LG 29EA93 Review: Monitors Go Ultra-Wide

[Julio Franco]

Read the full article at:
[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/review/658-lg-29ea93-monitor/]https://www.techspot.com/review/658-lg-29ea93-monitor/[/newwindow]

Please leave your feedback here.

 

[ghasmanjr]

A few of my friends are going crazy over these displays but I just can't see the big deal at the moment. I got my three monitors on sale for $110 apiece on Newegg (normally $160) and I'm sporting a bezel-corrected 5960x1080. I paid $330 for a triple monitor setup, but these monitors are upwards of $600 right now. Maybe they will hit it big in a few years because I remember when plasma TVs were upwards of $10,000 and now you can get a plasma for as low as $600.
I think IPS displays are a cool concept but they desperately need to go down in price.

 

[VitalyT]

If you got enough space to have a monitor for movies only...few people do. But next to a proper 30" with 1600 vertical pixels it looks like a joke.

Plus in other reviews many people complain about dead pixels on this thing... so perhaps 90 is a little over-rating...

 

[Steve]

If you just want to watch movies then sure that resolution is fine but if you actually want to work on your PC then 2560x1600 or even 2560x1440 is worlds better. Sometimes when working on reviews I find myself wishing I had a few more vertical pixels to work with, just cannot imagine having to deal with less.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

It probably would seem a little short on vertical pixels, but it depends what you're doing. As someone who works in information systems, this monitor would be great in some circumstances. Having to view database or excel columns is always difficult when there's a lot of horizontal scrolling involved. Usually large tables or excel sheets have so many rows that seeing a few extra isn't important, but being able to see more columns is. (Plus, a computer mouse is built for vertical scrolling, not horizontal. So not having to move horizontally is very helpful) Comparing documents would be easier on this monitor too.

But the other side of that is coding... where more vertical real estate leads some of my co-workers to turn their monitor 90 degrees, since code is vertically oriented. I would imagine writing is the same way.

At any rate, I think it looks pretty cool, and if I were buying a monitor I'd be considering it.

 

[Guest]

Decent review. From experience, 14ms (5ms GTG) response times and 60-75Hz refresh rates are NOT suitable for fast-paced content, especially gaming. The author does not state what game(s) he used for his review so I wanted to elaborate from experience.

 

[soldier1969]

After using a 30 inch 2560 x 1600 display for a couple of years now, I could never go back to a smaller or wider 1080 display. I added a 40 inch led samsung tv as a second display to add to the real estate area to work with and its been great. I'm about to add a third 40 inch to make 3 this year. One you have multiple displays going you won't understand how you only got along with one small one for so long.

 

[Emexrulsier]

Having used an 120Hz screen for some time now anything lower is just noticeable jerky play. I own a 27" LG IPS screen great an everything (27" of this reviewed version almost) but it doesn't compare to the fluidity of my Asus 24" 120Hz screen.

 

[Guest]

Looks like a solid monitor with good specs, however, at $699 one could buy a really nice pair of large 16:9 monitors and probably be ahead of the game as far as power-users go.

I guess the ultra wide cinema stuff wouldn't work on a dual monitor setup, so to each their own.

 

[Guest]

Agreed on the vertical part. In fact, computer-wise, it is more important to have vertical display than horizontal. Web pages are designed on a 1000px base, and the rest is height, hence having to scroll less and grabbing more info on the get-go.

 

[Guest]

[FONT=Arial]If had and light sensor for auto adjust the brightness would be even better.[/FONT]

 

[Guest]

I'd prefer 21:10. Surprised this article has some history of resolution. The 16:9 aspect ratio is complete garbage for PC use yet 16:10 has been fading away.

I've been waiting for a 120Hz 16:10 display for years now. Cannot believe one still hasn't been released.

 

[Littleczr]

I was exited about this monitor until I realize its only 2560 by 1080p. My dell monitor (u2711) is 2560 by 1440 which means I have the same horizontal resolution. The Lg29 was probably stretched some to give the imprecision of ultra wide screen but it really isn't. 3840 by 1920 would have been a true ultra wide monitor without the bezel but the again you would be looking at a price around of $1,000 dollars.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I would only buy this monitor for productivity and work purposes. For gaming, I would rather buy a monitor with a faster response time for half the price. Plus, games may not even support this resolution. If the bezel was a bit thinner I would look into this. Also after seeing reviews on sites like Newegg, people are saying they have received some versions of this monitor with outdated firmware, despite ordering it a while after the release. Because of this, I wouldnt want to try the 1st gen of this monitor. Hopefully they keep on improving.

 

[VitalyT]

LG and DELL offer 29" ultra-wide monitors because of the collapsed demand for monitors, same as PC-s in general. The market wants cheap 4K monitors, but there are none on offer yet.

I don't see any available 4K monitor for this year to come. For now I'm gonna stick with my DELL U3014 as absolutely the best (and probably the last) overall monitor of pre-4K era.

 

[Guest]

Off topic: What keyboard is that? It doesn't seem to have a review on TechSpot.

 

[Guest]

I'd prefer 21:10. Surprised this article has some history of resolution. The 16:9 aspect ratio is complete garbage for PC use yet 16:10 has been fading away.

