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There are a few things to think about when you’re choosing the display size of your monitor. First, consider what you’ll be using the monitor for. If you’re doing graphic design work, or you’ll use the monitor to play games or watch TV shows and movies, a larger monitor makes sense. Smaller monitors may work just fine if you’re mostly using it for surfing the web, word processing or work that’s not graphics-intensive. Also, consider the size of the space where you’ll place your monitor. There are several size categories for monitors at Sam’s Club: Under 20”, 21” – 23”, 24” – 26” and 27” and above. When you’re shopping, look at the specs and pay particular attention to the monitor’s “display area.” That way, you can get an idea of the screen size without the monitor’s casing. Screen size is typically measured on the diagonal, so it’s the distance between opposite corners.

You may also see the term aspect ratio, which refers to the ratio of the width versus the height of the screen. Typically, computer displays have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Widescreen computer displays are usually 16:9.

Resolution refers to the number of pixels that your monitor is capable of displaying. A common resolution you’ll see is 1920 x 1080. The first number, 1920, refers to the number of pixels displayed horizontally (across) and the second number, 1080 refers to the number of pixels displayed vertically (top to bottom). The more resolution you have, the clearer your picture will be. Standard resolutions are fine for most users, but if you’re doing detailed work with images, such as professional photo editing, you may want to consider a monitor with higher resolution.

LG Display Co., Ltd., formerly known as LG Philips LCD Co., Ltd., primarily manufactures and sells thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels. The Company supplies its products to original equipment manufacturers and multinational corporations. LG Display offers TFT-LCD panels in a range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in televisions, notebook computers, and desktop monitors, as well as for handheld application products, such as mobile phones; and medium and large size panels for industrial and other applications, including entertainment systems, portable navigation devices, e-paper, digital photo displays, and medical diagnostic equipment. LG Display Co., Ltd. is based in Seoul, the Republic of Korea.

Where is OLED technology in the monitor market? That’s been the question for quite a few years now, with the use of this technology now pretty widespread and readily available in the TV and mobile phone market. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is very popular in the TV market now thanks to its performance in a number of key areas. OLEDs emit their own light at a sub-pixel level meaning they do not need an additional backlight unit like a traditional LCD display would. In the TV space OLED panels use a WRGB structure where each sub-pixel emits white light which is then passed through a passive colour filter to produce red, green and blue, and a fourth white sub-pixel is also added. Here on the more advanced “true RGB” OLED panel of this monitor the sub-pixels don’t need filters because they emit red, green or blue wavelengths of light, which can improve efficiency and accuracy. With both types of OLED panel if you want to display black you can simply turn off the sub-pixels so they omit no light. True, deep blacks are one of the key benefits, and the per pixel control allows for exceptional “local dimming” for HDR content, allowing for infinite contrast ratios and great dynamic range. The technology also inherently offers super-fast pixel response times, truly offering <1ms G2G and offering the capability at least to drive high refresh rates and very good motion blur reduction technologies where both are available. OLED is therefore a very popular option for multimedia displays, for HDR gaming and movies particularly in the mainstream consumer market. These capabilities also make an excellent option for professional users working with HDR content, video creation and colour critical applications for much the same reasons.

Back in July 2020 we wrote an article that looked at OLED technology and its strengths and weaknesses in much more detail. We also considered the reasons why OLED had yet to really make an impact on the desktop monitor market. We later tested and reviewed in October 2020 the LG CX OLED display, which is a TV but thanks to a (relatively) small size model of 48″ being released, has become fairly popular as a monitor alternative, for those who are focused on gaming and movies primarily and have the space. Having such a large screen on your desk is not practical for many people though, and it’s not really a great option for other uses like normal desktop work, content production, image editing etc in our opinion. So we were left with the same issue as before, that OLED isn’t really available in any guise in the desktop monitor market.

Then came CES 2021 in January of this year, where LG announced the exciting arrival of OLED technology with their UltraFine 32EP950 OLED display. This marked the first venture in to OLED monitors from LG and is hopefully a sign of things to come for this segment. The 32EP950 was first announced and is a 31.5″ sized display with a 3840 x 2160 true RGB OLED panel. It’s aimed firmly at professional users, video production, colour critical work and content creators. Those who need exceptional image quality, colour accuracy, a wide range of reference modes to work with and top-notch HDR capability that goes beyond anything else currently available in the monitor market.

LG also announced at around the same time a 27″ model (27EP950) with basically the same specs and features, but a smaller screen size. A couple of months later information about a couple of slightly different versions emerged as well in the form of the 32BP95E and 27BP95E. The specs will remain largely the same but these new BP models will also include a built-in calibration sensor and come packaged with a shading hood. They are basically slightly more advanced (and likely more expensive) versions of the original EP models.

We have with us now for review the 31.5″ 32EP950 display, the first OLED monitor announced by LG. This has a 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution and a wide colour gamut covering 99% of the DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB reference spaces. It also offers a 10-bit colour depth, loads of different colour modes for different content and colour spaces, and support for hardware calibration too. It’s a professional grade screen as we’ve said above, but even if that’s not for you, it will be exciting to see how OLED performs in the monitor segment.

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The 32EP950 has a fairly simple design more appropriate to professional users and content creators, and certainly deviating from the wide range of gaming monitors we’ve tested. There’s no RGB lighting or fancy design highlights here as they are not appropriate. The screen has matte black plastic bezels around all four sides but they are not too chunky. Along the sides there is an 11mm plastic edge and then a small 3mm black panel border before the image starts. Along the top it’s 15mm + 2mm of borders, and along the bottom it’s 21mm + 5mm. There’s a light grey LG logo in the middle of the bottom bezel but no other markings on the bezels. A very small circular power LED is located in the bottom right hand corner.

