The Best Monitor for Productivity: LG 27UP850-W Review

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The LG 27UP850-W is a 27-inch 4K monitor that offers a range of impressive features, including immersive clear visuals, wide color coverage, and power delivery support through USB-C. This makes it a highly appealing choice for everyday use. I have personally been using it as my primary monitor for over a year, and it has provided me with excellent performance in both productivity tasks and gaming. In this article, I have detailed both the aspects I liked and the issues I encountered while using it.

LG 27UP850-W Specifications

Design & Build

The 27UP850-W offers a virtually borderless display on three sides, with a slightly larger bottom bezel that houses the logo. Even though the chin may be larger compared to the other three borders, it doesn’t pose any significant issue. As for the design, it doesn’t appear overly unique; it features a simple and decent plain white body, accompanied by a silver-colored stand. Personally, I appreciate white colors and minimalistic designs as they exude a cool and classy vibe, lending the monitor a premium appearance.

On the bottom side, towards the top-center, you’ll find the LG logo, and in the middle, there are VESA 100-millimeter holes. On the exact left side of it, all the ports and connectivity options are located. However, I find the placement of these ports a bit awkward, as it affects the overall aesthetics of this monitor. If these were placed at the bottom, it would look much better.

The second reason for this port placement issue is that when you put the monitor in portrait, you still need to be very careful about its wires, so that you don’t accidentally pull or damage its ports.

At its bottom, there is an Anti-theft stand lock slot available to protect the monitor from thieves. With its help, the monitor can be secured to the desk using a cable, similar to how a lock is used on a bicycle, just like that.

Underneath this monitor, you can find two built-in speakers in the grills, each with a 5-Watt output, providing an average sound quality. It is suitable for normal podcasts or light entertainment purposes on YouTube, but do not expect too much from it.

Its stand and base are very reliable because high-quality materials have been used in its construction. This allows for standard adjustments such as height, pivot, and tilt. However, it lacks a swivel option, so if you want that feature, you’ll need to use another monitor arm or stand, as I did. Nevertheless, this stand is quite stable whether you use it as is or make frequent adjustments. It won’t give you any problems at all.

But there could be a potential issue with desk space. The Arcline Design of the monitor’s stand base takes up a significant amount of space on your desk. So, if you have a small desk, I suggest that you consider purchasing a separate monitor arm. This would allow you to have more space on your desk for other peripherals.

It comes with a separate cable holder for cable management, which can be fitted anywhere on the stand. Due to this, the cables do not appear scattered on the desk, and the setup stays organized.

To control all the OSD functions and power on/off, there is a joystick located in the center towards the bottom. Using it can be a bit challenging, but since I don’t frequently make changes in the settings, it’s not a big issue for me. However, if you have to adjust settings frequently, you might face some difficulty because the build quality of this joystick is not very good.

So, I liked its design and build quality, but yes, its white case gets dirty quickly, so you have to pay attention to its cleanliness in order to preserve its appearance.

Ports

Now, let’s take a look at its ports and connectivity. It features dual HDMI 2.0 ports, along with a DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB-C port. With all these ports, you can simultaneously use multiple video sources on this monitor, all delivering high-quality images. Moreover, you can also transfer files from one video source to another through the monitor, allowing seamless sharing between different sources.

The USB-C port also provides the convenient option of charging a laptop at full speed. It offers a power delivery of 96 watts, which is quite useful when I connect my MacBook while working. It functions like an additional video source but also simultaneously charges the laptop. As a result, if I need to take my MacBook somewhere after working, I don’t have to worry about encountering low battery issues.

After connecting a Laptop and a PC together, you can directly connect your keyboard and mouse to the monitor using the two USB-A ports provided. The benefit of this is that if you need to switch between the Laptop and PC, you won’t have to change the wires for the keyboard and mouse each time – you can use a single keyboard and mouse for both devices. However, I feel that having 1-2 more USB-A ports would have been even better.

There is also a 3.5mm audio port available for audio, where you can directly connect headphones and external speakers. This is also equally useful, similar to the Type-A ports.

The overall number of ports is good, but if there were a few more USB ports, I think this could have become a complete USB hub monitor. However, if you need more USB ports, you can also buy a USB hub separately and connect it to this.

Display & Performance

The best way to identify a monitor is by assessing its image quality, and in that aspect, this monitor is quite impressive. When I used it for the first time, the image quality seemed really good considering its price.

