Best LG Monitors Of 2022 | Popular Science |

LG’s wide range of monitors has options for everyone.

With a 27-inch 4K screen, 144Hz refresh rate, and support for the VESA DisplayHDR 600 standard, the LG 27GN950-B is tough to beat.

The LG 27GN950-B has a sharp 4K display, excellent HDR, and a fast refresh rate.

Photographers and videographers won’t find many monitors better than the 32-inch LG UltraFine OLED Pro Display.

LG is best known for home appliances and OLED TVs, but it also makes some of the best PC monitors out there right now. We closely looked at the company’s current monitor lineup and found several good options available in various sizes, shapes, and prices. There are ultrawide monitors if you’re looking to boost your productivity and high-end UltraFine displays that promise the best color accuracy, sharpness, and detail for editing photos and video. Whether you’re upgrading your home setup or need something for the office, the best LG monitor will bring your PC to life with sharp contrast and bright colors.

I’ve spent the past 10 years testing and reviewing consumer electronics for TechnoBuffalo, XDA Developers, and iMore. In that time I’ve evaluated several monitors, taking a close look at display quality, color accuracy, and other essential metrics. When I’m not evaluating monitors for a review, I’m using one to watch movies, play video games, and edit photos. The time I’ve spent using various monitors has given me valuable insight into what specs to look for before making a purchase.

To make our selections, I drew on my prior testing and experience, as well as individual reviews from critics, consumer comments, and conversations on forums. Whether you’re looking for a monitor that fits a specific need or need one for general use, we’ve got you covered.

Monitors have especially dense and obtuse spec sheets that can overwhelm even tech-savvy customers. To help you make the right decision for your home and setup, let’s walk through the key differentiators that will help you pick between two potentially very similar screens.

Your screen’s resolution refers to the number of pixels your monitor uses to create an image. There are three common screen resolutions: 1920 x 1080, also called 1080p or Full HD; 2560 x 1440 pixels, which we shorten 1440p or Quad HD (QHD). Lastly, 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) is available among high-end gaming and creative-focused monitors.

We find that a 1080p monitor looks great for everyday computing—web browsing, Netflix and YouTube, word processing, and spreadsheets. If you’re gaming, especially on a mid-range or high-powered gaming PC, 1440p is a sharp-looking sweet spot. Considering the high price and limitations on refresh rate, we primarily recommend 4K displays for professionals in creative fields like photography and video editing. There are variations that deviate from these three core resolutions, like LG’s Apple-approved 5K Display. More often than not, though, they’re often just a smidge higher than the standards, offering you a minor upgrade if you want a little more detail.

When picking a display, it helps to keep in mind that the size of your screen will impact how sharp your display looks at any given resolution. A 24-inch 4K display and 32-inch 4K display both show the same amount of pixels, but spread them across areas.

Currently, most displays come in 24-, 27-, or 32-inch sizes. In general, we think you should scale your desired resolution with your screen size to ensure the sharpest possible picture without overpaying for pixels you don’t need. Stick with 1080p on a 24-inch monitor. Go for 1440 if possible with 27 inches. And splurge on 4K if you want a 32-inch display. These are not hard and fast rules—we’ve recommended 27-inch 4K displays in the past, for example, but they can help you set expectations and narrow down your options.

Your monitor’s refresh rate, expressed in Hertz (Hz), refers to the number of times your monitor draws and redraws what you see on your screen each second. The faster the image refreshes, the smoother and more fluid animated elements will look, from your mouse scrolling across the screen, to a wildly detailed video game.

Modern monitors offer a wide range of refresh rates, most of which were conceived with gaming in mind. The basic refresh rate you’ll find on most productivity-focused monitors falls between 60Hz-75Hz. This is more than enough to make Windows or macOS look smooth, along with the Microsoft Office suite and other common apps.

For gamers and anyone who wants smoother animations, we recommend prioritizing a 144Hz refresh rate, which allows players to run most games with uncapped frame rates on a powerful PC. In theory, the higher refresh rate will give you the opportunity to react more quickly than someone who owns a 60Hz monitor, giving you a slight advantage.

On top of that, there’s a growing number of esports-grade monitors that offer higher refresh rates—240Hz, 300Hz, and 360Hz. Most players don’t need such a high frame rate, but competitive players may find themselves drawn to them all the same.

