LG 27GP83B-B Monitor Review

The design of the LG 27GP83B is very similar to LG's other 2021 UltraGear gaming monitors, including the LG 27GP850-B and LG 32GP850-B. This entry-level model has a basic design, with no RGB bias-lighting and cheaper materials.

The LG 27GP83B has decent built quality, similar to the LG 32GP850-B. The stand and frame are entirely plastic and feel a bit cheap, but it's fairly solid overall. We didn't notice any bubbling or any other issues around the bezels.

Unfortunately, the LG 27GP83B has disappointing ergonomics, so it might be difficult to place it in an ideal viewing position. It has a great height adjustment range but a limited tilt range and can't swivel. It can rotate to portrait orientation for a dual-monitor setup, which is great, but only in one direction. There's a red ring around the mounting arm and inputs, but other than that, it's pretty plain. There's no RGB bias-lighting, and the notch in the stand for cable management isn't very useful.

The chevron-shaped stand is wide but doesn't take up much space. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent the stand from wobbling.

• User manuals
• Manual/driver CD
• Power adapter
• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable

Unfortunately, due to the IPS panel used in the LG 27GP83B, it has disappointing contrast. This results in blacks that look gray in a dark room but isn't very noticeable in a bright room. Contrast can vary between units, and although these results are a bit on the low side for an IPS panel, they're within the range posted by LG for this monitor (700:1 minimum, 1000:1 typical).

Calibrating this monitor impacted the contrast more than usual. Before calibration, we measured a contrast ratio of 944:1, which is closer to the typical contrast ratio for this model. The difference between the post-calibration and pre-calibration contrast isn't noticeable.

The LG 27GP83B doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video is for reference only, so you can see how the local dimming feature on other displays compares to one without local dimming.

The LG 27GP83B has great peak brightness in SDR. It's bright enough to overcome glare in most rooms, and there's no variation in brightness with different content.

These measurements were taken after calibration, in the 'Gamer 1' Picture Mode, with the backlight at max. The peak brightness can change depending on which mode you're using.

The LG 27GP83B has decent peak brightness in HDR. It's bright enough to take advantage of HDR in most games, but small highlights in movies don't stand out as much as they should.

These measurements were taken before calibration, in the 'Gamer 1' Picture Mode, with the backlight at max and HDR enabled. The peak brightness can change depending on which mode you're using.

As expected for an IPS monitor, the LG 27GP83B has impressive horizontal viewing angles. The sides of the screen should still appear uniform even if you're sitting really close to the screen or if you're sharing the screen with someone else.

This monitor has okay vertical viewing angles. Anybody standing above the screen should still see an accurate image, and there shouldn't be any noticeable issues placing the monitor in a portrait orientation.

Like most monitors on the market, the LG 27GP83B has excellent gray uniformity. The left and right sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, but it's not really noticeable with most content. In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is nearly perfect, with no noticeable issues.

The LG 27GP83B has mediocre black uniformity. The entire screen looks blue due to the low contrast ratio. There are some signs of backlight bleed, especially from the bottom-left corner. Note that black uniformity varies between units; let us know if you get one with better uniformity than the unit we bought.

The LG 27GP83B we bought and tested has decent accuracy out of the box. Colors are pretty accurate overall, with no real noticeable issues, but the white balance is off, and the color temperature is warm. Gamma doesn't follow the sRGB target curve at all, and all scenes are brighter than they should be.

Note that, unlike the LG 32GP850-B, this monitor isn't factory calibrated, and the pre-calibration accuracy can vary between units.

After calibration, this monitor has superb accuracy. There are no remaining issues with the white balance, colors are displayed accurately, and gamma follows the sRGB target curve almost perfectly. The color temperature is very close to our target of 6500K.

The LG 27GP83B has an outstanding SDR color gamut. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color space used by most desktop and web content. It also has excellent coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space used mainly for content creation but can't display the full range of greens or blues.

