LG 27GS95QE-B  Monitor Review

The LG 27GS95QE has a gamer-oriented aesthetic with a stylish design. It features some RGB lighting along the vents.

The build quality is excellent. It's well-put together without any obvious issues, and the materials feel premium. It has a metal stand, and everything else is solid plastic, as it doesn't flex much. The stand is also sturdy, and there's minimal wobble.

The LG 27GS95QE has good ergonomics. You can adjust it in any way, but the swivel range is limited, and you can only rotate it into portrait mode counterclockwise, meaning the inputs will always be on the right side of the stand. Luckily, there's a clip on the stand for cable management to keep your setup clean.

The monitor's stand is solid, as there's minimal wobble, but it's big and takes up space. However, the V-shaped feet allow you to still place stuff like your keyboard and mouse between them.

The monitor has a remote to control the on-screen display, which is easier to use than traditional joysticks or buttons on monitors. There's a power button underneath the center of the monitor that also features RGB lighting next to it.

• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• Power supply and cable
• USB-B to USB-A cable
• Remote control
• User documentation, including:
• Quality assurance report
• Quick start guides
• Warranty
• Product registration

The LG 27GS95QE has a near-infinite contrast ratio thanks to its OLED panel. That means it displays deep blacks next to bright highlights for a remarkable dark room experience.

OLED panels like this one don't have a backlight, so they don't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The LG 27GS95QE has decent SDR brightness and gets bright enough to fight glare unless bright light sources are shining on it. These results are from after calibration in the 'sRGB' Picture Mode with the Brightness at its max, Peak Brightness at 'Low,' and Smart Energy Saving 'Off.' However, the lowest minimum brightness measurement is with Peak Brightness 'Off,' as it's 23 cd/m² when Peak Brightness is set to 'Low.'

The monitor has an automatic brightness limiter (ABL) that decreases brightness as more of the screen displays bright content. While the ABL makes the monitor brighter in most scenarios, it can cause fixed elements on your screen, like the white background in a Word document, to vary in brightness if content elsewhere on your screen changes. If you prefer a lower but more consistent screen brightness, you can turn Peak Brightness 'Off.' However, if you do this, the real scene brightness drops considerably to 199 cd/m². You can see the results with Peak Brightness turned 'Off' below:

• Peak 2% Window: 258 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 258 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 259 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 259 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 260 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window: 257 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window: 256 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window: 257 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window: 258 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window: 259 cd/m²

The HDR brightness is okay. It gets brightest with small highlights, and they stand out against the rest of the screen. The EOTF also follows the target PQ curve well, though it has an early roll-off, so highlights don't get the brightest they could. These results are from the 'Gamer 1' Picture Mode, with the Brightness at its max, Peak Brightness at 'Low,' and Smart Energy Saving turned 'Off.'

The monitor has an automatic brightness limiter (ABL), meaning the screen decreases in brightness with larger content. If you prefer consistent brightness across different content, you can turn Peak Brightness 'Off,' but that makes the screen dimmer, which you can see with the results below. You can also see the results with Peak Brightness set to 'High,' which gets much brighter but has a more aggressive ABL and a less accurate image.

The gray uniformity is excellent. The monitor only darkens slightly toward the edges of the monitor, and there's very little dirty screen effect in the center.

Thanks to its OLED panel, the monitor has perfect black uniformity without any blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration is incredible. The sRGB mode locks the colors well to the sRGB color space, and there are minimal inaccuracies with colors and the white balance. The color temperature is also very close to the 6500K target. However, gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve in some places, as darker scenes are too dark, and brighter scenes are brighter than they should be. Unfortunately, using this accurate sRGB mode locks some picture settings, including Black Stabilizer and Gamma. If you want to adjust these settings, you can use the 'Gamer 1' Game Mode, though it's less accurate, with oversaturated colors and a brighter gamma.

The accuracy after calibration is excellent.

We couldn't fully calibrate this monitor, as the calibration software would crash when configuring the monitor in the 'Gamer 1' Game Mode, and the monitor would likely score better if this hadn't occurred. We calibrated it in the sRGB mode instead, though some picture settings are locked in this mode. As a result, we couldn't correct the white balance, so it's not as good as before calibration. Because of this, it's possible you can achieve even better accuracy if you don't experience this calibration issue.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It has wide coverage of the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces, but not all colors are accurate in Adobe RGB.

The HDR color gamut is remarkable. It has incredible coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it's more limited with the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The HDR color volume is good. It displays dark colors well, thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, but it struggles more with bright and vivid colors. If you want a monitor with more vivid colors, check out the MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED.

The horizontal viewing angle is remarkable. The image remains the same no matter where you view the screen from, which is great for co-op gaming.

