LG 34UM68-P 34-Inch 21:9 UltraWide IPS Monitor with FreeSync

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This is a review of the 29" model. Beautiful monitor for a reasonable price for gamers and nongamers. Has its downsides, but people give it a bad rap for things that arent true (text IS sharp). Pros: really excellent brightness etc.... looks fantastic for videos and games. Freesync is excellent if you have an AMD video card. Responsive enough for games, no problems there. The resolution is easily manhandled by a modern video card so FPS stays high and Freesync takes care of the edge cases. VESA mount on rear. The PIP features and KVM software looks cool, but I didnt test it. Cons: My main complaint is the inaccuracy of the promotion photos, which show the picture going all the way to the tiny bezel. This isnt the case; the screen has an additional half inch border on the top and sides (see attached photo). The actual vertical height of the 29" picture is about ONE INCH SHORTER than my 16:9 22" monitor. Display port cable (necessary for Freesync to work) not included. Text is very clear and sharp - but only if the monitor is correctly adjusted, which is a bit fiddly. Speakers arent great, but I dont use them. My picture is adjusted to "custom" (FPS modes make text poor), using DisplayPort, ratio "Wide", sharpness 50, DFC off, response time "Middle", FreeSync "On" (only available with DisplayPort cable). I also installed the drivers, and ran the "Adjust ClearType" Windows wizard. My text is very sharp now. If your text is blurry, use the monitors "reset" function, in Windows go to "Display Options" and turn off the custom scaling/sign back in, and do it again to correct whatever was wrong.

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*****UPDATE (12-10-2016): Still loving this awesome monitor (my wife, too!). I decided to repurpose my old regular-wide monitor as a second display ABOVE this monitor (because why not??? LOL) and learned that any dual-vertical desk-mount stand that supports "up to 27-inch" regular-wide monitors can also fit 34"ultrawide because theyre the same actual height (I was previously tearing my hair apart looking for a "34-inch dual-vertical" stand but couldnt find any---go figure!). Hope this helps yall!!!***** This monitor ROCKS! At under $400 (currently $349!!!), you CANNOT go wrong with this ultra-wide beast unless youre running a low-end graphics card (works great with my GTX 960). When I first looked into ultra-wide monitors, I did all kinds of research and wished I had $1300 at the time for an Acer Predator X34 (currently $1,230) because that monitor was 3440x1440 (this LG 34UM68-P is only 2560x1080 but its still absolutely gorgeous). I thought I would need the curve to get a better experience, too. But then I discovered I would also need a faster graphics card to handle 3440x1440 on top of the insane cost of the Predator X34---putting that dream on hold for at least another year or two. So...I bought this monitor instead and honestly thought it would be "just okay". But when it arrived and I set it up, I was absolutely blown away. This monitor made me want to play games more now than Ive had the urge for the past 10 years or more. Its so good, I bought a SECOND one for my wife. Everyone has their own preferences in monitors but heres some of my discoveries with this monitor: 1) I dont care about curved anymore. Seriously! For productivity (I work with Excel a lot), curved monitors distort horizontal lines/spreadsheets to make them look weird and kinda bad, IMO. So much so for me, that Im not sure I ever want a Predator X34 in the future. Lesson learned, I am sticking with FLAT ultra-wide monitors and would strongly recommend others do so if you use your computer for both gaming and productivity. If your computer is strictly a gaming machine (mine clearly isnt) then youll probably appreciate a curved monitor. 2) Ive heard it said that there isnt a graphics card currently on the market that can handle 3440x1440 games at ultra-high settings (though Ive also read that the NVidia 1080 does come close depending on the game youre playing). This is because there is literally almost twice as many pixels going from 2560x1080 to 3440x1440. Since I never buy state-of-the-art graphics cards when they first come out (I usually wait a year or two for the price to drop), that means I am likely 2 years away from getting both a 3440x1440 monitor and the graphics card to handle it. 3) I absolutely love the preset window panes for this monitor (and you can customize it many different ways...I prefer 2 side-by-side panes but you can also do 3 side-by-side, 4 quad, 2 side-by-side w/3rd horizontal pane above or below, etc.). These window panes allow you to drag-n-snap your windows (web browsers, Word, Excel, etc.) automatically without having to manually resize everything (super awesome for productivity)! I dont know if all ultra-wide monitors do this (and very likely not) because this is an LG-developed software that comes with the monitor. 4) Gaming with extra field-of-view on the left/right sides really gives you an edge (as long as your game supports 2560x1080 resolution which games like Doom, The Division, Zombie Army Trilogy and even Fallout 4---with an INI file tweak---do). Once you game with ultra-wide resolutions, trust me...you will NEVER go back!!! 5) Watching movies on this thing...breath-taking. Most movie resolutions are 21:9 making them perfect for ultra-wide monitors (though most TV shows have yet to catch up with this ratio). There are plenty of other ultra-wide monitors in both 2560x1080 and 3440x1440 but I love this particular monitors features and price-point. Sure, there are better monitors out there...but they cost A LOT more and honestly...Im not even sure I would see much difference (without buying that high-end, state-of-the-art graphics card as well). Maybe in 2018 but this is definitely GREAT (not just "good") enough until then!

