Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Okay, have a look at this. This is one of my favourite monitors of all time. It's the 38WN95C from LG.
00:0738-inch, ultrawide. Love this. But, check this out.
00:13Actually, I have to shimmy a little bit further off the desk so you can see the whole thing.
00:16This is a 49-inch, super-duper ultrawide. That's not the technical term, but it should be.
00:22So, the question is, is it worth buying?
00:31But what makes this LG 49WQ95C even more special is it's the first 49-inch, 144Hz, super-ultrawide
00:40to get an IPS panel, instead of VA, which is more common.
00:43And that means, on top of being a multitasking monster, this should have fantastic image quality
00:48and accurate colours for your creative work, and also some very smooth, tasty-looking gaming.
00:53But, at £1,300, or $1,700, which seems like a lot for my American friends,
00:59this is obviously very pricey.
01:01And the other issue is it doesn't get as bright as some of those VA alternatives,
01:05which also impacts the HDR performance.
01:07Now, the idea with any ultrawide is to give you more desktop screen real estate, screen space.
01:12And, obviously, you get that with this.
01:14In terms of what's different between this and my outgoing 38-inch ultrawide,
01:19is the 32x9 aspect ratio means you've got two 27-inch, Quad HD, effectively,
01:25monitors side-by-side, but without a bezel in the middle.
01:28So this is like a seamless, dual 27-inch, Quad HD setup.
01:32Which is great if you want to work with two apps in native Quad HD Res side-by-side.
01:36And, of course, those lack of bezels means this is even better for gaming,
01:39and that wide field of view can be really immersive,
01:42unless, like in Overwatch 2, your games don't support 32x9.
01:46Then, like with TV and movies, or if you plug in a games console,
01:49you'll need to get used to some hefty black bars either side.
01:52But let's talk about the panel.
01:54And the 5120x1440p Nano IPS display covers 98% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
02:01We get FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync compatibility.
02:04There's also a built-in KVM switch.
02:07We get 10-watt stereo speakers, which actually sound pretty good.
02:11HDMI 2.1, which is great for your consoles.
02:14DisplayPort 1.4, which I'd use to hook up to my PC.
02:17And then we've also got USB-C with DisplayPort and 90-watt power delivery,
02:21which is what you're going to want to use if you're hooking up a laptop.
02:24And all with this fairly subtle 3800R curve.
02:28And I do mean subtle.
02:29Compared to some of the other ultrawides we've seen recently,
02:31particularly from the likes of Samsung,
02:33you're not getting any of that kind of hyper distortion.
02:35This feels nice.
02:37But crucially, it is this IPS-ness that makes this unique.
02:41We've seen a whole bunch of VA ultrawides,
02:43and until now, that's really been the only way to get high-res, big ultrawides
02:47with high refresh and HDR as well.
02:50Until now, it seems.
02:51I mean, as I say at the beginning, and we'll come back to it in a second,
02:53the compromise is lower brightness and therefore less impressive HDR performance.
02:58But I would take an IPS panel over VA any day,
03:01particularly if you're doing any kind of color grading.
03:03But while LG's Nano IPS display here is very nice,
03:07the downside compared to a VA panel
03:09is that we're not getting quite the same contrast ratio.
03:11And also, unlike a lot of high-end VA ultrawides,
03:14there isn't any kind of mini-LED backlighting here.
03:17So we do still have issues with blooming, IPS light bleed,
03:20and we're not seeing those sort of inky, deeper blacks
03:23that you might get with a better backlighting system.
03:25Also remember that while this is a 5K by 2K resolution,
03:29that is essentially just a wider Quad HD.
03:31And so if you're working with 4K content
03:33and need to watch it back natively, you can't on this.
03:36But dual Quad HD is still more than sharp enough for this size,
03:39and of course, you're going to get a higher frame rate in your games as well,
03:42which look incredible, by the way, at this size.
03:46My only criticism really is that compared to some ultrawides,
03:49like the other LG I've been used to using
03:51that have a by 10 aspect ratio, a 21 by 10, I believe that is,
03:56this 32 by 9 is a little bit narrow.
03:59It feels a bit letterboxy.
04:01So in my ideal world, this would be a 32 by 10.
04:03I think that would make a big difference, actually.
04:05But games can look fantastic on this thing.
04:08It's not the visual feast that you might get
04:10on the likes of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
04:12with its mini-LED 240Hz panel,
04:14but then this LG isn't really targeting the gaming audience as strongly,
04:17and it's also about £350 cheaper.
04:20And there's something about those IPS colours
04:23and that massive sweeping size
04:25that makes the likes of Red Dead 2 or Flight Sim just look incredible.
04:28And of course, there's always an advantage playing competitive games
04:31with an extra wide field of view and seeing your enemies earlier.
04:34Remember, though, that dual Quad HD only has about 10% fewer pixels than 4K,
04:39so you're going to need a pretty beefy PC
04:41playing games maxed out on this ultra-wide monitor.
04:45You have to admit, this does look a bit good.
