LG UltraGear QHD 27-Inch Gaming Monitor 27GL850-B, Nano IPS 1ms (GtG) with HDR 10 Compatibility and NVIDIA G-SYNC, 144Hz, Black

Overall so far I’ve had no issues with this monitor! I’ve used it heavily since I bought it and I love the picture quality and color right out of the box! I do feel it could be a bit brighter if a display but just adjust that yourself in the settings and done! I got this on sale and honestly if I could afford to buy more I would!

Nice monitor. Crisp, clean images. But a little too prone to finger smudges. And I feel like I rarely ever touch it!

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 wouldnt 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, Ive 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).***

For many years I have been using a TN panel for competitive gaming, and a 2nd more color accurate monitor for editing videos and photos. This monitor is not only a combination of the two, but looks even better than both! My concern was that the 1ms that is advertised is actually unusable due to overshoot, when using the faster setting. I use the fast setting which is advertised as 5ms, and dont notice a difference than my 1ms tn panel. The truth is most panels (even tn) that say they are 1ms truly are not. If you look at benchmarks comparing this to other tn panels, it actually has the same response time, if not very slightly slower. As far as the colors for this monitor goes, I honestly didnt realize how much games would look different than my tn panel. It looks like I put all of my games on a higher graphics setting, as everything is much more clear. I have not done editing with this monitor, so I cant speak for that, but I have watched a couple videos in 2k and was blown away. As far is the back lighting uniformity goes, it is hard to say if I got lucky or LGs quality control is much better than other manufactures, as I dont see how the uniformity could be anymore perfect. I honestly cant tell where the back light is coming from which was a concern of mine, with buying the monitor off amazon. I also am going to post this review on other websites, as I have seen comments from other people wondering how good this monitor actually is. So if you see it on other websites with different account names, its not because LG payed me. I purchased this monitor with my own money from Amazon, as I needed an upgrade.

Bought this monitor for 1440p gaming and couldn’t be happier!

I am a photographer who occasionally games. With monitors they were traditionally broken into two worlds, photo monitors and gaming monitors. Photo monitors usually are usually IPS with wide color gamut (ADOBE RGB and DCI coverage), bright, great viewing angles, high resolution. Unfortunately they are almost always 60hz. Gaming monitors on the other hand are either TN or Va panels but you get the super fast 120-240hz refresh rates. Gaming monitors are usually 1080p, have very poor viewing angles, poor color gamut, and not as bright. This monitor however is IPS, good color gamut (88% ADOBE RGB), great viewing angles, and 1440p, and 144hz! Furthermore, I was easily able to overclock the monitor to 1440p @ 150hz by making a custom resolution in Nvidia control panel. Any further causes a out of bounds notice from the monitor. Its not a huge improvement but it certainly helps for free performance. This certainly is the best of both worlds as I can game and edit photos without much loss in color accuracy. I have tried gaming monitors before and the colors were always washed out yet this monitor remains vibrant and great. I can edit photos confidently knowing that they wont look different when the client receives them. The downsides: 1. There is IPS glow as you can tell from the black screen image. The glow looks very apparent in photos but in real life its not that bad. This is due to being edge-lit with edge LEDs and not selectively dimmed. Blacks are not very black since again, no selective dimming. 2. The white is fairly uniform and there is a small band of dark near the edges. It is barely noticeable. 3. The monitor is technically HDR compatible but the brightness is around 350 nits which isnt enough for HDR. 350 nits is on par with most monitors on the market but isnt superb. 4. The OSD menu button is terrible. LG probably decided to save money by using a one button OSD joystick. Theres no confirm or back/cancel buttons and navigating the OSD is extremely difficult. When you are done, you have to wit for the OSD to time out or press and hold to close. This is extremely unintuitive and different from every other monitor on the market. Its a small thing but very annoying. Overall a great monitor if you are someone like me who wants accuracy and resolution but with gaming capabilities. There are few compromises here. Some people have a dual monitor setup with gaming and work monitor but not everyone has the space for that. This is a great single monitor setup for both!

After playing the panel lottery on a few displays I believe Ive found the holy grail. I knew this monitor would handle motion very well from reviews but what I didnt expect is how impressive the colors and image quality would be. My normal Eww reaction to a brand new monitor as I reach for the setting was replaced my a holy $%*# and it only got better once I fired up a game. I had my 14 year old daughter whos obsessed with Overwatch hop on and she had a smile from ear to ear about how smooth the experience was. To be fair I dont notice the difference from 75hz to 144hz as much with the slower paced games I normally play, like I did going from 30hz to 60hz, but the difference is still there. I think that most people could tell the difference though if you switched back and forth. Now this monitor does not really have a 1ms response time, but this marketing strategy of slapping on a bogus response time isnt unique to this monitor. Most TN panels dont really have a true 1ms response time either. The true response time on the fast overdrive setting is 4.08 with 100% of the transitions falling under the 6.94ms window to get a true 144hz. This is excellent. Now I had originally planned on getting the cheaper 27gl83a-b, just thinking that the color gamut was the only difference. After doing some deeper digging I found the the response time on the 27gl83a-b is slightly slower as well. It was worth coughing up an extra $100 for the LG 27GL850 for me. The only thing Im not a huge fan of is the red accents on the stand, as I prefer my setup to be blacked out. To be honest it looks a bit better in person, and if youre sitting on wall youd only see a sliver of red on the top of the V base of the stand. It is also Vesa mountable, so I may do that at some point if my OCD acts up. Now I have used TN, VA and IPS monitors. TN panels are just too washed out and the viewing angles are awful. VA has better viewing angles and contrast, but they still look too washed for me and the ghosting is a sin for gaming. IPS especially now that they have high refresh rate models will be the only technology that I buy and recommend. As for aspect ratios, my last monitor was an ultrawide. Now as much as I love the 21:9 aspect ratio for gaming, I feel as if the gaming industry does not, as its not as widely supported as 16:9. It drove me crazy to buy a new game and have to play with black bars on the sides effectively shrinking my display or an extended FOV where the sides would look stetched or the hud wouldnt support 21:9. The problems go on and on and the support hasnt gotten better imo I couldnt more highly recommend this and after almost 40 years of gaming I put this monitor up there with my favorite, next level upgrades within the likes of my Super Nintendo, PS2 and my first graphics card that pushed me to 60fps.

Ive had it installed for a little while now and have been very happy with it. It took little while to adjust the colors and display settings to get it where I like it. The presets were either too dim or washed out. The image is very clear, and I and I prefer overall compared to the 4k LG 27UL500-W that I have it sitting next to on my desk. If youve been using 1080p displays this makes for a nice choice for an upgrade at a very reasonable price. The 144mhz refresh rate works as advertised. The button on the bottom of the screen is very touchy and I often end up having to exit the menu and go back to select the feature that I am trying to adjust. The display supports display port version 1.1, 1.2, and 1.4. I have noticed that switching it between input sources that are using the different DP formats causes the screen to go black and message appears telling me that I need to go into the settings and select the proper display port version. I wish that this was done automagically but that is not the case. I have noticed that when running this display through my display port switch that there is some stuttering and screen tearing. This did not happen on the older monitor that this one replaced. I am not sure if this is a monitor issue or a byproduct of using the switch. I am overall very happy with my purchase and this has become may main working display replacing a midrange ASUS 1080p display.

I wish it had built in speakers but besides that I love it. Bring it bright light doesn’t make it hard to see and the screen itself is beautiful

Bought this monitor for 1440p gaming and couldn’t be happier!