LG 27UK650-W 27-Inch UHD 4K Monitor - White

So I've been on a fairly solid but uninspiring 24inch Samsung for over two years, and with HDR as well as just bigger and better monitors out there I decided to upgrade to this LG effort.Reviews were good, price was solid, and at worst if I didn't like it it could go back.Early impressions of the first day on the job are very promising, if not perfect. But they are close.Let's take the bog standard stuff - the picture quality. After a little adjustment of picture options (it has a tonne of different modes, I went with custom which essentially is a vanilla standard option) I was pretty happy to say the least with the picture - for the £410 I paid the clarity and fidelity are on point, and the IPS tech means there's good viewing angles and no TN darkness imbalance, for example.Frequency isn't great, with a seeming 60Hz as standard, but as I only desktop and game in 4K, this is kind of expected. Thing is, there's no higher frequency even at lower resolutions if you need them, so watch out for that.In terms of HDR, it's, predictably, with Windows' flaky HDR implementation, a mixed bag. It's not really the screen's fault, but the big problem is that in the majority of HDR games, (with HDR on) the saturation of colour is just too intense, and red REALLY dominates. This is particularly noticeable in Hitman 2, FFXV and a heck of a lot of others. I really assume this is Windows' fledgling HDR support which is well-known to be bad. The actual HDR impact, that aside, also varies. RE7 and RE2 are not standouts, but PES2019 and Far Cry New Dawn look nothing short of stunning. In short, there's a real varying effectiveness in the implementation of HDR but the truth is I didn't strictly buy this for that - but for a bigger screen with bolder colours. And I certainly got that. HDR was a bonus, where I can get it working.A major problem with HDR is you can't really have it on in the desktop without having to tinker with the colour options in your graphics card's control panel to get the 'least bad' effect, but mercifully a lot of games allow HDR independently of Windows own HDR setting - so for the most part you can leave it off on the desktop and still enable it in the game.Games you CAN'T do that with include Shadow of the Tomb Raider (not great HDR anyway) and FFXV.But that said turning it off and the games still, in places, look outstanding. Hitman 2, water flicking aside, is stupendous on this monitor, and the Division 2 looks much bigger and livelier as well.In terms of the physical unit, it looks VERY nice - the white rear is a nice touch, and something a bit different for this household, while the build quality is excellent - the stand and bezel all look great.The menu interface isn't the most in-depth I've ever seen but it's easy to navigate.In summary, a very good monitor for the money which suffers the in-built HDR issues inherent to Windows 10, but as a base display aside that, it's essentially faultless.(I've rated it based on the monitor's own credentials rather than apparent faults caused by Windows rubbish HDR build)

I can find very little to fault on this monitor other than the ghosting.Since I did a ton of research into what to look for when choosing 27/28 inch 4k monitor with many inputs and a VESA mount option, I wanted to provide an in depth review of this monitor. Overall it is great.0 dead/stuck pixels. I did a screen test of all the colours. I found one slightly dull pixel in the top right but its negligible and otherwise perfect.10/10 Startup time 3s (if you turn off the eco settings) - another monitor I tried was 11s to start up. This was 7s under the default eco settings.10/10 menu interface (joystick) is a pleasure to use (compared to another I tried), intuitive, responsive. The button/joystick even lights up and there's a setting to control the light.9/10 light bleed - every monitor I researched had at least some and it largely depends on how close you sit and at what angle you sit at relative to the monitor.6/10 ghosting - if your into gaming (see pic of aliens under default settings) then this screen will likely suffice but it showed definite signs of ghosting when I tested it. With response time set to fastest the ghosting was bad. With the response time set to fast/normal, the effect was reduced to almost negligible (at least to the naked eye). The response time is 5ms, so ghosting is to be expected :-OOOOn the plus side, if most of what you do is work and non-gaming don't let this sway you. It should have little to no weight in choosing a monitor. since for video normal response time works nicely. It won't prevent me recommending this monitor to anyone still.9/10 On Screen Control software - I can't control screen brightness from a keyboard shortcut which would be the icing on the cake for me, given I don't always remember to turn the lights on and its incredibly bright in a darkened room which will strain anyones eyes with prolonged use. Saying that, brightness is the first setting under the menu options, so it is quickly/readily accessible. The software also provides access to the brightness. The software even enables you to split your screen a number of different ways (see pics) resulting in your windows snapping to the virtual screen-split locations which was a nice surprise. The screen-split setup is adjustable by clicking and dragging the edge of the windows (again see pics).If you're working with windows/mac machines, there's also software to enable you to share one keyboard and mouse between the two display input machines.If you're looking for good colour match for photo video work10/10 for compatibility - no issues working with my Macbook pro/Raspberry Pi was perfect for my needs.Some reviews commented about a pop-up each time they turned the screen on stating they weren't using the official cables. This did come up for me, but its now possible to ignore the notification in future.Next to the MacBook Pro Retina Display, the Retina Display is slightly more vivid and bright. All in all I can't really say there's anything to dislike in this monitor.8/10 Bezel - the bezel width is slimmer bezel than my laptop so no complaints there. It is minimal at about 1cm.8/10 The headphone socket is on the back of the display. Slightly tricky to access if you're constantly unplugging and taking your headphones with you but it works via the HDMI cable from my Mac so no extra cables to enable it is a bonus once its plugged in.If you're looking for a 4k monitor for gaming, this probably isn't the best choice. If you want it for anything else (work/occasional video), this is a great monitor all round and was definitely top of all the reviews I could find over the course of a week long research session with hours at a time.