I can never go back... - LG & Dell's 49" 21:9 Monitors Reviewed
I can never go back... - LG & Dell's 49" 21:9 Monitors Reviewed
2019-03-30
sometimes high technology really can
feel like every time you take two steps
forward you've got to take a step back
and that's definitely how I felt when we
reviewed Samsung's
super ultra wide c HD 90 almost exactly
one year ago I mean that thing was a
sight to behold as wide and as tall as
two 27-inch regular monitors
side-by-side and it had a 144 Hertz
refresh rate for gamers it was basically
the monitor of the future that is unless
you were coming from a future where high
resolution screens were a thing because
with a vertical resolution of just 1080
pixels it was a blurry dog's breakfast
compared to even cheap Korean monitors
off of ebay but today we've got some new
options both LG and dell have released
their own 49 inch 32 by 9 displays this
time
with over 75% more pixels that's right
baby
it's 1440p baby the hex gears nova
mechanical keyboard is a wired
entry-level keyboard that features full
metal construction and is available with
kale box brown or box white switches
check it out at the link below
the first thing to know when comparing
these two monitors is that as far as we
can tell they are using the exact same
panel as LG Display actually makes
display panels while Dell does not but
that's not a criticism because what a
panel it is it features a 50 120 by 1440
resolution which is the same exact
number of pixels as two 27 inch qHD or
2560 by 1440 monitors side by side but
then of course without gross bezels
bifurcating your crosshairs if you're a
gamer it's also over seven million total
pixels which for a lot of gamers might
actually be the sweet spot so on the one
hand this brings a noticeable
improvement in image clarity compared to
1080 class displays of this size almost
all of the test users spotted the
upgrade in an experiment that we ran
recently which you can check out up here
on the other hand compared to gaming on
even a single standard 16 by 9 4k
display we're still actually working
with almost a million fewer pixels so
even though they're spread across 49
freakin inches of incredibly immersive
gaming glory this panel is still not
quite as hard to drive as more
mainstream 4k displays so we were able
to get 120 to 180 FPS in cs:go
full-screen max settings not that any
one place like that and around 40 to 50
fps playing apex legends with an RT X
2070 now 40 to 50 fps is certainly
playable but a lot of PC gamers really
prefer to have higher frame rates in
their games these days NVIDIA recently
even shared a study on the practical
competitive advantage of high refresh
rate gaming so our next step then was to
hook up a 20 80 TI to this beast only to
be a little bit disappointed because now
our rig has the FPS for a true PC
master-race experience but our monitors
can't keep up if high refresh rate
gaming is your thing you
need to find another display because
unlike the lower res Samsung from last
year that runs it up to a hundred and
forty-four Hertz
these 1440p models max out at 60 Hertz
although with that set we were able to
get a stable overclock on both of them
up to around 76 Hertz which isn't too
bad so they're suitable for sightseeing
and non-competitive gamers but I
wouldn't say they're really for hardcore
eSports players moving on to
productivity of L totally different
story 60 Hertz is plenty for office work
so these monitors are basically
fantastic no like really fantastic you
can easily get three or four windows
open at the same time and with the 1440
vertical pixels text might not be the
sharpest we've ever seen like on LG's 5k
ultra fine but it's still nice and clear
which is important because remember even
though it's super wide you're still
likely to end up sitting only about 30
inches away depending on the size of
your desk another difference between
this new panel and the samsung c HD 90
is the tightness of the curve now all of
them are curved monitors because by the
time you go this wide it actually does
kind of make sense but the Samsung uses
a rounder 1800 R curve compared to the
LG of the Dells more flat 3800 R Bend
now which one you prefer is kind of down
to how you intend to use it
now if you'll always be close a really
tight curve is fine but if you plan to
also use your monitor as your dorm room
TV you might prefer the flatter approach
especially if you find yourself watching
with friends
now as for color accuracy our Dell
monitor shipped with calibration
literature that we verified in our tests
and it's great we're talking
professional level delta ease of less
than 2 and 98% coverage of the sRGB
color space as for our LG unit that one
was good
but not great though we should mention
