I have a confession to make.
I'm obsessed with buying monitors.
That's right, large monitors, small monitors,
4K, ultrawide, you name it, I've bought it.
And I suppose that's good for you guys
because I get to feature them
and talk about them on this channel.
Now this video is about the LG 27UN850.
It's a great 4K USB-C monitor that won't break the bank
but it will give you a really high quality screen
with a ton of helpful features to match,
especially if you have a laptop.
Now, this LG monitor is perfect for pretty much any workflow
including productivity, design, video editing, coding,
and surprisingly, it's also a pretty decent gaming monitor.
Also quick, thanks to Botslab for sponsoring this video,
but more on that later.
Okay, so why would you want a 4K resolution
on a 27-inch monitor?
Isn't that a little bit overkill?
In my opinion, I don't think it is,
especially if you're someone coming
from a MacBook with a Retina screen.
A 4K 27-inch panel, like this LG one here,
has 163 PPI, or pixels per inch,
compared with 227 PPI on the MacBook Retina screens.
For reference, a basic 1080p 27-inch monitor
only has 82 PPI.
A high PPI is essential if you like the content
on your screen to be really clear,
like text or when editing photos, for example.
You can really zoom in
and also get a great visual experience.
By the way, make sure you pause this video
and jump down below and tell me what monitor you use
because I would love to know.
Okay, so let's talk about the design.
Overall, it's good with a few cut corners here and there,
likely to reduce the price tag of the monitor
and make it more affordable than other similar competitors.
The color scheme of black bezels, white chassis,
and silver stand looks quite premium
and would certainly hold up well
at either an office or at home.
Although the back of the monitor is plastic,
and I'm not too sure how this will hold up up over time.
White plastic has a tendency to yellow with age,
and this monitor is about 12 months old at this point
and seems a little less white than it originally was,
but I couldn't tell for sure.
I was also happy to see slim bezels next to the screen.
Although down the bottom,
you do have a little bit of a chin,
but I don't think it really sticks out that much.
The stand is a sturdy solid metal and is removable,
although the monitor can be mounted
to a monitor arm via a VESA mount if you prefer.
And I'll link the VESA arm I recommend down below.
Now, if you do keep the monitor attached to the stand,
adjustability is overall fairly good.
The monitor can be raised, lowered, tilted forward and back,
and you can, of course,
rotate it into portrait mode for coding
or chatting in the Created Tech Discord.
But I was very surprised to find it can't swivel at all.
And this probably isn't a massive deal for most people,
but if you like to rotate your screen
to maybe show someone at work or at home
what you're doing on the monitor,
you just can't do that with this particular stand.
Overall, though, the build quality is acceptable,
but it definitely does feel cheap in some areas.
The plastic on the back creaks when you lift the monitor up
and there's a bit of wobble
even firmly sitting on a solid desk.
Compared to my U2720Q from Dell,
there's just no comparison in build quality.
The Dell is just better in most areas,
but the Dell is quite a bit more expensive,
and I don't think the build quality
of this LG monitor is a deal-breaker at all.
Now, before we get into the next section,
a quick word from our sponsor Botslab.
This video is brought to you by Botslab.
Enjoy effortlessly clean floors
with their Robot Vacuum Cleaner S8 Plus.
Thanks to its advanced precision LIDAR navigation,
the S8 Plus seamlessly and accurately maps plans
and cleans your home using superior suction power
provided by the brushless motor
that can easily draw out pet hair and dirt.
The S8 Plus also comes
with an intelligent self-emptying station
with a four-liter dust bin.
And it only takes 20 seconds to collect dirt
and dust from the vacuum's dust bin.
So you can enjoy hands-free cleaning for up to 70 days.
That means you only need to empty
out the dirt five times a year.
And the S8 Plus doesn't just vacuum, it also mops.
The smart water function automatically controls water output
from the 300-mil water tank
while active control pressure presses the robot closer
to the floor, achieving deep stain removal.
Botslab has also developed a smart app
that allows you to control your robot anywhere, anytime.
Some of the features include voice control,
real-time checking of cleaning progress,
and scheduling for different rooms or zones.
So make sure you click the link in the description
to check out Botslab's Robot Vacuum S8 Plus.
Moving onto buttons and ports, this is an area
where the LG 27UN850 destroys the competition.
The menu control button is a joystick,
which should be a standard feature
on all monitors these days.
It makes adjusting menu settings a breeze
and is much easier to use than the tiny little buttons
on the Dell U2720Q, for example.
I also love the location of the ports on the back.
It makes it so much easier to lean over
and stuff around with cables when you need to.
You also get a nice selection of ports here,
but more importantly, a USB-C port that allows you
to connect your laptop directly to the monitor.
So at the same time and with just one cable,
you'll be able to charge your laptop
while outputting a signal to the screen
and connecting to any other accessories
you have attached to the monitor
like a mouse or keyboard, for example.
