Carbon Chemist

Tag: screens

  • LG Ultragear 34GS95QE Curved OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Big Curve

    LG Ultragear 34GS95QE Curved OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Big Curve

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    I’m really starting to like ultrawide monitors. I’m the kind of guy who usually prefers to work in full-screen mode to reduce distractions, and a 21:9 aspect ratio is a bit silly for that. But the LG Ultragear 34GS95QE monitor has been persuading me. It’s stylish and dramatic, but it took me a while to realize why this screen resonated.

    This Ultragear monitor has an 800R curvature. That number refers to the radius, in millimeters, of the circle the monitor’s curve conforms to, and let me tell you, 800R is a low number for ultrawide monitors. Like really low. That means this monitor is exceptionally curved. The MSI QD-OLED model I tested a while back had a much more subdued 1,800R curvature, which is a more common number for curved monitors.

    That made the LG Ultragear striking the moment I pulled it out of the box. The longer I used it, the more it just felt right. It’s not without its annoyances, but now that I’ve used such a curved OLED display, it’s hard to go back.

    Perfect Placement

    The LG Ultragear 34GS95QE achieves perfect black levels and striking contrast, which isn’t too surprising given its OLED panel. The 800R curve made it feel a little sharper than I was expecting. It took me forever to figure out why, but it’s because the sides of the monitor are physically closer to my eyes.

    Top view of LG Ultragear gaming monitor a black curved screen sitting on a black desk beside speakers and a computer...

    Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

    That might not sound like a huge deal, but consider how often you’re looking at something other than the center of your screen, especially while gaming. In Overwatch 2, one of my most-played games, the elimination feed is a crucial element that sits in the upper-right corner of the screen. Meanwhile, my health is on the bottom left, and my abilities are on the bottom right. Heck, almost all of the game’s HUD elements are in one of the four corners.

    It’s an extremely subtle change, but with curvature this stark, all those elements felt easier for my eyes to focus on. This is likely true in a literal sense, since my eyes are roughly the same distance from every part of the screen, something that’s not quite true of flat-panel displays. Making micro-readjustments in fast-paced games dozens of times a minute can wear on the eye muscles.

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  • LG MyView Smart Monitor (32SR85U-W) Review: A Fun 2-In-1 Screen

    LG MyView Smart Monitor (32SR85U-W) Review: A Fun 2-In-1 Screen

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    you might think a “smart monitor” might have some tie-in to the smart home, but it’s more akin to modern-day smart TVs. LG’s MyView 4K Smart Monitor has a smart TV built into it, complete with a homepage of apps, just like your Roku or Google TV.

    “Can’t I just use a web browser?” you might ask. Yes, you can. This led me to wonder why I’d need a smart TV interface on a device that can typically surf any corner of the web, including directly accessing streaming services. To my surprise, I liked using my desktop monitor as both a normal PC monitor and a smart (albeit imperfect) TV. I often preferred the built-in streaming apps over a browser page. It created a nice separation between my work and relaxation time, offering some peace at the end of a long day.

    Screen Time

    The 32-inch MyView is fairly well rounded for its $600 price, considering it’s a 4K (3,840 x 2,160 resolution) monitor with a large and bright IPS screen. It has already dipped as low as $500, making it an even better value. It comes with a remote, which is how you navigate the TV interface.

    There’s a selection of picture modes accessible through the remote’s Settings button, ranging from a dim power-saver mode to ones calibrated for watching movies and sports. They all do something different—Cinema and Sport modes both raise the brightness to 100 percent but choose different levels of contrast, while Auto Power Save cuts down on brightness but uses a high amount of local dimming to respond to your space. These modes are pretty standard fare on monitors and TVs.

    The screen was bright enough that I usually chose the Power Save mode, and the local dimming usually landed on around 10 to 15 percent brightness. I also toggled on Eye Care Mode—which reduces blue light on the screen—whenever a yellow-toned screen wasn’t an issue for my tasks. All of this was so much easier to access via the remote compared to the usual buttons you’d find on some corner (or the back) of a monitor. No more guessing what button does what!

    White flat screen monitor on desk with 2 speakers on either side neon lighting behind and picture of sky and leaves...

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

    You’ll see fewer options if you connect the monitor to your PC using a USB-C cord with display-out support instead of an HDMI—Vivid, Standard, Game Optimizer, and a couple of movie-related modes. There’s no Auto Power Save option, and I ended up manually dimming the brightness to replicate the mode I used when I was connected via HDMI.

    The 60-Hz refresh rate is a bit of a bummer but unsurprising on monitors that don’t specifically cater to gamers. Whether you’ll notice it depends on what you play; Baldur’s Gate 3 still looked beautiful onscreen, particularly with the Game Optimizer picture mode. I also liked playing Stardew Valley on it, though I found it better to play with the Standard or Auto picture modes, since the art style isn’t as dynamic. If you have a hefty gaming PC and often play fast-paced games, you’ll want to look elsewhere for a monitor that can handle higher refresh rates.

    Streaming is where this monitor shines. The large 32-inch screen feels immersive and cinematic when you’re perched right in front of it. It’s big enough that even if you’re sitting slightly farther away, it works OK, but sit more than 5 feet away and it’ll look too small. I spent a good amount of time watching Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, and the Cinema mode did a lovely job of improving the picture quality. (It looked good even on the Auto mode.)

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