The LG 38GN950-B is a great ultrawide gaming monitor. It's the successor to the LG 38GL950G-B, but unlike its predecessor, it supports FreeSync natively instead of G-SYNC. It's certified as G-SYNC compatible, though, so those with an NVIDIA graphics card still get a nearly tear-free gaming experience. It has low input lag, exceptional response time, and a 144Hz refresh that you can overclock up to 160Hz, resulting in amazingly fluid gameplay. Its 38 inch high-resolution screen provides incredible immersion and tons of space for multitasking, making it a good choice for work and media consumption. It has a great wide color gamut and impressive peak brightness to deliver a pretty good HDR experience, although it's not the best option for dark room viewing due to its sub-par contrast. Unfortunately, the stand doesn't allow for any swivel adjustment.
Our Verdict
The LG UltraGear 38GN950-B is a great monitor overall. It's great for gaming as it has a high refresh rate, exceptional response time, and VRR support, resulting in smooth and responsive gameplay. Its large, high-resolution screen feels immersive and provides plenty of space for multitasking, making it a good option for media consumption and productivity. Although its contrast is sub-par and its local dimming is terrible, it has a great color gamut and high peak brightness to deliver a good HDR experience. Its viewing angles are good enough for sharing content casually or playing co-op games, but there's still some loss of image accuracy that might be a dealbreaker for content creators.
- Large high-resolution screen.
- Good viewing angles.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Good text clarity.
- May struggle with bright reflections.
- No swivel adjustment.
The LG 38GN950-B is good for office use. It has a large 38 inch ultrawide screen that gives you plenty of space to open multiple windows side-by-side, and its high pixel density results in sharp images and text. Its reflection handling is just okay, but the screen gets pretty bright, so you shouldn't have any visibility issue in most settings. The stand doesn't swivel at all, which isn't ideal if you need to turn the screen to share your work with a coworker. On the upside, it has good viewing angles, so the image remains accurate at the sides when you sit up close and when viewing from the side.
- Large high-resolution screen.
- Good viewing angles.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Good text clarity.
- May struggle with bright reflections.
- No swivel adjustment.
The LG 38GN950-B is a great gaming monitor. It delivers an immersive gaming experience thanks to its large screen and high resolution. It has low input lag, a 160Hz refresh rate, and exceptional response time, delivering smooth and responsive gameplay. It supports FreeSync and is certified as G-SYNC compatible to reduce screen tearing. Unfortunately, it's not the best for gaming in the dark because it has a sub-par contrast ratio, and its terrible local dimming doesn't improve black level at all.
- 160Hz refresh rate.
- Exceptional response time.
- Large high-resolution screen.
- VRR support.
- Sub-par contrast.
- Terrible edge-lit local dimming.
The LG 38GN950-B is good for media consumption. It has a large, high-resolution screen that feels incredibly immersive. It doesn't handle reflections all that well, but it gets bright enough to combat glare in most lighting conditions. The viewing angles are good, so the image remains fairly accurate when viewed from the side, great for sharing content with others. Sadly, the ergonomics are somewhat limited because it doesn't swivel at all, and its sub-par contrast ratio isn't ideal for dark rooms.
- Large high-resolution screen.
- Good viewing angles.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Full sRGB coverage.
- Sub-par contrast.
- May struggle with bright reflections.
- Terrible edge-lit local dimming.
- No swivel adjustment.
The LG 38GN950-B is great for content creation. Its 38 inch ultrawide format is amazing for video editors working on a timeline, and its high pixel density lets you see all the fine details of your work clearly. It has full sRGB coverage, superb gradient handling, and no color bleed. The stand doesn't allow for swivel adjustment, which makes it harder to turn the screen when you need to show your work to clients and colleagues. On the upside, the viewing angles are good, so the image remains accurate when viewed from the side.
- Large high-resolution screen.
- Good viewing angles.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Full sRGB coverage.
- May struggle with bright reflections.
- No swivel adjustment.
