sometimes I put off doing a review because newer more interesting products
arrive and other times I just get too busy and I don't have time but for LG's
3495 I've been putting it off because I just haven't wanted to take it off my
desk for long enough to capture video of the
thing for the ultimate no compromises
compact gaming PC look no further than the obsidian series 250d from
click now to learn more spec-wise this 34in 21 by9 cinematic aspect ratio
monitor weighs in at a massive 3440 by
1440 resolution about 34% higher and
bigger than a 2560 X 1440 27 in monitor
it features an IPS panel rated at 5 milliseconds response time and uses an
8bit panel with frame rate control dithering to achieve 10bit color but
only on the DisplayPort connection speaking of conne it's got a headphone
jack integrated USB 3 Hub and power jack to go along with its dual HDMI display
port and Thunderbolt 2 video inputs please note that the two Thunderbolt
ports there are for daisy chaining not as two separate inputs and the HDMI
inputs are limited to 50 htz this is an HDMI spec limitation and while the
difference from 60 HZ is noticeable it's not nearly as bad as the 30 HZ that 4K
monitors will run at over HDMI now physically the monitor is a unique
specimen I've never seen anything quite like it and since it's the first of its
kind and only available in a couple of regions I guess neither have a lot of
people and I think that the coolest thing about it is how many different
ways it can be used and very effectively for 16x9 Content it's a 27in 2560x1440
monitor with black bars on the side for side by side pseudo dual monitor use
it's two 20.5 in monitors each with a
1720 X 1440 resolution a throwback 5 to4
aspect ratio that really is better for some tasks than the newer 16x9 standard
and then finally for 21 by9 content it is a truly field of view filling 34 in
of immersive Bliss the stand is branded
Crystal float because it's clear so that combined with the nice inem bezel is
supposed to make the screen seem like it's just hanging there but uh I found
that the effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that it only supports 10° of
tilt and to adjust height I needed to jury rig a monitor stand out of a box
with that said at least LG had the consideration to include a vase amount
on the back something that I'll likely use on the bottom we find a couple of
integrated speakers and a joystick for navigating the onscreen menu it allows
pictureby picture control input switching input leg adjustment and a
variety of image adjustments including the unusual reader mode which reduces
blues for theoretically less eye fatigue
back to the front the screen uses an anti-glare coating that is perhaps a
little bit more matte than I would normally prefer but ended up being great
for me since I sit next to a window at my desk where I will be using the
monitor moving forward now this is where
the review deviates from the formula a bit because I didn't know how to
approach a review of something that is so different other than to draw your
attention to the fact that I just said where I'll be using the monitor moving
forward because I have officially been converted I'm ditching my dual 23in t
ADP monitors for this at work and I would really like to replace my Pro PA
279 Q at home as well this is just flat out the best solution for productivity
and gaming IMHO and this is coming from
someone who came into this review with a pretty close-minded attitude I was sure
a very short time ago that 4K was the next big Revolution and the first time I
saw 21 by9 desktop monitors at CES 2013
I didn't even ask for samples I thought they were a silly because we can form
factor that took everything that was wrong with 16x9 that is to say not
enough vertical real estate compared to the older 16 by10 widescreen standard
and made it even more ridiculous they felt like an expensive step backwards
and I didn't care at all this monitor changes everything and the timing of its
arrival is actually very interesting because I've only just recently started
getting 4k monitor samples so that you know first time experience of 4K is
actually still very fresh in my mind I mean to be clear sitting in front of a
4k monitor is great the sharpness and Clarity of the image is fantastic and
the amount of stuff that you can fit on it at the same time is amazing but it
somehow still feels like so many things in the PC industry it's like yes it's
more pixels at a lower price or more megahertz at a lower price whatever but
it's all stuff that we've basically seen a 100 times before by contrast the first
time I sat in front of the 3495 the feeling reminded me of eight
years ago the the first time I sat in front of my Dell 2405 fpw and a few
years before that when I first fired up my vew Sonic P95 f plus b i mean I've
used some fantastic monitors in the last 10 years the ASUS pa279q so beautiful
the BenQ 2420 te delivers an Untouchable gaming experience and my Samsung 305t
blew me away with it sheer size from the moment I turned it on but this one
stands out from the crowd it's not like sitting down at my computer it's more
like sitting at like a command station when you get in front of it it's a very
