LG 48GQ900-B Monitor Review

The LG 48GQ900-B has a very simple, understated design that looks great. It has thin bezels on all four sides, so they're not distracting when gaming or watching videos. There's very little gamer aesthetic to it, but there are bands of RGB lighting on the back.

The LG 48GQ900-B has excellent build quality. It feels premium and well-built overall, with a nice sturdy stand that feels strong. The stand supports the monitor extremely well, allowing for very little wobble even if you nudge the desk or table it's on. There's a slight gap between the back side bezel and the back of the display, and dust could collect there over time. The back panel doesn't feel as well-built as the rest, though, as it's made of plastic and feels cheaper.

Unfortunately, like most monitors or TVs this size, there are no ergonomic adjustments on the stand, so it can be hard to place it in an ideal viewing position. There's a track through the back of the stand that can be used for cable management.

The stand is slim and takes up very little space.

You can use the included remote to quickly change settings and picture modes or adjust the volume.

• Remote control
• HDMI cable
• DisplayPort cable
• USB-B upstream cable
• User guides

The LG 48GQ900-B has a near-infinite contrast ratio with perfect black levels in dark rooms, even when they're right next to bright highlights. It makes it a fantastic choice for watching in a dark room, as blacks are inky and deep.

The LG 48GQ900-B doesn't have a backlight, but thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, it's equivalent to a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the TV, so you can see how it performs and compare it with a TV with local dimming.

The LG 48GQ900-B has disappointing peak brightness in SDR. Unlike most OLED monitors or TVs, there's very little variation in peak brightness between scenes. It's because the monitor's peak brightness in SDR is so low that it doesn't trigger the Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) except with really large bright scenes. Similar OLED TVs get much brighter in SDR, but this trigger's the display's ABL, causing a noticeable variation in brightness with different scenes.

These results are from after calibration with the 'Gamer 1' Picture Mode and Brightness at its max.

The LG 48GQ900-B has just okay HDR peak brightness. Small highlights are bright enough to stand out well, but it gets dimmer with larger bright areas due to the aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). The brightness tracks the EOTF extremely well, as almost all scenes display at the correct brightness level. There's a very smooth roll-off as the brightness approaches the monitor's peak, preserving fine details in bright scenes. If you want an OLED monitor that gets much brighter in HDR, check out the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG42UQ.

These measurements are in the 'Vivid' Picture Mode with Brightness at 'Max'.

The LG 48GQ900-B has an excellent horizontal viewing angle. There's some slight color shift at a moderate angle, which is noticeable if you're sitting close to the screen, as the sides of the screen appear slightly different from the center. It's also good if you like sharing the screen with other people, as the image remains consistent when viewed from the sides.

The LG 48GQ900-B has a fantastic vertical viewing angle. The top and bottom of the screen remain uniform even if you're sitting up close.

The LG 48GQ900-B has great gray uniformity. There's very little dirty screen effect, ensuring that large areas of uniform color, like most web pages or if you're watching sports, look clean. There's a bit of vignetting, as the corners specifically appear a bit darker than the center, but it's not very noticeable with real content.

Thanks to its OLED panel, the LG 48GQ900-B has perfect black uniformity, as any pixel that's displaying black is turned off. It results in a perfectly uniform image with no blooming around bright highlights.

The LG 48GQ900-B has very good accuracy before calibration. The white balance is decent, with just a few minor issues in brighter shades of gray. The overall color accuracy is good, but even though it has an sRGB mode, colors are oversaturated a bit. Like most monitors, the sRGB mode locks you out of most picture settings, but you can still adjust the R/G/B balance. Gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve properly; instead, it stays close to a flat 2.2 gamma, so dark scenes are a bit over-brightened in SDR. Finally, the color temperature is very close to the target, so whites look pure.

After calibration, the LG 48GQ900-B has superb accuracy. Any remaining issues with the white balance and gamma aren't noticeable. Some colors are still a bit off, but it's not noticeable. It's compatible with LG's Calibration Studio software, which allows you to load an ICC profile to the monitor itself and use it with any source. It's great for console gamers who still want to enjoy an accurate, fully calibrated image.

The LG 48GQ900-B has a fantastic SDR color gamut. It can display the entire sRGB color space used by most desktop and web content, including most games. It also has great coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space. However, it can't display the full range of green or cyan.

The LG 48GQ900-B has incredible color volume in SDR. Thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, it displays dark, saturated colors well.

The LG 48GQ900-B has a remarkably wide color gamut in HDR. It can display almost all of the DCI-P3 color space, which is the most widely used color space in HDR, especially with live-action content. It has sub-par coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, which is used more often with animated content, so there's some loss of fine details with that. Unfortunately, the color temperature is very cold in all HDR picture modes, and there's no option to correct it.

