipated. My mind knew it was a half way mark between 1080 and 4K but my expectations were more inline with something more subtle. Nope. You’re getting a massive upgrade in pixels here. The best thing about 1440p is that it truly is a half way sweet spot between 1080p performance and 4K sharpness when talking about gaming. The amount of extra power needed isn’t insignificant, you will notice a loss in performance, however if you’re rocking an RTX 2070 or equivalent GPU, it’s safe to say that while you might not always get the best out of its 144hz refresh rate, you’ll almost certainly exceed the 60hz you’re probably accustomed to and it really does make a huge difference. 60fps just doesn’t feel like a good performance anymore. It feels like what 30fps felt like on a 60hz monitor.Of course it’s also worth mentioning a few “buts” now.The G-Sync on this thing is incredible. I can finally turn off vsync and not get those incredibly distracting screen tears which I’m unlucky enough to be very sensitive to. However it’s worth noting that this is NOT a G-Sync monitor. It does not have the proper hardware to support G-Sync at its best. It’s G-Sync compatible. Which is to say, it was built for FreeSync but after Nvidias driver update opened G-Sync to FreeSync monitors, this monitor was able to pass the certification process and be sold as being compatible with G-Sync with no real issues. The problem with this might seem nuance but it’s worth mentioning. G-Sync will NOT work at framerates lower than 40fps. Once you drop below that, you’ll start noticing screen tearing as the monitor doesn’t have the hardware to stay in sync with the GPU at lower refresh rates. Not a deal breaker but just something to keep in mind. If you’re still rocking older hardware, you might be lowering settings to accommodate the higher resolution at G-Sync speeds or resorting to turning vsync back on.Finally there’s the IPS glow. It’s there. It’s absolutely there. It’s both not as bad and worse than I expected but it’s well within tolerance as I quickly get sucked into what I’m doing and stop noticing it. Unlike backlight bleed, IPS glow shifts around the screen based on your relative position and angle. It’s easy to adjust the monitor in such a way that it’s a minimal issue but due to the size of the display, it’s impossible to sit at any position or angle and not see some IPS glow somewhere. Usually in the top corners as tilting the monitor up seems to offer the least about of glow.How much this bothers you it’s going to heavily depend on what kind of content you’ll be playing. Darker colors show IPS glow much more than brighter scenes. So brighter games like Spyro will hide it almost entirely, but darker games like Control can be real hit or miss and if you’re not used to it yet, probably annoying. But it’s a small price to pay for the kind of color you get over TN monitors.

What I liked:+ Great response times: I don’t think anyone is going to miss their 144hz TN panel after using this.+ Near perfect gamma 2.2 tracking on default gamma 2 mode+ Average Delta-E around 1.5: not bad+ Amazing color gradient handling when set to 10bit mode+ No BLB or dead pixelsWhat I disliked:- Default whitepoint is too cool (measured 7200K) and none of the provided modes gave an actual 6500K. Luckily, with a colorimeter in-hand (Colormunki Display) I was able to calibrate to 6500K with minimal loss of contrast by adjusting the RGB gains.- IPS glow isn’t any better than my old IPS monitors. You’d think now that tablet and laptop IPS panels have mostly resolved this issue that monitor panels would do that too.Other notes- Contrast measured at 870:1, a bit low for an IPS panel although I cannot subjectively notice a difference in black levels compared to my other IPS monitor that measured 1150:1. If you’re looking for deeper blacks you’re better off with a 3000:1 VA.- Gamma mode 2 is the only gamma mode that was calibrated at the factory. Changing the gamma mode to modes 1,3, or 4 resulted in a white point of 6300K, contrast ratio increased to 1060:1, however the gamma tracking is really bad on these modes.- Gamma mode 1 results in an approx gamma of 2.0, mode 3 is approx gamma 2.5, mode 4 is approx gamma 2.3, but again the gamma curves on these modes are messed up and do not conform closely to these numbers so I ended up using gamma mode 2 and just correcting the white point.

Edit: Got one that has minimal BLB compared to this one. Now I don’t struggle by looking at left corner of the monitor while watching movies or anything. IPS glow exists but BLB is minimal compared to the last one. Will update the picture later on. Colors are beautiful, response time is great, g-sync works out of the box flawlessly, gaming experience got much better with this monitor! Highly recommended (assuming you get a good model!)—————————————————————————————————————————Cons: Seems I lost the “panel lottery” as I noticed the BLB when playing dark themed games or watching movies. Build quality is OK.Pros: Pretty much everything else, it is a great monitor.BLB was so bad I had to return it. Doesn’t feel good as I waited more than a month for this monitor to arrive. I’ll be waiting for amazon to restock and order again, will give better ratings then.