LG 34um95 + Ergotron MX Desk Mount - DUAL REVIEW

[Hoppa]

Intro

Welcome to my dual review of the LG 34um95 and the Ergotron MX Desk Mount, two items that I believe go hand in hand with each other.

I apologise in advanced for the subpar photos, all I had was my phone. There's a fair few photos as well. so...

 

[WARNING] LOTS OF PHOTOS

 

Package Contents

Inside the Box you will get:

Monitor

Stand

Power Brick

Power Cable

Cable Management hook thing

HDMI Cable

DisplayPort Cable

2 Screws for the stand

VESA mount protective Sticker

The usual paper stuff

 

The monitor is packaged in hard foam, which may be alright for small objects like an ITX Case but not for a large monitor. It didn't really concern me too much though since I picked it up from a store, but it's one of the reasons why I didn't order it from the USA.

 

Setting up

You don't need any instructions in order to attach the LG stand, you just match up the holes and screw the 2 bolts in. Personally I wish they had used hex screws over the Philips head screws, mainly because it's easier to tighten and you won't round them as easily. But that's just me. 

 

When attaching the base to the monitor, you get 2 height choices. I went with the lower one because of the "max height with stand" measurement on the LG site was a little too much to fit in my desk. (I have a desk with a shelf above it)

 

Things to do when the monitor's connected:

1. Enable DisplayPort 1.2

2. Turn down brightness to 0-5 (it's still fairly bright)

3. Adjust the contrast

4. Fiddle with the Ratio (for full screen programs not running at native resolution)

5. Mute speakers and disable them in windows playback devices (up to you though)

 

Note: You might need an image or 2 for reference when adjusting the picture quality.

 

 

Build Quality and Materials

The back of the monitor is plastic that is made to look like aluminium, which is good idea because aluminium and oily finders don't mix, and it would probably add too much weight making it harder to shop for a VESA arm mount. 

The shiny silver around the rim of the monitor is also (painted?) plastic I believe. Let's hope it doesn't chip off like on some of the Samsung phones such as my Galaxy Note 2.

 

The stand base on the other hand is made of aluminium and has a really thick acrylic for the neck. It gives off a real good Apple look to it.

 

I guess after saying all this, the monitor does give off a cheap-ish sort of feeling to it. And with Massdrop selling it for $800 USD in July (34um94, same thing though) and it being sold for $1299 everywhere else, they must be making bank on this monitor.

Although I'm unsure of how much money went into R&D, seeing how they didn't just stick 2 panels together, and it runs at a non-standard resolution, I'm sure they spent a fair bit.

 

Back Panel and I/O

The I/O that the 34um95 offers are: 

Power DC in

HDMI x2

Headphones out

Displayport 2.1

Thunderbolt 2.0 x2  (1 for daisy chaining) 

USB 3.0 type B in

USB 3.0 type A out

USB 2.0 type A out x2

Kensington lock

 

I believe the USB ports are a complete waste, the difficulty of reaching behind your monitor to plug something in is too much, even if you have a VESA mount that allows it to swivel. You're better off buying a USB dock to sit on your desk for much easier access.

They didn't really need to include HDMI either, or the headphone out.... or even the built in speakers.

 

Cutting those things out and selling it at $999 AUD or $899 USD would have been a lot better.

 

If you're going to use this monitor make sure to use the DisplayPort or the Thunderbolt ports on both monitor and GPU to get the full 3440x1440 @60hz.

The current specification of the HDMI port won't run this resolution at 60hz.

 

Size and Resolution

With the 34um95 being the equivalent to an extended 27" 1440p monitor, I believe it has an advantage over <30" 4k monitors. 

The LG's DPI sits at about 109. Compare that to a 96 DPI on your average 23" 1080p monitor and you'll get a 12% size reduction when moving a window over from the 23" to the LG.

If I had a 28" 4K monitor instead, (with 147 DPI) a window would look  35% smaller if I dragged it across from the 23" monitor.