The 32EP950 offers a good range of connectivity with 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB type-C (90W power delivery) and 1 x HDMI 2.0 offered for video connections. There is no HDMI 2.1 offered, and that has yet to be used on any available desktop monitor where it is attractive for console gaming in paticular. Plus that’s not really needed here given the maximum 60Hz refresh rate support and the fact it’s really not aimed at gaming anyway. 3x USB downstream and 1x upstream ports are provided on the back as well, along with a headphone out connection and the power connection.

We will not go too much in to potential concerns around lifespan of the OLED panel, colour shift, dark spots or image retention/burn-in here. You can read our OLED Displays and the Monitor Market article for more information about those potential issues. As a desktop monitor if you are going to use the screen for many hours per day, some of these things might become an issue in time. In our fairly short period of time testing and using the screen we noticed no issues in any of these areas but if you stress the screen beyond its intended usage and are not careful for extended periods, you may see problems. If you are using the screen a lot as a desktop monitor and working with a lot of static content you will probably want to consider things like auto-hiding your taskbar, setting a screensaver to run etc. If you’re working with a lot of stationary windows for office work, internet browsing, photos etc then the risk of burn-in increases and to be honest that’s a bit of an annoyance with an OLED screen like this. These are things you don’t need to worry about with a typical LCD desktop monitor but it’s always in the back of your mind when using an OLED screen.

If you’ve got the money to spend on a super-high end professional screen like this, we are going to assume you have the common sense to know how to protect it from issues like this and aren’t going to leave it on static images for really extended periods of time. The screen is more aimed at content creation, HDR video etc and so static images are probably less common in those spaces. But obviously you may well want to use the screen for office work, web-browsing and some static content content as well. LG provide a 12 month warranty for the screen in the US (may vary in Europe) which includes protection against image retention and burn-in which is good news. They also provide a few built-in features help mitigate issues.

This term has become a little mixed up in the OLED market and really it can be used for two different things. One is related to how OLED panels operate from a technical / physics point of view, the other has become associated with an image protection feature common on LG OLED TV’s (and maybe others). We will look at what applies on this screen here:

1) On the one hand OLED panels all have an inherent limitation with the panel itself. The power consumption of these panels is highly dependent upon the content displayed. With a pure white image, every pixel must be lit, while with a pure black image every pixel is off. As the display has a maximum power usage, this opens up the capability for OLED displays to allocate more power per pixel to create a higher maximum luminance when not displaying a full-white image. This is different to LCD panels where a separate backlight unit sits behind the panel and can produce the same max luminance level regardless of the screen content, and how much of it is white in this example. On the OLED screen the percentage of the display that is lit up compared with a full white display is known as the Average Picture level (APL). You will see then on OLED panels that with a low APL (like a small 1% window size of white) the maximum peak brightness is achievable. This peak brightness reduces normally as the window size increases, as this is where the Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) feature comes in. If you try and display a bright area over a certain window size you will find that the screen is dimmer than if that window size was smaller.

The point at which this ABL feature kicks in based on the size of the APL will vary on different panels. We will measure that later on in the HDR section but [spoiler alert] this is far better on this desktop OLED monitor than it is on the LG CX OLED TV’s for example. So this ABL feature is really a feature of how OLED panels operate, it’s not really specifically to do with image retention. You will notice the ‘ABL indicator’ setting in the OSD menu photo above. This basically gives you a warning via a blinking of the power LED in an amber colour if this ABL feature kicks in, to warn you that colour accuracy/luminance might not be accurate as the APL is high enough for the ABL to kick in. The power LED is small so this is a subtle indication, you can change the brightness of the LED or turn it off altogether if you want in the menu. We will look at the point where the ABL feature kicks in later in the review for both office/general use situations and for HDR content. For now this ABL feature isn’t related to image retention mitigation so we will look at it later.

2) What makes this a bit confusing is that in the OLED TV space the term “ABL” has become associated more with a specific image retention feature like that seen on LG OLED TV’s. This is actually called “Temporal Peak Luminance Control” (TPC) by LG but because it dims the screen it’s become associated with the term ABL. This image retention saving feature detects static content on the screen and unless there is a regular (but fairly small) change in the APL the pixels are dimmed in brightness to help avoid image retention problems. In the most common usage for a TV of video, movies, gaming etc the content and therefore the APL is changing regularly and so you should never see this TPC feature kick in, although if you leave something paused for a short while you might notice it. When the APL changes again, the screen brightness increases back to what it was before. If you’re using the screen for desktop PC usage then working with static content can result in this feature turning on and you will spot the overall image dim after a couple of minutes. Having tested the LG CX OLED as a PC monitor this is fairly noticeable in those uses.

That TPC feature is on LG OLED TV’s but it is not included here on the 32EP950 OLED monitor – as that would be very impractical for a monitor aimed at desktop usage. While the screen is still intended for video content and generally non-static images where possible, it’s accepted that being a monitor you will also need to use the screen for more static content as well. There is no dimming feature here tied to the APL which is good news.

The OLED panel has a characteristic PWM-like behaviour that we see on all OLED panels. It’s not technically PWM as there’s no backlight to dim here, and it’s there at all brightness levels but for ease we can think of it in the same way. The pixels are changing state very rapidly here in luminance but at the speed of OLED which is very fast. This is a characteristic of the JOLED panel and helps with motion handling and avoiding issues like cross-talk on a panel with such fast pixel transitions. You will see this used in a similar way on LG’s own OLED panels like in the OLED TV range. his might present some problems for those sensitive to this kind of thing and associated eye-strain and headaches.

