LG Ultragear 27 review – best IPS gaming monitor

The LG Ultragear 27 IPS gaming monitor is currently one of the most popular and hotly requested gaming monitors in the market, but what makes it so special? It is the first IPS monitor that claims to hit TN-level response times. With a rated 1ms response time, theoretically this display should have all the speed advantages of a TN panel, but without the downsides like poor color performance, low contrast ratios and weak viewing angles. When you combine that with a 27-inch panel size, 2560 x 1440 resolution and 144 Hz refresh rate with adaptive sync, it’s positioned as the perfect monitor for gaming. Let us share more on LG Ultragear 27 review.

LG Ultragear 27 specs (review)

Compare LG Ultragear 27 (review)

LG Ultragear 27 review

The LG 27GL850 is the first IPS gaming monitor to boast a 1ms GtG pixel response time speed, promising stunning colors as well as crystal-clear fast-paced motion – and that’s exactly what it delivers.

Design & Connectivity

The design of the LG 27GL850 is 3-side borderless with versatile ergonomics including up to 110mm height adjustment, 90° pivot, -5°/15° tilt, 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility, but no swivel to the left/right option. There’s also a low-haze (25%) anti-glare coating which eliminates the reflections but preserves the image quality.

Connectivity options include two HDMI 2.0 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 input, a headphones jack, and a dual-USB 3.0 hub. Note that the HDMI connectors support 1440p up to 144Hz, but the FreeSync range is limited to 100Hz.

Features

The OSD (On-Screen Display) menu of the LG 27GL850 is well-organized and easy to navigate with thanks to the joystick placed beneath the bottom bezel of the monitor.

Some of the noteworthy features including the Game Mode pre-calibrated picture presets (FPS, RTS, Vivid, Reader, HDR Effect, and sRGB which limits the wide color gamut to 100% sRGB for color-critical work).

There are also two Gamer profiles which you can use to customize and save your own settings.

Other features include Black Stabilizer (improves visibility in darker games), Cross Hair (custom crosshair overlays), and advanced picture adjustments including three gamma presets, manual color temperature adjustments in 500K increments, manual red, green, and blue color adjustments, etc.

There’s no RGB lighting and no backlight strobing technology (Motion Blur Reduction) though it’s not necessary anyway thanks to the excellent pixel response time performance.

Image Quality

Based on a Nano IPS panel with 98% DCI-P3 color gamut (135% sRGB), the LG UltraGear 27GL850 offers gorgeous and vibrant colors with dithered 10-bit color support. What’s more, the colors will remain perfect at basically any angle thanks to the wide 178-degree viewing angles.

The monitor also supports HDR (High Dynamic Range), but it’s there just for the sake of it; the monitor can accept the HDR10 signal from compatible content and display it, but it lacks local dimming for a noteworthy HDR viewing experience.

It also has a peak brightness of only 350-nits which is more than bright enough for regular use, but far from the ideal 1,000-nits when it comes to HDR content. Overall, some HDR content may look slightly better, but most of the time, you’ll just get washed out colors.

Implementing a good local dimming solution would also greatly increase the monitor’s price. So, the image quality of the LG 27GL850 display is excellent considering its price. 1440p resolution hits the pixel density sweet spot on 27″ monitors, so you get plenty of screen space as well as clear and sharp details.

Moving on, the contrast ratio varies between ~700:1 to 1,000:1 depending on the particular unit of the monitor, which is pretty much standard for IPS panel displays.

If you were to put the LG 27GL850 monitor next to a VA-panel display, which have a contrast ratio of 2,500:1 to 3,000:1, you would notice that blacks aren’t as deep and that the overall relation between the darkest and the brightest shades isn’t as vivid.

This is expected as no panel technology is perfect.

VA panels may have the best contrast ratio, but their response time is a lot slower and the colors aren’t as punchy as that of IPS models.

TN panels have the worst colors and contrast as well as narrow viewing angles, but they have the fastest response time speed. This is where the LG 27GL850 comes into play and closes the gap between the IPS and TN technologies by providing stunning colors while its response time speed is on par with the TN models.

LG Ultragear 27 performance review

Now, monitor manufacturers tend to overstate the response time speed specification of their displays. LG claims that the 27GL850 has a 1ms GtG speed when using the ‘Faster’ overdrive preset.

There are four overdrive modes in total: Off, Normal, Fast, and Faster.

While the Faster mode may technically get to 1ms (or close to it), it introduces a lot of pixel overshoot (inverse ghosting) which is basically unusable.

Luckily, the Fast preset has no overshoot and it efficiently eliminates all trailing left behind fast-moving objects. Even though this preset makes the response time speed a bit slower than the specified 1ms, it’s more than fast enough to keep up with the 144Hz refresh rate.

Combined with the imperceptible input lag of ~4ms, the gaming performance is buttery smooth and responsive, fit for professional gaming. Of course, hardcore gamers can get 1080p 240Hz displays at this price range for the best results, but they’d have to sacrifice image quality.

1440p is quite demanding when it comes to the latest games. Luckily, AMD FreeSync will provide you with a variable refresh rate (VRR) which eliminates all screen tearing and stuttering within the 48-144Hz/FPS range (LFC supported) by synchronizing the monitor’s refresh rate with the frame rate of your GPU at minimal input lag penalty (~1ms).

The LG 27GL850 144Hz gaming monitor is certified by NVIDIA as G-SYNC compatible, so you’ll be able to take full advantage of VRR even if you have a graphics card by NVIDIA (requires a GTX 10-series GPU or newer). Note that the LG 27GL850 FreeSync range is limited to 48-100Hz over HDMI.

Another thing to keep in mind about the LG 27GL850 is IPS glow which is an expected drawback of this panel technology. The amount of IPS glow and backlight bleeding will vary between different units; as excess light passes through the panel, it appears as glowing around the corners of the screen, but it’s manageable.

Finally, the monitor has a flicker-free screen and an integrated low-blue light filter allowing you to enjoy long gaming sessions without straining your eyes.

1. LG 27GL83A-B 27 Inch Ultragear IPS 1ms Gaming Monitor

See your way to victory with the innovative 38GL950G-B UltraGear gaming monitor, providing the most crisp visuals and the sharpest clarity. You can experience breath-taking immersion on a Nano IPS display with a 1ms

• 38” 21:9 Curved WQHD+ (3840 x 1600) Nano IPS Display
• Nano IPS (DCI-P3 98%) 1ms Response Time
• NVIDIA G-SYNC
• 144Hz (175Hz Overclock)
• VESA Display HDR 400
• Sphere Lighting 2.0

2. LG 27GL650F-B 27 Inch Full HD Ultragear G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor

Bring your virtual worlds to stunning life with a 27″ Fhd display Plus Radeon free Sync technology for seamless image precision.. 27” Ultra gear FHD IPS 144Hz free Sync with HDR10 3-Side virtually borderless gaming monitor. Other features: 27” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display, 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms motion blur reduction, height/ pivot/ tilt adjustable stand, Radeon free Sync technology. Input:100-240Vac, 50/60Hz

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