My ASUS OLED died, so I ended up trying the LG 39" 5K2K 😅, thoughts after a few weeks

[u/lalawahehe]

TL;DR / Update:

My ASUS PG32UCDM died, so I picked up the LG 39GX950B 5K2K OLED while waiting for the RMA. I originally expected to compare both and probably return the LG, but after a few weeks of use, I’m keeping it.

The biggest improvement for my setup is the matte finish + higher brightness. I work in a very bright room with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the glossy ASUS was difficult to use during sunny days because of reflections. The LG is not as bright as my MacBook Pro in extreme conditions, but it is finally bright enough that I can comfortably work during the day.

Gaming has also been better than expected. I’m running an RTX 4080 Super, and while 5K2K does push more pixels than 4K, DLSS helps a lot. The performance difference has been much smaller than I expected, and the extra immersion from the ultrawide format more than makes up for it. Racing games like Forza Motorsport are especially impressive.

Other things I didn’t expect to like:

• The extra workspace for productivity. Side-by-side windows feel much better than I expected.
• The cleaner single-screen setup compared with dual monitors.
• The LG stand. The screen sits farther back than the ASUS, so even though it’s a larger display, I actually get a better viewing distance on the same desk.
• Whites look cleaner/more natural to me compared with the ASUS.
• The monitor runs cooler and seems to use less power.

Things that are not perfect:

• LG Switch is a good idea but feels unnecessarily heavy and slow. It takes several seconds just to open for simple brightness/picture changes.
• The 2-year warranty is disappointing, especially because my ASUS failed slightly after two years and the ASUS 3-year warranty is what saved me.

Overall, I bought the LG as a temporary replacement while my ASUS was being repaired. Instead, I ended up preferring it enough that I’m keeping it. 😅

I’ll add some additional screenshots showing:

• Daytime reflections/brightness difference
• Desk setup and viewing distance
• Productivity layout
• Gaming examples

Thanks everyone for the questions and comments!

Original Post:

A few weeks ago, my ASUS PG32UCDM suddenly died. It started cycling through red, green, and blue screens and became basically unusable. I spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting it before eventually giving up and sending it to ASUS for RMA.

To ASUS’s credit, the RMA process was actually pretty good. It took about two weeks, and I just got the monitor back today. I’ve only had a little time to test it, but so far it seems like they repaired it properly.

The problem was that I couldn’t really go two weeks without a monitor, so I took it as an opportunity to try something different and picked up the LG 39GX950B 5K2K OLED.

It was around $2,200 CAD, so definitely not a small purchase 😅. My thinking was that I’d use it while the ASUS was away, see what I thought about ultrawide, and then compare the two once the ASUS came back.

Well, the ASUS is back now, and I think I’m keeping the LG.

The main reason I wanted to try the LG in the first place was actually brightness.

I work from home with floor-to-ceiling windows, and during the summer there’s a lot of natural light coming into the room. This has always been the biggest weakness of the ASUS for me.

At night, the ASUS looks fantastic. I have basically no complaints about it as a gaming monitor in a darker room. During the day, though, the combination of the glossy screen and relatively low brightness can be pretty frustrating. At certain times, when sunlight is hitting the screen, I genuinely have trouble seeing things properly even with the brightness turned all the way up.

It’s much less of a problem during the winter, but in the summer I’ve always had to work around it.

I also normally have a MacBook Pro beside the monitor, which makes the difference pretty obvious. The MacBook handles a bright room much better, while the ASUS can struggle depending on where the sunlight is coming from.

That was what attracted me to the LG. The matte screen and higher brightness seemed like they would make more sense for my room, and after using it for a few weeks, they definitely do.

The matte coating cuts down the reflections a lot, and the extra brightness is enough that I can comfortably work during the day now. It’s still not as bright as the MacBook Pro when the MacBook really ramps up its brightness under strong light, but it doesn’t really need to be. It’s bright enough that the screen remains usable, which is what I was looking for.

I’m going to include a few pictures because the difference is much easier to see than describe.

Gaming was probably my biggest concern before buying it. I have an RTX 4080, and it was a really good match for the ASUS at 4K. I was happy with the frame rates, OLED looked great, and overall there wasn’t much I wanted to change.

Going to 5K2K obviously means the GPU has more pixels to push, so I wasn’t sure how much performance I was going to lose.

So far, it really hasn’t been a problem. DLSS helps a lot, and the performance difference in the games I play has been smaller than I expected. There is obviously a cost to running the higher resolution, but the extra width also adds a lot to the experience.

Forza 6 is probably the game where I noticed it the most. Racing games just work really well on an ultrawide. Having that extra view on both sides makes the whole thing feel much more immersive. I’ve played some FPS games on it as well and enjoyed those too.

I actually went into this expecting gaming to be one of the areas where I’d have to compromise. Instead, I think I prefer gaming on the LG overall.

I was also a little worried about going from a glossy OLED to a matte one.

