LG - 38WR85QC-W

I just got this and have been using it for the past one week. Previously i was using a 32 inch 4k monitor and never felt an eye strain. But after using this lg 38wr85qc-w, i have started noticing horrible eye strain. Am i doing something wrong ? I haven’t adjusted any settings out of the box , am i doing something wrong here ?

I got also the **LG 38WR85QC-W** three weeks ago. The swinging monitor stand is driving me crazy. It's because I use a height-adjustable desk, which unfortunately swings a bit. So @[Sehbanaliakbar](https://www.reddit.com/user/Sehbanaliakbar/) please let me (us) know which monitor stand or monitor arm do you use. It looks so clean at your desk.

I replaced my 49" 32:9 with a 38" 3840x1600 monitor (which is more like 24:10 than 21:9) and I'm pretty happy. Much better for movies. Ended up getting an LG 16:18 dualup to go with it (not strickly because I need it). Just thought it was neat and have wanted a portrait monitor but 9:16 is too portrait. In future, I think I'll keep same size and hopefully aspect ratio and just upgrade the resolution. I don't want to go back to 32:9 (movies kinda suck with massive black bars, especially 16:9 movies, and many video games just don't support it properly).

Yes, it's the LG 38WR85QC. It's pretty good. The HDR mode is nice with HDR movies and some games, but not super amazing. > Fun fact both 1440p and 1600p ultra-wides are 2.4:1 ratio That's not quite true. 3440x1440 is 2.388 (but with movies it's more the scaling), while 3840x1600 is actually 2.4:1 and 2560x1080 is 2.37:1. Movies are often either 2.4:1 or 2.39:1. It's not much of a difference, but I'd rather have small black bars on the sides than the top and bottom. 32:9 was just a straight-up bad experience for movies, especially for 16:9 content (my 49" G9 essentially became a 27" with 16:9 content). Whereas my current 38" is equivalent to a 40" 16:9 4k TV when watching 2.4:1 content, if that makes sense.

Awesome! I've just gotten my new (and first) ultrawide this week - LG 38WR85QC. I was looking for jack of all trades - I'm doing 80% productive work (office) on my monitor, but also gaming, though it's a distant second to productive work. Still, I wanted something wide, suitable for work, great image quality and at least some HDR capability, and in the end I went for the 1600p WR85. Still, I was long debating internally if 2160p wouldn't be better, since I'm mainly working. And I was also debating internally if I should try OLED, but ultimately I was a bit scared of burn in. So I'd love to get a chance at comparing the WR85QC to the 5k2k GX9, especially for my productivity use case. :) As for the sweet spot... well, the 38" I currently have feels very good, a bit bigger than 34, but not super huge. So... around 40ish I'd say.

Got this screen aswell, thanks for all the input here since as people say there wasnt much indept reviews. Had it for a month soon, the only way I could be happier is with just slighly more aggressive curve. I have a 1000R 49" samsung at work, I also use 1800R screens at the regular there so I know what I prefer. Since this is a smaller the 2300R is good, but for me about 95% comfortable. 2000R or 1800R is what I would bend it to if I could to make it 100% (again, for me). This is just the perfect middle of the-ground do it all-screen that doesnt break the bank completely. I was considering the beast, 57" Neo, aswell as the 49" inchers that all have their individual and collective problems.... the risk of bad QC and also the 57" not having a GPU in the world that can take that to comfortable frame rates just made me eventually come to my senses and order this for hassle free living. I have yet to try the KVM-functionality out, had some problems initally connecting everything up and just wanted to get it running at that time so switched to regular connections (everything in my pc) . Very little WFH so mostly stocks and gaming so far but now after the holidays I will try to get the KVM working with my worklaptop.

Still enjoying it, found a new found love for gaming with this screen and 7900xtx. Enjoying helldivers and cyberpunk at the moment. Havent done a ton of productivity stuff yet, but I do well without the second screen.

Its great for gaming. 144hz, perfect size etc, good colors, great resoution. It's many pixels and demanding, but compared to 4k it gives you \~20% more fps. Dont notice any hum, coilwhine or what some people were mentioning but I keep the screen <50 brightness. Don't notice any with it at > while testing. But my computer is not dead silent

Anyone using this monitor and experiencing some coil whine? Mine arrived yesterday and unfortunately, depending on the load, it's a bit noisy. It seems as if the internal power supply is responsible: It's not solely related to the display brightness, but will also vary depending on connected USB devices and even wether the internal speakers are muted or not. With DisplayPort and no consumers connected to the USB ports, in SDR mode the noise starts at 13% brightness, getting stronger at 34% and will become inaudible at about 52%. Using my laptop with USB-C PD, every brightness setting is fine - unless I connect the laptop's own power supply. I'm considering an RMA. This coil whine is most noticeable in the brightness range I would use on a daily basis. However, I've been pretty lucky with the panel (zero dead pixels, acceptable backlight bleed) - I'd rather not enter the panel lottery again if the noise is a common/frequent problem.

