Gadgetory

welcome back to hardware our box today we're checking out the LG 34 wk 95 you a pretty impressive high-end ultra wide display if you ask me this isn't your typical 34 40 by 1440 affair no the 34 wk 95 U is a 4k class ultra wide packing a 50 120 by 2160 resolution so essentially it's a 4k display with some extra pixels added on each side to stretch it out to 21:9 LG is positioning this monitor primarily for content creators boasting about its 98 percent DCI p3 coverage nano IPS technology Thunderbolt 3 support and display HDR 600 certification with such a high resolution and immersive 21:9 aspect ratio I think it could also temp gamers that want to take their ultra wide setup to the next level I've already mentioned most of the key specs but there's a few other interesting ones here firstly this is not a curved ultra wide most 21:9 monitors these days have some form of curve but the 34 wk 95u is flat which is pretty unusual I think I prefer a slight curve to these sorts of panels but I can also appreciate the benefits to keeping it flat especially for content creators which appear to be who this monitor is designed for before we get to that this video is brought to you by as rock and there's ed 390 Taichi ultimate motherboard this flagship quality board fully supports Intel's ninth gen eight core processors thanks to a 10 phase vrm design and you get a quantity at 10 gigabit per second Ethernet to learn more check out the links in the description below and while I said this display might tempt gamers that's probably only on the resolution and aspect ratio front because we're not getting many other gaming grade features the monitor tops out at a 60 Hertz refresh rate and does not support adaptive sync but that may not stop those who already game on 4k 60 Hertz displays from jumping into the world of 5k Ultra woods as is the case with many high-end professional focused monitors the 34 wk 95 u does come at a high price tag of $1,400 but there's no other monitors available at this resolution so there's no cheap option right now and there's a quick note the 30 4bk 95 you is the same monitor as the 34 wk 95 you just in black rather than white let's take a closer look at the design and what I really like here is just how simple it is there's no distractions on the front it's just a large panel with super bezels on all four sides and a silver metal and plastic stand the C shaped stand isn't the most compact but it's also not crazy for an ultra wide yet it remains very sturdy you also get height and tilt adjustment LG sent out the white version for me to review so the rear panel is simple white plastic which looks pretty good like many of LG's other monitors the ports are found directly on the back panel for easy access although it does make cable management a bit more difficult than other tucked away designs here we're getting DisplayPort to HDMI ports a two port USB hub a headphone jack and Thunderbolt three given the bandwidth requirements of ultra wide 2160p at 60 Hertz you can't run this monitor at its native resolution and refresh rate over HDMI 2.0 with no support for HDMI 2 point 1 this means you need to hook it up using display port or the Handy Thunderbolt 3 port many laptops now include Thunderbolt 3 so the inclusion of this port makes it easy to hook up a laptop especially as HDMI is not really an option if you are using DisplayPort I'd recommend using the cable included in the box this is the first monitor I've had a few issues using with other cables mostly because of the super high bandwidth requirements so if you do experience blanking it's probably not the monitors fault but the cable the on-screen display is controlled using a directional toggle along the bottom edge so that's good to see and seems to be a universal inclusion across LG's monitor lineup the features you'll find in the menuhim mostly for adjusting color modes and performance again this isn't designed for gamers so there aren't any gaming specific features here moving into performance and there's a lot to talk about here there are multiple color modes calibration options HDR and mock so let's work through everything individually out of the box we're getting a typical experience as this is a wide gamut monitor by default that's left unclamped so saturation and color checker Delta averages are in the 3.0 sort of range which is okay but not perfectly accurate there's definitely a noticeable over saturation going on for srgb content which is typical for an unclamped wide gamut monitor grayscale performance is decent though a cc the average of 67 26k is pretty close to accurate and a delta e average of 2.29 again isn't perfect but it's close enough for default performance but I don't think many people will be using the screen in its default mode because there are a number of factory calibrated modes included ranging from srgb and rec.709 to DCI p3 SMPTE dash C and EBU I'm going to focus on the srgb and DCI p3 modes in this review the srgb mode was actually pretty disappointing and that's down to a whacky CCT curve sRGB uses a D 65 or roughly 6,500 K white point but the 34 wk 95 u unit I received had a white point of 5,600 K and an average of around 6,000 K so it had a warm tint overall this led to a poor greyscale average of 4.75 and this arrow trickles down through a saturation Delta average of 3.1 one and a colorchecker average of around 3.0 mark as well you can't see the gamut is clamped so we're not getting over saturation but the white point is throwing everything off disappointingly the same issue is present in the similar rec.709 mode and there is no way to adjust the white point manually when you were using this mode if the factory calibration is perfect it makes sense to lock away the color controls in a factory calibrated mode like the srgb mode but if it's not perfect it makes life difficult for users as this is the case here I'd have preferred if LG left