This section tests the full range of luminance (the brightness of the screen) possible from the individual OLED pixels, while changing the monitors brightness setting in the OSD menu. This allows us to measure the maximum and minimum adjustment ranges, as well as identify the recommended setting to reach a target of 120 cd/m2 for comfortable day to day use in normal lighting conditions. Some users have specific requirements for a very bright display, while others like a much darker display for night time viewing or in low ambient light conditions. At each brightness level we also measure the contrast ratio produced by the screen when comparing a small white sample vs. a black sample (not unrealistic full screen white vs. full screen black tests). The contrast ratio should remain stable across the adjustment range so we also check that.

Graphics card settings were left at default with no ICC profile or calibration active. Tests were made using an X-rite i1 Display Pro Plus colorimeter paired with the Calman Ultimate software for very high levels of accuracy.

Performance is measured and evaluated with a high degree of accuracy using a range of testing devices and software. The results are carefully selected to provide the most useful and relevant information that can help evaluate the display while filtering out the wide range of information and figures that will be unnecessary. For measurement we use a UPRtek MK550T spectroradiometer which is particularly good for colour gamut and spectrum measurements. We also use an X-rite i1 Pro 2 Spectrophotometer and a X-rite i1 Display Pro Plus for measurements in various ways. Various software packages are incorporated including Portrait Displays Calman Ultimate package. We measure the screen at default settings (with all ICC profiles deactivated and factory settings used), and any other modes that are of interest such as sRGB emulation presets. We then calibrate and profile the screen before re-measuring the calibrated state.

Greyscale dE– this graph tracks the accuracy of each greyscale shade measured from 0 (black) to 100 (white). The accuracy of each grey shade will be impacted by the colour temperature and gamma of the display. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green line on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (below the yellow line). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. In the table beneath the graph we provide the average dE across all grey shades, as well as the white point dE (important when considering using the screen for lots of white background and office content), and the max greyscale dE as well.

RGB Balance and colour temperature – the RGB balance graph shows the relative balance between red, green and blue primaries at each grey shade, from 0 (black) to 100 (white). Ideally all 3 lines should be flat at the 100% level which would represent a balanced 6500k average colour temperature for all grey shades. This is the target colour temperature for desktop monitors, popular colour spaces like sRGB and ‘Display DCI-P3’ and is also the temperature of daylight. It is the most common colour temperature for displays, also sometimes referred to as D65. Where the RGB lines deviate from this 100% flat level the image may become too warm or cool. Beneath this RGB balance graph we provide the average correlated colour temperature for all grey shades measured, along with its percentage deviance from the 6500k target. We also provide the white point colour temperature and its deviance from 6500k, as this is particularly important when viewing lots of white background and office content.

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With the display set at its maximum 100% brightness this was too bright for general use but not too eye-scorching. As with most displays will need to turn it down though. The picture quality was excellent thanks to the OLED panel. Colours looked vivid and bright, the contrast was exceptional and the image “popped” a little more than normal screens thanks to the semi-glossy screen coating. We went ahead and measured the default state with our testing equipment.

The CIE-1976 diagram in the top section confirms that the monitors colour gamut (white triangle) extends a significant way beyond the sRGB reference space which is used for SDR content (maroon coloured triangle), mostly in green and red shades. We measured using our newly updated more accurate methods a 99.8% absolute coverage of the sRGB space, leaving a tiny part of the colour space not quite met although this is so minor as to not be any issue at all. If we were comparing the colour space relative to a standard gamut screen then actually the colour space corresponds to about 133.7% of the sRGB reference. Obviously when comparing the displayed colours of the native screen gamut to colours within the sRGB reference space this results in a very high dE with average of 4.2. Accuracy of sRGB colours is poor in this mode, but that’s because the screen has a native wide colour gamut and we are not working within a colour managed workflow.

If you compare the native gamut of the display with some common wide gamut reference spaces it covers 99.7% of the DCI-P3 reference, slightly higher than the 99% spec even and very close to 100% coverage. In this native full gamut mode it stretches beyond the DCI-P3 space a bit in some areas giving rise to the 106.6% relative coverage measurement. The same can be said for Adobe RGB coverage, with 98.3% absolute coverage here, but some over-coverage to 114.6% in native mode. Remember that the screen has specific preset modes for these (and other) colour spaces so we will test those later in more detail. If we compare the produced colours to those in the DCI-P3 reference space that might be used for cinema content creation then colour accuracy in the native mode is much better at 1.8 dE average since the native gamut is close to the DCI-P3 space. There are still some inaccuracies in places because of the over-coverage. If you’re working with DCI-P3 content then you’ll probably want to switch the gamut to the P3 mode anyway, just like if you were working with sRGB content you could switch to that gamut mode.

It’s interesting to consider the out-of-the-box setup and the total native colour space of the display but really the 32EP950 is aimed at specific use-cases where the factory calibrated preset modes will be more applicable. We will look at those next. Before we do we also wanted to measure the ‘color temperature’ modes available in the OSD menu as an option.

The warmer colour temp modes seemed to be a little more accurate and closest to their intended temperature, especially in the Custom preset mode (with full native panel colour gamut) where the cooler modes above 7500k varied further from their target and were a bit too warm relative to their intended level. Within the sRGB mode we had better overall tracking of the colour temp for each setting though until about 9000k where they then became a bit cooler than intended. At 6500k the white point was very accurate in this sRGB mode too which was useful. This provides overall a decent control over the colour temperature, although we suspect if you’re spending this much money on a professional display then you’re likely to have a calibration device so you can always software profile or hardware calibrate the screen to reach your desired colour temp for each mode and for your uses.

