LG UltraFine UHD 27-Inch 4K UHD 2160p Computer Monitor 27UN850-W, IPS with VESA DisplayHDR 400, AMD FreeSync, and USB-C, White

I have two LG 27UN850-W 27 Inch Ultrafine UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Display with VESA Display HDR 400, USB Type-C monitors set up side by side. They take up a lot of real estate, both with the width of the monitors and with area consumed by both bases side by side on the desk. Takes up at least 8 inches from the stands vertical base to the tips of the semi-circular stand. Now imagine double occupancy for the dual monitors. So thats room you wont be able to fully utilize for other more desirable tasks. The monitors themselves seem to operate fine. Does have a pop-up window that appears ever so often that the cursor wont seem to engage the action button. Cursor disappears when trying to click on the window. But a main point that I want to stress is that you need to have a graphics card on your computer/source system thats adequate enough to push dual 3840 x 2160 displays if you want to take full advantage of the monitors capability.

UPDATE: April 25, 2021: Running into problems with USB-C cables longer than the supplied LG 12 cable, I decided to try Apples cables, since Apple is well-know for making high quality products. First I tried Apples (thin) 1 meter cheaper USB-C Charge Cable. That cable did not work. Next I tried Apples (thick) 0.8 meter more expensive Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Cable. That one works fine. I noticed with all the USB-C cables I have tried, the thickness of the cables that work are much thicker than the cables that did not work. Another benefit I was not expecting is that with the good-working thick Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable, all of a sudden my Apple Watch began unlocking my Mac properly. Go figure that one out!! ============================================ This is a wonderful monitor. HOWEVER, if you want to use a USB-C to USB-C cable that is longer than the supplied 12 LG cable, you might not be able to do that: While the supplied 12 LG USB-C cable works fine with my Mac mini M1, I need a longer cable. I tried one of my 3 USB-C cables and it does not work. The Q&A here also shows at least 2 other buyers having the same problem. Thinking it might be a poor quality cable I ordered 2 x 3 Anker USB-C cables: they also did not work. I then tried another of my 3 USB=C cables and it worked. Unfortunately I do not know what brand it is, or where it came from. I just got off the phone with LG support. They could not provide me with a solution for obtaining a USB-C cable that is longer than their supplied 12 USB-C cable. (I am not interested in using an HDMI cable.) LG support repeated told me that any other 3 USB-C cable should work. But clearly not all of them do. I was surprised that even the Anker USB-C 3 cables did not work. LG support also repeated tried to tell me that a *12* monitor cable is the standard length. That, of course, is ridiculous. Its a shame I had to deduct 1 star due to this problem. YMMV Otherwise, again, this is a wonderful monitor.

Ive had this monitor maybe two months and am experiencing some issues already. I did a lot of research before choosing this one as I really wanted good screen real estate for my Macbook Pro; excellent picture quality; a monitor that would support charging my laptop while connected. Heres how that worked out: 1. Picture quality is good, a bit bright but good. 2. The charging only works on occasion. Sometimes the monitor charges the laptop, sometimes it doesnt. This is really frustrating to me as my office is tiny and I dont want additional cables. It also connects, for the most part, but I will get the occasional black screen that doesnt detect the laptop. I have to then open the laptop and make sure the monitor realizes its on and close it again. Its annoying at best. 3. I cant control the sound from my laptop. This is wildly annoying. Not sure if Ill return this or if theres better out there, but for the price I paid I would expect it to work a lot more consistently.

I’ve had this monitor a few weeks. I noticed the disc it came with was not in a sleeve, just loosely thrown in there. It made me think perhaps this was a return, but I can’t be sure because the rest of the items looked to be packaged correctly… I was frustrated at first because the provided USB-C cable didn’t work with my M1 MacBook Pro. I thought I had received a dud. Looked up some troubleshooting options and nothing was working. I packed it up to return. The day I was going to send it back I decided to check online again for any options. I saw a reddit post from that morning where someone said they had to get a new Thunderbolt 3 cable for the monitor to successfully recognize their M1 Mac. I ran to the store to get one and voila! It worked. The cable was $40 which adds to the cost of this thing, but it’s much cheaper than the 5k option (for the 27inch monitor) they sell at the Apple Store. Overall, I’m really happy with it for the price. I love the single-cable life—no dongles needed since my accessories connect to the monitor itself—making switching laptops from work to personal at my desk easy (with a good double laptop holder). I also think it does a good job of waking in sync with the laptop when I press on the keyboard or move the mouse.

