LG 27UK850-W 27" 4K UHD IPS Monitor with HDR10 with USB Type-C Connectivity and FreeSync

Comment

I purchased this as a replacement to my Samsung 27" UH750 4k monitor for one main reason: USB-C connectivity with my Macbook Pro. I only have two USB C ports on my Macbook, so having to use them both with my Samsung in order to use the monitor and charge up at the same time was a major hassle. It left me with no USB connectivity for other stuff like external storage. Thats where this monitor comes in. I was skeptical of how well it would work with my MBP since USB-C monitors are still a new technology, and are likely no where as good as they will be in a year or two from now. In about a week of usage, I have yet to have a single problem. Power delivery for my 13" MBP is great- I experience no loss of power when doing more intensive activities like encoding large video files. Not a single flicker or loss of image yet. To date, there is only one HUGE (for me at least) flaw that I have found in this monitor. When connecting to any device via USB-C, it limits the speed on the two USB-A ports on the back of the monitor to 2.0. I planned on using Windows To Go in this setup by mounting a SSD to the back of the monitor and running Windows off of it. I definitely cant maintain a stable boot of Windows 10 using this setup. I could use a USB-C to DP or HDMI cable for my MBP and then the USB-A ports would go back to 3.0 speeds, but in that case I might as well have purchased the UD88 model and saved about a hundred dollars. I really dont understand how this monitor cant output USB 3.0 speeds while maintaining a USB-C connection given that it still uses an external power brick. Id think that the huge power brick would allow it to provide the necessary power to do this. I was bummed by this, but I didnt find it to be a deal breaker. Backlight bleed was minimal, and the image quality is excellent. I use it with my Xbox One X, and can verify that you will receive all green check marks in the 4K details screen. I had no trouble setting up the console with this monitor, even with FreeSync and HDR 10. Pros: Works great with Xbox One X and Macbook Pro Great image quality Responsive OSD controls Lots of ports Cons: External power brick USB-A ports default to 2.0 speeds if you connect a computer via USB-C Cant control volume through keyboard buttons unless connected to bluetooth speaker for audio (Dont think many monitors can do this though)

Show more

Comment

Had this monitor for a few weeks now and to be honest, its a thing of beauty. Dont expect much from the speakers, in my setup, if I want to watch some content from either a cable box or another source and I dont feel like powering up my studio monitors, it gets the job done. Color wise- this panel is fantastic, minimal to no light bleed. People will complain about HDR needing a display with more NITS, when in reality, I found myself turning down the brightness when the monitor kicks into HDR mode as it defaults to 100% brightness. What this argument fails to take into account is that yes, HDR content needs more NITS, but thats accounting for sitting very close as you would with a monitor. I use this one alongside a non-HDR previous gen LG 27UD88 (Ive had since January) with a 2017 Macbook Pro via a Caldigit 3 Thunderbolt 3 dock (see the attached pic). Using Displayport on the 27850UK (left display) and USB-C connector on my 27UD88 (right display) to connect both displays to my dock . Havent gamed on it much as of yet (time hasnt permitted). If youre not in HDR mode, these monitors are almost identical display-wise. The noticeable differences are: - The bezel (both plastic, the older UD88 has an aluminium-color while the UK850 went for all black) - The UK850 has speakers (again as I said above, not great, but they do the job) - The menu is redesigned (most people wont care about this, but if youre used to flicking down to turn off the UD88, just know that you flick UP to turn off the UK850) lol - HDR .. I have nothing to compare it against as its my first HDR display. I tested it using an XBox One S and a few UHD Blu-Rays and Netflix w/ HDR. Its definitely a positive upgrade ;) If HDR becomes more popular and I start needing it in my video workflow, Ill consider upgrading the UD88 to another one of these. This display WILL NOT disappoint!

Show more

Comment

I am extremely happy with this monitor. Its replacing a 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display. The colors and brightness are at least as good as the Apple display, and the 4K resolution improvement is very noticeable. Web pages and text look so crisp now, I really dont think I can go back to the Apple Thunderbolt display now. I LOVE that there is a single cable from the screen to my MacBook Pro, with no clunky adaptors. This charges the laptop, drives the display, connects the keyboard, and mounts by external backup hard drive. I wouldnt care about this if I just left my laptop plugged in all day, but I frequently need to take my laptop away from my desk, and its now a pleasure to do this instead of dealing with a mess of dongles and hubs. If I could make any improvement, it would be to add more ports on the back - there are two USB-A ports for keyboards / mice / phones / etc., I wish it had three or more. Also, there is a single Thunderbolt-3 USB-C connector that runs from the laptop to the display - it would be awesome if there was a second one so that I could daisy-chain other displays or connect USB-C peripherals.