We also tested the DCI-P3 mode which is a common colour space for cinema content creation. You will note that this mode defaults in the OSD menu to a 2.6 gamma and a brightness setting of only 13. This looks dark but is designed to reach the target luminance for this standard which is 48 cd/m2. Again you can change this brightness level if you want, it is not locked. DCI-P3 for cinema/theatre (as opposed to ‘display DCI-P3’) uses a 2.6 gamma curve and a luminance of 48 cd/m2. White point is not defined but here it has been targeted to the common D65 (6500k). So those are the targets we adjusted to here for the measurements.

The colour gamut of the display was very closely matched to the DCI-P3 reference now in this mode as you can see from the CIE diagram on the left. We had a 99.5% absolute coverage which was excellent. The colour accuracy of the produced colours relative to this colour space was also excellent, with an average dE of only 0.8. This mode provided a very accurate performance for DCI-P3 content creation and viewing. If you want a mode for display DCI-P3 as opposed to cinema DCI-P3 you can always calibrate the screen in one of the other modes including with hardware calibration or change things like gamma and colour temp in this mode.

BT.2020 mode has a colour gamut target that this panel and all other displays simply can’t reach (based on Rec.2020), and here it covers “only” 77.6%. This is a problem for all modern displays if you wanted to try and display the full range of colours for Rec.2020 though. While gamma, greyscale etc are all nicely set up, the inability to show all the shades of this space leads to some higher dE in the red and green shades but everywhere else colour accuracy is still excellent and there’s still an average dE of 1.3.

Overall these preset modes were all very well thought out and configured and represent very accurate performance for different uses and requirements. LG have done a really good job here for the intended professional audience.

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The 32EP950 like all respectable professional grade screens also features support for hardware calibration. This gives you access to the internal Look Up Table (LUT) so that you can calibrate the screen at a hardware level. You need LG’s free and easy to use Calibration Studio software for this and a compatible calibration device.

We should note here also that LG and Portrait Displays are working on support as a Calman Ready display device for their excellent Calman software, which will give even enhanced levels of control, reporting and configuration than LG’s Calibration Studio software for this display. This will offer ‘Autocal’ features for simple but advanced LUT based hardware calibration. We expect this feature to be available later this year in their software.

The software supports various meters including popular options like the X-rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter and i1 Pro spectrophotometer. We noticed that at the moment there is no option to select a correction profile for the i1 Display Pro to account for the OLED wide gamut panel, and so calibration with that tool produces errors right now as a colorimeter doesn’t cope well with these panels natively. This should be updated in their software soon to include different correction matrices for those kind of devices. We instead used the i1 Pro spectrophotometer which doesn’t need correction and will work fine on all kinds of backlights and colour gamuts.

LG also gave us a sneak peak at the updated version of this software (should be v5.6.8) which is a pre-release preview of a version that LG will release later in the year. The version releasing later in the year will add a few new features including the capability to calibrate using a 3D LUT based approach in addition to the existing 3×3 matrix approach possible in the current version 5.6.6. It will also support more gamma options beyond the current ‘power’ functions, including sRGB gamma and BT.1886. Importantly it is also expected to allow you to calibrate HDR picture modes as well as SDR. You can see a screenshot below of the updated version:

We wanted to test here how uniform the brightness was across the screen here. Measurements of the luminance were taken at 35 points across the panel on a pure white background. The measurements for luminance were taken using BasICColor’s calibration software package, combined with an X-rite i1 Display Pro Plus colorimeter with a central point on the screen calibrated to 120 cd/m2. The below uniformity diagram shows the difference, as a percentage, between the measurement recorded at each point on the screen, as compared with the central reference point.

It should be noted that if you display a full black image to test for backlight bleed there is none – as there is no backlight on this screen and each pixel is individually lit. Showing an all-black screen causes all pixels to turn off, and the screen shows true black as result, and looks like it’s just turned off.

The 32EP950 isn’t really designed for static image work, office use etc although LG of course understand that you aren’t going to be using it all the time for video production, HDR content creation etc. Being an OLED panel one of the first things people will think about is the risk of image retention of the dreaded “burn in”. See our earlier section which talked about the warranty for this and some measures included to help mitigate and avoid issues. With that risk accepted because of the OLED panel we can instead concentrate on the exceptional image quality that this panel offers which can make office work, photo editing and colour critical work very enjoyable.

The out of the box setup was set up in a general way to use the OLED panel’s native capabilities largely. LG provide a large range of controls and settings for you to customise the gamma, colour temperature, colour space and other areas to your liking within that ‘custom’ mode. And they’ve done a great job overall in ensuring those settings are accurate to what they say they will deliver. There are also a wide range of preset modes designed for different reference workflows and colour spaces including for instance sRGB, DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB. Each mode has a reliable and accurate emulation of the target colour space and is well calibrated for gamma, white point and colour accuracy too.

At our calibrated 6500k colour temperature you can see a the spectral output above. However the blue wavelength peak is shifted from the typical 448 – 450 nW/nm level and is instead at 459 nW/nm which is supposed to be less harmful on the eyes. It should be noted that there are settings no settings for a Low Blue Light filters available in the OSD menu on this display. You would have to use one of the other colour temperature modes if you want something warmer for a lot of text work or late at night.

Some people might be familiar with the so-called “ABL” (Auto Brightness Limiter) feature of OLED TV’s (talked about earlier in this review) where the brightness is dimmed when using a lot of static PC/office type content. You will experience that when using the LG CX OLED for instance for a lot of PC content. This could happen in theory for a couple of reasons. Firstly, and most likely to result in this behaviour, it could happen if the image retention saving function of that TV kicks in. This is controlled on the CX OLED TV when the Average Picture Level (APL – basically the portion of the screen that is of a certain defined brightness level) doesn’t change frequently enough or in a big enough way. On the CX OLED TV which is designed for video/gaming etc and non-static content where it’s always changing, this kicks in quite often if you’re viewing static PC content, as in those situations the APL is not changing enough. That kind of function for image retention is not included here on the 32EP950 which means you won’t fall foul of that at all.

