Guys, if there is one thing that I find irresistible, hmm,
it's curvy LGs-
they are just so sexy in…
wait, what?
I'm talking about a computer monitors with curved screens, it's not,
oh my God! That's disgusting!
Roll the intro.
A couple of months ago, smack in the middle of the “Hero 4K!,”
I declared 4K to be dead to me, at least for now.
I have a new lover and LG that I just wanted to
put on my desk and stare at all day until…
okay, this joke is gross and it's old and I'm done with it.
Anyway, you can watch my video of the 34 UM95 here.
An IPS 3440 x 1440 34-inch monitor that I though struck a perfect balance
between pixel densities, so no terrible Windows text icon scaling required.
Overall size, 34 inches sounds a lot bigger than it is when it's in a 21:9 UltraWide aspect ratio.
And ergonomics and productivity- the ultra-wideness without annoying bezels in the middle of what you're doing
makes it great for watching movies, playing games, and working because it's about equivalent
to two 20 plus-ish square monitors side by side.
But this video isn't really about that. No,
today's video is about the 34UC97, a display that’s mostly the same
except for the one huge difference compared to the previous model
that I alluded to in my tasteless intro.
The fact that the display is now gently curved.
Unboxing and assembling this bad boy,
I was about as excited as I've been about opening a monitor, ever.
I've using its late bloomer of its cousin is my daily driver at the office
since the second Brandon finished shooting b-roll of it for a review.
I grabbed that thing and I recommended it to tons of people
because, aside from the slower pic, slow response times that come with IPS
is beautiful colors in great viewing angles,
the only complain I've ever really come up with about it
is that I though like it could be a bit better with a subtle curve.
So, getting this thing in the mail basically like Christmas morning.
Physically, monitor is stunning.
It wows everyone who looks at it before I even get a chance to turn it on for them.
The panel itself has a semi-matte finish that I find delivers a great balance between
the contrast and color peppiness and anti-glare, the tastefully clean bezel design
from the last iteration returns, as does the unassuming plain plastic backing.
As far as changes from the flat model go, these are a bit of mixed bag for me,
so the bottom bezel now features a matte finish instead of gloss.
And the joystick for navigation for the OSD is a bit harder to reach.
I think the TV-style chrome two-foot base is a huge visual improvement
over the previous plasticky looking one that's cumbersome to set a height adjustment.
But unlike predecessor, the 34UC97 lacks any height adjustment at all.
Just tilt.
Now this would be a less of an issue if LG included a VESA compatible arm
mount on the back of it, but unfortunately, at this time they're only planning to include
that accessory in certain regions and they don't plan to release it
as a stand-alone accessory.
Although hopefully, if we shout loud enough they will change their minds
because I would personally like to buy one.
The last change is IO. By covering the inputs with a snap-on plastic piece,
the appearance on the back is dramatically improved for people who care about that.
But the convenience of accessing the IO is reduced.
So it's up to you how you feel about that.
Under the cover, though, we get some more nice upgrades.
We traded a couple USB2 and Thurderbolt1 ports with USB3
and Thuderbolt2 30 Giga-bit with daisy chain support, and an extra HDMI input. Not bad.
Alright, so let's briefly go over a couple of the “supposed” benefits of curved displays.
First of all, and this is a less of an issue with a high quality IPS display
like the one in front of you, any horizontal gamma or color shifting should be reduced
because as you turn your head side to side you're actually looking more directly at the screen
near the edges compared to a flat one.
Number two. Aside from the angle, because the distance between your eyes and the screen
should be closer to equal at the center and look at the edges
there should be for a single use less noticeable distortion or changes in sizes of objects
moving around on the screen making a viewing experience feel more natural.
Now, to be clear, I basically laughed this stuff off
When I was looking at all the curved TVs at CES this year because when it comes to movie watching especially,
unless you are talking about massive TVs, or theater projectors.
At a reasonable distance the distortion of the image from a flat panel versus curved is negligible.
And on top of that I don't know about you, but for me, TV movies are more social experience.
And when I'm watching with anyone but my wife, we don't sit with our heads right together.
So having a sweet spot where the image looks more natural when seated dead center and a particular distance from the TV,
is not particularly desirable if it's going to make it look weird for everyone else.
With 34-inch UltraWide PC monitor, however, it's whole different ball game.
