LG 4K UHD 27UD88-W 27" LED-Lit Monitor with USB Type-C

I have had this monitor for any two years now. At first I used it at Wework a couple times a week for a few hours each time. It just needing 2 cables to function made for a very clean and minimalistic environment. Last year I left the shared space and set up a home studio for myself. I got a desk that had a laptop basket at the bottom and I now use this monitor as my dedicated computer monitor. I have only opened my MacBook maybe 5-6 times in the last year for a total use time of maybe an hour. Pretty much every time it's related to updating my MacBook Pro. (So much for a touch bar haha) I have a MacBook Pro 15" 2018 now and at Wework I would use a 13" 2017 model. This monitor is just perfect and very well priced for it having USB-C and being 4K, truly outstanding! The included mount is very good, but you can always use your own VESA mount as it's compatible. I've used it for hundreds of hours playing MMORPG games online and it performs magnificently. The color settings are great and I often use dimmed settings to read manga late at night with the room lights dimmed. The colors are great for editing pictures and the screen size is just perfect for drawing on Photoshop using a tablet or iPad! Between the MacBook and the monitor's ports, I can connect many devices. This includes my Blue Yeti microphone that I use for video and audio work, as well as my desk fan and cable hub for when I need to plug extra devices such as eReaders, SD cards, and the rare ethernet for intensive online shooters. It's a perfect monitor for anyone wanting the simplicity of USB-C PD pass through and 4K screen quality.

We bought 5 of these for our office and LOVE them. Everything just works as advertised, including: * Beautiful 4k display. Deep blacks, great color saturation, low latency. * USB Type-C connectivity bidirectionally charging and displaying: Using the included USB Type-C cable, we're using three different new Mac and PC laptop models and all can charge *from* the monitor *and* send 4k video *to* the monitor *and* use the monitor's USB-A ports for low-power USB devices. Our laptops models are: ** Late-2016 MacBook Pro 13" ** Late-2016 MacBook Pro 15" ** Early-2017 HP Spectre x360 15" * Even though the 15" laptops come with larger 87w and 90w USB Type-C power supplies, they still charge just fine (albeit slower) off the monitor's 60w output. Since we're at our desks much of the day, slower charging is just fine and allows us to keep our factory power supplies at home, saving $100/each on buying additional power adapters per laptop. * We each have Microsoft Sculpt wireless keyboards and Logitech wireless mice, and the two nano wireless USB transmitters plug simply into the back of the monitor since it's a USB hub. ** Note that with the 15" laptops, the remaining available power (there's only 60w total to go around) to the USB hub ports on the monitor is *very* low. For example, we can run a Microsoft nano USB wireless transmitter for the keyboard, and usually a Logitech nano USB wireless transmitter for the mouse, but *cannot* run a higher-end Logitech Unifying receiver (uses more power apparently than the non-Unifying nano receiver) and if you try to charge a device from one of the two USB hub ports simultaneously with the other port used by the Microsoft nano USB wireless transmitter, the transmitter will keep cutting out and you'll have a frustrating keyboard day. There's just only so much power to go around, this isn't the monitor's fault. ** This doesn't seem to be a problem with the 13" laptops because their USB Type-C power requirements are lower so the 60w from the monitor goes further. All this said, we have full desk setups now with absolutely minimal cabling: 1) Power to monitor. 2) USB Type-C from monitor to laptop. 3) Wireless input peripherals with close-proximity transceivers (back of the monitor). Highly recommend this awesome monitor.

I'm not sure I've ever written a review on Amazon, but I labored over this purchase for a while because of the cost and discovered a few interesting things once I got the monitor. I've given it a 5 Star review, because I do think it's an impressive piece of gear and it's definitely meeting/exceeding my needs. I also seriously considered the UltraFine option in this same size, but ultimately picked this one. Some of my opinion comes down to use model, but I'm guessing there are a lot of people in that same boat. I do some video editing, but I am neither a professional photographer nor a professional video production person. I run Apple Logic sometimes, but that's no longer my job. What I am is a tech dork that also cares about aesthetic and I want maximum usability in my devices. I'm driving this monitor with a 2017 MacBook Pro 15" w/ Retina and Touchbar. So, I took this bad boy out of the box, set it up on my desk plugged it in over USB-C and it worked immediately. As an aside, the charging works fine - I don't know if it's perfect and I haven't driven it too hard with games or anything, but it charges the laptop fine even though it's a lower wattage than the specified requirements. Anyway, I set it up to the max resolution (3840 x 2160), which is slightly less than the UltraFine. Here's the thing - I couldn't read anything. It was just too small to be comfortable for productivity work. I'm running it at (3008x1692) and it's perfectly functional for me now and it looks great. But, I'm pretty sure I bought more monitor than I needed, because I can't run it at it's 'coolest' settings. Additionally, looking at a monitor this big is a little weird, and I might have been happier with an Ultra Wide screen because I could spread applications out horizontally which seems like it might be more conducive to a typical workflow. Anyway, if you're thinking hard about the resolution specs and all of that, and you're not sure you want to spend the money on this monitor, this is just a real world data point. I think it's awesome, but I'm not sure I needed it and I can't really leverage everything it has to offer.