The second potential time this kind of dimming could kick in is in situations where the panel is not capable of sustaining the same brightness for white areas of a certain size. So if for instance you tried to display a full screen white image like on a spreadsheet the APL would be close to 100%; certainly a high portion of the screen would be white. The screen definitely won’t be able to display the full peak brightness capability for 100% APL screen, due to the way OLED panels are powered, but the question is whether it can display your SDR / normal office use brightness in this situation? Or does the ABL have to kick in and lower the overall brightness? On the LG CX OLED we measured a 100% APL brightness of 164 cd/m2 maximum. The brightness can be higher if the APL is lower, like a 50% APL can reach around 300 cd/m2. So if you were using your desktop at say 200 cd/m2, then on the CX OLED if you viewed an all white screen then the ABL would kick in and the brightness would be lowered to what it can handle at around 164 cd/m2. This will vary on different TV’s and could be lower than this as well, but generally that ABL handling is quite aggressive on OLED TV’s. If it could only manage 100 cd/m2 for instance at 100% APL this might be too low for many users for PC use, and it might kick in regularly. TV’s are great for small bright areas and specular highlights but less so for large bright content across the whole screen and they’re not really designed for that kind of content anyway.

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When considering gaming usage we need to remember that this screen is in no way aimed at gaming, but can it be used for that anyway? We’re sure lots of people would have loved a high refresh rate to be offered here, as OLED technology is really well suited to gaming thanks to its super-fast response times, no overshoot, amazing contrast ratios and exceptional HDR performance. You can get some high refresh rate OLED TV’s nowadays such as the very popular LG CX OLED that we reviewed (from 2020), or also their new 2021 C1 range. Those offer 120Hz refresh rate and things like HDMI 2.1 as they are aimed a lot more at gamers, multimedia and modern games consoles like PS5 and Xbox Series X. The high refresh rate on those screens provides noticeable improvements in motion clarity and gaming experience and is really important nowadays if you want an excellent gaming experience from any display for FPS gaming or anything like that. That increased refresh rate also allows for higher frame rate support above 60fps which is again important for those kind of games. We need to keep in mind here that it doesn’t matter that response times are super-fast on OLED, if you are stuck with 60Hz then you are still restricted when it comes to overall gaming experience and motion clarity because of that refresh rate.

Here on the LG 32EP950 the screen is aimed at content creators, HDR video production and professional uses and so only a 60Hz refresh rate is offered. We wouldn’t be surprised to see high refresh rate OLED alternatives at some point in the future, but none are currently announced. And don’t forget this is a new venture for LG to bring OLED in to the monitor space and with production and development costs being very high at the moment, it’s likely it will be restricted to professional screens for the time being where retail costs for the displays are much higher.

If you’re playing fast paced games, FPS and the likes then there’s no doubt that a high refresh rate will bring about noticeable and obvious improvements not just in motion clarity and experience, but in frame rate support. That is unfortunately not available here on the 32EP950 at all, and there are definitely better gamer-focused displays out there for those kind of games. There’s also no VRR support (maybe one feature they could have included that might have been helpful here), blur reduction backlights or gamer settings like you get on all those gamer screens either. But, if you only want or need to game at 60Hz anyway, then you don’t need to rule out this display for gaming altogether. It certainly isn’t its target market, or even really an “intended use”, but the super fast response times, no overshoot, no lag, great image quality and exceptional HDR performance provided by the OLED panel could make this a very good 60Hz-only display for some gaming needs.

Read our detailed article about input lag and the various measurement techniques which are used to evaluate this aspect of a display. The screens tested are split into two measurements which are based on our overall display lag tests and half the average G2G response time, as measured by our oscilloscope. The response time element, part of the lag you can see, is split from the overall display lag and shown on the graph as the green bar. From there, the signal processing (red bar) can be provided as a good estimation of the lag you would feel from the display. We also classify each display as follows:

The total lag measured was a very impressive 1.29ms total. The pixel response times account for around 0.34ms of that, and so we can say that there appears to be around 0.96ms of signal processing lag on this screen which is super low. A solid result from this display even though it’s in no way aimed at gamers.

Most desktop monitors, especially those advertised with the very lapse and in our opinion pointless VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, lack any form of local dimming for HDR. So by their nature cannot actually improve the dynamic range of the display! Sure, they can accept an HDR input source and some may offer slightly brighter screens, maybe 10-bit colour depth, maybe a wider colour gamut but they don’t always. The HDR 400 spec doesn’t even require any of that either! But without local dimming there’s no improvement to the dynamic range at all and you are basically limited by the LCD panel’s native contrast ratio. For a TN Film or IPS panel this would max out at around 1000 – 1300:1 and for a VA panel maybe around 3000 – 5000:1. Local dimming is a vital component of HDR.

The dimming capabilities of the OLED panel here on the 32EP950 easily surpass all desktop monitors when it comes to HDR, and the true black and infinite contrast make it ideal for improving the dynamic range. This particular LG 32EP950 also has the necessary wide gamut with 99.5% DCI-P3 coverage, and 10-bit colour depth support so it offers the boosted colours and appearance associated with HDR content too. While it doesn’t offer the peak brightness capability that an LCD display could reach, at (a measured) 581 cd/m2 it’s still pretty decent and not far off many OLED TV’s too. A lot of people tend to prefer the per-pixel dimming, true blacks and infinite contrast ratio that OLED offers as opposed to aiming for higher peak brightness and living with the limitations of LCD local dimming methods for HDR viewing.