Show more

Comment

Using this monitor with an Xbox One X and the screen quality is great. Even with HDR mode enabled there is no noticeable input lag playing FPS games. The HDR mode enables automatically with applications and games that support it, and you are notified on the top right of the screen. The IPS glow is minimal as well. If you do not need the additional USB Type C port or built in speakers, shoot for the less expensive LG 27UK650 model. Very satisfied with the purchase!

Show more

Comment

I had a lot of anxiety over whether the resolution of this monitor is on par with iMac 27 5K or LG 5K monitor. Had worked with both monitors and played around at Apple Store with both. Always amazed at the resolution and clarity of both LG 5K and iMac 27. From a photographer and pixel peeper standpoint (and owner of LG OLED TV, iPhone X owner): this 27 inch LG is on par with both of the above LG 5K and iMac 27 5K for a fraction of the cost. 1) Resolution is beyond what is considered "retina" in my book. I cannot even run this monitor on its full 4K resolution as it is just beyond "retina" at that point. It is, for all intents and purposes, as "retina" my iPhone X and MacBook Pro 13 inch with Retina display. I would not even hesitate to consider LG 5K monitor over this monitor as the 5K resolution is completely useless for practical purposes (i.e. content will look so small at 5K in a 27 inch monitor that it is unusable). 2) 27uk850 vs 27uk650: the USB-C is absolutely worth the extra 100$ cost. Not only integration with Apple ecosystem is seamless, but also the back of this monitor (and not the 650) has regular USB ports that can be used to hook up your peripherals too. For instance, my wireless mouse (not bluetooth, has a small receiver) is hooked up to the back of the monitor and works seamlessly with the MacBook. This saved from buying a dongle to convert my receiver for the mouse to USB-C and saved me from using a USB-C output on MacBook for connecting a mouse. 3) Charging of MacBook via USB-C is also key. Otherwise, I would have been left with absolutely no ports to hook up anything to my MacBook (1 USB-C gone for displays, 1 USB-C gone for charging). 850 is absolutely worth the price over 650. Would not even be able to live with 650 now that I see the difference. Please dont worry about whether this is "retina" enough compared to LG 5K at $1300. This is absolutely "retina" enough with excellent color reproduction. Now the whole DCI-P3 business, Im not sure about. But then again, Im a photographer and have never felt like Im lacking "colors" in even my MacBook Pro monitor which is not covering the whole DCI-P3. The additional cost of having DCI-P3 is absolutely ridiculous in 2018 in my opinion and the difference likely very negligible for 97% of users. I could understand if your life depends on accurate color reproduction, but for the rest of us, DCI-P3 is not worth an extra $700. Excellent monitor. Speakers are also a nice addition. Reduces clutter from the desk. And can be turned off. In my opinion, the inclusion of USB-C and the back ports of the monitor to attach other peripherals via regular USB is absolutely worth the extra cost compared to 650, even not including the speakers.

Show more

Comment

Super happy with this monitor. I purchased a LG 27UK850-W 27" 4K UHD IPS Monitor from Amazon for my 2015 MacBook Pro. Image quality is excellent and resolution is perfect for my work with photos and Final Cut Pro X. If your MacBook Pro doesnt have a USB-C connector, then you MUST buy the Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort Cable at the same time. Yes, you could use an HDMI cable but you will be sorry. Another reviewer pointed this out and for only $6.99 I figured Id better just buy the cable too as it wouldnt be a great loss if I didnt really need it. After receiving the monitor, I tried connecting it to my MacBook Pro using this cable and an HDMI cable. HUGE difference, with HDMI you are forced to only a 30hz refresh rate. With this cable you get 60hz refresh rate. Anyone can see the difference between the two, so Im not just a spec freak. More importantly, when using this cable I was able to scale the screen to whatever density I wanted (See Mac OSX Display preferences under scaling for reference). With the HDMI cable, you get no scaling and the screen size is fixed. Also, with this cable the image quality was much better than HDMI. Here is a link to the cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5RY8D7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I listed my experience so that others with similar hardware can understand why you need this cable. If your setup is different, then continue to read other reviews.

Show more

Comment

If I was rating this monitor only on the picture quality it would be a 5+. Unfortunately I found the following problems after 25 days of use and trial. 1) USB ports work most of the time but sometimes just hiccup and there is a power loss for a bit. 2) USB ports always lose power when the screen rests even for a minute, even my wired USB keyboard is hard to get going again. 3) The speakers are virtually useless, they work but not even as good as my 2009 iMac that Im retiring. Very shrill sounding with very little range. 4) Inability to control volume on external speakers via my keyboard or the normal volume knob on the speakers. Must first make the multi-use button on the bottom front of the screen happy. This is award to say the least. In reality you need to use two different ways to adjust the sound volume. 5) Slow to turn on from sleep, this is not a problem with my computer which works as designed when not attached to the monitor. The idea of being able to rely on the USB-C connection entirely with a few peripherals via USB 3.0 on the back of the monitor proved not reliable and thus not worth the extra money for these features.

