LG’s OLED panels have stood for reference products in the field of TV technology for several years. Now the company has introduced an OLED monitor that is specifically aimed at professional users. The UltraFime 32EP950 is supposed to support professionals with a lot of picture power when editing pictures and videos. The OLED panel is supposed to provide perfect contrast and the 4K resolution for a razor-sharp image.
OLED as a unique selling point
An OLED panel in a monitor? We haven’t seen that very often. Accordingly, LG has quite a hot iron in the fire with its UltraFine 32EP950. OLED is rare in the monitor field for a reason. After all, there are too often too many bright still images in the PC application, which can lead to unwanted burn-in in an OLED. However, OLEDs have various advantages over classic IPS panels. This already starts with the stability of the viewing angles.
No matter from which angle you look at an OLED display. The picture is always perfect. The true ace up the sleeve of OLED panels, however, is the black value. Since the organic light-emitting diodes can be dimmed pixel by pixel or even switched off completely, the black levels are perfect. Thus, OLED panels usually achieve contrast values of 1,000,000:1. In comparison, conventional IPS panels manage paltry values of 1,000:1. Not least when it comes to displaying HDR content, OLED panels thus have a clear advantage.
CES 2021 as a fitting occasion
LG used this year’s CES to draw attention to the new monitor via video. When the screen is turned off, the monitor looks exceedingly plain. With its unobtrusive and slim design, it almost comes across as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not only the impressively beautiful OLED panel sounds convincing. Furthermore, the LG monitor scores with a number of practical ports. This includes a USB-C port that can deliver 90 watts of power. Especially notebook users will be happy about being able to charge their connected notebook at the same time.
Besides USB-C, classic USB-A is also on board. There are three ports on the LG UltraFine 32EP950. Thus, the monitor can also be used as a kind of docking station. The manufacturer also offers the so-called KVM switch feature. This allows you to control two different systems connected to the monitor with one and the same mouse or keyboard. Extremely practical! In order to connect suitable sources, the OLED monitor has two DisplayPort inputs. On top of that, it offers an HDMI input.
Convincing technology
The monitor is not only supposed to come along with a stunning black level. In addition, LG promises quite a bit in terms of color fidelity. In particular, the LG UltraFine 32EP950 is supposed to be able to cover a proud 99 percent of the DCI P3 color space. The same is probably true for the Adobe RGB color space. The OLED panel works with a smooth refresh rate of 60 Hz. Professional gamers might not be happy with this, but it is more than doubtful whether the OLED is intended for this anyway. In order to meet the demands of professional image and video editing, LG makes a calibration of the hardware possible. Furthermore, the monitor offers a certification for DisplayHDR 400 True Black in addition to the VESA standard. The latter was developed specifically for displays based on OLED or MicroLED technology. Furthermore, DisplayHDR 400 should provide a maximum brightness of 400 cd/m². This sounds more than convincing for an OLED panel whose weakness is often the low brightness. The display’s positive spec sheet is rounded off with a response time of 1 ms.
