LG 27UK850-W 4K UHD Monitor Review: The Best Selling Professional Monitor

If you are looking for a monitor that can do everything, then you have come to the right page. This is the review of one of the most selling 4K monitors in the market, which is LG 27UK850. It offers a mixed and balanced performance for all tasks. It has a super sharp 4K screen for productivity, a colorful panel with HDR10 support for content creation, and AMD FreeSync for gaming.

Ergonomics and connectivity are also great, and you do get a USB Type-C port to connect with your laptop, and it also gives power at the same time. Sounds perfect for MacBook users, right? They will be super happy with this since they have to deal with dongles.

LG 27UK850-W All-Rounder Monitor: Detailed Review

Design & Aesthetics

The LG 27UL850-W follows the traditional LG’s standard design language for monitors that provides a minimal and elegant feel. The build is superb and seems very well put together. It’s mostly plastic, and the front is delighted with a matte black finish, while the back is finished in white color, which looks great on the desk in office spaces.

The quality of plastic seems to be of excellent quality as you would expect from a premium brand which would easily save the monitor from minor cracks and accidents.

The panel is frameless from three sides, and the bottom is quite thick because the LG branding goes there. It doesn’t bother much, and there will be a very tiny black bar visible if you plan to make a dual monitor setup.

The stand does not come attached to the monitor like every other monitor, although it is easy to connect and a seamless process as everything is given within the box. Once the monitor is fixed with the stand, it becomes ready to adjust the way you want.

However, it doesn’t offer a swivel function, which is okay because the monitor’s swivelling doesn’t make much sense unless multiple users are working on the monitor.

Performance & Picture Quality

The LG 27UK850-W houses a UHD IPS panel beneath the elegant looking frame, which is super sharp and colorful. The resolution of 3840 x 2160 gives a great sense of sharpness and screen space. Visuals would seem smaller and sharper if you have been used to 1080p monitors.

Texts appear super crispy, so for those who deal with many texts in their everyday work routine, the LG 27UK850-W is an excellent monitor especially for coding. The IPS panel given on the monitor is one of the best panels in the industry right now. It is color-rich, and with HDR 10 capabilities, the monitor becomes super perfect for creative professionals.

It covers 99% sRGB and 73% Adobe RGB colors for doing color-critical tasks. The brightness is limited to 350-nits, which is excellent for a well-lit room. It shouldn’t create any glares and reflections as it does have an anti-glare coating on the screen.

While displaying HDR content, the monitor boosts brightness upto 450-nits to give you that immersive viewing experience.’

Although the LG 27UK850-W is said to be an all-rounder, it doesn’t seem to excite hard-core gamers with its limited 60Hz refresh rate. Yes, the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz only. A casual gamer won’t complain, but for those who have been used to high refresh rate gaming, the LG 27UK850-W won’t impress you much.

Simultaneously, the monitor’s response time is 5ms, which is excellent for playing fast-paced games. Plus, you do get FreeSync, which kicks in to prevent stuttering and tearing while playing fast-paced games.

As far as input lag is concerned, the LG UK850-W has 14ms input lag, so yes, the monitor does react immediately to your instructions.

Features

The LG UK850-W houses plenty of purposeful features, starting with the HDR 10. The LG UK850-W is the only monitor in this price segment that is HDR 10 certified. If you produce HDR content, the monitor is the perfect choice for your tasks. It boosts brightness and colors to the extent that no ordinary monitor can reach to give you an immersive experience.

Then comes the USB-C connectivity. MacBook users will appreciate it most because you don’t get other ports on the MacBooks. The USB Type-C port extends your display and gives power at the same time. It just makes the process of using your MacBook with a monitor super seamless.

Apart from that, you get intuitive on-screen controls with which you can manipulate color and sound profiles. It also has Screen Split 2.0 for tiling up windows on the screen for multitasking.

Plus, you get Black Stabilizer mode within the monitor for gaming, which, when activated, reveals superior details in dark conditions allowing you to play with better accuracy in dark scenes.

Ergonomics & Connectivity Ports

The LG UK850-W houses an elegant looking stand, which LG calls ArcLine stand. It supports tilt, height, and pivot functions, as said earlier. The adjustments can be made seamlessly, thanks to its premium mechanism. It misses out on the swivel function, which shouldn’t matter, in my opinion.

On the connectivity front, the monitor is very well equipped with ports following the latest input standards. It gets dual USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 3.1 Type-C port that delivers 60W power to charge your laptop while transforming video simultaneously. You get a DisplayPort 1.2 and, lastly, an audio out port.

Specifications

Comparison & Alternatives

LG 27UK850-W	Dell U2720Q	AOC U279VQ
27″ UHD IPS	27″ UHD IPS	27″ UHD IPS
5ms Response Time	5ms Response Time	5ms Response Time
60Hz Refresh Rate	60Hz Response Time	60Hz Response Time
AMD FreeSync	Flicker-Free Technology	Flicker-Free Technology
USB Type-C	2x USB Type-C	HDMI & DisplayPort
Built-in Speakers	N/A	N/A
Height, Pivot, Tilt	Height, Pivot, Swivel, Tilt	Tilt-only
VESA Mount Compatible	VESA Mount Compatible	VESA Mount Compatible
Buy at Amazon	Buy at Amazon	Buy at Amazon

The LG 27UK850-W is an excellent monitor for professional use. However, as a buyer, you should have a look at these alternatives. The Dell U2720Q and AOC U2790VQ compete with our current contenders, and both house a 4K UHD IPS panel beneath their frames.

The LG 27UK850-W is our recommended pick for professional use and casual gaming, but the Dell U2720Q is not a weak contender either. It might not have FreeSync, but it does a great job in portraying fast-paced games.

Apart from that, the Dell U2720Q houses a dual USB Type-C port, which is excellent since you won’t have to connect dongles and bricks for connecting devices. The LG 27UK850-W does have a USB Type-C port, but it is single.

Further, the Dell 2720Q misses out on built-in speakers, but it features a fully adjustable stand, whereas the LG 27UK850-W houses speakers but misses out on swivel function, so we cannot say it’s a fully adjustable monitor.

The AOC U2790VQ is probably the cheapest 4K monitor in the industry. It has excellent details and colors, but you won’t find it much purposeful since it doesn’t have an adjustable stand and USB ports.

It’s for those who care about clarity only, so if you need a 4K monitor without spending much, the AOC U2790VQ is for you.