LG 34UM95 34" UltraWide Widescreen 21:9 Monitor - My New Favourite
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
2,123 words · ~10 min read
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sometimes I put off doing a review because newer more interesting products
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arrive and other times I just get too busy and I don't have time but for LG's
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3495 I've been putting it off because I just haven't wanted to take it off my
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desk for long enough to capture video of the
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thing for the ultimate no compromises
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compact gaming PC look no further than the obsidian series 250d from
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click now to learn more spec-wise this 34in 21 by9 cinematic aspect ratio
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monitor weighs in at a massive 3440 by
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1440 resolution about 34% higher and
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bigger than a 2560 X 1440 27 in monitor
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it features an IPS panel rated at 5 milliseconds response time and uses an
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8bit panel with frame rate control dithering to achieve 10bit color but
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only on the DisplayPort connection speaking of conne it's got a headphone
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jack integrated USB 3 Hub and power jack to go along with its dual HDMI display
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port and Thunderbolt 2 video inputs please note that the two Thunderbolt
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ports there are for daisy chaining not as two separate inputs and the HDMI
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inputs are limited to 50 htz this is an HDMI spec limitation and while the
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difference from 60 HZ is noticeable it's not nearly as bad as the 30 HZ that 4K
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monitors will run at over HDMI now physically the monitor is a unique
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specimen I've never seen anything quite like it and since it's the first of its
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kind and only available in a couple of regions I guess neither have a lot of
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people and I think that the coolest thing about it is how many different
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ways it can be used and very effectively for 16x9 Content it's a 27in 2560x1440
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monitor with black bars on the side for side by side pseudo dual monitor use
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it's two 20.5 in monitors each with a
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1720 X 1440 resolution a throwback 5 to4
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aspect ratio that really is better for some tasks than the newer 16x9 standard
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and then finally for 21 by9 content it is a truly field of view filling 34 in
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of immersive Bliss the stand is branded
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Crystal float because it's clear so that combined with the nice inem bezel is
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supposed to make the screen seem like it's just hanging there but uh I found
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that the effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that it only supports 10° of
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tilt and to adjust height I needed to jury rig a monitor stand out of a box
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with that said at least LG had the consideration to include a vase amount
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on the back something that I'll likely use on the bottom we find a couple of
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integrated speakers and a joystick for navigating the onscreen menu it allows
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pictureby picture control input switching input leg adjustment and a
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variety of image adjustments including the unusual reader mode which reduces
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blues for theoretically less eye fatigue
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back to the front the screen uses an anti-glare coating that is perhaps a
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little bit more matte than I would normally prefer but ended up being great
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for me since I sit next to a window at my desk where I will be using the
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monitor moving forward now this is where
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the review deviates from the formula a bit because I didn't know how to
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approach a review of something that is so different other than to draw your
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attention to the fact that I just said where I'll be using the monitor moving
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forward because I have officially been converted I'm ditching my dual 23in t
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ADP monitors for this at work and I would really like to replace my Pro PA
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279 Q at home as well this is just flat out the best solution for productivity
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and gaming IMHO and this is coming from
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someone who came into this review with a pretty close-minded attitude I was sure
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a very short time ago that 4K was the next big Revolution and the first time I
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saw 21 by9 desktop monitors at CES 2013
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I didn't even ask for samples I thought they were a silly because we can form
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factor that took everything that was wrong with 16x9 that is to say not
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enough vertical real estate compared to the older 16 by10 widescreen standard
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and made it even more ridiculous they felt like an expensive step backwards
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and I didn't care at all this monitor changes everything and the timing of its
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arrival is actually very interesting because I've only just recently started
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getting 4k monitor samples so that you know first time experience of 4K is
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actually still very fresh in my mind I mean to be clear sitting in front of a
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4k monitor is great the sharpness and Clarity of the image is fantastic and
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the amount of stuff that you can fit on it at the same time is amazing but it
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somehow still feels like so many things in the PC industry it's like yes it's
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more pixels at a lower price or more megahertz at a lower price whatever but
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it's all stuff that we've basically seen a 100 times before by contrast the first
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time I sat in front of the 3495 the feeling reminded me of eight
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years ago the the first time I sat in front of my Dell 2405 fpw and a few
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years before that when I first fired up my vew Sonic P95 f plus b i mean I've
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used some fantastic monitors in the last 10 years the ASUS pa279q so beautiful
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the BenQ 2420 te delivers an Untouchable gaming experience and my Samsung 305t
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blew me away with it sheer size from the moment I turned it on but this one