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The LG 34UM68-P is made primarily for gaming and at 21:9 its perfect for movie watching. So know what youre getting into with a 2560x1080 resolution. Its going to be a little grainy for text and general use even with LGs fantastic menu options. If you are planning on getting one of these do it if youre a gamer not just because its one of the more affordable 34 monitors. Also be aware that not all games support this aspect ratio and some never will because many video game developers consider it an unfair advantage. Overwatch is a great example of this. You will end up with black bars on either side and Blizzard has no plans to support it. Having said that, the monitor itself for the games that do support it are so much more immersive and well worth buying this monitor. The Stand: A HUGE improvement over the previous model (34UM57-P), which had a cheap, lightweight plastic stand that was not adjustable for the most part. This one has a metal core and is fully adjustable and does not allow the panel to rock back and forth like the last one. So kudos to LG for listening to their customers and fixing it. The Panel Casing: As far as I can tell its nearly identical to the previous model. Still completely glossy (which is why it gets 4 Stars) LG.. STOP MAKING GLOSSY EVERYTHING! If you touch it and put fingerprints on it and then try to wipe them off it WILL scratch. The only improvement over the last model is that they included a plastic spacer to put in between where you attach the panel to the stand so that you wont scratch the glossy plastic. The Screen: The screen is pretty darn nice. Its a matte finish and the quality of the IPS panel, colors, contrast, brightness are all quite good. I have not complaints about it. Black levels are very good once you make some minor adjustments. The Menu: The menu is flat out fantastic! A TON of adjustability for color and modes. A wonderful joystick style control with a single button which makes it very easy to navigate. 4 Gaming modes which are 2 clicks away at all time so you can easily switch to them mid game. Options/Features: I wont go over all of them but the main ones are clearly FreeSync, Gaming modes and REAL 75Hz. If you have an AMD video card you are in business. I have an ASUS Strix R9 390X and FreeSync is a strait up game changer. I will never go back to a standard monitor. Its hard to describe you just have to see it. Turn it on in the LG menu and turn it on in your AMD control panel and thats it! It just works. Gaming modes include FPS Custom, FPS 1, FPS 2 and RTS/MMO modes. 3 Preset and one to Customize. You can also overclock this monitor to 75Hz once FreeSync is turned on. Or rather I should say its an option at that point to change it to 75Hz. I have read people actually overclocking it to around 82Hz but thats like a lottery. Some will some will not and you try that at your own risk. I got this on Prime Day for under $370. At that price up to about $400 it is a really nice choice for a gaming monitor. I was looking at this and a 28 4K ASUS. I went with this for the FreeSync and 75Hz. Its just a really good value overall with a few short coming which can be overlooked for what you end up with. Hope my review helps some of you on the fence :)

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Originally, I was looking for 34" Wide Monitors, but these are more than enough real estate to work with. I work long hours in the IT field and these take the strain off of my weary eyes. The controls and menus are intuitive. The glossy frame may bother some folks, but the frame is so thin...you really have to look hard to notice it. I was also pleasantly surprised at the built in audio. More than adequate for general web browsing. But dont get carried away...this isnt a Bose system, but it is clear and stable. And the price...well, there you go. Now...if youre some obsessed gamer...you may have some different needs. But if youre goal is a professional home or business office or family computing...get this monitor. p.s... I dont rate a product based on whether the box arrived dirty or if the mailman put it in the wrong spot. If I open it and the product is not damaged, then I dont care.