Beautiful Image Quality. Great Specs I have had the LG 27UD88-W monitor for about two weeks now, using it in Gaming, Web browsing, everything else I normally do. In a word…WOW! No complaints so far. (the seller Video & Audio Ctr did a great job shipping & answering questions.. see below). Now for some background. I did an exhaustive 3 month search online for the ideal monitor for my needs. 2K, 4K, G-Sync, non G-Sync, curved, half a dozen or so manufacturers. Upgrading from a Samsung Syncmaster TN 1080p panel that was about six years old and still going strong, this upgrade is just jaw dropping beautiful! I am an avid gamer and also do a lot of surfing & reading and writing online. I stare at my screen 3 to 12 hours a day. My greatest concern moving up to 4K was not the image quality. I knew that was going to be great. It was the text size and other elements of the GUI being drastically smaller than 1080 or even 1440p. I have no problems with small text size although I prefer to either zoom text larger or just use Win10 scaling. Less eye strain (I wear glasses). However my wife has visual challenges that would have totally prevented her from using 4K quality with only a 27” panel size (at default, 100% normal scaling, everything readable is incredibly SMALL). So I gambled with this monitor knowing I would be very happy with the quality, backlight, pixels, panel design… but the text??? The scaling BETTER be good! So once it was set up, the first thing I did was play around with scaling, just in Windows10. At 200% scaling, everything looks much more readable, about the same as it was for my wife on the 1080p Samsung monitor. So the gamble paid off. I post this info for anyone who, like me, didn’t want to pay the premium and move up to 30” or higher that 4K would scale better without tweaking windows. I have read and agree that at 4K resolution, 30 to 32” is really a ‘sweet spot’ which just makes reading better. But both windows and LG did a great job with scaling. So LG's web site has a bunch of software/driver downloads and I got the latest Windows driver, also tried the TrueColorPro 3.5.8 which I liked the idea being able to calibrate the color. I just could NOT get this software to work. I could tweak a couple things (Gamma, brightness) but the software won’t even recognize this device. Also this software requires the monitor be plugged via USB port to the PC. Did that. Then the software gave an error on every boot up, and takes too much memory to run in the back ground. Uninstalled it. Fortunately LG factor calibration really is just great. I don’t really see the need to tweak for my needs. As for the other necessary piece of software.. OnScreenControl; LG did a nice job but don’t expect EVERY menu setting that is available to the joystick OSD menu to be in this menu that you access via your mouse. Disappointing that. But LG does make additional UI scaling options ABOVE what Win10 gives. So for those of you wanting to go crazy and scale up above 200% you can. It goes as high as 300% (windows caps out at 200%). In this stratosphere expect some tweaking to get things to behave and fit. Takes a bit of patience if you got it. A side note – my wife and I share 1 PC and each have our own user account. She has a higher windows scaling set and mine’s lower. Windows will save/remember/allow this environment no issues. But, change the desktop resolution? It will be global and change both user accounts at the same time. So no custom resolution folks. As a nod to LG I think they just kept the On Screen Control simple and yielded most used settings quickly accessible via a right click on the task tray icon. As for the infamous backlight bleed notorious with IPS tech, this monitor has very very minor bleed on the lower corner(s) and even less at the top. Honestly if I didn’t know what it was and didn’t look for it, I would not even notice. Also there is NO application that I have used so far which even shows it. Just when the monitor is not plugged into a source but is on. Dead Pixels? None (yay!). I am also pleased with all the design elements of this monitor, from the height adjustment which is a breeze to raise & lower, to the rotation (I will never use that), to the USB ports in the back, to the fact that this monitor does NOT have built-in speakers. It is very hard to find a quality & high end monitor that puts all of it’s design, build and money into what I WANT (image) and not into something I will never use (crappy speakers). So that was a plus. There is NO Pivot option, which I actually need, so my fix? Place hand towel below each leg, a towel that has one side some nylon stitching embedded face down. This thing pivots like it’s factory made to do that. Just don’t turn it unless you grab the stand, not the panel. Coming from an older TN panel I had just gotten used to the lame color reproduction and crappy viewing angles and especially the off whites and brightness. Imagine TN tech yields very bright panels but the whites look light beige or washed out dull. LG did a fantastic job here. I mean whites are like bleached and bright, and the colors just POP! Watching 4K videos are really great, I even took a magnifier and looked up close at the screen… NO visible pixels. To anyone not sure what that is about, it means no matter how close you sit or how awesome your vision, this monitor is going to look clear, bright, colorful and great. EXCEPT – if the image source is less than optimal. Don’t expect a great experience if you are watching a 720p video or lower on youtube. So in essence this monitor is going to reproduce an experience for you that I can best describe as ‘what you see (stream) is what you get’. If you have a great video, photo or game that is hi-rez you will love it. Which nowadays is not an issue as almost all newer game titles and all the web sites are using modern software and embedded elements that just look fantastic. My graphics card is a bit dated at GeForce GTX 750Ti so I ran Warframe at 3840 x 2160 and it played good, looked great but I had to dial it back a bit to keep it running smooth. At 4K resolution it was between 10 and 30Hz. I keep this game at 1440p until I get a better graphics card. Planetside2 and DCUniverse also look great. Even though my experience is not fully realized at the higher rez, everything else is a HUGE bump for me. I just never get tired of looking at this monitor. Sleek thin bezel design, stable not to wobbly stand, comfortable joystick navigation for On Screen Display (menu). After several months comparing just about every high end monitor (over 20 models) it came down to about six and I had to pull the trigger on something. This model had way too many great features and so many positive reviews so I was confident and have no regrets. While I would have loved G-Sync (yes, I should get AMD card but am Nvidia loyalist) and wish it were a larger screen, turns out you can’t have G-Sync and 4K over 28” size. And that 1 choice yields a TN panel. Why bother. So at 27” to have Gsync you get a couple other choices, one from ASUS and another ACER, both of which are sweet but close to $900. Wasn’t worth it for me at this time. In a couple years I give this monitor to my wife and pull the trigger on a larger 4K or 1440p Gsync gaming monitor. I have to compliment this retailer Video & Audio Center. I never heard of them, but have 4,778 reviews as of this writing, with 100% positive reviews. I figured this is a good bet. The item shipped within 24 hours which was great, and I didn’t get a usable tracking number right away (for some reason UPS didn’t have it in their system) so I contacted the seller by phone to ask why. They answered right away and the rep was very nice, informative, English, and helpful. They sent an email response as well. The item was trackable the next day, and was delivered within 5 days of order. It arrived packaged very well (original box inside another cushioned box) no damage to product.