We wanted to touch on a direct comparison here between an OLED panel and a top-end LCD ‘dynamic backlight’ display featuring many hundreds of zones. For instance when comparing OLED to even the most recent Mini LED backlights with more than 1000 zones, there are considerations when it comes to professional content creation and the true accuracy of the image. With the ability to control the brightness of each pixel individually on an OLED panel, and to dim them/turn them off to black if needed, not only do you get the exceptional contrast but you also get the benefit that each pixel is unaffected by the pixels around it. The same cannot be said for a FALD backlights, Mini LED backlights or indeed any LCD backlight which is controlled with dynamic zones. The output from each pixel on the OLED panel can be accurate and predictable, but not on LCD’s with dimming zones. We will explain why.

The algorithm for any local dimming LCD backlight is constantly making a choice about how bright to drive a zone, but each zone is still limited to the panels native contrast ratio at best. If you have a zone with some dark content and some light content in it (like some stars on a black night sky), how does the backlight know whether to dim or darken the zone? Ideally if it could control each pixel individually (like an OLED can) it would brighten the stars while at the same time dim the black sky. This deliberately extreme image example needs a really high contrast ratio, but the reality of HDR content is that it will often exceed the panel native contrast within a zone. Unfortunately on an LCD panel the backlight has to make a choice for that zone, and the content within the zone will be limited by the native panel contrast. On an IPS panel, which is commonly used at the moment for the best FALD and Mini LED backlights in the monitor market, that would be around 1000:1. As a result if there’s any content within an individual dimming zone that requires a higher contrast than the panel, that means some of that zone by its nature will be inaccurate. If the backlight chooses to make the bright areas accurate, it comes at the cost of the dark areas and visa versa.

Manufacturers also often desire to make images “pop” more for HDR viewing, driving overall luminance of a brighter region up if they can to do so. Add to this conundrum the fact that to minimise blooming and reduce halos, LCD display manufacturers tend to be cautious with how the luminance of a given zone is controlled relative to adjacent zones. There is a need to blend the light output between zones to try and “smooth” the appearance of these zones in their operation, which again can lead to inaccuracies across the screen. The best dynamic backlight systems will modulate the LCD panel and its backlight in concert, knowing how much to open the LCD shutter when combined with the backlight to achieve a colour or shade. However, lower quality dynamic backlight systems will not do this due to the costs and complexity in doing so, resulting in the two behaving independently from one another. The LCD is effectively driven as though the backlight is not dynamic, and then the backlight simply analyses the incoming signal and applies a gain based on that to each region, smoothing between the regions. The vast majority of dynamic backlight LCD’s use a de-coupled approach. So with all these factors considered the practical result of this is that nothing reproduced on screen is predictable, or an accurate representation of the signal unfortunately. None of this is a problem for OLED panels where the image can be controlled at the individual pixel level.

We are not saying that Mini LED or other LCD backlight types cannot produce really good HDR images and look great for the viewer. They absolutely can, and for HDR gaming and multimedia playback they can look really good. Very often the colour gamut and brightness levels these display are capable of exceeds those with pixel level control like OLED. They can produce very high peak brightness, vivid colours and sometimes the local dimming even works very well without major halos or blooming. However, they cannot be considered “accurate”, and for users who need to create HDR content, or need accurate representation of colours, contrast and the overall image then these type of direct backlights are not sufficient. Don’t be fooled either by measurements of a screens setup or accuracy using a calibration tool. This is only capturing a static colour block in a fixed location of the image, where the dimming zone doesn’t have to worry about any of these issues above with contrast, dimming level, halos etc. This is not representative though of real content or dynamic, moving images.

A larger number of zones improves the situation slightly, but you still cannot get away from the limitation that each zone, even if it were as small as a few pixels, is a compromise, and therefore all pixels are compromised in accuracy. Of course today we are nowhere near each zone being only a few pixels even for desktop monitors, with high end best-in-class options like the Apple XDR display and forthcoming Asus ProArt PA32UCG for instance only have 576 or 1152 zones respectively. As we said, these screens are absolutely capable of producing excellent HDR images and look great for HDR content playback, but what they cannot really be is a reference monitor or offer the same level of accuracy that an OLED monitor could. The only exception to this is the dual stack LCD based systems which use one LCD to control luminance, and another for colour, like the reference grade Sony BVM-HX310 (got a spare $30k to spend?) and the similar EIZO product based on the same Panasonic panel which is now out of production.

This is only really an issue for HDR content creation and for those who are interested in accuracy and reliability for their work in the movie and broadcast industry for instance – like the target market for this LG 32EP950. For SDR content you don’t need a dynamic backlight and so normal LCD’s with normal backlights can certainly be accurate and suitable and there are plenty of excellent professional monitors for such uses. They are still limited by the native panel contrast of course but for SDR and desktop use this isn’t really an issue.

LG have worked with many professional content creators to understand these needs and develop the screen to address them. Prior to this product, there really hasn’t been any monitor product from any manufacturer that meets these needs, short of very expensive (~$40,000 USD) professional reference displays. There are 3 preset modes available when an HDR signal is detected. The ‘custom’ mode which you can pretty much set up as you like, with a wide range of controls and settings available in the OSD menu to choose from. There are also defined modes for DCI-P3 HDR and BT.2100 HDR which have preset colour spaces (DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 respectively) but allow you to change other things if you want. Each of these modes has importantly been set to the ST 2084 EOTF PQ gamma required for HDR content, which has been carefully tuned by LG. We should reference here that the screen supports HDR10 inputs but will not support HLG or Dolby Vision.