that ours is a pre-production
engineering sample so it is possible
although from our experience with LG not
necessarily probable that the retail
ready models will be better calibrated
out of the box than ours if nothing else
though our Dell here shows us more or
less what displays with this panel can
be capable of okay then so by this time
we've made our point that these two
monitors share the same panel but we
mostly haven't talked about what's
actually different about them so which
one is better well most of the
differences have to do with the
industrial design the chassis the stand
and the controls for the on-screen
display looks wise I'd say it's a coin
flip they both have a plastic back but
the Dell is gray well the LG is white so
IO is a bit of a mixed bag too they both
have two HDMI 2.0 ports and a single
DisplayPort 1.4 port but the Dell has a
couple more USB ports than the LG five
downstream Taipei's that's where you
plug your stuff in to upstream type B's
and a very appreciated USB type-c by the
way you might be wondering why there are
two upstream ports on it at all it's
actually really cool it's so you can
connect two computers to this display
simultaneously viewing their output in
picture by picture mode and then
controlling them with a single set of
peripherals thanks to the monitors
integrated KVM cool the LG actually
shares these features though but it has
for downstream USB ports a headphone
jack and the only USB port labeled
upstream is the USB C which just like
the USB C on the Dell has DisplayPort
alternate mode and a whopping 90 watts
of power delivery that means you could
actually dock your macbook pro to either
of these with a single cable which is
pretty sweet especially considering that
neither of these monitors have bulky
external power bricks which of crap we
got into the similarities again right so
uh sorry differences the LG does offer a
few goodies that are completely absent
on the Dell first there's the stand
which actually swivels in addition to
being able to go lower than the Dell and
even rotate a little bit in case your
floor isn't level
and then again shame on Dells product
page which claims the 4914 DW can swivel
between minus 170 and plus 170 degrees
but it doesn't swivel at all
I think they're talking about viewing
angles but that's still wrong
second the LG has an ambient light
sensor on the top so the brightness can
adjust automatically and it actually
manages to progress a nice gradual steps
unlike some TVs that I've seen which can
be pretty jarring and then finally
there's HDR maybe the LG product page
says it supports HDR 10 and the toggle
is there in Windows but I mean this is
some pretty low-level HDR I mean the
Dell is a nearly identical product when
it comes to the tech specs and it
doesn't have it so I mean I wouldn't be
surprised if LG pulled off the they said
display HDR 400 certification by the
time it launches and I guess that's
better than nothing but don't buy this
monitor if an awesome HDR viewing
experience is what you're after so then
if you're in the market for a super
ultra wide should you buy one of these
and if so which one well if you don't
mind a lower resolution in exchange for
high not to mention variable refresh
rate gaming you're actually still better
off with the 144 Hertz model from
Samsung for three hundred and fifty
dollars less or maybe the upcoming
comparable from ROG
however if you really value the higher
resolution for work or you're a non
competitive gamer with a machine that
can push this many pixels so then if
you're basically like me then I'd
recommend one of these as for which one
I'd love to say go LG straight up
actually I didn't even mention it's got
speakers built into it in the Dell
doesn't but it's gonna cost you it's
gonna be about a hundred and fifty
dollars more when it launches in
mid-april so it's up to you whether the
LG only features are worth is I mean
they're both awesome displays that are
great for productivity and immersive
gaming and games like apex legends
destiny 2 csgo gay-sex mankind divided
anything that's designed with SuperDuper
wide gaming in mind so anything but this
benchmark which you
clearly tell us super stretched thermal
takes a 500 aluminum mid-tower case
features a minimalistic design with a
brushed aluminum surface for a clean
uninterrupted looked
it's got hinged tempered glass panels on
both sides it fits up to a 420
millimetre radiator at the front it can
take up to four three and a half or two
and a half inch hard drives inside the
left side panel or the top of the power
supply cover and it's got a Type C USB
port on the front panel check it out
today at the link in the video
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