LG UltraGear QHD 27-Inch Gaming Monitor 27GL850-B, Nano IPS 1ms (GtG) with HDR 10 Compatibility and NVIDIA G-SYNC, 144Hz, Black

I picked up one of these in 2020 and absolutely love it! The colors are very important to me for print and photo work. The contrast is excellent as well. Its been a fantastic monitor, Id buy a secod one in a heart beat if I needed one.

My ASUS pg279q just died after 11 years so I was looking for a suitable replacement. The LG 27gl850 is faster than the pg279q and the colors are better. I paid nearly $700 for the pg279q so the 27gl850 is a bargain. The only downside is that the 27gl850 does not have a built in g-sync module, but the only downside is that the minimum refresh rate is 48hz instead of 30hz like on the pg279q. I have to adjust graphical settings a little higher to make sure the frame rate does not hit 48hz or lower, but that is a small price to pay, and I would rather spend the extra $300 I saved on the lg 28gl850 on a newer graphics card. For reference, I am using a RTX 2060 super graphics card with g-sync turned on, and a i5 9600k processor.

I waited until this come back in stock, and snagged it for ~$450. I use it with GSYNC and it works flawlessly. I am the type of person to research, compare and re-research products I buy, especially tech that is expensive. I chose this monitor over the ASUS ROG Swift PG27VQ / PG27VQZ, and a few other GSYNC specific monitors. This is one of the best (if not, then THE best) IPS 1440p 144hz 27-inch gsync compatible gaming monitors available. My room bought the Asus, I mentioned above, and this LG has better color accuracy, and picture quality overall; as well as less black light bleed. The IPS glow is minimal. This monitor is newer than a lot of the Asus panels, and it shows that LG actually cares and has better quality control when it comes to the panel and black light bleed. The GSYNC compatibility is perfect, and un noticeable the it is FreeSync monitor. If I paid $600 for this monitor, I would have still been happy. The fact that I grabbed it for $450, when it was available, purchasing this monitor over everything else was a no-brainer.

It does give a really nice picture. Although I highly disagree with all of these reviews (here and on the web) where they say the viewing angle is pretty good; its actually pretty bad. For instance, if I have a dark background everything looks great straight on, but when I stand up and look at it, it takes on a reddish hue. I have an old 2nd monitor (Acer S231HL) connected via DVI that doesnt do that at all. It has to be 15+ years old. Other than that, my main complaint with this monitor is that the windows on it are always getting moved all over the place whenever it comes back on after a power off. Windows on my second monitor get moved over to this monitor; other windows on this monitor get moved from the top right to the top middle-right; icons lined up to the left get rearranged, etc. None of this ever happened on my previous HDMI monitor, only this high DPI Display Port monitor. Its actually a really big deal rather than a minor annoyance after youve been having to rearrange them several times daily.

