LG 38GN950-B Monitor Review

The LG 38GN950-B is very similar in design to its predecessor, the LG 38GL950G-B. Like other 2020 UltraGear monitors, the stand has been redesigned slightly. The column is wider at the bottom, and the wide V-shaped feet are elevated so that they only make contact with the table at the tips. There are still some red accents and RGB lighting on the back.

The LG 38GN850's build quality is decent. The all-plastic construction feels basic but solid, and there are no obvious gaps or loose parts. There's a bit of flex around the RGB lighting, although it's not bad enough to be of concern. The stand supports the monitor well, and there's very little wobble. Unfortunately, the cable management cutout on the stand feels pretty flimsy.

The LG 38GN950 has disappointing ergonomics. It doesn't swivel, and the tilt range is pretty narrow.

The back is similar to the LG 38GL950G-B, except that the LG branding has been replaced with the UltraGear logo. You can control the RGB lighting strip through software or with the wheel at the bottom of the screen. The small cutout in the stand is for cable management.

The stand is plastic but sturdy, and the screen doesn't wobble much. The feet are relatively thin, so you can still use the space between them to put other things.

The controls are below the LG branding at the center of the bottom bezel. The joystick lets you navigate the on-screen menu, and the lighting wheel/button lets you control the RGB bias lighting on the back of the monitor.

• Quick start guide
• Owner's manual CD
• Power cord
• Power supply
• HDMI cable
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• DisplayPort cable

Like most IPS panels, the LG 38GN950 has a sub-par contrast ratio, which makes blacks appear gray when viewed in the dark. It's slightly below the advertised 1000:1; however, contrast may vary between individual units. The local dimming doesn't improve the contrast at all because our test pattern triggers all the local dimming zones. We measured a part of the screen that wasn't lit during our local dimming test and got a 5634:1 contrast. However, this rarely happens in real content because all the zones are on most of the time.

The LG UltraGear 38GN950 has a terrible local dimming feature. It's edge-lit, and the dimming zones are huge. It doesn't do much in most content because all the zones light up even when there's just a tiny object on the screen. Subtitles and small stars also make the entire screen light up. Zone transitions are very visible, but again, it rarely happens that a zone is off when displaying real content.

The LG 38GN950 has excellent SDR peak brightness. It's very consistent across different content and more than bright enough to overcome glare, even in well-lit, sunny rooms.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'Gamer 1' Game Mode (picture mode) with Brightness set to max.

The LG 38GN950 has impressive HDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to make highlights stand out, but some larger highlights dim over time. It follows the target PQ curve fairly well until there's a sharp roll-off at the peak brightness, resulting in a loss of fine details with bright scenes. These results are in the 'Gamer 1' Game Mode.

The LG 38GN950 has good horizontal viewing angles, similar to the LG 38GL950G-B. Although our black level results are very different between the left and right side, the difference is actually very minor because the left side stays below our 3% threshold while the right is only slightly above. Overall, you shouldn't see much loss in image accuracy when viewing from the side.

The LG 38GN950 has decent horizontal viewing angles. The image looks dimmer and washed-out when viewing from above or below.

Gray uniformity is excellent; however, this varies between individual units due to manufacturing tolerances. The corners and sides are a bit darker on ours, but there's almost no dirty screen effect in the middle. Uniformity is much better in dark scenes.

Black uniformity is okay. The whole screen looks gray, and there's visible backlight bleed at the top corners. There's no difference between having local dimming enabled or disabled because our test pattern seems to trigger all the local dimming zones. This picture from our local dimming video shows the difference between the zones that are on and the ones that are off. Note that black uniformity varies between units.

The LG 38GN950-B has excellent accuracy before calibration. It has an sRGB mode that locks the colors to the sRGB color space, meaning they don't look oversaturated. The white balance and color temperature are both fantastic, and gamma follows the target curve well, but dark scenes are too dark, while bright scenes are too bright. However, using the sRGB mode locks most picture settings, like the Response Time and Black Stabilizer settings, and you can't even use VRR. In that case, the 'Gamer 1' mode is the most accurate most, but colors are oversaturated in sRGB.