u/RideIndividual4340 I did return the unit and got another one. There is still some coil whine noticeable, but it is a lot more bearable - I did compare both units side by side. So I'm going to keep this unit. I guess the noise is also a bit exacerbated by the fact that my desk is just below a roof slope: most of the noise is emitted upwards and will be diverted into my direction by the slope. If it starts to bother me, I'll probably put some Basotect foam on the slope, but so far I'm fine. I asked some other owners in a German community and in the rather small sample of four people, only one also noticed the noise. However, I guess not everyone is equally sensitive to such things.

Just got the 38WRQ85C and love it, great monitor with a ton of productivity features.

after months of research I also went with the LG 38WR85QC-W. In short, I use 80% for productivity and 20% for gaming. so saddly oled really wasn't an option for me. Was also looking at the Acer X38 (slightly better than the LG, but think they stopped making it and the $$ was crazy). after spending time on rtings and having some ai assistace in highlighting the differences between brands/models (there are so many). I learned that many of the other displays lacked a solid combination of refresh rate (to low), color depth and advanced display features (for gaming) to be viable candidates. the added usb-c, kvm and speakers of the LG was also great (perfect to use for google meets so I don't have to turn on my Klipsch). TL;DR, LG makes a very good display with loads of features. I'm very happy with my purchase and have been enjoying the monitor for work and play. hit me up if you have any questions on it.

I also got this monitor recently and love it. I tried a white WALI arm with it which looked and worked great but cost a lot of depth on my desk so I went back to the stand. I'd love to find an arm that would allow me to get some depth back.

34 inch was little small for me when using split screen. I went with https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-38wr85qc-w-ultrawide-monitor. This monitor is great for work. Having all peripheral connected to monitor and USB C PD has reduced so much clutter on my desk. I only want to use 1 large monitor and this is perfect for me. larger than this is not for me. 144hz is plenty for me for occasional gaming. It is an IPS monitor so no need to worry about burn in. It has decent speakers for background music during work as well.

Bought LG 38wr85qc-w couple of months ago. It has it all. Using it for software development with my Macbook for work and for gaming with my own PC. It has a KVM switch, 144Hz, AMD freesync. And a bunch of usb ports. Missing nothing.

I have the same monitor and I love it, too!

Yeah I did! It’s been great, and people were right, it’s a pretty good resolution for both work and gaming. Only downsides are that it’s still decently bright even at the lowest brightness, and that it often makes an annoying sound. It’s very much like the “computer is thinking hard sound” of older computers. It isnt noticeable with headphones, but if i’m just chilling without music on or anything it can get to me sometimes. I’d still have gotten it if I knew about that though, and the built in KVM feature more than makes up for it.

Yeah I wonder if all of them have it, or if it’s just super common. What’s weird is if you set the brightness to like 40-50 or so (which I think was around what it was set to by default, IIRC), the coil whine all but goes away. I don’t understand why, because you think it would put more load on the monitor to make things brighter. Maybe it’s the opposite, where 40-ish brightness is the standard, and to go much lower or higher, it has to work harder in some way? I feel like LEDs don't work that way, but I admit I don’t know much about hardware engineering… Edit: Just tested it at 40. Yep, the whine is 99.5% gone, but it’s like staring at the sun…

I also have the LG 38 and it is nice. Using primarily for gaming and not using the USB-C or connectivity since I rarely plug in the laptop and have another solution for that anyway

Err, for some reason your text didn't show up when I replied. I have the LG and it's great for productivity, you can get three windows side by side at native res. As for ethernet, a simple dongle can be plugged into one of the monitor's USB-A port and this will be shared via the thunderbolt port if you're using it. Great for macOS (use BetterDisplay)

I have tried a lot of monitors in this "category" and ended up sticking with the 38WR85QC. Tried OLEDs, VAs and IPSs. Out of all the IPS panels I tried it was the one that looked best for me. And with the combination of an internal PSU, easy access to ports and great connectivity I thought it was the best allrounder.

If smearing is truly your fear then LG 38wn95c or 38wr85qc are your best bets. These would be safe options.

38WR85QC better for that much productivity. Better KVM.

The monitor you described is called the Samsung Neo G9 57-inch Mini LED minus the kvm and usbc part. I would look at the lg 38wr85qc

u/DeadPixel471124 My 38WR85QC monitor just arrived this week. I have it connected to a MacBook with the original USB-C cable and when the brightness is below 50%, I can hear the same annoying sound (coil whine). Have you decided to exchange it for another unit? If so, does it still have the same problem?