We sit so close to monitors that they fill enough of our field of view
that the distance to the edges of a flat display versus the center, the difference is about 25%.
And since most of the time we're using a PC alone,
worrying about sharing that sweet spot is pretty much of no point.
“So, what's it like to use it, Linus? Who is thing for?”
Well, creative professionals and Mac users
often there is a fair bit of overlap there will appreciate the greater than
99% sRGB color space support and the Thunderbolt2 will pass through
from the storage appliances that these people inexplicable use instead of NASs.
And the, in my opinion, perfect balance of resolution size and form factor without text scaling delivers
amazing flexibility from a productivity standpoint.
It's not something I care about, but it supports dual side by side inputs if you want.
But far more interesting to me is LG has a screen split software
that lets you divide up your workspaces in a number of different ways,
and automatically snaps windows to the optimal size.
I am a big fan, personally of the three vertical split one.
I use it all the time when I'm writing
but that's it really part of the story, like, OMG, this monitor is freaking awesome for movies.
If you're one of those people who prefer watching movies at a PC to a TV
and if you watch anything in the more cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio,
it is unlike anything else and I never had in my house.
I was using Iron Temple of Night as one of my test cases,
and I kept just finding myself watching the movie, instead of working.
LG's MAXX Audio-enabled speakers didn't impress me much for movie watching,
but I didn't really expect when it is basically an EQ to blow my socks off.
But with some noise isolating headphones on, sitting in front of this thing is a pure bliss.
And games are similar story whether it's driving, third person, first person,
I love gaming on this thing.
Without the bezels, which gave me pause recommending Eyefinity set-up to most people,
not so wide that everything looks stretched without endless tinkering aspect ratio
is truly much more immersive and makes for a fantastic gaming experience.
If you are willing to deal 60 Hertz refresh rate and increase motion blur versus a TN panel
a trade-off that elite-level or even semi-competitive players
who are not accustomed to gaming at lower refresh rate with more blur and may be used to
even 120 or 144 Hertz monitors might not take.
Now you've probably noticed that we've gotten ten minutes into this video
without me talking about how the curve affects the viewing experience,
and that's for a good reason.
It's pretty obvious from above or below the monitor
but at angles where you might actually have your head honestly it's very subtle.
And I find myself forgetting that it's there very quickly.
The main difference is something that I actually feel more than I see.
It's lack of any fluctuations in brightness, color contrast towards the edges
and especially in the corners.
It didn't take long, actually, for me to decide to switch to this curved display at work
and I definitely will give you guys longer-term impressions on the podcast
and in a follow-up video because I think it's more important
when you're fundamentally changing the type of display that you're using, but, uh, I'm, overall,
just so impressed by this thing.
It's not perfect, the lack of support for NVIDIA G Sink is keeping it off my desk at home.
And it's also got some pretty noticeable backlight bleed in all four corners on dark background
at least my sample does putting a mark on what is otherwise my new top choice
for a productivity-minded workstation display.
Speaking of top choices, huge thanks to GIGABYTE for sponsoring this episode of Linus Tech Tips.
They asked us to highlight their new P25V2 gaming notebook
and while, this actually arrived slightly before us filming this video,
so I haven't had a ton of time get my hands on with it.
Actually it looks pretty darn awesome.
It features an Intel Core i7 mobile quad-core processor, a 15.6 inch 1080p IPS display,
up to 16 gigs of ram and 2.5 terabytes of combined storage across one hard drive and two MSATA SSD
and the monstrous GeForce GTX 1880 and with eight games in 8 gigs of GDDR5.
It's available in a couple different color so there’s an all black one
or, I personally like this one quite a bit better
there is this awesome like the mostly black and bright freaking vibrant yellow one.
And it features a white backlit keyboard and build quality
I'm actually pretty pleased with especially considering what kind of specs
you are getting for this kind of a prices.
So if you are looking for high-performance gaming notebook, and you're like, wow, GIGABYTE sponsored Linus tech tips
they sure are cool guys.
And you are going to make sure you check out p25 through the link in the video description.
Thank you guys for watching today's video on what is now,
effectively my new favorite productivity monitor.
like it and share; if you didn't dislike it, if you just liked it,
leave a comment letting me know how do you feel about the curved displays.
Have you seen one before? What did you think?
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