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LG is clearly serious about the display panel. It is calibrated at the factory, and comes with a lab test report. We know LG can make some pretty high end stuff since the Apple store sells the LG UltraFine series displays. I bought this model for its IPS panel, which has a wide color gamut. I cant complain about the panel since it meets expectations, even though it has some uniformity issues. Now, everything else was a letdown. The joystick controller for the power/menu operation, while not badly designed, is quite a flimsy gadget. Is it too much to ask for a decent power button? The stand is under-engineered and the enormously wide monitor does not seem stable. The inputs on the rear do not face downward as they do on every decent monitor Ive owned. If you want to scoot the monitor against the back wall, you have to deal with right angle cables or adapters. Instead, I planned to use a generic VESA mount, but the mounting holes on the monitor’s back are so close to the (non-downward-facing) inputs that the inputs are blocked by a universal size VESA plate. The housing is ultra-shiny ultra-thin black plastic, which only looks good in product photographs. If you dont mind the marginal build quality, but want a reasonable quality panel, for not a lot of money, this is not a bad deal. If you require an ultra-wide 21:9 monitor, this may be one of the better deals. But, if you dont have a specialized need (like gaming) for an UltraWide display, I would go with a 27" 16:9 IPS monitor. It has approximately the same screen area as a 29" UltraWide, but feels less awkward for common tasks I perform, like photo editing, creating office documents, or web surfing. For about the same price as this 29" 1080p 21:9 model, a 27" 1440p 16:9 has 33% more pixels. I did not mark down the score for this monitor because of the UltraWide aspect ratio, which is a design criterion, not a flaw. I did subtract points because of the build quality and engineering.

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Works great for documents and anything else. Surprised how well the speakers actually work. I didnt even realize it had built in speakers. I had the hardest time trying to find a monitor with clarity and no pixel issues. Most of the monitors have been focused on gaming lately, which those monitors pixels turn the text choppy. I shopped around and returned a Samsung to get this one which is much better. You can display 2-3 documents side by side across the screen at the same time to expand what documents you need to see, or widescreen for movies.

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Has a PBP mode that allows more than one input to be displayed on the same screen... So that means you could have 2 computers that share the same screen at the same time. Ive never really been impressed by LGs color accuracy on any of their devices (phones / TVs that Ive owned in the past) but this one doesnt really bother me too much. The darks are relatively dark and colors seem to stand out well. The software that emulates more than one monitor that comes with this thing is good, but if youre like me youll end up frequently disabling it when its not needed over some minor annoyances. As far as gaming goes... It seems to run very well. I expected to experience some pretty intense frame-rate drops after moving from a standard monitor but it seems like games are about as smooth with this monitor without changing graphics settings. I dont really see any advantage with 75Hz over 60 and in some cases my games look worse... but its not a very big deal to run them at 60Hz. It comes with a clip for cable management and the stand seems fairly sturdy and secure. Overall a great monitor. I would have liked to see TruMotion incorporated into it but Im sure not everyone would agree with me.

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I do video editing and bought this monitor to replace two older LG monitors so that I would be able to spread the editing application across both monitors without having the dividing bezel down the middle. It was also relatively easy to set this monitor up to act as two independent monitors which was necessary so that I could also work on one side while having a full screen preview on the other (the reason for two monitors to begin with.) The video quality of this monitor is excellent and it came set up correctly as determined by color bars. The resolution is quite good. Overall, I am very pleased.

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Its a great monitor but be aware of what youre getting. Its a very basic feature light monitor that is effectively 2 square monitors built into one super 2560x1080 monitor. If you have OSX / a Mac you will likely need to download an after market display software to achieve the 16:10 resolution. I had to use a combination of "Display Menu" for $2 and SwitchRes X for $15.00. I set it up in SwitchResX and then suddenly 2560x1080 @ 50 hz was available in Display Menu. Once set up its sharp and really good.

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Ok....so,Ive never had a top of the line monitor,so I cant say how this compares to one. However,this is Way better than what I was using. Which was a AOC 27". The instant I plugged this in I was blown away. So vivid,and colorful in comparison. Then all of the added real estate and youre on your way to a whole new experience ;) Everything looks different on this monitor! One thing I can say is that not Everyone will be down with how different media types are displayed on it. They ALL will look different in some manner. Why? Because this isnt a widely accepted or produced format. Not every program is designed for this aspect,nor is every show or movie you will watch. However...they All look fantastic,to ME. A 2160p video is Unreal looking. Amazon prime looks great. I dont have Netflix so I cant say,but Im certain the aspect will vary too. PS4 looks awesome. Text DOES look really good,despite what Ive read from others. Then again,they might be used to looking at a $2000.00 panel. I certainly am not,lol. But from my experience with this,Im really enjoying what I could afford. And its a tremendous upgrade from what I had. The only thing Id like to have is a USB port,but...no biggie. I could care less about a DVI. The display port was all I was looking for,and having an HDMI ,much less two, may come in handy in the future for something, although I dont currently need one.

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