This is a 4K display with an IPS panel, and it also offers a pixel density of 163 ppi. As a result, its 4K resolution will not disappoint you at all. Whatever you view on it will appear incredibly sharp, with no noticeable pixels, ensuring that nothing appears blurry.

And due to its IPS technology, you’ll enjoy great viewing angles. So, whether you move to the left, right, up, or down, you won’t notice any changes in colors or brightness on its screen.

It offers a refresh rate of 60 Hz, which is sufficient for me since I’m not a hardcore competitive gamer requiring a higher refresh rate. For my purposes like blogging, content writing, and some photo and video editing, this monitor easily meets my needs.

When it comes to gaming, if you want to play PC games or Console games on this monitor, you can easily fulfill that desire, as it comes with AMD FreeSync technology and a minimum response time of 5 ms. This will assist in smoothly running your gaming frames, all while enjoying the thrill of Ultra HD resolution.

Its SDR performance is indeed good, and its maximum backlight brightness is 400 cd/m² (candelas per square meter). Additionally, this Display is VESA certified. Before using it, I thought that it would be really dim, but after using it, I can say that it’s extremely bright as per its 400 standard. Moreover, its screen has a very nice matte finish, so even if your room is somewhat bright, you can still work comfortably on it without facing any glare issues.

Its contrast ratio is 1200:1, which is good for an IPS panel. That’s why I’m impressed with its contrast. Although the difference between its SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) contrast and HDR (High Dynamic Range) contrast isn’t significantly large, there is a noticeable improvement. While it may not be as good as VA panels in terms of contrast, it offers good black uniformity for an IPS panel.

It is well-suited for online content creators and video editors, as it offers excellent color coverage. It provides 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and when I checked it with a color meter, I found that it also covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut. It features 8 bits + FRC, allowing it to produce 1.07 billion colors.

It provides a default color accuracy of 1.89, but when using a color meter, its average dE reduces to 0.87, which is actually quite impressive. With such high accuracy, the 27UP850 becomes a professional monitor that can be used for editing purposes.

Using multiple windows in a 27-inch size is much better than a smaller size monitor because you have more screen space available, allowing for better multitasking.

For both content consumption and content creation, this monitor’s display performs exceptionally well with good color accuracy. However, if you require even more precise colors, I would recommend that you consider purchasing a separate color meter. This would make your work even easier.

Features & OSD Settings

The best feature of the 27UP850, in my opinion, is its Hardware Calibration Studio. With the help of this software, you can directly adjust and calibrate its color and display at a hardware level. This is extremely useful for professionals such as graphic designers, video editors, and photographers who require precise color accuracy in their work.

In its OSD (On-Screen Display) settings, you will find five main menus, which are Quick Settings, Input, Picture, Sound, and General.

In the “Quick Settings,” you’ll find options for adjusting brightness, contrast, volume, color temperature, and Waves MaxxAudio settings. In the “Input” menu, there’s a list of available input sources, along with aspect ratio options. Moving on to the “Picture Mode,” you’ll encounter various preset picture modes like Cinema, FPS, RTS,sRGB and DCI-P3.

Only these Picture modes – Custom, Vivid, Cinema, FPS, and RTS – support HDR signals. In the Picture menu, apart from Picture mode, you will also find options for Picture Adjust, Game Adjust, Color Adjust, and Picture Reset. All these options provide you with numerous adjustments to tailor the image according to your needs, which creates a wonderful experience of customizing and viewing the image as per your preferences.

In the Sound menu, you can find options for adjusting the volume level and toggling the Waves MaxxAudio feature on or off. In the General menu, you’ll come across various general options such as Language, SMART ENERGY SAVING, Power LED, and Automatic Standby.

All these features and options are designed to enhance workflow and provide a better visual experience, ensuring that you won’t be disappointed in any way.

Price & Conclusion

The 27UP850 is currently priced at $389, and at this price, you’ll find such excellent features and image quality in very few monitors. For example, the Dell S2722QC has the same specs, but its image quality is slightly dull, which is why I use the 27UP850.

Its 4K resolution and excellent connectivity options make it very useful for tasks like gaming, video editing, web browsing, and using office apps comfortably. In the under $500 price range, I believe this is one of the best monitors available. If you decide to invest your money in it, you will definitely experience something phenomenal.

Jaskaran Singh

Jaskaran, a tech enthusiast from childhood, inspired by his father, began his tech journey by rooting Android phones. He now writes on various tech topics, aiming to simplify complex ideas for a broad audience. His writing is direct, concise, and flows effortlessly, making tech topics accessible and engaging.