Why is the LG bad at contrast?

[BerkayZ87]

I have seen lots of reviews about various LG monitors. Mostly, they have bad contrast results. Why is the LG bad at contrast in budget or mid-end monitors? Other brands are good at contrast, at least better than LG.

[Colty]

LG typically uses IPS panels, TN and VA panels offer better contrast at the sacrifice of viewing angles, max brightness, and colors. 

[-rascal-]

Which LG monitors are you talking about?

It's not just LG, DELL, BenQ, ASUS, all have monitors with poor contrast.

 

For example, my brother is looking for replacement monitors, and looking at 27" 1440p 144Hz (or higher) monitors.

BenQ EX2780Q scores a 6.2/10 for contrast -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/benq/ex2780q

DELL S271DGF scores 5.8/10 -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/dell/s2721dgf

LG LG 27GL850-B scores 5.5/10 -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gl850-b

 

Why? Because all 3 uses are IPS panels.

IPS has better viewing angles, better color reproduction.

 

If you want good contrast, then you go with a TN panel.

But TN panels has it's cons.

[BerkayZ87]

6 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

Which LG monitors are you talking about?

It's not just LG, DELL, BenQ, ASUS, all have monitors with poor contrast.

 

For example, my brother is looking for replacement monitors, and looking at 27" 1440p 144Hz (or higher) monitors.

BenQ EX2780Q scores a 6.2/10 for contrast -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/benq/ex2780q

DELL S271DGF scores 5.8/10 -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/dell/s2721dgf

LG LG 27GL850-B scores 5.5/10 -- https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gl850-b

 

Why? Because all 3 uses are IPS panels.

IPS has better viewing angles, better color reproduction.

I am talking about "Native Contrast". Look at the contrasts.

 

LG27GL850-B;

 

MAG274QRF-QD;

 

Gigabyte G27Q;

 

LG 27GL83A-B;

 

LG 27GN800-B;

 

You can see the results. All of these LG monitors are bad at "Native Contrast". IDK why.

[BerkayZ87]

12 minutes ago, Colty said:

LG typically uses IPS panels, TN and VA panels offer better contrast at the sacrifice of viewing angles, max brightness, and colors. 

Not about it, I don't mean it.

[Andrewtst]

LG always low in contrast even high end series when compare with others brand that also running IPS.

 

If want high contrast, better go with VA panel, but VA may have black crush but from review the Samsung Odyssey G7 and G9 / Neo G9 no such issue. I own Neo G9 and it is running as perfect as my previous LG 34GN850 just unavoidable poor viewing angle as this is characteristic of VA.

 

As long you not using in dark room, IPS low contrast never impact the viewing experience. If you use in dark room then better go for OLED panel or VA panel.

 

TN never good in contrast and everything beside awesome in respond time, I suggest total avoid TN panel.

[xg32]

4 hours ago, BerkayZ87 said:

.

the nano panels were the first of its kind, ips panel with great response time and decent color gamut. nothing was better in 2019, the monitors before the 27GL850-B were either, slow, or had no color coverage, contrast was the only con.

 

It's still good today but just get a MAG274QRF-QD (which is another first of its kind but off topic)

[e22big]

5 hours ago, BerkayZ87 said:

I am talking about "Native Contrast". Look at the contrasts.

 

LG27GL850-B;

 

MAG274QRF-QD;

 

Gigabyte G27Q;

 

LG 27GL83A-B;

 

LG 27GN800-B;

 

You can see the results. All of these LG monitors are bad at "Native Contrast". IDK why.

It's Nano IPS's things, they improve colour coverage and response time at the cost of contrast. That seems to be the consequence of using Nano film in their product. To be fair, it seems the general trend moving forward is sacrificising contrast for the sake of other performance. We saw one in Nano IPS and also one in Samsung modern VA (typically only have 2000:1 contrast but come with much improved viewing angle and even faster than IPS.)

 

And again, to be fair, is a well worth trade. You're unlikely to notice the different beyond the synthetic benchmark anyway 

[Stahlmann]

It's not necessarily about Nano-IPS. The LG 27GN950-B and 27GP950-B also use these Nano-IPS panels but their contrast is over 1000:1. It probably has more to do with the coating or something else used on different monitors.

 

Still, in the end all IPS and TN monitors have comparatively poor contrast. In real world useage you won't notice a difference between 700:1 (low-end for IPS) and 1400:1 (high-end for IPS). They're objectively both bad and in a dark room the picture quality will suffer due to perceived raised blacks.