If you’re thinking about getting a gaming monitor, you’ll also want to consider whether your monitor supports variable refresh rate technology, which scales your monitor’s target refresh rate to match your PC’s performance. Most modern displays support either Nvidia G–Sync or AMD FreeSync, but it helps to know what you’re getting.

Most modern computers send video and audio to your monitor using an HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB-C connection. They’re essential for displaying video on your monitor of choice, and each method has its strengths and weaknesses.

High-Definition Multimedia Interface, or HDMI, is the most familiar port. You’re probably familiar with the HDMI cable, since it’s been the standard connection for TVs since it was conceived in 2002 and has been a staple on monitors for many years. Most monitors feature HDMI 2.0, which is not quite the newest version. Some monitors made with console gaming in mind may feature HDMI 2.1, the newest standard. You may also find some older and/or cheaper monitors that use older HDMI connections. (For more on the differences between the many iterations of HDMI, check out our explainer on HDMI 2.1.)

Unlike HDMI, you probably won’t find DisplayPort in too many places aside from PCs and monitors. HDMI hasn’t physically changed since its introduction, but DisplayPort comes in a few different forms. There are multiple versions of DisplayPort, including 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 2.0. Each version supports different resolutions and refresh rates. We recommend looking out for monitors that support DisplayPort 1.4 (and above), which ensures support for up to 8K with HDR at 60Hz. You can get by with DisplayPort 1.3, which supports up to 4K at 120Hz or 8K at 30Hz, but it doesn’t feature HDR, which limits high-end visual fidelity for gaming.

USB-C is the new kid on the monitor connection block, but it’s an increasingly appealing option, especially if you’re using a modern laptop. USB-C monitors connections can transfer data, video, and power through a single cable, so your monitor cable can also charge your laptop. It’s especially helpful for Mac users, as many modern MacBooks have USB-C ports, but no HDMI or other ports.

Speaking of USB-C, monitors can also augment your PC’s array of ports with a few extra connections on the bottom or sides for connecting computer peripherals, such as keyboards, mice, and external hard drives. We think of extra ports as icing on the cake, though, rather than a good reason to buy or abstain from buying any particular display.

If your monitor lacks ports but has a USB-C connection, you might be able to use a powered USB hub to connect different peripherals, including an SD card to transfer photos and videos.

The actual screens in most monitors are Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels lit by LED backlights. There are three panel types used in most modern monitors, and our LG picks focus on two of them: Vertical alignment, or VA, and in-plane switching, or IPS.

IPS panels are great if you are a photo or video editor because they offer excellent color performance, often providing 95% or higher of the Digital Cinema Initiatives – Protocol 3 (DCI-P3) standard, a more expansive color space used by the film industry. IPS is often the go-to for gaming displays as it offers a strong balance between great color, at the expense of getting the darkest possible blacks.

VA panels offer excellent contrast ratios, so shadows and dark scenes are rich and detailed. They also provide great image quality, color reproduction, and refresh rate. However, some VA panels have poor viewing angles, so you’ll need to sit directly in front of them for the best experience. This makes them a strong pick for curved and ultrawide displays, as well as creative production monitors where accuracy is paramount.

High dynamic range, or HDR, is a display technology that shows greater detail in scenes with higher contrast. Imagine watching a scene in a movie with dim and bright light. It’s a challenging scenario, but with HDR, a monitor or TV can accurately show details while displaying rich, vibrant colors.

HDR is now all-but-standard in TVs, but counts as a gaming-focused luxury among monitors. Even when monitors support it, their limited brightness prevents them from achieving the same visual effect that you see on a TV. A dim screen can have difficulty differentiating between high- and low-light situations, so if you want the best HDR performance, you’ll need to find a display with a high peak brightness. When picking out a gaming monitor, we generally recommend looking for VESA DisplayHDR 600 rating or higher, or HDR10. If you’re planning on playing games, HDR 400 or higher is a nice value add, but not worth fretting over.

Now that you know what to look for, let’s talk about the best LG monitors you buy right now. We’ve highlighted all kinds of monitors for different use cases, so every type of LG-loving PC user should find something that meets their needs.