LG 34UC97 34" Curved LCD Monitor
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
2,074 words · ~10 min read
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guys if there is one thing that I find
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irresistible it's curvy LGS they're just
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so sexy and wait what I'm talking about
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computer monitors with curved screens not oh my God that's disgusting roll the
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intro Cooler Master neptun Series CPU
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coolers are available in a variety of radiator sizes to perfectly suit your
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next build click now to learn more a couple of months ago smack in the middle
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of the year of 4K I declared 4K to be
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dead to me at least for now I had a new lover an LG that I just wanted to put on
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my desk and stare at all day until okay this joke is old it's gross and it's old
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and I'm done with it anyway you can watch my video of the
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3495 here an IPS 3440 x440 34in that I
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thought struck a perfect balance between
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pixel density so no terrible Windows text and icon scaling required overall
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size 34 in sounds a lot bigger than it is when it's in a 21 by9 Ultra wide
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aspect ratio and ergonomics and productivity the ultra wideness without
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annoying bezels in the middle of what you're doing makes it great for watching
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movies playing games and working because it's about equivalent to two 20 plus is
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Square monitors side by side but
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this video isn't really about that no today's video is about the 34
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u97 a display that's mostly the same
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except for one huge difference compared
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to the previous model that I had alluded to in my tasteless intro the fact that
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the display is now gently
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curved unboxing and assembling this bad boy I was about as excited as I've been
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about opening a monitor ever I've been using its flat Late Bloomer of a cousin
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as my daily driver at the office since the second Brandon finished shooting
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b-roll of it for our review I grabbed that thing and I've recommended it to
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tons of people because aside from the slower pixel response times that come
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with ipss beautiful colors and great viewing angles the only complaint that
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I've ever really come up with about it is that I felt like it could be a bit
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better with a subtle curve so getting this thing in the mail is basically like
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Christmas morning physically the monitor is stunning it Wows everyone who looks
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at it before I even get a chance to turn it on for them the panel itself has a
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semi-matte finish that I find delivers a great balance between contrast and color
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Poppin and anti-glare the tasteful clean
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bezel design from the last iteration returns as does the unassuming plain
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plastic backing as far as changes from the flat model go um these are a bit of
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a mixed bag for me so the bottom bezel Now features a matte finish instead of
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gloss and the joystick for navigation for the OSD is a bit harder to reach um
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I think the TV style chromed twoot base
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is a huge visual improvement over the previous plasticky looking one with its
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cumbersome two- setting height adjustment but unlike the predecessor
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the 34 u97 lacks any height adjustment
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at all just tilt now this would be less
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of an issue if LG included a Vasa compatible ARM mount on the back of it
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but I'm fortunately at this time they're only planning to include that accessory
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in certain regions and they don't plan to release it as a standalone accessory
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although hopefully if we shout loud enough they will change their minds
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because I would personally like to buy one the last change is IO by covering
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the inputs with a Snap-On plastic piece the appearance of the back is
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dramatically improved for people who care about that but the convenience of
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accessing the io is reduced so it's up to you how you feel about that under the
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cover though we get some more nice upgrades we trade a couple of USB 2 and
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Thunderbolt One Ports for an additional USB 3 Thunderbolt 2 20 gbit with Daisy
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Chain support and an extra HDMI input
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not bad all right so let's briefly go over a couple of the supposed benefits
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of curve displays first of all and this is less of an issue with a high quality
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IPS display like the one in front of you any horizontal Gamma or color shif
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should be reduced because as you turn your head side to side you're actually
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looking more directly at the screen near the edges compared to a flat one number
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two aside from the angle because the
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distance between your eyes and the screen should be closer to equal at the
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center and looking at the edges there should be for a single user less visible
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Distortion or changes in sizes of objects moving around on the screen
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making the viewing experience feel more natural now to be clear I basically
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laughed this stuff off when I was looking at all the curved TVs at CES
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this year because when it comes to movie watching especially unless you're
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talking about massive TVs or theater projectors at a reasonable distance the
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Distortion of the image from a flat panel versus a curved one is negligible
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and on top of that I don't know about you but for me TV and movies are often a
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social experience and when I'm watching a movie with anyone but my wife we don't
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sit with our heads right together so having a sweet spot where the image
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looks more natural when seated dead center and a particular distance from
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the TV is not really desirable if it's going to make it look weird for everyone
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else with a 34-in ultrawide PC monitor