You have to take these things in to consideration because of Windows' crappy GUI scaling. I'm sure Microsoft knows about this and hopefully we see good support for higher DPI monitors in Windows 9. 

 

 

Colour and Display Performance

I can't say too much on the colour reproduction for a few reasons.

1. I don't have any devices that can test the colour accuracy

2. I don't have an example of what the true image is supposed to look like (so I can't compare)

 

The contrast of the display shows extremely bright whites when on a word document and completely dark blacks around a YouTube video. My TN panel looks like it's greyed out compared to it.

What else can I say... It's an IPS monitor so viewing angles are great.

If you want a detailed description of the colour accuracy and all that, there are a few sites that explain how this monitor performs, so I suggest you have a look at them.

 

The responsiveness and input lag of the monitor is surprisingly good for something of this size. I thought it would be somewhat laggy like my TV is (even on game mode).

 

 

Stand and VESA Arm Mount

Because of the limited functionality of the stand (no pivot, height adjust, depth adjust), I ordered a VESA arm mount. The 'MX Desk Mount LCD Arm' by Ergotron to be exact.

The arm is said to made for the heavier all-in-one computers such as the 27" iMac, and is made of a polished aluminium.

 

The basic specifications for the arm are:

LCD Size: ≤ 30"

Capacity: 14-30lbs or 6.3kg-13.6kg

Lift: 5" or 13cm

Tilt: 80°†

Pan: 360°

Rotation: 90°

 

Yeah, it says it supports 30" monitors or smaller, but the reason why I still bought it was because the LG monitor weighs less than 7kg without its stand and there was a review on Amazon from a person who is using it with their 34um95. They said the arm was really robust and it was worth getting. And if it's supposed to hold up heavy all-in-ones then it should at least be able to not flex when holding up this monitor.

 

Ergotron MX Desk Mount (techtips)

Before attaching the VESA stand to the monitor, I put the included VESA sticker over the mounting holes on the monitor to protect the plastic (not that it matters).

 

Next, I bolted Arnold Schwarzenegger's terminator arm to the monitor.

Note: The desk mounting pieces is made of fairly thick steel.

 

I highly recommend you have someone else to help you when attaching the arm to the desk. This is because the arm is spring loaded so when there is no pressure applied to it, it will stretch out fully.

However, if you're lonely, you can counter this with some reasonably strong string and wrap it around the desk mount and the VESA mounting places.

 

Once installed you can adjust your monitors position how you like.

 

 

What's amazing is that I can fully extend the arm and have the monitor come completely out of the desk. (makes it awesome for cleaning)

Note: In the picture below it isn't 100% extended.

 

Aesthetically, this is what you see on your desk once it is mounted.

It looks really clean and takes up much less space than the original stand.

 

 

Monitor Functions

One thing I hate is having physical buttons on a monitor, back in the day of having a CRT monitor the on/off button would click but not turn on if I didn't push it hard enough. For some reason that scarred me for life and thus why I have always made sure my monitors had touch sensitive on/off and menu buttons.

BUT, with LG's joystick controller, I think I'll make an exception.

 

With using the joystick to navigate through the monitors display menu, I've found that it blows away any monitor that had those multiple button, single function layout.

In fact, my 40" 6000 series Samsung TV has a similar joystick navigation setup, but I don't use it since I have a remote.

 

Wallpapers

If you're looking for images for your monitor's wallpaper you will only find a handful of images at the 3440x1440 resolution.

Here is what I suggest you do:

Search for 4K images (3840x2160) and crop and resize to the native resolution.

and/or

Search for images > 4MP or >6MP, go to advanced search (gear icon) and change the aspect ratio to Panoramic. From there you crop and resize the image to suit your monitor.

 

The best and quickest method to cropping and resizing images (by far) is the Microsoft Office Picture Manager. So right click your image and open with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, then click the 'edit pictures...' button and you're on your way.