Accuracy is superb after calibration. The remaining inaccuracies aren't visible to the naked eye.

The LG 38GN950 has an exceptional SDR color gamut. It covers the entire sRGB color space used in most content, and it has excellent Adobe RGB coverage, which is used for photo editing.

Exceptional SDR color volume. It only has trouble displaying dark colors due to its low contrast ratio.

The LG 38GN950 has an excellent HDR color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content, and the tone mapping is incredible. However, its coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 is much more limited.

Great HDR color volume. It mostly has difficulty with dark colors due to its low contrast. It has trouble with bright blues too, but that's typical for LCDs.

The LG 38GN950's reflection handling is just okay. It should be fine for most lighting conditions, but it may struggle with direct sunlight. That said, the screen gets bright enough to compensate, so you shouldn't have visibility issues in most instances.

The LG 38GN950-B has good text clarity. Windows' ClearType (top photo) makes diagonal lines appear bolder, like on the R and N, but some vertical lines look thinner.

The LG 38GN950 has superb gradient handling. You shouldn't see any banding in most content.

The LG 38GN950 has a 144Hz refresh rate that you can overclock up to 160Hz to make motion appear smoother. Enabling Overclock also turns on Adaptive Sync. You need a DisplayPort connection to use the overclock as the max refresh rate is limited over HDMI due to bandwidth limitations.

FreeSync works over both DisplayPort and HDMI connections, while G-SYNC only works over DisplayPort.

The LG 38GN950-B has an amazing response time at its max refresh rate, resulting in clear motion with only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The best overdrive setting is 'Fast' because it has the quickest response time while keeping overshoot at an acceptable level.

The response time at 120Hz is excellent. Motion looks smooth, but unlike at the max refresh rate, the recommended overdrive setting is 'Normal' because 'Fast' has a slower total response time with more overshoot. This means you may have to change the setting if the frame rate of your game drops.

The response time at 60Hz is good. There's a bit more motion blur than with faster refresh rates, but it's still minimal. Once again, the recommended overdrive setting is 'Normal' because there's more overshoot with 'Fast' and 'Faster'.

The LG 38GN950 doesn't have a Black Frame Insertion feature.

The LG UltraGear 38GN950's backlight is flicker-free at all brightness levels, which helps eliminate image duplication and reduce eye strain.

The LG 38GN950-B has exceptionally low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming.

The LG 38GN950 has a large 21:9 screen that delivers an immersive gaming experience. It gives you more horizontal screen space than a standard 16:9 display, increasing your field of view in games and allowing you to place multiple windows side-by-side. That said, not all games support an ultrawide format, so you may see black bars at the sides, or the image might be stretched to fill the screen. While its resolution may seem odd, the pixel density is roughly the same as a 34 inch, 3440 x 1440 display.

The LG 38GN950-B works well with the PS5, but without HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz or VRR. It downscales a 4k image, which results in a sharper image than a native 1440p signal. However, the PS5 doesn't support ultrawide gaming, so you'll see black bars on the sides.

The LG 38GN950-B works well with the Xbox Series X. It downscales a 4k image, which results in a sharper image than a native 1440p signal. It supports 1440p @ 60Hz only with the console's HDMI override settings, which disables VRR. The Xbox doesn't support ultrawide gaming, so you'll see black bars on the sides.

The LG 38GN950-B works well with macOS devices, but there are a few issues. You can't change the resolution as it's limited to 3840x1600, and using the overclock feature limits the refresh rate to 75Hz. If you disable the overclock, it can reach 144Hz, and VRR works without issues. If you're using a MacBook, it continues working on the monitor even with the lid closed, and windows stay in place even when opening the lid.

The LG 38GN950-B has a few extra features, including:

• Crosshair: Adds a virtual crosshair on the screen.
• Black Stabilizer: Makes objects more visible in dark scenes.
• Reader Mode: Blue light filter to help reduce eye strain.
• RGB bias lighting: RGB lighting on the back of the monitor. You can control this using the physical wheel on the monitor or through LG's UltraGear Control Center software.