I've been waiting for a 120Hz 16:10 display for years now. Cannot believe one still hasn't been released.

This^^^ I've owned a 28" 1920x1200 16:10 monitor for a few years now and I sucks to see the only replacement being a 16:9. I don't want to game at 1080p! In fact I don't want to loose the extra place on my desktop. If I wanted a 1080p screen I'd buy a TV! Even that's rigged though you either have to buy an expensive tv or a larger than 32" to get 1080p now.

Alas, this is all about money. 23"/27" for the same price as 24"/28". Less for more. This is what modern society is all about.

 

[Rick]

Off topic: What keyboard is that? It doesn't seem to have a review on TechSpot.

It's a Goldtouch KeyOvation. It's a non-mechanical keyboard comprised of two "wings" which adjust independently of each other. I can be adjusted to make an "A" shape, lay completely flat and/or spread the halves apart to your liking. It's very adjustable. There isn't a numpad though, although you can always pick one up separately.

From experience, 14ms (5ms GTG) response times and 60-75Hz refresh rates are NOT suitable for fast-paced content, especially gaming. The author does not state what game(s) he used for his review so I wanted to elaborate from experience.

Some people may indeed feel that way. I mentioned my perspective as a "casual gamer", but didn't elaborate. Some of the games I played with the monitor include TF2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Diablo 3, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and SWTOR. I left the monitor set to "Fast" during game play (except to discern differences).

"Medium" is supposedly 8ms GTG where "Fast" is 5ms GTG, although it seems well-known that manufacturers aren't exactly consistent with their latency numbers. Real-world latency values may be more or less although the perceptual differences will also vary depending on whatever technologies LG may be using.

Interestingly, Diablo 3 doesn't support 2560x1080 (nor will it ever, I read) while all other games had support for 2560x1080, including my ancient copy of UT2004.

I too was concerned about resolution compatibility. There are likely other titles that don't support 2560x1080, but based on my small sample it looks like that won't be a common issue.

 

[psycros]

"For a monitor of this caliber (and price), I must admit my disappointment with a lack of physical adjustments. For me, during daily usage, this is the monitor?s most inferior aspect. While the 29EA93 is capable of tilting (5 degrees forward and 20 degrees backward), there is no way to swivel, pivot or -- most importantly -- adjust its height."

Inexcusable fail.

 

[Guest]

Hmm, I'm in two minds whether I actually like this monitor. I bought it 2 days ago as a work monitor, as such, I've been impressed with it so far but I can't help but wonder if I've made a bad decision.

I'm a web designer/developer and I bought it soley for work purposes, not for gaming. For gaming, I have an ASUS 27" 3D 144hz monitor, which absolutely kicks *** by the way in games like BF3 running 2 x GTX 680's with 4GB GDDR5 Vram on each card.

Back to the LG though, as I mostly work in Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver, I wanted something I could multi task better with. As already mentioned in this article, for coding, it's vertically oriented but I don't really mind having to scroll a little.

I still have until next Thursday to make my mind up and return it if needs be and I will be doing some work over the weekend and find out if it really does suit my needs. I keep thinking in my head though, 2560x1440 or 1600 would be so much nicer! Sat next to my 27" ASUS as well, it's a good 2.5/3inches smaller in height, which has been added on length ways to the LG.

It's a bizzare trade off when you have this LG sat next to a 27" monitor and it really does depend what you want to get out of it. I haven't tried BF3 on this yet but I will do over the next few days.

 

[Hack Track]

I think I would prefer a ultra wide monitor, however dual regular monitors is just a tad cheaper.

 

[Guest]

We purchased one to display our network monitoring dashboard, but it was going largely unused as we already have the dashboard on our pc's and phones.

When a user asked about dual monitors (about half our work force has them) I loaned her ours to try.

For doing spreadsheets, stare and compare of code, etc - she greatly prefers it over dual monitors.

 

[Rick]

For doing spreadsheets, stare and compare of code, etc - she greatly prefers it over dual monitors.

An interesting anecdote.

In most cases, I believe a giant single display is preferable to most people doing most things. I'm still using dual and triple-head set ups at home and work, but with gaming support (I.e. borderless windowed mode, full-screen resolution support), higher resolutions and a good window management tool, most gripes with ultra-wides should melt away.

I'm wondering if something like LG's 34UC97 (curved 34-inch ultra-wide) is a game changer with its bigger screen, QHD resolution and of course, its curved display!

 

[Bill McLain]

Dead wrong that you cannot use Windows AeroSnap to "drag" a window to BOTH left & right-side of a multi-monitor screen. Just don't waste time "dragging" it with your mouse. Instead, hold the WIN-key down & either press left or right arrow to move it to left or right side. In fact, keep holding the WIN key down & press the arrow key repeatedly. It will cycle thru ALL monitors. MUCH, MUCH faster than dragging & makes using multi-monitors LOTS more fun. Also, use WIN key plus up & down arrows to max or min entire window. To get 2 side-by-side windows to drag files between, use this 4-stroke combo: WIN+E then WIN+left arrow....WIN+E then WIN+right arrow.