I can never go back... - LG & Dell's 49" 32:9 Monitors Reviewed
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,874 words · ~9 min read
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sometimes high technology really can feel like every time you take two steps
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forward you've got to take a step back and that's definitely how i felt when we
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reviewed samsung's super ultra wide chd
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90 almost exactly one year ago i mean that thing was a sight to behold as wide
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and as tall as two 27 inch regular
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monitors side by side and it had a 144
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hertz refresh rate for gamers was basically the monitor of the future that
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is unless you were coming from a future
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where high resolution screens were a thing because with a vertical resolution
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of just 1080 pixels it was a blurry
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dog's breakfast compared to even cheap korean monitors off of ebay but today
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we've got some new options both lg and
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dell have released their own 49 inch 32
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by 9 displays this time with over 75
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percent more pixels that's right baby it's 1440p baby the
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hex gears nova mechanical keyboard is a wired entry level keyboard that features
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full metal construction and is available with kale box brown or box white
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switches check it out at the link below
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the first thing to know when comparing these two monitors is that as far as we
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can tell they are using the exact same panel as lg display actually makes
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display panels while dell does not but
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that's not a criticism because what a panel it is it features a 5120 by 1440
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resolution which is the same exact number of pixels as two 27 qhd or 2560
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by 1440 monitors side by side but then
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of course without gross bezels bifurcating your crosshairs
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if you're a gamer it's also over 7 million total pixels which for a lot of
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gamers might actually be the sweet spot so on the one hand this brings a
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noticeable improvement in image clarity compared to 1080 class displays of this
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size almost all of the test users
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spotted the upgrade in an experiment that we ran recently which you can check
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out up here on the other hand compared to gaming on even a single standard 16x9
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4k display we're still actually working with almost a million fewer pixels so
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even though they're spread across 49 freaking inches of incredibly
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immersive gaming glory this panel is still not quite as hard to
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drive as more mainstream 4k displays so
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we were able to get 120 to 180 FPS in cs
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go full screen max settings not that anyone plays like that and around 40 to
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50 FPS playing apex legends with an rtx
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2070 now 40 to 50 FPS is certainly
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playable but a lot of pc gamers really prefer to have higher frame rates in
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their games these days NVIDIA recently even shared a study on the practical
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competitive advantage of high refresh rate gaming so our next step then was to
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hook up a 2080 ti to this beast
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only to be a little bit disappointed
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because now our rig has the FPS for a true
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pc master race experience but our monitors can't keep up if high refresh
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rate gaming is your thing you'll need to find another display because unlike the
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lower res samsung from last year that runs it up to 144 hertz these 1440p
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models max out at 60 hertz although with
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that said we were able to get a stable overclock on both of them up to around
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76 hertz which isn't too bad so they're
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suitable for sightseeing and non-competitive gamers but i wouldn't
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say they're really for hardcore esports players
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moving on to productivity though totally
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different story 60 hertz is plenty for office work so these monitors are
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basically fantastic no like really fantastic you
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can easily get three or four Windows
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open at the same time and with the
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1440 vertical pixels text might not be
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the sharpest we've ever seen like on lg's 5k ultra fine but it's still nice
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and clear which is important because remember even though it's super wide
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you're still likely to end up sitting only about 30 inches away depending on
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the size of your desk another difference between this new
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panel and the samsung chd 90 is the
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tightness of the curve now all of them are curved monitors
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because by the time you go this wide it actually does kind of make sense but the
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samsung uses a rounder 1800 r curve
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compared to the lg and the dell's more flat 3 800 r bend now which one you
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prefer is kind of down to how you intend to use it now if you'll always be close
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a really tight curve is fine but if you plan to also use your monitor as your
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dorm room tv you might prefer the flatter approach especially if you find
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yourself watching with friends now as for color accuracy our dell monitor
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shipped with calibration literature that we verified in our tests and it's great
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we're talking professional level delta ease of less than 2 and 98 coverage of
