Gadgetory

for the ultimate no compromises compact gaming PC look no further than the obsidian series 250 d from Corsair click now to learn more I knew this video was going to be a challenge I knew that having come from the thousand dollar + LG 34 um 95 I was gonna have a hard time being quite as positive about its little brother the 29 um 65 a monitor that currently retails for about a third of the price and one that has a form factor that I just never really found very compelling but first an overview the 29 um 65 is an ultra wide 21 by 929 inch monitor from LG that runs a resolution that LG calls ultra wide Full HD but I think it's actually faster to say 2560 by 1080 it features a thin bezel a couple of functional if unexcited speakers a joystick control knob for navigating the on-screen display and the glossy plastic stand that unfortunately has only two height positions that you need a screwdriver to adjust neither of which I really found high enough but you can just kind of put it on a box like what I did if you really want to under it's very satisfactory hard anti-glare coating is an 8 bit IPS panel for solid color performance and superior wide viewing angle performance something that's a must since just looking at the thing straight on you're gonna be looking at the edges from a bit of an angle the monitor features a fairly average 5 millisecond great a great response time rating that despite being the same as the um 95 which we looked at recently feels very noticeably snappier which would indicate that this monitor is gonna have low input lag and be a gamers delight I've got an input lag tester on order from Leo Bodnar but it's not here yet so in the meantime I decided to do a side-by-side comparison against the PB 278 Q from isus I monitor with that fairly average input lag we shot at 240 frames per second and that looks like my subjective observations were correct with each frame equivalent to about 4 milliseconds the difference you're seeing here is between 16 to 20 milliseconds or equivalent to the action reaching your eyes a full frame sooner than the PB a very solid result motion blur is also subjectively a strong point that being about as good as I could expect for an IPS panel feature wise it's got inputs galore with dual link DVI to HDMI inputs DisplayPort and an audio in that can either run the two on-board speakers or pass-through to the headphone out jack these inputs support a side-by-side mode that would let you run two devices at the same time like like a desktop and a notebook as if you've got two five by four monitors a feature I don't personally find that useful but I'm sure for someone that will be a huge deal a more practical use of the extra horizontal space for me is enabled by LG's screen split utility it's available Windows and Mac and allows you to split your windows or your screen up a number of different ways it actually works a lot better than I expected but the execution needs maybe two to three more software revisions and some more customization options before I'd say it's ready to take on the likes of display fusion for example I found the most useful modes for me were the three screen left and three screen balanced for screen was just too small to be useful with a mere 1280 by 540 resolution per window and two screen split can be replaced easily by just using Aero snap within windows on the subject of resolution though let's get into why I never really cared for 29-inch 21 by 9 ultra wide monitors a form factor that some others notably Austin Evans and in his gaming setup video where he talks about how great it is for widescreen movies and games really like I guess a big part of it is that it's really not as big as it sounds the further you get from a 1 to 1 square aspect ratio the smaller the screen area is relative to the diagonal monitor size this 29 inch monitors actually smaller than a 27-inch 16 by 9 and only about 12 percent bigger than a 24 inch 16 by 10 a size and aspect ratio that I always really liked with that said I am aware of the advantages movies that are shot in 2.3 9x1 cinematic aspect ratio can be watched without black bars and the advantage for gaming with a wider field of view without bezels getting in the way is obvious and in fact gaming is one of the strongest arguments I can make for getting this monitor it's only about 33% more difficult to drive than a single tenon you monitor so you won't be spending a fortune on your graphics card and it delivers a very different gaming experience in supported games which of course brings up the usual issues that crop up every time we throw a new resolution at the gaming industry and that's that many games will not run at 2560 by 1080 without a little bit of tinkering the first bit of good news though is that if you need some help figuring out if your games will work at all or getting your games running check out widescreen gaming form they've helped me out a couple of times in the past and the next bit of good news is that because the vertical resolution is 1080 in games that just flat-out won't run an ultra wide you can play at 1920 by 1080 with black bars along the sides without any weird interpolation or other visual anomalies your monitor will be equivalent to about a 23 inch 1080p monitor when it's run this way gaming aside the windows modern UI and steam big picture are a couple of newer UI styles that can benefit in a big way from more horizontal space although valve has yet to add support for 21 by 9 resolutions and I'm also acutely aware of the productivity argument that it's basically equivalent to two 17-inch 5 by 4 monitors with a 1280 by 1080 resolution each making it great for multitasking it's just that I didn't find that productivity was earth-shatteringly different enough to justify the price premium the way that I did on the larger um 95 I never found 1080 vertical pixels to be enough and giving me the option to either stretch things out even wider or narrow them even further so I feel like it's 2007 again and I'm working on a couple of 17-inch LCDs are a couple of options that I just don't find that appealing for just over three hundred and fifty dollars or so I can get to 23 inch 1080p monitors if productivity is a focus for me but that's all subjective and I know a lot of people disagree with me so with that out of the way let's get down to the bottom line since the price of the 34 um 95 with its higher resolution higher pixel density and larger size makes it completely out of reach for gamers and pretty much everyone else for now now that I've actually used one of these instead of just seeing them briefly at trade shows would I recommend a 29 inch 21 by 9 monitor as a less expensive substitute for productivity the answer is no but for gaming or a mixture of the two actually yes I would some people don't mind bezels and some people think that the 48 by 9 aspect ratio of an eyefinity setup is just dandy I am NOT one of either of those types of people and even though I could get 323 inch 1080p monitors for the price of one of these which would be better for productivity I prefer the single monitor experience for gaming and the comparatively smaller amount of hassle that comes from dealing with one monitor running a weird resolution versus three spanned monitors running a weird resolution thank you for watching guys the link for where to buy this product is in the video description below the like dislike and share buttons which you should use accordingly also in the video description is a support link that we'd love for you to use if you appreciate what we do you can get a t-shirt give us a monthly contribution or change your browser bookmarks to sites that give us an affiliate kickback like Amazon when you buy stuff it helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe to Linus tech tips more unboxings reviews and other computer videos