EDIT: There is On-Screen control for Mac users on newer models its just that LG kind of dropped the ball on making it easy for Mac users to find and install it. On LG.com go to Support, then Software & Drivers. Don’t use the search field they provide because for many model numbers it will say there is no matching product. Scroll down, click on monitors and search for your model manually. If your model doesn’t have a Mac download try the next closest monitor to your model. Also, worth pointing out is that 27UN850-W is the newest model and 27UL850-W is the previous model. They are both practically the same with very minor spec differences but the newest one is currently cheaper by almost $100. ---------- Heads up, their advertised On-Screen Control including Screen Split is not available to MacBook users with this monitor. In fact basically only ONE model is supported! And apparently according to other user reviews that one doesnt even have the basic functionality advertised. So just keep that in mind when purchasing an LG monitor if you are a Mac user. With that said, if that is not a deal breaker for you this is still an excellent monitor.

I bought this as a used-like new monitor for $380. It was in fine condition but had over 230hrs of total power on time and was missing a few cables and pieces. Amazon customer support helped replace what I needed. Buyer beware... Picture quality is good, not great. With a plain black screen up you can see uneven backlighting in the corners. Also, its a matte screen, so everything is a little fuzzy and the blacks are not as deep as a glossy screen, but some people might prefer it (I guess I missed the memo that glossy screens are no longer in vogue). Brightness is a pain to change! It takes 5 clicks on the LG joystick to navigate to the brightness setting and change it 1%. I think thats probably too fine of an adjustment. Maybe take a page from Apple and have brightness go from 0 to 16 instead of 0 to 100. Im using this with a 2017 macbook pro via HDMI.

Fantastic resolution! I am using it with a Mac Mini M2 without any issues. I love the Apple RGB color palette on this screen.

UPDATE 11/2022: As long as you take care not to jostle the cord once inserted in the back of the monitor, it works pretty consistently. After plugging the USB-C into the Mac, its important to wait to hear the connected sound, look for the battery icon to show the charging lightning bolt, and only then close the laptop to put it in clamshell mode. If you dont see the charging lightning bolt, the monitor screen will go dark when you close the laptop. __________________________ I purchased this monitor to work with my M1 Macbook in clamshell mode, and that requires the laptop to be powered. The monitor connection is supposed to power the Mac. To be clear: if the MacBook isn’t receiving power when closed, the monitor goes dark. As numerous other reviews have noted, theres something defective about the hub input for USB-C. It works about 50% of the time, no rhyme or reason. Youll hear the connecting tone, then it disconnects, then it connects, then disconnects. From reading other reviews, its no use getting the monitor replaced, because the replacement will have the same problem. I was out of the return period when I realized this was happening. Lesson learned: when you get electronics, use the f&*% out of them right up front, to make sure theyre going to work in the long run. Other downsides: (1) it’s so bright I can only use it at the very lowest brightness level (and I use Flux to dim the screen in lower light); (2) you must manually adjust all settings using a button under the screen. For instance, the brightness buttons on your Mac will not function.

