If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, this is it. With 178 FoV, elegant design, great color accuracy, plenty of connectivity options, and tiltable design, the LG 38WN95C is our Editor’s Choice for the best monitor in its class.
This is the LG 38WN95C, what the company dubs as a wider, well-rounded experience, and what I’m gonna call one of my favorite products of 2020. See, one of the biggest challenges with what I do is that I can’t just use any monitor. There are specific reasons why it needs to be the best at certain things, and after spending some time with it at CES 2020, it was enough for me to know I needed to try it out.
I know for some of you a monitor is about refresh rate, or for others about the size. While for me, my workflow has a couple of demands.
The first is I need monitors, not just one. I handle a ton of tasks at once, so I either need more than one, or a canvas that’s large and wide enough to achieve the same task.
Second is the avoidance of distractions. The biggest problem with most large monitors is screen glare, which can confuse your content consumption.
And the most important, third is color accuracy. If you’re going to be editing a video, reds must be reds, blues must be blues.
For years LG has been one of the pioneers of Ultra-wide monitors, with some of the best glare-free experiences, and also, the gold standard for color accuracy, and this is their top of the line. This is not an affordable monitor by any means, but it offers the benefit of being everything that everyone wants, in one package.
The unboxing experience is one where I feel the company really goes all out. First of all prepare cause, the box is huge. Like seriously very large. Inside we’re greeted with lots of foam protecting the monitor and judging by the fact that mine traveled a few countries to get here, I say order with confidence.
I recommend following the instructions for taking the monitor out, setting up the metallic stand as the setup is fairly easy if you follow it step by step. At the top, we have a smaller box full of accessories. This is that one product where you seriously won’t have to spend a dime in buying any sort of cables, they’re all here.
The good
My second favorite feature on this monitor is the amount of IO. You get 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB 3 ports, a DisplayPort connector, a headphone jack, and then my favorite, Thunderbolt 3. All these literally enable my current setup. I currently have my mechanical keyboard connected to one of the USB ports, the mouse to the other, and that way, whatever Thunderbolt-capable computer I connect to the monitor will automatically detect them. Thunderbolt 3 also offers 94W power delivery, so you’re pretty much covered on this being the only cable that goes to your computer if need be.
Now let’s talk about why this display matters. This is a 38-inch 21:9 Ultra-Wide monitor at QuadHD+ resolution. That’s 3840 x 1600, which if you do the math is really just a few hundred pixels shy of being 4K. Its design allows for a crazy 178 degrees of field of view, and with very minor bezels on three of its sides, with just a slightly thicker bezel at the bottom.
It’s also the world’s first Nano-IPS monitor with 1 millisecond response times. This allows it to be crazy color-accurate covering 98% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 135% of sRGB which is also VESA DisplayHDR 600 Certified backed by 450 nits of brightness. Best of all, it’s NVIDIA GSYNC compatible, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible and it offers 144hz refresh rate, so yeah, everything but the kitchen sink in anything you could ask from a monitor. Match that with 2 loud 5W speakers on each side, and yeah, this is the real deal.
Now, while Diego loves the gaming aspects of it, for me this is more a productivity workhorse. I need a large canvas for video editing, that’s also color accurate, something every other gaming monitor can’t really claim. I consider this to be a far better solution than having two monitors stacked together. If you do the math, this is literally the equivalent of two separate 3 x 1 screens side by side, so for any other kind of work, this has allowed me to multitask like crazy.
This monitor is so wide, that there’s even a PBP mode, meaning you can set two inputs to work at the same time on each side of the monitor. It will require you to do a little juggling with the aspect ratios depending on the products you have connected, cause games don’t always adapt.
And speaking of games, it’s the main reason why I’ve left my Nintendo Switch connected permanently to the monitor. At first, you’ll notice resolution to be a bit fuzzy in menus, but when it comes to gameplay, that all goes away. I’d even say that this camera is not doing enough justice to the fluidness of the gameplay. The image quality on this monitor also makes my living room TV look so bad that it’s also become my go-to for watching a movie. Movies are pretty much the same aspect ratio.
The mixed
Now, of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, so let’s discuss the issues where I’m mixed with this monitor.
The first is really not a complaint, but really something that comes with the territory. Viewing angles won’t necessarily be the best, and reflections on shadows will be noticeable. For me having a matte screen is more important, so I’m fine, but just keep that in mind.
The second is the materials. I guess for the price I was expecting a bit more metal in the body. Obviously, that won’t bother you in day-to-day use, but just make sure you set it on a sturdy desk as it might wobble a bit if you’re a hard typer.
The third is the on-screen controls. Given the price, I do feel this monitor should at least have some sort of remote control to help you handle them. I’m not gonna call them bad, but since volume controls and brightness controls switch from the computer to the monitor completely, that can be kind of a chore.
Last but not least, yes, you can tilt the monitor, raise it to your preferred height and so many other ergonomic options, but if there’s one I wish wasn’t here is tilt as it’s really hard to tell when the monitor is not tilted. And also, yes I agree with other reviewers that the matte coating does seem like it can peel off from the corners, but no worries, you can’t, or at least not easily.
Conclusion
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
To conclude, let’s be honest. The reasons why I’m mixed are more nit-picks than anything. The LG 38WN95C is the best in its class and has won so many awards for a reason. If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, I’d say this is it.
It will cost you though. This is definitely not an affordable monitor, but it also beats the need to have to own more than one monitor to suit your needs. In my book, this is definitely one of my favorite products of 2020. I have no problem recommending that you give it a try.
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
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