GENERAL the design of the monitor is great , it very modern and sleek with very narrow dead edges and nice stand and back the display works over USB-C in display port 1.2 mode, which is essential if you dont have Thunderbolt 3 ports... COATING nice anti glare coating, better than the one on Dells 4k screen, it doesnt make the image pop like in a glossy display, but also doesnt make the picture grainy or muted. PAIRING this is the PERFECT docking station for 12 inch Macbook, on mac OS : the 4k resolution is BETTER than the native 1080 , 1440 screens, and because of HiDPI this display's clarity is close enough to retina display, and you can scale it easily to any resolution without pixilation !!!! in terms of extension ports, it is even better than the 5k ultrafine, IMAGE QUALITY tough i am very picky in image quality , i did not do any professional testing or color calibration . using the settings i have at the end of this review (!), the image quality is amazing : vivid but not artificial, popping colors, nice image with deep blacks. great for movies, reading, and general use... BROBLEMS the screen suffers from ghosting and image retention it is not that bad and it doesnt bother me 99.9% of the time ( and i use this monitor on occasion for more than 6 hours straight ) COMPARISON compared to the imac 5k monitor: the imac has better colors, and the glossy coating makes everything look better ( not in direct sunlight though ) the imac is also sharper due to the 5k resolution. i would say that most users will not notice a big difference between the two... the imac is noticeably better, but not by much. SETTINGS in the attached photos....

These are amazingly high quality displays. I have a dual monitor configuration, running at 4K @ 60Hz. The picture is astounding, and looks like a huge Retina display. You can't see individual pixels even if you are 1' away from the monitor. They monitors are also VERY thin, super lightweight, and run cool to the touch. They are in fact significantly lighter than my old Dell 24" 1080P monitors, which also ran super hot. So you are getting great display, sleek design, and highly energy efficient. Plus at the time of this review, was the only 27" monitor that I found to support HDCP 2.2. So you are future proofed for UHD/4K protected content. The only thing this monitor is lacking is HDR support. But as of this date, I have seen zero computer monitors support HDR. I suspect in 2017 we will see HDR enabled computer displays, such as we see with existing UHD TVs. I strongly recommend this monitor. Be careful which graphics card or motherboard you pair this with though, specially if you want dual heads. Many Z170 motherboards by Asus and Gigabyte have a fatal HDMI 2.0 flaw that does not allow this LG monitor (and others) to function. Intel and Gigabyte seem to have zero interest in fixing the problem. So, I'm using a low end GTX 760 Ti and it works great for 4K @ 60z over DP and HDMI. Unfortunately, this card does not support HDCP or H.265 hardware encode/decode offload. So my suggestion is to use the new $200 AMD graphics card being released the end of June 2016 which fully supports HDCP 2.2, H.265, 4K 60Hz, etc. That will future proof you non-gamers for several years to come.