different experience I tried to find some drawbacks to LG's design and I had
a hard time um anything but a highquality IPS panel would have made
for a horrible experience panel uniformity and especially horizontal
viewing angles are so important in this form factor but they got that right a
different size would have been a drawback but LG has absolutely nailed it
here as well at about 110 pixels per inch the same pixel density as the 27in
1440p monitors that we know and love it is just right and that helps us avoid
the UI scaling issues that are going to be a problem for 4K Windows users for
quite some time and the resolution's
perfect too at about 5 megapixels it's only about 35% harder to drive than a
1440p monitor which means that modern graphics cards can deliver a great Ultra
widescreen gaming experience with some antialiasing to make things super smooth
today as opposed to having to invest in multiple graphics cards just to game on
the thing so for the who is this product
for section of the video I I think content creators are LG's main target
for this product and given its price that makes sense and they they
demonstrate its advantages here with a video on their website that uh other
than some amusingly bad translation covers the benefits of a longer timeline
and more sources for video editing uh more room for tools for audio or photo
work etc pretty darn well so I'm going to focus on other stuff that gets me
really excited about the future of this type of design once prices start to drop
productivity is amazing I can put four Word documents side by side by side by
side without even reducing text size and work on them all at the same time even
with some of them having comments on them something about referring from
document to document without a bezel in the middle feels more natural and
comfortable and Excel is also a treat especially if you normally have long
descriptions in your headers you can still see it awful lot of stuff internet
browsing okay yeah some websites are going to look pretty lonely in the
middle of a sea of blank space but if you're a tab monster like me you're
going to absolutely love the fact that you can have like over 40 Chrome tabs
open and still see previews of what's actually in them yeah yes and gaming it
is a 60 HZ IPS monitor so don't expect it to be the fastest thing ever but I
have always said I prefer the rich colors and wide viewing angles of ips to
the Lightning Fast Response times of TN and this monitor renews my preference
all over again maybe it's not for the professional players out there but for
sheer immersiveness nothing takes me out of it the way that bezels do and this
has none I mean to be clear there are plenty of games that won't work
correctly or won't work well because for whatever reason uh text file editing for
non-native resolution and field of view settings something I remember needing to
do with Quake 3 for widescreen support back in the day is a black art that's
been abandoned by many game Deads who would rather manually update every time
Hardware changes or better yet just not update at all thanks guys but for the
games that do work at this resolution well if you like movies in 21 by9 then
you'll like games in 21 by9 most of the time sometimes a more conventional
resolution is better though and that's where that perfect resolution bit from
before comes in if you decide that you prefer 16x9 you can run 2560 by 14 for
with black bars bam love it movie Watchers I probably don't have to sell
you on this at all from a comfortable viewing distance this is as closest
you're going to get to a theatrical viewing experience until affordable
100in plus 21 by9 TVs start showing up
with the one drawback being that you're going to have to do your viewing from
your computer chair something I don't do much but hey some people do and this
experience is going to knock those people's socks off so let's follow up
with who is it not for I mean well if you can live with bezels whether you're
a gamer an office worker or whatever else you can get a multim monitor setup
that will blow the doors off of this from a screen real estate per dollar
standpoint and even a nice multim monitor stand to go with it but that's
actually all I can think of um if you
can justify the additional cost I love
this monitor which I guess leads pretty well onto the conclusion I love this
monitor the only things on my wish list are as follows number one if you're
going to have a glossy bezel on a product that is otherwise this perfect
make the entire thing out of glass instead of going with plastic on the
bottom here number two thank you for including a vase amount but for over
$1,000 I'd really like a height adjust stand with more than two settings right
out of the box number three again love it but it could be that much more
perfect with a very subtle curve but I guess you're going to make me wait for that aren't you LG other than that guys
4K is off my wish list and large format 21 by9 is on it you heard it here first
it's freaking awesome anyway guys thank you for watching my team and I worked
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