the tools unlocked as you can't clamp the gamut down to srgb without using the srgb or similar mode on the flip side the DCI p3 mode is good greyscale performance is much closer to the default mode with a slightly incorrect CCT curve and a delta a average of 2.45 but both our saturation and color checker tests reported in with a sub 2.0 Delta II result indicating the mode was accurate on average I also recorded over 95% DCI p3 coverage which is right up there with the best wide gamut displays while the DCI p3 mode is good I still wouldn't class it all the srgb mode as being up to this standard of professional grade factory calibration really you'd want to see sub 2.0 Delta ease across the board and that puts the 34 wk 95 you in a bit of a weird position it's clearly designed for professionals and the spec sheet even lists that it has factory calibration LG makes no claims about specific delta-e targets like you might see from other program monitor z' in fact the calibration sheet that comes in the box says LG is targeting a sub v delta e which isn't good enough for pro grade accuracy and i suspect is why this particular unit still managed to pass it's not wildly inaccurate and in fact i think it will be fine for more casual users but it's not quite good enough for professional creators that demand out-of-the-box accuracy with that said LG does give buyers the tools to achieve true accuracy using external hardware like a calibration device you don't get such a device included in the box but many professional creators that require accuracy for their work should already have them the main tool at hand is LG's true color Pro application it's not the best calibration software ever but it works as advertised you plug in the monitor hook up a color Rimet ur set the targets you want and against to work crucially it then uploads the calibrated settings into the display so you don't need to mess around with software profiles it does also generate a software profile but I found the results to be excellent without it true color Pro lets you calibrate to all five of the gamuts the monitor has individual modes for including DCI p3 and srgb the settings are uploaded to one of the two separate calibration profile slots so for example you could generate an sRGB profile for standard use and a DCI p3 profile for wide gamut work both of which are stored in the display you can then switch between these two accurate profiles depending on your workload this is definitely the best way to achieve color accuracy with the 34 wk 95 u it's a little disappointing that you need to do this because the factory calibrated modes aren't great but at least it supports proper hardware calibration so you're not exclusively relying on often dodgy and incompatible software profiles and while I always like to see perfect factory calibration most creators that need accuracy for their work should already have the tools at their disposal to get the most out of this monitor as for the results you can achieve the true color Pro I'm going to show you my srgb profile here although you can expect something similar for DCI p3 and the other gamuts grayscale performance is a lot better with a delta e average of just one point one six and a good CCT curve while saturation and color checker delta-t averages are both below 1.0 so that's a really strong result I can achieve slightly better results with soccerway profile generated in display cal but considering this is a hardware solution I don't see the point in messing around this software alright that's the color performance dealt with let's take a look at uniformity being a flat IPS panel there's a lot going for it in this department and looking at the results is pretty good especially for an ultra wide there is a small dark zone in the outer left corner but in the middle zones we're seeing sub 2.0 Delta T's for the most part and when combined with excellent viewing angles I think this is a suitable enough result for creative work also important to mention is the brightness and contrast when working in the SDR mode brightness tops out at just shy of 400 nits with a contrast ratio of 1080 to one so standard stuff for an IPS display IPS glow levels worst and from my unit as well you're not going to get the contrast of a VA panel here but the viewing angles and uniformity make IPS more suitable for professional work gamers will be happy to know that response times a decent using the default fast mode which is the mode I recommend I achieved a 7 millisecond greater greater than average response which is standard for a pro grade IPS and a little faster than most gaming grade VA monitors but what's good here is we aren't seeing super slow response times occasionally with a Creator oriented 60 Hertz high resolution monitor we get slow response times but this panel is fine and doesn't suffer in that way input latency is also standard at around 70 milliseconds well not as fast as the best gaming monitors but again fine for a creative monitor one thing is for sure though if you plan on getting this monitor for gaming make sure you have a high-end graphics card at a resolution of 50-120 by 2160 we're looking at 33% more pixels than regular 4k so it's a step above 4k in terms of its intensity and cheap hue requirements take the nvidia geforce artex 2080 TI for example which is the first single GPU that delivers a truly excellent 4k experience with this GPU and a lot of tiles you can play it 4k with ultra settings and get frame rates above 60fps at 50 120 by 2160 you'll be lucky to hit 60fps in a lot of games even with this sort of GPU intensive titles like Metro Exodus I was getting mid 40s are best with ultra settings in shadow of the Tomb Raider on just the high preset I was stuck around 50 FPS or lower and in battlefield 5 multiplayer I was just barely able to hit 60fps on average now this is the 60 Hertz monitor so there's not as strong of an incentive to