I write this review as the former owner of 3 Asus PG279Qs and one PG279QZ. I was drawn to this realm of the monitor market because I do not believe that 4K displays are worth it at this particular point in time. As far as I see it, the majority are a compromise as the bandwidth requirements for running 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, an extended color gamut, a refresh rate of 144 Hz and beyond, and a resolution of 3840x2160 all at the same time will be much better served by DP 1.5 or HDMI 2.1 (proper HDR wouldnt hurt either). Although it could be argued that achieving 144 frames at 1440p is more resource intensive than 60 frames at 2160p, I believe the experience to be the most immersive, at least until 144+ frames becomes viable at 4K. Unfortunately, based on the price to performance ratio trend of the current generation of graphics cards (Nvidia’s in specific), it is going to be a long, long time until that is achievable at a reasonable price. All things aside, I can state with confidence that I’ve found my sweet spot for monitors in the form of LG’s 27GL850. It has addressed all of the quality control concerns that I’ve experienced throughout my quest of trying to obtain a high refresh rate, 1440p IPS-type display. Seeing as this is an LG product, the monitor can rightfully be referred to as having an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel as this is their proprietary term for the technology that produces the wider color gamut and viewing angles. I did not buy this display because I am a hardcore gamer; I bought it because I wanted a quality monitor with good color reproduction, a uniform panel, and good response time. My purchase was based solely on the off chance of LG producing a monitor where quality control wasn’t an after-thought. Now that it has finally arrived, I am proud to report that this monitor delivers. The display has zero backlight bleed and excellent uniformity, contrast, and response time. White uniformity is even across the entirety of the screen while the factory calibrated colors appear accurate even next to my calibrated Dell. Outside of sRGB mode, the colors do come off as over-saturated, although some may prefer the added vibrancy of the Nano IPS technology (I did not). Black levels are on par with most other IPS-type displays that I’ve used despite the specified measurement coming in at a somewhat lower figure than similar displays. As for response time, it seems universally accepted by the monitor community that the fast setting is adequate in preventing overshoot. The faster and fastest settings produce undesirable artifacts known as coronas. Despite this monitor not having variable overdrive, I have had no perceivable issues when it comes to gaming as I do tend to binge on CS:GO from time to time. If I had to nit-pick, and I do because this is a review where transparency informs prospective buyers, I will say that the strength of the presence of IPS glow on my display falls on the moderate end of the spectrum. This could be due to the fact the panel is 27 inches, which is a decent amount of real estate for this phenomenon to occur. It is also important to keep in mind that this is something that varies on a per panel basis. Without a doubt, it is a consequence of choosing to utilize an IPS panel for one’s computing purposes. Regardless, it is nothing unexpected or anything that cannot be addressed by adjusting the brightness level as well as the viewing distance, height, and angle. Besides simply turning down the brightness, placing the monitor further away is one way to remedy the matter. Another way to minimize the glow is to position the screen in such a way that one’s gaze meets the center of the screen as IPS-type displays fare better when the height of the top bezel is of equal height or greater in relation to one’s eyes. A final tip is to manipulate the screen’s tilt angle as oftentimes angling it upwards reduces glow. By applying these adjustments, I can easily say that this is overall the best monitor that I’ve used to date. I will not sit here and bash Asus’ most recent iteration of their high refresh rate, 1440p IPS-type display, the PG279QZ, as one can refer to the top review of the PG279QZ to see what types of problems plague those monitors. What I will say is that it’s a breath of fresh air to see that quality control still exists in consumer-grade monitors. Realistically, no manufacturing process is going to produce near perfect monitors all of the time; however, this purchase has instilled confidence in me when it comes to the LG brand. I imagine that this model will provide all disillusioned monitor buyers a glimmer of hope when it comes to having a fighting chance at obtaining a quality monitor in this realm of the market. ***As per a request in the comments, Ive attached pictures of the monitor at brightness of zero, 50%, and 100%. I also managed to track down another monitor from Micro Center, so I posted the same array of shots for this sample too. The results were very similar; however, a small circular area of bleed does exist in the top left corner. It is somewhat noticeable on a black screen unless I increase the height of the stand. To identify the pictures of the second monitor, please see the pictures without the headphones in them. Despite trying several approaches and platforms, the photo uploader refuses to retain the sequence in which I had originally ordered them).***

I bought this monitor for my new computer which is able to play games at 144hz 1440p. The monitor was easy to setup, looks great and I love the way the monitor itself looks. The 27 inch screen really takes up your whole view while gaming. It looked great out of the box and I have no complaints whatsoever. I didnt even have to setup Gsync/Freesync or configure any settings. It looked and worked great right out of the box. I could theoretically see someone who is REALLY focused on color quality maybe needing to do some kind of adjustment to the settings, but I guarentee for 99% of people its not a problem at all. If you do care about that kind of stuff, find somewhere that can give a more detailed description (like Hardware Unboxed on youtube), but again, I dont think most people will care. I play in the dark sometimes and dont have any complaints about the brightness. If your like me and never experienced playing at 1440p 144hz before (assuming you have a computer that can play at those specs) it was a massive upgrade to my experience and I was not disappointed. The resolution bump is great, but the higher framerate is even better. It makes everything feel much smoother and natural. Youll notice the difference even moving the mouse cursor in Windows. If you are in a position to afford that kind of upgrade, it definitely makes for an improved experience. For 1440p at 144hz gaming in this price bracket, this is an excellent option. I did a lot of research on other options and this was consistently a strong reccomendation and now I see why. Ive used it every day since I got it and loved every second of gaming on it.

