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00:00Hey guys, I'm TomoTechChap and this thing is just ridiculous.
00:04It's one of three new LG UltraGear gaming monitors that have just been unveiled,
00:09but this is their first OLED gaming monitor.
00:14And so the idea is, instead of maybe buying one of their OLED TVs like the C1 or C2,
00:20both of which I have used right here as my sort of desktop replacement monitor slash TV,
00:27this LG UltraGear 48GQ900 is made for gamers.
00:32So a big thank you to LG for sending these review samples out to me,
00:36and also offering to sponsor this video, but as always, all opinions are my own
00:39and they don't have any input on my tests or scripts.
00:42So when this was first announced a few months back, I had a few big questions.
00:46What about burn-in? What's the port situation going to be like?
00:49And also how expensive? And is it going to be any good?
00:51Well, I've only had a week with this so far, but I reckon I can answer most of those.
00:55And to answer what I think is probably the biggest question,
00:58how does this compare to an OLED TV?
01:00Well, I think there's six big differences.
01:04Well firstly, have you ever seen a matte OLED screen of this size?
01:09The anti-glare low reflection panel works incredibly well on this,
01:13and compared to a regular glossy OLED TV,
01:15it makes a nice change not staring back at yourself whenever you have a dark scene.
01:21Another big difference is this is overclockable to 138Hz,
01:26which really is as simple as just turning it on in the OSD.
01:29So assuming your PC is powerful enough to take advantage of it,
01:32this is going to be a bit faster.
01:34Also, round the back, we have three HDMI 2.1s and a DisplayPort 1.4,
01:40which is not something you'll see on a normal TV,
01:42and really is the best way to get that full fat 4K 138Hz HDR experience with your PC.
01:49Now you know me, someone could give me a gold bar and I'd say,
01:52well that's good, but it could be lighter or it could be worth more.
01:55There's always some room for improvement.
01:57And I think with this, I wouldn't have said no to a Thunderbolt port as well
02:00for outputting from more laptops and also my Mac,
02:03because right now USB-C Thunderbolt is the only way of getting high refresh on a Mac.
02:08But it's such a nice screen that I'd be happy to do a lot more than just gaming on this.
02:11So if I could have my high refresh Mac set up as well for my video and photo editing,
02:16that would have been nice.
02:17So perhaps next time a Thunderbolt port, but really that is just nitpicking.
02:21Another difference versus a TV is that we have this RGB lighting on either side,
02:26which to be fair isn't really powerful enough to change the colour of your wall behind it,
02:30unless you have it wall mounted, in which case the side lights will have more of an effect.
02:34And actually, I probably would recommend VESA mounting it,
02:37because even though I have a pretty big 100cm deep desk here,
02:4148 inches is still a lot.
02:43So I would either wall mount or consider carefully where you're going to put this in your room.
02:47Then there is this, which I've not seen before.
02:51It looks like something you would have with a stream deck
02:54or a video editor would have for their colour correcting.
02:56It's a big chonky controller with various shortcut buttons
03:00and also this dial that you can use to control the on-screen display
03:03for all the game modes, inputs and even the OLED care settings.
03:07I don't know why it needs to be this big though, but all right.
03:10And finally, one other difference is that with this we get DTS-HPX sound
03:15and also this headphone jack up front,
03:17instead of more traditional eARC and Dolby Atmos support that you get with a TV.
03:21And of course, this doesn't have a TV tuner or the webOS smart interface,
03:25and there's also no Dolby Vision HDR.
03:28So you can of course watch stuff online
03:30or probably a better idea is using a games console
03:32because they have various streaming apps as well.
03:35Or what you can do, if I pick up this gargantuan remote and switch to,
03:40I believe HDMI 3, I've got a Fire TV stick plugged in.
03:43I would recommend getting the Fire Stick 4K or 4K Max
03:46because you've got the resolution and HDR here,
03:48but using the built-in controller you could make this a bit more of a TV that way.
03:54But really you're buying this to game on and in that respect it is awesome.
03:58I mean 4K, 138Hz, as low as a 0.1ms response time.
04:03I measured 450 nits of brightness in SDR and 1150 nits in HDR,
04:08which is beyond what most OLED TVs can pump out.
04:12And of course being OLED rather than IPS or VA or even with a mini LED backlight,
04:16these self-lit pixels means we really don't have to worry about haloing and blooming
04:21or light bleed, anything like we do with traditional monitors.