This monitor has fantastic color volume. It's mainly limited by the low contrast ratio, as it can't display saturated colors at low luminance levels. Like almost all LCDs, pure blues aren't as bright as pure white, but this isn't very noticeable.

The LG 27GP83B has a very good HDR color gamut. It can display most of the DCI P3 color space used by current HDR content, but coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is just okay. These results are slightly worse than the LG 32GP850-B, but it's not really noticeable with most content.

This monitor has okay color volume in HDR. It's limited by the incomplete HDR color gamut, and due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display saturated colors at low luminance levels.

The LG 27GP83B has good reflection handling. The matte finish diffuses light across the screen, decreasing their intensity. Glare shouldn't be an issue unless you're in a really bright room.

Update 07/20/2021: We increased the text clarity score to 7.5 for consistency with other monitors we've tested with similar performance.

The LG 27GP83B has decent text clarity, similar to the LG 32GP850-B. We strongly recommend running the Windows ClearType (top photo) wizard if you're on a PC. There are some font issues in apps that don't support ClearType.

The LG 27GP83B has superb gradient handling. There's almost no noticeable banding anywhere, which is great.

This monitor has a very high refresh rate, great for gaming. Unlike the LG 27GP850-B, there's no option to overclock it to 180Hz, but this is a pretty minor difference overall. It supports AMD's FreeSync variable refresh rate technology, allowing the monitor to match the frame rate output by your graphics card. It's also certified by NVIDIA to work with their G-SYNC compatible mode, which only works over DisplayPort and only with recent NVIDIA graphics cards. Over HDMI, the maximum refresh rate is 144Hz.

The LG 27GP83B has an incredibly fast response time at its max refresh rate. We recommend the 'Normal' overdrive setting, but the 'Fast' setting isn't terrible either, and some people may prefer it. The 'Faster' setting has terrible overshoot in many transitions, resulting in a noticeable trail of inverse ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

Even when gaming at 60Hz, this monitor has an outstanding response time. Almost all transitions at our recommended 'Off' setting fall well within the refresh rate window. Unfortunately, as this monitor doesn't support variable overdrive, we recommend manually switching the Response Time setting when you switch refresh rates. Although the 'Normal' setting we recommend at the max refresh rate is okay, there's more noticeable overshoot. The 'Fast' setting has even worse overshoot, and 'Faster' is unusable.

The LG 27GP83B doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature, commonly known as Motion Blur Reduction on LG monitors. The higher-end model, the LG 27GP850-B, has an optional black frame insertion feature, but it can't be enabled if the variable refresh rate feature is activated.

The backlight is completely flicker-free, which is great, as it can reduce eye strain.

The LG 27GP83B has outstanding low input lag, resulting in a very responsive gaming experience, even when gaming at 60Hz on older consoles. The input lag with variable refresh rate enabled is slightly higher, but it's not a noticeable difference.

The 27 inch, 1440p screen offers a high pixel density and great amount of screen real estate for multitasking, without being as taxing on your system as a 4k display.

There's a single USB port, but it's just for service and can't be used.

For the most part, the LG 27GP83B-B works well with recent MacBook Pros. The variable refresh rate feature works well when gaming, but it doesn't always work on the desktop, and the minimum refresh rate is higher than on Windows devices. HDR works fine and looks normal. Finally, waking from sleep is a bit slow, but windows go back to their original position.

The LG 27GP83B has a few additional features available, most of them gaming-oriented. Some of them include:

• Virtual crosshair: There are four virtual crosshairs to choose from. Unlike software virtual crosshairs, these can't be detected by your games.
• FPS counter: Displays the current number of frames per second received from the source.
• Black stabilizer: Adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot other players/enemies in shadows.

This monitor has the same updated On-Screen Display as the other 2021 LG UltraGear monitors. Due to the increased number of animations, it's a bit slower, but still very easy to use.