Show more

Comment

This could be a great monitor. The colors are great, everything is crisp, even the design of the panel and base look great on my desk. I’m giving 1/5 stars to LG and to the entire monitor industry manufacturing IPS panels right now. I’ve been through 3 of these monitors, and they’ve all had separate issues. #1 - Unacceptable backlight bleed. And no, it wasn’t just IPS glow. Corners were consistently yellow regardless of viewing angle. Made watching movies or viewing dark content miserable. Also lots of ghosting and artifacts. #2 - Backlight bleed wasn’t an issue on this one, but there was a noticeable shift in color temperature across the panel. Green to magenta tint left to right. Also dead pixels. #3 - Great color uniformity, but guess what.. back to excessive backlight bleed. I’m so sick of companies (and even consumers) trying to normalize this phenomenon. If manufacturers like LG cared at all, they’d do a better job of encasing the panel within its enclosure. I could watch the backlight bleed vanish before my eyes just by fiddling with the bezels. I know some people have had luck putting thin bits of plastic between the screen and bezel, but does that really sound like a reasonable thing to do for a product that goes up to $700 something dollars? Shame on the entire monitor industry, forcing those of us who care about quality (or just want to watch a movie on our screens without annoying backlight bleed) to play this stupid panel lottery, returning multiple units to stores. It’s not fair to the consumers, or the stores, as it’s not even their fault LG is shipping units with abysmal quality control. I even tried to give the 3rd party sellers a break, and shipped one of my panels to LG for repair. Guess what, it wasn’t even worth their time to address my panel. They offered me a refund or a replacement, which would most likely end up being yet another panel with horrible backlight bleed, as nobody in their facility would commit to inspecting it first. Affordable consumer OLED can’t come fast enough. But until then, us consumers will be gaslighted by the monitor industry who tells us this is perfectly acceptable even in this high price range.

Show more

Comment

Love it! I researched for about 4 weeks on different monitors and am very satisfied with this choice. Battery Life: I use adobe and have about 15 tabs open at a time on chrome and my battery never falls below 100% all day Resolution: Epic! Download the program from LG and there are so many great options for each of your programs. Only downside is I am a perfectionist and constantly editing photos, so I find myself spending a little more time between photos because I can see little flaws that unless you know what youre looking for or have a 4k monitor, you would never see. USBC Issues: None... no lag no worries 27 inches is plenty of room. I spent the last week deciding between 27 and 34. I plug my wacom into the back of the monitor and have 0 lag issues

Show more

Comment

I hardly ever write reviews for anything I purchase on Amazon. Honestly, most things I get are as expected. This was the first time I purchased a monitor sight unseen, and I was cautiously optimistic. The reviews were very good, so I took the plunge. Admittedly, I was nervous when I first hooked this up to my Macbook Pro 13". I plugged the USB-C cable provided with the display into the Macbook and voila...it came on. Unfortunately, it was at 30 Hz rather than 60 Hz, and I could notice that difference in scrolling. Sometimes it would connect at 60 Hz, sometimes at 30 Hz. I researched some more. I ended up buying a high quality Anker USB-C to USB-C cable that fixed that problem right up. If you have the same problem, it may just be the cable. The other frustration was that the picture setting default for the monitor was set to "Game." This made text on the screen very hard to read. I honestly thought there was a problem with the display. More research. After reading some blog posts online, I found out that changing the display setting to SMPTE-C fixed that right up. Now, the good stuff. This display, once I changed the cable and the display settings, is the most beautiful pairing with my Macbook Pro! The colors are perfect, display is sharp, bright. I have NO regrets and would not hesitate to buy more of these. The 4K LG display Apple sells is only 22". Im shocked Apple doesnt have an option like this one (though Im pleased as well, as Im sure it would be more expensive). Run, dont walk, to buy this display. Just be ready if needed to get a new USB-C cable, and be sure to change the picture setting. Also, another lesson I learned: Thunderbolt 3 cables 18 inches long or less may work for USB-C, but longer than that typically wont. If you DO need another cable, be sure to buy a TOP of the line USB-C cable, not a Thunderbolt cable. Many of you already know, Im sure, but there is a difference! I only have one remaining gripe: the speakers are really that bad. My iPhone puts out better sound (no exaggeration). Just buy a good pair of speakers. Honestly, after all the research I did, theres not really an ideal pairing of good sound and good display, unless you go with the ridiculously expensive LG Apple displays.

Show more