Thank you for sharing your experience. It's good to hear that the coil whine is more manageable with the new unit, even though it's still somewhat noticeable. I’ve decided to request a replacement for my monitor as well. I will reply in this thread if this has resolved the issue.

If you have a two pcs setup (working and private) , then I’d recommend the LG 38WR85. 144hz refresh rate and around 2 ms response time. The integrated KVM switch works as it should, no input lag when connecting the peripherals to the monitor. Only the “low” pixel density can be bothersome when coding or reading for multiple hours. The Dell U3425WE has almost perfect text clarity and your eyes will thank you for that, but fps games can be bothersome on it. It also has an integrated KVM. The biggest negative point: the Thunderbolt 4 hub doesnt support USB-C AltMod so no two PCs setup unless one of your machines supports TB4 AND you have full privilege on that machine. The U4025QW supports USB-C AltMod but it really is expensive. All this monitors use IPS technology.

After months of research and analysis paralysis, finally pulled the trigger on this beast. I was concerned that the contrast of the panel will not be good as per reviews. Coming from an old ViewSonic monitor that I've been using for the last 6 years, I am glad to say that the contrast is a huge improvement as well.

Thanks! Yeah they just launched it this year I think, which is why it was hard to make a decision. It's quite expensive here because of import taxes and I was very hesitant. But it turned out perfect for me!

Yeah not ideal placement. There's a wire connecting them and it's basically stretched out fully. Don't want to place them in front because the wires will make it look messy. So that's why I just left them there for now lol.

Hey. This is easily the best monitor I've ever had, and one of the best purchases in my workspace. I was worried the curve will pose a problem in my design work but quite the contrary. I legit forget it's a curve. It's so natural. The contrast is also good enough for me. All other monitors I've used were lower spec than this so I can't really give an in-depth review of this compared to other monitors of its class but personally I'm super happy with it.

True. I think the brightness is at 50% in these pictures.

Same, i passed on Oleds and everything else for the LG 38WR85QC. I still can't find a reason to upgrade to anything else out there.

I have this same issue, first I was thinking it was the speakers, but the noise was disappearing with other outputs (a mac connected with USB c). Now I have done the test with brightness, and indeed it is like that below 50%. I also do not want to enter into the panel lottery because this unit looks amazing, but this noise sometimes bothers me so much.

I use the PiP on my LG 38WR85QC-W on the daily. 100% must have feature for any future monitor. The side by side mode unfortunately doesnt work with my intel mini pc for some reason either get black bars or no display when forcing the correct resolution.

Totally agree on the LG 38wr85q-w. Best monitor for productivity and gaming currently in the market. FYI Beach camera has the 38WN95C-W (same panel and everything, just without KVM and HDMI 2.1) open box for $499.

Having this one indeed. Never will be replaced until it dies!

Similar concerns as you have. I managed to nab the 2024 refresh of the 38" LG on sale and it was an amazing upgrade for my workflow.  I really wanted to have (somewhat confortably) 3 windows side by side. Before that I had a 27"-1440p monitor. Tried a 34"-1440p but it was not wide enough pixel wise for three windows. I was used to splitting in two on the 27" and that is 2560px wide so about 1280px per window, which comes to 3840px for three windows of the same size. 4K it is. Tried a 32"-4k but it was too small to actually see anything without scaling and >40" monitor for productivity with >60hz don't really exist as it is more or less TV teritory.  So I finally ended up with the LG. Productivity wise it was a huge boost, the extra height is an added bonus.  Games, if they support 21:9, are amazing, but be aware that it is closer to a 4k screen ( About 75% of 4K. In practice it is a 40" 16:9 4K that had a band of about 500px cut off the top). I personally don't mind the IPS or the PPI as it is very simillar to my old 1440p screen. 

LG38WN95C-W Rev2 and its newer version, the 38WR85QC-W are a great middle ground for primarily productivity. They run at 3840x1600, are cheaper than the newer 5k x 2k monitors, and have higher refresh (144 Hz) and no OLED concerns. The slightly lower res also makes them better to get higher FPS in games. You can also see the entire screen at a glance versus the IMHO crazy 49” sized monitors.

I'm also currently on a 38" 2300R (AW3821DW) and was tossing up an OLED, but most were either an inferior spec 40" 21:9 or a smaller 34" 21:9. It seems like you're ok with the switch to an 800r?

I use 38" 3820x1600 21:9 and I'm fine. At the beginning I've also used my laptop screen, but after some time I've stopped. If I'll ever replace my screen It'll be \~40" 4K, or 49" 5k2k (5120x2160). I just want to stay close to \~110ppi so I don't need to use scaling therefore using all the pixels :D

I think the sweet spot is in the 45-50" range for a 5k2k monitor. I've been wanting something in that range for a very long time now. I have a 38" 3840x1600 LG monitor now, and as great as it is, I would love more size and resolution.