I normally stick to Acer monitors but took a chance on these based on the positive reviews. My setup required 3 identical monitors and most of the CONS below are based on the suitability for my needs. The short power cord is very disappointing with a design that does not permit you to replace the power cord. PROS: - Slim bevel edge - Great responsiveness for gaming CONS: - Very short power cord (no simple replacement possible for the power brick) and it is never recommended to use an extension cord for monitors. - Alignment for multiple monitors is clumsy and will leave a gap. - Adjustable height starts at 4.5 inches above the desktop which is twice what my other monitors required. Recommended monitor settings found online will help make the most of the initial setup: MONITOR Game Mode Profile: • Gamer 1 Game Adjust: • Adaptive-Sync : On • Black Stabilizer : 40 (reduced from default of 50 as it helped make blacks more black instead of grey) • Response Time : Fast Picture Adjust: • Brightness : 30-40 (reduced from default of 100) • Contrast : 70 (default) • Sharpness : 50 (default) • Gamma : Mode 2 (default) • Color Temp : Custom (default) • R/G/B : 54/48/50 (these made the picture feel a little warmer than the default of 50/50/50 but I still tinker with them every now and again and these are more your personal taste on how warm/cold you like your whites and colours) • DFC : Off (default) General: • Smart Energy Saving : Off (change from On) • Power LED : On (this lights up the joystick under the front bezel) • Automatic Standby : 8h • Displayport 1.4 : Enable

Ordered like 4 monitors from Amazon, and all had some manufacturing issues with them. Until this one. I have it for about 6 months now, no prob. The LG-850B is overall a solid monitor. Good colors, good refresh rate, okay profile management (cant create new profiles, but can edit the 2 gamer profiles). I bought this monitor for about 260$, so if you can, wait till xmas when for it to go on sale. I have a few complaints, some of which: 1. This is a U.S product, meaning it only comes with a U.S power supply unit. Go get an adapter. 2. The stand is ABYSMAL. I bought an arm to go with it. (F80 North Bayou, check locally, it might be cheaper than it is on Amazon). 3. The quality-control of all Amazon products is very questionable. You should get these types of products during the summer / xmas, where you have like 2 month window to return the item for a full refund, in case it completely breaks apart.

I have about 139 hours on this monitor as of now. The first 20 were great. No issues. Really happy with it as its a MASSIVE step up from my 4k TVs latency/framerate. I built a desk specifically for gaming and it really has helped having a very fast monitor like this. But after 20 hours It started flicking black randomly. I have no idea what is causing it, its just totally random. It might flicker one day, or it might not flicker for two days. I suspect it might be G-SYNC but hard to tell if its that or the monitor. When it does flicker it puts my games in the background which could get me killed in certain games as it not only lowers the framerate but screws with the window. Im in the process of trying a different Display port cable, then DDU and driver reinstall. If its this monitor then Its getting 1 star and I cant return it. I have to go though a headache of a RMA and I dont expect that to go smoothly. Ill try to update this in the next month or two.

Out of the box, the colors and contrast were dreadful. Everything looked extremely washed out. I went through all the different menu options and nvidia settings and was able to look it somewhat better, but was honestly going to return it because my old 1080p 60hz TV that I was using as a monitor just looked far, far better which was sad because I thought the improved resolution and refresh rate would result in a vastly superior experience. So I was digging around online and I came across a few people talking about changing the color calibration. I checked rtings score for the monitor (much like other sites, this monitor has a fantastic rating on rtings) and I saw that the out-of-the-box color calibration was terrible but after calibration it looks fantastic. I ended up loading the color calibration profile that rtings provided and the difference was like night and day. Colors became a LOT more accurate and the contrast was vastly improved. The blacks and whites still arent perfect, but it no longer looks like the entire screen is covered by a gray plastic screen. After tinkering with the settings for HOURS (with color profiles, the monitors menu settings, and nvidia settings) I finally have the monitor looking good but it took way more work than it should have.