The LG 38GN950-B is decent for HDR. It displays a wide range of colors and gets bright enough to make them look vivid and for highlights to stand out. However, it has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray in the dark and has a terrible local dimming feature that doesn't improve the dark scene performance.
- Outstanding DCI-P3 coverage.
- Great HDR peak brightness.
- Sub-par contrast.
- Terrible edge-lit local dimming.
Changelog
- Updated Feb 28, 2023: Clarified in the Variants section that the LG 38GN95B-B is the same monitor but it's sold at other retailers and has a different stand.
- Updated Feb 09, 2023: Added text in the macOS Compatibility and Console Compatibility boxes and clarified text throughout as part of Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Feb 08, 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 Oct 11, 2022: We rechecked for Picture-in-Picture support and found that it doesn't actually support PIP or PBP (Picture-by-Picture). We've updated the Additional Features section of the review.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 38-inch LG UltraGear 38GN950-B, and the LG 38GN95B-B is the same monitor with a slightly different stand that's sold at other retailers. It replaces the LG 38GL950G-B, and you can see the differences below.
| Model | Size | Resolution | Max Refresh Rate | VRR | Cable Management | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38GN950-B | 38" | 3840x1600 | 160Hz | FreeSync | Yes | DisplayHDR 600 |
| 38GN95B-B | 38" | 3840x1600 | 160Hz | FreeSync | No | DisplayHDR 600 |
| 38GL950G-B | 38" | 3840x1600 | 175Hz | G-SYNC | No | DisplayHDR 400 |
Our unit was manufactured in December 2020; you can see the label here.
Popular Monitor Comparisons
The LG UltraGear 38GN950-B is a great gaming monitor. However, it's much more expensive than the LG 34GN850-B without providing a significantly better gaming experience. That said, it might be worth it if you want to game in HDR because it has a wider color gamut and gets a lot brighter. For more options, check out our recommendations for the best ultrawide gaming monitors, the best curved monitors, and the best gaming monitors.
The LG 38GN950-B and the Dell Alienware AW3821DW are very similar overall. They're both 38 inch, 21:9 IPS monitors with a 3840 x 1600 resolution. The LG is a native FreeSync model with G-SYNC compatibility, while the Dell is a native G-SYNC model with FreeSync compatibility. The LG's refresh rate can be overclocked up to 160Hz, whereas the Dell is capped at 144Hz, and it has better response times than the Dell. The LG also has a better color gamut and higher peak brightness, resulting in a better HDR experience. The LG has wider viewing angles for sharing content or playing co-op games, but its ergonomics aren't as good as the Dell's because it doesn't swivel at all.
The LG 38GN950-B is the successor to the LG 38GL950G-B. However, there's one key difference: the 38GN950-B has native FreeSync support instead of G-SYNC like its predecessor. That said, it's still certified as G-SYNC compatible. The other big change is that the 38GN950-B only overclocks up to 160Hz instead of 175Hz, although most people shouldn't feel any difference. The 38GN950-B has a wider color gamut and much higher peak brightness to deliver a better HDR experience. It has local dimming, which the 38GL950G-B lacks, but it performs terribly.
The LG 38GN950-B and the Samsung Odyssey G9 C49G95T are both great ultrawide gaming monitors but also very different. The LG is a 38-inch IPS model with a 21:9 aspect ratio, while the Samsung is a 49-inch VA model with a 32:9 aspect ratio. This means that the Samsung has a wider format and is better suited for dark rooms, but its viewing angles are worse. The Samsung has a higher refresh rate of 240Hz compared to the LG's 160Hz; however, the LG has significantly better response times. The LG has a much wider color gamut, especially its DCI-P3 coverage, and it gets brighter in HDR real scenes, though the Samsung can get brighter in some instances.
Although the LG 38GN950-B and the LG 38WN95C-W are very different in their outer design, they're actually quite similar. The main difference is that the 38GN950-B's 144Hz refresh rate can be overclocked up to 160Hz. The 38GN950-B has a better HDR color gamut and volume, and it gets a bit brighter overall. The 38WN95C-W has a few more features, like a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support and built-in speakers.
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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