This is because when your laptop is attached
to the monitor via a USB-C cable,
the back of the monitor essentially acts like a hub.
Although this monitor only provides
up to 60 watts of charging.
So if you have a more power-hungry laptop,
it will still charge just not quite as quick.
One thing I wanted to touch on quickly
is the confusing naming protocols
that LG uses for this particular type of monitor.
Right now, there are several variants
of this exact same monitor
with almost zero differences between them.
If you have a UK, UL, or UN model,
they're essentially identical,
but the latest 2021-up version, however,
includes 96 watts of USB-C charging.
You also get a speaker built-in to the monitor,
and it's actually quite decent for a monitor speaker.
Although if you want to listen to music or game,
you're much better off with a decent set of headphones
or even external speakers
because the sound from the monitor lacks bass
and is a little teeny at times.
Here's an example.
♪ The weight of you, the weight of you ♪
♪ Don't need an omen ♪
(upbeat music)
Now the panel within this monitor is a 4K resolution,
16:9 aspect ratio IPS panel,
which means you're going to get really good viewing angles
and also brightness.
Speaking of brightness, during my testing,
I found the maximum brightness
you can achieve is pretty decent, and this is important
if you're planning to use this monitor in a bright room
and need the brightness cranked all the way up.
On the flip side, minimum brightness is important too
but only if your room is going to be really dark
and you want to reduce the brightness
all the way down to the minimum amount.
Generally, I think roughly 50 to 60 nits
is a good minimum brightness for monitors.
So this LG performs pretty well.
There's also a layer of anti-glare coating on the screen
to help reduce reflections.
Backlight bleed is minimal on my particular unit,
and the IPS glow is not too bad either.
I doubt anyone would really notice it in day-to-day usage.
Moving on to color,
the 27UN850 did pretty well during my testing.
It got very close to its advertised 99% coverage
of the sRGB spectrum,
and I also calculated the delta E value to be well under 2,
which is a good indicator of accurate colors.
However, LG does not market this monitor as DCI capable.
So if you work within the DCI-P3 color gamut,
you'll only see around 77% coverage at best.
The 27UN850 is HDR10 compatible
in the form of VESA DisplayHDR 400.
The HDR does look okay when playing games that support it
or watching Netflix or movies with HDR, for example,
but it's nowhere near as good or immersive
as some of the newer panels being released these days.
LG also says it has 10-bit colors but it's a fake 10-bit.
The panel itself is actually 8-bit
but it uses FRC or frame rate control
to artificially give it the appearance of a 10-bit panel.
That being said, you won't notice a massive difference
unless you specifically need accurate 10-bit colors
for design or professional video editing, for example.
I also wanted to touch on gaming
on this monitor in this video
but only relatively briefly because I don't think
there's many people buying this monitor
with the express purpose of gaming on it.
This is because with its 4K resolution,
you're going to need a pretty capable GPU
to get a solid 60 FPS on any modern game.
Even if you reduce the in-game resolution
or quality settings,
the refresh rate of the monitor is only 60 hertz
so you won't see much difference,
and the overall experience is nowhere near that
of a true gaming monitor.
That being said, for casual gamers
who play a bit on the side,
or maybe if you mainly play single player games
and you're not super competitive,
playing games like CS:GO or Valorant, for example,
the gaming experience is actually not that bad at all.
This monitor has FreeSync,
which is great for reducing screen tearing and stuttering.
It's also got a very respectable response time,
and this can be decreased to just five milliseconds
by selecting the faster option in the monitor settings.
Although, I would recommend staying away
from the fastest setting
because this introduces a lot of ghosting during gameplay.
You also get a few other gaming-specific features
like Dynamic Action Sync, Black Stabilizer, and Game Mode
but in real life usage, I didn't find these
to have a big impact on the overall experience.
Now, one thing I also really like
about this monitor is LG's software.
You can change and customize settings
like picture-in-picture mode
and brightness right on your computer
without messing around with the controls on the monitor.
This software is also super handy If you're someone like me
who switches color profiles often.
For example, you can set a really color-accurate profile
to automatically load when you use an app like Photoshop
and then easily use a more contrasty
and vibrant profile when you're gaming.
Speaking of gaming,
you can also access the game-specific settings here as well.
Okay, so let's have a quick chat about pricing.
Now, depending on where you buy this monitor
and some of the sales and discounts on at the time,
the price ranges anywhere from about $400 to $450 US.
So it's not the cheapest monitor
but when you consider other 4K USB-C options out there,
the price of this LG monitor is actually quite good,
plus, you get some nice additional features.
Overall, I think it's a pretty solid and affordable option
if you're someone who wants to upgrade their workflow to 4K
and maybe you do a little bit of gaming on the side as well.
But apart from that, guys,
hopefully you enjoyed this video,
and I'll catch you in the next one.