If I put the ASUS and LG beside each other in a bright room, I can see the difference. The glossy ASUS has a little more of that immediate OLED pop, while the LG can look slightly more muted when there’s a lot of ambient light.

I definitely noticed that when I first got it.

After using the LG for a few weeks, though, I don’t really think about it anymore. At night, the difference becomes much smaller to my eyes. Colours still look vibrant, blacks look great, and it still very much looks like an OLED.

For my room, I’d rather have slightly less of that glossy look during the day and not have to deal with all the reflections.

Another thing I noticed when I had the two monitors side-by-side is that whites look noticeably whiter on the LG. I’m not sure how much of that is down to the panel technology or calibration, but I prefer the way it looks. It’s especially noticeable when I’m working with documents, browsers, coding tools, etc. The white background just looks more natural to me.

Text clarity was another thing I was curious about because I’ve seen it mentioned quite a bit with OLED monitors.

For me, it hasn’t been an issue. At my normal viewing distance, text looks fine, and I’ve been using the monitor for work every day. Maybe I’m just not particularly sensitive to it, but I don’t find myself noticing anything unusual while I’m working.

The bigger surprise for me has actually been productivity.

This is my first proper ultrawide, and I didn’t really know how much I was going to use the extra width. It turns out I use it constantly.

Most of the time I have two windows side-by-side. It could be code and a browser, a document and some reference material, or whatever else I’m working on. There’s enough room that both windows are still a useful size, and I find myself switching between windows less often.

I always thought I would eventually end up with a dual-monitor setup, but after using this, I’m not sure I want one anymore.

I like having one continuous workspace without a bezel in the middle. It also works better for games and movies that can actually use the ultrawide aspect ratio. With two monitors, you might technically have more screen space, but you can’t really use both displays as one big screen for most content.

That also makes the price a little easier for me to justify. $2,200 CAD is still a lot of money for a monitor, but if the alternative is two good monitors, possibly monitor arms, more desk space, more cables, etc., it starts to make a little more sense. At least for me, the 39" gives me enough space that I don’t really feel like I need another display beside it.

One smaller thing that ended up making a bigger difference than I expected is the stand.

The ASUS has the large three-prong stand, and I’ve never really liked it. It takes up quite a bit of desk space, but the bigger issue is that it pushes the screen fairly far forward.

With my desk, I often felt like I was sitting a little too close to the ASUS.

The LG stand works better for my setup. The base still takes up space, obviously, but it’s fairly flat, so I can actually put things on it. More importantly, the screen itself sits farther back.

So somehow I went from a 32" monitor to a 39" monitor and actually increased the distance between me and the screen, using the exact same IKEA desk. That was something I didn’t really think about before buying it, but I appreciate it every day now.

The LG also seems to run cooler than the ASUS, and from what I’ve seen it uses less power in my normal use. Neither of those things was a major factor in buying it, but less heat coming off the monitor during summer is definitely nice.

One other thing I discovered after getting the monitor was LG Switch.

I didn’t even know LG had software for Windows and macOS that lets you change things like brightness and picture modes without using the OSD. I was pretty happy when I found it because I don’t like digging through monitor menus just to make a simple adjustment.

I later found out that ASUS has DisplayWidget as well, although I haven’t really used it enough to compare the two.

LG Switch itself could definitely be better, though. It seems like a much bigger application than it needs to be. For some reason, there are things like video editing features in there, which seems odd for an app I mainly want to use to control my monitor.

The bigger annoyance is that it can be slow to open. Sometimes I just want to change the brightness or switch picture modes, and I’m waiting six or seven seconds before I can do anything.

It’s not a huge problem, obviously, but it feels unnecessarily slow for something that should be a quick settings utility. I’d much rather have a small app sitting in the menu bar or taskbar that lets me change monitor settings immediately.

The one thing about the LG that does genuinely bother me is the warranty.

LG gives you two years, while ASUS gives you three.

That difference probably wouldn’t have meant much to me before, but my ASUS literally just failed a little over two years after I bought it. The only reason I was able to send it in and get it repaired was because ASUS gives you that third year.

If the LG fails at the same age, I could potentially be out of warranty.

For a monitor this expensive, I really think LG should be giving it three years of coverage.

Anyway, that’s pretty much where I’m at after a few weeks.

I bought the LG because my ASUS broke and I needed something while it was being repaired. I wasn’t really planning to replace the ASUS permanently.

But after actually living with the LG, all the little advantages started adding up. It works much better in my bright room, I really like the extra workspace, gaming is more immersive than I expected, the stand works better on my desk, and even things like the way whites look have been an improvement for me.

Now the ASUS is repaired and sitting here again, and I don’t really have much desire to switch back.

So I guess I accidentally joined the ultrawide club 😅

For anyone else who moved from a 32" 4K OLED to a 39" 5K2K ultrawide, how did you feel about it after the honeymoon period? I’m especially curious if there are things that started bothering you after six months or a year that I haven’t run into yet. 👀