push above 60 fps but this resolution really hammers the r-tx 2080 TI and prevents it from consistently hitting that magic 60 FPS mark games look absolutely stunning on this monitor with its high resolution and immersive aspect ratio but if you're coming from a high frame rate experience with a 20 80 TI at other resolutions be prepared to drop down a fair bit with this sort of display the other big feature you get with this monitor is HDR support thanks to display HDR 600 certification the 34 wk 95 u is better than a lot of HDR monitors which simply can't display HDR content properly but it's also not at the level of a true HDR display I tend to class these monitors as semi HDR they're better than an SDR display but not quite at the required level when looking at my HDMI monitor checklist LG does manage to take at least some of the boxes in every category peak brightness exceeds 600 nits we're getting 95% DCI p3 coverage which is more than enough for HDR wider gamut requirements and we're even getting local to me however it's only edgelet local dimming with a small number of zones so we're not quite at the level required for a great HDR experience this is because with edgelet dimming and a low zone count tailoring around bright objects is a big issue especially when a bright object is in the center of the display surrounded by dark areas the edge leader in particular can cause streaks to drag from any bright objects right up to the edges of the screen which depending on the content is ugly and not what HDR is all about the end result is that a giulia dimming often can't deliver the high contrast ratios required to display HDR content as intended the 34 wk 95 u also has a few other HDR issues that crop up due to the backlight a measured peak brightness as 614 it's with a full-screen flash which is acceptable of course but I couldn't achieve this level of brightness in any other condition the edge of the dimming erase struggles with small bright objects dropping below 400 nits with a white window occupying 10% of the display and falling down to just 300 nits with a 2% window typically I'd expect a display to hit 600 nits with not just a full-screen flash but also with a small window size in fact generally brightness should increase with smaller bright areas not decrease like with this monitor sustained brightness tops out at 400 nits which is fine for large bright areas but this monitor is simply incapable of showing bright highlights in small areas which is one of the things that HDR is really geared towards so while it is capable of a twenty six thousand to 1 contrast ratio between its full flash brightness and lowest brightness level the contrast within a scene in the best-case scenario was more like nine thousand to one which is below the recommended level for HDR and that rapidly falls away in more complex scenes as the edge of it dimming array can't cope if you're after a bare-bones HDR experience I think this will suffice but I wouldn't buy this monitor specifically for its HDR capabilities and I wouldn't expect a fantastic HDR experience it's definitely better than many fake hgr monitors but it's still not quite there yet overall the LG 34 wk 95 you exist in an interesting space given it to the only 50 120 by 2160 monitor you can get right now so if you want this resolution this is the option and it will cost you a cool 1400 US dollars the first question that comes to mind is whether this resolution is actually worth it and I think it is I think 50 120 by 2160 has a lot of promise for productivity and creative workflows where resolution is important and in the future I think you will also come into consideration for gamers although right now it's very punishing even on flagship GPUs if I didn't also game on my editing rig I'd seriously consider replacing my existing 34 40 by 1440 ultra wide with this lg monitor because that extra resolution would help out a lot with 4k video editing then the next thing to consider is whether this monitor is actually any good and for the most part I think it is it gets very close to the ideal professional grade experience it supports Hardware calibration which is crucial for maintaining color accuracy it's wide gamut with excellent DCI p3 coverage you're getting good uniformity Thunderbolt through support and a nice minimalist design the reason I say gets very close is that LG's factory calibration isn't quite up to scratch especially with the srgb mode although the ability to run your own Hardware calibration does so this problem if you have the tools at your disposal regardless at this price point it would have been nice to see guaranteed sub 2.0 Delta accuracy out of the box especially as its geared towards people that want good colors the other area of concern is its HDR performance but to me this isn't as big of an issue because it's estia and white gamma performance is fantastic and that will be good enough for most creatives on top of this I think adding in a full array local dimming backlight to get true HDR performance would increase the cost even further that addition would be better suited to a separate higher tier product for HDR content creators while the 34 wk 95 you can exist as a standalone great option for non HDR work and really there's what I think the 34 wk 95u is it's a great option for most content creators and professionals it's not going to be the best bang for buck option and it's not very well suited to gamers right now but if you want a top-of-the-line ultra wide for your work I love what this monitor brings and I'm excited to see more products packing a 50 120 by 2160 resolution in the future that's it for this review if you like our monitor coverage please subscribe and give it a thumbs up that really helps us out as we continue to build on our display testing consider supporting us on patreon to get some cool perks like behind the scenes videos and I'll catch you in the next one