LG 32GK850G-B Monitor Review

The 32GK850G has a simple design similar to other LG monitors. It's all black with an illuminated circle on the back and some red on the stand.

The stand looks elegant and supports the monitor well, but there's still a bit of wobble to it.

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

Decent ergonomics. The monitor can be easily positioned to your liking. The only downside is that some adjustments have a limiting range. It's worth noting that swivel range is less than the manual claims.

There's a circle on the back that lights up even when the monitor is off. Like other LG monitors, there's a hook on the stand for cable management.

The borders of this monitor are thin and made out of plastic. There is a gap, however, between the edge of the screen and where the active pixels start. If you plan to use this monitor in a multi-monitor setup, you might find this a little annoying.

The monitor itself is somewhat thick and it gets thicker with the stand attached.

The build quality of this monitor is decent. There are no gaps where different components meet, and the entire construction, although plastic, feels robust. You shouldn't have any issues with the build of this monitor.

The 32GK850G's contrast ratio is good, which is expected from a VA panel. Blacks look deep in a dark room, much like the LG 32UD59-B.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is for reference only.

Great SDR peak brightness. The 32GK850 can get bright enough to combat glare in most rooms. Its brightness remains consistent across different content, although small highlights are a bit less bright.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

As is the case with most VA panel monitors, the 32GK850G has inadequate horizontal viewing angles. The image will start to degrade when viewed from the side.

Poor vertical viewing angles. The edges of the screen will appear darker if you sit close to the screen.

Excellent gray uniformity. There's no visible dirty screen effect and solid colors across the screen, such as on a web page, will look uniform. The edges are a bit darker, but there are no issues when displaying dark colors.

Decent black uniformity. There's visible clouding throughout and there's some backlight bleed close to the edges.

Mediocre out-of-box color accuracy. Most colors are inaccurate and the overall color temperature is colder than the 6500K target, so colors will have a blue tint to them. The gamma curve follows the target well, although some scenes may appear brighter than they should.

Post-calibration, the 32GK850G has excellent color accuracy. Most colors are accurate and the color temperature is extremely close to the target of 6500K. The gamma is slightly below the target, so some scenes may appear brighter than they should.

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

Excellent SDR color gamut. The 32GK850G displays nearly all of the sRGB color space used in most content. Unfortunately, photo editors might be disappointed with the limited coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing.

Outstanding SDR color volume. This monitor can display a wide range of shades and colors thanks to its excellent color gamut and good contrast ratio.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

As with most VA panels, there are no issues with temporary image retention or permanent burn-in.

Fantastic gradient performance, but there's some banding with dark gray, dark blue, and dark green.

There's no visible sign of color bleed on the 32GK850G.

Good reflection handling. The matte finish handles reflections well in an average-lit room. Unfortunately, the glare might be distracting in very bright rooms.

The text clarity is decent. It can be improved using ClearType (top photo), which makes the diagonal or curved lines on the letters R, N, G, and S clearer.

The 32GK850 has an outstanding response time. By putting the Overdrive setting to 'Fast', motion is clear with very quick response time, although there's a bit of overshoot in some transitions. If that bothers you, the 'Normal' setting has minimal overshoot, but there's slightly more motion blur.

Excellent response time at 60Hz, which is great for people who want to play console games on this monitor. Like at its max refresh rate, the best Overdrive setting is 'Fast', although there's still a bit of overshoot in bright transitions.

The 32GK850G is flicker-free at all backlight settings, which helps reduce eye strain.

This monitor doesn't have a black frame insertion feature to help reduce motion blur.

Excellent refresh rate. Not only its native refresh rate is 144Hz, but you can easily overclock it to 165Hz. It also supports NVIDIA's G-SYNC VRR technology, reducing tearing in games, which is great news for competitive gamers. These higher refresh rates only work when the monitor is connected on DisplayPort, as HDMI only supports 60Hz and no G-SYNC.

The LG 32GK850G has an excellent low input lag and that remains low even when G-SYNC is enabled.

The LG 32GK850G has a 1440p resolution which is good considering its 32 inch screen size. If you're looking for a 4k monitor, then check out the LG 32UD99.

The 3.5mm analog audio out is a headphone port with adjustable volume that can be controlled using the monitor's joystick.