4k picture is stunning. 1) Plugged my Win10 Lenovo T450 and picture was up there no problem. Had to scale text to 150% 2) Next wanted to use USB ports on monitors for mouse and keyboard and that where it was huge disappointment :( a) used USB C(monitor) to USB 3.0(laptop) to connect monitor and laptop and plugged USB mouse in monitor USB port, no avail. b) Tried with 2 different USB C to USB 3.0 cable, nothing :( c) Yes I did turn off "quick charge" I am not sure this is monitor problem. I dont have Mac to try the USB C port. I was disappointed to not get USB hub to work but I dont want to return it for this(I did think about it, but I brought docking station for laptop and used its USB 3.0 ports for mouse and keyboard). I will keep trying and will update if I have a breakthrough. **Update 06/11/2016 I changed the USB C to USB 3.0 cable and also tried another USB device(USB drive) and worked right away. Turns out my USB mouse has issues, not the hub. So all is well. Try seeing photos on this thing. Its stunning. Never have I have seen the photos like this. It would have been great if it had in built speakers, but not complaining. Its a well made monitor, with think bezel. Stand is plastic but doesnt seem flimsy. I recommend it.!!!

UPDATE, September 2018, 2 years later: Just installed the latest firmware (3.21) and it's clear that LG is never going to fix the major issues I mention below. Also, the upper-left corner of the display has burned in. I won't be buying another LG product. -- I've used this display daily for months, I'm on the latest firmware, and I must say that LG has some important issues they should fix in a firmware update: The power button has an absurdly bright LED light that constantly blinks when the display is set to standby. The blinking lights up an entire room at night. There is no way to completely disable this in settings (where LG's "Power LED" option should disable the blinking, but it doesn't on standby). I've taped a piece of cloth over the power button to avoid the light but still have access to the button/switch. As if designed for maximum distraction, the automatic standby screen is some black text over a jolting light-gray background (it should be a dark background like most other displays on standby). Waking the display is cripplingly slow; it always takes 5 to 10 seconds to display anything (including the display's own UI for switching inputs, etc.). I use the display for both a Macbook (USB-C) and a PC (DisplayPort). When I power off one computer, the display doesn't automatically detect and switch to the other computer. You have to manually select the input by pressing the display's power button/stick, flick it right, then flick it down or up to select another input, and finally pressing again. The only automatic input switching the display offers is a front-and-center LG prompt when you plug in a computer. The 4K display itself is [UPDATE: was] marvelous. But some shockingly bad software design choices make this display far from perfect right now. I'll gladly update my review if LG issues a firmware update for these addressable issues. In fact, I would declare that "Life's Good" with LG if they would address these issues.

The monitor is good, with a lot of custom controls and settings it makes an excellent screen. It is working with Macbook pro '17 via usbc and I can say the whole setup is amazing. One wire for video signal and power to laptop and the screen itself is very eye appealing. I like the picture and it is excellent for me, a lot of real estate. One suggestion to the manufacture is to redesign the power supply as this one looks like a white brick and does not look good on the desk. Otherwise love the product.

Great monitor to go with a USBc MacBook. With one cable I plug my laptop in and it will charge as well as carry 4k visuals to screen. Also great that is has USB ports as I can use my extend keyboard and leave that plugged into the monitor. Display also looks crisp 1080p when I am using it with an older MacPro via the display port. Great monitor for anyone with a Mac with USBc ports could not recommend more.

I find this a great accompanying monitor to my Macbook pro. Having a large monitor like this one is needed for me to work on mutliple windows

Imagine rating this monitor 1 and 2 ✨ you probably have a faulty piece or just are dumb enough to not appreciate all the beautiful pixels. LG delivers 💯 with its glorious 4K display and if it were a car, it'd be a Lambo for sure. Unboxing was a pleasant experience and once it booted, wow! Registering it on lg.com was quite easy too The screen real estate I got was just amazing!

A class act, OSC software works well, picture is excellent, and the stand is stylish and functional, have used with the USB 3/ Thunderbolt interaface and the HMI interface, Picture is Outstanding in all areas, I think USB - C wins