 

For those who will be having multiple monitors (especially running at different resolutions), I highly recommend you use DisplayFusion. It does cost money (I bought mine off steam for $10), but it's really worth it.

 

 

Problems

I've noticed that there is no 'standby' option, and that there is only an 'off' function.

This off function is similar to unplugging the DisplayPort cord from my GPU. So when I turn the monitor off the #2 monitor becomes the main monitor and so the desktop icons and open applications shift over. Turning it back on makes the LG monitor the main monitor, and thus shifts the desktop icons back to how they were. BUT, the open

applications still remain on the #2 monitor.

 

I'm not sure if this is a problem with the LG monitor or the DisplayPort interface but the GPU must be detecting that there is no screen when it is turned off, so it reallocates the main monitor.

Compare this to my other monitor, where if I turn the screen off, the GPU still detects that it's there so it still sends the image to the monitor despite the monitor not showing the image.

 

Click the link below to see what I mean.

http://vid708.photobucket.com/albums/ww87/hoppa33/LG%2034um95/VID_20140818_055908.mp4

 

 

Conclusion

Overall, the 34um95 is a pretty awesome monitor. You can view so much more than you could before on a 1080p monitor.

And using programs such as 3dsmax, Photoshop and Aftereffects becomes a lot better to work with.

 

The Ergotron MX Desk Mount is an extremely robust, manoeuvrable stand that shows no signs of flexing because of it's solid aluminium construction and its solid joint connections.

 

For those who are interested in this type of monitor, I believe Dell and AOC will be releasing similar 3440x1440 monitors, so I'd look out for those. (They might be cheaper)

I'd call this monitor the 'best of the best' if it had a curved screen, support for g-sync/ freesync, and was at a cheaper price.

And with competitors releasing similar monitors I suggest to wait and see what they have to offer. (nothing else out at the time of posting this)

 

Thanks!

Thanks for reading my review on the LG 34um95 and the Ergotron MX Desk Mount.

Feel free to post any questions you have about the product and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

[PC-NOOB]

Stop it, you are making me jelly with your monitor+stand that costs more than what I paid for my car

[Hoppa]

Stop it, you are making me jelly with your monitor+stand that costs more than what I paid for my car

haha I'll say I was having second thoughts as I was paying for it.

But then I got $1000 back from my end of financial year tax so it wasn't so bad.

[jezza39]

Nice, but I'd still prefer 2 monitors over an extra widescreen one, they look silly imo and I like to run a full screen app on one and sports scores on the other. 

[Lavachyste]

 

Conclusion

Overall, the 34um95 is a pretty awesome monitor. You can view so much more than you could before on a 1080p monitor.

And using programs such as 3dsmax, Photoshop and Aftereffects becomes a lot better to work with.

 

The Ergotron MX Desk Mount is an extremely robust, manoeuvrable stand that shows no signs of flexing because of it's solid aluminium construction and its solid joint connections.

 

For those who are interested in this type of monitor, I believe Dell and AOC will be releasing similar 3440x1440 monitors, so I'd look out for those. (They might be cheaper)

I'd call this monitor the 'best of the best' if it had a curved screen, support for g-sync/ freesync, and was at a cheaper price.

And with competitors releasing similar monitors I suggest to wait and see what they have to offer. (nothing else out at the time of posting this)

 

Dude, I have the exact same monitor with the exact same Ergotron shit. That stuff is amazing. I wet myself everythime I seat in front of it. 

[Hoppa]

Dude, I have the exact same monitor with the exact same Ergotron shit. That stuff is amazing. I wet myself everythime I seat in front of it. 

I highly approve of your comment haha

You've made a good choice.

[TheLordofMoisture]

Awesome review man! Just wondering though, did you order the 34UM95 off PCCG or Massdrop? 

 

Also, where did you manage to buy an Ergotron monitor mount in Australia? I ended up getting the dual arm Silverstone monitor mount that Linus' reviewed a while back and I love it!

[LarsReviews]

Monitorporn! With the led and the nice 21:9 ratio. Way too expensive.