 

If you know from the start that you mostly play in the dark, get a VA monitor. There are good VA options, but sadly even the best ones still suffer from dark smearing to some degree with only a few exceptions.

 

Every single monitor on the market has it's downsides. You'll have to decide which impact you the least when making a buying decision.

[Carl Johnson W16]

Haha TN go brrrr

[ewitte]

The LG I'm running now has amazing contrast however it is OLED.

[VIVO-US]

Back when we were selling replacement laptop computer screens, the basic LG TN panels often had poor black levels compared to most (especially the LP156WH4 panels).  I remember testing them next to cheaper screens of the same specs from manufacturers like Innolux and AU Optronix, and black looked like an almost bright gray in comparison.  They did tend to be reliable panels with pretty good pixel and image quality overall though.

 

At the high end (like MacBook Retina screens), sometimes LG's versions were even better than the comparable Samsung panels.  With that in mind, you really get what you pay for when it comes to image quality with LG.

[TudorF]

They're not bad at contrast, I have an LG and it's amazing. But as you say, you're looking at low and midrange models, where monitors in general have terrible specs.

I know because I've been using cheap low and midrange monitors for years until I finally forked out more and got a decent monitor.

LG seems to not focus much on the lowend and midrange market. In fact, I couldn't find any cheap lowend LG monitors. They just seem to focus on the higher midrange and premium market more.

[e22big]

On 5/18/2022 at 2:01 PM, Stahlmann said:

It's not necessarily about Nano-IPS. The LG 27GN950-B and 27GP950-B also use these Nano-IPS panels but their contrast is over 1000:1. It probably has more to do with the coating or something else used on different monitors.

 

Still, in the end all IPS and TN monitors have comparatively poor contrast. In real world useage you won't notice a difference between 700:1 (low-end for IPS) and 1400:1 (high-end for IPS). They're objectively both bad and in a dark room the picture quality will suffer due to perceived raised blacks.

 

If you know from the start that you mostly play in the dark, get a VA monitor. There are good VA options, but sadly even the best ones still suffer from dark smearing to some degree with only a few exceptions.

 

Every single monitor on the market has it's downsides. You'll have to decide which impact you the least when making a buying decision.

It could be or it could also simply be that they had improved their Nano IPS panel over the year. IPS in the past tends to have contrast of 1200:1 and as you menitoned, even 1400:1 and 1500:1 but now a day, we're lucky to break the 1000:1 with Nano IPS.

 

I actually see the opposite, my theory is that LG NanoCell film itself is causing the drop in contrast but the coating is what they used to fix it. After all, contrast are pretty different from manufacuter to manufactuer despite using the exact panel (Asus RoG for example, get over 1200:1 despite using the same panel as LG 27GN950)

[Stahlmann]

56 minutes ago, e22big said:

I actually see the opposite, my theory is that LG NanoCell film itself is causing the drop in contrast but the coating is what they used to fix it. After all, contrast are pretty different from manufacuter to manufactuer despite using the exact panel (Asus RoG for example, get over 1200:1 despite using the same panel as LG 27GN950)

There is no Asus monitor i know that uses any of LG's NanoIPS panels. They normally use AUO's FastIPS panels which are also used in MSI's monitors for example. And they typically also have over 1000:1 contrast numbers.

 

Anyway, like i said above: Be it 700:1 or 1500:1. There is no big difference between these two, as both are bad values in terms of contrast. 1500:1 will also look bad in a darker environment. Even low-end VA panels with around 2000:1 will still look pretty bad in a dark room. To really get into "good contrast" territory with decent black levels you need to go up to around 4000:1.

[e22big]

1 hour ago, Stahlmann said:

There is no Asus monitor i know that uses any of LG's NanoIPS panels. They normally use AUO's FastIPS panels which are also used in MSI's monitors for example. And they typically also have over 1000:1 contrast numbers.

 

Anyway, like i said above: Be it 700:1 or 1500:1. There is no big difference between these two, as both are bad values in terms of contrast. 1500:1 will also look bad in a darker environment. Even low-end VA panels with around 2000:1 will still look pretty bad in a dark room. To really get into "good contrast" territory with decent black levels you need to go up to around 4000:1.

hmn maybe you're right. I saw similar spec across the board between monitors and so assume that they were both using the same panel. But yeah, I do agree that it just doesn't matter, much at that level. They were both terrible.