The Review

By Yanai Levy, Nov 14, 2023

Do It All

If you are looking for a new monitor that can support everything from gaming to professional workloads, this monitor is one of an elite few that can claim to do it all. For around $450 on sale, this solution is a very competent one without costing an arm and a leg for dedicated, separate monitor options.

The Nitty-Gritty of Panel Types.

Up until recently, monitors had a very clear divide. If you wanted one for gaming, you would buy a TN type monitor, because they have fast response times that are necessary for the split-second nature of games. However, they also are dimmer, quickly become discolored if viewed off axis, and have less vibrant colors than other types of monitors. If you wanted good colors, high brightness, and wide viewing angles, you’d buy an IPS type panel, but those were too slow for gaming. VA panels are a cost effective middle ground and feature fast-ish response times as well as decent colors, especially in the black levels, but cannot reach the heights of the other types in those categories. Those facts were true, right up until LG’s display division broke the rules and started producing IPS type monitors that could do it all. One of the first monitors with these fancy new panels is the GL850-B, whose panel can do it all.

Look Alive

The GL850-B’s design is certainly gaming centric, but not to a point where it would look really jarring in a professional environment. There are red accents on the feet and in a ring on the back of the monitor, but it does not project dancing lights on the table or scream “gamer” by any means. Overall build quality is good as expected for the 500-dollar price point, but very plastic heavy. A metal stand would not have gone amiss here, but its swivel, tilt, and height adjustments are appreciated.

Responsible Responses

Response time is how long it takes each individual pixel in the screen to respond to a change. For example, shifting from red to blue, or in the worst case, white to black. This response time is measured in milliseconds, ranging from up to 40 on cheap office displays, to under one millisecond on the most cutting-edge gaming displays. The response time is not the whole story, but it is crucial for someone looking to game and not feel disoriented or lose a competitive advantage.

The Winning Combination

Combining those previous characteristics with a panel that can get bright (up about 400 nits), has vivid, accurate colors, and a high enough resolution to look sharp at 27 inches, and you’ve got a monitor that can please most anyone. The 144hz refresh rate will please most gamers, and because of its resolution you don’t need a battle station to power it. The resolution is 1440x2560 pixels, height by width. This is a lovely middle ground between a 1080p monitor that would start to look pixelated from desk distance, and a 4K monitor that would unnecessarily stress the computer running it when doing graphically intense work.

Sync or Swim

The LG also features G-SYNC, a physical chip on the monitor that aligns the refresh speed of the monitor with the exact number of refreshes being produced by the computer running it, therefore eliminating visual glitches such as tearing and stuttering. Many monitors can be used with G-SYNC now that Nvidia opened up the standard in early 2019, but the ones with the physical chip inside them are a step above in responsiveness. It also features Freesync, a competing standard that can work with consoles like the Xbox Series X, and PS5.

So?

There are brighter monitors out there for an HDR (high dynamic range) experience when watching movies or playing games that support it, and there are faster refreshing monitors for truly competitive gamers, but if you want a solid mix of it all, at a fair price, the LG 27GL850-B might just be for you.