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however it is a whole different ball game we sit so close to monitors that
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they fill enough of our field of view that the distance to the edges of a flat
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display versus the center the difference is about 25% and since most of the time
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we're using a PC it will will be alone worrying about sharing that sweet spot
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is pretty much a moot point so what's it like to use then lonus who is this thing
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for well creative professionals and Mac
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users often there's a fair bit of overlap there will appreciate the
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greater than 99% srgb color space support and the Thunderbolt 2 with
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passed through for the storage appliances that these people
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inexplicably use instead of nazes and the in my opinion perfect balance of
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resolution size and form factor without scaling delivers amazing flexibility
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from a productivity standpoint it's not something I care about but it supports
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Dual side by side inputs if you want but far more interesting to me is LG's
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screen s split software it lets you divide up your workspace a number of
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different ways and automatically snaps Windows to the optimal size I'm a big
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fan personally of the three vertical split one I use it all the time when I'm
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writing but that's really only part of the story like OMG this monitor is
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freaking awesome for movies if you're one of those people who prefers watching
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movies at a PC to a TV and you watch
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anything in the more cinematic 2.35 to1
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aspect ratio this is unlike anything else that I've ever had in my house I
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was using AR Templar Knight as one of my test cases and I kept just finding
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myself watching the movie instead of working um LG's Max audio enabled
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speakers didn't impress me much for movie watching but I didn't really expect what his basic basically uh an EQ
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to blow my socks off but with some noise isolating headphones on sitting in front
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of this thing is pure biss and games are
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a similar story whether it's driving third person first
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person I love gaming on this thing without the bezels that give me pause
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before recommending ifinity setups to most people The Wider but not so wide
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that everything looks stretched without endless tinkering aspect ratio is truly
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much more imers I and makes for a fantastic gaming experience if you're
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willing to deal with the 60 HZ refresh rate and increased motion blur versus a
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TN panel a trade-off that Elite level or even semi-competitive players who are
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not accustomed to gaming at lower refresh rates or with more blur and are
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even maybe used to 120 or 144 HZ
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monitors might not take now you've probably noticed that we've gotten 10
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minutes into this video without me talking about how the curve affects the
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viewing experience and that's for a reason it's pretty obvious from above or
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below the monitor but at Angles where you might actually have your head
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honestly it's very subtle and I find myself forgetting that it's there very
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quickly the main difference is something that I actually feel more than I see and
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it's the lack of any fluctuations in brightness color or contrast towards the
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edges and especially in the corners it didn't take long actually for me to
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decide to switch to this curve display at work and I definitely plan to give
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you guys my longer term Impressions on the podcast and in a follow-up video
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because I think it's important when you're fundamentally changing the type
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of display that you're using but um overall I'm just so impressed by this
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thing it's not perfect uh the lack of support for NVIDIA gsync is keeping it
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off my desk at home and it's also got some pretty noticeable backlight bleed
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in all four corners on dark backgrounds at least my sample does putting a mark
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on what is otherwise my new Topo choice
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for a productivity-minded workstation
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display speaking of top choices huge
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thanks to Gigabyte for sponsoring this episode of lonus tech tips they asked us
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to highlight their new p2x V2 gaming notebook and while this actually arrived
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slightly before I was filming this video so I haven't had a ton of time hands on
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with it actually it looks pretty darn awesome it features an Intel Core i7
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mobile quad core processor a 15.6 in 1080P IPS display up to 16 gigs of RAM
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up to 2 and2 terab of combined storage across one hard drive and two MCA ssds
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and the Monstrous GeForce GTX 88m with 8
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gigs of gddr5 it's available in a couple of different colors so there's an all
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black one or and I personally like this one quite a bit better there's this
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awesome like mostly black bright
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freaking vibrant yellow one uh it features a white backlit keyboard and
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build quality that I'm actually pretty pleased with especially considering what
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kind of spec you're getting for this kind of a price so if you're looking for
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a high performance gaming notebook and you're all like wow Gigabyte sponsored
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lonus Tech tips they sure are cool guys then you're going to want to make
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sure you check out the p2x V2 at the link in the video description thank you
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guys for watching today's video on what
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is now effectively my new favorite
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productivity monitor like the video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked
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it leave a com comment letting me know how do you feel about curve displays
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have you seen one before what did you think and check out the link in the
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