04:48Although, what would be the first game you'd play on this
04:50if you had this in your setup right now?
04:52Let me know in the comments below.
04:53Now, on the far right, at the back,
04:55we have this little joystick to control the on-screen display,
04:57which is easy enough to navigate,
04:59although I do feel like this joystick should maybe be in the centre underneath.
05:02And there's plenty of picture presets, image and input controls,
05:05and also picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes,
05:08which lets you mix and match from different sources and different inputs.
05:11This is what a regular 16x9 video from YouTube looks like on this.
05:16You can see how much space you've got at the side.
05:18That might actually bother you if you're not continually using this
05:21in a sort of multitasking, pro-user way.
05:23Regular videos, it's kind of funny, actually.
05:26But going back to the screen, this LG covered 99% sRGB,
05:3098% P3, and 86% of the Adobe RGB gamut.
05:34And it's using an 8-bit plus FRC to get to the 10-bit panel.
05:37So really serious video and graphics pros
05:40may be better off with a 4K true 10-bit model.
05:43Viewing angles are also a strong suit of an IPS panel over a VA,
05:46with colour, brightness and contrast staying consistent from pretty much any angle.
05:51Which is important, given how bloody wide this thing is.
05:54Okay, I admit, this is a bit of a stupid place to put the joystick.
05:57On the right-hand side, it's a bit awkward.
05:59Although, thinking about it, one of the reasons they've done that in the past
06:02is so that if you actually want to stack two of these on top of each other,
06:05which you might be able to do, then you can access the joystick on both,
06:08without it being covered underneath.
06:10Now, this is rated for Display HDR 400,
06:13which basically means a minimum peak brightness of 400 nits,
06:17which is very average for any monitor these days,
06:20and especially at this price point.
06:22Now, I measured a max peak brightness of 450 nits,
06:25which is plenty bright enough for day-to-day use,
06:27but less good if you plan on watching, editing or playing HDR content.
06:31Also, HDR black levels are okay,
06:33but the relatively low contrast and the lack of any proper local dimming
06:37means it's certainly not as impressive as most VA panels,
06:40even ones costing hundreds less.
06:42And it's also no contest versus pricier Mini-LED or OLED options.
06:46Then we have the 5ms response time, which is fast enough for everyday use.
06:50I didn't notice any blurriness with fast motion.
06:52The good news, though, is that even cranking this to the fastest response time
06:55didn't produce much inverse ghosting.
06:57Input lag is around 4ms, which is nice and low,
07:00and Adaptive Sync, with either G-Sync compatibility or FreeSync Premium Pro VRR,
07:04helps to deal with stutter and tearing in your games.
07:07What does really help with the usability of this screen space, though,
07:10is having the Windows Snap tool,
07:12or if you download something like Magnet on Mac,
07:14which I would definitely recommend,
07:16you can, you know, snap it either side,
07:18you can do it into quadrants, put that on the middle,
07:20that on the left, that on the right.
07:22Pretty usable triple-screen setup, I would say.
07:25In terms of the design, this looks like any LG monitor, really,
07:28from the last few years, just a bit wider,
07:30and some nice glossy edging around the sides.
07:32The Crescent stand base has a slimmer, tapered design,
07:35but the rear is the same.
07:37It's smart and pretty understated,
07:39there isn't any kind of RGB going on here,
07:41so this would blend nicely into any office.
07:43Well, as much as any 49-inch ultra-wide would blend in.
07:46There's also plenty of height adjustment,
07:48you can tilt it forward and backwards,
07:50and also rotate, bashing my lamp there,
07:53I haven't got enough room on my desk.
07:55It does feel a little wobbly,
07:57but if you can rotate it a little bit like this,
07:59sometimes it's hard to get it exactly back to normal.
08:02You can see how wobbly that is.
08:04Feels a little bleh.
08:06Feels a little cheap sometimes.
08:08So let's wrap up, and for me, this is easily
08:10the best super ultra-wide around
08:12for anyone who wants accurate colours.
08:14It's that simple, as most other super-ultras have VA panels.
08:18Alternatively, if you want something this size,
08:20but don't want to spend this much,
08:22or there's something about this you don't like,
08:24you can check out the AOC Agon Gaming 49-inch,
08:26which is a great dual-QHD 120Hz option
08:28that comes in at around £900.
08:30Or if you're more into your gaming,
08:32then Samsung's Odyssey G9 or CRG9 gaming monitors
08:35are fantastic at just over a grand.
08:37Although maybe the best gaming super ultra-wide,
08:40still the Odyssey Neo G9,
08:42which will set you back around £1,700.
08:44But what do you think?
08:46Tempted by something like this,
08:48or is it just a bit of a monstrosity?
08:50Let me know what you make of this 49-inch ultra-wide
08:52in the comments below, and also let me know
08:55Thank you so much for watching, guys.
08:57If you enjoyed this review, then a like and subscribe
08:59would be very much appreciated,
09:01and I'll see you next time, right here on The Tech Chat.