The LG 48GQ900-B has good color volume in HDR. Unlike the QD-OLED technology used on the Dell Alienware AW3423DW, the W-OLED panel used on this monitor can't display colors as bright as pure white, resulting in worse overall color volume.

The LG 48GQ900-B has superb reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective coating significantly reduces the intensity of direct reflections, so they're much less distracting than they are on the Sony 42 A90K OLED. This coating also adds a slight haze to the screen, reducing the overall sharpness.

The LG 48GQ900-B has just okay text clarity. The pixel density is lower than most typical monitors, and the RWBG subpixel layout isn't supported by most programs, so there are more issues with text aliasing. Unfortunately, the matte anti-reflective coating adds a bit of haze to the screen, reducing the clarity a bit, so it's slightly worse than the LG 42 C2 OLED.

Windows suggests 300% scaling, which is just too large for most people, so the photos above are with 100% scaling. Enabling ClearType (top photo) helps improve the boldness of the letters, but it's still not ideal. Using a higher scaling factor helps a bit, so it takes a bit of trial and error to find the right settings for you.

The LG 48GQ900-B has superb gradient handling. There's some noticeable banding, though, especially in darker shades of gray, and unlike the LG TVs, there are no processing features to reduce banding.

The LG 48GQ900-B has a slightly faster refresh rate than most 48-inch OLED TVs that we've tested as a monitor. Thanks to the inclusion of DisplayPort, it also supports the maximum refresh rate over either connection.

The LG 48GQ900-B supports multiple variable refresh rate (VRR) formats, ensuring you'll enjoy a smooth, nearly tear-free gaming experience from any source that supports VRR. It includes all recent PC graphics cards, as well as the Xbox Series S|X or the PS5. It supports low framerate compensation, ensuring a smooth experience even when the frame rate drops really low with most sources. It doesn't work perfectly with all sources, though, as there's screen tearing above 120Hz when you're connected via HDMI to a recent NVIDIA graphics card.

The LG 48GQ900-B has a near-instant response time at its max refresh rate of 138Hz, resulting in incredibly clear motion. Unlike most monitors, there are no overdrive settings that allow you to fine-tune the motion handling.

Originally, we encountered some strange results during the response time testing that was caused by the monitor's Automatic Brightness Limiter and not the actual response time of the display. We initially used results from the LG 48 C1 OLED review, but we've since changed our testing exceptionally for OLED monitors to use a smaller window size that won't trigger the ABL and affect the results. The current results in all three response time boxes are from this monitor and not another.

The response time is nearly as good at 120Hz as it's at the max refresh rate. Unlike most monitors, there are no overdrive settings that allow you to fine-tune the motion handling.

The response time at 60Hz is still fantastic. There's a bit more noticeable blur at 60Hz; this is persistence blur caused by the monitor's incredibly fast response time. Unlike most monitors, there are no overdrive settings that allow you to fine-tune the motion handling.

Unfortunately, there's no optional black frame insertion or backlight strobing feature to improve the appearance of motion.

The LG 48GQ900-B isn't technically flicker-free, but it doesn't use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to adjust the display's brightness. There's a small dip in brightness that corresponds to the display's refresh rate; however, it isn't noticeable.

The LG 48GQ900-B has very low input lag, ensuring a very responsive gaming experience.

The 48-inch screen offers a ton of screen space for gaming, but if you prefer a smaller OLED, the LG 27GR95QE-B is a smaller alternative with a 1440p resolution and 240Hz refresh rate.

The LG 48GQ900-B can take full advantage of the PS5. Everything works well, with no issues with any of the features. Note that the variable refresh rate feature doesn't work at 1440p, but this is a limitation of the PS5, not the display.

The LG 48GQ900-B can nearly take full advantage of the Xbox Series S|X. It supports the full range of refresh rates and resolutions supported by the Xbox, but like most monitors, it doesn't support Dolby Vision video playback or Dolby Vision gaming.

Sadly, there's no USB-C, so you'll need an adapter to connect a MacBook or Ultrabook.

The LG 48GQ900-B works well with most recent Macs. There's a bit of flicker on the desktop and in some games, but it's not noticeable. The variable refresh rate feature works properly, as does HDR. Windows return to their original positions when you wake your computer from sleep, but not if you close the lid.

There are a few additional features on the LG 48GQ900-B. Like most gaming monitors, there are a few virtual overlays available for things like frame counters or a virtual crosshair. It's also compatible with LG's Calibration Studio software, which allows you to load an ICC profile directly to the monitor and enjoy a calibrated image with any source.