LG 5K Display for Mac - A PC User's Perspective
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,442 words · ~7 min read
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You've seen the commercials. You've heard the hype. You've uh probably read
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about that whole router debacle with the faulty shielding. But that's fixed now.
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And there's no denying then that the 27in LG 27 MD 5K ultra fine 5K monitor
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is one of the slickest on the market
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right now. But does the fact that it's
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being aimed primarily at Apple zombies,
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it even launched exclusively through the Apple Store mean that it's a nogo for
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Windows geeks? I mean, it's just a monitor,
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right? It should be okay, right? Well,
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let's peel back the layers of this sexy little onion and see if she makes us
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cry.
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Synergy is the software that lets you share your mouse and keyboard between
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multiple computers. Check it out now at the link in the video description. The
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experience of unboxing the Ultrafine 5K,
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though not quite on Apple's level, was definitely more pleasing than what we're
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used to from LG. Immediately apparent upon unboxing the product and removing
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it from its super cool shiny space suit
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are a couple of unusual characteristics of the LG 5K's industrial design. It's
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got a sophisticated matte finish. It's
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disappointingly plastic rather than aluminum like the Apple Cinema Displays
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of Yore, but it still looks and feels
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pretty good. It lacks buttons entirely.
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So that means no onscreen display for making adjustments to the inputs or
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image quality, though at least one of those isn't important as we'll see
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later. And the thickest side of the bezel, which would normally be on the
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bottom, we'd call it the chin bar, is actually at the top. So do we call this
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like a like a brow brow bar? But this is
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interesting. It looks like they were
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making room for the ambient light sensor
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that should be enabled through a future software update at some
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point, and the only disruption to the
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5K's otherwise totally clean facade, the
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very nice looking 1080p camera and
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front-facing microphone. The base stands out from the
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crowd as well. It's solidly constructed with a pleasing high quality vibe and
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offers both a generous degree of tilt
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and near giraffe-like vertical reach.
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And if that's not enough, there's actually a vase amount included in the
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box, which I guess brings us pretty well around to the back. The 6T power cord
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attaches seamlessly Apple style to the
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rear panel. And would you look at that IO? A single port type rules the entire
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panel. Whether you like it or not, this is probably a window into the USB type-C
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dominated future that we are headed for. So these three are USB 3.1 5 GB data
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ports, each capable of pushing 7 1/2 watts of power. So enough to charge your
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phone or other USB device. And this one,
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which is the only input on this monitor,
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that's right, just one, looks the same as the other ones, but has far more
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going on under the hood. It's a Thunderbolt 3 input, which allows it to
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not only carry the data for those USB ports and the
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882 million pixels per second from your
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machine to the display, but also to push
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85 watts of power the other way. Enough
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to charge your laptop. That's right, kids. This one cord solution lets you
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leave your charger in your backpack because the included 6 and 1/2 foot
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cable is all it takes to transform your
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supported laptop into a full-on 5K
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workstation. And they absolutely nailed
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this whole experience with the 2016 MacBook Pro. Side by side, everything
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about the image looks just right. From
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the color to the eyepiercing 500 nit
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brightness on max to the very similar
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anti-glare glossy appearance to the
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retina-like astonishing sharpness of the
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218 pixel per inch panel. But we
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promised this was a Windows users perspective, didn't we? So, let's plug
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it into a Razor Blade.
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Okay, there we go. And uh
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wow, that actually looks really
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sh. Wait a tick. There's no five in that number.
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Why the heck is Windows capping the resolution somewhere between Ultra HD
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and the native 5K that the display supports? Windows 10 can go up to 8K. So
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what gives? Relax. Tech tips. Lionus.
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Techquicky. Lionus. Is that you? It sure
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is. So, you remember that one cord solution that you were all excited about
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a second ago? Uh-huh. Well, it turns out that driving a 5K display over one cable
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is an industry first. All other 5K and
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up monitors use two DisplayPort cables.
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Driving 5K over one is only achievable
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right now using special Apple shenanigans. Why? Well, a Thunderbolt 3
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cable can actually carry two Display
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Port 1.2 two ports worth of data, but
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the Thunderbolt 3 port on your Windows
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machine can't send enough to fill those
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eight DisplayPort lanes because of how it's hooked up internally. The reason
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you can do this on your 2016 MacBook Pro
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is because Apple implemented a special controller that funnels the resources of
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two display ports into that single
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Thunderbolt 3. That's why if you were to
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try to plug in two ultrafine 5Ks in your
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2016 MacBook Pro, which you can totally do by the way, you have to plug them in
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two opposite sides of the machine for both to work. The more you know, right?
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This episode was brought to you by Fresh Book. Hey, where you going from here?
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Okay then. So, in a nutshell, the
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ultrafine 5K is more like the ultra fine
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4 and a bit K when it's used with anything but the 2016 MacBook Pro. And
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unfortunately, it actually gets worse
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than that. Because there's no onscreen display, you're relying on integration
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with the OS to control the monitor, which is
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fantastic on the Mac, but your mileage
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may vary on Windows. We were able to control the volume of the surprisingly
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decent internal speakers, but we couldn't manage to adjust the screen
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brightness up or down. And it's not just
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resolution difference and lack of control that are iffy because Windows
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relies on applications to do all color
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matching rather than doing it pixel by pixel on the OS level like the Mac. PC
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users will never get to experience the
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consistently awesome color accuracy
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enabled by this factory calibrated display. To be clear, it's still a very
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good 8bit IPS panel with AFRC to simulate 10- bit color, and it's got 99%
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coverage of the DCIP3 color space. So,
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even on a Windows machine, it'll be suitable for photo editing and graphics
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work. But at $1,700, you'd be paying a premium for
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oomph that you aren't receiving. And
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this is especially true when you consider that both Dell and HP have 27in
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5K offerings with somewhat similar specs at lower
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price points. So while 5K at this size is
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awesome. I mean really I can clearly
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make out objects in the backgrounds of thumbnail sized images. And the LG
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Ultrafine 5K will be arguably the best
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display experience on the market for the MacBook Pro until Apple challenges it
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with their own upcoming Cinema Display Refresh. On Windows, the experience
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could be better described as fine than
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ultra fine. Synergy is a software download
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that solves the problem of having two keyboards and two mice cluttering up
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your desk. It allows you to share one mouse and one keyboard between two or
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even more computers, so you'll no longer get confused which keyboard or mouse
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goes for which one. They've got a basic and a pro option with a one-time payment
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for lifetime access. And features include things like clipboard sharing
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between the computers, dragging and dropping files between the computers,
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the ability to set up hotkeys, and more. And what's even more amazing is it works
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crossplatform, Windows, Mac, and
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Linux. So use our link in the video description to get 50% off Synergy
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today. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do.
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But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the
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link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also
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down there is a link to our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and
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our community forum, which you should totally join.