First up we tested the BT.2100 mode which is designed to follow the PQ gamma, have a 6500k white point and to cover the Rec.2020 wide gamut colour space. From our measurements you can see that the PQ gamma is very nicely met here, in fact you can’t even see the grey line for the monitor measurement as it so closely matches the yellow target line on the graph. White point was slightly too warm at 6357k, but only a small 2% out from the target which was very good. You can see the colour gamut of the panel cannot fill the entire Rec.2020 colour space as that is very wide (no display can), but it meets a reasonable 77.6% coverage at least, doing well in blue shades but falling short in greens and reds. This results in some high dE values for those shades (5.4 dE max) as the screen cannot produce the intended red and green shades properly as the gamut is too small, but the rest of the colour checker results are excellent with dE < 1. We also measured a peak brightness of 576 cd/m2 which was decent, and a little beyond the 540 cd/m2 spec even. This is achievable with APL (Average Picture Level) up to 50% as well, dropping a little at 75% APL and then a bit more for 100% APL, but still being impressively capable relative to many OLED TVs.

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So to re-iterate, this screen is aimed at professional users, content creation and HDR video production. The OLED panel offers really great picture quality with bright, vivid colours, true deep blacks and infinite contrast ratio for SDR and HDR. The semi-glossy screen coating does add to the picture quality and feel of the screen as well, although you need to be more mindful of light reflection sources in your screen positioning as a result. For SDR content there’s a really good range of carefully configured and thought through options, settings and preset modes. This makes it suitable for a wide range of content types including the all-important SDR/sRGB uses. We were impressed by the factory setup in these modes and performance in our testing. Hardware calibration support is very welcome and LG’s own software was free, simple and pretty decent. Hardware calibration will be even better and more flexible when Calman support is added soon. Brightness capability and the absence of any “ABL” type issues was very welcome, panel uniformity was great and viewing angles were also very good thanks to the OLED panel. This technology really does offer some great performance. We can’t forget gaming and general multimedia usage and with the very fast response times, no overshoot, no lag and excellent HDR it’s still capable of decent 60Hz gaming if you want.

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I foolishly shelled out several thousand dollars for a new LG Ultrafine 5k back in 2017 when I started my new job. At first, it seemed great. 5k! But then I started noticing the problems. My Mac would kernel panic when being plugged in or disconnected. Putting the Mac too close to the display would prevent wifi from working. USB devices plugged into it mysteriously stop working.

I am now on an M1 Air and I still have all the same problems with the display I had with my previous Intel MacBook Pro. Plus another one: the webcam video is bizarrely laggy. Which is a huge shame because the quality of the webcam was quite good. So now I have a Logitech strapped to the display, covering up the old camera. In any case, it"s clear that the issue is the display or the software or both.

I am also angry at Apple. I bought this display directly from the Apple Store, as at the time, it was the one and only display they offered. It was the one time where I thought I had enough money to buy into the "just works" cult. Well, it just doesn"t work.

The global TFT-LCD display panel market attained a value of USD 164 billion in 2020. It is expected to grow further in the forecast period of 2023-2028 with a CAGR of 5.2% and is projected to reach a value of USD 223 billion by 2026.

The current global TFT-LCD display panel market is driven by the increasing demand for flat panel TVs, good quality smartphones, tablets, and vehicle monitoring systems along with the growing gaming industry. The global display market is dominated by the flat panel display with TFT-LCD display panel being the most popular flat panel type and is being driven by strong demand from emerging economies, especially those in Asia Pacific like India, China, Korea, and Taiwan, among others. The rising demand for consumer electronics like LCD TVs, PCs, laptops, SLR cameras, navigation equipment and others have been aiding the growth of the industry.

TFT-LCD display panel is a type of liquid crystal display where each pixel is attached to a thin film transistor. Since the early 2000s, all LCD computer screens are TFT as they have a better response time and improved colour quality. With favourable properties like being light weight, slim, high in resolution and low in power consumption, they are in high demand in almost all sectors where displays are needed. Even with their larger dimensions, TFT-LCD display panel are more feasible as they can be viewed from a wider angle, are not susceptible to reflection and are lighter weight than traditional CRT TVs.

The global TFT-LCD display panel market is being driven by the growing household demand for average and large-sized flat panel TVs as well as a growing demand for slim, high-resolution smart phones with large screens. The rising demand for portable and small-sized tablets in the educational and commercial sectors has also been aiding the TFT-LCD display panel market growth. Increasing demand for automotive displays, a growing gaming industry and the emerging popularity of 3D cinema, are all major drivers for the market. Despite the concerns about an over-supply in the market, the shipments of large TFT-LCD display panel again rose in 2020.

North America is the largest market for TFT-LCD display panel, with over one-third of the global share. It is followed closely by the Asia-Pacific region, where countries like India, China, Korea, and Taiwan are significant emerging market for TFT-LCD display panels. China and India are among the fastest growing markets in the region. The growth of the demand in these regions have been assisted by the growth in their economy, a rise in disposable incomes and an increasing demand for consumer electronics.

The report gives a detailed analysis of the following key players in the global TFT-LCD display panel Market, covering their competitive landscape, capacity, and latest developments like mergers, acquisitions, and investments, expansions of capacity, and plant turnarounds:

The TFT LCD DisplaysMarket report provides detailed study of several aspects, including the growth rate, regional scope and latest developments by the primary market players. This report also offers Porter"s Five Forces, PESTEL, and market analysis to provide a 360-degree research study on the global market. The report evaluates the important characteristics of the market based on current market scenarios, market demands and business strategies. Also, the research report separates the industry based on the TFT LCD Displays Market share, types, applications, growth factor, key players and regions. The final report copy delivers the analysis of novel COVID-19 pandemic on the TFT LCD Displays market as well as rise and fall during the forecast period.

