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4 months ago
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In December last year, LG announced the latest additions to its OLED gaming monitor lineup, including the 32GS95UE – the world’s first 480Hz OLED, the ultrawide 39-inch 39GS95QE and 34-inch 34GS95QE, and several other even larger TV-like models. Well, I’ve just got eyes and hand-on with the 34GS95QE, and suffice it to say, I’m quite impressed.
Some previous LG OLEDs I’ve used haven’t entirely won me over as they’ve lacked brightness and have struggled for real-world contrast in brighter situations thanks to the screen coating reflecting ambient light and creating a greying effect on dark colors – contenders for best gaming monitor, they weren’t. However, LG’s new 2024 OLED panels – or at least some of them – use a new anti-glare and low reflection (AGLR) coating that at least based on what I could see today resulted in big gains in real-world image quality.
Being demoed at the CES Unveiled show event at CES 2024, LG’s teeny tiny one-table booth joined a host of largely much smaller tech titan hopefuls at this smaller-scale pre show. The new panel was being shown alongside one of LG’s new laptops and a new projector, and that was it. It may not seem it reading these words but the sight of a global mega-company like LG having a booth at this event, alongside crowdfunded hopefuls or other far smaller companies was amusing to me at least.
But back to the display and the new AGLR coating really did seem to suppress reflections and in turn boost the contrast of the display. Being a curved panel, it actually opens itself up to being affected by reflections from even more angles than a flat panel but the display looked essentially reflection-free from straight on, though crouching lower and the glow of the overhead lights could be seen.
As for that curve, it’s incredibly tight, with a radius of just 800 inches. Typical 34-inch ultrawide panels have a 1200-inch radius (1200R) while 1000R panels are relatively common too. 800R, though, is about as tight as these panels get. The true effect when sat in front of the screen for a longer period, I wasn’t really able to get a sense of, but if you’re a fan of curved monitors, this one should do the trick for you.
The panel specs aren’t anything too amazing for a modern OLED gaming monitor, with a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 and a refresh rate of 240Hz. Those are still stellar specs, of course, but plenty of other panels are hitting those numbers these days.
Instead, what further delighted me was the nicely compact stand, which does away with the ungainly V-shaped feet of some big displays, saving desk space. The overall design of the panel is also smart but with just enough gamer flare to not be dull – the rear RGB lighting is neatly integrated too.
Pricing for the new panel hasn’t been confirmed yet but we expect to hear more tomorrow at LG’s big CES press conference. Meanwhile for our current pick of the best gaming displays you can check out our best gaming monitor guide.