The LG 27GS95QE has okay text clarity, but it's worse than other 27-inch, 1440p monitors. This is because of its RWBG subpixel layout, as computer programs don't render text properly with this layout. This results in some color fringing around text if ClearType is enabled. While it isn't the worst case of color fringing, it can be distracting if you're sitting close and notice text clarity issues easily.

Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) can help improve the text clarity, but it can introduce color fringing. This means you must choose between sharper text with color fringing or worse text clarity without the fringing. These photos are with Windows 10, and you can see what it looks like in Windows 11 with ClearType on here, and with ClearType off here.

This monitor has impressive direct reflection handling. It has minimal direct reflections, as it spreads light out due to the matte coating.

The black levels are good in a bright room. Although it doesn’t have the same deep, inky blacks in a well-lit room, they don’t rise too much.

There's some reflected light in a bright room, but it isn't too much. The matte coating reduces glare well, and while it spreads light out, it does so evenly.

The LG 27GS95QE has incredible gradient handling, and besides some banding with darker shades, you won't have any issues.

You can reach the monitor's max refresh rate over any connection, but your graphics card needs to support Display Stream Compression (DSC) for 10-bit signals over DisplayPort. You can disable DSC by changing the Input Compatibility Version to '1.4', but you can only do that over DisplayPort.

On top of supporting FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, this monitor also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The LG 27GS95QE-B has outstanding motion handling across its entire refresh rate range with VRR enabled. CAD remains low throughout and there's minimal blur with fast-moving objects.

The refresh rate compliance is outstanding. As it has a near-instantaneous response time, it makes full color transitions before drawing the next frame.

The CAD at the maximum refresh rate is outstanding. It displays fast-moving objects as intended and motion is extremely sharp.

The CAD at 120Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly, so there isn't any blur trail.

The CAD at 60Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition colors almost perfectly, and any noticeable blur is persistence.

The LG 27GS95QE doesn't have a black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur.

Unfortunately, the LG 27GS95QE-B has distracting VRR flicker with changing frame rates. It's most noticeable in dark scenes, and while it isn't so bad in brighter scenes, you can still see it in dark shadows. This is typical of OLEDs, but it isn't as much of an issue with consistent frame rates. If you're looking for an OLED with a feature to significantly reduce VRR flicker, check out the Samsung Odyssey OLED G6/G60SD S27DG60.

The LG 27GS95QE technically isn't flicker-free because there's a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the 240Hz refresh rate.

Settings

• Game Mode: Gamer 1

The 27GS95QE-B has low input lag, resulting in a responsive gaming experience in the 'Gamer 1' Game Mode. However, the input lag increases in the 'sRGB' Game Mode:

• 240Hz: 7.1 ms
• 120Hz: 13.5 ms
• 60Hz: 26.0 ms

The LG 27GS95QE-B downscales 4k signals, which is useful because the Xbox Series X|S only supports HDR in 4k.

The 3.5mm audio output serves as a combo jack with both audio out and mic in, but you need to have the USB-B cable connected to your computer to make full use of it. It also comes with DTS Headphone:X to simulate surround sound audio. Unlike many monitors, it has an Optical Audio output to connect to soundbars or speakers with this connection, but it doesn't support DTS/DTS:X audio passthrough.

You need to connect the USB-B to USB-A cable to your computer for the USB ports to work.

This monitor works well with macOS. When using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when reopening the lid or waking the laptop up from sleep. However, HDR looks washed out over both DisplayPort and HDMI.

The LG 27GS95QE has a few extra additional features, including:

• Crosshair: Adds a virtual crosshair that your system won't detect.
• DTS Headphones:X: This only works with the 3.5mm audio output, not the Optical Audio output. There are three modes for this: Sports, Entertainment, and Game.
• Dynamic Action Sync: Mode that's automatically enabled and aims to lower the input lag.
• FPS Counter: Displays the frame rate of your source.
• LG Calibration Studio: This is a downloadable software that aims to calibrate the monitor automatically. We didn't use it for calibration.
• Optical Audio Out: Lets you connect a soundbar or speakers that support this connection.

Like most OLED displays, there are also a few settings to help reduce the risk of burn-in:

• Pixel Cleaning: Corrects individual pixels. Occurs after 500 hours of use and starts once you turn the monitor off or enter the power-saving mode. It only lasts about a minute. You can also activate it manually with the remote.
• Image Cleaning: Runs a complete image refresh cycle after four hours of use and starts when you turn the monitor off or enter the power saving mode. It takes about 10 minutes to finish. You can also activate it manually with the remote.
• Screen Move: Moves the image by a few pixels to one side to help reduce the risk of burn-in.
• Screen Saver: Automatically turns the screen off when there's inactivity.

Burn-in can occur with constant exposure to the same static elements over time, so the best ways to reduce the risk of burn-in is by watching varied content, hiding the taskbar, using a black background, and taking advantage of these features in the OLED Care settings. LG also provides two years of warranty coverage on the OLED panel. You can learn about our current longevity and burn-in test here.