Forget lag; speed of light it is. Being a big 27″ UltraGear OLED (27GX790A) is not just a monitor but a gateway to gaming nirvana! Upside: a massive 480Hz refresh rate unlocks up to 480 frames per second, blurring your opponents into derailment in the blink of an eye. A reaction time of 0.03ms holds ghosting in a conveyor belt concept, so, folks, it is a ghost of the past. DisplayPort 2.1 removes all artifacts of compression, allowing you to enjoy the purity of your visuals. It then became a party brunch for NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro that would have obliterated screen tearing. The UltraGear 27: What your twitch reflex has been dreaming of!
LG UltraGear 27GX790A: this monitor is not for the faint of heart. We are talking one thousand dollars although, if the stars align, you might pick it up for $800. After all, price is the drug that hooks you in first. To evendreamabout pushing the monitor to its 480Hz at 1440p, you’d need a setup that can make NASA go, “Wow, dude!” And, let’s be honest, can you really see the difference past 240Hz? Supreme performance for the truly obsessed–the kind of person that goes out of his or her way to give their GPU a name!
LG
LG 27 UltraGear OLED
The 27 UltraGear is a phenomenal OLED gaming monitor, and it proves that 480Hz screens aren’t all just hype.
Pros
- Transcendent 480Hz performance
- Still a great OLED
- Excellent color reproduction
- Bright highlights
- Future-proofed with DisplayPort 2.1
Cons
- Expensive
- Average design
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$870 at Macy’s$800 at Best Buy
$870 at Macy’s$800 at Best Buy
$800 at Amazon
Mediocre performance from lesser systems forcibly pushes the user toward high refresh rates, demanding silky-smooth visuals from every conceivable screen, from blazing-fast gaming laptops to an ocean of monitors. The memories of 120Hz LCDs melting brains in the halls of CES 2010 are sharp and clear. It was an awakening to those lethargic 60Hz displays in the world back then. Stutters were put behind first-person shooters that were now a liquid adrenaline rush. Then there was the 240Hz wave; it was a very perceptible jump up, yet the arrival of the OLED gaming display left it in the dust. These were not only faster but deeper and richer with blacks draining light away and contrasts that challenged the whole idea of how good an image can ever be.
The 360Hz monitors came in silently. To tell you the truth, the leap from 240Hz felt… incremental. Diminishing returns, they say? Our eyes are not infinite data streams, especially for someone like me, whose reflexes have seen better days. So really, going into my time with the UltraGear 27, I was all-but-tempered with expectations. About to brace myself for “another solid OLED,” an all-too-common feeling following our exhaustive Alienware 27-inch 4K soak test. Surprise me, LG.
The LG UltraGear 27 was slapped onto my amazing rig comprising an NVIDIA RTX 5090 paired with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, expecting accompanying pyrotechnics. Instead, I found subtlety. My eyes could scarcely observe the slightest improvement over my trusty 240Hz Alienware 32-inch QD-OLED. Should 480Hz have been a revolution? Well, here comes the kicker: Visual difference not withstanding, myfingersknew there was something!
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
What’s good about the LG UltraGear 27?
The UltraGear 27 didn’t just impress me; it also somehow compressed reality. The realization hit me during a wildly fast Rocket League-diabolical neon and roar of overloaded engines sort of match. Suddenly there was a stretch of time. Instead of reacting to the ball, I was now anticipating its movement, a foreknowledge blossoming in every single second. My thumbs danced across the controller, but I hadn’t registered touch. The desk was gone; the room was gone. There was only the arena, the ball, and just this beautiful uninterrupted flow of thought between me and the screen. Sweet bitterness of victory. Once the whistle blew for the last time, coming back down to earth felt like an abrupt fall, an unbearable reminder of the profane separation from that hyper-realistic haze. That’s when I got its 480Hz revolution.
Rocket League was the first step for me as I was on my pathway to experience the glorified world of high frame rates. The game’s blistering speed and furious action rendered the transition into another dimension of super smoothness into an immediately apparent one. With ease, my rig pushed the limits to the extent of 480 frames per second at 1440p, and the thrill was too smooth for words to describe. This beautiful fruit left me forever spoiled and perhaps never to appreciate compromises again in the future. Even with the dated graphics cards in hand, you still have an easy time cracking 300 fps at 1080p and hence initiate-a-new-life towards your gaming career. Just be warned that should your GPU be fairly vintage or weak, you may never see a speck of all that this monitor puts forth.
Cleaning a bit of dust from Overwatch 2 after long months away, the closer I came back to that elusive flow state. The UltraGear 27 was the portal before chaos, rendering an excellent view, especially while dashing around as Tracer, Genji, or Lucio. From nowhere came a sense of awareness within the space as one would turn around a wall or sidestep an enemy ultimate and make their way through the firefight with confidence. But that was not the only experience for speedsters; with precision heroes like Hanzo and Widowmaker, the monitor sharpened focus where every headshot became a satisfying inevitability.
Forget chasing ghosts and settle for a real manifestation in this case: the LG UltraGear 27 being an OLED display. A 480Hz display that is not hogwash does get you into the realm of visual ecstasy. Enter inky blacks and life-affirming 1,300-nit highlights-beating even regular OLED-Flick on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and watch its world explode in colors; the Ultragear’s 98.5% DCI-P3 color accuracy renders it breathtakingly real. It may not have a QD-OLED panel like Alienware, but believe us when we tell you its color prowess is equally melodious.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
Take full advantage of your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X with the dual HDMI 2.1 ports of the UltraGear 27, extracting its apex visual capacity. While there is no speaker system built in, a headphone jack is provided for immersive sound, with DTS spatial audio placing you in the middle of the action. The 4-pole connector is also compatible with headset microphones, for uninterrupted interaction. Additional USB 3.0 Type-A ports, along with a dedicated upstream USB connection to the PC, make sure you can hook in your e-sports peripherals.
Given it is powered off, the UltraGear 27 would just blend in with the background. Not at all a bad thing given what it does. And once on, the almost invisible bezel allows for a beautiful floating-screen appearance. Adjust the height and angle with ease to create the most comfortable view for yourself.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
What’s bad about the UltraGear 27?
The $1,000 price tag on the UltraGear 27? Ouch. Even with the discount down to $800, it just about hurts to reckon with it while most of the other 27-inch 1440p monitors are so much more budget-friendly. If only your wallet could get away with it, the 240Hz UltraGear 27-inch from LG is a pretty fair compromise. But if you are really set on that silky-smooth 480Hz refresh rate, be prepared to faint at the price. The ASUS ROG Swift 27-inch OLED may still be sitting right about that $1,000 mark. So, here is the thing: high performance entails high cost.
Should you buy the UltraGear 27?
From the gamers and the frame-rate chasers, UltraGear 27 OLED is the king. Yet, should your riches diminish, potential buyers might want to wonder about the 240Hz panel being an excellent middle ground without any exorbitant amounts tagged to it. Even with an all-time-high-level in your budget, the temptation for larger displays would always persist. Imagine the Alienware 32-inch 4K QD-OLED. Acceptable frame rates blend well with breathtaking immersion as Clair Obscur Morphs into a visual experience. This magic can go either way: unbelievably fast or mesmerisingly beautiful!
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
Wrap-up
A 500Hz OLED teaser reaffirms it: the refresh rate competition is on! A competitive advantage means everything. So may your UltraGear 27 be an enhancing digital performance. With its OLED blacks and colors, set for an intense blasting of your own scoring record and drifting into gaming ecstasy-along with a wild game.
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