lg 32gk650 My thoughts on the LG 32GK650-F 32" 1440p 144hz FreeSync monitor

[Delicieuxz]

The LG 32GK650-F 32-inch 1440p 144hz FreeSync monitor had big discounts on it for the past couple of month, and I thought it would be a good upgrade from my HP Omer 32, which is a 1440p 75hz monitor.

 

After calibrating it and using it for a bit, I've found that it isn't a complete upgrade from the HP Omen 32, but that it is overall better. I thought I'd write a comparison of them.

 

 

There are no dead or stuck pixels on either monitor. Though, when I got the HP Omen 32, I bought three of them so that I could pick the best one from them. Two of the three had dead pixels and I returned them, while the one I kept had none. I bought just one LG 32GK650-F, and it has no bad pixels.

 

The LG 32GK650 has a higher refresh-rate, at 144hz, while the HP Omen 32 managed just 75hz, and even only 60hz if a person is using an Nvidia GPU and wants no fiddling or work-arounds whatsoever during their usage. When running it at 75hz with an Nvidia GPU, if the Omen 32 goes to sleep, I have to cycle through the inputs after it wakes-up, otherwise there will be frame-skipping.

 

One thing that's better with the HP Omen 32 are the view angles, which are really good and that monitor can be viewed from basically any angle and it appears great. But even when looking at the LG 32GK650 straight-on, the sides of it appear shaded and glistening, which, coming from the HP Omen 32, is awful, to be honest. And right in the leftmost and rightmost sides of the monitor, from most view-angles, it looks like the bevels somehow project onto the screen and that reflection creates black shadow over the the very side of the image.

 

It's been a long time since I used a TN monitor, but his kind of stuff is what I thought was associated with an IPS screen and not a VA one.

 

When looking closely at the LG 32GK650, the screen material, or the material that covers the screen, can appear like very-fine patchwork scanlines when against certain colours or at certain angles. My Samsung TN monitor that I used before my HP Omen 32 monitor had that, but the HP Omen 32 screen doesn't have that and has a more solid-looking screen.

 

 

While the screen (not necessarily image) quality seems to be better on the HP Omen 32, The Omen 32 has slight colour-banding, while the LG 32GK650's colour presentation (not counting view-angles) appears consistent everywhere. This is really nice with the LG 32GK650, but the enjoyment of it is undermined a bit by the viewing angles which make one side of the screen appear coloured slightly differently than the other depending on how a person is facing the screen.

 

The HP Omen 32 has richer colour than the LG 32GK650, and while playing Forza Horizon 3, I was missing the slightly more vibrant colours of the HP Omen 32. However, the LG 32GK650 probably has more natural colour, and that's a good thing too and can help with immersion in gaming. One thing I found that helped give the LG 32GK650 a bit deeper colour is lowering the Black Stabilizer setting by one increment, from 50 to 45.

 

 

Despite both monitors being 32", the LG 32GK650 is a bit smaller than the HP Omen 32. After factoring-out the bevels, which are around twice as thick on the HP Omen 32 (except for the bottom one), the Omen 32 has about an additional 0.5" (or very slightly more) horizontal screen real-estate compared with the LG 23GK650, and the vertical screen-size conforming in ratio.

 

 

I am still testing G-Sync Compatibility with the LG 32GK650-F. Online reviews and a report say it works perfectly in GSC mode. But at times I think I see small tearing happening using the latest Nvidia drivers. I have two Windows 10 boot drives right now, running different versions of Win 10 and running different versions of Nvidia's driver, and I keep feeling like the older Win 10 boot with the older Nvidia driver is delivering a smoother GSC experience.

 

Oddly, my HP Omen 32 stopped working in GSC on that same older Win 10 drive after I installed my RTX 3080 and updated the Nvidia driver. I contacted Nvidia about the issue and they were looking into it.

 

 

The things that are better on the LG 32GK650 are:

 

- higher refresh-rate

- ability to work consistently with an Nvidia GPU (at 75hz with an Nvidia GPU, the HP Omen 32 needs input-cycling every time its screen goes to sleep, otherwise it will frame-skip)

- no colour-banding

- screen orientation/height/pivot adjustment

 

The things that are better on the HP Omen 32 are:

 

- viewing angles (and no faint scanline-like lines in certain viewing situations)

- colour vibrancy

- slightly-larger screen

 

 

 

This is my configuration on my LG 32GK650-F:

 

Game Mode: Gamer 1

FreeSync: Extended
Black Stabilizer: 45
Response Time: Faster

Brightness: 78
Contrast: 68
Sharpness: 50
Gamma: Mode 1
Red: 65
Green: 55
Blue: 50

[Delicieuxz]

One thing to add is that the stand for the LG 32GK650 is pretty abrasive underneath. It has three small and thin rubber pads, one under each leg-end, and one under the peg sticking-out behind the centre post. But other than those small pads, the underneath of the stand is a rough metal that feels like sand-paper. If the rubber pads wear away or come off, sliding the stand around on a desk could tear the surface of the desk up - particularly if the desktop is wood. And while the LG 32GK650 screen isn't that heavy on its own, together with the stand it is pretty heavy and so delivers lots of down-force to the stand-legs.

 

It's a bit of a concern for me because I regularly move my monitor for doing different things - and the HP Omen 32's smooth and flat stand made it easy to slide around my desk. With the LG 32GK650, moving it by grabbing the centre post (the monitor height-adjustment will probably have to be fully raised) and lifting the monitor off the desk is probably a good idea.