[Monitors Unboxed] 4K 240Hz IPS Black Is Here! - LG 27G850A Review

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Gippy_@reddit

Damn, I remember when everyone praised the 27GL850B back in 2020.

This is an updated model, but it seems like all of the numbers are still stuck in 2020. Monitor tech has progressed so much in just a few years. The high-end space is dominated by OLED because nothing can literally beat infinite black contrast.

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Ordinary_Meeting8088@reddit

Just returned my oled monitor, the flicker is hard to deal with

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Healthy_BrAd6254@reddit

The 27GL850B has/had one of the worst contrast ratios rtings has ever measured. 735:1

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Gippy_@reddit

Yes, but back in 2020 it was a common recommendation on r/monitors because it was the first "decent" 144hz monitor at $500, while the Aorus AD27QD was $600 and the Asus PG279Q was $800.

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Keulapaska@reddit

and the Asus PG279Q was $800.

There is no way the PG279Q was still $800 in 2019/2020 it's a 2015 model, or if it was you'd have to be mad to buy it new at that price or anything close to it.

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Gippy_@reddit

Republic of Gamers tax, nuff said

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Keulapaska@reddit

Apparently so, only dropped to 600€ in 2019/20 it seems and still on sale for lot of places at that time as well which I wasn't expecting at all.

Mainly cause I thought that the 240hz 1440p panels came waaay earlier than they actually did, the PG279QM was apparently as recent as 05/2021 so like ~2 years before my memory thought it came out. Man Covid and rapid Oled advancement in the past 2 years really messes up time perception to these things.

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Healthy_BrAd6254@reddit

Dang, forgot how expensive 1440p 144Hz was still in 2019. Pretty sure I got my 1440p 165Hz for $160 just 3 years later.

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MonoShadow@reddit

There's more to OLEDs than infinite contrast, they also have crazy fast pixel response with none of this overshoot\trail nonsense with 10 different levels of overdrive just to get that "2ms response time" on the box.

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balaci2@reddit

frame gen looks better on oleds from what I've heard

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el1enkay@reddit

I'm looking for a 4k 240hz LCD. Ideally 27" as well. Is this my only option? It seems a bit naff.

OLED won't really work for me as ~95% of my screen time is in a terminal/editor for work on my Mac and I'm sure it'll burn in.

The other ~5% of my screen time will be gaming etc, but I really want a 240hz or higher screen.

Unfortunately it needs to be 4k as well as 1440p screen do not work properly on MacOS and you don't get text scaling options.

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xgnagx@reddit

You can use this utility https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay to enable scaling for your 2k monitor on mac

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el1enkay@reddit

Yeah I've used that in the past when I had a 1440p monitor but it caused a few funnies and still looked pretty bad (somehow worse than 1080p native).

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Toojara@reddit

Yeah, you don't really have good options. Without OLED there's not much point going >160 Hz 4k since the response times don't hit the refresh window most of the time yet the panels are still expensive.

I'd go 4k 144/160 Hz since there's the motion smoothness is going to be practically the same at higher or better at lower refresh rates and you'll actually have options to choose from.

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el1enkay@reddit

Cheers for the advice.

I actually already have a decent screen, the 27GR93U. I just find 144hz isn't sufficient these days if you want to dabble with frame gen (as you have to cap at a "real" 71 fps). Would also be great to hit a higher refresh in FPS games.

It's kind of a shame I need a 4k screen for my macbook otherwise there are so many options at 1440p. I'm just really itching for a 240+ 4k LCD and there's just nothing good and I've been waiting for ages!

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trytoinfect74@reddit

I'll never buy another LG monitor after I learned that their previous product I possessed, 27GL850, had no TUV certification and I got all the eye issues by just looking into it (google "27GL850 eye strain") to the point I've got severe eye strain and my myopia much-much increased after a year of using 27GL850.

Turned out Nano IPS technology has some issues in that department and LG was pretty aware of that but decided to not tell the consumer that it failed to obtain certification for eyes.

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input_r@reddit

27GL850 Yeah I returned this after a week due to eye strain issues

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Gippy_@reddit

Damn, guess I was fortunate to have spent a little extra on the Aorus AD27QD at the time instead of the 27GL850 which everyone said was "better".

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iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit (OP)

Dell has two UltraSharp monitors using "enhanced IPS Black" panels with a claimed 3000:1 contrast ratio and 120 Hz refresh. I wonder if those panels fair much better than this.

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basil_elton@reddit

They do. The newer U2725QE does give 2500:1 to 2800:1 contrast ratio in the middle of the brightness range.

Not to mention that they offer way more connectivity options. Only downside is that you have to buy a HDMI 2.1b spec cable for VRR as HDMI cables aren't bundled in the package.

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iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit (OP)

I'm more wondering if response times are any better, though you are limited to 120 Hz. Had a lot of hopes for these IPS Black and equivalent panels for years now, so far they've been disappointing.

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basil_elton@reddit

Yeah it was from a Windowscentral review. This panel used by LG as reviewed might actually be an older panel.

The models Dell released in 2022/2023 with the "-23" in the last two digits had the 2000:1 advertised contrast ratio, which suggests to me that this might be an older panel.

The 2725 and 3225 models from Dell both advertise 3000:1 contrast ratio.

Frankly, 4K120 is fine for mainstream gaming at up to 5070 Ti/9070 XT level GPUs.

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iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit (OP)

Ah, as it turns out, RTINGS recently reviewed it as well.

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basil_elton@reddit

I think the review you are talking about uses the 5ms fast OD mode vs the default 8ms normal OD mode.

Historically, since Ultrasharps aren't specifically tuned to gaming and response times, those aspects of performance could often be worse on the fast OD modes.

Besides, my use cases are a mix of work and gaming. I don't have space for the large UW monitors and my working hours are in the morning till afternoon with the room being very bright.

250 nits max brightness that typical gaming-focused QD-OLEDs give is completely worthless for me.

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iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit (OP)

Thanks, I'll look it up.

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