The LG 34GN850-B is an overall good monitor with impressive gaming performance. It has a 1440p resolution on a 34 inch screen, delivering an immersive gaming experience as well as plenty of screen real estate for productivity tasks. The screen is lightly curved and it can get bright enough for use in moderately-lit rooms. Its superb response time and high refresh rate result in clear images with very little motion blur, and it comes with native FreeSync support and G-SYNC compatibility. Sadly, it doesn't perform all that well in dark environments due to its low contrast ratio, and it doesn't have a local dimming feature either. On the upside, it supports HDR and it has an sRGB mode that produces colors with great accuracy.
Our Verdict
The LG 34GN850-B is a good monitor for most uses. Although it's mainly made for gaming and it performs impressively well in that regard, it's also a good choice for productivity and media consumption. Its 21:9 aspect ratio is great for multitasking, and its excellent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space makes it suitable for content creators. Unfortunately, its sub-par contrast ratio makes it less suitable for dark rooms, and its ergonomics are poor, as it can't swivel or rotate to portrait mode.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
The LG 34GN850-B is a good office monitor. Its large screen size is great for multitasking, and its 1440p resolution renders text clearly. It gets bright enough for most office settings, and it handles reflections decently well. Sadly, its ergonomics are rather poor and although its IPS panel has decent horizontal viewing angles, it's not as good as most IPS monitors.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
The LG 34GN850-B is an impressive gaming monitor. It has a large high-resolution screen, superb response time, and an exceptionally low input lag. It supports FreeSync natively and it's also certified to be compatible with recent NVIDIA graphics cards. However, it's not the best choice for dark room gaming and the stand's poor ergonomics make it harder to adjust the monitor to your optimal viewing position.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
The LG 34GN850-B is a good monitor for media consumption. It delivers good picture quality thanks to its high resolution, and its large, curved screen is great for immersion. While its IPS panel provides decent viewing angles, it's not the best for watching in the dark due to the low contrast ratio. It gets bright enough for most rooms, but it may struggle a bit if there's a lot of sunlight.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
The LG 34GN850-B is a good monitor for content creators. Its large screen size and ultrawide format are great for having multiple windows open at the same time. Gray uniformity is excellent, gradient handling is superb, and it has excellent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Unfortunately, it can't swivel or rotate to portrait mode, and there's a bit of backlight bleed as well, although the latter can vary per unit.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
The LG 34GN850-B is alright for HDR. While it displays the wide range of colors needed for HDR, it doesn't get bright enough to make them look vivid or for highlights to pop. It also struggles in dark rooms as blacks look gray in the dark, and it lacks a local dimming feature to further improve it.
- Superb response time.
- Great out-of-the-box color accuracy.
- Exceptionally low input lag.
- Sub-par contrast ratio.
- Poor ergonomics.
Changelog
- Updated Feb 07, 2023: Added text in the macOS Compatibility and Console Compatibility boxes and clarified text throughout as part of Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Feb 06, 2023: Updated to Test Bench 1.2, resulting in changes to the results and scores with the Response Time and Input Lag. Added tests for Console Compatibility and macOS compatibility and made minor changes to other tests, which you can see in our Changelog.
- Updated Jun 09, 2020: Retested to see if it can display chroma 4:2:2 at 160Hz with 10-bit color depth.
- Updated Jun 02, 2020: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the LG 34GN850-B and it's only available in a 34 inch size. However, this is only one of several monitors in LG's UltraGear Gaming monitor lineup, which has over a dozen models available in various configurations.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their LG 34GN850-B doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we'll update the review. Note that some tests, such as the gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
Our unit of the LG 34GN850-B was manufactured in April 2020, you can see the label here.
Popular Monitor Comparisons
The LG 34GN850-B is an overall good monitor. It's one of the best 21:9 ultrawide gaming monitors that we've reviewed so far and it's cheaper than other similar monitors. However, it's not the best choice for dark room gaming due to its low contrast ratio and its horizontal viewing angles aren't as good as other IPS monitors. For other options, you can also see our recommendations for the best gaming monitors, the best ultrawide gaming monitors, and the best 144Hz monitors.
The Gigabyte M34WQ and the LG 34GN850-B offer similar overall performance, but each has a slight edge depending on your planned usage. The Gigabyte is better for productivity, as it has a few extra office features built-in, including a keyboard video and mouse switch (KVM), which allows you to switch between two sources with one set of input devices. If you only plan on gaming, the LG is a better choice, as it has a faster refresh rate and better motion handling, but it lacks a backlight strobing feature.
The LG 34GN850-B is a bit better than the Gigabyte G34WQC for most uses. The LG has wider viewing angles, better color accuracy out of the box, and significantly faster response time. However, the Gigabyte is better suited for dark rooms as it has a much higher contrast ratio to produce deep blacks.
The LG 34GN850-B and the AOC CU34G2X are both great gaming monitors with different panel types. The LG has an IPS panel with wider viewing angles, while the AOC has a VA panel with higher contrast. Motion looks much better on the LG because it has a quicker response time, and it doesn't have black smearing like on the AOC. The LG also gets much brighter, so it does a better job at fighting glare. If ergonomics are important to you, the AOC offers swivel adjustments, which the LG doesn't.
The LG 34GN850-B and the Dell S3422DWG are both ultrawide gaming monitors, but there are a few differences due to their panel types. The LG has an IPS panel with much better motion handling and an overclock feature for a slightly higher 160Hz refresh rate. The LG also delivers a more realistic image thanks to its better accuracy before calibration. On the other hand, the Dell gets brighter in HDR for a more vivid image, and it's also the better choice for dark room gaming as it delivers deeper blacks.
We buy and test more than 30 monitors each year, all of which we purchase ourselves, without cherry-picked units or samples. We put a lot into each unbiased, straight-to-the-point review, and there's a whole process from purchasing to publishing, involving multiple teams and people. We do more than just use the monitor for a week; we use specialized, custom tools to measure various aspects and deliver objective, data-driven results. We also consider multiple factors before making any recommendations, including the monitor's cost, its performance compared to the competition, and whether it's easy to find.
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