LG 32GK650F-B Monitor Review

The LG 32GK650F-B has a good design, and looks very similar to the LG 32GK850G-B. It has decent ergonomics and the stand supports the monitor well, but there is a bit of wobble. Although the monitor is almost entirely made from plastic, there are no obvious points of concern. The display looks good, with thin bezels on 3 sides, but unlike the 32GK850G-B, there is no RGB bias lighting feature.

The stand is thin, but has a large footprint. It supports the monitor well, but doesn't completely eliminate wobble.

Update 08/09/2019: There was a mistake in our swivel range scoring. The ergonomics score has increased slightly.

The stand has decent ergonomics. It has an okay height adjustment and decent tilt range, but a very narrow swivel range. It can also rotate to a portrait orientation, which is great for a multi-monitor setup.

There is a clip on the back of the stand that can be used for cable management, and there is also a quick release to remove the stand in a pinch.

The borders around the monitor are thin on three sides, and aren't very distracting when gaming.

The display portion of the LG 32GK650F-B is very thin, and looks great VESA mounted. The stand itself is quite a bit thicker, though, and sticks out behind the monitor.

This monitor has decent build quality. Like the 32GK850G, it's almost entirely made of plastic, and the stand is a bit wobbly, but there are no obvious areas of concern.

Like most VA monitors, the 32GK650F-B has a very good contrast ratio, so blacks look black in a dark room. This model has slightly better contrast than the 32GK850G-B, and is much better than IPS monitors like the 34UC79G-B.

The LG 32GK650F-B doesn't support local dimming. The above video is for reference only.

Good peak brightness with SDR content, and there shouldn't be any issues using the monitor in a decently-lit room.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

Like most VA monitors, the 32GK650F-B has bad viewing angles. Even slightly off-center, the image washes out, brightness fades, and colors lose accuracy rapidly.

Again, when looking at the display from above or below, the viewing angles are bad. Even slightly off-center, the image quickly washes out, the brightness decreases, and colors lose accuracy.

Excellent gray uniformity. Some vignetting is visible, but this shouldn't be very noticeable. In the center of the screen, there is very little dirty screen effect (DSE), which is great.

In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is significantly better and there are no noticeable issues.

Like the 32GK850G-B, this monitor has decent black uniformity. Some clouding is visible throughout the screen, but there is very little backlight bleed.

Out of the box, this monitor has good accuracy. Gamma is relatively flat, close to 2.2, but it doesn't follow the sRGB target curve. There are some noticeable color errors, but the average dE is low, and most people won't notice any issues.

After calibration, the 32GK650F has excellent accuracy. There are no noticeable issues with the white balance, and colors are much more accurate overall, but we were unable to correct the errors with 100% blue. Gamma follows the sRGB curve almost perfectly, and the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

sRGB Picture Mode: Gamer 1 (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Gamer 1

The LG 32GK650F-B has a great SDR color gamut. It can display almost all of the sRGB color space, but has limited coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space, which isn't ideal for professional photo editing.

sRGB Picture Mode: Gamer 1
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Gamer 1

Excellent color volume. It's limited mainly by the color gamut of the display, but it also can't display dark colors very well.

The 32GK650F-B doesn't support HDR.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

There are some signs of temporary image retention immediately after displaying our high-contrast static test image for 10 minutes. The retained image dissipates quickly, though, and we don't expect this to cause any issues for most people.

Unfortunately, this monitor has some of the worst gradient handling we've seen so far, much worse than the 32GK850G-B. There is noticeable banding in areas of similar color.

There are some signs of very minor vertical color bleed, but this isn't noticeable with regular content and shouldn't cause any issues.

This monitor has decent reflection handling overall. Subjectively, it looks very similar to the 32GK850G, but slightly worse.

Overall, the 32GK650F-B has a fast response time, but some transitions are very long, including the 0-20% transition, which may cause noticeable ghosting in darker areas on screen. Like most monitors, the level of overdrive can be changed, and this model has 4 settings. We recommend the 'Fast' setting, as it delivers the best overall performance with little overshoot. The 'Faster' setting is slightly faster, but there is significant overshoot in many transitions.

By default, the 32GK650F-B is completely flicker-free. When displaying at 120Hz or 144Hz, though, there is an option to introduce flicker in order to improve the appearance of motion. This does result in a noticeably darker photo, though, as seen in the photo above.

This monitor has an excellent 144Hz refresh rate, but no factory overclock. It supports AMD's FreeSync variable refresh rate technology, even when connected to a recent NVIDIA graphics card. When connected via DisplayPort, the 32GK650F has an excellent VRR range, but unfortunately, it has a limited range over HDMI, and FreeSync only works up to 100Hz. There are two VRR modes: 'Basic' and 'Extended'. The 'Basic' mode has a limited range, and only works between 120 and 144Hz.

There is a G-SYNC variant of this model, known as the 32GK650G-B. We don't know if it performs the same.

The LG 32GK650F-B has outstanding low input lag, even when FreeSync or BFI are enabled. Console gaming at 60Hz also delivers very low input lag.

The 32", 1440p screen is great for multitasking, as it provides a great deal of screen real estate to work with.

There is a 3.5mm analog audio out port, with adjustable volume through the monitor's OSD. Unlike the 32GK850G-B, there is no built-in USB hub.

This monitor has very few additional features. Like many gaming monitors, it has an option to add virtual crosshairs to any game. There is also a 'Black Stabilizer' feature, which increases the gamma in dark scenes to make it easier to spot other players hiding in the shadows. Unlike the 32GK850G-B, there is no RGB bias-lighting feature.

The physical controls of this monitor consist of a single joystick control located underneath the bottom bezel, in the center of the screen. They work well, and the OSD is easy to navigate.

• User Guide
• Power Cable
• DisplayPort Cable