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the srgb color space as for our lg unit
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that one was good but not great though we should mention
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that ours is a pre-production engineering sample so it is possible
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although from our experience with lg not necessarily probable that the retail
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ready models will be better calibrated out of the box than ours if nothing else
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though ardell here shows us more or less what displays with this panel can be
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capable of okay then so by this time we've made our point that these two
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monitors share the same panel but we mostly haven't talked about what's
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actually different about them so which one is better well most of the
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differences have to do with the industrial design the chassis the stand
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and the controls for the on-screen display looks wise i'd say it's a coin
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flip they both have a plastic back but the dell is gray while the lg is white
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so io is a bit of a mixed bag too they both have two HDMI 2.0 ports and a
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single displayport 1.4 port but the dell
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has a couple more usb ports than the lg
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five downstream type a's so that's where you plug your stuff in
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two upstream type b's and a very appreciated usb type c by the way you
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might be wondering why there are two upstream ports on it at all it's
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actually really cool it's so you can connect two computers to this display
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simultaneously viewing their output in picture by
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picture mode and then controlling them with a single set of peripherals thanks
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to the monitor's integrated kvm cool
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the lg actually shares these features though but it has four downstream usb
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ports a headphone jack and the only usb port labeled upstream is the usbc which
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just like the usbc on the dell has displayport alternate mode and a
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whopping 90 watts of power delivery that means you can actually dock your macbook
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pro to either of these with a single cable which is pretty sweet especially
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considering that neither of these monitors have bulky external power
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bricks which crap we got into the similarities again
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right uh sorry differences uh the lg does offer a few goodies that are
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completely absent on the dell first there's the stand which actually swivels
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in addition to being able to go lower than the dell and even rotate a little
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bit in case your floor isn't level and then again shame on dell's product page
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which claims the 4914 dw can swivel
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between minus 170 and plus 170 degrees
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but it doesn't swivel at all i think they're talking about viewing angles but
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that's still wrong second the lg has an ambient light
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sensor on the top so the brightness can adjust automatically and it actually
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manages to progress in nice gradual steps unlike some tvs that i've seen
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which can be pretty jarring and then finally there's HDR
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maybe the lg product page says it supports HDR 10 and the toggle is there
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in Windows but i mean this is some pretty low level HDR i mean the dell is
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a nearly identical product when it comes to the tech specs and it doesn't have it
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so i mean i wouldn't be surprised if lg pulled off the vasa display HDR 400
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certification by the time it launches and i guess that's better than nothing
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but don't buy this monitor if an awesome HDR viewing experience is what you're
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after so then if you're in the market for a super
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ultra wide should you buy one of these and if so which one
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well if you don't mind a lower resolution in exchange for high not to
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mention variable refresh rate gaming you're actually still better off with
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the 144hz model from samsung for 350
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less or maybe the upcoming comparable from rog however if you really value the
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higher resolution for work or you're a non-competitive gamer with a machine
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that can push this many pixels so then if you're basically like me
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then i'd recommend one of these as for which one
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i'd love to say go lg straight up actually i didn't even mention it's got
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speakers built into it and the dell doesn't but it's going to cost you it's going to
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be about 150 dollars more when it launches in mid april so it's up to you
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whether the lg only features are worth it i mean they're both awesome displays
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that are great for productivity and immersive gaming and games like apex
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legends destiny 2 cs go deus ex mankind divided anything that's designed with
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super duper wide gaming in mind so
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anything but this benchmark which you can clearly tell is super stretched
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thermaltake's a500 aluminum mid tower case features a minimalistic design with
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a brushed aluminum surface for a clean uninterrupted look it's got hinged
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tempered glass panels on both sides it fits up to a 420 millimeter radiator at
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the front it can take up to four three and a half or two and a half inch hard
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drives inside the left side panel or the top of the power supply cover and it's
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got a type c usb port on the front panel check it out today at the link in the
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