I always considered 38" at 3840x1600 to be the sweet spot in terms of ppi and vertical screen real estate. The GX9 is an upgrade to both which makes it the top choice until the higher ppi 39" versions arrive later this year

The 38 inch lgs fit the bill

Just ordered this one a couple days ago - getting it tomorrow! Upgrading from LG38

Hey LG! I’ve had the 38” LG IPS and now have the original 45” OLED! I’d say my sweet spot is probably the 45”. It has the perfect vertical resolution and the curve is super immersive. While I currently only use it for gaming I think it’d be cool to do a review of the 3440x1440 and the 5k2k side by side in productivity apps to help clear the muddy waters in the PPI conversation. Thanks!

i went with LG38, IPS panel, great for gaming and excel( shitloads of space for huge sheets) not so good for movies. dota2 on 38 is very nice.

i think because of IPS panel, blacks are washed, blooming is noticeable, i watched dune part 2 in 4k, and y old VA panel looked much better. in my mind its a trade off, since i get good gaming performance and perfect excel sheets i don't mind it.

I've got an LG 38" ultrawide and I really couldn't go back to anything lower, so that is my current sweet spot. I am terribly curious about the next generation of incoming OLEDs though, especially since my screen has a scratch on it that is impossible to ignore.

I guess you can put it to preference…. I don’t like 27” 4k.. text is too small and trying to get text to look good and not be too big to lose the 4k size…. It’s just not good. Basically, a 3440x1440 at 39”.. the text will be bigger. The actually benefit is just bigger size but the use screen is still the same as a 34” 3440x1440. If you want a bigger monitor and proper resolution, look at 38” 3940x1600 or the new 45 5k2k. When looking at monitor, you shouldn’t just look at size … you need to look at resolution to size. 4k - 32”+, anything smaller may give more ppi but the actual image size will be bad visually.. if you can’t see it well since it’s too small, what’s the point. 34” - 3440x1440, this seems to work really well. It’s not just me but many others who use it. Higher res may work for this size but… it may have the same issues as too high res for the size. We won’t know until it comes out and people try it. 38” - 3840x1600, this seems to be a proper size to res. It’s also a great work size due to the higher height resolution. The unfortunate part .. it’s not a standard size so they are expensive and most are older models. Nothing new for this size/resolution. 39” - these are mostly cheaper 3440x1440 due to bad resolution to size. There are more expensive versions as you can see but not worth it in my opinion. -other res may exist but the most likely one is 3440x1440 49 - 5120x1440, 2 1440p monitors basically. This is a popular 32:9 monitor size and from users… it seem to work well. This may get 5k2k versions and that might work really well thought the size maybe a little different. There are other sizes but those are the basic ultrawide sizes that I have seen. -57”, this is a nich size for ultrawide so didn’t add this. If you got this, you know you want it.

The LG 5K2K on my desk is such big step up from the LG 38” UW IPS. I’m spending way too much time on gaming since I upgraded. Love it!

Using a 38 3840x1600 and works great. Imo it will be fine until series 7k.

GUI monitor can be whatever you want. However, generally, people recommend having your reference monitor in the center, so having a GUI monitor to left and to the right of it makes more logical sense. I run a 38" LG ultrawide and a Flanders DM250 to the right of it.

38in LG ultrawide it’s IPS 🔥 gentle curve

Lookup va black level smearing before you go with a VA panel. I'd recommend checking out a video of say the Dell 34 inch VA panel as that's basically what you will end up with. Specifically look up black level smearing on any VA panel you are browsing. If you go cheap it could be worse than that. If you can't stand the black level smearing an IPS should be midrange for the price. There are plenty of options at 144 Hz. If you can get one I'd say go for the LG 38 inch 1600 p monitor as that is my daily driver for 3 years. I actually own the Alienware one but it's the same panel just 144 Hz and I'm not sure how common Alienware is as a brand in Europe. Otherwise you can go with an OLED 34 inch but they are expensive. I'd guess easily $1000 Euros. Imo increase your budget a bit for your monitor of choice. It's gonna usually last you 5 years. So an extra $200 can go a long way for peace of mind.

I have a 9800x3D and just got a 9070xt and I play on a 3840x1600 38" ultra wide, it's dope

Having used a 38" 3840*1600 extensively for work I've been waiting for a long time for an OLED ultrawide to meet or beat that resolution. I'n my opinion anything less than 1600 vertical pixels is insufficient for productivity usage so I've been extremely excited to try 45" at 5k2k for some time!