The LG 32UD59-B is a large 4k monitor with decent picture quality. It is especially well suited to office and gaming use, but the standard 60 Hz refresh rate might be a limitation to some gamers. It has excellent color reproduction which is great for office use. However, the screen finish has noticeable reflections and it isn’t bright enough to overcome glare.
Pros:
+ Great native contrast with deep blacks
+ Solid colors are uniform
+ Excellent wide color gamut
Cons:
- Picture degrades when viewed from the side
- Distracting reflections in a bright room
Design:
- Size: 32″
- Resolution: 3840X2160
- Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
- LCD Type: VA
The design of the LG 32UD59-B is good. The bezel around the monitor has a simple matte black finish and the stand has a black brushed metal finish. The stand is sturdy and secure and the monitor doesn’t flex too much. The back of the stand has very limited ergonomic options; it can tilt back but there is only a small range of height adjustments and no rotation. There is a small clip on the back of the stand for cable management and it can be mounted using a VESA 100×100 mount. The build quality of the 32UD59 is decent. It is almost entirely made of plastic, but it doesn’t feel cheap and there were no obvious defects in the unit that we tested.
Picture Quality
The LG 32UD59-B produces decent pictures. The measured contrast ratio of 2644:1 is good for dark room viewing and much better than competitor’s IPS panels. It has good black and gray uniformity, which is especially important when navigating the web or working on spreadsheets. Peak brightness was measured at 253.6 cd/m², good enough for most rooms, but not bright enough to overcome most glare in a brightly lit room.
The main disadvantage to the VA type panel found in the 32UD59 is the poor viewing angle. While colors remain bright and accurate even at a 45°, the screen gets noticeably darker and washed out even at a 15° viewing angle. This is narrow enough that given the size of the monitor, if you are sitting too close to the screen the sides of the screen will appear darker than the rest.
The LG 32UD59-B, once calibrated, has excellent color reproduction. All our test points in the plot above are very close to their target. It covers a wide color gamut, so pictures look their best, but some professionals still might find it too limited. When displaying large areas of near-uniform colors, the 32UD59 excels and there is almost no banding whatsoever. There is also no noticeable color bleed.
Motion
The LG 32UD59-B has a fast pixel response time, so motion looks smooth with very little blur, as seen in the photo above. The 100% response time is on average 15.4ms, which is very good, but somewhat limited compared to higher refresh rate gaming monitors. It supports AMD’s Freesync technology, which allows the monitor to adjust the refresh rate to your game, eliminating screen tearing. Unfortunately, the 32UD59 is limited to either a limited 48-60 Hz range, or an extended 40-60 Hz range, both of which aren’t very wide, so it can’t take full advantage of Freesync. The backlight is smooth and there is no visible flicker which some people may be sensitive to.
Inputs
The LG 32UD59-B has about 9.8ms of input lag at native and non-native resolutions. This is at the upper end for most monitors, but still decent for 60 Hz monitors. People that are used to using TVs as monitors will find it very responsive.
The 32UD59-B has three inputs: two HDMI 2.0 ports and 1 DisplayPort 1.2 port. It also has a headphone out port, but no USB ports. For power it uses a brick adapter with a proprietary connector, so the monitor is a little thinner than average due to the external power supply but has the downside that the adapter isn’t easily replaceable if lost.
Features
Like most monitors, the LG 32UD59-B doesn’t have many advanced image processing features. There is an option called ‘Super Resolution+’ that can help improve upscaling lower resolution content. Although it will introduce additional input lag, gamers will appreciate the better upscaling when playing older game consoles. It also has a ‘Black Stabilizer’ feature that will dim dark areas on the screen, which some gamers might find appealing. It has built-in speakers, but while they get decently loud they are a little muffled. Unless you only rarely use sound, they should be used with a set of desktop speakers.
The included Screen Split software works very well to customize the screen layout. Instead of showing one large 4k screen you can split your monitor into multiple virtual monitors. There are 14 different screen layouts including 4 picture-in-picture modes.
Who should buy it?
The LG 32UD59-B is a good mixed-use monitor. While it isn’t an exceptional monitor for any particular use, it is good for most people. It is especially well suited for office use and gamers. It is a decent monitor for watching clips on YouTube or the occasional TV show on Netflix, but it won’t replace a TV for watching movies or binge watching an entire season on Netflix. With the limited ergonomic adjustments and poor viewing angle it isn’t a good choice for sharing images with friends or coworkers.
Shop Now: $449
To see all our measurements and our test results of the LG 32UD59-B, please go here