[Hoppa]

Awesome review man! Just wondering though, did you order the 34UM95 off PCCG or Massdrop? 

 

Also, where did you manage to buy an Ergotron monitor mount in Australia? I ended up getting the dual arm Silverstone monitor mount that Linus' reviewed a while back and I love it!

Cheers man.

I got it from a local computer shop in Brisbane. Computer Alliance

The only way to buy it there was to pre-order it. But someone decided not to buy it after they pre-ordered it, meaning I could just walk in and buy it.

And I got the Monitor stand from Amazon for $114 + shipping (it was a fair bit cheaper than buying it here).

 

Monitorporn! With the led and the nice 21:9 ratio. Way too expensive.

Haha I guess I should have labelled this review as NSFW  

At the moment it's heaps expensive, but prices should drop when new 21:9 monitors come out, (the other brands might be even cheaper though)

 

 

Nice, but I'd still prefer 2 monitors over an extra widescreen one, they look silly imo and I like to run a full screen app on one and sports scores on the other. 

Yeah, for a while I was thinking of getting a nice 27" monitor (possibly 2 of them)

But because of my desk, I thought an ultrawide monitor might fill up the space better (and maybe with a 27" to the side as well.)

I do find it a lot better to use 3ds max, and photoshop on a 21:9 monitor.

[The Gaige]

I'll buy your Monitorporn for a $1 cause me wants it now!

[Javadevil]

Hi, 

 

Just curious, is it easy to set multiply apps side by side  with this monitor ?

For instance can I set 3dsmax and photoshop side by side ? without having to put them in there minimize mode ? so the palettes or dialogue windows don't end up overlapping the others window ?

 

cheers

[Hoppa]

Hi,

Just curious, is it easy to set multiply apps side by side with this monitor ?

For instance can I set 3dsmax and photoshop side by side ? without having to put them in there minimize mode ? so the palettes or dialogue windows don't end up overlapping the others window ?

cheers

Using aero snap to have 2 windows side by side will be the same on any sized monitor (pop-up boxes will appear over your other window).

If you're asking about the 'picture by picture' function on the monitor - meaning using 2 inputs from the same gpu, and thus theoretically tricking windows into thinking you have 2 displays connected, and have them both run at 1720x1440

Therefore running both applications at fullscreen.

Well... I haven't tried that yet.

Currently my motherboard is not working properly so I can't use my PC, but hopefully I can get it back up and running within the next 24 hours. If not I may have to find a replacement motherboard.

I have a backup pc so hopefully I have an answer for your question within the next day or so.

[Javadevil]

Using aero snap to have 2 windows side by side will be the same on any sized monitor (pop-up boxes will appear over your other window).

If you're asking about the 'picture by picture' function on the monitor - meaning using 2 inputs from the same gpu, and thus theoretically tricking windows into thinking you have 2 displays connected, and have them both run at 1720x1440

Therefore running both applications at fullscreen.

 

 

Yes something like that, So when I'm running 3dsmax and photoshop side by side at anytime I can alt tab either window and have chrome replace it or any other app that I have open.

 

cheers

[Hoppa]

Yes something like that, So when I'm running 3dsmax and photoshop side by side at anytime I can alt tab either window and have chrome replace it or any other app that I have open.

 

cheers

Ok, I've finally got it to work.

Here's a screenshot of it working, with 2 windows in fullscreen.

For a while I couldn't get it to work properly because it was extremely small on the monitor and it wouldn't scale, but a few tricks in the nvidia control panel and the monitors options and it was fine.

It's actually kind of awesome having a true border-less dual monitor setup.

 

 

Probably should have taken a photo of the actual monitor.

 

EDIT: on the right monitor I noticed a large tear in the middle of the screen since it's updating at 50hz while the screen is refreshing at 60hz.... if that makes any sense. (due to the HDMI input capabilities) - only happens when smooth scrolling down a page etc.

 

Here's a photo of a movie in fullscreen and chrome in fullscreen.