This review is for the LG 27UN850, which Ive been using for a couple months as a usb c monitor with the MSI Prestige 15 laptop. The one star reduction has nothing to do with the image quality, which is excellent for my non photography use. I knew the short comings of the monitor, and I still bought it, because its such a good value for the price. The shortcomings in my use are: 1) No hardwired ethernet connection on the monitor. No big deal if you have primo ethernet into your location and good wifi coverage. I dont, and need a hard wired connection. This causes you to burn one usb c port for use as an ethernet connection or a full blown extra usb c hub. 2) Only 50W charging capability. The MSI Prestige has an 82W battery, and can go dead, mainly while gaming, unless the dedicated usb c charger is used. So I need 3 usb c ports on the laptop to fully cover my needs, but as in most laptops, I only have two. 3) I found out, and using a youtube found fix, issues related to laptop battery profiles when using usb c external devices like this monitor. It drove me crazy for a while, the constant ding of disconnect, then immediately ding for reconnect. Not the monitors fault, but fault of usb c mode connection. I havent tried using usb c to display port connection with this monitor, and dont know if that mode would solve some of the problems. A Windows 10 shortcoming when using the monitor as a second monitor. There is no selection to allow the laptop screen as Monitor 1 and the LG as Monitor 2, using them independently. You can either mirror, or use 1 alone or 2 alone. As for big plus, I love the joystick for manipulating all the monitor functions. It took a few days to warm up to it, but now monitors with a row of buttons seem old fashioned and hard to use.

I have four 4K monitors: LG 27UN850-W X2, one desk dual monitor setup (will be referred below as LG) Dell U2720Q X2, one desk dual monitor setup (will be referred below as Dell) I use LG, my spouse uses Dell. In my mind LG is better to fit my needs. From my spouses point of view, Dell is preferred over LG. 1. Why does LG better fit my needs? a) both LG and Dell have anti-glare screens. But I found Dell reflects a little bit more than LG. I have a “designer white” desk. Dell’s reflection is noticeable especially during the evening when using the desk lamp and watching videos. On the other hand, LG does not distract my attention due to glare. The Dell glare issue could be a combination of my desk color and light source setup. But given the exact same setup, LG does not distract my attention due to reflection. b) LG has ports arrangement on the back, rather than at the bottom. I’d like to try different gadgets during the past weeks. The LG’s design makes it super convenient to plug/unplug cables, firetv stickers. Dell’s traditional port design also works well thanks to the best ergonomics stands (will come to it later). Adding devices/cable to Dell just by simply rotating the screen. c) LG has a user-friendly screen control joystick. Dell’s traditional button is not comparable. Again, because I’d like to change settings, and try different gadgets. 2. Why does Dell better fit my spouses needs? Ergonomics, ergonomics, ergonomics! My spouse needs ergonomic monitor stands. Dell’s design fits the bill perfectly. A complete freedom of adjustment with extremely wide ranges, at any direction. 3. What do the two monitors share in common? They are all very good monitors for regular day to day work/entertainment. Again we are not professional graphic designers nor video editors. For average users like us, you cannot go wrong with either LG/Dell. For most of the time, all our monitors work in reader/office/text mode. When it comes to entertainment, LG/Dell, for me, do not make much difference. I cannot tell the difference when watching videos or playing games, or editing family photos. They look pretty much the same for casual entertainment. I also placed the LG/Dell side by side, playing the same youtube 4K HDR videos with all monitors in full HDR settings, but I cannot tell which is better. They all calibrated to their own standards. In their own “reference frame”, they all look very beautiful. Btw, isn’t the best entertainment to find a job to do what you like? The office/text mode might be the best entertainment mode for me :-) Finally, because this is my serious review under this LG product tag. I will add 3 more points for LG only: 1. LG has a bulky voltage transformer shown in the picture. The power cable on each side of the voltage transformer is about 55 inch (total about 110 inch including the transformer in the middle), long enough for any home office setup. However, for a standing desk, I have to spend a bit extra effort to hide the bulky transformer in the cable management tray. 2. One of the LG monitors has a very tiny issue with the stand. I returned it and bought a new one. The problem went away. 3. LG has a builtin speaker that can be easily used with fireTV stick 4K, just plug and play. If I want to control volume, I’m using the LG monitor joystick, or a separate speaker or a bluetooth (Jabra evolve 75), where output device with builtin volume controls. The joystick also makes the hdmi input switch very easy, fireTV to Nvidia Quadro, very smooth joystick operation. But better to get a 4K HDMI switch.