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stands out from the crowd it's not like sitting down at my computer it's more
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like sitting at like a command station when you get in front of it it's a very
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different experience I tried to find some drawbacks to LG's design and I had
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a hard time um anything but a highquality IPS panel would have made
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for a horrible experience panel uniformity and especially horizontal
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viewing angles are so important in this form factor but they got that right a
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different size would have been a drawback but LG has absolutely nailed it
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here as well at about 110 pixels per inch the same pixel density as the 27in
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1440p monitors that we know and love it is just right and that helps us avoid
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the UI scaling issues that are going to be a problem for 4K Windows users for
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quite some time and the resolution's
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perfect too at about 5 megapixels it's only about 35% harder to drive than a
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1440p monitor which means that modern graphics cards can deliver a great Ultra
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widescreen gaming experience with some antialiasing to make things super smooth
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today as opposed to having to invest in multiple graphics cards just to game on
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the thing so for the who is this product
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for section of the video I I think content creators are LG's main target
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for this product and given its price that makes sense and they they
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demonstrate its advantages here with a video on their website that uh other
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than some amusingly bad translation covers the benefits of a longer timeline
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and more sources for video editing uh more room for tools for audio or photo
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work etc pretty darn well so I'm going to focus on other stuff that gets me
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really excited about the future of this type of design once prices start to drop
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productivity is amazing I can put four Word documents side by side by side by
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side without even reducing text size and work on them all at the same time even
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with some of them having comments on them something about referring from
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document to document without a bezel in the middle feels more natural and
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comfortable and Excel is also a treat especially if you normally have long
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descriptions in your headers you can still see it awful lot of stuff internet
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browsing okay yeah some websites are going to look pretty lonely in the
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middle of a sea of blank space but if you're a tab monster like me you're
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going to absolutely love the fact that you can have like over 40 Chrome tabs
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open and still see previews of what's actually in them yeah yes and gaming it
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is a 60 HZ IPS monitor so don't expect it to be the fastest thing ever but I
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have always said I prefer the rich colors and wide viewing angles of ips to
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the Lightning Fast Response times of TN and this monitor renews my preference
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all over again maybe it's not for the professional players out there but for
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sheer immersiveness nothing takes me out of it the way that bezels do and this
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has none I mean to be clear there are plenty of games that won't work
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correctly or won't work well because for whatever reason uh text file editing for
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non-native resolution and field of view settings something I remember needing to
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do with Quake 3 for widescreen support back in the day is a black art that's
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been abandoned by many game Deads who would rather manually update every time
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Hardware changes or better yet just not update at all thanks guys but for the
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games that do work at this resolution well if you like movies in 21 by9 then
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you'll like games in 21 by9 most of the time sometimes a more conventional
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resolution is better though and that's where that perfect resolution bit from
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before comes in if you decide that you prefer 16x9 you can run 2560 by 14 for
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with black bars bam love it movie Watchers I probably don't have to sell
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you on this at all from a comfortable viewing distance this is as closest
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you're going to get to a theatrical viewing experience until affordable
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100in plus 21 by9 TVs start showing up
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with the one drawback being that you're going to have to do your viewing from
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your computer chair something I don't do much but hey some people do and this
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experience is going to knock those people's socks off so let's follow up
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with who is it not for I mean well if you can live with bezels whether you're
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a gamer an office worker or whatever else you can get a multim monitor setup
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that will blow the doors off of this from a screen real estate per dollar
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standpoint and even a nice multim monitor stand to go with it but that's
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actually all I can think of um if you
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can justify the additional cost I love
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this monitor which I guess leads pretty well onto the conclusion I love this
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monitor the only things on my wish list are as follows number one if you're
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going to have a glossy bezel on a product that is otherwise this perfect
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make the entire thing out of glass instead of going with plastic on the
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bottom here number two thank you for including a vase amount but for over
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$1,000 I'd really like a height adjust stand with more than two settings right
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out of the box number three again love it but it could be that much more
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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
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4K is off my wish list and large format 21 by9 is on it you heard it here first
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it's freaking awesome anyway guys thank you for watching my team and I worked
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