Who doesn’t like a 1080p screen with a refresh rate of 500Hz or a massive 4K display at 120Hz? One resolution that seems to be getting left behind despite its popularity among PC gamers is 1440p. Enter the LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B, one of the first 1440p 240Hz OLED gaming monitors to hit the market.
This UltraGear offers a very fast 0.03ms response time. The perfect blend of speed and performance, it’s a gorgeous monitor with exceptional image quality. The most impressive bit?this is that’s all $1,000. Yeah, that’s a lot of money for a 27-inch 1440p display, but once you start rattling off the features and specs, the price is pretty competitive compared to other similar OLEDs coming soon.
The 240Hz refresh feels future-proof, especially with this new generation of Nvidia and AMD GPUs just hitting the market.1440p has long been the sweet spot for PC gaming (opens in new tab)240Hz and 360Hz 1440p monitors exist, but this is the first time I’ve seen 240Hz 1440p on an OLED panel.
I actually got to check out the LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B and its massive 45-inch curvy (and more expensive) cousin, the 45GR95QE. (opens in new tab)When some Evil Genius pros showed off high refresh rates and low latency in some matches of Valorant, I was pretty impressed with the performance. and the delay was something else. For competitive gamers, OLED is clearly superior to other panel types in action. If you play competitively, this is the monitor you want.
27GR95QE-B specs
Screen size: 26 inch
Resolution: 2560×1440
Luminance: 206 nits peak brightness
Reaction time: 0.03ms
Refresh rate: 240Hz
Panel type: Organic EL
Contrast ratio: 1,500,000:1
feature: 98.5% DCI-P3, Adaptive Sync, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB Type-C, 1x USB 3.0, Optical port, Remote, HDR10, PiP
price: $999 (opens in new tab)
I can’t say enough how great games look on this monitor. I’ve been playing some of the new DLC for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and it’s amazing to see the details of Blade and Iron Man’s futuristic armor sets and the glorious particle vortexes when Hydra’s soldiers are shattered to pieces. I’ve also worked my way through God of War, and the frozen realm filled with brutal elves has never looked better.
Speaking of Fortnite, playing at 240Hz at 1440p is a little weird at first, but after a few games, there’s no other way you’d want to play that game. Even if you don’t have the hardware to hit 240fps. Frankly, 240Hz might be overkill for many of your favorite non-shooter bang bang games.
I would really appreciate it if you could provide speed or quality or both. So even if he’s playing Valorant at the highest possible framerate, he’ll still have the beauty of most games, regardless of variety. It may sound cheesy, but sitting on top of the Empire State Building and watching the New York sunset in Spider-Man: Miles Morales was absolutely spectacular.
As impressed with the image quality as I am, LG can’t get away from a common problem that plagues some OLED gaming monitors: brightness. In my testing, the OLED’s non-HDR peak brightness is just over 200 nits, which is frankly the worst. LG claims you can get around 800 nits with HDR on, but that only applies to small, bright objects. Don’t expect anything close to the brightness you get from the screen.
Playing with the lights on in the daytime, the lack of brightness was noticeable in the darker parts of the game. I used to play Dead Space Remake and often squint in dark hallways. It also didn’t help in shooters like Fortnite or The Finals playtest where it proved very difficult to spot distant enemies in nighttime levels. If you play in a dark room, low brightness is fine.
OLED panels are not known to be brighter than other panel types, but this is low for OLED, averaging around 250-300 nits. For example, Alienware 34 OLED (opens in new tab) The monitor does around 250 nits, making it by far the best OLED gaming monitor out there. (opens in new tab) It is currently on the market. Switching to Reader Mode will brighten it up a bit, but that makes sense since reading text on a low-brightness screen can strain your eyes.
Another issue I often find is that HDR can be a bit inconsistent, and I’ve found it tends to oversaturate colors in a distracting way. I’d rather play with good colors on a dark screen than be blown away, so I gave up on that.
Since it is an OLED display, there is a risk of burn-in if a static image is displayed on the screen for a long time. However, LG seems to have taken care of this. So much so that they recently started talking nonchalantly about Samsung’s burn-in problem. (opens in new tab)Thankfully, LG uses many of the same tech as OLED TVs to prevent burn-in, including automatic pixel cleaning when the monitor is closed after a long session.
Another minor gripe is that many of the monitor’s functions are handled by the remote control. I’m trying to eliminate clutter from my life and now I have a remote control to track. You can do several things with the monitor via the small knobs at the bottom, such as changing inputs, controlling volume and brightness.
Design-wise, it hasn’t changed much from previous UltraGear monitors, but it’s not bad. It can be rotated to portrait orientation and has a pair of USB and HDMI ports. I like the cables that catch on the back and the thin display bezels. Any console gamer will be happy to confirm that these are his HDMI 2.1 ports, so he can game at 120Hz. This is always welcome. It doesn’t have speakers, but it does have optics that you can plug into your soundbar.
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The UltraGear isn’t overly flashy, but it does have an RGB light strip on the side if you want to make it flashier. The V-shaped stand also doesn’t take up much space, so it won’t get in the way even if you put two of them side by side. I really like LG’s ergonomics. It can tilt forward and backward in all directions and can be raised to a height of 18 to 22 inches.
The LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B is the perfect monitor for all types of gaming looking for speed and image quality. Despite the brightness being disappointing and the fact that you need a remote control to mess with the settings, this is still one of the best looking and playing OLED gaming monitors out there.
It will be interesting to see more of these OLEDs from other manufacturers such as Asus, Acer and Samsung in the coming months. Can they handle the brightness issue? Can they compete on price since $1,000 seems like the lower end instead of the upper end?