Panasonic, LG Display, Sharp, Mitsubishi Electric, AMOLED Corporation, AMPIRE, AU Optronics, Data Display Group, Innolux (formerly Chimei Innolux CMI), Kyocera Display (formerly Optrex), ORTUSTECH, Samsung TFT, Solomon Goldentek Display Corp. (SGD), Tianm and Other.

The regions focused by theTFT LCD DisplaysMarket are:Asia-Pacific(China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Others), North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico), Central & South America (Brazil, and Rest of South America), Europe(Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, and Rest of Europe), Middle East & Africa (GCC Countries, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and Other)

The Gigabyte M27Q and the LG 27GP850-B are very similar overall. The Gigabyte has a better vertical viewing angle, and the unit we bought has better accuracy out of the box. The LG has a faster refresh rate and a faster response time, making it a slightly better choice for most gamers.

The Dell S2721DGF and the LG 27GP850-B are very similar, each with strengths and weaknesses. The LG has an optional black frame insertion feature, which can help reduce the amount of persistence blur seen on-screen. The Dell has a more versatile stand, as it can swivel and switch to portrait orientation on either side, and it feels a bit better built than the LG.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD and the LG 27GP850-B perform almost identically overall. The MSI is a better choice for most people, as it has a much better stand, as it has a wide swivel range and can rotate to portrait orientation in either direction. The MSI also feels better built, and it has a USB-C port for better connectivity with some devices.

The LG 27GP850-B is better than the LG 27GL850-B, but the differences are minor and might not matter to everyone. The 27GP850-B has a slightly faster refresh rate, resulting in better motion handling and a touch less motion blur behind fast-moving objects. The 27GP850-B also has an optional black frame insertion feature, but most people won"t use this when gaming anyway.

The Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T and the LG 27GP850-B use different panel technologies, each with strengths and weaknesses. The LG has better viewing angles, but this comes at the expense of contrast. The Samsung has much better contrast, so it"s a better choice for a dark room. The Samsung"s black frame insertion (BFI) feature is far more versatile, as it"s available across the entire refresh rate range of the monitor, as low as 60Hz, while the BFI on the LG is only available in a narrow range.

The ASUS TUF VG27AQ is slightly better than the LG 27GP850-B for most uses, but the LG is better for gaming. The ASUS has much better ergonomics, so it might be easier to find an ideal viewing position. The ASUS also has a more versatile black frame insertion feature, as it"s available across a wider range of refresh rates. The LG is better for gaming, though, as it has a much faster response time, especially for console gamers.

The Gigabyte M27Q X and the LG 27GP850-B are pretty similar overall. The Gigabyte has a higher native refresh rate, but this doesn"t really translate to better motion handling, as the LG looks a bit better overall, especially when gaming on a console below the monitor"s max refresh rate. The Gigabyte has better connectivity and more features, with high bandwidth USB-C and a built-in keyboard, video, and mouse switch.

The LG 27GP850-B is a bit better than the LG 27GN850-B. The 27GP850 has a higher refresh rate, resulting in a faster response time and clearer motion. The 27GP850 also has an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce the appearance of persistence blur, but it"s a bit limited and only works over a narrow refresh rate range. Finally, the 27GP850 has slightly better connectivity, with a built-in USB hub.

The LG 27GP83B-B and the LG 27GP850-B perform nearly identically overall. The 27GP850-B is a bit more feature-packed, with a higher refresh rate, an optional black frame insertion feature, and a built-in USB hub.

The LG 27GP850-B and the Samsung Odyssey G5 S27AG50 are both excellent gaming monitors with similar features. They both have a 1440p resolution with native FreeSync support and a 165Hz refresh rate, but you can overclock the refresh rate to 180Hz on the LG. Motion handling is superb on each, and they both have low input lag for gaming, but there are a few differences in other areas. The LG displays a wide color gamut for HDR content, which the Samsung doesn"t, but it doesn"t add much because neither deliver a satisfying HDR experience. The LG also has two USB 3.0 inputs, while the Samsung has a USB input for service inputs, but the Samsung has much better ergonomics because you can swivel it.

The LG 27GP850-B is much better than the LG 27GN800-B. The 27GP850-B has much better ergonomics, a faster refresh rate, and it"s brighter in HDR. The 27GP850-B also has better text clarity and better connectivity, as it has a built-in USB hub.

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ is better than the LG 27GP850-B for most uses, but the difference is very minor. The ASUS has better ergonomics, as the stand can swivel, and it has a slightly better height and tilt range. The ASUS seems to be better built and has RGB bias-lighting on the back. On the other hand, the LG is brighter, and it has a slightly faster response time.

The LG 27GP850-B is slightly better than the ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A for gaming, but the ASUS is better for office use. The LG has a much faster response time, resulting in clearer motion with less blur behind fast-moving objects. On the other hand, the ASUS has much better ergonomics, so it might be slightly easier to place it in an ideal viewing position.

The LG 27GP850-B is better than the Gigabyte G27Q gaming-wise because it has a higher refresh rate and a much better response time, especially at 60Hz. The LG can display a wider range of colors in HDR, but it doesn"t get nearly as bright as the Gigabyte. The LG allows for rotation to portrait mode, whereas the Gigabyte doesn"t.

The LG 27GP950-B is slightly better than the LG 27GP850-B. The 27GP950-B has a higher resolution screen, delivering a more immersive gaming experience and better text clarity. The 27GP950-B also has two HDMI 2.1 ports, making it a better choice for next-gen console gamers. On the other hand, the