04:25But I know what you're thinking,
04:26the flip side of that of course is with an OLED panel there is that risk of burn-in.
04:30But the good news is LG has brought over some of their safety features from the TVs over to this.
04:35Because arguably you are more at risk of burn-in with a PC monitor
04:39where you're more likely to have static taskbars or HUD elements.
04:42But we have pixel refresh and every 10 minutes or so you can see the pixels shift.
04:46And also with the power saving modes it'll turn off after a few hours anyway.
04:50So unless you really abuse it I don't think you're going to have to worry about burn-in.
04:55Also have a look at this, I've increased the brightness to 100
04:58so this may be a little bit blown out on my camera.
05:00But one issue I've had with using OLED TVs as a desktop slash gaming monitor
05:06is the very aggressive auto-dimming.
05:08Which actually on some of the TVs, LG's TVs, you can turn off.
05:11If you buy a service remote control you can sort of disable it.
05:14But it's not really recommended and it's a bit of a faff.
05:17There is still auto-dimming to prevent burn-in and give you a longer life of your screen.
05:22But it's not overly aggressive, it's not something I've really noticed.
05:25That's the crucial bit.
05:26What I will say though is while I'm a big fan of that anti-reflective coating
05:30it essentially makes the screen matte.
05:32So you do lose out a little bit on those inky colours
05:35and the higher perceived contrast that you get from a glossy TV screen.
05:39I'll tell you what also surprised me.
05:41The speakers on this are insane.
05:51It's also just a really good looking monitor.
05:54We've got super thin bezels around all the edges.
05:56There's no chunky chin like you often find.
05:58And also the stand is nice and low profile and cables can run underneath which is handy.
06:03I'll tell you what I would like though.
06:05A 42-inch version of this.
06:0648 is a bit overwhelming.
06:09It's something I discovered when I tried the 48-inch LG C1 OLED TV last year, whenever it was.
06:15It was just a bit too big.
06:16So I was obviously really looking forward to the 42-inch C2 OLED
06:20which I have.
06:21I might be doing a comparison video with this later down the road.
06:23So make sure you have subscribed.
06:24But I would love a 42-inch version of this.
06:26I think it would give it much wider appeal.
06:29Although if you do want a smaller gaming monitor
06:32and you quite fancy these new LG Ultra Gears
06:34then you do have a couple of other options.
06:38Like this guy.
06:40Sadly they're not OLED.
06:41They use nano IPS displays.
06:43But importantly they're a bit more of a sensible size
06:46and also they're more affordable.
06:48So this guy is the LG Ultra Gear 32GQ950
06:52which is a 32-inch 4K 144Hz display
06:55which can be overclocked to 160Hz.
06:57And then there's also the 32GQ850
07:00which I don't have with me here
07:01but it trades the 4K resolution for Quad HD
07:04and instead gives us an overclocked 260Hz refresh rate.
07:08Both 32-inches also get an ATW or Advanced True Wide Polarizer
07:13to help boost viewing angles
07:14and they also both have HDMI 2.1 ports.
07:17But no built-in speakers
07:18and they're not OLED
07:19so while they may be the more sensible choice
07:21it's this 48GQ900 that's really spoiled me.
07:26So I think whether you're a PC or a console gamer
07:28we can all agree this is a bit tasty
07:30but the big question is how much.
07:32The cheapest Q850 model
07:34that's the Quad HD 32-inch
07:36will set you back $900 or $899.
07:38The Q950 which is the 4K version will be...
07:43And this, the 48-inch Q900
07:46will cost you $1,499.
07:48A lot of money.
07:50It is a lot of money.
07:51But considering it's a 4K, 138Hz, HDR
07:55proper gaming monitor
07:56I don't think that's too crazy.
07:59I reckon I'm going to stick with this for a little while.
08:01As I say I'm hoping to do maybe a longer term review of it
08:04and also compare it to other displays and also TVs.
08:07So make sure you've hit that subscribe button
08:09and also right now LG UltraGear
08:11are running a 24-hour campaign
08:13with loads of different creators
08:14talking about these monitors
08:16so watch some of those
08:17and also check out LG's Twitch and Twitter pages
08:19to find out more.
08:21Thank you so much for watching
08:22and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chap.