LGUltraGear QHD 27-Inch Gaming Monitor 27GL850-B, Nano IPS 1ms (GtG) with HDR 10 Compatibility and NVIDIA G-SYNC, 144Hz, 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 3840x2160 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).***

You do need display port to fully take advantage of the capabilities of this monitor, however it comes with both a mid quality hdmi and display port cable so its ready to go out the box. A display port, 2 hdmi, and a dvi port are the slots available here, so plenty of room for other devices. It auto detects devices very well that are on too so no manual switching either. Very bright and clear colors at any brightness, I experience almost zero glare from a bright window behind me at full brightness. Even direct sunlight the glare is not too bad.I experienced colors very slightly being off and slight ghosting out the box on initial set up using display port, however setting display port version to 1.2 instead of 1.4 fixed this issue. Another reviewer reported this issue also, not sure what is really changing here. Possibly the cord provided but not sure, this monitor cant use any of the features that DP version 1.4 has, so 1.2 is plenty adaquate. To set this its located deep in the settings somewhere, good luck.The many settings are moderately confusing to navigate as some settings are only available on some modes with pleny of sub menus, however game modes allow the most settings and you can make it perfect as you see fit. The response time is very impressive, I turned it down to low response to 100% eliminate any ghosting or visual artifacts and it is still very fast. Blows my 8 year old LCD "gaming monitor" out the water in every metric. The software G sync works great with my RTX 2080 super, however the frame rate is 5-15 fps lower than it would be with conventional V sync. So if you are pushing the limits of your graphics card you may experience some studdering or delay. Above 75 fps the monitor was smooth and fast. If you cannot maintain 75+ fps at 1440p then I would not intend on using G sync or lower the graphics settings, as it is software G sync and does have some processing to do so the higher the average framerate the better. Doing full rgb colors reduced the max from 144hz to 120hz, but makes it look that much better. If I get into a game that my 2080 decimates I may change this back. I sucessfully overclocked to 165 hz without issues (set custom resolution in Nvidia control panel with a higher hz), however I dont see the need as its so smooth already at 144hz there is little difference going higher. My experience is it doesnt really look smoother than 144hz until you get into the 200s, which unfortunately this monitor cannot do. If you have a great graphics card that cant quite do 4K, get this monitor you wont regret it. Easily the best in this price range.

I've spent the past five weeks trying to find a monitor these days that doesn't suffer inherent defects such as clouding and light bleeding or dead pixels. After buying 3 HP 24ih FHD Monitors, 5 Samsung 24" QHD Monitors, and one ASUS TUF 27" QHD Monitor (all of which suffer significant light bleed, clouding or dead pixels), I settled on this LG Monitor. I am so happy that all the others are going back.The monitor itself is beautiful and the quality is great. After all the monitors I tried, this was the only one that didn't have significant light bleeding and no clouding that I can see. The colors are great, the brightness is good, the refresh speed is nice and the setup was easy. In fact it's so good that I bought 4 more of these monitors to replace my triple monitor setup, and one for the Mrs. as her second monitor.This screen is not 100% perfect, but compared to the others I had bought, it's near-perfect by comparison and I'm just going to settle on this.The only issue is the bottom left corner has slightly more light bleeding than the other corners, mostly noticeable when watching a movie or viewing something dark (and even then you would need to focus on it), but it's not as bad as the other monitors, and it feels more like an angle thing rather than a defect like clouding.I would totally recommend if you're looking for a quality monitor at a reasonable price.